New quilt finished this week

Just finished binding this one at 1:30 this morning. I'll be having lunch with my friend and her husband and wanted to be able to show her the finished quilt. It is a long lap sized to accomodate the taller members of my family. This was the first quilt I've made using my walking foot to quilt it. Can I just say that I'm not too sure I like the walking foot. I didn't feel like I had as much control as I usually do and I couldn't really see the ditch as well. It was easier to go over the intersections, however. I experienced a lot more puckering of the backing fabric than normal. I used it to attach the binding because I was going over so many layers and while hand stitching the binding down, I noticed that the quilt top had a couple of pleats in it. Overall, I don't think this was my best quilt but I still love it for the fabrics I used. This was also my first time using nylon invisible thread during the quilting portion. I only had it break once. I kept checking for breakage because my friend told me she had a big problem with that. Because of the invisibility of it, I couldn't tell, most of the time, where I'd quilted until I looked at the back. I will definitely be using this thread again! Now if I can only get over my fear of free motion.

More knitting going on

I've been working on the teddy bear sweaters and they're easy to memorize. I started the pink striped one while at the salon waiting for my pedicure this morning. I got to the underarms before I was done there. I wanted to do a girly one for the non-football fan. The blue one is for my NY Giants. I'm glad I have something small to work on since we're driving to Phoenix this weekend for a funeral and I'll knit while Bernie drives.


Just had to get a little sewing done yesterday so I whipped up this little sling bag from part of a fat quarter and left over quilt backing fabric. I will definitely make more of these but next time I want to give the bag a bit more substance by using batting and quilting it. I even started on a patchwork version but haven't finished it yet.

New quilt top and sweater done

Just finished this quilt top this morning. I'm still trying to decide whether to make it bigger than lap sized or not. If so, I'll need to get a bigger batting. I just love these two fabrics together. I'm sure this won't be the last time I use them.

This sweater in Las Vegas HS colors is the pre-season charity knitting project for the Football-A-Long. Now I have to start one in New York Giants colors, whip up a couple of scarves and send them off. They are really quick to make but since I haven't done any prolonged knitting in awhile, I am suffering from some wrist pain that might slow me down a bit.

I hope to complete the quilt tomorrow. I have the backing fabric in the washer right now. Pics to come.

Addicted to Quilting

Saw this poem on an online quilting group I belong to:

*Addicted to Quilting*

She learned to quilt on Monday.
Her stitches all were very fine.
She forgot to thaw out dinner.
so we went out to dine.

She quilted miniatures on Tuesday.
she says they are a must.
They really were quite lovely.
But she forgot to dust.

On Wednesday it was a sampler.
She says stippling's fun.
What highlights! What Shadows!
But the laundry wasn't done.

Nine patches were on Thursday -
Green, yellow, blue and red.
I guess she really was engrossed;
She never made the bed.

It was wall hangings on Friday,
In colors she adores.
It never bothered her at all,
That crumbs were on the floors.

I found a maid on Saturday,
My week is now complete.
My wife can quilt the hours away;
The house will still be neat.

Well, now it's only Sunday,
I think I'm about to wilt.
I cursed, I raved, I ranted,
Cause the MAID has learned to QUILT!

Author Unknown
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
It's so true except that my husband hasn't reached Saturday yet!

My biggest fan

My baby loves his mama's quilts!

Here he is watching John Cena in The Marine. The acting was horrible!

Last night my friend and I went to see The Bourne Ultimatum while our kids and their friends were watching The Simpson's Movie. I enjoyed it. Matt Damon is a hottie. Great action scenes. Then they wanted to see The Bourne Ultimatum so we took Chris to see Transformers. I thought that was a good movie too! Very action packed as well. Cool scenes of Hoover Dam.

I know that Robert Ludlum died before he could finish his Jason Bourne series. I found out that the Ludlum estate chose another author, Eric Van Lustbader, to continue where he left off with The Bourne Legacy (2004) and now The Bourne Betrayal (2007). I saw this movie without reading The Bourne Ultimatum and in reading the synopsis of the book, realized that the movie didn't even come close to it. Don't worry, I won't spoil anything here. I bought The Bourne Ultimatum and The Bourne Legacy last night. I hope I don't have to go all the way back to the first two books to figure out what's really going on. We'll see, won't we?

No real quilting done today. Just playing around. I finally bought my walking foot and free-motion foot today. Then stopped at Nancy's Quilt Shop to see which Heather Bailey prints she had in stock. I only saw a couple but they weren't the ones I was looking for. I bought a couple of different prints. I think they're Kaffe Fassett but I'm not sure. Have to check on that one. I'd really like to do a Heather Bailey quilt. Just love her fabrics. Very fresh and spring-like. Oh well. I can always get them online, but that will have to wait since I've already spent my allowance. I'm pretty sure I have enough fabric to keep me busy for awhile. Still doing my research to see what to try next. My hands are just itching to cut and sew! Can I just say that free-motion isn't as easy as it looks? I don't have a stitch regulator on my machine so I have to really work on keeping my movements even and smooth. Practice makes perfect, right?

Diagonal criss-cross coasters

Have some leftover 5" blocks from my last quilting project and wanted to try the coasters I made before but with the squares folded on the diagonal rather than in half. I really like the way these look and you can still stick a wine glass base in the center hole.

I also made an Annie's Choice block but didn't take a picture yet. I realized at 2 a.m. that I hadn't done any sewing the day before and went upstairs and cut out the squares and sewed the 1/2 square triangle units for the block. I finished it when I got up this morning. This block contains 16 of the 1/2 square triangle units for a finished size of 12". This was my first experience trying to match up all of those little points. Needless to say, they didn't all match up and frustrated the heck out of me. I also tried to squeeze 2 of these blocks out of 2 fat quarters and came up two (2) units short! Argh! I was hoping to be able to do it, but wasn't too confident. This would be a good opportunity for me to make all the blocks different. I'm also thinking about trying the quilt-as-you-go method again on this. Will post pictures soon.

This week's quilt

Just finished this one on Monday. I'm having withdrawal symptoms. What's next? I don't know. I really want to try something more challenging but not sure what just yet. I found a quilt block I want to try that looks pretty easy. I've also become enamored by the bullseye quilts I've seen. So many choices!

I've been dying to do a baby quilt and just found out that one of my neighbors is a grandma of a new baby boy. Might just have to do one now!

Susan, did you notice I changed my header to say I quilt now? hahahaha Thanks for the idea.