By golly, I think she's got it!

All of the vertical lines are quilted on Pinka Ballerina. I'm following the seams by 1/4 inch. Half of the horizontal lines are marked and ready to go. I'll have a few hours tonight.

It's by far a show stopper, but this is only my second machine quilted project. I can already tell the lines are getting better. Part of the problem is I didn't match up the seams on the top. Grrr...

I think the machine quilting will be done this week. Next week I will close it up. Ahhh...success!

We stopped by the park tonight after dinner. We went to Stuebens. They have great comfort food.

Evan and Mad Madd ohhing & ahhing at the geese and ducks.

Rinse, lather, repeat & repeat & repeat

Progress has been made on Pinka Ballerina. I have the vertical machine quilting done on half of the inside area. I was telling Mad Madd that if I didn't have to set up and tear down the work area every day things could move much more quickly. This is my wish list if we ever have a house...

• Master suite with garden tub (we have one now and I will never look back!)
• Evan's room with a bathroom nearby
• Some kind of secret kid space(loft, hidden door/room etc)
• Guest/Computer room
• Guest bathroom
• Sewing/craft room
• Painting shed somewhere on the property
• Large kitchen with a breakfast nook
• Play area
• Fenced backyard for Ella the dog
• Pool and hot tub
• Yoga room
• Garage for all of Mad Madd's tools and stuff
• Garage for my car (red Honda is parked outside as of right now)
• French front doors made of antique or barn wood
• Over sized fire place with a huge mantel for photos
• Walls big enough for my paintings and quilts

I'm sure this list could go on forever. These are the things we dream about while in our 2 bd/2 bth apartment.

Tahhh Dahhh...sewing area!

Sammi's Pinka Ballerina

I started cutting this quilt out during the Winter of 2010. It took me a while because I only had a few moments here and there.

Original pattern. I may use this for another project.

 I created the pattern above. Then I saw a beautiful pattern in the Jan/Feb 2011 McCall's Quilting magazine designed by Amanda Murphy. It's called Flower Beds.

I laid out all the blocks and realized that I wanted it to be longer. I added a finished 1 inch white strip between each row. 

 Then I wanted to add a border so I sketched this diagram for the sides and top/bottom. I thought a graduated color pattern would be really fun.

 Here is the pieced together top.

This is the back side of the back of the quilt. I used the periwinkle marble fabric for one side, added a strip of the Angelina Ballerina fabric and finished it with the dark pink marble fabric on the other side.

I basted this quilt and had to re-baste it yesterday. I tried to do it in sections and that was awful. The material pulled and got bunched up in the machine quilting. I spent 2 hours Sunday night ripping seams and then another 2 hours with my friend on Monday ripping seams. We finally taped it down and put in the pins at almost 4PM that day. I'm so thankful she helped. And, her kitchen floor is the perfect size to baste a quilt! Problem solved!

I will be quilting Pinka Ballerina this week. Goodness...it's coming down to the wire. Sammi's 2nd birthday party is 18 days away. Please pray for me!

I am not high maintenance, but...

my machine sure is!

I started to quilt the newest project that has to be done by Saturday, April 9, 2011. I'll post more of the process behind this later. I was going along happy as a clam with my machine. Then I turned it over and oh my goodness! The bottom thread was just laying on the fabric and the loops from the top were sticking out. I was tense... har har! I decided it was a good time to clean and oil my machine. Mad Madd (my husband) got me the machine a few weeks before my birthday last year. I sewed the binding on Kira's quilt; pieced, quilted and bound the Sunny Flower wall hanging and finally pieced the Pinka Ballerina that is in the current works.

I have a confession. I have NEVER oiled or cleaned a sewing machine in my entire sewing career. You can give me a slap on the wrist. It's probably deserved. Now that my machine is pretty much brand new I wanted to keep it in working order.

Scalpel please!

Lots of furry friends to evict!

Test strip. I ran it through until the stitches were oil free.

Oiled, cleaned, new needle and tension adjusted...all is well!

Now I can really get busy. If Pinka Ballerina is going to be wrapped up with a bow I have to get busy.

TTFN...

Sunny Flowers wall hanging

Drum roll, please! My very first moda project. Yes, it's true. I graduated from big box store fabric to soft, quality, modern fabric.

My SIL(sunny spot quilts blog) invited me to do a sew along. It was the lucky charm by Pat Sloan. Wow, she's a talented bird! She does great tutorials. Here is the link. It's really easy and she even provides a bonus project for your scraps.

We started this sew along August 27th. My SIL finished hers right along with everyone else. I on the other hand had other plans. Actually, it's called procrastinating. The quilt along calls for machine applique. I tried it and hated it. Hated is probably a strong word. I wasn't good at it. So, naturally, I folded up the project and forgot about it. Teresa (and surprising enough my husband) kept asking me about it and finally encouraged me to machine the darn thing. So, last week I dove in head first. I mean, this was a big deal. I had never finished a quilt this way. Was I selling my soul to the quilting devil? I have several more quilts to finish by May 2011. After taking the first few passes I decided that it was a great method and didn't have to give up my beloved hand quilting. Case closed!

Auditioning fabrics for binding.

Yellow sang the best.

Looks pretty good above the tube. This is probably where I'll hang seasonal projects. 

The binding was hand finished today. It took me 1.5 hours.

Many thanks to Pat Sloan. I have never followed a sew along or done HST. It was a blast!

Thanks to my SIL. I can't wait to start sharing our quilt emails again. xo 

Next time I'll be sure to use my 1/4 inch foot! I had just received a new machine from my husband and didn't realize the foot that came on it was not 1/4 inch. The seams are a little wonky. Oh well!!!

This completes my quilt history. Now you can look forward to current projects. 

I'm leavin' on a jet plane...in October!

I had heard nothing about this conference until my SIL invited me. OMG! How could I resist? It's really hard to choose between my favorite things, but there is a lot for me to learn in the quilting realm. Check out the website and hopefully you can hop on a jet plane! Or maybe be smuggled in my suitcase.

facebook link

website link

Kira: her flowers

Ripely's believe it or not...the hand quilting on the sucker was done in 30 days. I have no idea how that happened. I was on a deadline. I used bright pink thread for the coins, light purple for the sashing and a dark teal for the border. I alternated the coin fabric for the binding. It turned out really nice.

The quilt was started while I was pregnant in early 2009. I finished it September 30, 2010. As I had posted before, I took a huge hiatis after my son was born. Once I finished my nephew's quilt I started right on finishing this one. I really like this one. The fabric is fun, bright and very girlie! My girlfriend doesn't really like pink so I chose yellow as the sashing. Kira is Katja's little sister. You can see how much my technique has improved.

I put a patch of coins on the back of the quilt.

I used a fabric iron on paper for the label. Galina washed the quilt the other day and all the ink came off. Sew much for that! I picked up a permanent fabric pen and plan to make all labels this way going forward. If you have any suggestions, please leave me a comment.