Been kinda quiet...

So, I haven't been much motivated to post lately. I didn't realize how hard it is to talk to yourself. Several of my pals have stopped by, but no comments, no followers...sniff sniff.

Anyway, in the interest of staying active and being committed to this whole blog thing, I'm breaking a cardinal rule and posting that I'm going on vacation. I'm taking Rhi's quilt with me (I am finishing the boarder quilting, and hope to have it ready to bind when we return!!!!), my nook, lots of sun screen, and yes, the kids.  I hope to take part of a day and go see the AMAZING Keepsake Quilting and Patternworks in person. And I am even taking money....yay!!! Fabric, here I come!

Also, I have just finished another quilt top, and this time I took my husbands advice and took pictures along the way to show a "progression" of the process. These are the main blocks.

  And the flying geese units.

The main units coming together. This was a chance for me to use up some of that REALLY old fabric I had in my stash, while making it look "younger" with newer fabrics.

Not too bad when they come together....

First just the top...a little ho hum.

And then the top once the batik border and the outer border are added. I love how the flying geese are NOT symmetrical in placement. 

Close up of the black-on-mottled batik border. This is a blend of batiks, and "classic" prints. The oldest had a date of 1994 on the selvage, and then the red multi print I bought just a few months ago. What doesn't show up in this picture is the gold fleck detail. It gives the quilt just a little sparkle. Lots of fun. I haven't taken a picture of it yet, but all the half squares that came from the main blocks I sewed and pressed and will put on the back as a border...a Quiltville "waste not"!

Continuation of Tammy's Quilt

So here is my shout out to two of my dearest, closest, bestest friends! Tammy (the sneaky girl she is) has been reading my blog on the sly and saw my comment that I regretfully did not remember to take a closeup of the quilting detail. So, she posted several pictures for me to steal. Here is the one that I think shows it best~

Thank you Tam!

Tammy and Jason's "wedding" quilt

I realized in looking back through my pictures, that I hadn't explained the one I use as my header, and as my FB id. This quilt is made from two blocks: Jacob's Ladder, and the Buckeye. It worked out to be roughly 64"x64". A generous throw, small bed cover.




 I first saw it as the featured quilt in one of my many magazines, and loved the country cuddly look. And since it was fat quarter friendly, I decided it was time to clean out that drawer of some fabric. Yeah....right. Nice story, isn't it?

I went a little more for the bright and jewel tone colors from my "big cut" stash, and was thrilled with the collective. But man was it a lot of cut, sew, press, cut, press, sew....

My only regret is not getting a close up of the hand quilting. I used a white thread and did a modified shadow stitch around the main pattern, with a traveling outline stitch into some of the background fabric.  I swore this was it, never doing it again....and I now have a bag with the next round of fabrics set aside for the quilt I "won't " be making again....

Necy and Bryan's Quilt

Continuing to post my past quilts, another one I loved doing was this "throw" sized tumbler I made for my dear friend Necy and her goofy husband Bryan. Necy shares my passion for Purple, and hey, Green doesn't hurt either.

This was another of those quilts where I just cut the fabric, tried real hard to be random in piecing it, and hand stitched it with a purple thread in the ditch. 

Funny thing happened today as I was pondering what to post. I went upstairs and picked up a UFO (my oldest daughters THIRD quilt) and laid it out for how I want to piece it up. Stacked the rows in sewing order, pulled the binding and backing fabrics, smiled....and then started looking through my stash for a new project to cut. Now seriously, what is wrong with this???? 3 in bags, cut and ready to sew, 3 tops pieced and folded with backing fabric waiting to be sandwiched, 2 pinned and in some state of quilting, and one I am actively hand quilting for a graduation gift. Oh, and the 2 I started, looked at at various states of pieced and wondered what I was thinking before being relegated to the drawer below my scraps. So why do I need to pull another project into the to do state???? It is an addiction......

"Sew" much news!

I promised myself I would stay with this, but it's hard! I am in such awe of bloggers that can do this every day!
Ok, as the title of the blog states, lot's of news on the home front. First off, I hope everyone had a safe and relaxing holiday weekend.
Last weekend (June 25th), my wonderful hubby showed what a sport he is and went with me to the HUGE Vermont Quilt Festival (www.VQF.org). We pawned the kids off and went for almost 3 hours. Fabric everywhere, machines, ideas...and tons of display quilts. I got to see several long arms in action and got inspired to try many new things. It also gave me a much needed opportunity to see in person several different machines.
After killing my 2nd Brother, I decided it was time to start researching and consider buying my first "big girl" machine. I still have my mother's hand-me-down Elna SU 62, but that thing needs a vintage license plate to be used!
After drooling, oogling, and many late nights on the internet, I narrowed it down to Pfaff and Janome. And off I went to see them both in Middlebury!

2 hours later, like a proud huntress, I dragged home my prize....My new Janome MC6600P. 

Oh do I love this machine!!!! Knee life, Auto thread cutter, HUGE extension table, 10 feet, AccuFeed, and oodles of onboard stitches and 2 alphabets (including foreign symbols I've never seen before!). It also has a 10 inch neck so pushing a queen size quilt through this will be tight but doable. Machine quilting, here I come!!!!

Maggie likes sitting up with me, keeping guard both inside and out.....

while Lilly just sleeps the day away....saving up her energy for the late night feet attack!

*** I have to do a little plug here and tell my reader(s) that if you are in the New England area, looking for great fabric, wonderful people, and superior machines, check out The Quilter's Corner at http://www.middleburysewnvac.com/.  I spent 2 hours there, learned a lot, walked away with a steal, and classes coming out my nose.***