No I’m not switching from being a hand quilter to a machine quilter – but I had a fun experience today of trying out a AQS Millennium Long Arm (I hope I have that name right). EDITED: it is a APQS Millennium Long Arm 8:27PM CJ from “From My Studio – Created by CJ” lives about 15 miles from me and invited me over to play 
We have been following each others blogs for sometime now and finally met about a month ago and get along well.
This is the APQS Millennium - CJ loaded a"sandwich" to practice on. I had never tried one out and it was fun seeing how it works. It is always nice to know how other quilters do things - especially when it is totally different than your own. I was almost afraid to touch it at first! I didn't want to break anything LOL
I believe she called these sheets of yellow - "pattern boards" -but I could be wrong on that - correct me if I am wrong CJ. You lay them out on the backside of the set up and follow with the laser dot. I know I am not explaining all this right I bet! LOL (EDITED: the yellow pattern boards you follow with a stylus not the laser) 8:27PM
This is a "pantograph" a drawing - you follow the lines with the laser dot - believe me this is not as easy it is sounds. I gave it a whirl and my design was way off! I can see it takes a lot of practice to get it right.
I came away from this with a new understanding of machine quilting. Hand quilting and machine quilting are very different indeed – both take time and patience and both create beautiful quilts.
CJ is starting up her long arm machine business for the public and if you click on the link at the top of this post it will take you to her blog – on her side bar you will find the link to her brochure that list her prices. I saw her quilting up close and personal and I recommend her to others who want their quilts machine quilted. She does a really good job – I have seen some other machine quilting locally that I would not recommend and would never ever refer people to use. She does a really professional job and uses really nice thread, batting (quilters dream mainly) and nice fabric for the backings or you can supply your own I believe.
Continue reading about Long Arm Quilting – yes that is me talking LOL
Two more examples of small block sampler quilts – only difference between these and Dear Jane is the size of the blocks are a little larger and also they use more traditional blocks that most all have heard of. The Dear Jane blocks seem very unusual almost like Jane wanted to make the blocks as difficult at moments to make as possible – maybe to distract her from the war news going on around her?
I had heard of the Sylvia’s Bridal Sampler patterns – by Jennifer Chiaverini for some time and have meant to pick up the book for ages and never got around to it. The Farmers Wife by Laurie Aaron Hird is newer and has only been out for about six months I think. Astrid from Grandma’s Red Needle had mentioned the other day that she has both books and is intending on starting to make them soon. We send e mails back and forth from time to time and discussed me making one of these sometime in the future after my second Dear Jane is finished and I thought no time better to track down copies of the books and start looking them over. More sampler books that I have are “Nearly Insane” and “Just Plain Nuts” by Liz Lois (I just love the names of these books!). Maybe instead of doing each quilt from each book I should pick out patterns from all four books and combine into one large quilt? All of the blocks from these books are six inch blocks I believe so that would make it easy to mix and match. If or when I get around to starting this new venture it would be a scrap quilt with a white/cream background like the first Dear Jane quilt but the difference would be that I would make this one much larger so it would fit on a queen or king size bed.
Whatever I decide it certainly will not be until I am finished with the second Dear Jane quilt “Insanity Revisited.”
The new books:
I buy most of my books from Amazon.com. I have no local quilt shop to support so it doesn't really matter where I buy from. I have noticed in recent months that Amazon quite often has prices for new quilt books priced lower than the used copies!! You might want to check them out. I saved on both and got the two combined for the price of one. I also buy books from the American Quilters Society but I admit to saving money when I can and buy where I can save some dollars.
I visited my mother yesterday for the day and have Lifeline in place for her and all the paperwork done. While I was visiting one of my brothers – David – stopped by for a quick visit with mom as he was in her town for business from work. I missed seeing him last time I was there so that was a nice surprise as I hadn’t seen him since Christmas, he was surprised I was there as well as I had intended to contact all siblings once again after I had things set up to let them know their share on the price, the appointment was set up much faster than I had anticipated. David lives a bit further from my mom then quite a few of the siblings do that live in Arkansas. It was a nice surprise for mom too. I had talked to one of my sisters a couple days before so Mary had stopped by for a short visit also. After all left and it was just mom and I we went out and got a little shopping done, got something icy to drink it being such a hot day and then went back to her apartment for a short while before I took off for the 2 hour drive back home. I think she will be pleased with Lifeline and feel more secure knowing that if she falls or is very sick and can’t reach a phone that they are within a button’s reach away. I recommend all of you with elderly parents look in to this product – I have no affiliation with the company – just pleased with all I had heard about it and the person who came out to install and talk was very nice.
I hope everyone has a nice Memorial Day Weekend here in the states. Sunday we are going to Little Rock to visit with our daughter and son-in-law for part of the day and to deliver “Insanity” (Dear Jane) to them. Melanie has been waiting for its arrival for some time now. When I finished it in November I told her I needed to enjoy it for awhile before it left my house for her house – I thought six months of agony on her part was plenty
Continue reading about “The Farmer’s Wife” (sampler quilt) & “Sylvia’s Bridal Sampler”
There are numerous ways we draw designs on to our quilt tops. I bought a Sew Ezi Table about 3 years ago and I got the clear insert top also that could be used as a light box. I actually had not used it for that purpose until now. I drew a feather design on a piece of Mylar plastic (I didn’t have anything else on hand and didn’t want to run to Hobby Lobby) and thought to give it a try.
