Friday, May 31, 2013

"The Pat Cave", My Comfy New Sewing Space

About a month or more ago, I asked myself  - why was I using the small spare bedroom as my sewing room and not the larger one???? Really, do guests need that much space???  Now deciding to move and actually moving all my ...stuff, well that can take a while. Still not completely done, but I really like working in my new space. I love having the big tables on both sides of my machine. The left side holds my quilt when I'm free motion quilting and my cutting board when I need it. I even basted this quilt on it. The right side holds all my other stuff - thread, small iron and pad, etc.
 Even room for a "guest" chair when my husband needs to visit the "Pat Cave".
 Needless to say, I'm still quilting my "Make It Right" Challenge quilt. I'm probably showing you more than I should, but I don't think anyone is going to copy it on this short notice.

I'm linking up today with Leah Day for FMQ Friday, can't wait to see what everyone's been up to this week.


Free Motion Quilting Friday

Color Me Quilty!

Pat

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

WIP Wednesday, Still Quilting!

When you tend to quilt the snot out of a quilt, it does take time. Spring is a difficult season to find that time with gardening, but I have tried to fit in a few hours here and there. I am making progress on my Make it Right Challenge quilt.
 My goal was to give the quilt a lot of texture. I think I'm succeeding, but looking at just the dark grey sections, it looks kind of rainy.

 And speaking of rain, my husband and I got 2 cubic yards of mulch spread on the beach garden just before the heavens opened up. We took out most of the perennials and added in a few more shrubs and trees, put down landscape fabric and edging in hopes of making this garden a bit easier to manage. I think it still looks good.
Picture taken from inside the house, it was raining.
In other news, my Elephant quilt was nominated for viewers choice at the Blogger's Quilt Festival. Of course I would love your vote for overall viewers choice quilt, but also for the Elephant quilt in the Bed Quilt category and the Koi Pond quilt in the Home Machine Quilted category.

Here are this week's stats:
In-process: (4)
Express Your Love
Layers quilt
Grandma's Quilt
Making It Right Challenge

New projects: (0)


Finished (0)


I'm linking up with  Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday!




 
Color Me Quilty!
 
Pat

Monday, May 27, 2013

Happy Memorial Day (and a sneak peek)!


This is a picture of my grandson from a few years ago, but he still LOVES flags!
Happy Memorial Day to those of you in the U.S. The birthplace of Memorial Day is Waterloo, NY, just a stones throw from where I live. Click HERE if you'd like to read more about the history of the day. Thank you to all the veterans who gave everything to keep us free.

My husband has been wonderful, taking over a lot of the heavy gardening so I would have time to work on my Make It Right challenge quilt. He really is such a sweetie! I thought you might like a sneak peek at some of the quilting. I still have miles to stitch!






Have a wonderful day!


Color Me Quilty!

Pat




Friday, May 24, 2013

Shameless Tease

Okay, actually I'm shameless and a tease! I'll start with the tease. I've been quilting my Make It Right challenge quilt. Oh, it is fun. I can't share the whole quilt, but I can show you what I'm quilting; slate tile and paisley, both of which are on Leah Day's 365+ designs.




the back
I want to make sure that there is a lot of texture in the quilt since a) the line of fabric is call Textures and b) Angela Walters (the fabric designer) is an amazing long-arm quilter.  I'm using Aurifil thread and Quilters Dream Puff batting. LOVE both products, they are my favorite combination, not to mention that this fabric line is in my favorite color palette of lime and teal. You won't have to wait long, I have to have it done by June 6th.

Okay, so now for the shameless part, I would like to ask for your VOTE(S) over at the Blogger's Quilt Festival at Amy's Creative Side. 


I have my Elephant quilt in the bed category

And my Koi Pond quilt in the Home Machine Quilted category
All you have to do is click on my link, then click on the word "Vote" and voila' you're done!

I'm linking up today with Leah Day for FMQ Friday, can't wait to see what everyone's been up to this week.



Free Motion Quilting Friday

Color Me Quilty!

Pat

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

WIP Wednesday

I have been working diligently on my "Make It Right" challenge quilt. The top is done, the quilt is basted. The problem is that I can't really show it to you, it's a secret.  Okay, I'll show you a sneak peek.
 I know that this isn't much of a sneak peek, you'll just have to wait until June 6th. Something else is different in this picture. I switched the spare bedroom and my sewing room. Do guests need more room that me for my sewing???  I think not!  Anyway, I'm not fully settled yet, but it is going to be cool. When it's done I will show you pictures of the room. My new setup is SWEET! I was able to baste this quilt sitting next my sewing machine.

Needless to say, the quilt only took an hour or so to press and baste. Now on to the fun part, FMQ. And I plan on quilting the snot out of it!

I also finished my Elephant quilt, just in time to enter it in the Blogger's Quilt Festival in the Bed Quilts category.

I also entered my Koi Pond quilt into the home machine quilted category. 

Voting starts on Friday, May 24. I'm shamelessly asking if you will consider voting for my quilts in their respective categories, but you really do need to check out all of the quilts. They are a world of inspiration.

Here are this week's stats:
In-process: (4)
Express Your Love
Layers quilt
Grandma's Quilt
Making It Right Challenge

New projects: (0)


Finished (1)
Elephant quilt

I'm linking up with  Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday!



 
Color Me Quilty!
 
Pat

Monday, May 20, 2013

Koi Pond Quilt

This time, Amy at My Creative Side, is allowing two quilt entries into the Blogger's Quilt Festival. So, I decided that I should enter my Koi Pond quilt into the Home Machine Quilted category., since I entered my Elephants on Parade quilt into the Bed Quilt Category.

AmysCreativeSide.com



 Here are some close-up shots of the quilting, during the quilting process







 Here are some photos of what the quilting looks like on the back.



Quilt specifications: Size 56" x 76"
Thread: pieced and quilted with Aurifil.
Batting: Quilters Dream Request - a low loft cotton. It quilted beautifully.
Quilting: All free motion quilted on a domestic machine; Pfaff Quilters Expression 4.0. The only element that was marked, were the Koi (fish). All of the rest of the quilting was done freehand.

Completed in January 2013, this was really a first for me at letting go and creating this quilt in a very improv method. This quilt was so much fun to make.

You really do need to check out all of the quilts at the Blogger's Quilt Festival!

Color Me Quilty!

Pat

Friday, May 17, 2013

Elephants On Parade


My Elephant quilt is complete. It is, in my opinion, fit for a queen. Well, it is a generous queen size, 94" wide and 100" long. I quilted it in three long panels and joined them with this QAYG method here.


I free motion quilted this quilt on my domestic machine (Pfaff Quilters Expression 4.0) using Aurifil thread (I pieced it with this thread too).
I used the fun variegated (aqua/teal) thread to quilt the elephant panel. It was my first time using a variegated thread, I think it turned out very cool.

The diamond pattern was the first time I straight line quilted. I really like the texture. And speaking of texture, I used Quilters Dream Puff batting. Nobody's going to get cold using this quilt. I love this batting.
  I think that the striped binding looks good with both the back and the front. I pieced the back of the quilt with large blocks of color.


 My goal was to have a reversible quilt. I was please how well I got the elephants on the front to line up with the color breaks on the back.


AmysCreativeSide.com


I'm entering this quilt in the Blogger's Quilt Festival over at Amy's Creative Side. You really do have to visit to see all of the magnificent quilts. I'm entering mine in the bed quilt category.  I (shamelessly) hope you will consider nominating and voting for this quilt.

I'm also linking up with TGIFFFinish Friday, and FMQ Friday

Color Me Quilty!

Pat