2 Carolina Christmas quilts done!

MaggieMae went for her first "formal" bath and grooming. She just smells great! And when she walks her fur billows with furls and curls. She is such a sweet kittie. She was made for petting. In fact she cannot have me out of her sight. She is like a quiet doggie. Always following to keep me within the petting zone. If I move around too much, she will lie in the hallway and watch each room!

I decided to use up all the blocks I had made. As usual I overdid it but was blessed to be able to get two (2) 60X80 quilts from this mystery. I have only one Christmas Star block left.

It was fate that made me use them all up. I made twice as much sashings as I needed. Duh! I was counting each block instead of each row. Sooooooo....I have two huge quilts now.

Almost too big to get a photo of them!

I cannot thank Bonnie Hunter (www.quiltville.com) enough for offering us this great mystery. I was never bored with the clues. In fact I was VERY behind some of the other quilters. But did manage to catch up.

I am thinking about making a third one all in scrappy mode.

All gifts are wrapped and am waiting to hear from dear daughter as to the time we will be getting together tomorrow.

Happy holidays to all of you!

XOXOXOXOX Subee

one Carolina Christmas done!

Hot off the machine and ironing board...I added sashing all around. I think a gray border fabric and then will call it done.

I do not know if I will do the same effect to the second quilt. I really liked it all touching and not sashed. Will see tomorrow if I get the second one done.

Bonnie Hunter's Carolina Christmas progress

Love it! Love it! Love it!
Can you tell I am excited?
All the pain and time are SOOOOOOOO worth this design. I say pain because I actually developed a blister from pressing all the seams on the backs of the Pointsetta Star blocks.
I showed it to DH and he could not believe the size of the blister. The time is of no importance as I love sewing. You all understand??? Right?
Here is a closeup. I planned (hoped) I'd have enough blocks to make two quilts for my two March birthday grand daughters. And I do have enough! I had even made two sets of clue#3 by accident. So I have another whole 48 Pointsetta Star blocks in red!
I may alternate them in the setting. But first I want to see Bonnie's pieced border option.

Bonnie Hunter's Carolina Christmas and waste triangles

Yes, those little triangle tips are going into the jar. There is a nice dark line in the jar now. These EXTRAS will finish at 1 1/2". Love those two little dots on that top patch. They look like dominoes.

Here is my Clue#3. They are all pressed and ready for the next step. I have been sewing all day and am halfway through Clue#4. I must have wrenched my back shoveling snow yesterday. I cannot sit at the machine too long. Bummer!

I am loving sewing on this fabric combination!

Obsessive compulsive saver

Yes, as I posted in the Quiltvillechat group, I do save my teeny tiny triangle trimmings in an old mason jar with a doily on top.
What can I say????????

Smokey Mountain Stars is now bordered and step#2 in CC mystery

I know...the quilt is sideways. But what is a girl to do when she made her design wall she was making smaller quilts????? It did it's duty for years. Now I want to make it the entire wall.
Poor hubby!
Anyway, the borders are on. I shopped my stash again this morning. The final border is a pale pink with darker pink polkadots. I do not even remember what I made from this but it was cut on the lengthwise and was perfect for a border. I prefer lengthwise fabric cuts for borders as there is much less stretch than a widthwise cut. And I did not have to piece it. Guess it was made to be!
And I thought of Bonnie as I was deciding on fabric. "Use it up girl" I heard her whisper in my ear. Yes m'am I say!

And here is my step#2 on the Carolina Christmas Mystery quilt being run by Our Bonnie!

Pink Smokey Mountain Stars saved!!!!!!

I was lucky enough to have a block of time Thanksgiving morning to assemble my quilt. I am VERY pleased with the results considering my last attempt.

I have done more reverse sewing on this quilt than I have ever done on a quilt. I am thinking of calling this one Pink Lemonade.

And here is Clue#1 in Bonnie Hunter's latest mystery.

WHOOOOOOOHOOOOOO!

Wasted my precious pinks and my time!

