Bonnie Hunter in Fort Worth, TX

Bonnie Hunter Program in Fort Worth, TX

Tumbler block

 I have been drooling over this classic block called a tumbler. I had a template made by an online template maker I found on E-Bay. If I can find her name I will add a link.  Anyway...I wanted a 4" tumbler template because I have a box of 2000 4" squares that I bought from Keepsake Quilting YEARS ago. I guess I have been saving them for my next life. HA!
But before I cut into those precious squares I cut some tumblers from my scraps. As the "flimsy" grew I realized that I LOVE making this kind of quilt. It is easy to sew and the results are great.

My wonderful Hubby has been waiting for a monitor cover for quite some time now. As I brought out a partial "flimsy" I draped it over the monitor and the dimensions were so perfect that he became the proud owner of my first project off the new Janome 3160 QDC sewing machine. I fully lined the monitor cover in some quality muslin. A quick pressing and it is now on his monitor.



Looks really nice!





 This is a partial review on my new sewing machine. First off I had to find a place to set her up away from my main sewing area. A few moves and a crippling sore back (muscle spasms) I have her in my cutting/pressing room where I used to sew exclusively. So small in there I cannot take a full step...well enough about this small house. I cannot believe I used to have all my setup in that room!!!!!!

The machine sewed not so good. So, I threw away the needle that came with the machine and used my Organ 12/80 titanium needle. That helped the skipping stitches. Then I tried different feet and needle positions until I acheived my 1/4" seam. So far so good. But the 12/80 needle did not like the small spool of Coats and Clark 50 weight thread (me either...too much lint).  Then somehow the entire bobbin case jumped out of position in the under plate area. Jammed so tight that I couldn't get the plate cover off...it had been pushed crooked! I managed to undo the bind by moving the feed dogs a bit and reset the bobbin case. So, I set up my thread stand and used a spool of So Fine. Now I was cooking! I whipped through that sewing session very pleased with the machine. But I am wondering how the bobbin case was able to jump. I had not removed the plate yet...so maybe it was not set right from the factory. I will keep an eye on it. this is unacceptable if it does it again. The bobbin was nearly empty when this happened. I will see what happens when this bobbin runs low.

All in all the machine sews great. It is quiet and powerfull and only weighs 12 lbs!

 This was my pile of 5 quilts that needed to be quilted this last week. They are all done.

1. Two quilts for Project Linus
2. pink quilt for my new grand niece (who is not born yet)
3. Toy Shop quilt (Wind it up fabric) for great grandson's 1st BD (Logan)
4. a bonus quilt for Logan. I made too many pinwheels.

 Here I am just beginning to straight line quilt. My Janome 6600P does such a perfect job of quilting.

And I used only one Organ Titanium 90/14 Topstitch needle for all five quilts. And it is still sharp!
I ordered 100 of them through "needlecoop" on Yahoo groups. They have not arrived yet.

 Isn't this a great fabric? these squares are 1 1/2" cut. I can see them as a center for a Log Cabin, Pineapple, Peaky and Spike....just so many options. I found this fabric on E-Bay. LOVE IT! And I am not a red person but I am slowly learning to love red. Just a bit in a quilt adds so much punch. I am trying to learn to love orange...still trying!

 My Pineapple quilt arrived home just before the snowstorm hit on Friday. Mary said she had included some scraps. There has to be a whole pound of scraps here!!! This morning I woke up at 3:45 a.m. What to do? Why press and harvest some of those scraps!!! I did not even make a dent in them!

THANKS MARY!

I will post a picture of the Pineapple quilt after I get it bound. I had made a scrappy binding for the quilt then changed my mind. I cut strips from the border fabric (Fat Cats) and need to sew it on yet.

First light this morning.

The snow was really blowing.

 It hardly ever gets blown onto my front picture window.

The cats were freaked out and kept trying to touch them through the window.

I had to raise the blinds before they ruined the them!

Then the sun came out and melted all the snow.

Sigh!

I love snow!

My Pineapple quilt is all quilted

Mary Flynn of Quilt Hollow  (http://www.quilthollow.com/)
has mailed me photos of the finished Pineapple quilt. It is so beautiful. She did feathers for me! WHOOO HOOO! I cannot wait to get it back home and bind it with love!
This quilt was inspired by Bonnie Hunter's Pineapple blocks she has been working on for some time.
The blocks are 5" finished. Each block has 45 pieces. I paper pieced this. Whewww!!!!!!! The circle effect was acheived by having one dark leg instead of 4 light legs in the block. I added an image at the end of this post of the block from BlockBase.

