Pratice, Practice, Practice, Patience

I have been practicing a bunch, all was going well until the top thread started to break every time I took a stitch. Patience is in order as I go through the steps to determine the cause. As you can see Julius is by my side, as usual.In the mean time, look at all the quilt tops I have ready to quilt. Yikes! I have prepared the backing and batting for many of them, but it is beginning to look like I will not get to them in time for the Rancho Bernardo Arts and Crafts Show.

Roman Maze Quilted and Bound

I finished this last week, but I have been so busy playing with my Tin Lizzie I have not had time to post. The pattern is Roman Maze, get the pattern here. Using a long arm is alot more challenging that I thought it would be, but I will prevail.

Elephant Pillows

Long ago Renee asked me to make her some pillows with elephants as the theme. It took some time for me to find any fabric I was happy with, then I stumbled across some really nice batiks at Quilters Paradise. When I finally had them all together and stuffed they had lumps in them (I did not know any better and used polyester stuffing), they were ugly. At this point I was a bit discouraged, but my friend Lauren turned me on to the right stuffing and they are FINALLY done! Sorry it took so long Renee.

What else I purchased at the Quilt Show

It's a long arm quilter, a Tin Lizzie 18 to be exact!

I have been so excited and stressed at the same time. Dad and I assembled the frame last week before he went up to visit my brother and Ruby.
Then on Friday, the machine was set up. It took me hours to load my practice material, I had to keep going to watch the video. Of course it did not help that my materials were not square. Then, I fussed with the tension for several frustrating hours. There are so many new things to remember and I was so afraid I was going to break something. I think I am okay now, today I was able to do this...

I also messed around with a couple of pantographs that came with the machine, they came out OK. Today I ordered a DVD for beginning quilters by Kim Brunner; it was recommended by someone on the Yahoo Tin Lizzie Group. I also went to Yardage Town and purchased some $2.00/yard material for practicing. Finally, on the way is some King Tut Thread and a few pantographs. Wish me luck, I will keep you posted.

Attic Windows

More fabric from the Animals Gone Wild series, it is just so fun I want to make a ton of quilts with it. This pattern is called Attic Windows. It went together so fast I could have had it done in a day, but there were tasks that needed to be attended to. Here is a close up.

Square in Square

This is the UFO I finished at the end of June, finally quilted and binding on. It was made from a kit I purchased at the San Diego Quilt Show last year, with a few fabrics from my stash added. Wait until you see what I purchased at the show this year! Here is the back, you can really see how nicely Ellen quilted this.

Traditional Batiks Top Complete

The top is done! This picture does not really do any justice to the fabrics, they really are fantastic, of course it did not help that the wind was blowing when I took the picture.What is next? I still have a few UFO's, but I am not so sure what I will do.

Traditional Batik Progress

The rows are all done, except I am not happy with the last row- I think I may have mixed up a block. It would not be such a big deal, except that there are 2 blocks in the same row with the white fabric in the same direction. Looks like more un-sewing is in order. Then the sashing and the borders; I picked some very nice material in gold to use as the border fabric.

Batiks

I make many of my quilts with hand dyed batiks, I love the vibrant colors. While these fabrics are not hand dyed, they are traditional batik design fabrics using designs that date back more than 1000 years and are very vibrant in color as well. I purchased these sometime ago knowing that someday I would figure out what to do with them, stay tuned for the completed top.

Animals Gone Wild Complete

All done with the top, that was quick. I fussed a bit with the borders, or I would have been done sooner. I planned to make the inner border blue, but changed my mind at the last minute, I wish I hadn't. Oh well, I will use the blue for the binding.
I Love this fabric line, it is so cheerful! I picked up the frogs at the quilt shop this weekend, it will go nicely with the aquatic animals.

Broken Dishes

I love the way this turned out! Broken Dishes is a traditional block, very easy to complete, just sew together four half square triangles and alternate with a background block. For this quilt I used come colorful batiks and I designed a border using all of the same fabrics.

Look at what a great job Ellen did quilting: