Tuesday, April 28, 2009

First Pillowcase

I made my first pillowcase today. I found a kit on the Connecting Threads website a few months ago on sale and purchased it mainly to get the pattern, because the sale price of the kit was cheaper than the pattern. It was fun to put it together, but I really had to run through the instructions a couple of times before really sitting down to sew. I didn't want to mess it up.

The fabric is very nice, not really my first choice of design but it does have fishing poles, books, and other things that I have done in my past represented in the different figures.

Monday, April 27, 2009

QuiltWoman.Com

I have to be careful not to get sucked into all the great websites for quilters. Today I discovered QuiltWoman.com. There is a blog attached that is wonderful, but of course that just leads to more links.


Nice Website

I have not ordered from this site yet, but I like it.

Cotton-Picking.com

Short Quilt Shop Hop

On Saturday, April 25, 2009, BFF and I went on a short quilt shop hop, it was my birthday gift from BFF.

We started at Quilt Country in Lewisville, TX. It was important for me to go there because that is where I found the Moda Metallic Marble that I was using in the cat quilt back, and I needed amore for the binding, or I would need another fabric.

When we arrived at Quilt Country the first thing I did (well, after a quick trip to the loo) was to go to where I knew they kept the Moda fabric I needed. Fortunately, they had 1 5/8 yards left, and I bought it all. I could not chance of not having that fabric on hand to finish that quilt back.

BFF and I found several fat quarters we liked and a birdhouse stencil for the cat quilt. I love Quilt Country but I do get very overwhelmed in there due to all the selections and the quilts they have throughout the store.

The next stop was The Quilter's Workshop in Carrollton, TX. They have moved into a new shop and I really liked the lay out. This is where I decided to use my gift from BFF. There was a pattern I really wanted and several beautiful fat quarters. BFF bought some Laurel Burch Secret Jungle fabric so that I can make her some pillowcases. The lady that helped us was named Cindy and let me tell you she had her hands full with the two of us. BFF and I had trouble agreeing to the accent fabrics to her pillowcases.

I had a great time, and I am glad BFF had a chance to see all the beautiful fabrics.

Sunday, April 26, 2009

"The Lost Quilter" by Jennifer Chiaverini

I read "The Lost Quilter" by Jennifer Chiaverini on my Kindle2 last week. It is what I would call an companion book to "The Runaway Quilt" by the same author, and I would recommend you read the "Runaway Quilt" first if you have not read any of these books before.

I love this series of books, and this one did not let me down. I felt as if I was right there with the slave Joanna observing what she observed, and wanting her to get free. I felt her strength with each word I read.

The boys forgot I had told them not to order the book for me because I was getting it on my K2 and so I have two copies. The great thing about the hardback copy is the quilt blocks that design the inside covers. They are in color and it helps you visualize the accompanying story.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Kindle2 Bag

I saved for several months, and used birthday money to buy myself a Kindle2 for my 50th birthday. I also purchased the Kindle 2 compatible cover because I like how the K2 snaps into the cover. However, the cover does not have a mechanism that keeps it closed during transit. Since my K2 will mainly be transported in my purse that bothered me. I was afraid other items in my purse would fall inside the cover and scratch my K2 screen.

Solution. I made a little drawstring bag to use while it is in my purse. It adds practically no weight, and folds up very small for storage in my purse when the K2 is not inside the bag.



Saturday, April 11, 2009

Even a Novice EQ6er Can Design


Since I really had no idea what I was going to use for the backing on the cat quilt for BFF J, I used my EQ6 (Electric Quilting 6) several times on this project.

The quilt kit that I used to get the panels for the front came with backing for the panels in the cat pattern on turquoise, but there was not enough to back the quilt top I designed using the panels. I actually tried to order more of the turquoise fabric for the back, but when the order arrived it was the cat pattern on purple. (That happens sometimes with colors on computers I was told by the company). When I tried to find the turquoise, every internet shop I called, and all the quilt shops I visited were either out and didn't know if they would get more, or they never carried it.

After some hesitation on my part to give up on finding the material I needed, I decided to try to get a design using EQ6. Now I admit that I haven't read the book that came with the software, or watched the videos, so it is hit and miss for me to use this wonderful software, but I was able to come up with many designs and color them in with the fabrics I had before deciding I didn't like any of the designs I had chosen. They just weren't giving me the "feeling."

Then BFF and I went shopping one day because I decided I wanted several different fabrics that coordinated with the quilt top for the back, even if I still hadn't decided on a final pattern. I figured 1/4 yard of each fabric would do, and I bought 15 different fabrics. I also knew I would have to coordinate the transition fabric from the front to the back by carrying on the richness of the front, but not over powering the back, or allowing the back to make the front look cheap. I knew in my head what I needed but it took a lot of shopping to find "the fabric." Once again I didn't know how much to buy, so I went with 1 yard. Then everything sat on the shelf, with no plan, no pattern, nothing, until BFF was looking through one of my new quilt magazines one day and mentioned how much she liked a particular pattern. I did not tell her at that time, because I had to read the directions, but I was pretty sure the back design had been decided.

The problem then became how to make the back the same size as the front. Adding blocks did not work due to the size of the blocks. Yes, I could have worked on resizing all the blocks and working it out, but that was more math than I cared to do for anyone, family, Sis, BFF, or the girls, and I don't know how to do that on EQ6. In the end, I made the blocks, and decided to make it work with the use of borders.

I pulled up the EQ6, drew out my block, put it into a quilt, colored the quilt with the fabrics that the oldest scanned in and then worked it all out from there. Then I checked the fabric yardage needed in what I designed, and I was ready to sew.

Once the borders are on, the back of the cat quilt should resemble something like this:



One of these days I will probably sit down and really learn all the ins and out of this software, but for now I have figured out enough to know that I will be pretty happy with the cat quilt back when it is completed, despite the fact that 2 black paw prints touch.


Friday, April 10, 2009

Main Part of Cat Quilt Back


I put the main part of the cat quilt back together tonight. I'm not thrilled with it because even though the youngest and I thought we had it so no two like colors touched each other I ended up with two of the black cat paws touching, and now that is all I can see when I look at the blocks. I have no idea how we missed that after all the time we worked on putting the blocks up and coordinating the colors.




Oh well, I know BFF won't mind since it has paws on it. Tomorrow I start on designing the border.

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

12 Blocks for Cat Quilt Back Are Done, Not in Proper Order Yet



I finished the 12 cat back quilt blocks tonight. I have not decided the order of the blocks yet. Right now they are on the design wall in the order I completed them. I definitely have to spend some time figuring out the design. I cannot have those two green diamond strips across from each other! It is driving me crazy, but I was too tired when I finished last night to concentrate on the final order.

It sure is bright!

Monday, April 6, 2009

Cat Quilt Back

I started working on the back of the cat quilt. I am making the back another quilt so that BFF will have a choice.

I am using a pattern called "Fat Quarter Breeze" from the Spring 2009 Fons&Porters Love of Quilting "Easy Quilts" magazine for the main part of the back, then I will be playing around with the border when I get the blocks done.

One thing about it, the back of the quilt will be the side BFF will want to use when she needs something to wake her up.

I have finished the first two blocks and hope do finish another one tonight after I make a large quantity of chicken salad and deviled eggs for a party tomorrow night.


First Two Blocks of Cat Quilt Back