Quilting Now?

I have elephants, monkeys, zebras, etc all sitting on a baby quilt waiting patiently to be quilted. However all machining is on hold at the moment as I got cellulitis at the end of July and my peddle foot is incapacitated completely and I am still so weak all the quilts are bigger than me! I have been doing a little (and I mean a little) hand piecing and quilting, but am inclined to fall asleep after about 6".

However I am on the mend and the anti-biotics are gradually being decreased - I am sure I can't have any bacteria left in my body!

I can now walk again in a fairly normal manner, and as apparently it takes about 2 months to go away and as three of the other people I have been told about ended up with a stay in hospital, I have come off lightly.

So if anyone suddenly has a high fever and feels really dreadful, coupled with a red swollen foot/ankle/leg don't ignore it - get medical advice straight away and get the antibiotics going asap. I'd never heard of it, but the nurse at the surgery said she thinks its more common now.

DSis in Law gave me all my birthday fabric yesterday after her visit to the US and its all in the washing machine at the moment. - its fabulous and includes yards of batiks - Mmmmmmmm! She did very well at the Button Convention and sold enough buttons to more than cover her trip (and my fabric!!).

So what am I doing - stroking fabric, what better!

Sally at the Seaside ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~uk

Polly Esther wrote:

I'm about to mail off my doll quilt swapper -- complete with some extra goodies for my secret partner. Photos will be posted when she receives the quilt. AND I'm working on a design for a contest...nothing amazing, just the Cloth Paper Scissors magazine challenge about buttons. Mine is pretty mundane right now and I'm trying to find some inspiration for a little sparkle.

Sunny

Too many balls in the air!

1. halfway through quilting a sampler of mini blocks surrounding a flea market embroidered treasure
2. need to decide what comes next on a sort of one-woman row robin project -it just keeps growing
3. teddy bears, both knit and stitched
4. several tops await quilting
5. blocks starting to come in for the next friendship quilt, which needs to be done before December so we can start selling raffle tickets

I do love the idea of send>What are you stitching just now?

A pieced lamp shade would really show the seam allowances when the light was turned on. You'd probably want to use some kind of batting or something to prevent the seams showing. That would make it mood lighting???

Maybe another idea would be to cut the shapes from fused fabrics without any seam allowance and then fuse them in block formation to some type of light weight fabric- more like a stained glass approach.

Leslie- party pooper & The Furbabies in MO.

Ha ha...easter bunny! That's great...love it. Hmmm....what am I doing? Nothing quilty....but I did sew raw edges for a couple of bibs for a woman who is bed ridden. I stitched a little, cried a little, stitched a lttle, cried a little...almost all the way through to the end. My machine's tension was acting up...the top kept breaking...don't know what that is all about. I rethread it a couple of times to no avail. I hadn't sewn anything since Terry's passing and now my machine is acting up...sigh. I need to take it in anyway for a yearly check up....owned it for awhile and its way past due. I have pajama pants cut out and ready to go...maybe they'll be done by Christmas...lol. As far as quilt related stuff...haven't done squat....just thinking about it...thats as far as I get. I have been working and focusing on my house and yard this summer. It is really shaping up and looking good...or it will once it's painted.

Launie, in Oregon

If you pieced normally but with the right sides of the fabric towards the back, then turned it over and covered the bare seams with dark binding/tape/special stained glass tape, thus turning the back into the right side, you would have a fabulous stained glass shade and the wrong side would have finished seams.

Sally at the Seaside ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~uk

Leslie& The Furbabies > A pieced lamp shade would really show the seam allowances when the light

I am working on a table runner, a gift for a wonderful nurse, who coordinates the Breast Care Center at the clinic where I have had all of my care at. Since the first time I met her (back when I was diagnosed), she has gone above and beyond the call of duty in more ways than I can count. I wanted to give her something more than a verbal 'thank you!" for some time. It consists of three appliqued flower blocks (all done via embroidery on the Designer 1), with sashing and a border. I'm in the process of stipple quilting and hope to get the binding done next week and then get it in the mail.

I've also made two sleeveless tops, a t-shirt, and am about to cut out fabric for a jacket.

Finally....lots and lots of alterations!

-Irene

OH! That would make a wonderful window shade too!! OH! The possibilities are endless...Well almost:-)

Nana

I'm pretty new to quilting. Right now I am putting together a small table mat --- kind of a big placemat. Am using a 15-piece charm pack I got in our local shop hop as a door prize. Want to try doing a continuous leaf pattern by quilting thru tracings from an image I found on line. Mostly browns, gold-browns, and leaf-greens, I'm thinking of a gold-ish thread for the quilting. We'll see. I change my mind every few minutes! I really like doing small pieces for now as it is great practice for the biggies to come.

KT. in MI

First Halloween, then Christmas! The only problem is that I am having a mental block on this year's Halloween House. I've done one each of the last two years, and I am just stumped this year. I thought about doing a cemetery scene and even took photos of some mausoleums this past year for inspiration. No inspiration forthcoming. Maybe a haunted village?

The first Halloween quilt:

The last quilt top I did was actually in Christmas colors. It wasn't planned but I had some very pretty red that I was reluctant to cut up. I am on a crusade to use up fabric, and force myself to use stuff I'm "saving." The top came out pretty nice - sawtooth stars of red, green and yellow on a red/green/beige background.

