School Day

Hi all,
Well today was school day.  The group that my friend and I are the co-president for has a great group of ladies who have a wealth of knowledge.  My friend and I both bought a Baby loc Elegante which is an awesome machinge but we are not using it to its full potential.  We both have a very minimal working  knowledge of the embroidery portion.  We took the lessons but unfortunately as accomodating as the Shop is, it is just to much to absorb at once.  So this group of ladies offered to teach us rookies how to unlock the usefulness of our machines.  Yeah! So classes began today. 

The first thing they taught us today was how to save designs on our computer and keep them organized and the wealth of freebies out there.  As any one who has a emboridery machine knows, it is not the cost of the machine that kills you.  Although they are expensive, the real cost is in the programs and patterns and when you are first learning it can be mind  boggling  on which program to buy let alone which patterns to buy and don't forget how to work them.  So having access to the free designs is a great life saver.  It allows me to try out alot of different companies, get used to them and then make an educated decision of what is best for me. Awesome.  This may sound silly but the two hours scheduled for the class disappeared and before you know it, it was time to go home.  Anyway all and all, I would consider it a success.  I was left with homework and a tone of stuff to research. 

Moving on, yesterday I promised a finished picture for the blue floral.  My mom finished the binding today and this evening I took the quilt to the customer.  She was so excited and was very happy with the finished product.  Yeah, another happy customer.

A little information on this quilt :  I used the snow balls with sashing inbtween to give the feel of a lattice looking out into the garden.  I took the fabric and with the large floral and applied wonder under to it.  Then I cut out randomly around the leafs and flowers and appliqued these smaller random cuts over the top of the sashing.  It gives the illusion of vines intertwinning around the lattice.  Then I free motions sewed the applique down with speciality thread that was shiny.  It gave definitiion and depth to the leaves and flowers.  This was the first time I had done this effect and I really liked the look it gave.  I learned a few things that I will change for next time but over all I am very pleased with the quilt and the customer is happy also. 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well I think I will turn in for the night.  I have an early morning waiting for me tomorrow.  See you on the slip side. 

Success!

Hi friends and family,

What a day.  My goal to finish the blue floral quilt was a success.  I was able to successfully finish the quilting today.  I mounted the quilt on the table and had no major problems and 4 hours later I was pulling it off the table finished.  Tomorrow I will take a picture of the final quilt and post it.  It is in the process of having the binding hand finished.  Hand work is not my most favorits so my favorite mom is finishing it off for me.
Besides finishing the quilt, I was able to make 4 dozen cookies for the meeting I was attending in the evening,  I met with a friend to prep for the meeting, fixed dinner and  typed notes for the meeting.  My friend Elaine and I are co- presidents of our local quilt group.  This was our first meeting of the presidency.  All in all things went well I think.  We had a full house and we were able to go over the business, have sharing and Elaine gave a great postcard demo.  In the end, Marthe the 9 patch owner where the meeting was held, got some sales and everyone left in a happy mood.  Yeah!!!
To end the day when I came home I worked on my blog page and added my mini store and favorite places along with some favorite blogs.  I hope you get inspired and enjoy (and go visit my store and buy something). 

Well my favorite man is laying in bed sawing half the forest down and my baby girl is flaked out on her pillow next to her favorite guy.  In case your not in the know my favorite baby is my entirely too spoiled, too cute maltese that adopted us for her new human mom and dad. 

So for tonight I sign off- happy trails to you!  See you on the flip side! 

 Best laid plans of mice and men.  I use this saying all the time.  Basically it means that all the plans in the world are great but most of the time they do not come thru.  So began today.  I had planned to be up early to get a early start with my chores, getting my motherin law taken care of and settled down so I could begin the work of finishing the blue floral quilt from yesterday.  I needed to iron on the flowers and then proceed to getting them appliqued on the quilt.  Unfortunately I am under the gun on this quilt and I promised it would be finished no later than Thursday.  Any way even with the late start I was able to accomplish the task.  Yeah, Praise God! Here are a couple of pictures of the process and the end result.  These first two pictures are me free motion quilting the appliqued flowers. 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is a close up of the flowers.  Each flower and leaf are free motion quilted to highlite the leaf or flower.   I don't know if you can see the detailbut eache leaf and flower is not simply appliques but detailed out to enhance the look. 

