Iit has been areally long while...

Ok so it has been a really long long while since I have blogged. I have been quilting but not nearly as much. I have started a block of the month with a lady at work. I will have to upload my pictures later. I am thinking about starting another block of the month... pictured here...

http://store.stitchinheaven.com/stores_app/Browse_Item_Details.asp?Shopper_id=81791261358528179&Store_id=203&Page_id=23&Item_id=16732

I think this one would be cute for Lauren. I know she has one already but we all could use more quilts... right?
I have found a great quilt shop not that far from our house, well in comparison to where the old shop was in Heidelberg.(sp?)

I will upload pics later....

IT has been a while

Ok, so it has been some time since I have posted on this blog, and with good reason. We had another baby and we are getting ready for a move. I have finished the VHC quilt, but I still need to take pictures. I have started another quilt, a pinwheel one, however I am not sure I will be done with the top before my sewing machine gets picked up next week. I am going to try to have the top done so that I can (TRY) hand quilting it. We will see how that goes!!!

coming close to being finished with another one....

Here is a picture of the VHC (Very Hungry Caterpillar) pieced together and hanging on my wall while I am basting it together. THE THING IS HUGE!!! It is bigger than a throw for sure. I had a good amount of excess backing so i may try to make a pillow case to go with it.
Here is a picture of the design I am quilting into the quilt this go around. pretty simple, but with such a busy and colorful quilt I did not want anything to add to it or take away from all the colors, so I kept it simple with white thread and meandering stars. :)

The Very Hungry Caterpiller, almost patched together

So I finished the top minus boarders, at the stitch and gab last night. I also started it at the stitch and gab last night. I took it out this morning to take a picture and add it to the blog but someone saw it before I could take the picture and decided it was his. (Which it is, when it is done.) SO I could not get a complete picture, or one with out Jayden on it, so here ya go... The real challenge was getting it away from him to put away.

It's Done!!!

OK, I am done with Laurens Quilt!!! I finished it up yesterday when Jayden was sleeping. Here are some pictures of it complete. Now today during his nap time I am going to iron and cut the fabrics for the VHC (very hungry caterpillar) quilt.

Here is a picture of the backing and the quilt label I made for the quilt. This is the first quilt label I have ever made.
Here is a picture of Sun Bonnet Sue, here you can see some of the quilting.
Here is a close up of some of the nine patches.

Here is a picture I took outside, so that it would not look too yellow due to the indoor lighting.

Perfection?

Looking at the new edition of any quilting magazine, you think wow that looks great, why do my quilts turn out so well not so perfect. Quilting is an art not everyone has the same take on the same stitches. While the work in the magazines is absolutely beautiful, the artists have years of experience and thousands and thousands of dollars behind the work. Can I produce the same work with my machine and skill, maybe, some day. But then that begs one to question, would I want to? At times and with some projects yes. But the antique quilts that are collected today were made with no sewing machine and not for beauty but for propose. So I asked my self while looking at my uneven stitches on my Lauren Quilt what is the purpose of this quilt? Well to say it simply, to give a quilt to Lauren that she can cuddle up to when she is 1, 20 or 50 and say my mom made this for me when I was still in her belly. I am not entering it in a contest or having it judged by anyone but my self. (OK so I am so my worst critic.) So I need to relax and take a deep breath and except my uneven stitches and lop sided applique and just hope that when my oldest son said "Mom, Lauren will not know the difference" he was telling the truth.

Now on to lessons learned so far...
1.) thick thread is not for quilting, this is what was causing my looping on the back side.
2.) it really sucks to have to take out quilted stitches that are not even
3.) I have already learned this lesson, but it is worth stating again. quilting on a roll is great but a mess when it is time to take off the paper. ;)

If I get some good time in today i actually think I can have the quilting done today, I only have 3 more rolls. I can attack the binding tomorrow and then I will be done.

ugg!

Ok so it has been a while since I have blogged any thing. Of course that means it has been a long time since I have quilted. But today I have gotten back on track. I have accomplished several things today.


1.) Cut and sewed together the backing. ( I am still in love with this fabric)


2.) Basted the quilt together. This I did on my wall, yes I said wall. I am way to pregos to be basting on the floor, so I taped the backing on the wall sprayed the basting spray and went to town. See picture below.


3.) Started quilting the quilt.


here are some pictures of what I accomplished today...

This is a picture of the bottom, I put Laurens name on it but I do not like the way it looks, I am just going to hope that it looks better once I quilt it down.

Here is the design that I am quilting in to the quilt.

Another one of the design laid out...

Here is one of me basting the quilt using the wall. Here I am half way done.

So I started quilting it, but I am having issues... My tension is way off, but I have not figured out how to fix it so that my thread does not break and I do not end up with a rats nest in the back.

I am hoping to have it completed early next week, grant it that I get the tension figured out. ;{