Pointless Quilter

Last year when I took my dad to Arizona, we had some trouble with Southwest Airlines (didn't have a wheelchair for my dad when we got off the plane after many promises).  Anyway, we each got a $150 coupon to use in the next year so I decided to go visit my younger sister Beverly in Washington.  We had a fun filled few days.  Here are some of the fun things we did. Chihuly Garden & Glass Museum (which is located near the space needle). These were just a few of my favorite pieces.  So amazing what he did with glass blowing.  This is where we went the first day I got there.  We went to the Museum, we walked to Pikes Place and had dinner and then went home. The next morning we got up and drove north to the Mount Vernon area where we were able to see the tulip farms.  Another inspirational day of color and beauty. After that we went to my nephews college campus and he gave me a tour.  I was able to get a picture with ...

Yep my sewing machine is at the shop.  And it looks like it will be there for a while.  I have two quilts pinned and ready to quilt and two tops that are ready to pin, and blocks finished for other projects.  Just so sad.  I wore out my presser foot lifter.  The gears are stripped.  I've had the machine for about 4 years and I use my machine a lot.  It's a Bernina 750.  I love that machine and I hope it comes back like she was.  Luckily I have my old 150 which is great to piece with but it's so small I really can't quilt with it and I definitely can't use the ruler foot and do any ruler work.  Luckily the guy fixing my machine said he has a spare 590 that I can use since he won't have mine fixed for a few (5 to 6) weeks but not because he can't but he will be having surgery next week and won't be able to work until then.  But even so, I've been gone a ton the last few weeks because of work, ( a two day quick trip to Fort Worth...

This was the The Quilt Show's Block of the Month for 2017.  It was designed by Sue Garman who was one of my favorite quilters of all times  Our guild was fortunate enough to have her as a speaker and teacher before she passed away.  (Haven't finished the quilt from that class yet-but it's on my lit to finish this year too.)   This quilt is pretty much all paper pieced.  And because I spend so much time piecing it I felt the quilting deserved as much time.  Here are some close ups.  I got to use my machine quilting rulers a lot on this quilt for the curved cross hatching.  Got better the more I did it.  Used some stencil work for the big setting triangles in the center and the rest I used the rulers to draw the spine of the feathers but the rest was done free motion.  And a lot of  'in the ditch' quilting. I didn't buy the kit from The Quilt Show but was able to find most of the fabrics that they used.  I just l...

My how time flies.   I can’t believe it’s been more than a month since I posted.   I have not been idle though.   I finished making and quilting the guild’s mystery quilt.   I’ve already given out 4 clues and I think they will have either 2 or 3 more left to do.   They should have all the components of the blocks by the end of this month.   Here’s a sneak peak of the quilts. I’d love to show you a picture of both quilts, but I can’t yet – that would ruin the mystery.   I made two since the guild members like to have a small and larger option.   My small one I made with Christmas colors and the large one I made with Halloween/fall colors.   However, there is really nothing Haloween-ish about the fabrics I used on the top except for the colors.   I did use Halloween fabric for the back though.   I also started machine quilting the Quilt Show’s Block of the Month from last year.   Here’s a sneak peak of the center. ...

I thought I had posted these already but I guess that was just on Facebook.  Anyway, I finished my On Ringo Lake quilt.  I just did an all over meander to quilt it.  I didn't spend a lot of time custom quilting it as it was a pretty busy pieced quilt.  So here it is in all it's glory. I'm really happy with this quilt.  I love the colors.  And remember on my retreat over the new years?  And I played with my friends 10 needle embroidery machine.  Well I used those three fall blocks and made this little runner.  When I got home from her house and looked at my fall fabrics I was so happy to see this fabric - it goes perfect with the designs.  I also took a guild class where we made these Hawaiian bags.  They are huge and will hold a few large quilts - perfect for taking show and tell to guild and a great bag for quilt show shopping.  I have one already but the handles were wearing out since I've used it for years. ...

I follow a blog called Quilt By Faith  and her mantra is 'goals are good'.   They are sometimes and I'm hoping this year it will be true for me.  As I mentioned in my last post, my guilds challenge this year is to finish at least 10 quilts that we put on a list of quilts that have been started.  I thought I filled out all 10 but I didn't.  I only had 7 on the list and I've already finished 2.  But that doesn't mean I won't put more here.  Here are the two I've finished from that list - the Christmas ornaments as seen here .  And I also had my friendship group challenge on the list and that was finished and shown... wait - I never posted our Christmas party with all the quilts we did.  That will have to be another post but take my word for it.  I finished the challenge quilt - the challenge was 'travel'.  So the other's on the guild list are some of the same from last year - the Circle of Illusion,  Orca Bay a...

These are all the projects that I finished this past year. Thank goodness for the blog - it's helped me keep track of what I do. I didn't think I finished a lot this year but when you add in all the boutique items and gifts, I did pretty good.  Mostly at the beginning of the year.  I had a hiccup in my life after summer and that put a halt on too much quilting.  Then I changed my mind and tried to get busy creating. I did finish 9 of the 15 projects I had on my 2017 Goal list.  I finished the En Provence Quilt, made the Halloween Embroidery quilt, finished the guild mystery quilt, the quilt for my great niece and for my nephew and his wife, finished my English Paper Pieced tumbling block quilt, finished the Pineapple quilt, the Fat Quarter Shop 2016/17 Designer mystery, and the Christmas ornaments. Now that I got this done, I can work on the quilts I want to finish this year.  Our guild has a challenge to finish up started quilts.  We had to ...

For New Years I went to a friends for 3 full days to sew--and sew I did.  I caught up with all the clues on the Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt up to the final one the first day I got there.  And then after she announced the final clue, I spent the full day working on the top. Here's my quilt in all it's glory. We had fun trying to figure out the layout before the final clue.  Here's one of our ideas.  We were so sure when we did the math--we knew it had to be on point.  But like in all things, there is always more than one way to do something.  The first one we figured the sashing pieces would be used in the border. This was another idea - but when we did the math we figured we didn't have enough of the sashing pieces.  As it turns out, we really like Bonnie's layout so it is all good.  I followed Bonnie's colors.  And I love it.  But I also love my friends color choices.  It's a totally different quilt.  Here...

Another Christmas has come and gone and overall it was a wonderful holiday.  First though, my siblings and I always exchange handmade ornaments each year.  This year I made these for everyone. These were actually started last January 1st.  Finished them sometime before December of this year.  These are the ornaments I received. My brother's wonderful scroll saw work. My younger sisters beautiful painting. My older sister and her crafty lettering and aging. Here are a few other projects that I worked on as gifts. A tote bag I made for my younger sister, she is an occupational therapist who specializes in hands. And for my teenage niece, these bags.   On the 23rd of December, my stepdaughter's family and my husband's family all came to my dad's house to celebrate our Christmas.  Since they moved out of state we will take any time we can to visit with the grandkids.  Meeting at my dad's house is centrally located an...