Playing With The Turtle

I have been working on the turtle.  I am layering the background with different fabrics.  Instead of sewing them together I am just quilting them.

I add extra batting underneath the turtle shell.  I plan to quilt the edges heavy, and the middle light.  I hope it will have a rounded effect.

Back to Quilting

Here is picture of some of my practice stitching from a class at MQS.  

 I thought it would be helpful to stitch out some of what I learned and saw at MQS so I load more of the dark solid and started playing.

I learned:

I love the glide thread and the magnetic bobbins – no tension problems

I love the superior upper thread tension gauge

I seem to be impatient with rulers and I need to slow down and be more precise

I might have ADD - I didn’t cover half of what I meant to

I might be one who needs to focus on learning one design at a time

5th Grade Graduation

My granddaughter, Danielle, graduated on Monday. 

Picture of Danielle with her Grandmother,  Mother, and her sisters.

Pictures of TAQG auction quilt

I returned home from MQS in Overland Park, KS at 11 pm on Saturday May 15th. I needed to quilt the little quilt for the TAQG auction so I could turn it in Tues night at guild.


I was fired up and inspired from all the beautiful quilting I had seen, but also a little intimidated. I decided that since this was someone else’s quilt and it needed to be finished quickly that I would stay with some tried and true work and just get it done. I tried a couple arches and circles but I ended up having to do the CC in the star points freehand because I didn’t want to keep ripping out stitches since the points were so narrow.

I used Glide in a cream with the magnetic bobbins for the first time and loved the perfect tension. The rose colored thread is permacore.  It is a cute little quilt, 28 inches square.

Don't Iron Stencils

I purchased stencils at MQS. The lady who sold them said I could iron them on a wool setting and flatten them if they needed it. I tried it. Good thing my iron has a Teflon bottom, and this stencil is long enough that there is a big portion still useable.


Maybe she meant a different setting than wool. Maybe my iron gets hotter than hers, or maybe I misunderstood……

Raffle Quilt

Hobbs wool batting, So Fine and Permacore threads. I helped make and design the quilt with my bee (6 members). We used Quiltsmart for the lonestar and the applique is adapted from a Piece of Cake book. I didn't do any of the applique, but I did all the quilting.

I learned a lot with this quilt and enjoyed working on it, but I was nervous also.  I worked on it steady for a month. 

Machine Quilter’s Showcase 2011

I took 7 classes at MQS:

         

          Filling in the Fillers                                       DeLoa Jones

          Lions and Tigers and Templates, Oh My!     Kim Brunner

          Frameworks                                                Diana Phillips

          It’s More Than ‘Just” Edge to Edge             Kim Brunner

          Glorious Gridwork and Fillers                      Gina Perkes

          Sampler Solutions                                       Deloa Jones

          Border Designs in Half the Time                  Dawn Cavanaugh

I also won the door prize at 3 of the 7.  How lucky is that?  Especially since not every class had a door prize?  I won the book “Frameworks” in Diana Phillips’ class, a ruler in DeLoa Jones’ Sampler class and the stitch out that Gina Perkes worked on in her Gridwork class.

I enjoyed every class and always learn something.  It is also true that I learn from every quilt I work on.  I plan to make a stitch out of some of the patterns and techniques to help me retain all the ideas.

I had an intuition that I would need two beds in my hotel room.  There was one possible roommate, who decided she couldn’t make the trip, then Leslie posted on APQS Forums that her travel partner had to cancel and she was looking for a roommate.  That worked out well and I attended the Awards Ceremony and the Audacious Auction with her and compared notes on classes and vendors in the evenings.

It was a great 4 day trip and I look forward to next year.  I was awed and inspired by the beautiful quilts, and enjoyed rubbing shoulders with the quilters. 

Brandon's Story

My grandson, Brandon, and I have been working on another epic story.  It has been going on for
3 weeks and we talk on the phone almost every day for 30 - 40 mins.  He is doing most of the
work, I just have to supply some dialog every few mins.

In a nutshell we have travelled into the future.  I accidently started a war
when I woke the god of all elements.  4 giants are trying to kill me on a
beach.  A great white shark arrives with a saddle on to help me escape.  I get
injured and pass out.  I wake in "Imaginary Friends Land" where anything you
wish for will happen immediately. 

However there are 5 rules in IFL land.  I can't remember the last 3 because the
first 2 had me (silently) laughing.
   
    No romance
    You can't wish for the war to end


Sound like an 11 yr old boy?