Prints Charming

One of my fellow guild members and close friend (Deb Heath) had made a lovely quilt and I saw it on her bed at the Project Linus retreat. Don't you know I simply had to have the pattern.

And here is my version. It still needs the borders done. I love the pattern and I also love the fabric. Kansas Winter by Moda dated 2009 from my deep stash.

I am using up my stash. Finding precious groups of fabrics to use.

Also my OCD kicked in making this quilt. And it worked well I must say. Some duplicates of fabrics but not close to each other. And I counted carefully to have even numbers of each print. I also added 4 fabrics that did not belong but "went".

And of course I found some butterfly fabric. I haven't a clue as to what I am doing with this. The fabric will tell me.

I did buy some fabric. Scrabble fabric!!! My Hubby plays Scrabble with his computer all day long. And I am going to have him make up the words for his own quilt. He does not have a Minkee backed quilt yet. But the darn expensive stuff does not come in his body size and width. I could try piecing it. I have done that one time. We will see.

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I won a mug & magazine & my 64 patch Butterfly quilt!

I was flabbergasted when I received the e-mail that I had won the volume 7 of the Quiltmaker magazine and one of the precious mugs!!!
Hubby has been laughing at me for the excitement I felt when the mug arrived. I currently have it right next to me at the sewing machine. Nothing is in it yet but a pair of scissors. But I can see it all day long!

I have been sewing up a storm. I know I should be working on my applique' project. But the sewing machine has really been my companion for the last 4 days.
DD#1 collects butterflies. And I bought this fabric many many years ago. I did not like the border on it at all. So I cut it all off...much better. Then began to cut the blocks down to a usable size.
DD#1's birthday is in July so I am getting a head start on getting this sewn. I still need to add a border. I will use the brown fabric that is the 64-patch.
I LOVED making these 64 patch blocks. I used 1 1/2" squares. I did not sew them in strips but made them each individually. DH is still laughing about the mug and how this was too much work for an 8 1/2" block.

And the neutral I used just seems to glow. I am determined to use the neutral all up. It has the painted texture that is hard to sew through. I did not know that when I bought it online a million years ago. I sure do love shopping my stash!!

Here is the first one I made...only 40" square. But still quite pretty.
Hubby does not like the green butterfly fabric I used. He says it is baby shit green.
MEN!!! I need to love it as I have 10 yards of it!!! It will be used!!!

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Cats, squirrels and spool block progress

Our Macy is so special. She fetches toys like a dog and we know she understands what we say. When her food bowl gets near empty she brings the bowl toys.
So funny. Her newest favorite toy is a piece of string from a grass weed whacker.

DD#1 braided my hair yesterday. I so need to get a trim to straighten up my self mutilation. It lasted all day and overnight.

This is some of the fabric that I bought at Quilts and Friends in Roanoke Indiana. We were hired to play during a sale day for the above shop. Of course after staring for two hours as we played and sang I could not NOT buy fabric.

The quilt is still in it's design mode...more to follow.

As I work on the butterfly quilt I am cutting into the swap strips and making spool blocks. Some of the fabric were too light for the spool body but I was able to use them as the backgrounds.

The paper shows 190 made but with yesterday's sewing session I now have 200 even sewn. 1/4 of the way to the 800 needed...

Here is a closeup of our newest squirrel family. The mommy squirrels all bring the babies from their birthing nest to our trees. I am sure it is the food supply. We have two families right now in the front trees. There are occasionally some territory squabbles. But we can stop them by adding more peanuts to the argument. They then get so busy eating that they forget to fight with each other!!!

But this little baby has a very gray cast to her fur. It will make her easily recognized when taming. She is already quite comfortable with me being close to her. I make them peanut butter sandwiches and slices of apples with peanut butter. And tons of raw peanuts and sunflower seeds.

I have all of the quilts quilted that I made from Craig Robison's shirts. He would have been the grandfather to the new arrival (due in June) SO I thought it was appropriate to use the shirt fabrics as baby quilts. I managed to squeeze 4 quilts and all have Minkee backing!!!

