Hand quilting and goodies

Hello!

Slow-going here!
Tonight, I finished the hand-quilting of the Maltese Cross motifs in the corner posts of the fire truck quilts. Then I squared and trimmed the quilts, ready for binding.

During the last week, I wove in two of the Celtic corner knots. I have two more corners, then I can press and appliqué the knots onto the borders.

I was also lucky enough to win a prize from www.worldwidequiltingday.com, as part of their big celebration giveaways. I got a fun Rhombus ruler/template, a pattern to get started using the template, and a cute sampler of Aurifil threads. The thread set is supposed to match the "Comma" fabrics by Zen Chic....with gray, black, orange, cream, bright green, and a cheery yellow. It will be very fun to try new thread!

Oh yeah, and snow came back several mornings this past week, then melted off in the afternoon. The trees have even started budding. I guess Spring wasn't quite ready to come yet.

Happy St Patrick's Day!

Top o' the morning to you!
It's a great day to be a quilter and have some Irish ancestry, as well as married to a wonderful guy who is Irish-American!

My hubby's great grandparents immigrated from Ireland and settled on Long Island, New York. My dad's ancestors immigrated well before them, from England, Scotland and Ireland.

Here's some cute photos I found on Facebook to celebrate St Patrick's Day and quilting together!

The green and white Double Irish Chain was on Quilters Cache. The last quilt is a screen shot taken from my Quilt-Pro software, of a king-sized Double Irish Chain that I have planned, in the Reilly Family colors of green and gold.
And then we have the Reilly Family crest! If I could figure out a way to cross-stitch that and put it medallion-style in the center of the Irish Chain quilt, that would be fabulous!

Anyway, the corned beef and potatoes are in the crockpot, and I'm off to get ready for church meetings! Irish soda bread, and adding the cabbage to the beef after church, and we'll have a feast!

Worldwide Quilting Day!

Yay! There is a holiday to celebrate my favorite obsession/hobby!
I've been having a lot of fun this week, and today, following the official Worldwide Quilting Day blog, adding my two cents in the comments. And I made a point to visit as many of my favorite quilting blogs today as I could!

And what have I been doing today? Besides wrangling two busy little guys? And visiting the park with them because of the beautiful spring weather?

1--I cut apart my continuous binding for the corners of the Celtic knot border. Rescued some of it from being cut apart and used as ribbons to tie up a certain someone's little bicycle..... And tonight I've started making it fusible with the Clover Fusible Bias Tape Maker.

2-- Then I traced the stencil for the Maltese Cross quilting motif onto the little fire truck quilts.

3-- i hemmed a pair of store-bought jeans. I found a size that fit me, but was in a "tall". So before I could wear them, I had to hem them up. Then, because of my body shape, I always need to add more belt loops because the pants ride down and the belt stays where I need the pants to sit! Commercial pants never seem to have enough belt loops. I have made several lengths of finished strips in different colors so that I can add them to pants quickly after I buy them.

And it's so close to St Patrick's Day, that I'm listening to Celtic music as I write. :-)

A Week's Worth

Gee, it seems like I've barely been able to squeak a post a week lately, huh?

I've been busy, but with a lot of WIPs. I guess I haven't felt like I've made a lot of progress on my WIPs. I need to keep stopping to get supplies and wait for $ to get them.

Oh yeah, and my little guy is finally potty-training, and he's doing awesome! That's been taking quite a bit of my time, but he's managing to do most of it himself! He's the one with Autism.....just like so many other skills, it seems he takes forever to learn something or catch on, and then suddenly a switch is flipped, the lights come on, and he just does something!!!! So proud of him!

I kept myself busy while my hubby was in Vegas for the NASCAR race. I was busy making continuous bias strips and weaving knots for the Quilt U Be Mine borders.
Then it took me several days to fudge and fit my way through adding my final blocks, and also the background fabric to the quilt for those borders. I was so frustrated! I have decided that I'm not a modern quilter because my style is not helter-skelter, fit and fudge and tweak and throw it down. I hate all that. I like everything precise and balanced, and execution and good quality work is super-important to me! Even, balanced, and accurate seam allowances are a must. I might try new things, and learn some tips and tricks to help me, and I might incorporate some techniques or designs that are considered contemporary.

Anyway, when my hubby got home from Vegas, he took a look at the knots, and told me I needed fabric with more contrast for the corner knots. Grrrr. If thats the case, then more fabric needs to be bought (and more bias made!!!) since all the fabric I used for the Quilt U Be Mine was really close in tone and shade (medium reds and darker burgundy). He also told me I just should have used two alternating colors in very contrasting reds, so the knots would "pop" a bit more. Yeah, maybe he's right in all counts, but I'm doing my best to use fabric I have, and not buy more. Surely he appreciates that!

And then I was making continuous bias binding for the fire truck quilts.

Tonight, I got the back pieced together for the Starburst. Whew! That's all I got to, tonight.

I also made a little stencil with a firefighter Maltese cross, and I will hand-quilt the cross in the corner posts of the fire truck quilts. LOL to myself. I used the graphic from my hubby's department T-shirt to trace and copy, then traced it onto stencil plastic and cut out the stencil with my Fiskars craft knife. I call that being creative, because the graphic in the T-shirt was the perfect size for the posts!

Starburst Quilt-Along Finished Top

Hi! Feels like a long time since I posted. I went to the doctor, have a sinus infection, and thank goodness for antibiotics ! I just haven't had any energy with all the congestion and headaches to be able to get anything quilty done.

But I finally picked out and fixed the borders on my Starburst Quilt Along tonight. I think it looks much better! I really just need to buy batting and I can start quilting this baby quilt! (ok maybe some purple machine quilting thread)

Ooooh, and I received the rest of the Cuzco that I ordered! Thanks, Stash Fabrics!