look what came in the mail

So, last weekend, when I got home at about 4 in the morning from work, I decided to bite the bullet and put an order in to .connectingthreads, and ordered some threads, and a new book.  They have that web special where if you spend at least $50, you get free shipping.  So, I made my order and all of that, and guess what was in today's mail?

 This is a side view, I had already torn the box open. 

 My order.  I love all these threads, and hopefully my Janome 1600 will too.  I got the confections set, Americana set, and two each of the caramel and the slate. 

Modern quilting designs book by Bethany Pease.  I have glanced through it, and so far, I have found all of them to be able to do on my machine (it has a 9 inch harp).  I can't wait to load another quilt and try it out!








I spent the morning looking at the local quilt shops for any of Bonnie Hunter's books.  None of them carry them.  One lady even asked "who?".  I thought everybody had heard of her.  So, my birthday is next week, and I know what my family will be ordering for me. LOL.

One last thing before I get back to sewing:

 I AM GOING TO BE AN AUNT!!! I am so excited, this is such good news, after the last couple of months.  My brother and his wife are due this next valentine's day, which happens to be her father's birthday, and 2 weeks after out dad's.  Funny thing is, my youngest will be 15 the first part of March, so there will be almost 15 years between grandkids for my mom.  We are all so happy for them.  Now, I have several ideas for baby quilts, which one to make...

Happy quilting,
Marianne

Another finish!

I finally finished another quilt.  Ok, the binding needs to be done, but it has been quilted!  ( I wonder how long it will take for me to do the binding, the record is about a year or so:)).  Anyway, it's another quiltville pattern, the spider web pattern:

Here it is in the frame, I went ahead with a regular ol stipple quilting design on it.

Here it is fresh from the frame.

The backing fabric is a sunflower and pumpkin pattern.  I have no idea why I bought so many yards of this fabric, but I used a lot for the backing, and still have alot left over!  It will be showing up in future quilts.  :)
Here is the thread I used:

It's signature poly core light gold color.  I love it, it blended in perfectly!

Having a good day, so far

So, like the title says, I am having a good day so far.  Got my Old Tobacco Road quilt top finished last night:

This really is a big quilt top.  My sons were holding it sideways, it is really long.  Why so long? you may ask, well, when I trimmed down the sides, I cut a wee bit too much from the sides.  :).  It's for me though, so I don't really mind.  I will be doing an all over design when I quilt it though, there are a lot of seams!  It has gone into the To-Be-Quilted pile, which-gulp-seems to be getting bigger, and bigger. 
I finally got a quilt on the frame, it's another Bonnie Hunter design, the Spider Web pattern, I fell in love with the pattern, and it also uses a lot of scraps (notice a theme here):

Note all the boxes?  There are even more on the other side of the room. 

 And, while quilting it, my stitch regulator decided to stop working from time to time, so I pulled this out:

My handy dandy speed controller.  See the mark? That is the perfect speed for my style of quilting.  I am doing an all over stipple with this quilt, hopefully it will get done by the end of the weekend, and I can put it into the FINISHED pile.  :)

On the job front, I have started applying at other places for employment.  I have also sent my resume to one of the local hospitals, I will take anything at this point, just to get my foot in the door.  I have a lot of education, just not a lot of job experience.  Hopefully, it will lead to at least an interview.  Fingers (and arms, legs, and fingers ) crossed. 
I hope everybody has a great day!  We will be in the house, it's supposed to be 105 here today if you factor in the humidity.  That just so messes up my hair!
Happy Quilting,
Marianne

Dreaming of triangles...

I have gotten about halfway through with Bonnie Hunter's Old Tobacco Road quilt pattern.  It was a mystery from about 2008 (yep, I take my time with these things).  I started it about 3 days ago, and I can't believe I am almost to laying out!

one of the triangles I have been dreaming about!

So, it goes from the half square triangles to these:

Pin wheel blocks, lots and lots of pin wheel blocks

Also, 4 patches:

Did I forget to mention the unfinished size of these blocks, both sets, is 3 1/2 inches?

Using a lot of scraps for this one.

The above sets are how they are supposed to be sewn together.  I have been using piles of scraps for this, and I am not done yet.  Now the instructions call for cutting 108 3.5x6.5 brick shapes!  Now I will be dreaming of brick shapes!  Oh well, better than triangles.:)

This is one of my folders with my quiltville print outs in it.  Yep, it's really thick, and I plan on making every single one in there!  I am such a glutton for punishment! :P

 

And while doing all this sewing I am watching this:

On my new laptop.  Yep, my dear daughter took my laptop up to Alabama to visit her dad for the summer, and told me she dropped it, and the sound won't work now.  So, it's hers now, and I went and got a great deal on this one.  I needed it anyway, my classes this fall are all online, so I needed something totally dependable and transportable.
Anyway, back to cutting up bricks, and catching up on my DVD.  I hope everyone is having a very  good Thursday, and getting plenty of sewing and quilting in. 
Happy quilting,
Marianne

