Baby Umbrella Quilt

Here are pictures of the baby quilt that got shorter. As you can see, it was really an easy fix to remove a couple of rows. I wish all problems were so easily taken care of.

Someone told me Christmas is almost here. That means I should probably do some shopping.
I need to put the sewing and quilting on hold.
But, oh, it is just so much more fun!

It Got Shorter

I quilted my little baby quilt the other day. It got shorter! Not the time it took to quilt, but the actual quilt.
And I'm not talking an inch or so. Say, how about 11 inches!

I made this cute little quilt, all baby blues, yellows and umbrellas.
I found the perfect backing. I didn't have to piece it. That's always a bonus.

I loaded the backing on the frame, or should I say I started to load the backing.
I pricked my finger with a pin, got blood on the fabric and had to take it off and put it through the washer and dryer.

OK. Do it tomorrow.

Tomorrow came. I started all over again.
Success! The simple meandering quilting that I do on the frame was looking halfway decent.

Until I saw what I did.
Did I say " Oops, I did it again"

I quilted down to the last couple of passes that I would need to make with my Juki and what did I see behind my quilt?

Canvas!!
Not cute little polka dot backing fabric, but canvas. The stuff that I pinned my backing to. The stuff that stays on the roller.

I caught myself just in time. I didn't quilt over the canvas.

I had put the quilt top on in the wrong direction. No wonder I had so much extra backing on the sides.

"So what to do" I asked myself. I could take this thing off the frame, go buy more backing, wash and dry it, sew more backing to the back, or something else.

I did the something else.

The quilt is made up of rows. So I unsewed two rows.
It got shorter.

The baby will never know.

Still Here

I'm still here. I've just been taking a break. Today I finally pinned on a small baby quilt on my Juki /Grace set up. I quilted a few passes and my back was hurting, so I will finish that tomorrow. Then I will post a photo.

I've been busy making potholders. I have put them up on Etsy to sell. They are made with flannel and are chenille on one side with Insulbright in the middle.

I started another quilt. It's a new one and will be my next pattern.
To finish it, I need some black Kona.

Sounds like a trip to the fabric store.

I put up a new item on my website.
Well.... it's only half new. I am gift wrapping Stitching Lines for you to send to quilting buddies. If you have tried Stitching Lines, I am sure you know it would make a great little
Secret Santa gift or stocking stuffer.

Another Meandering Pines

I hope I haven't shown this Meandering Pines quilt before. I can't find it in my archives. but if I have, I apologize. Anyway, I finally finished it up with the binding. That task can really slow me down. Absolutely, it's not one of my favorite aspects of quilting!

The quilt is made up of lots of different greens. My scrap box got dumped over and over again, looking for just the right "pine trees".

The light/medium blue dotted batik was perfect for the sky.
And I just happened to have a woody batik that I have kept around forever.
It was calling out to me " I am a trunk".

Nobody would know, but I messed up on the block placement for this particular quilt.
And I'm not telling you what I did wrong! It works either way.

That's one more project finished!

Moving Day

Today is moving day for my daughter Carol and her husband Doug. This has been a very long process for them.
They started looking for a house to buy way back in April. They wanted in on the government rebate and the houses were priced right. What they found, though, was that low prices can be deceiving. With all the foreclosures and short sales on the market, they thought that surely they would find a house quickly. What they didn't realize was how much of a hand the greedy banks had in all these sales. Yea, the houses would be priced low, but that was only a teaser. As soon as the bank would get a few offers, they would put out a request for a "best and final" offer. Carol was outbid close to 30 times. The final prices were sometimes well over 30-40 thousand above asking price and this was for some pretty yucky houses!

The banks got this economy into the shape it is now and they are prolonging it by screwing around with the buyers. The worst was a short sale with a bank that eventually pulled out of the deal without even notifying Carol, Doug, the sellers realtor or Carol's realtor.

Happy Moving Day Carol and Doug. You deserve it!

A New Old One

Last year, at a quilt show, another vendor told me that if I was going to continue doing quilt shows, I would have to constantly make new samples. And she was so right.
I have had customers remind me, that they have seen my quilts somewhere else
where I was a vendor. Ouch!
They may like what they see, but they also want to see something new.
That means, not only do I need to work on new designs, each with new quilts, but keep going back and remaking the old.

So, in the interest of presenting something new and exciting, I made a new Scattered Leaves quilt this week. It came out very pretty.

The inner border is always a little tricky for me.
This time the quilt was getting a little too serious. Too matchy, matchy.
I found this beautiful stripe in my fabric cupboard that was a little woodsy looking and
I think it lightened up the whole quilt.

My daughter Carol is going to see this and want this quilt.
She loves these colors.

I wish I had made this for the last few shows. The time of year was just right.

I Found A Really Neat Blog

As a child of the fifties, (oops, I just gave my age away) I always love finding photos from that era. And I found the neatest blog today. It really brings backs lots of memories. Check it out: 1950 Atomic Ranch House blog. It is lots of fun.