Today's finished quilt. Sorry about the dark pictures. My overhead lights are still not working. This one is a beginner quilt. I did Baptist fan in the center...


A swag design on inside border and feather on the outside border.


It was the best I could do to work in all the fullness of the borders. This is a view of the back. I'm going to give her some lessons on measuring the borders and using an iron when she picks this one up.


I received the gammill appliqué (trapunto) foot in the mail a couple of weeks ago. Yesterday I took the time to put it on my machine because the next quilt is absolutely loaded with appliqué. I took the foot right back off again and put back on the regular foot. It won't work for me.

Don't get me wrong... I had a similar foot on my old machine. I had no problem using it. I don't use rulers so that wasn't the problem. The problem for me using that foot was it's too thick. The one I had before was just as tiny but much flatter. The gammill foot is like a ball with a hole in it. The ball design made it want to slide off the appliqué so I couldn't stay in the ditch.

In the process of changing the feet.... I lost the tiny needle screw. I had it in my hand... then I didn't. I didn't hear it hit the floor so it was like it just disappeared. I got on my knees and searched for about half an hour before I found it inside the bobbin area. I called to order a couple more to have on hand in case this happens again.

As I said the next quilt is loaded with appliqué. It will definitely take more than one day to complete it. Just looking at all that detail makes me think it may take a week or more..... thank goodness I have zipper leaders! If I get tired of the detailed stitch in the ditch I can take it off to work on another one. Then again.... I may get so engrossed in the work that I don't want to quit.

With that said..... I'm headed to the studio to get started.

Nothing goes right

It was a "hard working but nothing goes right" kind of day. I finished the quilt on the machine and rushed to get it ready for UPS. Forgot to take pictures of it finished.

Finished up the denim quilt. Really cute but very small. I think I'm gonna have to make another one of these in the future.


Another view.


I put the victorian couple quilt back on the machine for more quilting. I felt it just needed more. This went ok but when I hung it back on the wall, the corners curled up. I don't know why that happens. I need to figure out why it happens so I can prevent it in the future. I can't be making quilts for galleries or shows with curled up edges.

I sewed the spider web blocks sections together.... oops! When I started to press them open I realized the centers don't match up. I'll have to take them all apart and resew.

Worst of all.... I ran out of coffee! I could have sworn I had another jar. Coffee should have lasted until my next stock up the groceries shopping trip in March. Luckily I was able to borrow a bit from a neighbor. It's been years and years since I borrowed anything from neighbors. I gave her the money to pick up another jar for me when she goes to the store. She shops almost everyday on her way home from work.

I finally gave up on getting anything accomplished and started cleaning the studio. Lots of dust accumulated on things and under things.... it's gone now. I'm sure today will be a better day.

A new week

A new week has started again. After guild meeting yesterday I came home and worked some on my denim quilt.

I bought several yards of fabric while at the shop. It was really hard on my budget to buy fabric but these are for specific quilt designs. Legal stashbusting purchases. Which reminds me... I need to start making a stash busting report on Sundays. I will see how much stash busting I can get done this week.

Actually, for the next few weeks I will be pushing myself to finish 10 art quilts before Derby season starts in April. This is not going to be easy since I still need to work to pay the bills and I still want to create quilts for charity. I don't know if I can pull it off or not.... but I won't know unless I try. With that said I'll end this short post and head into the studio.

Yesterday was an in home quilting retreat day. When my sister in law comes over I don't usually get on the quilting machine. I can't concentrate on quilting and talk at the same time. I just spend the day teaching her and doing some piecing on ME quilts.

I finished up these spider web block sections and trimmed them. Now I have them pinned together to form the blocks. It's a Bonnie Hunter design.


I finished cutting the pieces for my necktie dresden plate quilt. I used the Just Curves template set I had for a year or so and hadn't tried yet. With these templates a person can make a pieced dresden plate instead of an appliqué one.

I don't think I will use them again. Personally, I feel it's a wasteful way to make one of these. It's also difficult to cut the pieces. For me, the curves of the templates were difficult to cut even with a tiny rotary cutter.


These necktie pieces were in my stash of quilt kits I made a few weeks ago. Remember when I put quilt kits together? The kits were put in bags like this....


