Bulls Eye Quilt Slide Show

This is a few years old, but I was excited to see all the quilts in one slide show. A few people in my guild mentioned starting a bulls eye quilt and they will love this. -------------------------- Type-u-later, Tea in MO http://www.teaquilts.com

Mirage Quilt

I was busy over the weekend. I'm working behind the scenes on the quilt guild's show at the end of September. Still, and in order to keep my sanity (however overrated that is), I keep pushing forth at the sewing machine. I finished this recycled bargello style quilt that I will donate to charity. It was already pieced with the green border on it. I had it hanging in an oval hand quilting frame for years. I took it down about 2 years ago, deciding to make it into a quilt instead of trashing it. I added the pieced and final borders. Now, it is a nice lap quilt. For those don't know, my goal is to make at least one quilt for everyone in my family and some of my "special friends." I counted this weekend and I need 17 more. I started with over 100. I'm working on 6 quilts that will go to the same family that I hope to have done by year end. I find when you give one child a quilt in the household, you will be nagged constantly until they all get a quilt. This is my nephew's family who has 3 sons (1 set of twins) and 2 daughters. Of course I have go make one for my nephew as well. The Floral Gardens quilt (see previous post) will go to one daughter and I just basted the Pinwheels quilt for one of the twins. One quilt needs 2 borders added. And I have 3 more with back already made waiting to be quilted. I'm so happy about the declining number of quilts needed for family/friends. I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel...

-------------------------- Type-u-later, Tea in MO http://www.teaquilts.com

Floral Garden

This is definitely one quilt where the photo is really, really bad. The quilt is actually quite pretty but this picture say something different. This is a quilt using all floral or leafy fabrics for my great niece.

I've been working on another 5 quilt tops for family members. I added borders to 3 of them and have 1 more to go. The other one has borders already. I went to JoAnns today and purchased 8 yards of 90" muslin for the back. I'm tired of sewing quilt backs! So, if these quilts are to be done by year end, I took the easy and quickest route. In addition, I took an old bargello top that I had hanging in a quilt hoop on the wall down and made it into a a larger top by adding 2 borders. I have that basted for quilting and will donate it to charity.

Also, I made one Halloween treat bag. I'll try to make a couple more before posting a picture.

-------------------------- Type-u-later, Tea in MO http://www.teaquilts.com

Chocolateberries

pI have another finish for the month! I started collecting pink and chocolate fabrics in 2006. I didn't have any idea what to do with them until I saw this quilt at a retreat in 2007. I immediately pieced the top and then it sat for 2 years waiting to be quilted. This is the last of the quilts I quilted on my friend's long arm. (SORRY, this picture is determined to enter the blog sideways. I tried numerous times and in different pic sizes.)

-------------------------- Type-u-later, Tea in MO http://www.teaquilts.com

Guild Gift

I just had to give this one its own post. Various members of Flower Valley Quilt Guild made this quilt top as a thank you gift for being President the past 2 years. “Wow!”, that was my first thought. The blocks are 12" finished sawtooth star album style blocks and there are over 50 blocks. This baby is HUGE. They know of my love for scrap quilts. Even though the picture doesn't show it, the background fabrics are scrappy too. I was bewildered and so surprised. Sarah, on the left, will provide the backing and batting and will quilt on her Tin Lizzie. So, I don't even have to add it to my UFO list! This was just so great and I am beside myself. Special thank you to Vickie Unger and Lenore Schuff for organizing and sewing the blocks together into the top. Vickie and Lenore were vice presidents during my tenure. I really, really appreciate your thoughtfulness and time to organize this much appreciated gift. -------------------------- Type-u-later, Tea in MO http://www.teaquilts.com