My bird question was answered by several responders. It is an American Goldfinch in Winter colors. Either a young one or a female. Thanks to all who helped me. The bird is gone now. I hope it found it's flock.
My goal was to make ME a pink Smokey Mountain Star. The first one I made went to a grand daughter in Indianapolis. Well, I wasted three days of piecing and wasted some fabric from my precious pink collection. There is not enough contrast for the pink stars to shine. My pinks are too pale and my neutrals are too dark. I have all the pieces made to assemble and after doing two rows I realized my error. When I made Tarraha's quilt I only used two very light backgrounds. I remembered too late or I was in too much of a hurry grabbing pre-cut fabrics from my Stash User's System.

Now what do I do with the pieces I have? GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

Any suggestions? Maybe make snowball blocks from them...whatever...anyway I now have a bagillion (400) of waste half square triangles. I added them to the bagillion (400)I had from the first quilt. SO I guess all is not lost.

Saturday was a productive sewing day. Nice and sunny and a pleasant distraction from my family troubles. Too bad I wasted my time and fabric!

I do have all 50 fabrics cut for my postagestampquilt swap on Yahoo. They simply need to be sorted in 25 piles. A task that I have to lock the cats from the room! They are very unhappy with ANY closed doors. But I do not need any kitties helping me sort my neat piles. Thank you.

Twilight Block quilt done ,pink/brown Star Struck done, teaching quilting and what kind of bird is this?

I was in a swap on Yahoo. This swap was called Twlight Swap. Only black, red, gray or white were allowed. The blocks were 12" finished. I made another block to replace the "odd" one in the next picture. It just did not play well with the others.

Anyway, the quilt measures a perfect 60" square. Hubby's artistic eye says it is done. I will leave it on the wall for awhile to see if anything hits my artistic eye. I think it is done too.
I need a bigger or another designwall. It ends up being a catchall for leftovers.

There was a small bit of gold in the black fabric which was a no no. It just did not make the cut for me.

Does anyone out there know what kind of bird this is?
The poor thing kept flying into the window. It was all by itself. I saw no others of it's kind. Maybe it was seeing itself in the window and was trying to join others. There were plenty of my House Sparrows feeding and the squirrel was in the bush too. So there was a lot going on. And this poor little bird was trying to get into the window.

The bird appeared very healthy. Just determined to enter the house through the window.

Now those of you with inside kitties can only imagine how my 5 were reacting to this bird.

It was also perching on the window sill and staring into the house with no fear. It seemed to be watching me frantically getting photos and looking through my bird books. Yes, I am a bird watcher big time. That was one big reason I moved my sewing machine to under the picture window.

As soon as I moved to pin up the Twight quilt, MaggieMae took my chair away. The poor thing can really not even groom herself. Too much DENSE fur and a short face make for a daunting task for my little Persian tortie-point.

I take her outside for her weekly major brushing. But she does get lightly brushed everyday.
She hates the outside brushing. I use a different comb that gets the tangles out of her undercoat. I try my best to not pull too hard. But the teeth of that wonderful comb do seem to be a little on the sharp side. And her skin is sooooooo tender. Like a little girl with long hair that cries when it gets combed. MaggieMae cries real tears when I take her outside. She chokes and sobs like I am killing her. But once back in the house she carries no grudge. Everything is fine between us.

My pink/brown Star Struck has reached the "borders all on" phase. And the backing and binding are all made too. She is ready for quilting. I want to keep this one!

There are 10 quilts on the back of my quilting room door in the same condition. I cannot keep up with myself! Anyone else have that problem?

I purposely allowed you all to see the background in the above picture. The room was my sewing room. It is now my fabric prep/storage room. I cannot believe that I used to cram myself in there for hours on end. I have a "big board" that I leave up all the time. LOVE IT! And one of those new Reliable Velocity digital irons. LOVE IT!

In my spare time I am teaching quilting to this sweet lady, Jann. She has been bitten by the quilt bug real bad. I wish she lived closer. It is quite a drive for her to come to my home. Would you believe she found me through this blog??????? About six months ago. I take it as a compliment that she wants me to teach her.

And there is Macy as usual in the thick of things. She loves it when I have visitors so she can share her lovliness.

All five of the kitties like Jann. So she is a welcome guest anythime.

