Falling way behind

I've finished one of the UFOs that I signed up for on Finn's blog. I signed up to finish 5 however, so far I've only managed 2. I don't know where the time goes.

Here are a few pictures of the latest finished project.

This is another quilt that will be presented to a wounded soldier.

Happy Quilting!

Whirl Into Winter Giveaway

Debi is hosting a winter giveaway and I will be participating. I haven't decided on the prize yet so stay tuned. The Fall Into Fall Giveaway was so much fun that I wanted to play again. It's a lot of fun to visit other sites and learn so many different things about my fellow bloggers. Every site has such a variety of talent, they are all so inspiring.

If I'm quoting the rules correctly, the giveaway will be on January 1st. I'm sure there will be some lovely prizes so be sure to visit all the blogs. Just click on the snowflake at the right to view the details.

Happy Quilting!

The Joy of Finishing

Have you ever experienced the pure joy of finishing something?

I joined a block exchange with a group on the internet last year. The blocks were supposed to be finished and in their new homes by the end of June. To say the least, I didn't make it. It took me until last week to finish the last three. I make no excuses for myself. I've somehow developed this habit of not finishing quilty things over the years. It's always fun to start new things and take new classes. Someone once told me that I loose intrest in things when I find out how they are done. I am also a person of my word so I had to finish.

Here's the pictures to prove it.........

They have been mailed and should all have arrived at their new homes by now.

I've also joined another internet block swap. This one is in 30's fabrics. They are not my favorites but I'm in now. I intend to keep up with this one and send them out in the alloted time.

I also took another class. This one was with Jo Morton, I'll post pictures of the top as soon as I finish it (Yes, I did say finish).

I hope you'll all check back for new info. Untill then........

Happy Quilting!

And The Winner Is......

The winner of my Fall Into Fall Giveaway is.....Michele from Quilting Gallery. Congratulations Michele, I hope you enjoy the book.

Thank you Debi for organizing the giveaway. I can't wait to participate in your winter giveaway.

It has been so much fun reading all the nice comments left on my blog. I hope you are all frequent visitors.

Happy Quilting!

One Down Four To Go

I'm feeling quite proud of myself today. I finished one of my UFO's since joining Finn's challenge.

It isn't bound yet but my part is finished. I've owned my HQ16 for about three years and I'm finally getting the confidence in myself to use it.

Here's a close-up of the quilting.

My friend Bren who doesn't like machine quilting gave me a very nice compliment today.

She said that if she were ever to have a quilt machine quilted she would have me do it. Coming from her that is quite a compliment.

This wall hanging isn't on my list of UFO's and it isn't even finished but I wanted to show another project that I've been working on. I started this one years ago when I taught this as a beginning quilting class. I've been working on it off and on (mostly off) for years. I picked it up again after I took the Thimblelady hand quilting class last Saturday. I'm using it as my hand quilting practice.

Even though I've started machine quilting, there are still quilts that should be done by hand and I want to keep in practice.

The center blocks are quilted and I still have the borders to go. I'll show it again when it's finished. After I finish it, I'm going back to the finish the log cabin that's in my banner. It just needs the border and one or two blocks finished. I should have practiced enough by then to do a nice job on it.

That's all that I have to share for now.

Happy Quilting!

Quilt Class Junkie

I'll be the first one to admit it..........I Love taking quilting classes.

This last Saturday, I took a repeat of a class that I had taken 3 years ago. "Quilting the Thimblelady Way" This is a hand quilting class. It's a method of hand quilting without pain.

Liuxin Newman is the Australian lady who started it.

In this method, you fold the fabric on to the needle instead of using the traditional rocking stitch.

There is a book with a DVD included so if you can't take a class on the method, you can still learn.

By quilting this way, you can quilt for hours and your underside finger is not being pricked. In my book, anything that doesn't cause me pain is the way to go.

The next class that I'm signed up for is for a quilt called "Suffragette". The first thing that drew me to it are the colors. It's a scrap quilt in reds, creams and blues.