 

 

 

 

The last picture is the finished quilt.top.  Job accomplished.  Thank you Jesus!

 

 

 

Well my two faithful companion are asleep beside me on the bed and I can hardle keep my eyes open, so I bid you farewell for the night.  Catch you on the flip side. 

 Hello all, another day finished and all is well.  I had plans to wake up early this morning and get things around the house done and my mother in law settled in.  Best laid plans of mice and men.  I said I had hoped, didn't happen.  So my day started about an hour late but all in all it went well.  My goal for the day was to get the applique ironed and sewed on for the blue floral quilt top I showed you yesterday. It was a small miricle but the job was accomplished.  I have promised this quilt for this Thursday and so the top needed to be finished so I could put the quilt on my mid arm brite and early Wednesday morning so I could met the deadline.  Yeah so far on schedule and God willing I will finish on time.  The first picture is me free motion quilting aroung the flowers.

 

 

 

 

 

Here is a close up.  Each flower and leaf have been detailed with free motion quilting.  The bottom picture is the finished top.  Tomorrow it goes to the table for quilting.  Pray all goes well.  So I am going to sign off for the night.  Both my faithful companions are asleep on the bed and I am quite tired myself. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Busy Days

Hello friends and family,
Sorry it has been so long since I last posted.  My days have been busy for a multitude of reasons.  this weekend is my weekend off (or I should say my chance to excape the house).  I get the opportunity to get out of the house and attend a clinic for the Dear Jane quilt taught by an aweson patient lady by the name of Susan Axlerod.  .
I have been quilting for the better part of 25 years but I was self taught and  I learned many things by trial and error.  Finally I am a time in my life were I have the time and the funds to take some classes to learn technique.  For this reason I took the challenge to work on this quilt.  I figured that it woud give me an opportunity to learn technique due to the fact that these squares finish at 4 1/2 inches and may have 40 to 50 pieces. My thoughts were that if I could do these squares, I could do any thing.  Traditionally this quilt uses cival war fabrics but I decided to break the overall quilt into 4 smaller quilts.  Each section will be done in different motifs in order to have variety especially this quilt is actually for me which is a rarity.  Here are a few of the squares that I am working on or are done. I am actually enjoying working on this quilt.  However as you can see I have so far chosen the easy blocks.  Didn't want to  get scared off right of the bat.  Also as you can see one of the motifs is bright batiks and I just started the cival war motif.  I think one the others will be 30's prints and I have not figured out the other yet. 

 

 

This one below is actually of four parts.  In this square I am learning y seeming.  Many people may have used it in a block called tumbling blocks. 

 

The next section is another project I am working on.  The lady it is for loves yellows and blues and the friend who is purchasing it for her wanted something very cheerful.  I thing we met that criteria.  What do you think?

 

 

 

 

Here it is on the design wall auditioning borders.  I tried several but finally settled on a small Yellow decorative border and the dark namy blue to pick up the blue in the quilt.  These next two pictures are of the appliques I am applying.  My idea for this quilt was to creat a lattice effect where one could feel like they were looking out and into a garden, thus the two prints.  I also had an idea to give depth by adding the appliques to the lattice to give the feel of the vine intertwinning on the lattice.  I hoped I accomplished this. 

 

 

 

The next two pictures are the borders before they ar sewn in and the first one is the flowers that I am cutting out to be used fot the applique. 

 

 

These final two pictures ar the quilt I wrote about the other day.  I finally finished as you can see.  At first I really didn't like this quilt and I just wanted to get it done but as you can see It didn't turn out too bad.  It is huge though and was a pain to work on.  It is 94" wide and 100" long.  fits a King sized water bed.  The guy it is for is a avid fisherman and had a collection fish related t shirts and sweat shirts.  He wanted to use the sweatshirts so all the tshirts have been appliqued to the sweatshirts.  If I were to do this again I think I would purchase the sweatshirt fabric rather than trying to use sweatshirts.  There is too much variance in the sizes and styles that make it difficult to come up with a standard size.  All in all the finished product ended up being something I was proud of. 

