Finished! Rail Fence Quilt

With my niece coming to college this week and her graduation gift from our family not quite finished, I have been quilting like crazy.  Last week I posted that I had just finished the quilt top, this week I finished everything!  I really hope that these colors and this style, fit her likings.

My good friend Lorna and some great coworkers/friends at the cotton shop helped me with my decision on how to quilt this beauty.  To blend the brown in a little, I quilted 1 1/4" stripes through the brown chevron.  The color of thread depended on the color of blocks.  As you can see above I had already quilted a yellow stripe but was currently quilting a green stripe.

 On the color blocks I quilted swirls with the darning foot. (I learned that I do not like using the round holed foot near as much as the open toed foot)

This rail fence quilt turned out to be a very easy design and I think the quilting was the perfect accent for this pattern.

Here is a picture of the back

 And a few more with my little one all bundled up

I have done something this week besides quilting.  Yesterday was my day to teach preschool and it went wonderfully.  I had to get a huge nail taken out of my tire and I also have done a little home decorating.  When we moved back from Kauai, my barstools got a little banged up.  So, for 3 years I have been going to recover them. Finally yesterday I took the plunge and did it!  Here they are, it matches the colors in my kitchen perfect.

Now today, I can't wait but I am going up to all the wonderful craft booths at Swiss Days, a local celebration that has the best craft fair., 

I am linking this up to Needle and Thread Thursday, Fort Worth Fabric Friday 

UFO is almost finished!

So I decided that I have to have a change.  My UFO pile just keeps getting bigger and I have no desire to finish most of them.  My change is that between each new project, I have to finish a UFO before starting another new project.  My new project is in the binding stage, (I will share it soon). 

Let me also say I really dislike everything Christmas in the summer time, keep the winter in the winter and don't ruin my summer with thoughts of cold weather :)

The UFO I am working on is one I worked on last November, my Blitzen quilt.  I started quilting it after spray basting, in December, right when the tension on my old sewing machine started to go crazy!  I really hated the quilting and so I put it aside and haven't touched it for 8 months.  Last week I ripped out all the quilting!  And today I re-basted the quilt and quilted it.  I have to admit I planned the quilting design during church Sunday on the back of a program.  Don't tell anyone!

Here is a sneak peak of it and now it's ready to bind.

I really loved this fabric and the back was fun too!

I will try to get this and my nieces quilts both bound this week before I touch my machine again!

Tomorrow is my first day for teaching preschool.  I teach every Thursday and focus my teaching on mathematic skills.  So, this is what I made today for some of our activities.

It looks bad, trying to not have the plastic stretch was a nightmare, but it does hold the shape well and will work great for all these 4 year olds.  

I am sharing it on Freshly Pieced Needle and Thread Thursday and Let's Bee Social! Click on their side buttons and see all the other amazing projects people are sharing.

Apple of my eye

I am finished!  I used Riley Blake fabric and a buggy barn pattern. I'll add more photos as soon as it stops raining,

This quilt turned out to be 64"x 90", just perfect for my daughters twin sized bed!

Finding this fabric isn't easy, and so I had so much fun using all the pieces of fabric I had left over to create a pieced back.

Here is my little girl, helping show Mommies quilt (and our corn field).

I also just finished the quilt top of my niece Maddie's graduation quilt.  She will be coming out to college next week and I need to really get quilting on this one.  

I'm still not sure how it will be quilted, but today I will purchase the backing and hopefully get it basted!

I'm linking this to Quilt Story, Sew Fresh Quilt,  WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced, Needle and Thread Thursday, Fort Worth Fabric Friday and TGIFF

Quilting sneak peak

So today and the next few days guess what I will be going?  You guessed it!  

My full sized folk flower buggy barn quilt made from Riley Blake's Apple of My Eye fabric.  Here I go: 

I posted this in Needle and Thread Thursday with my quilt infatuation.

Wip Wednesday- Basting

Making salsa to can is always fun and a great way to spend my Wednesdays.  But, next week my three oldest start school and so I wanted to do something fun with my girls.  Tomatoes can wait another day! 

We are going swimming!  The zoo was my number one choice, but I should not drive that far feeling like I did last night.  