The shelve space under the insert is very narrow which is why I had not used it – you have to have a light under a light box in order for it to be a light box. Yesterday I got to thinking about it and decided to try out my little book light. After all it is a light and it is small – you sure can’t use anything larger – does anyone else have a lighting solution to this?
the narrow space to use a light in
the book light laying flat and the design taped to the clear insert
the book light laying flat under the clear insert on the narrow "shelf" (this is the area your sewing machine normally sits on)
the design showed through making it easy to trace. I taped my fabric in place so it wouldn't shift and used my mark be gone blue pen. The designed showed through better than this photo shows.
I have a large stencil of a feathered wreath that I am using on two of the plain blocks in the center of the quilt and then this design from the photo in the plain triangles and corners. I will be drawing a grid on it also for the empty spots.
Row 12 Block #1 - 25 more blocks to go - and 52 pieced triangles and 4 pieced corners - a bit of work still to go.
Continue reading about Drawing a quilting design onto a quilt top
Several weeks ago Vicki from “Field Trips in Fiber” had a give away – actually she is having more than one give away hop on over and see what she has. I won one of the give away’s and my prize arrived while I was at my mom’s visiting. Look at this fabulous hand dyed fabric that I got!!! Thank you Vicki!!!
2 nice bars of hand made soap, a card designed by Vicki and this wonderful 1 yard cut of hand dyed fabric - a surprise for me because for some reason I thought it was going to be a fat quarter!! hm-mm , now what to make with it - I have a feeling it is design time coming up.
I need to get busy now, been home for a couple hours and need to get some groceries in and do a few errands – hope the storms hold off!! I have a lot of family photos to go through and will be busy I am sure for the rest of the day.
Recently I was contacted by Marina & Darly of Quilt Inspiration, a blog that inspires one to quilt! This blog is full of inspiration to be creative!! This weeks blog article is about Dear Jane quilts and about half way through the article are my two Dear Jane quilts!! Thank you Marina and Darly for putting my quilts in your article. What a compliment.
(Edited: that is Marina & Daryl I spelled that wrong – 5/8/2010)
Some of the Dear Jane quilts featured in their article I had not seen before and there were some that I was familiar with. Like Anina’s from Twiddle Tails! That Rainbow Jane is great!! My quilt “Insanity” is shown and “Insanity Revisited” in the works is shown when it was only 5 rows completed – I have double that now and better get it done one day!
If you have not seen this blog – created this year – you might want to stop by and visit them – go back through their achieves and see all the beautiful quilts that that have talked about – anything from Tumbling Blocks to the Dear Jane quilts to very artistic quilts. I have not looked through the whole blog but I am working my way through it!
Some of you might be familiar with the Apple Blossom Quilts web site that belongs to Connie Sue Haidle of Iowa. Connie contacted me last month after wandering around blog land and saw that I had made the Christmas Baltimore Album quilt that she had designed. She asked if she could mention it and link it in her newsletter. I told her yes she could. It is always such a compliment when designer contacts you isn’t it! The newsletter came out today and there I am mentioned with a link to my quilt. Thank you Connie -
I am still in the process of hand quilting this quilt but I do intend for it to be finished in plenty of time for Christmas this year. I know I pointed several people to the pattern last year but if you are looking for a Christmas project there are plenty of patterns to choose from here. I refer to the quilt as “Christmas Baltimore Album” but it is actually called “Christmas Memories” . There are so many patterns available on Connie’s site take a moment to wander on through and look at all of the pretties on this site. If you like floral blocks there are a lot of those available too besides all of the Christmas patterns.
If you subscribe to her newsletter you also have access to some free patterns blocks. You can sign up for her newsletter at the link on her page.
I have had so many people stopping by to check out the quilt that my feedjit reader on my side bar has been blipping all day! What a nice sound
Thanks Connie for the mention of me in your newsletter.
First of all Happy Easter to everyone. We do not have any children here to do Easter things with but I did put one edible decoration on the table and we are munching off and on – candy doesn’t last long around here so I don’t buy a lot. It briefly got up to 76 degrees then some clouds and wind came in and dropped it 71. Here are some photos of our spring.
Flowers for Easter and some candy! A three tier candy dish and since I took this photo candy has been eaten and it is now a 2 tier dish!
The small red bud tree. This tree grew from seed. We have a larger red bud tree a distance away from this one about half of that tree has died though and doesn't look as well as this small tree does. It started to grow about 4 or 5 years ago.
The small dogwood tree we didn't plant this one either - well I should correct that we did plant this one but we dug it up from the woods when it was about a foot tall. We use to have several dogwood trees in the woods that have since died. We noticed this small one growing beside them and wanted one closer to the house so we dug it up about 10 years ago when it was barely a twig and here it is now.
