Quilts Who Went Home

A few quilts went home this week.  The first two quilts were quilted with Glide thread.
First, the dirt bike quilt went home with 8 year old, Kelsey, for his bed.

 

 

Kelsey took a quick look at his quilt and said, "OOuu cool Grandma" and was off to play with my dogs, Harry and Rascal.

 

The beautiful Trip Around the World quilt went home too.  Here is a better picture of it.

 



The final quilt to go home this week was a Tinker Bell quilt.

This was a twin size quilt.

 

This one presented a little bit of a challenge.  Grandma had made a previous quilt in pink for one granddaughter and this lavender one is for the next granddaughter.  I didn't get to see the other quilt but they brought me pictures of the quilting with a ruler laying in the picture.  This allowed me to judge the size of the quilting and try to match it.  YLI confetti variegated thread was used on the back and Omni Lt. Mulberry on the front.  Always a challenge with tension getting the dark thread not to show on the back and/or the light thread to show on the front.  My Avante handled it beautifully with some minor adjusting.

 

Does anybody fall in love with each quilt as you finish quilting it?  I do! Thank you to my customers for bringing me wonderful quilts to quilt.

 

Yours in quilting,

Terry

 

 



Back in the Studio

My husband has been in the hospital and now home recuperating.  He plans to return to work on Tuesday after the Memorial Day weekend.  We will get back on a normal schedule then. 

I returned to my studio trying to finish customer's quilts who have been patiently waiting.

This dirt bike quilt is headed home to an 8 yr. old boy.  I used the stars and loops pattern that came on my Avante.

This pattern provided great allover coverage. Grandma who made the quilt told me it would be washed a lot and this pattern will hold the quilt together through many washings.  The thread is Glide, color Slate.

The next quilt is a Trip Around the World Quilt made by Stephanie.  I am also using Glide thread.

Here is a screen shot of the quilting pattern.

Hope your day included a little sewing therapy, too.

Yours in quilting,
Terry

Beautiful Garden View to Start the Day

Each morning I get up and let the dogs out to take care of their morning business.  While they do that I check on my flower beds and pots.  This morning these two irises where in full bloom, with rain drops still on them from the overnight showers.  You can see a few buds in the background that will be blooming in the next day or so.  The irises I received from my grandfather many moons ago.  They surround our back deck.  There are some soft mauve ones that will bloom later.

Our "anniversary" clematis is blooming at the front door.  We purchased this two years ago on our anniversary at Hornbaker Gardens.  It survived the drought last year.  It is a burgundy color instead of the normal deep purple.

Headed down to longarm  to make some progress on customer's quilts today.  Will post pictures of progress tomorrow.

Yours in quilting,
Terry

Bonnie Hunter rocks in Illinois!

What a busy day.  Rod was released from the hospital after 6 days of fighting a skin infection in his face.  Woo Hoo! its so good to have him home and feeling so much better.

I was able to attend my class today with Bonnie Hunter (www.quiltville.com) called My Blue Heaven.  Today started out by Bonnie going around to each student and making sure we all a perfect quarter inch seam allowance. I bought a couple of Bonnie's rulers that help you set up your scant 1/4" seam allowance.

 She then taught us to use the Easy Angle rulers and the Companion Ruler.  The My Blue Heaven pattern is a free pattern on her website.

After lunch we had a show and tell session.  Everyone of you are so inspiring.  Some of the pictures are Bonnie's patterns and some are not.  Please enjoy the quilts as much as we did. :)

 Below are the show and tell pictures of the quilters that wouldn't be able to stay for Bonnie's trunk show.

Now the back....

Below is made of tiny 9 patch blocks that finish 1 1/2".  This quilt in in memory of the quilter's sister (in the yellow shirt).

Jackie, with big smile, was our host and treasurer of the guild.  This is her version of Weed Wacker.

The quilter in the lavender took this quilt class on Craftsy as a beginner class.  She's not a beginner anymore! :) Good job.

Dot Kuffel below in lavender.

Brown bag quilt below.  What a fun idea.

She is a snowbird and finished this large quilt in her motorhome.  Really?

I got to show Bonnie my Majestic Mountain quilt.  I took this class from Bonnie when she was in Arlington Hts., IL right after having my gall bladder out.

WooHoo, Easy Street.  Bonnie liked my border fabric, corner stones and green flange.

One more pic with Bonnie!

Below are my four blocks that I completed in class.  The last picture from show and tell is a beautiful blue and cream quilt that is a work in progress.

Thank you to IVQG, Shelley Serby and Jackie for being gracious hostesses.  Thank you to Bonnie Hunter for being a great teacher, quilter, and mentor.  I am honored to know to you.

Have a great weekend!

Yours in quilting,
Terry

DJ Litl' Aaron

Many of you know our son, Aaron, and also know that he was in a life threatening car accident on 12/24/11.  He has fully recovered.  He currently works for L.W. Schneider as quality control and is a DJ on the weekends.

The past two weekends have been big productions for Sherrard and Princeton's Prom.
Above is a picture of the set-up at Wise Guys Bar and Grill banquet hall for Princeton's dinner and dance.  In this picture the light bar is still low for adjustments and was later raised for the final production.  Aaron spent a large amount of time planning the light show and censoring music and lyrics for the high schools.  The final results were stunning.  Please visit 815 Productions and Event Planning  and/or Aaron Johnson on Facebook for videos and pictures. 

