My newest favorite sound from Virginia Bound

I love speaking in rhyme!

The sound is the pin going into the container as I finish a small section. Now I admit that this sound is not loud nor is it pretty. But it is so satisfying to know one more pin is out and I am that many inches closer to being done with this monster! The tin was full of chocolate kisses. It is perfect for my "Basting Brights" safety pins. I am only thinking about the spot I am working on. Someday there will be no spots to go to and I will be done.
The Accufeed foot that I bought for this machine is a wonder. I totally love it. No puckers or pleats in the underside. But boy! Am I ever wrestling this quilt around. I am going over the light diamond areas four times coming in the width of the presser foot each time. Around and around. I am fluffing and stuffing but at times I still need to pass large areas through the throat space.

I took this pic on Friday. Today the two bottom pieces are all quilted and they are rolled up into little logs so there are no strings or batting hanging out for my kitties to nibble on. I am now working on the center section.

The feather idea did not pan out. I set up for free motion with the foot and the new free motion bobbin with the blue dot. Geez...I felt like I was in sewing machine kindergarten. I ripped it all out and am now continuing the straight line quilting. I also wound 10 more bobbins and put the fourth new needle in the machine this morning.

This quilt will last forever! I hope I last until I get it finished!

Batik Virginia Bound progress report FEATHERS????

OH! My aching shoulders! This is only 1/3 of the quilt as I did decide to quilt it in sections and then join the sections. The finished size will be 144X120. I am using Quilters' Dream Wool batting. Oh my goodness do I ever love the feel of this batting. I want to buy a whole roll of the stuff. It is yummy to work with. I really like cutting batting from rolls. There are no wrinkles in it at all that way. I have to let the batting relax from the bag. I used two super queen size batts to have enough for this quilt. I will have a nice chunk left from each to use in something else.

Besides the obvious size of this quilt, I have to cope with kitty approval of the quilt. I step away to stretch and the kitties pounce on it. It is more than just seeing what I am doing. They also love the wool batting. It immediately radiates their body heat. When I first tried this batting I made them a small kitty mat. They all love it. And I have washed it many times and it holds up just fine.

So far just some straight line quilting to stabilize the piecework. In the batik part of the quilt I am using a nice chocolate brown 40 weight thread by Signature called Mother Goose. In the light sections I am using a King Tut varigated tans #996. I am using a 50 weight thread in the bobbin as I want this quilt to last a long time. I usually use Bottom Line in the bobbin. But decided I wanted a heavier thread instead. I am using a size 16 needle to make a good stitch through the tightly woven batiks. There is a lot of bulk where the seams meet. Even though I pressed those areas open there is a bump to deal with. I have been hand cranking the machine through those heavier areas.

I want to try feathers. I want to try feathers. I want to try feathers. Maybe if I say it enough I will get the courage to try some Sally Terry feathers. I bought her book and she makes it seem so easy. But this quilt is so very big!

So, what say you fellow quilters????? feathers?????????

Batik Virginia Bound progress report

I am back. I have been so very busy. On National Quilting Day I went to hear and see Kaye England at the 19th annual Gathering of Quilters. I lucked out as it was in Fort Wayne this year. Only a 30 minute drive from home!

The Masonic quilt has been picked up.

I taught some quilting to a very fine woman I met on the internet. She is coming to me for lessons. She is a fast learner and is doing great. You know how hard it is at the beginning when you need to buy the right tools to do the best job. I am lending her what she needs until she gets her own gear. It is very satisfying to show someone what you love to do!

I have a bolt of this fabric from years ago. It is called Willow Mews by RJR fabrics. I made a serious dent in the bolt making the backing for the Batik Virginia Bound. Quilt's finish measurements are 144X120. I am making a serious dent in my stash by using my precious fabrics finally. And this one is for me. I have the first quilt I ever made on my bed. Heck! I zigzagged the binding on. I did not know what I was doing. And it is tied not quilted. I cannot believe it has lasted 20 years.

