What's it beginning to look a lot like?

Hmmm...now what could it be? Nope, well, yes it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, but that's not it. Yep, there's the border, can you see it peaking out at the lower end of the the quilt? Sooooo, it's beginning to look like I'm almost finished quilting my queen size, Diamond In the Rough quilt! WooHoo!!

Here's some of the quilts I've made.

Here's a few of the quilts I've made. One of these days, I need to get out all my quilts and have a picture taking day. I like to take my pictures from my top deck looking down on my bottom deck. As you can see from our second story window, it's a pretty slushy day here inthe blue grass. Mudders are great days to bet the horses, cause long shots win.

It's Christmas time so I get out my crazy quilt stockings. This is mine. Before I was a quilter, I liked to embroider. Didn't everyone start with stitching? Or did you jump right into sewing/quilting?

I've shared quilting with my grandmother, here is a quilt we made together. I've shared quilting with my mother, I don't have any pictures of hers, cause I gave them back to her after I quilted them.

These are slushy pictures of my backyard. Grey days in Kentucky, USA, are always good for quilting and sewing or embroidery.

Here's some of how I'm quilting the Diamond in the Rough. Click for a close up.

Tutorial: Free motion machine quilted feathers

Free motion quilting means you don't mark anywhere on the quilt. You sandwich the layers and then put them under the machine and start quilting. The quilt will tell you where and how to quilt. I like a lot of visual texture, so I like feathers on stripes.

When you load your quilt, give yourself a few extra inches at the bottom, because, try as you might, there still might be some stretching through the quilting process. It's better to do this than have to piece batting at the end.

Supplies: favorite wool batting-I like to open the rolled up batting then let it breath and soften up a bit, so there are no unseen creases in the quilt batting which might cause a bump. Favorite thread: I like a varrigated thread. It adds more visual texture. The big question you have to have to ask yourself, do you want to really see the quilt design or not. Wool batting has a good chair and good lighting before you begin. It will make all the difference in the world in whether you have a pleasant experience or not.

Load up a bunch of bobbins, so you don't have to stop in the middle.

Begin by "drawing' a swirly line along the fabric. The is the stem or backbone of the feather. Next, start on one side and make loops from the bottom to the top of the loop. Carefully follow the stem with loops and the start at the beginning and do it all over again. Pay close attention to the direction of your feathers and have them all flowing in one direction. Unless you are designing from the middle of the border out to the ends. Last I highly recommend this video. It is one of the best descriptions of machine quilt I've seen. I took his class-which was really a demonstration. This video takes it up close and easy to understand. Get it!

The top is done...woohoo!

This has been my life for the last couple of days. Diamond in the Rough. The finished product, to me, was worth the work. Here's the quilt, mitered corners and 3-D inner liner and all. I ran out today to find the stripe for the border. I just love this color of blue and I've added an inner border to draw the color out more. Any accent color like that will make the chosen color pop out of the quilt.

I just wish it would dry up around here so I can take a decent picture of the whole quilt outside on my deck. I find laying it flat on the lower deck and shooting looking straight down from the top deck makes for a good picture of a queen size (which this is) or larger quilt.

Now onto the quilt machine tonight, so I can start quilting tomorrow. You know the quilt tells you how it wants to be quilted, let's talk...smile.

Fat Boy Slim __ Weapon Of Choice

One of my all time favorite music videos...who knew Christopher Walkin was a dance man?

Quilting and a couple of ramblings.

Have you ever noticed, quilters have a multitasking personality. I believe it carries over, not just in my need to work on many different projects at once but, also over to my reading habits. I'm currently reading a novel, a small book, and a collection of short stories. Go figure.

Now, at this time, like the squirrel collecting her nuts, I'm dillegently trying to finish piecing the Diamond in the Rough quilt pattern for my MIL's Christmas. Before you think, what a nice DIL I am, please know that I've forgot her birthday more times than I can count on both hands and can never come up with a likable Christmas present (for her-I don't know what happens, I like everything I get her) ((even the 3 strand pearl necklace made popular by first lady Barbara Bush)) (((What was I thinking?))) So here it is to this point. All the fabric is cut and about 2/3's of the center is sewn.

I hate laying things out on the floor. Most of the time I have a design wall, constructed of Thermore or any flat batting. You take 4 yards of the batting, cut it in half and sew up the seam for the middle. I then use push pins and hold it to the wall in my sewing room. I took the last one down, because it had collected a lot of threads. This is used in a quilt. It's okay if it has a lot of thread on it, it's what fabric is made of and so my last quilt was embellished on the inside.

I've made the pattern a little more complicated and am making it scrappy instead of using one fabric for the sashing. I had very good intentions of using what I had. And, since Moda is one of the best for continuing a collection of fabric, by making it coordinate with another one, I was able to combine 2 different fabric lines to make this quilt. I first fell in love with the blue in the Folklorique line and then I think the Three Sisters is the other line of fabric I coordinated with. I think it works pretty well. What to do for the border is my next question. Any suggestions? Don't make it too difficult, I've got to finish today or tomorrow, as we are leaving for Tulsa, Oklahoma on December 22 so it needs to be quilted by then. I figure I can sew the binding down on the road to family, while blissfully listening to headphones, conversation in the car and dreaming of the next quilt to be made.

Happy Quilting!

Finsihing, finishing, finishing,,,smile

All my obligations outside my home are met and done...for now. I've got a good month to get back to basics and begin finishing all my UFO's, WISPs and any other initials representing best intentions from days long past. Woohoo!!

In the middle of my play time, I need to wrap a few packages. No, there will be no pictures of said packages, as I think one of my DD's reads this from her college home away from home. To this day, I think they still peak at the presents before opening, so I'll hide them just in case.


Happy Quilting!