We are very proud of Aaron for his accomplishments in healing, building his body and mind, and making this new career choice. Rock On, Aaron!  Whoop, Whoop!

Yours in quilting,
Terry

Lovely Leaf Quilt

I finished a lovely leaf quilt last week for a customer.  It left me a little baffled at first when choosing the quilting pattern and thread.

So I took a trip up to Cousin's Quilting in LaMoille, IL.  Lou Tuntland and I had a fun morning laying out quilts and discussing thread choices.  Lou and Doug Tuntland own Cousin's Quilting in the small town of Lamoille.  They are Nolting Longarm Dealers, selling many types of longarm threads (YLI, Omni, Quilter's Choice, Signature, Glide, Bottom Line, etc.) Also, available is Legacy batting, rulers, Intelli Quilter, longarm classes and rental.

I took four customer quilts with to match threads with.  The leaf quilt provided quite the surprise.  I purchased a gold thread by Glide and used the quilting pattern "Bending in the Wind" by Anne Bright.com.

 

The Glide thread basically disappears on the cream leaf blocks but enhance the large dark blocks.
Congratulations, Gloria on a beautiful quilt!

Yours in quilting,
Terry

Thursday Tip

I have been trying not to start new quilts and work on UFO's.  Haven't been totally successful at that resolution, so the new quilts I have started I have stayed caught up with each month.

I am working on two Block of the Month (BOM) quilts:  Country Threads free BOM and Quilter's Garden Legacy Quilt.  My TIP is complete each BOM assignment as soon as you get it.  If you complete the blocks at the first of the month, then you stay on track, and there is no catching up or stress at the end of the month.  Quilter's Garden offers a $10 gift certificate drawing for those who complete their blocks.  I am using my drawer of Thimbleberry fabrics to complete the Country Threads BOM.

Below are the two blocks (12 1/2 inch and 6 1/2 block).

Below are the two blocks for May at Quilter's Garden.

 

Yours in quilting,

Terry

Three Days Until Bonnie!

Do you remember the movie, Rainman, with Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise?  Dustin Hoffman's character was always saying, "Ten minutes to Whampner".  Well in my case its "three days until Bonnie".  Bonnie Hunter, www.quiltville.com , will be in Ottawa, IL, to teach My Blue Heaven on Friday and a trunk show at 7pm. 

Several weeks ago when we had bad weather, I spent quite a bit of time cutting up a whole drawer of blue and cream fabrics for My Blue Heaven.  The Illinois Valley Quilt Guild was going to have a cutting day in prep for this class and we were going to be able to swap fabrics.  The flooding that followed the bad weather prevented the cutting day/fabric swap as the church basement was flooded where the event was to be held.  My Accu Cut Go got a work out and then I spent time sub-cutting fabrics for the blocks.  I have a whole pile of fabric strips waiting to be swapped.  I love getting the benefit of swapping to get a wider variety in my scrap quilts.

If the hubby is better, will head to Ottawa early Friday morning.  I am hopeful some of the ladies will still want to exchange fabrics.  Thanks to Shelley Serby and IVQG for all their planning for this event.

Plan to take lots of pictures to post later.

Yours in quilting,
Terry

Hand Work In The Hospital

My husband is in the hospital this week with a face infection.  This is a man that is never sick and never misses work.  Apparently, he had about 6 ingrown hairs on his chin from shaving too close.
He pulled the hairs out and infection set in.  Friday night he had a fat lip when he came home from work.  We went out for our usual Friday night pizza date and when leaving the Pizza Cellar, Rod got a bad case of the chills.  We went straight home, took his temp and wrapped him up in a quilt and afghan.  Saturday, we saw the doctor at a prompt care facility and started antibiotics.  Sunday morning, Rod asked me to take him to the emergency room.

Below is a picture of Indy, Rod's Australian Shepherd, trying to comfort him in the lazy boy chair.

So we are in the hospital and I have been working on hand work.  I am working on The Christmas Wish Quilt by Red Brolly (www.redbrolly.com).

This was a free pattern offered last fall and I am finally getting around to tracing a few designs so that I can carry it with me.  I don't have a Christmas quilt to hang on the wall and so this is my motivation to finish it for Christmas 2013.  Mmmm....like I have nothing else to do, right?

Yours in quilting,
Terry

Life Gets in the Way

Yes, it has been one month since I posted on my blog.  This is suppose to be my modern journal but life seems to get in the way.  I really don't know where the time went but I can think of a few things that have happened in the past thirty days.

1.  Got a new hot water heater.  Boy, do the showers feel good now.  Nothing better than a hot shower to get you up and started in the morning.  I know the hubbster appreciates his hot shower in the evening after a long day at work.

2.  Working on getting prepared to send Indy, our Australian Shepherd, out on the show circuit with a handler.

3.  New Handi Quilter Avante is set up and running.  I have been working to learn all the new things on this longarm.  I completed three charity quilts on it before starting on a customer's quilt.  I love how quietly it runs and like the new patterns that came preloaded on the computer.

4.  I am trying to run two longarm machines and get caught up on customer quilts, so I can quilt a few of my own.  There is one problem, and its a good problem, a customer calls with another quilt about the time I get caught up. :)

Never, did I think my quilting business would take off like this when I retired last year.
I feel very blessed to be able to get up and do something I enjoy every day.

Yours in quilting,
Terry