Author Archives: Pam

I made my first quilted item as a visual aid for a math project in 7th grade. Over the next 25 years quilting was hit or miss, but quilting took over all the other crafts I've done in 2003.

Quilting My Flying Geese

November 25, 2010 9:25 pm ⋅ Pam

I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving. Today kicks off a week of vacation. I don’t have to be back at work until the 6th. I plan to use this time off to make significant progress on several of my quilts which are close to being finished.

Next Tuesday I have time reserved on a long arm. I’ve decided to take “No Blue Geese in My Tropical Garden”. Instead of loading it top to bottom, I’m going to load it side to side as illustrated below:

In the black inner borders and the tropical print, I’m planning on doing a string of feathers. I know that they will be nearly impossible to see – especially since I plan to use black thread — but since these will be my first feathers, I don’t know that I want them seen.

The geese, I plan on outlining and running a squiggle through.

That leaves the piano key borders and the cornerstones.

I could do the same thing on the cornerstones as the strip of geese — but I haven’t figured out how to do it continuously.

As for the piano keys, I have no idea, so I’m open to suggestion. And yes, I plan to turn the quilt to get the top and bottom borders.

In the meantime, I’ve got to finish up the quilting and borders on Chain of Stars and put in some time on the Double Wedding Ring. For that, I’ve borrowed my niece’s Harry Potter video collection to watch/listen to while I’m hand quilting.

Posted in: No Blue Geese

What’s on my Design Wall

November 22, 2010 9:29 am ⋅ Pam

Not exactly on my design wall, but this is the quilt I’m working on this week. Yesterday I bought fabric for the backing. Tonight I’ll piece the back, sandwich the quilt and start the quilting.

Check out what’s on other design wall by following the links on Patchwork Times.

Posted in: Chain of Stars, designwall

More Fabric!

November 21, 2010 11:59 pm ⋅ Pam

Yes, I brought more fabric (and a few notions) into the house today. Next week I’ve got time on the long arm machine reserved. My original intention was to take the Compass Lone Star and the Red, White & Blue Chain of Stars to work on. However, following my husband’s suggestion, I printed out a drawing of the Chain of Stars and drew in a quilt design. We both like it and I can do it using my walking foot on my sewing machine. So, I needed to find another quilt to take with me.

After looking through my tops and watching Patsy Thompson’s Free Motion Fun — with feathers! Volume 1, I’ve settled on No Blue Geese in my Tropical Garden. The lengthy name comes from the pattern title “Geese in My Garden” and the fact that there is no blue in the quilt top. At the time I made it every quilt I made had some blue — even the pink quilt!

It was only after I got home with the bright dots on black for the backing, that I realized that there’s blue in the fabric. Oh, well, there still are no blue geese on the quilt top.

The two FQs are for those tiny stars I’m making.

Well, as soon as the dryer is done I’m going to fold the fabric so it will be ready for me to piece into backings tomorrow.

Posted in: Uncategorized

Stash Report

November 21, 2010 8:02 am ⋅ Pam

It’s time for another stash report, and things aren’t looking the best. Since I completed the four sting blocks last Tuesday, I haven’t sat at my sewing machine – or picked up my Double Wedding Ring to quilt on. It’s not because I’ve abandoned quilting, but because my husband and I started walking in the evenings and quite frankly we are out of shape. This walking is about to kill us, but if we can survive another week, I think we’ll survive, and definitely be healthier for it.

So, where did the pictured fabric come in? My friend V found a Craigslist ad of a woman selling her stash. I had no business even looking, but a forwarded the add to my husband and he said “Go for it”. Apparently he saw something about a long arm machine. Anyway, Saturday morning found us at the sale. I have very few print “neutrals” in my stash — most are tone on tone — and not much in the way of Christmas prints, so that’s what I focused on.

The second picture is the bundle of green FQs I won as a door prize at a craft fair we went to that afternoon. It’s kinda funny and sad at the same time. My husband and I arrived just as they were doing the hourly drawing. You had to be present to win. After looking around the show, just as we were leaving they started calling ticket numbers. I bet they called 10 numbers and no one was there. At one point they called the ticket number after ours. Finally the guy at the door hollered across the room and said “see that lady with the pink shirt, call her number”. He had spotted me looking at my tickets. I took them up to the guy calling the #s and they told me to go pick up a door prize. I was delighted. Our entrance fee was recouped. My husband, I think, was a bit embarrassed. Hey, don’t get between a quilter and a door prize of FQs.

I’d like to say I’ll make better progress this week, but later today I’m off to find some backing fabric for a quilt that has leapfrogged into the front of queue. I thought I had backing, but when I opened up the fabric bundle, I only found fabric for the pillow case.

So, now to the numbers:

Fabric Added this Week: 9.75 yards
Fabric Added to Date: 164.511 yards

Fabric Used this Week: 1.07. yards
Fabric Used to Date: 89.588 yards

Net Stash for 2010: 74.923 yards

See how others are doing with their stash over at Patchwork Times.

Posted in: Stash Busting Report

Did I Really Start a New Project?

November 16, 2010 6:00 am ⋅ Pam

Last month at Quilt Guild, one of the ladies had a reversible Christmas string quilt. It was pieced/quilted one block at a time, then sewn together with a thin sashing to cover where the blocks joined. Although I’m not describing the technique well, it was added to my list to do “some day”.

For the past month, I’ve been telling myself I don’t need to start a new quilt. I’ve got the Double Wedding Ring, Green & Cream and Compass Lone Star to finish by the end of the year.

