Design Wall Monday

Winston Ways, from Adventures with Leaders and Enders, is on my design wall today.  I have all the rows assembled, and now I just need to sew them together.  I've been piecing on my new (to me) Singer 301.  This was my retirement present to myself, and man does this baby go!  I love the sound she makes as she zooms effortlessly through seams.  Originally a quilting friend who also is retiring from teaching soon and I thought we would buy NEW machines, but once I tried this machine I knew I didn't need to drop thousands of $$$ on a new machine. 

 

Enjoy your Monday.

Slow Sunday Stitching

Today I will be joining my friend Nancy and her mother for slow stitching.  We all love to hand quilt..In fact, Vivian (Nancy's mom) has never ever had one of her quilts quilted by a machine of any type.  She hand quilts every single one of them!  Unlike most of us, she doesn't have a backlog of tops that need quilting.  Nancy keeps hoping her mom will run out and quilt some of her tops for her, but Viv just tells her she can do them herself.  Viv is 93 years old and still quilts several hours every day.  I once asked her why she didn't machine quilt and she looked at me like I was crazy.  "I like to hand quilt.  It's my favorite part of the process." she replied.

I'm going to be working on one of two things.  The blue and cheddar quilt is basted and ready for quilting.  I just need to decide on a thread color.

  If it is too hot to have a quilt on my lap then I will applique the leaves and stems on the "Where Poppies Grow" BOM.  I'm falling behind on this BOM.  This is block 4 for me, and block 8 was just released last week.  The piecing and applique is time consuming, so I have to be fully alert and in the mood to start a block.

Enjoy your Sunday!

S'Mores Complete

I love, love, love this quilt!!  It is a Jo Morton design that was published in the February 2013 issue of American Patchwork & Quilting.  According to my records, I started it in December of 2012.  After piecing the top, I couldn't decide whether to hand or machine quilt it.  I decided that hand quilting wouldn't show up, so I would machine quilt straight lines with a walking foot.  After quilting about 12 lines across the top, I HATED it.

  So... I took out all those wobbly machine stitches and decided to hand quilt.  It actually quilted up nicely, but I was right - the quilting isn't very noticeable.  That's ok because I love all the different fabrics and the pattern so it takes center stage.  Don't you just love how the fabric crinkles up once it is quilted and washed?

Now I can get going on the next quilt - it is already basted and ready to go.