What I've been doing; 2 Finishes, Give Away

I've been missing in action. My life kind of spun out of control.  What have I been doing?  The very brief version:  In September we had our guild's quilt show, in October I went to NYC and in November I helped coordinate a major line dance party.  I wasn't able to work on anymore Quiltmaker's 100 blocks so I didn't complete the goal to get them all done in a year.  I'll make another post about my NY trip, but here are two finishes.

I did a major happy dance when I completed my dear Jane quilt I call Scrappy Jane.  Hey, that officially makes me a Janiac! The fabrics are only used once per block or triangle; no repeating once the unit was completed.  I enjoyed the process of making the blocks and triangles, having fun with the challenging piecing.  What I did not like was binding the darn thing!  I'm glad it's done and I'm so happy that it does have scallops.  My next scallop quilt will most definitely be smaller. I started out hand quiting, then took it to a local church group to do some hand quilting; it still needs more quilting in the triangles but for now, I'm putting it aside.  Oh yeah, it won 2nd place in the quilt show in Bed Size Quilts category.

Here is another finish, cathedral stars, but I named mine Crystal Stars.  I didn't think I'd ever get through making all the units. Another one I'm glad to get off my to do list.

I have some other quilts I've completed but don't have photos of yet.  Let's see, two baby quilts, a quilt I made for a family member and at two more. So, don't go away too long as I promise to be back soon with more eye candy.

I noticed that while I was gone that I now have 100 followers.  If you are a follower and leave a message, I'll enter you into a drawing.  I have been cutting my batik quarter yards into strips.  I'm sending  15 batik strips 2.5" wide to the lucky winner.  You have until Sunday at 8:00 p.m. to enter.

Have a great day everybody!

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

Design Wall Monday

I know it's been a while.  I still have a lot of things on my personal schedule with line dancing and providing quilt lectures and workshops.  I'm sorry to report that I haven't had time to work on the 100 blocks in months now. 

I was on the Tim Ezell Show on KTVI as a representative of my line dancing group's work with the Gateway Classic. We taught Tim how to do the Wobble Dance.

Here is my actual design wall with 2 of my 3 current projects.

And this is my other current project.  I'm also preparing for our guild's quilt show the end of the month so the DJ quilt must get the dreaded scalloped border.  It's been sitting for many, many months, almost a year with no work.  The show is definitely my motivation.  By the way, I hate scallop borders!  Maybe because the quilt it so big for my first scalloped border project.  Definitely because I don't really know if I'm doing it right.  I'm using a combination of instructions provided from various sources.  I wish I could have done the faced border but was afraid it would have been very difficult to line up the scallops directly around the triangles.  I have almost 2 borders completed.  I'll post a full photo when it's finished.

Here are the results from one workshop I gave; many different ways to make scrappy stars.

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Type-u-later,

http://www.teaquilts.com

Works In Progress Update

Well, its been a few weeks since I've written. I've been very busy with a lot of things with family as well as quilting. My husband has been laid off from his machinist job going on three months. The stimulus package helped us to get medical insurance at a reasonable rate, so that's a plus. It's very stressful and I've been having a difficult time sleeping lately. I'm being optimistic in hoping that the stimulus package will eventually trickle down where my husband will be called back to work.

On to more fun stuff...I've been very busy with quilt meetings as well as working on my projects. I wanted you to know that my Dear Jane quilt top is basted and I am doing the hand quilting. I searched high and low but could not find a quilter or group that could have it ready by September for my guild's quilt show. I'm no where near an obsessive compulsive quilter, so the quilting will not be pretty. However, it will be done and I can say I did it myself! I'll keep you posted as I progress. I am machine quilting the Trip Around The World Quilt. I'll post a photo when it's done. I'm basically quilting this one in the ditch but using one of the decorative stitches. Also, I have the Jitter Buzz quilt with backing made.