Heat and Humidity

It has been so hot and humid here, I have not really been doing much in the sewing area.  Oh, add in the fact that our house is up for a short sale, and we have been sorting and getting rid of stuff, and there really hasn't been time.  I informed my mother though that she is not to touch my fabric stash, it is not going into storage!  I will keep everything clean and somewhat organized in there, but no touching.  I think the fact that she sprung this sale on me the week after I got back from my father's memorial service has kind of upset me.  Oh, and the restaurant I work at has been sold so I don't know for sure about my job in the near future.  Yep, stress is at an all time high. So, I am trying to sew some more dresses up, and I am opening my Etsy shop hopefully this week.  My son's girlfriend is going to help me jazz it up so to speak. 
 I did finish the baby girl quilt last week, and got it to my coworker.  She cried, and said nobody had every given her anything handmade before.  I think everybody should have something that is homemade, different than all the cookie cutter stuff out there.  I don't know about you all, but I don't like everything being matchy-matchy. 
So, here is the quilt:

I wasn't sure about the colors when doing the blocks, but together they work great.

I did the frayed edge applique method.

This is the fleece backing, it's so soft!

When my brother and I were going through our dad's stuff, we found the very first quilt I ever made!  He had it in a suitcase, protecting some pictures:

I forgot about making this in junior high home ec.  I remembered the pillow, just not the quilt.

The back was an old baby sheet, and it was tied. 

So, apparently, I started quilting 12 years earlier than I thought!  I have been a quilter for almost 30 years now!  Wow, I think my stash should be bigger, don't you think so?

Well, time to do some sewing, there are clouds in the sky, so it's not quite as hot today, and the ac isn't struggling as much. 
Happy quilting,
Marianne

My mojo is back!

Yep, my quilting mojo is back!  I finally got myself to sit down and do some quilting and sewing.  I had 4 quilts stacked, waiting to get binding, so I spent the other evening making the bindings, and Monday morning was spent putting them on.  I also still had the string quilt on the frame, so I was ambitious enough to finish quilting it, then put on the binding, and washed it.  So, I have a nice pile of quilts:

The fifth one isn't pictured, I gave it to my son and his girlfriend, they love it.  It's my Orca Bay mystery quilt, and they had their eye on it for a while, so I surprised them. 
I discovered a new way to put binding on a quilt, by using my serger!  It makes it go so fast, I think I will do most of my quilt bindings this way:

 See how smooth it is?

 I used an embroidery stitch to stitch the binding down on the front. 

So, here is my newest project, I started it yesterday.  One of my coworkers is having a baby girl, so of course, I have to make a quilt.  Any excuse right? This is the fleece backing:

This is the front.  I love how all the colors are so bright. I was so proud of myself for putting away the fabrics after I was all done! 
 

The hearts are stitched down with the raw edge applique technique.  So, once it's all quilted and washed, it'll have a soft, frayed edge.  

I hope to have it quilted tomorrow morning.  I don't use batting when I use fleece for the backs of quilts, I find it's too heavy if I use a batting. Plus, we live in Florida, so we really don't need heavy quilts. 

Well, I hope everyone has a wonderful week!
Happy quilting,
Marianne

What have I been up to?

I haven't really been up to any sewing or quilting as of late.  I did finish this little dress:

It's so cute, I love making cute little dresses! 

I finally took the pictures of fabric I got in South Dakota (the first time)

Gotta love Maxine fabric!

At a quilt shop in Rapid city, buy 5, get the 6th free!  Who could resist?

I love stores that have the $4 bag of scraps.

This was just too cool to resist!

Fabrics for a backing.

 Actually, what I have been up to is a lot of sorting, and folding of fabric.  I decided enough was enough, and it needed to get under control! So, I started folding:

I folded selvedge edge to selvedge edge.

Then folded again.

grab my handy dandy ruler

And wrapped the fabric around the ruler, and slid the ruler out.

So this pile went from this:

To this!

And this!

The fleece will probably get rolled up.

Scraps were sorted into baggies.

And look what I uncovered.  These are from about 15 years ago, when I exchanged charm squares, and got signatures back. My intention was to make a signature quilt.  Yep, another UFO to finish! 

So, that's what I have been up to.  I still have more shelves to go through, and several totes full of fabric.  I am now on a serious fabric diet!  I need to shop from my stash, and use what I have.  Yeah, let's see how long that lasts :).

And lastly, a picture of the little monster:

We kept wondering how he was getting up on the table.  He discovered he could jump up on the chair from the side, then get on the table.  I am looking into getting a new dining room set, and it will (hopefully) be Hiro proof, and he won't be able to get up on the table so easy.  Yep, he's a toddler.  This was taken this morning, before his vet appointment, and he got 3 vaccinations, microchipped, and blood drawn.  Not a happy dog afterward.  :(.

Happy Quilting,
Marianne