Happy Halloween

I have had a little wall hanging panel on hand for some time and decided that since Halloween is Sat. that the time had arrived to get it done. I had a lot of fun doing it and tried out some new metalic thread (spiderwebs) and a new binding technique with piping. No better place to try out something new than on my own quilt. Right? Right!




My Husband says he likes the back best. That's where the stitching really shows up!

Happy Halloween!
This week I decided to take a break and quilt a little wall quilt for my house. It was really a lot of fun and let me play a little with metalic threads (spiderwebs) and a special binding technique that I learned using piping. It was a bit of a challenge, but what better place to try something out than on my own.



My husband says he likes the back the best!


I also finished the canning this week and it is wonderful to see the applesauce and grape juice on the shelves.

Regrets!

Thinking about what to post on the blog next, I decided that quilts for the grandkids has not been covered fully. Early on I helped a granddaughter quilt her own quilt. She came to visit for a month in the summer, and we sure had fun. She knew before she came that she wanted to make a quilt, so she had already picked a pattern and material with her mother. We went to work right away picking a back to match all the fabrics and then on to the cutting out and the sewing. It was a work in patience for both of us. She had to slow down and learn that accuracy was important. We had a lot of fun working together, laughing together and enjoying a feeling of success together when she won a ribbon as a youth quilter in the state quilt quilt show.I regret that I didn't taken more pictures of the process, and especially a picture of Megan with her quilt. Alas, hind sight is always better than fore sight, and the only picture I have is one with her mom and me beside HER quilt. Darn!

A Busy Time of Year

What a busy time of year. Time to get the canning finished up and the garden put to bed. Everything seems to cut into my time to quilt and blog. Oh well, that's life I guess.





I did get this customer quilt finished. It was for a friend and she was really excited because it was her first quilt. Two days after she picked it up it was bound and on the bed. Good for her! There is nothing quite like the thrill of seeing your first quilt actually on the bed!

Birthdays are FUN!

Today is my granddaughter's birthday celebration! Birthday's can be great, especially when you are young. Her Mama made her a quilt and I just finished quilting it. It is pretty upbeat and has lots of fun color combinations. She should like it as she picked out all the colors months ago from her set of colored pencils. (I thought that was a pretty clever idea!) Here it is all ready for the binding.


I can never resist laying the quilt out on the bed to see what it looks like. This will go on a double bed, so it is pretty much bedspread size. There are pillow cases to match, but they are not finished yet. Mama had to work this morning.



Sometimes it looks fun from the back too. We didn't want to make it too "flowery", just a little. She is a girl after all!

What a fun week!

Wow! What a week. We had Quilt Fest here in Utah and I took a lot of classes that really worked my brain. I decided to take some piecing classes and they were a real challenge. It did learn a lot, including an increased appreciation of the women who piece all those beautiful quilt tops that I quilt.

I did enter the two quilts that I had in the fair and won a judges award on Taylor's Quilt. It was a real thrill and totally unexpected! Amber was super excited as she was actually at the quilt show and was the first one to see that we had a ribbon. What a fun day!!

Who's Studio???

I just finished a quilt that I have been looking forward to doing for some time. Last year I designed some quilt blocks to donate to the state quilt quild for the Breast Cancer Foundation. At the first of the year they called and asked if I would like to design a quilt with these blocks in it to donate to be raffled this year to raise funds for the same foundation. I said sure, and then wondered where my mind was. I have never done anything like that before and didn't really know where to start.

When in doubt - SHOUT! So I called my daughter Amber. She has a knack for changing quilt patterns around until they suit her, so I figured that was only one step away from designing a whole quilt. Right? Anyway, she accepted the challenge and the first thing you know we were out shopping for material to complete the project.By that time I had quilts to do for others, so I put off getting my charity quilt started until the co-ordinator called the last of August and asked if I had it finished yet. I didn't have the heart to tell her that it wasn't even started yet, so just asked when she needed it and assured her it would be ready in time.Well, at that point things kicked into high gear and as soon as I was finished with canning the peaches, I sat down to quilt in earnest.Thank goodness for e-mail. Over the next couple of weeks the e-mail and the phone kept Amber and I connected several times a day discussing various aspects of the quilt and finishing the details, etc. All in all we had a lot of fun doing it and both of us were pleased with the results!

It always makes you feel so good when a project comes together. I hope someone wins it who really loves it. My husband just laughed at me when I said I was going to buy tickets for it. He thinks its really something to make the quilt and then buy it back. Oh, well! The really funny thing is - I think Amber is going to buy some tickets too! It would be so fun to see it hanging in my quilt studio (or hers).