Craftsy

First, I don't have a Craftsy sale site, I'm just a member - ya know it's free to be a member, right?  Well, I'm doing some poking around there this afternoon and I must say, I am totally blown away!!  I've been a member of Craftsy for some years now, but honestly, today is the first time I have gone browsing through the quilt patterns (whole quilts to blocks, quilting patterns to hints/tips). 

Were you aware that as of this minute there are 17,933 quilt patterns on there!!  More than any quilt store, right??  I'm browsing through these patterns and decided to list them in order price, least expensive first.  I'm on page 30 of 748 pages and I'm still in the FREE!!! section of Craftsy!!!!  I have been adding patterns like a crazy woman...they are FREE so really, I'd be crazy NOT to "buy" them! 

AND...Craftsy will hold them in my files online so I don't have to load-down (and potentially lose the patterns) them to my desktop!  Can't ask for better than that, right? 

Oh, well, you could always check out their knitting, crocheting, jewelry, sewing, embroidery or paper crafts while you are there!!  That's just under the heading of "Patterns".  I also love the classes there by AMAZING teachers!!  Yep, I've bought some (for real money), but I'm thinking I need to check out the free classes as well!!!

Check out Craftsy - so much more then I ever expected!!  Nope, this isn't a sponsored post, I'm just excited to share an awesome place with more free things than I will ever have time to make (but I'm going to try!!!

Happy quilting from western Nevada!!

Need Advice on Quilt

Boy, how life can change!  I am now living in Reno 3 weeks a month to care for my 95 year old father.  He still drives and his mind is still there, but his body is betraying him, so I cook and pick up the slack.  But that means I'm away from my longarm most of the time!  I miss it but I did design and make a new quilt I need your input on, please!!!

This is a quilt for my great-nephew who is four and LOVES chickens (they live on a farm also and so they have lots of chickens).  I found a chicken panel and that determined the colors I used.  There was no written plan, I just made blocks that remind me of "farm" - log cabin and rail fence - and pinwheels just because they are fun!  The chickens were a weird size - 8x9 - so I did a wonky border on them to get everything the same size.  Since I am quilt-math illiterate, there was a bit of a challenge with the pinwheels, but I love the way they turned out!

 Ohhh....how do you like the border??  I hate plain borders and a few years ago I bought the Double Diamond Ruler and decided this was the perfect quilt to try it out on.

So now for the advice...do you think I should leave the white inner border alone or should I put large red rickrack on it like this:

I'm not sure if it is good as-is, needs a little more or if the rickrack is too much!

For the label, I did a "lasagne" quilt technique of sewing my scraps together in a long strip, alternating the white with the colors.  When I put it together, I came up with the most wonderful way to use my scraps up (I told you I was quilt-math illiterate) and have a label all ready to embroider all the info on the white parts:

I have not totally deserted my blog, but with only piecing to show, it is going slowly!!  I hope your summer isn't as hot as it has been here in Reno - over 100 every day last week - and the dry lightning has sparked many fires (lots of smoke in the valley here). 

Until I piece again!!

Winners

So sorry I'm late with the giveaway!!  It's been a bit crazy around here :)

Without any further delay...

The Martha Quilt goes to Darlene
The Quiltworx.com gift certificate goes to Moira
The Applique Quilts and More gift certificate goes to Susie Q
Sunbonnet Sue patterns go to desertskyquilts

Please contact me so I can get your email address...gift certificate winners, I'll send you a picture of the gift certificate via email so you can pick out your goodies right away!

Pets on Quilts Time Again

It is that time of year again!!  Snoodles at Lily Pad Quilting is starting to talk about it so it is time for everyone to go through their pictures from the last year to find that darling picture of your "baby" with one (or more) of your quilts!  If you are like me and can't find any, time to start putting those quilts out where your "baby" can find them to snuggle up with or if your "baby" is well trained, stage that perfect shot!!  The prizes are always great and I always enjoy looking at everyone's quilts and "babies"!!!

Quilt Top Finished!

I just finished making the pattern Prism, which was created by Linda Pearl - what a blast to get to play with flying geese in a different way!!  My daughter and her husband were over to return the car they borrowed while they were in town so I got them to hold the quilt outside for me to take a picture!