 

Any way, glad to be back blogging.  Hopefully I will be posting daily adding in maybe some recipies and funny excerpts from daily life.  Here is one I want to share.  My baby in the lap of luxary beside her favorite person, me.   Usually where ever I am there she is flaked out.  Tonight she is patiently sleeping waiting for me to finally shut the lights out and go to be. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally if you like my work, be sure to stop by my Etsy store and search for Eagle Wings Creations.

I am going to sign off for now.  See you on the flip side. 

 

   

Finished Projects

Wow what a weekend!  Set up shop at the Farmers Market on Saturday.  It was so cold, I thought every part of me was frozen and would fall off.   It ended up being wasted time for almost all the vendors due to the frigid weather at least by San Diego standards.  We San Diegans are wimps when it comes to cold.  We really are spoilt but that is why we pay the high rent.  After I finally got home and cuddled up next to the fireplace to unfreeze then I crashed for the rest of the after noon.  Hard day!   Then Sunday was spent at church and then finishing up projects, fixing a Sunday afternoon dinner and then catching up on all the loose ends. 

I had a project for the Opportunity quilt for the group I belong to.  They are making a crazy quilt and I was handed a bag full of material with some foundation cotton.  /for those who don;t know what a crazy quilt is it is basically squares made up of random fabrics in a random pattern.  Foundation piecing uses a cotton usually a muslin at a backing material that the front fabrics are sewn on.  Any way it is kind of fun.  You get to break out of the norm and let your imagination roam free.  Here are some pictures of the squares I finished. 

Anyway it was a fun project.  I also thought that I would include some other recent projects that I finished recentlt.  The pink Quilt with the dresses is for the prayer quilt ministry that I run.  As you can see the back is a fun design also.  I toook left overs from a couple of other quilts and used them up on this quilt.   The other quilt the one with the wolves was for a friend who wanted a prayer quilt for a mutual friend who had to move away and is having a rough time of it. 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

Any way this is it for the day.  Signing off untill tomorrow.  

Feburay 7

I am so fortunate that my work place is my converted 3 car garage. Originally the garage was taken over just for a small quilting group that meets at my house. We make prayer quilts for our church. We originaly worked in the dinning room but the group grew to the point we needed more space and my husband graciously turned our 3 car garage into a room for us. Soon afer, that I quit my job and came home originally to take care of my mother in law but now not only do I take care of her, I use the garage as my work space for by small artisan business.  Her are smome pictures of the workspace.  It is actually quite nice and will be awesome when it is finished.   





This picture is of the cutting table and my mid arm quilt table

Well my goal today was to make a huge dent in the sweatshirt quilt.  Dispite having problems with my normal machine ( I went from the expensive one to the cheap one and it worked) I was able to accomplish much.  If all goes well I will finish it this weekend.  Hooray!!!!!!!!!!!  If I ever do one of these quilts again, I will definately do it differently.  Unlike the normal t-shirt quilt which is fairly easy, this sweatshirrt quilt has been a pain.  I had to cut up the t- shirts and applique them to the sweatshirts.  Ugg.  But alas I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.  My hop is that the guy that this is for really likes it.  Any way below are some pictures of the progress.  when I get it finished I will take a picture of the finished project. 

 

 

These are the finished shirts.  they are laid out in the layout that the customer wants


Here is another angle of the shirs that are finished and in their proper row and in their proper place.





These last two photos ar the nest row ready and prep











This last picture is the old sewing machine that worked better than my real expensive one.  As you can see I am also messy when I am working in the middle of a project.   I am thankful for the work, but I will honestly say I will be glad when this one is done. 

 

 

 

 

This is a quilt that is on the design wall.  I am working on it .  The person it is for loves birs and birdhouses, flowers and such.  I am trying to incorporate all the different things she is into into this quilt.  I will show you the progress as I go. 

 

 

Well for now, I am going to sign out.   Good night America!

