Bargellobowl

Last night I took the last of the machine quilting stitches in my Scrappy Bargello quilt. This quit was started during Superbowl Sunday on Feb, 3, 2008 as part of Bargellobowl.

http://silverthimblequilting.blogspot.com/2008/02/bargellowbowl-08.html

Bargellobowl was an group of quilters organized through the Internet who would rather quilt than watch the Superbowl. The pattern is Scrappy Bargello and is from Bonnie Hunter's website. My version of this quilt is made from scraps of Christmas fabrics. This quilt was quilted with the Circle Lord Baptist Fan template.

It is rare lately for me to take the time to quilt one of my own flimsies. I have a stack of customer quilts to work on, but I thought I would warm up the machine on one of my own quilts first. Today, will be spent working on quilts for others.

Quilt Finishes While Computer is Down

I have been disconnected from the computer world for the past week. My computer crashed on May 4 while I was on line talking to a friend on line. Thanks to my daughter sharing her laptop with me throughout the week, I was able to keep limited contact with my on-line friends. Thanks to the computer talents of my son, my computer is now back up and running and I have rejoined the blogging world and I am back "connected" to all of you.

While I did not have my computer, I did manage to make good use of my time and finished off some quilts.
This is my dryer sheet diamond quilt. This quilt was completed to the flimsy stage on May 27, 2007 and was long arm machine quilted using the Baptist Fan template on January 6, 2008.

This is my Hibiscus Convergence quilt. We made this quilt on a FAB Saturday in March. Although it is hard to see in this picture, this quilt was long arm machine quilted with the clam sheet template.

This quilt is the product of a couple of challenges and a FAB Saturday. LindaJ's quilting group challenged themselves to use the feature fabric in this quilt, the merrkittys in a quilt. Pam challenged the FABs to use the yellow star fabric in a quilt using the 9 Patch Pizzazz pattern. The FABs are donating their finished 9PP quilts to Pam's M2M project. Tada...presenting IIWII (It Is What It Is), my Merkitty 9 Patch for Mexico quilt! Now don't say that three times in a row! LOL

Let the Sun Shine In!

Today's temperatures were the same freezing temperatures we have had for the last couple of days. However, the sun was shining! It was too cold to be outside, but it was warm and cozy inside my studio. I have a large window in front of my long arm and this morning, I opened the blind and let the sun shine in!

It was so sunny, you could see the reflection of the quilt that I was working on in the window.

This is the quilt that I worked on today--not my quilt, it belongs to a customer. The last time I stopped to buy thread from my supplier, she showed me a new product from Superior Threads called Lava. I bought a spool to try and this quilt was the perfect quilt to try it on. This thread colour is Soft Breeze.

I leave you with two parting shots of my handsome, faithful companion, Joey.

Double Four Patch Progress

This week I finished putting the borders on my Double Four Patch quilt. Friday night I loaded this quilt on the long arm and I finished the quilting before supper Saturday night. I was still inspired and my energy levels were high so after supper last night I continued on and finished machine sewing the binding to the front of this quilt. I now only have the hand sewing of the binding to the back of the quilt to do.

The weather forecast is for cool days this week--temperatures below zero. This is perfect weather for stitching binding as you can enjoy the warmth of the quilt as it is draped over your lap while hand stitching. You know where

you can find me in the evenings this week!

Project Progress

This is the progress on my projects since New Year's Day.

1. I have pieced another 17 color catcher string blocks. They still need to be trimmed, but that is a job I will leave till an evening in front of the TV. This is an ongoing project. As I have color catchers and strings of fabric, I continue to make these and store them in a box. When I have enough to make a quilt, I sit down and piece the top. I will never run out of string blocks, nor will this project ever end.

2. This is the color catcher string quilt that I quilted on New Year's Day. It now has a binding machine sewn to the front. All this quilt needs is the hand work to fasten the binding to the back of the quilt. I will be taking this project with me to work on at my Monday night quilt group.

3. This is my dryer string diamond quilt. I finished this quilt to the flimsy stage back on May 27, 2007. It was time it was quilted! I quilted it using the Baptist Fan template. This one just needs the binding now.

4. This is my Christmas Patience Corners quilt. I worked on adding blocks to this one in the last couple of days. Currently this top is 73" wide. I bought some backing on Friday (from the last of the bolts left from Liquidation World's sale) that was 108" wide. I think I will make this quilt as wide as I can to make maximum use of the backing. That means I will likely need to add another 1 1/2 blocks (if you count a group of four squares as a block) to the width of this quilt for a total of 7 1/2 blocks in width. I started this quilt top back in December 2006.