I used my hoarded ombre fabric and had fun figuring out where to put the colors.  I chose to make it a cool to warm/light to dark.  I also changed the sashing between the columns - the pattern called for 2.5" strips, I started with 1.25" and went up 1/4" with every new sashing I cut, ending up with the widest sashing being 4.75".  I also made a few too many geese and so I made up the borders.  All the geese were made with the one-seam flying geese method as demonstrated on youtube by Ricky Tims.  I'll be doing some more work on the geese, but it is nice to have a new quilt top.

I'm torn between calling the quilt "Which Way is South?" or "Escaped" for the geese in the top and bottom borders that look like they have escaped from the masses!!  Which would you go with?

I'm Baaaacccckkkkk with a GIVEAWAY!!

I feel as though I've been gone forever!!  I spent 6 weeks with my daughter in Oahu where she is living now - can I just say I had a wonderful time and enjoyed the warm so very much!!!  I got back to my dad's house the Friday before Easter and the Monday after Easter we woke up to 6-8 inches of snow.  Talk about a shock!!  Not complaining...the west is in desperate need of water in any form, so we'll take it!

I have been spending 3 weeks a month with my dad (he'll be 95 next month) in his home and a week with my husband at home 750 miles away.  Putting lots of miles on my car, that's for sure!!  I planned it so that I was home for my local guild's quilt show where I won 3 door prizes!!  Since I never win anything, I was thrilled!!!  I decided I was going to share the wealth with you and offer up 4 patterns and 3 gift certificates for you go win.  Since I don't do anything fancy here, just leave a comment with what you would like to receive and make sure that I have your email address so I can get in touch with you for your mailing address if you win.

 Two gift certificates are for Appliques, Quilts and More for $10.00 each and one is for Quiltworx.com for 10% off your order.

 A purse pattern from my friend Kathie Donahue at Prairie Cottage Corner.

Hawaiian Sue pattern from my friend Kathie Donahue at Prairie Cottage Corner - I quilted this quilt for Kathie when I was a new quilter!!

Thanksgiving Sue and Sam pattern from my friend Kathie Donahue at Prairie Cottage Corner.  Do you see a theme here??  Yes, Kathie is actually the president of my guild this year!!

The "Martha" Quilt pattern from KimberBell - layer cake and fat quarter friendly pattern!!

There you go - comment on which one you would like or I'll ship everything off to Kevin the Quilter!!  I'll draw winners at the end of the month.

I am finally playing with fabric again after 2 months without touching fabric or going into a quilt shop!!  This is what I am working on:

I hope spring has sprung or autumn has relieved you of the heat in your world!!

A Perspective on Longarm Quilting Charges

I just read this great post on Andy Crafts where she talks about the cost to have quilts professionally quilted.  It is well written and informative, whether you are a longarm quilter or you support those of us who quilt for a living by quilting by check!!

I haven't been quilting or even playing with fabric for the last 7 weeks...I've been visiting my daughter in Hawaii for the last 6 weeks, heading home tomorrow *sigh*, but I'll share some pictures of what we did when I get them sorted out.

January Goal

I have been diligently quilting my Texas Teardrops quilt, but I'm not going to make my goal this month.  I stayed with my dad an extra week so I could go with him to a couple of doctors appointments, but I don't think that would have made a difference in the end.  *sigh*  Oh well!

It didn't help the time line that I decided to use a beautiful solid fabric for the backing on this quilt and then chose to add some of the extra applique pieces to the back so I will essentially have a two-sided quilt.  I am having fun with "ghost" quilting in the setting triangles and the inner border, but that means I have to draw on the applique pieces in order to quilt the design.  My biggest problem is deciding what I will quilt between the appliqued teardrops!!!  The size of that area varies greatly and makes it more difficult for me to decide what I want to do, so taking more time to make sure I figure out the perfect quilting design is all right with me!

Here are a few pictures of what I have so far:

 I love mixing the curves of the ribbon candy and the angular triangles (with pearls) in the center.  How I managed to get two with "empty" pieces in the applique together is beyond me, but you know how that happens!!

Isn't the backing color fabulous and you can see the applique on the back just peeking over the take-up bar!  So much fun to use a solid fabric for backing, but every time I mess up the tension, it is very visible - there is a row that is hidden that I need to go back to and pick out because I let the bobbin get too low and the bobbin tension got really tight (that makes for easy removal, but then I need to re-quilt!).

