I'm getting closer . . .

I have really worked long and hard on the hand quilting of the star quilt. I spent I don't know how many hours last week when I was on Spring Break working on it. And finally Sunday evening, I completed the center of the quilt. Finally.

I'll try to get a better picture of it in a couple of days. So I am now ready to start on the border. I am going to use this stencil.

It is Holy Week at Church in preparation for Easter so I probably won't have time to quilt this week. But I am anxious to get this one finished. I am thinking about entering it in our little county fair this fall. A question for those of you who have entered quilts before.  Did you wash your quilts before you entered them?

Happy snipping, stitching, and quilting!

Hand Quilting

I finally made myself sit down and hand quilt on the Star Quilt the past two evenings. I really need to keep it up. I enjoy it after I make myself sit down and will quilt for hours and even hate stopping to go to bed. So why does it seem such a chore to sit down in the first place?

I am actually working on the last two blocks. Yippee! I still have some outer strips on the Irish Chain blocks do quilt. I don't enjoy quilting the hearts because there are so many curves and it seems to take me forever, so I skipped some of them to turn the quilt so they are horizontal to me instead of vertical. Make sense?

Then I have a wide border and plan to quilt it using a flower and vine template. But, I may change my mind and just do some straight stitching so I will get finished more quickly. But then again, it is the first quilt I have totally hand quilted myself and it is a very nice quilt. I am actually thinking about entering it into the county fair this year. So I really should use the template and make it look more elegant.

Well, enough rambling for today. Happy snipping, stitching, and quilting?

Oh my,

I decided to do a little updating to my sidebar and stopped short when I realized that my UFO's have not changed in over a year.  I guess I have made new quilts and just haven't finished the old. I guess I know what I need to be working on this year.  (I also need to straighten my sewing room and put everything in a place.)

The star quilt that I am hand quilting is at a standstill. I took it down when I starting decorating for Christmas but moved some things around and was able to get it back up. I need to concentrate on it.

Below I have listed some good Christmas/Christian movies that I watched recently on Netflix. I should have been quilting while watching. (Instead of messing around on the computer.)

The Letter Writer
The Shunning 
A Christmas Kiss
Dear Santa
Christmas Lodge
The Second Chance
Christmas Puppy
What if . . .
Snow Men
Shadow Island Mysteries: Wedding for One
Shadow Island: The Last Christmas
New Hope
The Heart of Christmas
WWJD II: The Woodcarver

It would seem that all I do is watch movies but I start watching Christmas shoes in November. Probably because they are upbeat, happy, and without violence or cursing.

Happy snipping, stitching, and quilting!

Busy, Busy, Busy

and getting very little accomplished. Or it seems that way.

School starts on the 20th. The summer has flown by.

I went to school for a few hours yesterday and the only thing I accomplished was getting some decorations laminated. I was interrupted way too many times. :) I was planning to get up and out of the house by 7 this morning--didn't happen. Forgot to turn on the alarm clock.

On the quilting front, I have made some headway on this wall hanging.

It is over halfway machine quilted. All of the floral blocks are quilted and some of the star blocks. I am just doing free motion stitch in the ditch on those. And believe me--I need practice on that.

And I have 2 rows completed on the star quilt I am hand quilting. I have two more blocks partially quilted on another row.

That is 10 blocks completed out of 25. I have decided that this is the pattern that is taking me a long time.  You know the continuous hearts around the Irish Chain block.

The continuous curves seem to take so much more time than the straight lines.

Well, that's a catch up in a nutshell.

Happy snipping, stitching, and quilting!

Two more . . .

blocks completed.

Let's see, that is 7 down and 18 to go. 

Happy snipping, stitching, and quilting!

Finally . . .

I finally got around to sandwiching the Star Quilt Along Quilt today. I spent most of the evening (and into the night) hand quilting on it. I was able to complete one block.

I am just going to decide on the quilting as I go along as each star block is different. It is nice to sit and hand quilt while watching TV. Much quieter than machine quilting.

I have decided I am going to work on one block at a time, even if I have to move the quilt often. I only have to snap the clamps off, move the quilt, and snap them back on.

Another scorcher out there today. I stepped outside to walk at 7 o'clock yesterday morning and it was already too muggy. This morning was cooler.  I guess I could get out of bed earlier, couldn't I?

Happy snipping, stitching, and quilting!

It Has a Home -- Star Quilt

The star quilt is finished. Binding and everything.

And . . . it has a home. 

My daughter asked me whose quilt this was and I told her it was homeless. She said she liked it. I told her I thought about giving it to her to keep in her car all of the time in case she was stranded, etc. 


Being a new quilter, I learn something new with each quilt I make. On this one I learned that high loft batting does not play well with a walking foot.  And . . . for some reason my outer border seems a little wonky. Maybe after I wash the quilt, it will behave.

Happy snipping, stitching, and quilting!

Star Quilt FInished? - Almost

While I slept last night my house elves came and added a couple of borders on my star quilt. Actually, I wanted it to be a little bit bigger. For some reason I am drawn to black in quilts. I think because it makes the colors "pop". 

The colors in this photo really turned out poorly. The outer border is a blue print and the wide border is black. I took this picture as I was sandwiching the quilt on my kitchen floor. My kitchen has red walls and I think that may be why the colors are not vivid. I didn't use a flash so I know the flash did not wash them out. 


I'll make sure I take the finished quilt picture outside or in my sewing room to get a better pictures. Now, I'm off to quilt it--after I eat some lunch. 


Ok, I figured out what was wrong with my camera. I went outside to take a picture of the ice storm we are getting and changed the setting to take a picture of the tree branches that were moving and forgot to change it back. 

Much better. The colors show now.

Happy snipping, stitching, and quilting!