I'm back online!

Finished this sample for the Jelly Roll Races at the Quilters Corner Sew In

in June.

After the race I'll be showing how to quilt their quilt.

It should be great fun.

It's been a job of work, but I made it back on line with my router so I can post with my laptop.

It took me 3 calls to tech support!!

Nothing I hate more than tech support!!!

The storm knocked out my Netgear wireless router.

When you call tech support you have to talk to robot man first,
That means I had to to talk to robot man 3 times!!
You give him all the information and sometimes even when the anwser you give is "yes" the conversation goes like this

MA:  Yes

RM:  I'm sorry, I didn't quite understand that.

MA:  Yes.

RM:  I'm sorry, I didn't quite understand that.

MA:  YES!!

RM:  I'm sorry, I didn't quite understand that.

At the end of his portion of tech support he instructs you to hang up and go check all your connections and reboot your computer and call back. 

 ( Thus the 3 calls the tech support it becomes circular.)

Finally at the end of the third time I said:

"I want to talk to a person, stupid!!"

He said, "I see you want to talk to customer service.

Who knew you had to insult the Robot Man to get him to pass you to a real person!

Just thought I'd pass that on in case you ever get lost in AT&T tech support

Happy Quilting!

I'm still here

Just wanted to say that I'm still here.

We had some pretty severe tornadoes here in Oklahoma

on Tuesday and luckily my little family unit was spared.

We hunkered down in the bath tub and it was a pretty tight fit but even 'doggie' was quiet under the pillows.
When we got out, the sun was shining,
we had had a tremendous amount of rain -- water was running through our breezeway even with bags of cement stacked up to make a dam at the end -- but we were safe.


There had been tornadoes North South East and West of us. 
They were heading right at us and lifted up about 20 miles away and officially set back down about 20 miles on the other side of us but just 50 feet from our apartment a big tree was uprooted and a few blocks away 3 more huge trees were uprooted in a park.  
So it barely missed us!!


Our prayers go out to those who weren't so fortunate.


Happy Quilting

finished cute little quilt

Finished Shirley's first little table topper this morning and hope to finish her other one tomorrow.

You can't really see in the photo how the corners kind of pop up because I quilted around them.

You can see here in the following pic those little squares are ditch stitching around the connector corners between the snowballs.

 These pics to the left are the favors we got at quilt camp this weekend.
the plant is an ageratum that was in the cutest little blue pot, but I already put it in the ground so it will start  spreading over the ground.  (we got some great rain Thurs and Fri so I didn't eve need to water it in!

And these little cutties are the rest of the favors.  A  'Day Thread Catcher' made by one of the counselors, stork scissors and a butterfly pin made by the same counselor.  I hope to be able to put up a tutorial on the 'Day Thread Catcher' soon.  (It'll be my first tut!

Happy quilting

I'm home from my quilt camping weekend and I'm pooped!!

But I had a great time.

Yesterday we had 20 campers at the 

Mid-Del Stitchin' Sisters Quilt Guild's

spring quilt camp.

The camp counselors did a superb job of planning and setting up everything for all of us campers and or course I forgot my camera so I can only tell you about it.  But we all got really cute favors, (I'll photo them tomorrow, just too tired today!), and they taught a really cute tea towel apron yesterday.

I didn't make the apron because I'm still working on my my DB's Oklahoma dugout quilt.

I now have 52 blocks finished!

Here is a  Pic from the pattern which is 58 x 66.

I have discussed the size of the quilt with my DB and he's downsized from a queen, so I'm closer to completion.  (yippee!)

Of course I still have to piece that border  but I'm on a roll now.

I think I work best under pressure.

 I feel a nap coming on.

Happy quilting

  

Cute little quilt

Started this one this morning for Shirley.

It's a small table topper and those snowballs are 2 1/2" finished!!

Now here is Dusty with his brand new haircut!

He's still the cutest baby!!

Tomorrow I go to quilt camp.

I get to work on my brothers Oklahoma Dugout quilt.

Time is getting away from me.

His birthday is Aug 30th.

I have to make 88 blocks and so far I have made 32.  Have to get crackin'.

Happy Quilting!

Finished another one

This is my first post since the big Blogger debacle last week.  I lost some stuff so  guess I'm a little gun shy. 

Here is Linda's quilt for her soon to be here grand daughter, Annalee.

I love doing these quilts that call out for flowers.

Flowers are my thing, you know.