 

 

Best Laid Plans

Feb 6th 2013

Best laid plans often go astray as we all know well.  I had plans to finish my morning routine and then work on a sweatshirt quilt I am trying to get finished.  As things would go, the morning routine went fairly smooth.  After getting my mother in law settled in for her morning nap, I high tailed it down to let our chickens out.  i had to laugh as I watched them freed from one cage to  rush to the other hen house to lay their eggs.  Then the comical routine as they tried to cram two or three in a box that is barley large enough for one.  Totally hilarious at least in my sense of humor. 
Any way once that was finished, I returned to the house to sit down and spend some time with Jesus.  One of the devotionals that I look at on a regular basis is www.proverbs31.org "Encouragement for Today:"  Great tool and a total blessing.  Anyway this mornings was based on the verse. John 13:23, "One of them, the disciple that Jesus loved, was reclining next to him."  The whole gist of the devotional was based on all the negetive things that others might label us with as well as the destructive labels we put on ourselves.  The point was that John was so confident in the love of Jesus that he called himself the disciple that Jesus loved no matter what others might think.  So we to as believers in Christ can be confident of this.  We to are his disciples and as John was confident of his love so we to can be even in our mistakes and blunders.  I long for the day, when all I think of myself as is the disciple that Jesus loved. Sa all day I have brought this to mind and worked on remembering who I am in Christ. 

Back to my day.  After the devotional was finished I began working on the quilt.  I made steady progress untill after lunch.  Then everything that could be a distraction happened.  anyway bottom line was I didn't get done as much as I had planned but I am happy with what I didn't get done.  Bottom line is I got done exactly what I needed to get done and tomorrow is another day. 
So it is late and I am tired.  I hope to get well on the way to being finished with the quilt tomorrow.  I post pictures hopefully tomorrow to show all this quilt. 
Anyway signing off for Wednesday.

  

Prep Day

February 5-
Today was prep day, probably my least favorite part of the process.  I love the design process, choosing a pre-existing pattern or designing my own.  I love choosing the fabric, the sewing process and finishing the project and that sense of accomplishment for another project finished.  Because the prep process is my least favorite, I tend to spend a whole day doing nothing but prepping so that I can spend several days doing the parts I love. 

So what does prep day entail.  I gather my fabrics and the patterns for the upcoming projects and then I set forth project by project cutting fabric and arranging all needed materials in my project bags ( a extra large zip loc). One by One I work thru the pile.  Today my goal was to cut out 10 nursing coverups, 10 aprons, 2 quilts and stretching 4 height charts. 

 

At the end of the day, I accomplished what I set out to do.  The original pile is all cut and placed in the project bags and I am ready to start the fun parts of assembling the product. 

 

 

 This is a free style floral table topper quilt that could also be used as a baby quilt. 

 These are quilts that have a yard stick pree printed so a childs height can be saved on this special quilt. 

 

These are  aprons

 

These are the nursing cover up.  These will probably require a little more work to finish them.  I made them two sided.  One side has a design and the other side is plain and I may decide to add a machine applique to dress them up some.  To be determined at a later date. 

The left over material is stacked up and ready to be restocked into the cupboards for future use. 

 

 

Day is done, gone the sun, all is well, safely rest. 

 

 

New Beginnings

Hello to all,
Today is my first day as a blogger.  Actually I have fought tooth and nail making it to the 21st Century but alas I have succumbed.  I believe we are in a new world where all the old rules have been tossed out and the new rules are changing daily.  One has to be ready to make these moves as they are presented.  As are Pastor always says, "Blessed are the flexible".  So here I am, moving forward into a brave new world!

A little about myself.  I left corporate America about 1 1/2 years ago for a couple of reasons.  One the job I was at was to say the least, the job from hell which caused much stress and the 2nd reason was we decided to bring my Alzheimer mother in law to our home.  For the first six months it was chaos in our home adjusting to my mother in law and the fact that I was now home for the first time in my life.  What an adjustment for someone who was termed a workaholic.  Well things finally setteled down to some semblance of normal or at lease as normal as caring for a alzheimer person can be.  With this I found myself restless, needing to fill my time.

Having a love for sewing, quilting  and just about anything that has to do with fabric, I decided to begin a small Artisan business using my talents.  Thus Eaglewings Creations was born.  Needless to say, it has been busy building stock for both my ETSy store Eaglewingscreations and for the Farmers market I attend on the 2nd and 4th Sunday in Ramona, Calif.  Life is an adventure now/  Seems there is never enogh hours in the day like I said building stock and building the business any way I can. 

Well for tonight this is it.  Tomorrow I will start sharring my insights and the current projects I am working on.  Maybe if I have time I will snap some pictures so you can see my work space also. 
Signing off for now!  Nighty Nite