Here is my precious Baby..all 20#'s of her. She is the best kitty except for being shy when there is a visitor in the house.

And Macy is all her glory. She rules the bed. She chases any kitties off at the beginning of the night. Then as she falls asleep the rest of the pack creeps in.

My Pearl Piwacket. She is still bent about MaggieMae coming to live with us. We are working with her to give her extra attention. It seems to be helping.

And of course MaggieMae. She helped me cut sew and press the backing this morning. Yes...she was loads of help. I could not find Bess to get a picture. The kitties have some great hiding spots.

Gotta go...I am pinning the backing into the frame. But I wanted to post as I have been a quiet lady this last week.

Sunday update

I am a winner!!!! I simply love all the blogs there are on quilting. And I also feel as if these women are my friends although we are miles apart. I made a suggestion on Scraps and Threadtales blog and I won! There were two other winners too. We are all so very lucky this week! http://scrapsandthreadtales.blogspot.com/ Here is the link to the blog.

I have the Masonic quilt finished. I just need to call Marg and tell her to come get it.

I visited my oldest daughter at a new dining place she is working at on Thursday when I was doing my running around town. She is a workhorse....2 jobs, 4 daughters and a host of running for Grandma Iole. Anyway...I noticed that her apron was kinda threadworn. I checked my records and yep! it has been 2 years since I made some for her. SO that is what I worked on this last Friday and Saturday. I made 8 aprons. Five for Lisa and three for Laura (she does not work as much).
Today I am back making more batik Virginia Bound blocks for my bed quilt. Yes....I am finally sewing for myself again. I have 144 quarter blocks done. But I want the quilt to have a lot of overhang. I can always make a smaller one for the chair if I make too many. I want it 120" wide and 144" long. I plan on quilting it in sections. Guess I will worry about that when the time comes for assembly.

four cats on my bed

So rare for my kitties to hang out together. I think they were waiting for me to get into bed and read for awhile.

Macy is the one in front on the left. She is an Oriental Shorthair w/seal tortie points.

Next to her on the front right is Bess. She is a rescue and is a half sister to Baby.

Baby is the cat on the left rear. She must weigh 20#'s. She is very mellow. I bottle fed her.

MaggieMay is the one nearest the pillow. She is a Himmy w/tortie points. She looks big but it is all fur. She is so light and fluffy.

Missing from the picture is Pearl. She is shy.

Masonic Quilt progress

The hard part is done. Well it was not that hard but agonizing. No mistakes allowed (my rule). I was terrified to quilt this. I had to force myself into the quilt room. I loaded it and then had to walk away. Happened all day long. I had to keep stepping out of the room...shutting the door and paced! But I did get it quilted and it looks great if I do say so myself!

Here is the quilt drapped over the bar after I removed it from the frame. There are no ripples in the quilt. It looks as if there may be a ripple but that is only cause I must not have had it even when I threw it over the bar.

Someone wanted to see my machine and frame. Not a real good picture of either but I think you get the idea.

Quilts and the tote bags I whipped up

I made this tote from the leftover backing off the quilting frame. I just had to piece it a little. I added batting and a lining and using yellow chalk I quilted it before assembling. I added little loops inside to clip things too and of course my "SubeeSew's Original" label.

The quilt fits in very nicely. No need to wrap this package up. Amanda has this already even though her BD is not until Tuesday.

This was a pillow panel. I had to add some black fabric to it to make it a big enough tote to get the quilt into it! It turned out really nice. I think I have started something with these totes.

Here is a peek at the inside. Arika has her quilt today. Today is her BD. WhoooHoooo! I am on time this year!

9-patch minis ready for mailing

Aren't they sweet? I have them all packed for mailing and a hostess gift included. I cannot wait to get the return blocks. I really like these swaps.

mini 9-patches and some kitty pictures

I am in a swap on a Yahoo group. We are each making 10 sets of 10 different 3 1/2" 9-patches. I am nearly done making this little beauties. So I am sending in 100 blocks and will get 100 back! WHOOOHOOO!!!!!!

