Updated Collage

And yet another version of my 16 patch leader enders collage.  The original was Mackenzie's baby quilt, monkeys and all, the second was a quilt for my cousin Michelle, then Tina's thank you quilt.  The second row, Alex's moving out of Grandma's house quilt, Jill's quilt, and last Mackenzie's big girl quilt for when she gets a twin sized bed.  She'll be three in December and is moving to Germany for three years in late summer. 

Another July Quilt

Another step off the chosen path.  I had given my niece a quilt that I had made for my mother when she passed away but hadn't made one for her.  Hopefully, she'll like this one.

Lately, it seems that most of my quilts end up in the purple family.

Today, I'll finish the backs for Breanna and Kerri's quilts and then put them away to probably be basted on Wednesday.  I hope to have them finished by the end of the week, at least Breanna's, and Kerri's almost finished.  Then on to the bags for Marcy and Mackenzie. 

And Yet, Another Deviation

The colors aren't showing up too well here, the border is actually a very pretty soft pink, but not this soft.  Breanna is supposed to be coming home with her dad this trip and so I thought I'd better get a quilt ready for her.  I started this top yesterday and finished it today (I also cut enough strips for 2 more quilts).  This should finish at about 62" x 80", so should be good if Robert, my son, gets her a Japanese Pallet bed like he and the other kids have.  My finish it up by July goals are this quilt (to finish by the end of next week, a Strip Twist quilt for Kerri (I gave her my mother's quilt when she passed away, and have made quilts for all her kids, but haven't made one for Kerri) and the bags for Marcy and Mackenzie.  Then on to finish my two quilts, the Sunrise Sunset (Orca Bay) and my lavender Paintbox quilt.

Kerri's Little Girls Quilts

Logann, Maisyn and Kolbie with their mother at their big brother's HS graduation.

Now I have 7 quilts done for this year so I've caught up and exceeded my goal of one a month by a little.  These are about 57 by 76 so should be good for a long time.  No cold ears or toes.  The first one is Kolbie's, the middle Logann's and the last Maisyn's.

And the backs.  Logann's, Kolbie's and Maisyn's.

Tender Index Finger

My great granddaughter and three of my great nieces could be here at the same time in July.  I made Mackenzie a new bigger quilt and I decided that my little nieces could have outgrown the quilts that I made for them, too.   I had three strippie quilts done in girlie colors and they had backs made but Mackenzie's quilt has a fleece back so is very cozy.  I couldn't really get enthused about doing more fleece quilt backs, but I think that flannel is also cozy so I went to Joann's and these are what I came up with.  Now they are basted and ready to be quilted.  The next problem is I still have those three backs.  I have an accuquilt go and a 2 1/2 inch strip die and it is kind of fun to do strips three at a time, so, I think that I will do 3 more strippie tops and use the backs.  I have a couple of people in mind for them and it would be nice to have a quilt in reserve for emergency gifting.  I seem to keep making projects for myself, but hopefully I will get to my other two ready to be basted  projects, my Orca Bay (Sunrise Sunset) and my paintbox quilt soon.  Meanwhile, my tender index finger can have a few days rest from basting while I get these finished and put away for gifting in July.   I know that the strippie quilts aren't popular with many quilters, but I guess for me this will be the year of the strippie since it looks like I'll be making six of them.  I'm still working toward quality over quantity, but it always seems like there is someone needing a quilt, lol. 

What Did Blogger Do?

Last night I went on my blog and 3 months had disappeared completely.  Luckily it was still on Google Reader so I copied and pasted most of it back;   Has anything like that happened before, and is there a more dependable blog than blogger?  I've had my blog about 3 years and mostly I've been happy.  How can you complain too much about free, but when big chunks disappear it's kind of scary.  There's nothing earth shattering to lose, but it is a diary of sorts and I'd hate to lose it all.  
Candace

Jill's Quilt

Number 4 for the year is finished now.  I had an awful time at first with thread breaking, I was using Aurifil on the orange cone in the bobbin, which is what I almost always do and this time I was using Aurifil on the green cone for the top.  Bad!  It broke and broke, I rethreaded and rethreaded, it broke some more and I changed the needle, broke rethreaded, broke rethreaded, broke changed the bobbin.  That's a synopsis, it was more than that, about every few inches.  Finally I changed the top thread to a cone of King Tut and it was like Buttah (Old SNL skit there).  The quilting is not pretty, but it's done.  I guess my machine just didn't like that particular cone, I'm almost sure that I've used it for FMQ'ing before.  Red Rock Threads says it's the right weight "  40wt Mako Cotton The traditional choice for quilting is 40 weight cotton thread. 40 weight is also the most popular weight for machine embroidery."  I still love Aurifil, but that cone will be for piecing.

At least I didn't cut the bottom off this label, but it ended up more at the top than the bottom of the quilt, which is not what I like.  I guess that I did it upside down to the fabric.  Oh well, they get them for free, lol.

I use these 16 patch blocks to death.  These plus the quilt in the previous post for Mackenzie (who is the child in this picture by the way) started out as leader enders.

It's no longer closet clutter and will probably be given away in the next few days.  My husband asked the lady I made this for what her favorite colors are when we were at church one Sunday.  She was wearing purple and black at the time.  She said purples and blacks and jewel tones.  I think this is in the ballpark.

Mackenzie's Big Girl Quilt

It's a little bright but I think she'll like it.  She'll be 3 in December.

The back is fleece so it's very soft.  My thread seemed to break more often and it is rather heavy, so I don't know if I'll do anymore in fleece, there is also a batting of 80-20.  It's definitely too heavy to be a drag around quilt.