I also started a denim quilt made from circles. I'm putting that one on my other blog as a tutorial so I don't need to talk about it here too. I hope to have it ready for viewing later today or in the morning. I won't make the tutorial public until I finish the quilt and take the pictures of the finished quilt. It's very small so it shouldn't take long to finish. There is no batting or backing required to make that quilt. A really good budget conscious quilt for those struggling to pay for machine quilting these days.

Today is our guild meeting. I haven't been there since September. I'm anxious to see everyone and get a look at the other member's challenge quilts. The last time I was at a meeting we were still in the drawing and planning phase. I have the piecing on mine finished and ready for the machine. I hope others are near completion too.

Rob Peter to pay Paul

Lately I've had customers tell me that their budgets are getting too tight to continue to bring me tops to quilt. When they pick up their finished quilt they tell me it will be a long time before they can afford to bring another one. My prices are not really high... the economy just stinks!

These customers do understand..... I can't charge less than I am and still pay my own bills but.... I can do something to help these customers continue to make quilts. I can show them a cheaper alternative and hope they remember me when their budget allows them to get another one quilted in the future. So far; I am not hurting for customers but it does make me real sad to loose anyone because of money issues.

This post is for my customers and friends who may want to continue to make quilts but can't afford to pay a machine quilter for awhile. Hopefully, I will see you when the economy gets better.

I wanted to use the blue jean fabrics squares I had in my stash for a long time. I don't remember where these came from. They were in some donations at some point in time. I could have just sewn the squares together to make a quilt but I wanted something different. I wanted a little more pizazz than just plain squares. So I cut out 6 1/2 inch circles. I found I had 48 pieces.

This quilt started out as a Robbing Peter to Pay Paul quilt. That's an old time pattern made with circles and squares of fabric. It doesn't require batting or backing to complete the quilt. It could be called a money saver summer quilt. Maybe that's where the name come from. Traditional summer quilts didn't have batting and this one doesn't need a backing.



Next I took half the circles and marked a 4 1/2 inch square on the front of the fabric with permanent marker. I used a piece of cardboard to make the square template for marking. Why mark only half? Well, I didn't want to spend time trying to match up marked lines from one circle to the next. If one has marks and the next doesn't then there aren't any markings to match. Why mark on the front of the fabric? You'll see in a moment.



I pinned a marked circle to an unmarked one.... wrong sides together. Not right sides as normally is done when piecing fabric.




Next... I sewed on one side of the drawn square. Then I opened the seam and pressed it really flat with plenty of steam. See... this hides the marked line on the front of the fabric.




Let me explain.... in traditional robbing Peter to pay Paul quilts the square would be drawn on the wrong side, right sides would be sewn together, the arc folded toward the back of the fabric, and a small piece of fabric placed inside the arcs to hide the back side of the fabric.

I decided to just use the plain denim without the extra squares of fabrics and I decided to do some decorative stitching with various colors of thread instead of a traditional blanket stitch. So this is what came next.... some colorful decorative stitching.




This was a great opportunity to empty some bobbins. I used the M size bobbins (from the quilting machine) as spools on my domestic machine. Then used up most all the small bobbins with just a bit of thread on them. If I ran out of color on an arc I just changed colors anyway. I like the scrappy look even in threads.

Here I have the next seam line stitching done in the row and ready for decorative stitching. I was careful that I put another unmarked circle with one that is marked. I had to also be careful that the circles form a straight row. It would be too easy to get the rows going crooked.




When I had the rows sewn and started putting rows together.... I discovered this problem. I wanted to have a straight line to follow but the unmarked circles in the row didn't have one.




So I marked one to follow. No, I would not change the way I started with only half the circles marked. This is much easier to mark after the rows are sewn together. I was careful that the sewing line matched up at the intersection.... otherwise the quilt would have a hole in it there.




And here the rows are being sewn together. Denim gets heavy so I did the decorative stitching as I put the rows together instead of waiting until it's finished. Also, if you are doing a really large quilt like this it would become hard to handle as the stitching is done.




Here are more of the rows sewn together. I really like this quilt! I wish I had more denim squares so I could make it larger.



Ok, this isn't the finished quilt but close enough for you to get the idea. When I get these sewn together I will fold up the side pieces and do the decorative stitching along the edge. No binding required either. It's just the right size for a baby to lay on when they are learning to turn over and Moma puts them on the floor.




I hope you like my idea of an alternative quilt.