Two Borders Left to Quilt

I finally got the quilt off my machine. Not that it's done. I still have two borders left, but I wanted to turn the quilt to do these so it had to come off. Which was a good thing, I need to do 3 customer quilts before I get back to this quilt. I'm happy with the way it looks. I see things that could be done better. And there still is a lot of work to be done. The scallops will have some tiny background quilting and then there's circles to put in between the parallel lines. I imagine there's still 4 - 5 hours left in the quilting. After that the quilt will be sprayed with water to remove any marks, squared up and then the binding. Did you notice that the scallops are only on three sides? I decided since this is a common thing for scalloped bed quilts and this will go on our bed eventually, to do it this way. So what do you all think so far? I probably won't post again until the quilt is completely finished.

Too Much Fun

This quilt has become too much fun! I love working on it. Unfortunately I haven't had the time this last week like I thought I would. But every new design I add has been so much fun to stitch down. And so far I'm very pleased with the results. The center circle (not pictured) is a little disappointing so I may try to rework it or just add more quilting lines. I probably need about another week of work before this will be done. Hmm, customer quilts may have to wait! (I have no idea why these pictures turned sideways -- so tip your heads to view!:)

Progress being made

Hopefully I will post some pictures of the whole cloth quilt tomorrow. Our neighbor is borrowing our camera. Besides that, I've really had very little time to work on the quilt. Last week was the Clackamas County Fair and that is a super busy week for me. My main goal this week for the quilt, is to get all the major designs down. Then the quilt will probably have to come off my machine since there are a few customer quilts that must be done soon. Hopefully it will be finished by Labor Day weekend. So far I'm very pleased with the results -- not perfect but a fun project.

Only a little progress

Last week I was gone on vacation. Our family spent most of the week in Sunriver, Oregon. It was so great to all be there together. One morning I was coloring with my granddaughter and thought of some design ideas. I drew out 3 ideas and my granddaughter choose the one she liked (which was the one I liked best too). It was the ideas for the inside of the tear drop shape. I couldn't wait to get home and try it. I think it turned out better than my drawing, but that's usually the case (I'm not that good at drawing)! This week I have almost no time to work on it and it's driving me nuts. I now have the whole rest of the quilt designed in my head. I'm a working out at the local county fair this week in 4-H with the sewing projects that the kids do. It takes a lot of time and energy but it's something I've done for almost 15 years and I love it. I want to encourage young people to sew. Hopefully next week I will have plenty of time to get most of this quilt done. There's a few customer quilts waiting to be done before the end of August. Too many quilts -- not enough time!

Whole Cloth Quilt Progress

Here's a photo of the progress on the wholecloth quilt. This was not my earlier thought to put in the 12 inch wide space created by the double lines and circles but after trying a few things out, it seemed like an interesting shape. I have no idea yet what will fill in these tear drop shapes. I probably will draw some ideas on paper before I decide. So far it's been fun though at times a little tense trying to find that perfect idea for a new design. I really like this kind of challenge. My daughter who is getting married saw it and said she might like something like this for her wedding quilt -- hmm -- we'll see :)

Spontaneity

I like to quilt outside the box. What I mean is, I don't like patterns, especially those that are just repetitious and you see them on so many quilts. Now that doesn't mean I don't do that kind of quilting. It's really the bread and butter of my quilting. But being creative, just going with the flow, not really sure what I'm going to do until it's actually done -- that's me. So as I have mentioned in this blog before, I want to do a whole cloth quilt. The books and other instructions I have read all say to draw out the designs on your fabric before beginning. For me, that's a mind block. It's tedious, and requires too much thinking and planning. So yesterday I ironed a solid piece of fabric that was purchased to someday make a whole cloth quilt. I drew a big X in the center and then another so that basically there are 8 lines coming out from the center of the quilt. Then I loaded the piece on the longarm. I have decided that other than these 8 lines, everything else just comes as I think of it. Not much planning and not a lot of thought. This quilt will probably be on my machine for several weeks (it's my break from customer work -- remember) and I'll just do a little whenever time permits and I have a new idea. I have no idea what the end result will be. I'll try to post pictures throughout the process. I may hate this quilt and say, "that didn't work" or it may end up in a quilt show! I've called this quilt 'Spontaneity'. Stay tuned!

Brown Quilt is Done

I feel like I have worked on this quilt forever. This fall it will be two years since I started piecing the quilt. The applique work took such a long time to complete. Appliquing leaf after leaf got tedious and I found myself constantly putting the quilt away only to take it out a month or so later and challenge myself -- do two leaves a day and in a month it will be done! What finally motivated me was the desire to start a Dresden Plate quilt in miniature (mostly applique work) and my son-in-law saying, "you can't start something new until you finish that other quilt"! He was right of course, so now it's done. There still is the machine quilting to do on it. I want to have a good chunk of time to do that so I may not get to it for a few weeks. Ideas are brewing in my head as to how it should be quilted. I'll post when it's being worked on. Sorry for the poor photos. My husband has the camera and is in Peru, so I had to take pics with my cell phone.

Latest Customer Quilt

This was a lovely quilt to do. To keep the cost down, I focused my work in the white border and did an all-over feather design in the center. I love the way it turned out. The quilt has prairie point edges -- a really nice touch. The photos aren't the best because they are taken with my cell phone. That's all I have right now since my husband is out of the country and has the digital camera with him.