I messed up quite a bit on the label, originally Dora had legs and there were two more rows of words.   The most important ones are there though. PS  I'm starting to catch up with my goal of at least one finish a month.  This is three and I have another basted and ready to go.  It's for my visiting teacher from church.  That'll get me up to April and then I have the 3 strip quilts ready to baste for my 3 little nieces.  My second paintbox quilt and my Orca Bay ( Sunrise Sunset) will wait for last.  I think that pretty soon I'll be ahead of my goal.  (Then I can start new ones)

Beccie's Bag

Last week, DH and I had plans to meet his sister and her husband for lunch on Thursday.  Somehow I got it in my mind that it was 'Friday' and I changed it on the calendar without checking.  Ooops!  Anyway, they showed up and we didn't.  We did change it to Friday at that point and had a nice lunch together at Olive Garden.  I felt bad though and she admired my bag here so I made her a facsimile yesterday.  We will deliver it today, she likes the name brand cloth purses and so hopefully she'll like this one, too.  Mine had fabric from Ikea for the straps and lining, and they didn't have anymore at Ikea.  In fact, they had a very sad array of fabric the last couple of visits.  I hope that they aren't going to stop carrying fabric in our Ikea. PS   I pressed the straps and they look much better now.

Vince and Robert's Quilts

I think they liked them.   I got a call  on the way home from my brother saying that he might have to hurt his son, "He keeps saying that his quilt is prettier".

Kaylea's Quilt and Sewing Room Redo

My daughter's third quilt.  She doesn't consider herself a quilter, but she doesn't hate it.  (This isn't in my sewing room, it's at her house.)

When I quilted my brother and nephew's quilts I could see why it's recommended to have a wall on your left to support the big quilts.  After church yesterday I came home and did some heavy moving.  This is pretty much the same except the bed is moved closer to my office area, the bookcases are moved and my embroidery machine went to the other side of the bed.

This corner did have the TV in it and my Bernina under the window.  Now my quilting area gets this corner and a wall, and my Bernina has moved under the other window.

The brown cabinet moved down a bit to make room for my embroidery machine and it's cabinet.

My office area is back there.

New home for the TV.  Now it can be watched from the bed, which will be good for company.

My Bernina and cabinet have the side window now and still a good view of the TV from there.

Better view of my embroidery machine beside the kitchen door.

Looking in from the kitchen door.

Vince and Robert's Quilts Done

It's taken until the end of April, but yesterday I 'finally' had two finishes.  I have 6 quilts to the basting stage and have for awhile, but these quilts for my brother and his son, my nephew took precedence and so I started them the latter part of March.  I've kept my nose to the grindstone (pretty much) and now they are finished.

This one is my brothers it's from Bonnie Hunter's "Fourth of July" pattern enlarged to the size of about 92" by 102".  I can't wait to deliver it on Tuesday and hopefully see it on his bed.

This is my brothers quilt back.  The blocks are leftovers from a bunch of unfeminine quilts that I made for many of the men in my life a year or two ago.   He has one of them.

And of course his label.  I should have picked a different color thread, it doesn't show up too well on the navy blue.

And of course, my nephews.  It started out to use up some leftover bonus hst's from his dad's quilt and then took on a life of its own.  I think that even though there are a lot of the same fabrics and the colors are both red, white and blue, that they are still yet very different looking quilts.  I think this one is about 77" by 97".

I hope he likes bears, fish, cabins and eagles.

More of the leftover blocks and some of the inner border fabric from his dads quilt.  The green stripe was not planned, I sewed the brown pieces long wise instead of short wise and came up short.

His mom's birthday is today, wish that I could have gotten it to him a little earlier, but I'm delivering them Tuesday.  We'll ride up to my brother in Jacksonville's home and then he'll drive to my brother in Brunswick, Ga's to visit and make the delivery.  The color is off on this, the back is a brownish tan and it looks kind of gold here.

Misc. and Bernina 830 Record

After church my DH was up to making a grocery store run for a few things and he also picked up these pretty flowers.

I'm not a good flower arranger, but I did like how this bloom stands a bit above the rest.

Clearance was hard to resist.  I had wanted one of the bowls for keeping rolls warm for several years and this one is very pretty.  I'm wondering though, when this has been in the oven and is keeping the rolls warm, passing the bread could be a problem.  I guess we'll need some good potholders.

I gave this to my daughter about 25 years ago when I got my Bernina 1130 and I recently asked for it back.  It wasn't being used and needed some repairs.  It was only straight stitching and now it's back to making all its stitches.  When my daughter sews she comes to my house anyway, so now I have a pair of Berninas.  Unfortunately, the cord is still waiting to be repaired or replaced so I haven't been able to try it out.

Pretty stitches, I can't wait to do some bonding.

Yesterday my DD was over and she finished sewing this little quilt top for her stepdaughter and then she and I basted it.  This morning I cleaned up my Juki and started quilting it.  I'm still getting used to my new table, but I think I'm going to like it a lot.  My granddaughter's birthday party is next weekend so I am putting this to the first of the line in case my daughter wants to include it in her birthday gifts.  Then on to the red, white and blues.

Kerri and Her Girls Bags

No post office for me.  My niece and her families plans changed a bit, so I sewed yesterday after I found out, and sewed from 7:30 this morning til about 1:15 and all the tote bags are finished.  The galloping horse rule would have to be followed, but they are finished.  They probably already have several tote bags each, but now they have "Aunt Candace Originals", lol.