My words are not enough to express how pleased I am with the results.

Thanks Mary!!!!!!!!

N008 is the block # from BlockBase

Sewing on a Nascar weekend

I am following the Nascar race.

 And I have my trusty water bottle at my side.

It says "Put Your Foot Down and QUILT!"

How appropriate!



This is a bonus quilt made from leftovers of the Wind It Up! fabric.

This was from the quilt made for Great Grandson #2.

 More Project Linus quilts made this weekend.

This one has the pink 9-patches in the lead.

 This one has the blue 9-patch in the lead.

These finish at 36" X 45"...perfect size for Project Linus.

 I changed my "anti scale cartridge" in my Reliable Digital Velocity iron. It was very easy to do. But I do not know if I needed to do it. It is behaving oddly. The burst of steam feature that is triggered by movement is not working. I have to push the steam button off and then back on to get the steam happening.
Any ideas what is going on? This iron was great at the beginning. And a few friends have bought these on my personal recommendation. Ouch! If I was wrong.

My blue 2 1/2" strips for the Quiltvilleswap group on yahoo!

My Husband and I

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rar29lsrG24

This is my Husband and I singing and playing one of his original songs.

A new Janome 3160 QDC

 I love retreats. But hauling my 70# Janome 6600P was such a hardship on me. I cannot lift it into the truck in the sewing machine trolley. I can lift it OUT! But not in...gravity helps and hinders. The Jem Gold 760 sews roughly. I feel that Grand daughter was not nice to the machine. She is done with it after 8+ years but ... I never bring it. Instead I bring my precious Featherweight. I try to be nice to the Featherweight. After all she is older than me!
So I traded that ol'e Jem in and also had a gift certificate from sweet Hubby for Christmas. I bought the Janome 3160 QDC. Only 12#'s...needle drop positions...thread trimmer...needle down...needle threader...hard shell case...extension table...need I say more?



She sews quietly and accurately. I did some more pinwheel blocks and they came out just as nice as when I sewed it on the Janome 6600P. The buttons are in different places as is the pressure foot lever. But I am sure that after a weekend of sewing with it I will become used to it.

 I did some embroidery for Gladys. She is heading to Florida and wanted some handwork for the trip.

 We picked these pillow panels up in Columbus, Ohio. We went on a quilt trip to a show. They were marked down as we were there on the last day of the show. I bought 5 pink ones.

 And speaking of pink. I made this quilt for my new niece  who is due soon! Maybe another March baby in this family who is full of Pisces people!

 Pretty daffodils...Valentine Day present. They are in the ground already. But until that happened they kept me company on my sewing table. That is Macy in the basket. Pretty as a picture for sure.

 I LOVE THE EASY ANGLE! The results are always perfect. I press the two fabrics right sides together and cut them with the ruler. Then they are already paired up for some FAST piecing!

 Just feed them through the machine as fast as you can pick them up. Since they are starched and pressed together they are easy to pull off the pile!

 Here is the first cut. Line the straightened edge of the fabric to the line on the left of the ruler. CUT!

 I flip my ruler upside down to make the second cut. I do not think this follows the instructions but I have been doing it this way too long to change now. Whatever gets the great results is all that matters.

 This layout did not make the grade. Hubby said it would be faster to make more pinwheels than to take them apart. He was right. I will keep these for another quilt.

Here is the finished product. This is for Great Grandson #2.

His BD is the end of March.

Plenty of time for Super Subee the super fast sewing/quilting manic!

Blind Quilter

What an inspiration!
XOXOXOXO Subee

Icicles and EQ 7's block challenge

The sun is shining. Clear weather means the temperature will drop. But first the snow will melt a bit. This is my upward view from my quilting chair. Beautiful yet so deadly. With below zero as a low tonight the roads and sidewalks will be deadly for walkers and drivers.

I found and bought a hot pink/purple 3" binder. I am slowly finding all my printed patterns from Bonnie and adding them to the notebook.

 Beautiful book...beautiful patterns...I love office supplies!

 I brought out my Singer embroidery machine to do a small item for my friend Gladys. I need to get this done before she heads out on her next trip! I delivered the Deer quilt last night. And our long arm quilt guild member assurred Gladys that her frame can handle the 120" X 120" quilt! WHOOHOO!