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Paper Piecing butterfly blocks

 I am still working on the Butterfly quilt. I have replaced nearly all the sashings and border fabrics. I did this by stitching fabric directly over the old fabric. The quilt already was heavy. (111X103) It is a big quilt. Now with double the fabric it is HUMOGEOUS! Or at least feels like it as I wrestle it through the machine.

I am also adding lots more quilting. I had hand quilted this quilt and left lots of bare areas. The hand quilting is still strong. But I will be adding much more quilting to keep it lasting another 10+ years!

 I love my Janome6600P. I work it to death and it has never failed me. I have considered the new Horizon 7700. But the chatter about weird glitches on this new machine has made me wait.

 I have been digging through some very old fabric. I found all the butterfly fabric that I used in the original quilt. I did have to buy a couple yards from my favorite E-Bay seller: Morningdove. Her shipping prices are the best around and she ships so fast. I swear she must make a late night run to the post office when I order. 2 days tops and I have my purchase!

 All new borders in Kona Snow and all new sashings sewn down.  Today I cut off the old binding...it was shredded and thread worn. I added new binding and am now ready to tackle the embroidered  blocks. I may hand quilt them. Just so I can cuddle under this quilt one more time! 

Look at this beautiful bunch of swap fabrics!

This is just one swappers contribution.

Quilt repair!

This quilt was the second large quilt I have ever made. It lives on my daughter's King size bed. Each of those paper-pieced butterflies were tiny works of art. I dug into my precious Jinny Beyer pallet collection to piece these. I also used some fabrics from my deceased sister-in-law. My oldest daughter loved her Auntie Margie very much. Using some of these fabrics made this quilt special for both of us.

 I have learned the value of good quality fabric the hard way. The end result is fabric disintergrating before your eyes! Much to my daughter's dismay the quilt started falling apart.

 If I had quilted it heavier I think it would have been in better shape. But with small children hurling and assorted kittens and puppies, this quilt has seen a lot of washing.

 My goodness my hand looks old! Yikes when did that happen??????? Anyway, the seam is still there but the fabric isn't! DH said I should applique something over these large areas. The backing fabric has large realistic butterflies. And I know I have a piece of it SOMEWHERE in my vast stash. I have never appliqued before. But I guess this is the way to learn...

 I have been keeping this repair project at the end of my list of things to do. I was dreading the close examination that was going to be needed to fix this quilt. This morning I simply replaced to inner borders by sewing some on my GOOD quality Kona Snow over the poor worn out white butterfly fabric that was too thin and fragile from the beginning. It had just turned to dust practically in my hands. The angst I felt was silly. It took all day, but now the large areas are totally fixed. And it was easy!!!! I am also going to add LOTS more quilting before I return the quilt to my daughter.

 See the two fresh new inner borders? Boy do I ever love working with this Kona Snow.

 Here is the report from the neutral string block event. I have 185 all made. I took them to club tonight and worked on tearing off the paper. I think I disturb some of the quilters with the paper rustling. So tonight I sat at a back table so I would not disturb their delicate constitutions.

I just had to buy this. I LOVE titanium sewing machine needles. They last a very long time and I feel they are worth the extra cost. I buy them by the 100's on a Yahoo group called "needlecoop". 

So I figured that a Fiskar titanium rotary cutter blade should last the same way. We will see. I will put her to work as soon as this blade in my old favorite Fiskar cutter wears out. I am a good rotary cutter wielder/driver. I keep the blade clean of fuzz and rarely nick any ruler edges. I make them last a long time.

I do not miss work since retiring but I do miss the good ole' Tool & Die men. They kept my blades (and their wives' blades) sharpened. Sometimes too sharp! Once the resharpened blade that I used for the first time completely cut through a cutting mat. And I just happened to have the mat on my new oak dining room table. Talk about regret!!!!!!!