There are 5 cats in this picture. From left to right they are: MaggieMay, Pearl, Baby, Macy and Bess. Yes, I have 5 indoor cats. I love each of them!

MaggieMay is on the smaller table. Pearl is on the blue cutting mat. Baby is sitting like the sandbag she is (20#'s) and Bess is peeking out the window at the birdies.

Hubby just called and said he has seen robins today. It makes him so happy to know Spring is coming and that there will be no more snow plowing for him.

Black and White 9-patch exchange quilt finished

I have discovered a totally new use for my machine quilting frame. I have been doing this for many years now. I use it to pin up a quilt for either hand quilting or machine quilting on my DSM. I can literally have a quilt all pinned and ready to go in an hour! Honest! It is so much better than crawling on the floor or trying to do it on my too small dining room table. And there have never been any puckers.

These blocks came to me from an internet swap I did many, many years ago. I even think it was the first swap I ever entered. I remember I was still working full time and was only able to marathon sew on weekends after the housework was done. The finished size is 6". I added hourglass blocks between the 9-patches.

I quilted this on the diagonal and then on the square making the quilting go through every piece so this quilt can be abused as much as Amanda wants to abuse it. The quilt is 66" square.

This quilt is for my grand daughter Amanda's birthday on March 10th. She was born on my own birthday. So we are both Pisces. Also there is to be a full moon on our birthday. Howllllllll!!!!

Basting Brights safety pins

Carmen...you did not leave me an e-mail address to answer your question.

I found many sites that sell these basting pins. I know I bought them through Joann's online. It looks as if Nancy's notions have a good price but don't know what the shipping costs are.

http://www.nancysnotions.com/product/supplies/pins/basting+brights+200+pkg.do

http://www.amazon.com/Basting-Brights-Safety-Pins-200-Pkg/dp/B000BHZWQE



http://www.joann.com/joann/catalog.jsp?CATID=cat3433&PRODID=prd34525

Guild Mystery Quilt quilted and bound

All done, labeled and bound. Started quilting at 7 this morning and was done at 1:30! I love my Janome 6600P. The 9" throat allows so much room for quilting. I did a diagonal cross hatching. I used a southwest horse fabric for the backing. This quilt is for my grand daughter Arika. She loves horses. The print went very nicely with the border fabric. Her birthday is March 7th. I am early and have it ready to take to the guild meeting tonight. WhoooHoo!

I used 200 safety pins to baste this quilt. I know it is 200 because I opened a new package of these "safety brites" and I used all of them plus a few extra I had on hand. I had to open a new package because the bulk of my pins are in two hand quilting projects. I love hand quilting but it takes sooooooo long to finish them. I am glad I had another package of these pins. If you haven't tried them yet do so. They are very sharp and very easy to see. I basted the quilt on my machine frame. Took only an hour to load the machine and put in all the pins. I did that yesterday while doing laundry. So much easier on the back than crawling on the floor.

I did not have any idea of how I was going to quilt this when I stated this morning. After I went around the borders a couple of times I could see what the quilt wanted. It did not take away from the piecing at all. I love it!

I added a label and one of my "SubeeSews Originals" labels. I used the navy fabric for the binding. All in all it came out great! I cannot wait for my guild friends to see this quilt. Several ladies have brought their quilts in for show and tell. They all look so different. None has shown one like this one yet!

Cats and the quilting process

There is nothing more precious than a child or an animal asleep. They are so innocent and trusting. MaggieMay is leaning her head on a fold of my quilt. She can be so very trying at times. And then I find her like this and I forget all the troubles she can cause.

I was chosing thread colors for Arika's birthday quilt. I left the room for a moment to get the bobbin thread and Pearl decided this was a great place to take a nap. I used a "King Tut" thread for the top and a John Flynn "So Fine" for the bobbin.