I'm in the process of reorganizing my machine embroidery designs and I'm falling in love all over again. I just can't stop. I made a Freedom Tote Bag using designs from BFC Creations, design number 737. I had so much fun and I tried her technique for adding the joining strips. I love the accent strips, just could not get it to be perfect though. By the time it came to sewing the bag to the lining, I converted back to traditional bag making techniques. To get the accent at the top, I folded my lining over at the top. I LOVE my bag! By the way, I made the medium size.

Well, I'm on a roll so I embroidered the Window of USA. This one is also a BFC Creations number 605. This one is really neat in that it's made in what are called tiles (12 each 4" embroideries) that are sewn together to make a panel. There are a few ways to put them together. I chose to satin stitch my panels as I wanted the stitching to look like grout. I now have to figure out if I want to frame it or quilt using traditional methods.

I have a baby shower next week and decided to make Baby Bibs. This one is a dog. The design packet also has elephant, cat, giraffe, bunny, snake, and another one or two that I can't remember at the moment. If you really want to know who this design is by, let me know and I'll look it up. It's 10:00 p.m. and since I've been looking through so many designs, I can't remember who the designer is. Anyway...I decided that I'd only make this one instead of 2 more. Why? It took me 3-1/2 hours to make this "puppy" and I really don't think the mother will want to use it. I've decided to give it to the baby along with more traditional style baby bibs.

I'm sure I could find more to add that I'm blocking at the moment, but as I said earlier, I haven't been sleeping well and I'm exhausted. I hope when I look at this post tomorrow that I don't think it's horrible. Take care and enjoy your quilt making...

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

Just so so...

I was productive this week, just not exactly on track the entire time. I only pieced the triangle for my Dear Jane quilt. I did trace the last kite but have not appliqued or stitched the embroidery. I just couldn't do it... I did finish the Magic Trip Around the World quilt top. I even made backing and have it pin basted so it's ready for quilting. Just couldn't bring myself to fight with it under my sewing machine arm this weekend. In addition, I also added border and made backing for Jitter Buzz top. I was really proud of myself that I got this much done. I also pieced and cut fabrics for my Rising Stars quilt top. I decided upon a setting which changed the number of blocks I planned to make. I'll try to add photos in a day or so. Since I've been quilting a lot of quilts lately, I decided to save my sanity and purchased some quilt backing fabrics. I purchase enough for 3 quilts from a local quilt shop and then went online and purchase enough for 3-4 quilts. I just need a break, especially since I have about 30+ quilt tops that need backings. I even pulled out the left over fabrics from previous backs that I plan to piece together (when I feel like it :0). I think I'm in a slump right now... -------------------------- Type-u-later, Tea in MO http://www.teaquilts.com

WIP Update

I worked on my WIPs a lot this past week.

I completed the Batik Quilt which I renamed Batik Rainbow.

First I quilted the Turning Twenty Again quilt. I started this quilt January 1, 2006. Then I went to add binding and don't know where that "special" place is that I would be sure to remember when the time was right. I didn't search too much as I have lots of projects to work on. If I don't find it in the next month, I'll just purchase binding fabric. Most of the fabrics are from Moda Chocolate line.

My progress on the Dear Jane quilt is awesome! I only have one more triangle and one more kite on the bottom border. The remaining three borders are on the quilt. I just needed a break so I started working on a few other projects to save my sanity. I'm still hyperventilating about all that hand quilting in my future.

I had 16 floral blocks that were waiting to be made into a quilt top. I sewed those and have decided that the quilt doesn't need a border as it is 80" square. I even pieced the back so I have another top ready for machine quilting. This top will make a cute Floral Garden quilt. I also worked on the Wonky Hearts. I had only made one block and had pulled various red, pink, and purple fabrics with and without heart/love theme. Then the project just sat in a corner. I needed 8 more blocks to make a quilt about 40" square. I made those and then completed the quilt top. Today I will baste it for quilting.

