The horse quilt is out of the bag

I've been holding out showing the pictures of my latest quilt. Chelsea is my daughter that is living in Albuquerque. We live in Kentucky and I thought she needed a horse quilt to remind her of her roots.

So I've made 2 quilts. I still have some work to do on her Japanese fabric horses, but, it's almost complete.

We were ichatting and I forgot to remove it from the wall and she saw it! Ah well, hope she likes it.

She can pick the one she likes.

Thread

I cleaned my thread drawer. You know how they get, a jumbled mess sometimes. I've invested in a lingerie chest. It has very shallow drawers which is ideal for laying thread out.

As you can see, I like the Metrosene thread. It's a European brand. I guess I should say my machine likes this type of thread. If I use the Coats and Clark brand which is a variety of percentages wrapped around other threads, it seems to shred in my tension and messes up my stitches so I avoid that brand.

I think my favorite brand it Aurifil. It is a lot of value for the thread you get. It usually comes in a 1500 yard spool, which is about 2 to 3 times larger than other spools of thread. I also like using grey thread. It's a perfect blender for all types of colors.

I painted on the border

This quilt now has many different techniques in it. I've decided to paint the leaves on the border. Using fabric paints and archive quality pens. I've added leaves and vines to help balance the quilt.

The outside border is machine quilted with the crosshatch design. Now all I need to do is put the binding on.

Prom Project was a huge success

Another year down for Prom Project. I believe there were around 250 dresses, shoes, jewelry and all things for the prom distributed at not cost that day.

This is the view from my sewing machine. I like to call it PASH (Prom Alteration Sewing Hospitals) alterations. Similar to the MASH hospitals of the wars, we set up and do some pretty fast, yet nice alterations. Of course there are some things we just could not do, even with our conference of expert seamstresses. The time just was not there.

Not unlike a Tsunami the girls came at us, wave upon wave. Sometimes we were 3 deep with needs that ranged from minor hook and eye additions to hemming on layers of lining, crinoline and silk.

What a great day and wonderful time of volunteering. The girls and mothers smiles and pride of having a dress that is custom fit was our reward.

I'm hard on my sewing machines

I sew fast. It's usually pedal to the metal all the time. And so now I've two machines in the shop for repairs at Austin's Sewing Center in Louisville, Kentucky. Teresa and Ed Packer are the new owners and they are very nice people. I once took my machine in to them and they could have told me that I needed a 200.00 repair and I would have been snookered. Instead, Ed took one look at my Pfaff and told me all I needed was 2 AA batteries which he gave me and installed on the spot. These are honest repair people, in my opinion and if you need work done on your machine you might want to check them out.

Now, since my Brother 1500 sewing machine, which is my quilting machine, is in the shop, I'm going back to my machine quilting roots. This quilt is not very big, maybe 4 feet by 4 feet and I can easily handle it on my Pfaff 7540 with my clear table for easier quilting and sewing.

I first hand quilted the Quiet Village center houses with invisible Gutterman thread. The quilt has lots of embroidery on it and I like having that stand out as opposed to seeing the quilting stitches.

Next I did stippling on the machine around the fabric design and cathedral window blocks.

On the outside border, I think I'm going to do crosshatching to emphasize the scrolling vines.

Hand Quilting and Hockey!!!

So the winter olympics wrapped up today with a fabulous game USA against Canada for the Gold. Silver is nothing to sneeze at but the intensity is always so much more when it comes to a team winning the gold. I think that if any team had to beat us, it should have been Canada hockey is a religion to them.

The awesome Sidney Crosby won the day with the sudden death score after America's Ryan Miller who should have won MVP if there was one for the Olympics. USA tied the game after it looked like it was all over. It was a great game and you know I'm a soccer fan, Premier League but this hockey could make me want to add another time in my day to do hand work...smile

A quilter rarely just sits and watching TV is a perfect time to get some applique work done. These petals and leaves are for my pink and brown quilt. This is another zone of quilting in my house hand work is perfect for TV time.

Prom Project-Know anyone that needs a free prom dress?

So this is the prom dress my youngest wore to prom 3 years ago and it's still in great shape. We will be donating it to the Prom Project at our church. It's another one of those dresses you wear once.

If you know anyone in the Louisville, Kentucky area that needs dress, purse jewelry and shoes for the prom, contact our church at www.necchurch.org for more information.