Completed Reconciliation and Crazy Pumpkin

I felt a little guilty about starting the fall projects that I sat my tush down and hand sewed the binding on the quilt yesterday. I had guild meeting and showed the quilt, receiving a lot of oohs and aahs. This quilt was started in 2006 as a chain on/off of those extra triangles we throw away when making flying geese units using the old method with rectangles and squares, from making snowball, and from bow tie blocks. I had to cut a few of the 4" half square triangles but that was it. The quilt has 1,680 half square triangles for a total of 3,360 pieces. This will be a great addition to my scrap quilt lecture. I got the Crazy Pumpkin quilt finished yesterday too. I show it at guild as well and they were amazed that the embroidery machine even added the stitches! This was way too much fun so if you have an embroidery machine give it a try. -------------------------- Type-u-later, Tea in MO http://www.teaquilts.com

Crazy and I know it

What's so crazy? I have 113 unfinished projects and what do I do? I started not one, but two more. I did make and sew binding on the Reconciliation quilt (see previous post) and am now handing sewing it to the back of the quilt. However, I went to Anita Goodesign and saw this Crazy Pumpkin Quilt design pack and just couldn't resist. I have all the blocks made as of yesterday. So, I need to put them together and decide how to quilt something like this. It's really pretty. For you machine embroiders, they are giving away a crazy quilt design pack after taking a 10 question survey that really fast to maneuver through. The download is immediately afterwards. Enjoy! The other project I started (yesterday) is the Ragamuffin Scarecrow pattern I mention a few posts back. With fall right around the corner, I'm preparing to get my house in seasonal compliance. I've pieced the pumpkin head and have all the fabrics laid out for the shirt and top of the overalls which I'll piece tonight.

If you are working on fall inspired quilts or have some on your blog, post something in this message and I'll mosey on over.

-------------------------- Type-u-later, Tea in MO http://www.teaquilts.com

Block Swap Round Up

've been having a wonderful time! I had a week of vacation from the job but stayed at home; just needed a break from the office. I'll start with the ugly part. I spent a day and a half cleaning the bedroom and going through all my printed from the Internet patterns, local quilt shops BOMs, and embroidery files instructions - you know all the stuff I just couldn't live without. I threw out a lot of paper and organized what I kept. Then came the boring part. I made backs for 23 quilt tops. Some were made with quilt backings and others were pieced from scraps left over from previous quilt backs. So far, I have 6 more quilt tops that need backs made. I'm sure that will change when I go through my WIPs. This was a two-day job that just needed doing. The best part of the week was that I used my friend's long arm machine to quilt three quilts. I quilted Chocolate Berries (sorry, no photo yet) and Reconciliation which now needs the binding added. Here is a photo of part of the Reconciliation quilt with my daughter standing on a portion of it...oops! I laid it out so I could determine the binding fabric. This quilt is asking for blue binding so I'll start looking through the stash after I cook dinner. I added the binding to this one, Block Swap Round Up, after quilting it on my friend's long arm. I taught a sampler class and used this setting. Isn't it great!

Oh, and the other amazing part of my week was purchasing a new laptop. This one is only from my quilting/embroidery information - not work related and don't have to share computer time with my husband. I'm having fun loading all my software. So far I've only found 2 programs that don't like Vista. I can work around both of them but for one program it's not worth the headache. It'll take me a few more weeks to get it in top shape.

I had a wonderful time off work and am dreading the work that has piled up in my absence. I did check my e-mail during last week to reduce the amount I'd have to sort through on Monday. However, I'm happy I have a job to return to as my husband is still laid off and it's difficult to find employment with so many people in the workforce.

-------------------------- Type-u-later, Tea in MO http://www.teaquilts.com

Birthday Banner

Yes, I have something for August already. Kathleen of katiedo.com sent me a wonderful birthday surprise. When I opened the zip file, I had three different designs that could be used for birthdays (two of them can be used for any occasion). I brainstormed how to use them and came up with the birthday banner. The patch with my name on it can be exchanged out for other family members, friends, or co-workers birthdays. I changed the colors to make it a unisex banner. I hope you like it. And Kathleen thanks for such a wonderful gift. Now I'll continue working on making quilt backs for tops in my "waiting to be quilted" pile. I've made 11 of 26 on Sunday. It is a very, very boring job. -------------------------- Type-u-later, Tea in MO http://www.teaquilts.com