This is a picture of the wide fabric that I bought for the back of my Patience Corner quilt. It is bright and wild. Those flowers are at least 10" across. I think I mentioned before that bright green is my new favorite colour!

Customer Quilts

The last customer quilt for Christmas delivery is finished and off the frame! Picture me doing a happy dance!

As I scan through the pictures of the customer quilts that have been finished recently, I wonder how many of these quilts will be under the tree this year, ready to surprise friends and family, ready to wrap the recipient in a warm hug.........

What Quilt is on Your Bed?

Many bloggers have been showing pictures of the quilt that is currently on their bed so I thought I would join in. This is a picture of the quilt that is on my bed right now. This picture was taken just after this top was quilted on my long arm in November 2005.

This quilt was made from the book by Sharyn Squier Craig, and is called, Design Challenge: Half Log Cabin Quilts and is currently out of print.

The following three pictures are of this quilt actually on my bed. Because the bed is large in relation to the room, I can not get back far enough to get a picture of the whole quilt.

Yesterday, my mother, my daughter, and I headed into the 1st Annual BC Creative Expo where my mother and I bought some new software for organizing and scrapbooking our digital photos. These pictures were altered using that program. When I originally took the pictures they were on an angle. The software we purchased allows us to alter the horizon and crop the picture. This is how I have gotten the funky, artsy looking pictures that are cropped with more than 4 sides. I can see I will be playing with this software for some time to come!

This quilt measures 89 1/2" x 104 1/2" and was quilted with Aurifil #2445 Dusty Pink thread in the Baptist Fan design. The soft pink thread picks up the odd bit of pink that is in the blue fabrics without being too pronounced. I often get asked if I deliberately picked a thread that would show. Yes, this was a very conscious move and I love the effect.

Laurie and Jamie's Wedding Quilts Finished

Did you notice the title of this post? Yes, it says "quilts" --as in more than one.

If you remember back on July 22 I showed you the fabrics that were part of what I was calling the South American Challenge. "Plan A" was to make a Trip Around the World Quilt reflecting Laurie's (my niece) many trips to far away countries over the years, inspired by the colours in the fabrics that Laurie brought back home to Canada from South America. This plan was proceeding along just fine until I reached the point where I was going to apply the borders to the quilt. The fabrics from South America were not quilting fabrics. These fabrics were of a different weight than the quilting fabrics used in the Trip Around the World quilt and were loosely woven and required stabilizer before I could cut them. I just could not continue with this plan. It was clear that a quilt combining the quilting fabrics and the woven fabrics was not going to happen.

On to "Plan B". I decided to finish the Trip Around the World quilt with quilting fabrics, adding a narrow border (actually a flap of fabric) and a wider border made from quilting fabrics in the main body of the quilt. In order to still make a quilt from the South American fabrics, I decided to showcase those fabrics in their own quilt. My husband started to refer to this quilt as the "Bonus Quilt". A simple nine patch made from these fabrics was backed with the same navy blue flannel fabric used to back the Trip Around the World quilt, and quilted in the same manner as the Trip Around the World quilt using the Circle Lord Baptist Fan.

The following three pictures are of the queen size Trip Around the World Quilt.

The following two pictures are of the Nine Patch throw made from the South American fabrics.

The next picture is the happy couple on their wedding day in Hastings, England taken on May 26, 2007. The couple on the left are my BIL and SIL--parents of the bride. Laurie and Jamie were married in England but because many of the Canadian friends and family could not make the trip to England for the special day, a second celebration was held yesterday, August 25, 2007 here in Canada. The quilts were presented to the happy couple at yesterday's celebration.

Congratulations Laurie and Jamie!

A Quilt sewn together,

With utmost care,

quilted with love,

is a treasure to share.

A Quilt for Me

This is another UFO that was completed in 2005. This is a quilt for my bed. After many years of making quilts for others, I have something for my own bed. This pattern is Half Log Cabin by Sharyn Squier Craig. This quilt was quilted on my long arm in the Baptist Fan pattern.

I started quilting in 1997 thanks to my good friend, Colette. This quilt was one of the first projects that I started. After spending approximately 7 years on the UFO pile it is now put to use!