August UFO Finish

June Jelly Roll is a finish for August :0)

Quilted last weekend and the batik binding finished today! Yea!

Quilted with a design by Kim Diamond called Deep Blue Sea. 

Swirls and bubbles fit the batiks in the top in mho. Working with batiks is my second favorite choice to repros and a nice change. It keeps me balanced

This was a Mystery QAL with Aunt Reen's Place, a pattern by Doreen called Willow Weave.

I am very happy with how this quilt turned out :0) Thank you Doreen!

The Jelly Roll I used is from Merrill-Lee Designs. I won it as a door prize at the Yuba City Quilt show earlier this summer. Merrill-Lee Designs will be at our quilt show in September. Looking forward to the show and visiting with Merrill-Lee again. I am part of the quilt show committee for Annie's Star Quilt Guild, organizing the vendors for our show. Altho it's been a struggle keeping up with my duties, I am having fun doing it! Final letters went out to all the vendors in the mail today. One more committee meeting, taping off the floor on Thursday and then checking in vendors on Friday. The Quilt Show is Saturday Sept. 28th and Sunday Sept. 29th.

I already know my UFO for September... to finish my medallion quilt going into the show!!!

Enjoy the day, stitching away and have a wonderful Labor Day weekend

August UFO progress

A little progress on my August UFOs today... added borders to the June Jelly Roll...

made with Aunt Reen's June Jelly Roll QAL. The pattern is a design by Doreen called Willow Weave. The top before borders. I added a second band in my batik willow weave basket ;0)

Also pieced a backing and it's ready for quilting.  Doreen has another QAL posted for August with pieced hexies that is coming to a close. I have some catching up to do on that one :~]

Hope you all are having a great weekend. The weather is starting to feel more like Fall here in NorCal, with cooler temps, especially at night. Schools are starting. Chico State students are back in town. Had a nice visit with Pam who came by this morning and picked up her quilt. Pics posted on my longarm site Moonbear Designs and Quilting. Thanks for visiting!

All work and no play!

Altho my work is play! I am very fortunate to have a wonderful group of talented quilters that trust me with their beautiful quilts :0) This is a quick quilt made by Beckie with a pre-printed panel that I got to play with... I quilted a border design with corners and then FMQ on the print.

I ended up working last weekend and made little progress on my UFOs.
Last Saturday I met the most amazing quilter. Her name is Shirley, 92 years old and an amazing quilter! She just finished a quilt and asked me to quilt it for her! We had the best morning. She showed me quilts she made over the years plus a few made by her mother in law. Many all hand made and quilted! They were gorgeous and no I did not have my camera with me!
Sunday I finished an applique quilt for a customer I've been working on for some time. That was the best feeling! However, no progress on my Medallion. That will happen this weekend along with two more quilts on my UFO's for August list. One more week and this month is over! Where does the time go?

The best part of re-organizing or moving a sewing room is finding all sorts of projects, books and ideas squirreled away! Lori and Kathie recently posted the same experience!!! This is something I found when I moved my sewing room that I've had for a million years and forgotten...

notice the author ~ Gwen Marston! and the word templates, that dates it! What a treasure of little quilts...

 

I hope to be making a few of these very soon ;0) Focus.... have UFOs to finish first!!!

Have a wonderful weekend and enjoy the day stitching away!

New sewing table

I picked up a sewing table for my Juki. A simple, inexpensive table with the drop down shelf for a sewing machine. It's just the perfect size for the Juki and my older Bernina will fit too!

This will make FMQing sew much easier on by back and neck. We added blocks under the legs to bring it up to the same level as the table on the left. After drilling holes in the wood blocks for the table foot pegs, it's stable and fits perfect!

 

I made a tall worktable using drapery fabric cardboard rolls cut to length added to the legs for lift... pvc pipe works just as well. 

for a great cutting/ironing table with storage under the table.

 A temporary design wall until I make one for the closet door...

Small, but it works for now and gives us the larger room for Mom and guests. One more machine, my industrial straight stitch is still in that room until I find a place for it. My longarm and drapery table fill up another room on the other side of the house that was added long ago. It has an outside access door that's perfect for a separate entrance for customers...

Welcome and thanks for visiting!

Enjoy the day, stitching away

Quilting on the Medallion

Last weekend I started the quilting on my Medallion quilt top from Lori and Randy's SAL. 

Up to now all the quilting has been done on my Juki TL-2010Q. Very different mind set from quilting on my longarm. So far it's OK, not perfect, but it is fun! 

After pin basting I started in the middle. First was an outline stitch around the applique with the regular FMQ foot and a second 1/8 inch echo with the same foot.  Then the 1/2 inch cross hatch. Working from the center out stitched all of the inner borders and the quarter square blocks with SID using a walking foot. Then I started FMQing on the outer border applique with the same double outline stitching.

This weekend I added wings to the birds! Using freezer paper, cut out a wing shape

 pressed it to a bird and stitched around the paper template. 

Removed the paper and pressed it to another bird, then a second one in reverse.

 So far so good... then I started a feather fill. 

Parts of it I like, some not so much. 

before fill

after fill

The part I like are the larger feathers with curved spines. The rest looks like pebbling.

It is back up on my design wall while I decide if is stays or if I take out Madame Seam Ripper :~/

Back to work today. Enjoy the day, stitching away!

UFOs for August

I am joining in on Carrie's blog, a Passion for Applique, for her Nothing But UFOs for August.
She has some wonderful applique and needlework projects on her list. There is a linky to see what 3 projects everyone has on their list for August. Thank you Carrie!

#1 is a true UFO from 2005, the top was made in five hours! for a One Day Mystery by Planet Patchwork. A quilting friend from St.Louis, Mary Kay was visiting and we worked together. I had all the preliminary cuts ready, she did the sub cuts while I sewed and together we were able to keep up and finish the top. We even changed the design a little. That was on July 30, 2005 and now eight years later still waiting to be finished! Most of the quilting is started, have a little more SID to do, then add binding and a label for a complete finish!

#2  I can't wait to start on is quilting my Medallion SAL that I did with Lori and Randy. It's wonderful to have so many talented quilters and needle artists that share their time in Blogland!

Using a wool batting, my plan is for some crosshatch behind the center block, lots of SID, outline stitches with a 1/8 inch echo around all of the applique with some feathers along the borders, or maybe piano keys, will see when I get there!

#3 is the quilting on my Willow Weave top made for Aunt Reen's Place  June Jelly Roll...

Note:  ** Doreen has a new project posted yesterday! Check out the Hexie table runner for her August Sew Along using 5 inch charms. More fun ** I know, my bad! It's so hard not to start new projects! and this one is Hexies!!! I'll go to my (sewing) room now :0)

Enjoy the day stitching away!