So, what did I do this weekend instead of working on the listed projects? I dug into my batting scraps — and I’m not talking about the 23″ x 45″ piece trimmed off a quilt, but rather the pieces which are weird sizes – 5″ on one end and then narrow down to 2″ over the course of 40″ in length (how do these weird pieces happen?). Or the 4 – 8″ HST (no idea where those came from). The bits and pieces which most “normal” people would throw away.

Anyway, i pulled them out and started sewing them together. I ended up with two pieces large enough for baby quilts. Then I started cutting them into 8″ squares to make the String Quilt.

After I had a stack of batting squares I should have stopped and put them away, but no, I pulled out my floral fabrics – light, red and greeen – and started cutting 8″ squares of backing fabric. I don’t have all the backing fabric cut, but as some point I decided I might only want to make a baby quilt instead of a twin.

Perhaps now that I’ve got 4 blocks up on my Design Wall, I’ll get back to business and work on the quilts which I need to finish by the end of the year.

Posted in: String Quilt

What’s on my Design Wall

November 14, 2010 11:47 pm ⋅ Pam

Yesterday I promised I’d show my progress on the Cream & Green Swap quilt. This is one of my quilts which is on several of my UFO challenge lists, including the New Year’s Eve UFO Challenge which Finn is hosting. This weekend I got about halfway through putting two rows together.

I still need to stitch down the seam allowance on the back, and then stitch in the ditch between the sashing and first row.

Follow the links over at Patchwork Times for other inspiration.

Posted in: Cream & Green Swap Sampler, designwall

Stash Report

November 14, 2010 10:08 am ⋅ Pam

It’s a simple report this week.

Nothing in. Nothing out.

I’ve been working on the Cream & Green swap block. Hope to have a picture of the two assembled rows tomorrow for Design Wall Monday.

Fabric Added this Week: .75 yards
Fabric Added to Date: 154.761 yards

Fabric Used this Week: .342 yards
Fabric Used to Date: 88.518 yards

Net Stash for 2010: 66.243 yards

See how others are doing with their stash over at Patchwork Times.

Posted in: Stash Busting Report

QA Wednesday

November 10, 2010 8:20 am ⋅ Pam

It’s a mixed bag on last week’s goals.

Finish quilting Row 5 on the DWR – No!
Quilt at least 4 blocks on the Cream & Green quilt –Yes !
Piece at least two rows on Blue Ridge Beauty – Yes!

Working from the bottom up. I got going on the Blue Ridge Beauty and finished the center — and in the process sewed one block into a row wrong and the top half upside down. I fixed that yesterday and before and after pictures were posted. The Cream & Green quilt, I’m up to 12 blocks (total) quilted ( I think I was aiming for 9 total), the first row is assembled and I’ve got two blocks on the second row assembled. Which brings me to my DWR.

I finished the 4th ring, but that’s as far as I’ve gotten. There are three more rings on this row and three more rows after that!

So, this weeks goals are:

Finish row 5 on the DWR — no excuses
Finish assembling row two of the Cream & Green quilt
Put row 1 and 2 of the Cream & Green quilt together.

I started to leave the Cream & Green off, but I need to finish it for a couple of challenges by the end of the year. Also, if I put the walking foot back on my sewing machine, it will “prevent” me from working on anything else. — Which in this case is a good thing.

See what progress others are making by following the links over at Bari’s.

Posted in: goals

Oops Repaired

November 9, 2010 9:08 pm ⋅ Pam

Several people commented that they couldn’t see the problem on my Blue Ridge Beauty. Pictured here it is the before (left) and after (right) I fixed it. Still needs borders, but I’m pretty sure that’s going to require a run to the LQS.

Posted in: Blue Ridge Beauty

What’s on my Design Wall

November 7, 2010 11:37 pm ⋅ Pam

Very little quilting was accomplished this weekend. After working all night Friday night/Saturday morning, I didn’t get going good until, well, I’m still not going good Sunday evening. I did get out of the house Saturday afternoon for the quilt show, then when I got home, we turned around (after a 2 hour nap on my part) and took my niece to dinner. Sunday we were out all day – church and then shopping — at a MALL. And I had new heels on. That’s a story for another time. Anyway, we finally got home about 3:30 and I put my feet up.

I worked some more on the on Double Wedding Ring, but I still have a melon, two arcs and the cornerstones and before I’ll be done with the 4th ring on the 5th row, with three more rings to get done before Wednesday. Check back Wednesday to see if I get it done.

Briefly I worked on the Cream & Green blocks — the first row is put together and I’ve got two blocks on the second row together, the backing just needs stitching down. Before long I’ll have to make a border decision.

When I bought the sashing and cornerstone fabric, I bought enough for borders and binding. I just don’t remember if I was planning on design #1 or design #2:

Option # 1

Option # 2

Both of these options makes the quilt a full size quilt. However, if I leave the borders off and just bind it in green, it will be twin size — not to mention I’ll have enough of the sashing fabric to make the body of pillow case (probably have enough to make the cuff if I go with a larger quilt).

Option # 3

This quilt doesn’t have a destination — yet — so I can’t use that as my guide. Right now I’m leaning toward no borders, but that may be because I’m tired. At least I don’t have to make that decision immediately.

Follow the links over at Patchwork Times to see what others have on their design wall.

Posted in: Cream & Green Swap Sampler, designwall, dwr