Splat Attic Windows got basted Friday evening and I quilted about one sixth of it yesterday. I also have an Underground Railroad Quilt Code that needs a backing. I'm putting various historical information on the back of the quilt. I had a draft on my flash that crashed so I spent a few hours retyping the information. I'm now glad that I didn't finished this project earlier since Barack Obama and Joe Biden are now President and Vice-President respectively. I've decided to add this accomplishment to my history as well. So the draft is back in electronic form. I have to proof it. After corrections, I'll print the pages on fabric sheets. My quilting housekeeping consisted of washing a few loads of home dec fabric samples. I'm going to make some simple quilts with these for various family members. My guild had a feature called "First Thursday". A member volunteers to have an open house of about 3 hours and usually provided snacks. I attended one last Thursday and had a great time. The entire family hosted (usually husbands and children disappear) and was so welcoming and interested in us as well as sharing their crafts with us. The husband did wood work and the daughter' creates scrapbooks. The member we visited leans more toward art quilting with various 3-d embellishments. It was really neat to see her quilts displayed as well as her very large quilt studio. The quilts not displayed were stored on pants hangers. I encouraged her to bring a few of those to future meetings to share with the membership. I had a great time! My other out-of-home quilt excursions consisted of quilting with two friends on Saturday, working on our Dear Jane quilts. On Sunday I went to a sale at a local quilt shop. Found two bolts for $2 per yard; will make excellent backs or if I change my mind would also look good on the front. I do hope you come back next week to see what I accomplish this week. I hope you are working through your pile of WIPs as well. Type-u-later, Tea in MO http://www.teaquilts.com/

Last Day of January - Progress for the Month

I'm a little frustrated as a flash drive I have most of my data files on has crashed. I thought I'd backed it up to my computer, but no such luck. The backup only made the file folders, no files. I'm not a happy camper at the moment. I'm in the process of retyping files that I just cannot do without and will have to recreate class handouts as the need arise. If anyone know of a process I can get my files off the flash would be greatly appreciated.

I have quilted Christmas Cookies with Janiacs this week for the UFO challenge. I just quilted in the ditch as I didn't want to mess it up with machine quilting. I'm having a hard time deciding quilting for the DJ blocks. I usually do an all-over style quilting and this just doesn't seem to work with this quilt top.Other projects:

Dear Jane - I need 9 more triangles and 1 kite to complete the quilt. The top, left, and right borders are sewn onto the quilt top. I thought the bottom row would be easy when I was scanning the book as I worked on the blocks, but I was wrong! Only the first triangle is easy. I'm plugging away, finishing 4 triangles and 1 kite today. Go to my DJ page on my website to see actual block chart.
Next UFO project is Batik Quilt I started a few years ago. Pieced the top right away and then let it sit for a long while. I quilted it last week but don't have the binding on yet.
This quilt top, All Together Now, has been waiting for quilting for a while as well. Maybe I'll finish this one too in February.

Christmas Cookies with Janiacs

The block swap I participated in on the official DJ list last year arrived in December. I was way too busy to work on them at that time but they are way too pretty to sit in my UFO projects. So, this week I planned a layout and put this top together. Hope you enjoy it. The second photo shows who made each block. Don't know why photo keeps being imported in sideways and I can figure out through blogspot how to turn it even though my original photo is NOT turned! I'll upload to my website sometime this weekend from the DJ link at http://teaquilts.com . Here are the janiacs that made each block.

My Dear Jane - Scrappy Jane

I'm moving along on my Dear Jane quilt (Scrapy Jane.) Mine quilt is being made from scraps, including the background muslin. The only purchased fabric was the teal batik sashing fabric. I am so excited to be this far after starting this project in 2004. Visit the Dear Jane page on my website to see my work in the block chart: http://teaquilts.com/ Also, I have photos of my left and right side borders. Today I finished the top left corner but don't have a photo available yet.