Here is a close up of the border area and I think you can see the actual flowers better in this pic than the whole quilt.

(click on pic to enlarge)

And of course here is the back which you can see better if you click.

You can see how the design interacts and makes secondary designs and creates movement.

Got to teach an Intro to Free motion Quilting this weekend which is always fun.

Quilt, that's the only way to get better.

Happy quilting!

A Remarkable quilt

I finally finished the quilt I've been wrestling with quilting for the last week.

When I hung it up on the pool fence in the courtyard and looked through the view finder I saw a remarkable quilt!

Bonnie did a superb job of picking fabric for this quilt 

and  there is such a variety!  

 She was going for manly as this is for her bedroom and didn't want a frilly quilt.

I think she hit the mark.

Okay, flowers may not be so manly, but Bonnie sleeps in the bed too and my take on men is that they seldom see the background things especially things like stitching.  

So, some flowers for you my friend.

Notice how the quilting design makes a secondary design as it meets in the corners.

Be sure to click on the pics to see the enlargements.

Here is a closeup of the border with the small drunkards path blocks.  

You can see that I continued the same quilting design onto the small blocks that I did on the big ones.

The light border has the loopy "face one way, face the other way" circles and the final border the tall loops facing all the same way.

Another reason this is a remarkable quilt?

See yesterday's post.

The safety pins were placed about one per block.

That's one per Circle block!

For those of you that don't know how close pins should be placed, it is about every 4 inches in every direction.

That means this quilt was basically not basted.

What in the 'H  E double toothpicks' was I thinking?

(I am whipping myself with a wet needle as I type!)

All of you budding quilters out there please do not try this at home!

This should only be done by trained professionals and then and only then by stunt doubles.

And never while texting!!

Happy Quilting!

I did it again

Why do I keep doin' things I say I'm not going to do again and again?

I always like to baste the quilts I quilt myself.

The one I'm working on, however, was brought to me already started.

The middle 2 blocks were quilted, she had pin basted with pins way too far apart, and had used 2 layers of high loft polyester batting.

A quilting disaster waiting to happen.

I knew that.

When I unfolded the quilt and saw the teeny tiny stitches that needed to be removed, I thought, "Hmmmm,  I could start on the other side and take those out later.."

So I did.

And instead of sitting down right then and spending 2 or 3 hours and taking out the stitches and then basting the quilt correctly I couldn't resist starting to put the new design I dreamed up with the most beautiful color of  star thread called blue clouds.

(I can't resist something new.)

So I spent the next few days wrestling this quilt to keep the pleats out of the back instead of taking an 

afternoon to properly prepare the quilt for quilting.

I did manage to  get it quilted without pleats, and I also did get the teeny tiny stitches taken out--I think I need to increase my Rx on my reading glasses-- and I just have two more turns around the outside of the quilt and it is finished.

Earlier I said that I thought it might have been the largest quilt I'd ever done, but I think it's just the thickest and poorly basted.

Will post photo later today or tomorrow of the  finished quilt.

Have to take DH to Dr this afternoon and then have Guild tonight.

Happy Quilting!

I have a New Banner, I have a new Banner!!!

I'm doin' the happy dance here today!!

Madame Samm has blessed me with a new banner today and I'm a happy, happy girl! 

Let me know what you think of my new digs. 

Bonnie's quilt

I've started Bonnie's quilt and it may well be the biggest quilt I've ever done!!

Not sure of the measurements yet, but it is huge,plus it has 2 layers of high loft batting!!!

It's even hard to get under my Bernina 830!!

But I'll get 'er done Bonnie. 

Better get to work.

Happy quilting!

Two more

Here's the completed Halloween quilt

And here you can see a couple of the blocks from the back.

She put a black strip down the center and they showed up really well on the black.

Orange thread on the orange, not so well.

The other quilt is this cute little cowboy quilt with brown cuddly minky squares.

This was a bit challenging because she brought an unknown polyester batting product that she had on hand. But didn't think it would be fluffy enough, so she thought it should be doubled.

So I basted it with 2 layers of batting.

It was not a pretty picture.

Skipped stitches no matter what kind of needle I used and it was like instantly dulled the needles.

AND the places I quilted were stiff not fluffy. 

So I re-basted and tried again.

My sewing machine was still no so happy, but I got it adjusted and quilted lots of wavy lines in the center

And you can see the border work I did here.
Tried to make it look cow boyish with more wavy lines and stitches that you might see on boots.


Happy Quilting!