 I joined a group of EQ7 users (maybe all EQ users). They are doing a block a month. I joined yesterday but still have time to display my January block and ....

http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=1000005253725

 I also got the February block finished. Do the scraps look familiar? The bag keeps on yeilding more usable pieces. These blocks are 6" finished. I did not paper piece them I used the rotary cutting instructions. Of course I changed them so I could use my Easy Angle and Companion Angle rulers!



http://www.doyoueq.com/blog/?p=1993

the above link should take you to EQ's blog. Then just follow the tabs for the block challenges.

Scraps & Shirttails II is here!

The poor postal workers are really battling the snow here. They have to walk in the streets and up the drives to deliver the mail. I bet it doubles their walking distance easily.

My Scraps & Shirttails II arrived today. Also Word Play Quilts, Schnibbles times two, Scrap Basket Sensations, my new Quiltmaker magazine and some notecards. Whew! I have a lot of reading to do!
In the Scrap Basket book there is a quilt by my friend Mary Flynn (Quilt Hollow) It is a sweet quilt called Blessing from the Hollow and I am going to make it using my newest FQ bundle called Faith by Moda.



Here is my wonderful hubby cleaning off my truck. He has a great system of keeping our drive clear. We park the trucks all the way to one side so he has a straight area to snow blow. He then moves the trucks to the road and cleans them off. He goes back to where they had been parked and cleans that area. He then moves the trucks back in and cleans off the road too. Then he walks down the street and does a few other neighbors' drives. They are older and need this bit of neighborly help.

 We got a total of 12" of snow from Monday night through Wednesday morning. I baked a turkey and made homemade bread. I had candles burning. All in all we had a great time during the storm. Our power stayed on and I really was quite productive in the quilting department.
I managed to get three (3) Strip Twist quilts from my strips of black & whites! I have them all bordered and ready for quilting. I also added the last border of Log Cabin blocks to the Deer quilt I am making for my friend Gladys. I still need to made the binding for it and see if I can squeeze a couple of pillow cases from the scraps I have left.

 Today we have another 5" of snow that has fallen! A winter wonderland. The bushes are buried deep in snow. The birdies poke their little heds up to eat bread from underneath the branches. The hawks are really patrolling the area. They need to eat too!

This is one of my TAME squirrels. She takes peanuts from my hand.

 She learned this from her grandmother, Stubbie.

I am pretty sure this female is just a year old.

She came from Stubbie's spring litter.

She then had one litter late this last summer.

I watched her carry the three babies in her mouth.

She brought them from down the road a ways.

I feel honored that she deposited them here for the winter.

They are still afraid of humans.

I will have them tame by summer!

Life sure is good!

XOXOXOOXO Subee

Strip Twist in black & white

My "funk" seems to be over. I am a winter weather lover. I love the cold and staying inside. I just was not myself since I fell three weeks ago. The scab finally fell off and the knee seem ok!!!! WHOOHOOO!

I woke up at 2:30 this morning to watch the snow and to sew. I cut a bunch of black/white fabric strips and dug out my Bonnie Hunter's Strip Twist pattern for a fast and satisfying little quilt to make. As I was sewing I decided I need to make two of these for my two dear grand daughter's whose birthdays fall this March. (one is on MY birthday!) So I just cut a bunch more strips and made twice as many sets as I needed. The block quarters are not sewn together yet. I could not resist throwing them up on the design wall to see the "action" in these easy yet graphic blocks.

Below is my Pineapple quilt with it's borders added and the backing is the tan hanging behind it. I am mailing this to my friend at Quilt Hollow for some fantastic quilting magic. I will wait for the snow storm to abate before mailing.

And here is the progress on the Deer Quilt. It is now a nice 96" X 96". I still need to add 12" Log Cabin blocks around the edge. This will make it 120"X 120". Tell me...is that too large for a King size quilt????????????

Blizzard 2011 as they are calling it now. Somehow we have been lucky and the ice has stayed south of us. We have 4" on the ground that came from round #1 of the storm this morning. Round#2 is in full blast  now this afternoon...with a forecast of 5-12" tonight with blowing snow. We have tons of groceries ( I am making a turkey tomorrow!) batteries and candles and of course quilts to keep us warm if the power goes out.
I am hoping the power stays on since the power company really took out many trees in this neighborhood. So sad...I will miss the shade and my squirrels lost some of their nesting spots. Yet if the ice does come the limbs that would have dropped on the power lines are GONE!