I did a major cleaning in our bedroom and found 17 of Macy's favorite toys. The round rings from under twist-off caps, strings and feather balls. She leaps in the air when we toss them. And she brings ALL her toys to us to play with her. Just like a dog. She fetches all of them. She will even bring them closer if we cannot reach while playing. She looks so very content in this picture.

And another funny thing....when the food bowl gets low enough (but not empty) to see the china bottom she leaves toys in the food. We do not know if she is hoping we see the toy and fill the bowl or if she is telling the other cats that what food is left is hers!

Christmas Lights done!

I used Autumn colors in my Christmas Lights. I will call this quilt my Fall Lights. I love it! The borders added so much pizazz to it. They frame it perfectly. I cannot wait to quilt it.

Here it is without borders. I started assembling this morning at 7:00 a.m. and I was done at 11:30 a.m. I liked the quilt but was not IN Love with it at this point. I really do like "on Point" settings. Seems as if you need less blocks to get a bigger quilt!

Here is a closeup of the fabrics I used.

Halloween Pumpkin and Macy in the basket

My hubby is so artistic. He was allowed to finally make his "vomit" pumpkin he has been wanting to do for years. The Trick or Treaters really got a kick out of the pumpkin.

Macy's turn in the basket. Bess and Baby LOVE this basket. I only ever see them in it. Today I found my Macy in it. Now to get pics of Pearl and MaggieMae in the basket and my list will be complete.

I also made this construction pillowcase for my greatgrandson. It matches his construction quilt and toybag I also made. His BD is November4th. He will be three already!

Purple Kaleidoscope quilt DONE!

I made a pillowcase to gift with the finished quilt. I still need to go buy a pillow!

Quilting process. Can you see the three helper kitties?????

And here it is...all done. Whew!

I cannot thank Elaine Adair enough for inspiring me with this wonderful ruler and designing options.

Quilt for Kids is finished!

Here it is . All done! I quilted it close as the instructions wanted. I think it turned out beautiful! Even better than I expected. I have fallen in love with diagonal quilting. No marking was done. I eyeballed all of it.
I added their label and took the liberty of adding my own.
A nice sunny day for whipping this out. All told I have only 6 hours in this. So come on quilters sign up to make one for the kids!
http://bingobonnie.blogspot.com/2009/10/helping-kids-with-touch-of-comfort.html

Friday Finishes

Today was a serious sewing day. I guess it was the rain that triggered my finishes today. I got the final border on the Purple Kaleidoscope. I made the binding for it. I also got the backing all sewed and pressed. It is all waiting to be pin basted. Maybe tomorrow...

Through Bingo-Bonnie I signed up to make a child's quilt. I was sent a pre-cut kit and I sewed it all up today. They even include a great label. So that quilt is waiting to be pin basted too. I read the instructions and I will need to launder the quilt before I mail it away.

Here is a close-up of the fabric. This is obviously a girlie quilt. It was really easy to sew. It only took 3 hours since it was all pre-cut. My only complaint is that the border stripe was not cut correctly. The top and bottom borders should have been cut lengthwise instead of across the WOF to allow the pattern to be going all the same way. Oh well...I did the best I could with what I was given.

Still it was a fast and easy pattern. I saved all the leftovers and feel I should send them back with the finished quilt. I think I will have to find a binding fabric in my stash. They have it planned out to be pillow finished. I have never tried that technique so will make binding instead.

I will go see if I can find the link for the sign-up.......

WOW! Fabric to win!

You simply must go see this fabulous giveaway on Pumpkin Patch blog. She is so very generous. And we all can bear to have a bit more fabric. Right???

http://pumpkinpatchprimitivequiltshoppe.blogspot.com/2009/10/its-happy-halloween-giveaway.html

Andrew's trucking quilt and comments on colonoscopies

Love working with panels. They are colorful and make such a fast quilt when you add a border. I bought this entire fabric line when it first debuted last year(?) or the year before. I knew it was destined to be a quilt for my GREAT grandson. Yes...you read that right...a great grandson. Anyway...just an hour or so to add a border to make it 48X57. Another hour or so to pin baste it and a nice afternoon of quilting to keep my mind off the fact that I was fasting before my scope, add the binding and one great quilt is born.