Awhile back Jackie from Canton Village Quiltworks had a giveaway of two of Karen Griska's book "Quilts from the Selvage Edge" I won one of them!!
Jackie let Karen know who won the books and she autographed the books and sent them out. I like how she autographed mine - coincidence of names - Karen G. to Karen G. how cute is that!
Seeing as I now have a book on how to make quilts from the Selvage Edge - I guess I better start to save my selvages. Here I have three to start with. One day I will have to start going through my fabric to cut off the edges. If anyone wants to donate to the cause if you are not going to use your edges - send them to me!! they need to be about 1 1/2 inches wide.
While reading some news story’s on the internet this evening I ran across the following story in the “Arkansas Online” newspaper. I found it interesting and think some of you will too.
An 80 year old friendship quilt comes full circle:
A garage sale find has spurred precious memories for an 80 year-old Saltillo, Arkansas resident. (ArkansasOnline article)
Last summer, Kim Shock and her mother Debbie Kelley were poking around at a garage sale in Vilonia when Shock noticed an old red and white quilt laying in a carport with the name Lessie Martin written on one of its squares. She recognized it as the name of her great-great aunt.
“I knew I had heard that name,” Shock said. “I also knew she had died when I was 10 or 11.”
She summoned her mother who confirmed what Shock had suspected. They had stumbled on a friendship quilt that possibly had been quilted by more than one relative. The two walked away tickled to purchase the quilt for a bargain price of $7.50.
“We could hardly wait to get out of there with it,” Shock said. “I can’t tell you how excited we were.”
Read the full ArkansasOnline story: Arkansas family rediscovers old friendship quilt.
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Isn’t that neat to find a quilt at a garage sale that more than one relative had a hand in making!
I will be having a give away soon so keep an eye out. One of the winners of the last give away I had – Teri in Alabama does not have a blog but she wants to have a give away as a thank you for some neat give away’s that she has won over the last year. I will host the give away for Teri on my blog and she is donating the gifts. Keep an eye out I think I will announce it on Monday.
Continue reading about I Found an Interesting Quilting Story
As if I really need another quilt pattern!! LOL I saw a beautiful quilt on someones blog the other day and I tracked it down to “The Ozark Piecemakers Quilt Guild” in Springfield Missouri. (I have sent them a note but haven’t heard back). They have the most beautiful quilt for an opportunity quilt for their 2010 quilt show in September. If you want to buy tickets for a chance at it go to this link. Go to the sidebar on that page and go to OPQG Quilt Show and it will lead you to how to buy tickets. Here is a photo of the quilt — and does anyone know the name of the quilt pattern? – is there a book or pattern for it. Please let me know if you know where the patterns can be purchased. I of course want to put this on my “one day” list. I will send for tickets – but doubt I will win and will need to make one for myself so help if you know the pattern let me know. It looks like Hawaiian quilting doesn’t it – what do y’all think? Isn’t it just gorgeous!
2010 Donation quilt for the Piecemakers Quilt Guild in Springfield Missouri. This has got to be one of the most beautiful I have seen in awhile. If anyone knows where I can buy the pattern please let me know.
Today when I met Julie for sewing I got done with one Dear Jane block and got started on a second one which I finished after I got home. We had a good visit got caught up and had pizza delivered for lunch! Good cookies afterward that she had made. Today’s Dear Jane “Insanity Revisited” blocks:
Block #3 of Row 11 (rowK) yes it looks a little crooked - it will look straight once it is joined in the row and quilted
Block #4 Row 11 (K)
When I got home today my box of two quilters dream batting were waiting for me!! yeah I can finally get that quilt pin basted and started tomorrow.
I continued to work on “Insanity Revisited” last night and then again today and I managed to get two more blocks done. One more block needed for row 10 and that row will be ready to attach to the others!
Block 11, Row 10 - another with ovals - this one was easier though!
Row 10 block 12. I am not aiming for perfection, little mistakes are seen throughout this quilt. I just want to finish it and I do not take things apart and fix if I notice something is not quite right unless it is really bad! A little bit of lint here and there - the whites spots will brush off. Also some of those specks might be from the glue stick - I glue basted the handle down before I appliqued it.
I have settled on this stencil for the 2 inch wide sashing. There are two designs on this stencil as you can see - I will be using the lower one for the 2 inch white sashing and I might use the other one for the black outer border. I am not sure yet. For the inside of the blocks I am thinking more of a geometric shape. I had thought a daisy but because of all the colors in this quilt it could be for a boy or girl and seeing as I do not have any plans right now for it I thought it would be better to have it for an either or. The ruler on the orange block is one that I am fooling around with to come up with a geometric shape - maybe a square in a square on point ending as a 8 point star maybe?
Several people asked where did I find this pattern “So Charming”. Here is the link to the pattern. The Twiddle Tail Store. Go to the bottom of the page and you will see the pattern there. This store is from Anina and her blog is here. There are several more patterns in her store that I would like — but I’m waiting for a little while for any shopping as you all know until Paducah quilt show is over
