Finish #7!

I finished yet another item off my PhD Challenge list! I finished quilting it the other day, but couldn’t put the binding on until I finished shirts for a client. Finished those yesterday and decided to put the binding and sleeve on it. It’s really small, so it didn’t take long to hand sew it on last night. That’s now 3 items for show and tell at guild this month! I want to work on quilting on the frame, but until everything gets moved around and set up I don’t want to add the machine weight to the frame. Mom and dad are coming over tomorrow night so dad can help Michael move the bed from the nursery into the “guest” room.

Snowman Panel

Yet another finish!

I actually quilted this yesterday, but finished putting it together today. I’m very happy to get another item off my PhD Challenge list. I have 1 more item that I’d like to see if I can finish today, if I can then I can have the hubby put my machine on the frame and I can play with learning how to use the laser and the pantograph. If it works I have a BUNCH of quilts on the PhD list that can be done with a pantograph. I have a job for a client that has to be done before I can play though, but I’m planning on doing that tomorrow!

I didn’t come up with this idea on my own, I found it on Kim’s Blog. I made a change to it and rotated the blocks in the center, just because I liked it that way better. I used my Accuquilt Go to cut all the squares and triangles on this and it was so fast to cut everything out! I have lots of scraps left, and I have a few ideas of what I can do with them. I just want to finish some other projects before I start a new one! Since I didn’t feel like making a lot of these blocks (they finish at 24″ x 24″) I decided to make it into a pillow. I just need to get to JoAnn’s to buy a pillow form.

Updates to the blog

I’ve been working on fixing some issues today with the blog and decided to make a few additional changes. I’ve created pages for Finishes for 2010 and the Guild PhD Challenge. This will clean up the sidebar a little bit. Also I finally determined what was causing the problems with the posts not showing on the main page, it was a plugin I had installed to randomly show pictures. Got rid of that and all the posts show up again! I’ll have to see if I can find another plugin that does the same thing but doesn’t break everything else!

Batik Lap Quilt Finished!

I have finally finished the batik lap quilt. Since there were so many squares on this quilt I didn’t know how to quilt it. After a lot of pondering, I decided to print out a different design from my Quilting Designs software. I have volume 1 and 2 – but I do want all the rest! I had to pick 49 different designs from the software and it was not easy! Once I had all the designs picked out I printed each one on Floriani Stitch-n-Wash stabilizer, pinned it to the block I wanted it on and stitched away. Because I had so many designs from each category I pulled them into EQ and decided where each was going to be placed before I started stitching anything. This allowed me to play with placement and EQ7! It took me a couple weeks of serious work, but I finally got all 49 quilted. Once I got the binding on and washed it I found that the Stitch-n-wash was “stuck” under the quilting but all the rest was washed away. This resulted in me sitting for nights on end with tweezers and a lint roller picking the pieces out of my quilting. I didn’t mind so much since it meant I could easily sit in my husband’s office on the couch and talk to him while I worked on it. I’m glad that it’s completed and I can finally mark that one off the list!

When will I learn?

Ok, first off I need to make a correction to my last post. The “Love” block that I completed is by McKenna Ryan – NOT Ryan McKenna! I don’t know why I didn’t double check that before I posted!

I’ve almost completed the quilt top for the shower, I just need to decide if I’m appliqueing his name or doing it on my embroidery machine. I just can’t make a decision! I’ve got scrappy stars top made, I just need to decide on fabric for the back. It’s going to be a 24″ x 24″ pillow (once I buy the pillow form). I need to do some simple quilting to make it look more like a star before I can put the whole thing together, but it’s another item off my PhD list!

I’m teaching another set of classes at the Amherst Public Library at the end of August. They’ve recently setup a computer lab, so this might become a regular gig for me!

So to better explain todays post title, I was working on putting the borders on the tumbler quilt top and my machine was making some weird noises. So since I needed to refill bobbins anyway I decided to take the plate off and see if something was caught. To my surprise it’s been awhile since I’ve cleaned under the plate!!!! Once I got it all cleaned out and put back together it is running better and sounds wonderful!

I also have a small cross stitch picture that I finished recently for one of my husband’s employees that got married on Friday. I seem to make these for everyone we know that gets married, it’s personal, quick, inexpensive (if you can get the frames on sale) and I love making things for people!

I’ll be back later with another post, I finished the batik lap quilt!!!

New Finishes

I’ve been working on lots of different projects at the same time. I’ve quilted the batik lap quilt but still need to do some finish work on it before it’s considered complete. I took a day and completed the Ryan McKenna Love block that I’ve had sitting here for at least a year if not more. And I’ve been working on a quilt for the baby shower that will have enough blocks for everyone to write something to the baby. I’m not planning on quilting it until after the shower, it’s easier to write on the blocks if there is no batting in the way. Learned that after the quilt I made for Diane last year. I’m trying hard to get as many quilts completed before the baby is born that I can, I doubt I’ll have time to work on anything after he’s born 🙂 I officially have 5 out of 15 items from my PhD list completed. I’m hoping to get quite a few more done, especially since most of them just need to be quilted!

Yesterday I received the fabric I ordered from ebay to finish the tumbler quilt. I think Kimmie wants it and I’m planning on using the pantograph I have for the quilt frame to quilt it. This one wasn’t on my PhD list, but it’s another finish!

July Blocks

Took me a couple of days in between other projects, but I got all the July blocks completed. I’m really liking the way the colors are playing together. I can’t wait to start putting all the blocks together! From the looks of it, we don’t do that until December though!