I'm still working on my UFO's and I'm almost finished with one. I'll post pictures as soon as it's finished.

The Fall Into Fall Giveaway has been so much fun. I love visiting all the new found blogs and reading all the kind messages that you ladies are leaving on my blog. Thank You!

Happy Quilting!!!

Coleen

Fall Into Fall Quilt Giveaway

My giveaway for the Fall Into Fall Giveaway is "Beautiful Foundation-Pieced Quilt Blocks" by Mary Jo Hiney.

This book is filled with 4" foundation pieced blocks. I hope whoever wins it will enjoy the blocks and the ideas for their uses.

The rules to win it are simple......... Just leave a comment on this post and I will draw a winner on October 15th. You do not need to be a quilter to enter, nor do you have to have a blog. If you do not have a blog, please leave your e-mail address. ALL international readers are welcome to enter. My comments are set to Google account holders only...no anonymous comments, but a google account is free and easy to get. Just click on the "Sign Up Here" link at the end of the comments.
Now here is the bonus.....Click on the scarecrow and you will find a list of 40 other quilting bloggers doing a giveaway. They will be posted by Oct. 1st and all will be drawn on Oct. 15th. I can not say they will not have different rules to their drawings. Be sure to check out all the great giveaways....after you leave your comment here.

Fall Into Fall Quilt Giveaway

I've just spent the last two days frogging all the quilting that I put into this three year UFO.

The thread kept breaking and so I decided to frog it and start over, oh well it's good practice.

I'm working on my UFO's. Wish me luck!

Coleen

New Years Eve Challenge

My friend Bren joined the New Years Eve Challenge on Finn's blog. Bren pointed out to me that I had some UFOs and I should join in the challenge too.......So I did! I went on Finn's blog and signed up a few of my UFOs.

The first thing I need to finish is this quilt. It needs to be quilted and bound. It is a wedding present for my friend's daughter. I've shown it on a previous post but here it is again.

This top has to be finished next. It is a quilt for the American Hero Quilts organization. I will do the quilting but it will be sent to someone else to be bound. When it is finished, it will be presented to a wounded soldier.

Next I would just like to get this top pieced. It needs setting triangles added and the blocks put together. Quilting will probably not be finished on this one yet.

This top was loaned to me by a friend of mine 3yrs. ago to practice machine quilting. Think maybe I should finish it?

Last but not least (for now)...... This is an applique that I started in a class years ago. For now I would like to finish the trellis border. I love to do hand applique.

I'm going to try, No, I am going to accomplish all of this by the end of the year. If I don't go into this with a positive attitude I'll never succeed. In my first blog, I showed my hand quilting project which is still not finished but it is going to have to wait awhile.

While I was at joining neat things, I joined the Fall Into Fall Giveaway. I will post my giveaway before October 1st and draw a winner on October 15th so please sign up. You don't have to be a quilter to enter. Make sure you make the rounds to get your name in on this giveaway. Your can find the participants at the link above.

Happy Quilting

Coleen

New Sewing Space

I wanted to share my new larger sewing/quilting space. My DH has enlarged it. While we're not quite finished with it, I wanted to show some pictures.

Here's one of my new cabinet. It's great for housing my machine bags and hanging tops waiting to be quilted.

The wire bins next to it house pieces of fabric that are less than a yard.

I have cubes to hold my larger pieces of fabric. I have them stored by color. It took me hours to fold the fabrics so they would fit in the space.

Here's the bottom half.......

I have shelves to hold batting or a bolt of muslin and other large things.

My sewing machines....

Some of the walls have foam board so that I can use them as design walls.....

These are blocks from a Christmas exchange that I'm doing.

We still have some peg board to add to one of the other walls.

This is the most amount of space that I have ever had to devote to sewing and I'm so excited and blessed to have it. Now I don't have any excuse for not getting things done.

Thanks for looking!

