Polar Express project

November 21st, 2008
I pieced the Polar Express top during 2006 amd quilted part of it last year. When I put it on the bed last year I realized that it was to short. I needed to add about 6-8″ to the top of the quilt/bedspread to make it long enough to cover the entire bed nice and neat. The quilt has been hanging around in the train room unfinished. I knew it wasn’t going to be very much fun adding these extra pieces because I had most of it quilted on the top and would have to take some of the quilting out. Today I decided that I wanted to start working on this project to have enough time to get it completed for the train day (Dec. 13) this year. Here is the quilt on the bed last year. See how you can see the mattress under the pillow sham?

I have added 8″ border fabric on one side. Did not have enough fabric to make an exact match, oh well, what’s a girl to do.

Not much room to work.

The front and back pieces have been added. The back is the blue fabric, but I did not have enough for the additional back piece, so I used some of the back fabric. Now for the………….


Batting. I think all my practice in piecing batting helped me work in this cramped space. I did piece the batting by hand because I didn’t think I would be able to do a very neat job with the sewing machine.


It is now all pin basted and ready to meet George.

Posted in Quilt: Polar Express | 1 Comment »

Free Quilt meet George

November 20th, 2008
Yesterday I intorduced the “Free Quilt” to George. It was love at first sight.

Now I am working on quilting the small inner border. I used my Bernina to go along the edge. Last time I used George for straight stitching it wasn’t that straight. Maybe I should have kept practicing with George in this quilt because with all the wild fabrics you would have never realized if I was stitching straight or not.
But an interesting thing – I quilted on George for the entire top with free motion and my shoulders were relaxed and no strain. After just quilting (with my Berinia) part of the in-the-ditch on the white borders I started to feel the shoulder strain. Have to figure out what I am doing differently and correct it.

Posted in Quilt: Free Quilt | 1 Comment »

Donation Quilt completed

November 18th, 2008

Yesterday I spent most of the day trying to get my desk under control. It has been left to its own demise for way to long, so that will have to be today’s project as well. But, last night I did quilt this donation quilt (36″ square). While looking over a few quilting blogs I saw this tutorial by Vivian and decided to give it a try on this donation quilt.

Not quite exactly like hers, but it was fun anyway. I was telling my husband last night that machine quilting is kind of like handwritting, each person can make the same letters but they all look so different.

I quilted at a really fast speed and the little knots appeared again. Lesson learned – quilting is harder to control at a really fast speed (but it does get don’t alot quicker).

Posted in 2008 Completed project, Donation Project | 2 Comments »

Donation Quilts

November 17th, 2008

This summer when we were redoing my studio I took a bunch of my UFOs and got them ready to make 36″ square quilts to donate to the outreach program at Village Squares Qulters.

On Friday I did pin baste the free quilt. Now to put George to work and have fun quilting it. When I had finished pin basting I decided to pull out one of my donation quilt tops and use the extra batting and pin baste it also. I have made the goal to complete at least one of these donation quilts each month. I am thinking that I will hold on to these donation quilts til after the QQQ Birthday Party because I might use these quilts as center pieces for the tables people will sit at for refreshments. Emily suggested that we bring all my sewing machines to the party to display. So, I think it might look kind of cool to have one of these 36″ quilts in the center of the table with a sewing machine sitting on top of it. If something happens to gets spills on it I’ll just wash it up before donating it.

This quilt is from a lap quilt I start years ago for a house in Colorado. There are two of these donation quilts and I am thinking that I might have to keep one of them for the new lecture that I am developing – A Quinquagenarian’s Quilt Quest – Five Decades of Quilting.

Posted in Donation Project | 3 Comments »

Grandma would be proud!!!!!!!!!

November 17th, 2008

After I finished the back for the “FREE” quilt I was just going to throw away all the strips and squares that I had left. But then……………….I found these four patch blocks that I had made to use in the border but hadn’t used them because I decided to go for a more random apporach. So, I couldn’t through these four patches away. I just kept thinking about Emily and here saving the 1 3/4″ polyester squares last Fall when we were cleaning out my parents home. You can read all about this on her sewing blog. Anyway, I decided that I could make one of my 36″ donation quilts from the four patches. Here is the top. To be true to this project also, I decided that I would only use fabric from the box that I had found in the attic with the scaps from for the Free quilt. I knew there were a few pieces that would be big enough for the back. But…………………

When I went to throw away the leftover strips and squares, I just couldn’t do it. I kept thinking of Emily and how happy she had been when she thought of Grandma and saving her squares. So, I decided that I would piece of few of the strips together. Well, between the stripes and the remaing squares I had enough to piece the entire back. It worked out perfectly, I used pretty much everything in making the back. Yes, I think my mom would be happy. Reminds me of all her color nine-patch quilts that she made.

Posted in Donation Project, Quilt: Free Quilt | No Comments »

Anyone for a FUN batt????????

November 17th, 2008

After pin basting the donation quilt I kind of had the bug to get the few LARGE bags of batting that I have hanging around under control. So, I pulled these bags out and set out to sew the pieces of batting to together in a size that would be good to use for my donation quilts. Here is some of the batting piles on the table while I am figuring out how best the pieces will fit together.

Here I am cutting the two pieces so I can sew butt the sides together and sew them together.

Here is one of the “FUN” battings. (Oh yah, you are NOT going to see all my hard work, oh welll, I am sure my mom is happy looking down on my frugal actions and smiling.)

I was able to piece 13 donation size batts from my scraps of batting. This should keep me going for awhile.

Posted in Donation Project | 1 Comment »

Happy birthday Tom!!!!!

November 16th, 2008
Since we had Stake Conference this Saturday and Sunday and meetings that we needed to attended from 4pm to 9 pm on Saturday (Tom’s birthday) I suggested that we invite Nana, Emil and the boys over for breakfast to celebrate Tom’s birthday.
We had pancakes, waffles, link sausages and a fresh fruit salad (my favorite). Tom wanted to do the cooking so I had to let him since it was his birthday.

We had a fun time. I even put a candle in his pancake and we sang Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Tom – I LOVE you (even if you don’t read my blog).

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Happy Birthday Autumn

November 14th, 2008

Five years ago today I became a GRANDMA!!!!!! This has been the best five years. I love being a Grandma!!!!!!! Here are a few pictures from that wonderful day.


This picture was actully taken the day I was leaving to go home. 🙁

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Crazy!!!!!!!!

November 14th, 2008

Yesterday I went up to the attic and found a box that had alot of the fabrics that I had used in the FREE quilt – so I was all set with my plan for the back. When I was piecing the front I was short four blocks. I thought that I had counted better than that, but I guess not. So I made four more blocks. Well, as I was straighting up my sewing room I found the four blocks. So of course they would also be used in the back.

Late last night I finished the back. I think these fun backs are CRAZY!!!!! — Emily & Jennie — look what you have done to ME!!!!! But I just didn’t know what else to do on this quilt. I guess I could have used bigger pieces of fabric though. Oh well, it’s done now.

I hope I’ll get a chance to pin baste it today and start quilting it. Tommorow is Tom’s birthday so I need to spend some time getting things ready for that.

Posted in Quilt: Free Quilt | 2 Comments »

The Big Dilemma

November 13th, 2008
The top is complete –

Now the big dilemma — what to use for the back. It feels wrong to take fabric from my quilting stash (which I have plenty of). I have been debating about piecing all the strips and squares that are left, but I didn’t want that many seams in the back of this quilt. So I came up with a compromised – I am going to use some of the squares and strips along with fabric from the attic.

Posted in Quilt: Free Quilt | 1 Comment »

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