Autumn Joy

Finally, I can call this BOM done.  17 months in the making, though in truth 3 of those were waiting for the quilting. 

Lots of fun to make, a journey taken with friends, most of whom unfortunately fell behind during the year.  I enjoy BOMs because there's very little pressure with only one block to do each month... normally I'd feel stressed to get an entire quilt's worth of blocks done in a very short time.  With a BOM, they are doled out in manageable bits.

I am doing 2 BOMs and 2 Saturday Samplers this year... so come December I should have 4 quilts ready for finishing and quilting. 

Of course, I SHOULD be working on other quilts as well, but right now, I'm just not.  I am busy sorting bins of fabric into 'want' and 'don't want' piles, so I will be ready to take the 'don't want' fabrics to a quilter's yard sale next Saturday.  I will also be selling old rulers and such too.  I hope it all goes so I don't have to bring anything home except empty bins.

Also, I just got word from my doctor that he thinks I need both knees replaced... waaah... I won't be able to sew for a very long time, I think... I'd better have a lot of hand projects ready!

Woodland Creatures is DONE!!

So Kathy send me word that the quilting on Woodland Creatures is finally done... she has been working on this for a very long time - over a week!  Which is a long time for a longarm quilting job!

Here are some pics of the quilt... starting with a shot of the whole quilt:  Isn't it amazing!!??!!  I am just thrilled by the quilting...

 

Here are a couple of new detail shots.  Starting with the squirrel and raccoon:

 and the possum (and part of the fox):

I cannot wait to see the quilt close up...

My first chance to see the quilt will be at the quilt show in Utah in June.  And if it's like most quilt shows, I won't even get to touch it when I see it!

I'm so excited... it will hang in two quilt shows this summer, before it hangs in my guild's show in October (assuming my guild even has a show in October - Mancuso Bros. have booked a show in Palm Springs the same weekend and we have lost most of our regular vendors to the Palm Springs show... without vendors, we may not even have a show, as the vendor booth fees pay for the venue).

Even one of our local quilt shops has deserted us and is even hosting a bus to Palm Springs for the show, pulling away our clientele as well... I think it's kind of rude but who am I to judge?

I was hoping to put the quilt in Road to California, but they had a partial version of the quilt in their show last year, so I sincerely doubt they will jury mine in this year...  They don't like to repeat quilts, though I must say the quilting on that one was minimalistic to say the least and this one is far from that.  Perhaps the beautiful quilting will get it in... We'll see.

Woodland quilting and Twinkler top done

OH  EM GEE!!!!

Sparrows Quilting

I just don't know what more to say other than that!  Kathy Bradbury has outdone herself quilting inside the appliqued motifs.  The sparrows seem to just come alive - like they are ready to just pop off the quilt and fly around, and the leaves have dimension now... I wish I could see more of the quilt, but that will have to wait... I CAN'T wait, I have goosebumps just thinking about it!

Sigh... I'm not good at waiting, I am all about instant gratification... and it's almost painful to have to wait...

Anyway.

I also finished my Twinklers top:

Twinkler top done

I didn't like that one orange square near the top right corner so I did take it out and replace it with a different square of a more muted color.  I didn't take another picture though.  Suffice it to say the new square doesn't make your eye go right to it like that bright orange does.  All in all, I'm happy with it, and it will make a nice baby quilt the next time I need one for something, all I will have to do is quilt it.  In the meantime, it will be added to my pile of UFOs.

On a bright note, we took our new dog, Maggie, to the dog park tonight.  While we are unsure of her aggression level with other dogs, we did not take her inside, but we did walk her up and down along the fence and she did really well, only barking a few times, and no so much growling as last week.  Perhaps next week we can even try letting her in the dog park and see how she does, perhaps with a muzzle on to start, just to be safe.  I would love it if she were able to run and play with other dogs.  I think it would make her happy to be able to engage with the other doggies.  I know it would make me happy to get her some good exercise that -I- don't have to engage in as well... lol...

Maggie at the dog park

Twinklers

So several members of Stashbusters decided to make this quilt called Twinklers.  I opted to hop in and make one too.   I went through my drawer of 2 1/2" strips and cut all the squares for it, half light, half dark.  Then I went through my drawer of 1 1/2" strips and cut the squares for the star points, also half light and half dark.   I put them in paper bags by value and drew them out and sewed them together so they'd be very scrappy.

It came out VERY scrappy, but I'm happy because you can mostly see the little twinkly stars even though some of the fabrics are VERY busy, and some of the lights are not quite as light as I'd like, some of the darks not as dark..

Now I need borders and I can't decide what color border to use.  I think blue would bring out the blues in the quilt too much, they are already quite prominent... Perhaps a red?  Opinions are welcome.

More progress on Woodland Creatures!

Kathy Bradbury made more progress on Woodland Creatures.  The entire background is now done!! Hooray!  And it is amazingly beautiful!

This is the center of the bottom border, with the chipmunks and asters... love the feathers!

Here is the bottom corner showing how she quilted the mitered corner.  Glad she quilted it flat, because my miters were far from perfect.

Here is the detail of some of the quilting around the rabbit motif.  Just amazing.  I wish I could quilt like that myself!

I am so amazed at how beautiful it is.   I can't wait to see how she quilts the flora and fauna.  That is a real task and I know she's up to it, just curious as to what she'll do!

And just to show I'm not sitting idle while I'm waiting for my quilt to get done, this is the totebag I made today.  It was a lot of fun to make, but I'm not sure I'd make another just like it right away.  At least not without the help of my totebag guru, Wendy of Quilty Pleasures.

I think I will start using it tomorrow when I take my handwork in to work on at the shop during the day.   It's too pretty to leave it sitting unused at home.  It still needs a bottom (something stiff on the bottom so it will stand up properly... Maybe I'll work on that tonight.

Again, I am just I OMG over the moon with the quilting!!!

More quilting-in-progress:  Kathy's quilting is just awesome!!!!

This is the fox block, obviously, and shows the border next to it well, and some of the quilting around the fox is visible too.

Here's the quilt sitting on the frame - you can see she is almost at the bottom!  When she gets all the background quilted, she will go back and quilt the animals and plants!  I can't wait to see the new progress.

And doesn't the backing look just luminous compared to the navy blue on the front?  I'm glad I chose a Stonehenge for the back to give it some interest and depth there too.

...and just to show that this is not her first rodeo so to speak, and she is just that skilled, here's a look at her studio with her ribbons for her quilting!!!  Isn't she amazing???