Coleen

A Lot Happy, A Little Sad

This time of year is always a mixed bag for me. As anyone that knows me will tell you, I love Hummingbirds. Right now they are buzzing all over my yard which makes me very happy. For some reason my yard seems to be the gathering place for the little boys and girls at this time of the year. All summer long we're lucky if we see two or three a week. They are gathering to make their long trip down south to South America.

My DH managed to snap a few pictures......

They are so cute, I wish I could spend all day just watching them. The last two days I have hardly been home so I've only been able to see a few. DH said they were all over the yard today.

Soon they will be gone and I'll have to wait until next April to see them again.

Coleen

Dillon

I don't have any new quilt pictures to post today but I do have two new pictures. They are of my almost new grandson Dillon. Dillon was born on July 30th. Dillons mother just sent these today....

He's such a good baby. I don't get to see him or my other grandchildren as often as I would love to. I would love to be like my friend Bren who lives so close to her grandchildren.

I spent almost my entire day trying to come up with quilting designs for the top that I posted yesterday. I think I have a few ideas.

Coleen

I'm Back!!

Well it's been a long time since my last post but I'm back.

On my last post I told you of a class that I was going to take in order to help a friend of mine make a quilt. It's taken an entire year to finish this top but here it is....

Here's another one.......

One more closer view.......

I found out after fighting with the square in a square blocks that there was a mistake in the pattern. This quilt top taught me a few valuable lessons. I will never cut out an entire quilt without making one of each block in scrap fabric. I am known to my friends as the "Golden Seamripper" and I sure lived up to the name on this one. I'm going to put this top on my HQ16 and get it quilted in the next week.
I have finished one quilt for a group called "American Hero Quilts". If you've never heard of them, they provide quilts for our soldiers. The tops are pieced and sent to others to be quilted and then sent on to be bound. It's a very worthy organization and I would encourage all of my quilting friends to get envolved in this cause. That seems to be the least that we can do for the men and women fighting this war. The website for American Hero Quilts is http://www.americanheroquilts.com/.

Here are a few picts of that quilt....

This is the back, a beautiful piece of blue batik.

I hope to have many more quilts finished to share with you in the future.

Coleen

Another First Ever

I've spent the last three Wednesday nights driving to Madison, Wisconsin taking a class to learn to knit socks. Madison is a 1 hour and 30 minute drive from my house. I guess I'm a bit possessed but when I want to learn something, I'll go just about anywhere to take the class. I learned how to knit socks on a circular needle instead of on double pointed needles. It's actually a pretty cool method called the "Magic Loop". Here's a picture of my first ever sock. It was actually a practice sock to learn the method. The pink yarn was used in the toe to learn a method of invisible seaming. In the real thing, you would use matching yarn. This is the sock that I'm making that will (I hope) fit me. This shows the sock on the circular needle. I'll post a picture of the pair when I finish them. Next week, I'm taking a class to learn a quilt that has been driving me crazy. I've been trying to help a friend make a quilt called "Rootbeer & Cotton Candy". I have never had so much trouble with one quilt in my life. It's a double square in a square and for the life of me, I can't get it to come out right. The lady who wrote the pattern is teaching it so hopefully I'll get it to come out correctly. Thank you to all who commented on my first blog. I really enjoyed reading your comments. Thanks for visiting, Coleen

My First Ever Blog Post

My name is Coleen. I have been quilting for over 25 years. I both hand and machine quilt. The above picture, also in my header, is a quilt I have been hand quilting for over 10 years!! I am taking my time!! I have an HQ16 mid-arm quilting machine which I have been learning to use recently. I practiced free hand feathers this past week.

I still need more practice, however, for the first time out, it's not too bad! I am still working on getting the machine at the correct height for my 4'9" self.

Here is a flimsy that will be the first actual quilt to be quilted on the mid-arm. I plan to put feathers in the borders and flowers in the sashing. The blocks will be outlined...maybe.My full time retail job limits my practice time.

My friend Bren is helping me to set up this blog. We have been friends for 14 years. She helped me baste the feathered log cabin quilt at the top of this post. Speaking of that, here is a picture of the corners of that quilt.

Thanks for visiting,

Coleen