I even had the steel/chrome fabric for the backing. I still need to whip out a pillowcase and the November 4th birthday present is completed.

Now about colonoscopies...I had a screening one done 4 years ago. Some bathroom issues came up and I saw a surgeon last week. He immediately scheduled me for another scope and found a polyp. He removed it and I am waiting for results. Besides feeling totally invaded down in that area, I am doing ok. But am still having the same issues that brought me to his office in the first place. So, please readers, get your exam if it is needed. I will post on my test results when I get them.

Black/gray/white quilt for LQS class

I was asked to teach a class on a quilt from the book Loose Change. The quilt's name is Jamie's Quilt. I made one that matches the pattern closely. I took it to my LQS to show one of the owners,Deb. She was my Secret Sister last year. She liked it so she put it up on the wall!!!! And asked me to teach the quilt at the LQS. WOW! I will be a quilt teacher!!! Can you tell I am excited??
http://subeesews.blogspot.com/2009/07/jamies-quilt-from-loose-change-book_30.html
Hope I did this right. That should be a link to the Jamie's Quilt in my blog.

Anyway, I translated the pattern to use the Easy Angle ruler. It really simplified the cutting and the piecing. I love the Easy Angle ruler now.

Purple Kaleidoscope quilt border and container Hubby bought me!

Sorry I have no pics of the whole quilt but check out this wild stripe I used for one border on the purple Kaleidoscope quilt. I used this fabric as my one yard of "ugly" fabric giveaway at the last guild meeting. It truely is not ugly...just busy. I plan on adding a 4 1/2" border of one of the purples in the blocks. But another quilt butted in before I got to it. I will blog about that in my next post.

And a good picture of my new iron that I have slowly learned to love. It is a Reliable Digital Velocity V100. Pricey but really worth every penny.
http://www.reliablecorporation.com

My Hubby was at the local hardware store and he actually paid money for this too cute container. It cost him $1.00. I think it should have been a give away but besides that it is a great container. I plan on using it for waste triangles or random fabric pieces at the sewing machine. The top just pops off. I washed it by hand and there are no smells or grease inside or out. I will glue a nice circle of fabric to the lid to cover that label.

It almost looks like a urinal...where does my mind get these ideas?

Anyway...isn't it cute? And I was sooooo touched by his thoughtfullness. He knows I LOVE plastic containers. Periodically we/I have to purge the tupperware cabinet of containers I have collected. That is the only way we can get the cabinet shut! HA! (Or find anything easily!)

Useless plastic items reminds me of a song by Nanci Griffith...Love at the Five & Dime....I think is the correct title. Help me out Bonnie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Purple Kaleidoscope quilt progress

First I would like to show all of you my biggest square ruler. I may not use it very often but when a large square ruler is needed there is no substitution. It is a Creative Grid. Do not know when or when I bought it. I have had it for eons. But knowing my buying habits I am sure I found it on the internet.

Here is the trimming process. I cut my corner triangles from squares measuring 6 1/2's.
The instructions have you cutting a 5 3/4" square twice on the diagonal. Not only is this a strange measurement for us "Bonnie" girls, it is also a very bad idea to put bias edges on the outside of the triangles. I cut the 6 1/2" square on the diagonal once giving me a generous triangle with straight of grain on the two outside edges. I centered that on the respective corners sewed and then when truing up the block the extra just gets cut away and the block measures a perfect but BIG 17"!!!!

Here are twelve of the fourteen blocks I made. They are not sewn together yet just slapped on the design wall. If you squint your eyes you can see two circles interwoven. I just love this pattern!

When starting this project I wound 5 bobbins with purple thread. I used all five bobbins! There is a lot of strip piecing before seeing the results. But they are sure worth the wait! I have a wild wiggly stripe fabric that is a tame yellow with tons of colors but mostly lavenders running the width of the bolt. I cut along the lengthwise of this fabric ending up with stripes running across the strips. Not only is this more pleasing to my eye, it is a better cut for borders. The lengthwise grain has less stretch than WOF grain. I learned this from one of Judy Martin's books. Yes, I have all she has written and am waiting on the next one!