I think I may make some purses or tote bags next. I have one quillow layered and ready to machine quilt.

Iris

We don't 'do' Halloween here in the Swamp for obvious reasons. Oh my, how we miss the fun. I love, Love your Halloween quilts. They're a scream. (that was appropriate, wasn't it?) Your running mummy especially tickles me. Inspiration? How about some big, black, fuzzy chenille spiders with crazy eyes and a web of glittery silver thread? Polly

"IEZ" First Halloween, then Christmas! The only problem is that I am having a

Spiders? Hmm - that might be an idea for the fall party we have to celebrate a bunch of birthdays - including mine!

Iris

If you want to do your own black chenille, Moda makes a black on both sides. Many blacks are gray on the 'wrong' side and interfere with the need for black, black and their black frays and fluffs really well. Goofy eyes about the size of nickels? and one of the spiders Must be wearing that awful orange lipstick made long ago by Tangee. Remember that? Polly

"IEZ" Spiders? Hmm - that might be an idea for the fall party we have to

Iris,

How about a castle with suits of armour and bats?

There could be headless wives and horsemen and Nearly Headless Nick from Hogwarts.

Nel (Gadget Queen)

I just finished a sleeved bib for baby T. It's laminated knit fabric, so that blueberries can't get onto his clothing, etc. Royal blue front, red sleeves ala SuperBaby style. Looks good!

I am also stitching up some cat blocks for a swap that need to be posted yesterday, but we are getting the house ready for more building works so everything is topsy-turvy here just now.

Baby T is having a nap just now, but the jets from nearby RAF Leuchars keep waking him up. Do you think I should complain?

-- Jo in Scotland

While it's doesn't fall into the quilting category, I just finished

Then either crows or chickens. Have a couple really cute wall hangings and I'm eager to get to.

Donna in WA

I work FT so am an occasional quilter - usually if I get inspired by a pattern, or am asked. I just finished a pieced "Christmas Cactus Star" quilt (Lehman) - for my son's lady friend. She wanted a Christmas throw with burgundy and gold (color, not metallic) - no green. Do you know how hard it is to make a pretty Christmas quilt with no green? LOL. It has 6 squares, each square is 24" - and 3 borders of varying widths, making an 85" x 60" "throw." Each square had 105 pieces. It was not my favorite project - she picked out the pattern from a bunch that I had.

Now, I'm going to start a Rail Fence (by request) for my son to wrap up in. His wife, my DIL, already has a favorite one (Grandmother's Fan) I made that she calls her own. ;-) My son wanted black, charcoal, taupe-brown, cinnamon brown and tan for the colors, and the backing is Mocha Meringue concentric circles by Marcus Bros. The 15 yards of top fabric are at the dry cleaners for laundering and pressing - no way I wanted to do 15 yards myself. I'll take the back in for the same treatment when I'm ready for it.

Question: I did a Rail Fence a long time ago and my machine stitches weren't terribly close together and I had some problems with loose stitches at the cut ends of the strips after I did the pressing. I don't have a lock-stitch on my old Kenmore machine - if I set the stitches really tight, will that be good enough to stay the strips until I have them sewn?

Thanks for any advice - nice to be here. Sorry I didn't introduce myself earlier - I used to participate a l-o-n-g time ago.

N.

Since I use speed piecing techniques whenever possible (sew first and cut-it-up second) I always use a stitch length of 1.8 for all piecing. I have noooo idea what that translates to but the default stitch length on my Janome 6600 is 2.2, so it's not a whole lot shorter. But really tiny stitches make it nearly impossible to un-sew if you make a mistake. There's a fine line there between too large and too small. ;-)

Leslie & The Furbabies in MO.

I work FT so am an occasional quilter - usually if I get inspired by a pattern, or am asked. I just finished a pieced "Christmas Cactus Star" quilt (Lehman) - for my son's lady friend. She wanted a Christmas throw with burgundy and gold (color, not metallic) - no green. Do you know how hard it is to make a pretty Christmas quilt with no green? LOL. It has 6 squares, each square is 24" - and 3 borders of varying widths, making an 85" x 60" "throw." Each square had 105 pieces. It was not my favorite project - she picked out the pattern from a bunch that I had.

Now, I'm going to start a Rail Fence (by request) for my son to wrap up in. His wife, my DIL, already has a favorite one (Grandmother's Fan) I made that she calls her own. ;-) My son wanted black, charcoal, taupe-brown, cinnamon brown and tan for the colors, and the backing is Mocha Meringue concentric circles by Marcus Bros. The 15 yards of top fabric are at the dry cleaners for laundering and pressing - no way I wanted to do 15 yards myself. I'll take the back in for the same treatment when I'm ready for it.

Question: I did a Rail Fence a long time ago and my machine stitches weren't terribly close together and I had some problems with loose stitches at the cut ends of the strips after I did the pressing. I don't have a lock-stitch on my old Kenmore machine - if I set the stitches really tight, will that be good enough to stay the strips until I have them sewn?

Thanks for any advice - nice to be here. Sorry I didn't introduce myself earlier - I used to participate a l-o-n-g time ago.

N.

I do have black Kona Cotton - and that does fray quite a lot. Perhaps I'll try that.

And I do remember Tangee lipstick!

Thanks!

Iris