Fun Project

Hello all,
Today all day I prepped for our Back Country Quilters meeting.  We had an assignment from last meeting to do a postcard exchange and as usual I waited to the last minute to do it( I work best when I have no time).  This morning I got up and prepped for the two cards I was going to do.  They had given us a fat quarter with birds and roses on them and I had to figure out how I was going to use the fabric.  I also love under water scenes so I created a underwater one with a sea turtle, seaweed and coral.  It is quite the process and many of the steps must be followed in order for it all to work.  My friend did a great tutorial but as usual I just glanced at it, not paying attention to detail.  On one of them I jumped a little ahead of the tutorial not realizing it but I soon learned how important sequence can be.  I, with the stealth of a master pro(ha ha) recovered the project and made it work.  He are some pictures of the project. 

 

These are the templates for the underwater scene.

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

All in all I am happy with how they turned out.  Too Cute.  I also finished up my friends quilt and the tops for two table toppers.  Been also working on 11 aprons that I will be sharing later.  Busy /busy. I love it. 

 

 

 

 

Well the meeting for the Back Country Quilters overall went well.  The girls seem to be enjoying the new meetings order.  I am happy.  We are working hard to build it back again and get people excited to come and enjoy 

 

Tomorrow is errand day and embroidery class day. 

 

Well this is it for tonight. 

 

Signing off, see you on the flip side.  . 

 

 

Busy, Busy, Busy

Hello friends,

Busy, busy,busy and there are never seems to be enough hours in the day.  I have been working fevorishly to get my friends prayer quilt done and I finally finished it today and handed it off to my favorite hand worker, my mom.  What a treasure, I do not know where I would be if I had to do all the hand work also. Anyway I put it on my mid arm  and quilted a butterfly pattern on it.  It turned out beautiful.  I am well pleased and I know my friend will love it also.  I will post a picture in a day or so when the hand work is done. 

In the meantime, in my spare time I am attending an impromptu embroidery machine class.  Some of the experienced ladies of our quilt club have offered to teach us nubies.  Maybe now I will be able to really use the machine I bought.  I have barely used it due to time and fear but now, no excuses.  Here are a couple of pictures of  the group and the projects we were working on. 

 

 

 

 

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Tons of fun and I am learning so much.  Much more that I learned at the shop where I bought it.  Not to say they didn't do a good job.  It is just that there is so much to learn and it is better to be working on a project and when the problems occur as they will, someone is there to help walk you thru it.  Yeah.  These ladies are awesome for taking the time to teach us rookies. 

 

I have  also been finishing other projects.  I had left overs from my friends prayer quilt so I took the extras and made 3 projects.  Here are two of them, the other is not quite finished. 

 

 

This one is large enough for a table topper, so I am going to quilt it probably with some flowers or ?  I really like this one is is bright and cheerful.  All the different florals make me feel like I am looking at a beautiful garden and it is all framed in by a brite pink Batik. 

 

This one is much smaller.  I think I am going to do some custom quilting and maybe some beadwork to make it a wall hanging. or a table center piece.  I am excited to do some custom work.  It will be my first. one.  Yeah.

 

Well tomorrow is a full day.  Meeting with my prayer quilt board, a friend over to help her with her backing for her quilt, another meeting in the afternoon for my womens ministry retreat planning and then home to hopefully get some work done and then back to church for mid week service.  Full day.  Friday is pretty much the same.  I have two orders I have to have finished by Saturday and I have prep work for a class I am taking on Saturday and then another leadership meeting in the evening for our church.  Hopfully dinner out with my honey.  The work is never done but I am not complaining though.  I would love to be busier and making some actual money. I long to be able to make money doing what I love most.  It would be a dream come true.      

 

Well it is late as usual and I am ready to go to bed.  So I will be signing off for tonight.  See you on the flip side. 

 

 

 

Prayer Quilts

Hello all,
I love living in sunny San Diego.  Where else in March can you wear shorts and enjoy 80 degree weather.  It was so nice, I was able to get outside and begin the ever waiting Spring clean up. Nice to be able to get out and enjoy the great outdoors and soak up some rays. I didn't get to stay out as much as I had hoped because I wanted to work on my friends prayer quilt.  The other day I promised you some pictures for the prayer quilt ministry.  So here goes.

