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!