This morning I'm going to baste my quilt and then I can do something fun with my girls.  

Steps to basting:

1.  Tape your quilt backing to the floor.  Concrete is the easiest floor to tape you quilt to.  I have an unfinished basement in my home with a concrete floor to make mine easy.

Make sure it is all stretched out squarely.

2.  Lay out your batting.

3.  Lay your quilt top on top, right side up, and tape it to the floor.

I start taping with one side (quilt top) and then go to the opposite side (quilt bottom) and tape.  I end with the left and right sides.  Make sure you are stretching the material tight but not moving the other sides.

4.  Begin baste pinning in the middle of your quilt.  My favorite pins to baste with are quilters choice,  they may be a lot more expensive, but I think they're definitely worth the price difference.

I started basting these 12" blocks every 6 inches.

Continue pinning until the entire quilt is covered in pins every 3-5 inches apart.

5.  Lastly you can remove the tape 

And then you will be ready to start your quilting.  

This fabric is 'Apple of my Eye' made by Riley Blake.  

I am sharing it on Freshly Pieced and Let's Bee Social!

Fave quilts

These are random quilts by random people, sorry I can't give them credit

Most of these are pictures I took at the HMQS in Salt Lake this past spring

This quilt pattern I really want to make!

.  I love this baby quilt I found on a blog (that I lost the name of)

 I love this quilting. I think the pattern is urban winter

Another urban winter quilt

In love this quilt!

Isn't this fun!

My girls would love to make this quilt

Alyssa quilt

Isn't this Riley Blake, beautiful thing line just so much fun for a little girl!

Ever since we returned from Missouri and she picked out fabric at the Missouri quilt company store my Alyssa has been pestering me with questions about when I will finally start her quilt.  Does she realize her project is way down the line, or that my garden needs worked on immediately?  See what my and my hubby did yesterday:

We froze 89 bags of corn!

Well today I drew up the plans for this quilt.  It may look crazy but this is how I draw  up the plans for each of my quilts and I love doing it!  I think it's the math teacher in me, always drawing shapes and angles!

Here's the quilt design I will make her quilt with.

Yes

Today all I can say is YES!  The binding is machine sewn on and all we have left is the hand sewing part of the binding so YES my 12 year olds 4H project is almost finished

After our camping trip this weekend it will be all done!

Can't seem to sew correct

Here is my issue today:

Can you see the problem?  I was so happy with my points on this block, but guess I will have to try them again :)The navy blue should be going down and the slate blue geese should be going up.  Being the perfectionist that I am becoming,  I will be picking out some seems later today.  

I talked to a friend of mine earlier today and she had never heard of this: 

Anyone making HST anything needs this ruler!  I also have multiple fussy cut square rulers, but this cuts the cutting in half.  You only have to square up two sides instead of four.  Quilt in a day is the best for this ruler and it makes your HST blocks so much more perfect!

WIP Wednesday

Hailey my 12 year old has been piecing a quilt for the past few months.  She did a good job, the corners are not quite as square as I would like them but she is 12 and this is HER quilt.  Yes, it's hard for me to let her do things with less perfection than I would like.  Quilting/ Math...... the list goes on.  That is why I could not let her be in my Math class I taught at her school last year,  she stresses me.  

She has almost finished though.  Today she machine quilted 1/2 her quilt and tomorrow I will assist her in the other half.    Her fabric choise was Adorn It, and she made a pillow to match along with a pillow sham.  She will enter these into the county fair next week as her 4-H project.

My current project is a quilt for another niece who just graduated and will be coming to college near our home in a few weeks.  She didn't really have a favorite color, just a preference of 'deep' colors.  I love the feel of Batics and so they were my choice, these are by Moda.

 

Today I have been sewing together the blocks I created right before we left on vacation. 

All the while I do this piecing, I am dreaming of making a beautiful quilt like this one with Sew Kind of Wonderfuls Urban Escape pattern.

I went to a trunk show by Jenny and Helen and fell in love with a lot of their quilts.  So I purchased their quick curve ruler, a few patterns and just can't wait to start another project!

I'm linking these up with Freshly pieced! WIP and Let's Bee Social whose tabs are on the side and Kelly at My Quilt Infatuation