This is the picture I saw on the insternet and I was unableto find a pattern.  Because I liked it I began the process of comming up with actualy demensions.  Yeah, love this part!  Anyway, away I went and began cutting out and sewing the parts together.

 

As you can see I am beginning to put together the parts.  I pin the parts together and then I can sew them all. 

 

 

 

Here is the finished square.  Not totally perfect, yet I am happy.  Tomorrow I will be putting the rest of the squares together.  I will be using sashing so I will need to cut that to to the final assembly.  My goal is to finish the top tomorrow so that i can put it on the mid arm for quilting.  I may opt to put some scripture on the sashing as a extra.  Will have to see tomorrow. 

Also thethe next two quilts are also prayer quilts in process. 

 

 

This one is the bear claw patttern and it is made op of golfing material for the large squares and varies other colors for the 1/2 square triangles.  The following one is a totally scrap quilt with a color scheme.  We used the spider web pattern for this.  Makes a great looking scrap quilt. 

 

 

 

Tommorrow I have much planned.  Like I said I hope to have the top finished that is my goal.  Next we have a new girl joining the group tomorrow. Yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!! more help.  So I have to lay out a pattern for her and for a couple of other girls who are finishing up.  In addition I am hoping to finish a couple of projects for my own business.  Whew,  hopefully I have not bit off mor than I can chew. God is good and whether I finish what I want or not, it will be enough. 

 

Friday I get to go on our quilt run.  I am looking forward to it.  I am hoping to start collections for the other two sections for my Dear Jane quilt. 

 

Anyway as usual it is late and I need to rest, so I will sign off and say I will see  you on the flip side.   

 

 

Storms

Hello friends and family,

Well it has been a rough week.  Last Saturday I woke up with a sore throat and it progressed to a full blown cold by Monday and I have been hard pressed in doing what I had to do let alone fun stuff like this blog.  Not much quilting going on, so sad!  Any way I am feeling like I will live except for this nagging cough.  Beyond all this, which is nothing in the scheme of life, my best friend went to the docters last week and this week she was given the devestating news that she has breast cancer. Yet even with this news she still remains positive although a little scared.  She is a true testiment of the faith she has in our Lord.  My prayer is first and formost that our Lord will answer all our prayers and heal her so that she may be a testiment to His greatness.  Second that I may have the faith she has so that I may be there with her as she walks this new storm.  God grant us His grace to her first and to all who call her friend.  We will all need your loving hand. 
My heart goes out to all weathering storms, no matter the type.  They are all orderded to grow us in Him and to change and mold us so that all the world sees is His face and not ours.  God has granted me the priveledge of leading a prayer quilt minitry for our church.  Thru it I have been able to see His mighty hand in so many ways.  It has been an awesome priveledge I share with 7 other ladies. All dedicated to pouring out their love for Christ thru this ministry.   Now, I have begun a labor of love for my best friend, a  prayer quilt lovinginly cut, sewn, quilted and continually prayed over as I work on it. It will serve as a reminder to her as she goes thru this new trial of God's faithfulness, and that she has the prayers of the saints lifting her up and that they are there with her in spirit.

When I began the ideal for her quilt I chose a flower basket pattern. It is not the typical flower basket and all I had to start with is a picture- fun!  My friend loves flowers and she loves blue and purple.  So I set out to find floral cottons to create the flower portions of the quilt.  So far I have been able to first figure out the pattern since there was none just a picture.  I was able to cut it out yesterday and today I began the piecing of it.  I will take pictures tomorrow so you can be a part of the prayer quilt process also.  Our ministry is a little different than most prayer quilt ministries.  Each quilt is custom designed and pieced together.  I have a mid arm quilting machine and we are able to put decorative quilting on each quilt  This part is the unusual part.  Most quilting ministries just tie the quilt ( not that there is anything wrong with this).  My heart was to create an heirloom quilt that would last for generations as a reminder of God's faithfullness. That is why we fully quilt the quilts.   

Tomorrow I will share some pictures of the quilts we are working on and the quilt for my friend.  One of the amazing things that I have seen in this ministry is the fact that we do not per say do custom orderded quilts for the ministry yet each time one is requested we happen to have the perfect match in the cupboard.  God's inspiration in advance of the need.  How much does He love each one of us. 

Well it is late and I am tired but I didn't want to let another night go by without blogging. 
So for now I am signing out.  See you on the flip side.   
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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.