Here is a shot looking down the frame at the quilt - you can see the chalk markings on the inner border where I am going to do "ghost" quilting and just to the left of that you can see where I did "ghost" quilting on the solid gray in the outer border.  My beloved pink Innova is in the background with the handles holding the tools I use all the time - flower pins, self-threading needles, long tweezers and scissors on the left handle and chalk pencils and purple air-erasable pen on the right handle.  Nice to have what I need close at hand and not laying on the quilt top.

I can't wait to finish this quilt and put it on my bed, but it will probably take me all year to get it finished since I'll be spending 3 weeks a month with my dad and one week a month with my husband!  But, that's just fine with me!!  I hope you realized your January goals!!

So Much for Goals!

Just when my plan was to quilt a chunk of the 50+ quilt tops I have waiting to be quilted, life throws a twist into those plans.  My dad, who will be 95 in June, needs a bit of help, so I will be temporarily deserting my dear understanding husband and moving back to Nevada to care for my dad and spend the rest of his days with the most wonderful father I could have ever been blessed with.  My longarm won't fit in my truck and I can't afford to buy another one *grin*, so I'll be bringing all my finished quilt tops with me and making the backing and binding for them.  I will also just be forced to make more quilt tops *sigh* what a trial.

Well, I got incredibly lucky and won an ebook of Quilting from Every Angle by Nancy Purvis who blogs at owen's olivia.  Sixteen awesome geometric designs and now I'll have an excuse to work my way through the book from front to back!!!

Now my biggest problem will be to fit all the fabric, my sewing machine, threads, rulers, cutting boards...my studio!!...into the back of my truck with a modest amount of clothing and sundry items for my stay in Nevada.

The ebook has 168 pages, so printing the whole thing out is just not going to happen, so it has been downloaded to my computer.  Since I've lost hard drives on numerous computers, I'm a bit skittish about having my sole copy on my computer, so I attached it to an email and sent it to myself!!  I hope that will save this fabulous book if my computer croaks!!!

One Monthly Goal - January 2016

Heidi, who blogs over at Red Letter Quilts is launching OMG - One Monthly Goal to help out those of us who depended on ALYOF to get our projects finished!!  She kindly invited me to participate and I am so ready for that!!!

Last spring I finished all the applique on my Texas Teardrops

I added another border after this picture was taken and I haven't taken a new one yet, but I am declaring it to be my OMG for January - I want to get this baby quilted...lots of custom quilting!!! 

I am linking up with Heidi and going for it!!!

ALYOF - Round Up of 2015

Wow, I have been posting like crazy...it won't last, I assure you!

I am linking up with Melissa at Sew BitterSweet and Shanna Fiber of All Sorts for the link-up finale for ALYOF.

In April (my first month joining in), I finished my Row by Row quilt!! (bottom left)
In May I finished piecing my Texas Teardrop quilt. (bottom right)
In June I finished and delivered my daughter's wedding autograph quilt before she moved to Hawaii. (right center)
In July I made the blocks for my step-son's wedding autograph quilt. (top center)
In August I totally took apart my "Garage Sale Treasure" Irish Chain quilt top. (bottom center)
In September I got "Garage Sale Treasure" Irish Chain quilted, bound and labeled. (bottom center)
In October I finished my strip challenge quilt (I love this one)!! (left center)
In November I finished Fairy Garden for my granddaughter. (top left)
In December I made and gave 25 pot holders. (top right)

For NINE months I met my goal - YIPPEE!!!

Happy New Year and a Free BOM

I just got an email from Cindy at Quilt Doodle Doodles and she is hosting a FREE BOM!!  Free is always good, right? 

Since y'all know I can't figure out how to add a button to my blog, this is just a copy and paste of the button, but click on the Quilt Doodle Doodles hot link here or up top to go to Cindy's blog and get yourself the first free block!!!  Yep, I can put in a hot link...who knew?????

We can start the year off right with a new UFO!!!  No, it will be a WIP because we are going to finish what we start this year, right???  And this adorable Christmas quilt will use up a lot of those scraps we have created in past years - double win!!!