One very PINK quilt

This quilt was a long time in the making. Remember the quilt that I helped Jennifer finish up? The birdie quilt? I was also working on the same blocks, but it took much longer to finish - I suspect because I kept starting other projects!

I had always had this in mind for Grandma A. She's the one who got me thinking that I could learn to sew and that I could actually make quilts. She has made so many quilts - for her kid's weddings, for grandchildren births, grandchildren graduations, grandchildren weddings, and now great grandchildren. She was originally taught by my Great Grandma A, and I LOVE that there is a little family history there!

Grandma's favorite color is pink, so of course the quilt just HAD to be PINK!! Believe it or not, Curt came with me this time to JoAnn's as well and helped me pick out the pink polka dot sashing fabric. Love it!

I used the same quilting template as I did with the previous birdie quilt - I love those rope cables!

 And I love the process of hand quilting - it gets to be tedious towards the end, but it turns out so beautiful!

This was started in January 2011 and finished up in December 2012. Given to Grandma over the christmas holidays.

Love, love, LOVE the texture!

I wasn't quite finished when we headed out to Oregon, so some of the binding was stitched on during the car trip. Can you see the snow out the windshield? This is going down the gorge near Hood River.

Pretty blue binding!

All finished!

 Pretty light pink sheet for the back. Hard to see, but it has pink roses on it.

Flower quilting in the sashing!

 

If this hadn't of taken so long to make, I'd sure make myself one! Maybe someday!! Check another project off the list! :-)

Little Bobcat Fan Quilt

Remember the Montana State Bobcat quilt I made for Curt? He loved it so much that he had to show it off to another Bobcat fan. They liked it so much that they requested one for a special little girl. Her name is Ashlynn and she's about 2 years old. I was more than happy to do it - I already had more than enough blue and gold fabric leftover, so I jumped in. (Here's little Ashlynn feeding a cheerio to her Daddy)

 

I wondered how to make it a bit more "girly" - but solved that problem by putting a pretty blue daisy print on the back.

I used fusible web to attach the lettering... then sewed around the outer edges. I left the edges of that to fray - I am loving the raw edges in quilts more and more!

To finish it I hand quilted baptist fans all over. I love that you don't have to do any marking to do that quilting pattern - you just go for it! For better or for worse, it looks hand made! :-)

I think it turned out pretty cute!!

Pillowcase Request

Curt asked for a new pillowcase last November, so it gave me the perfect opportunity to try out the "tube method". Have you seen it? If not... check out this link on youtube! It's from the Missouri Star Quilt Company - I love their tutorials!

These each took only 20 minutes or so, and they were very easy. Curt went with me to JoAnn's (believe it or not) and picked out his own fabric. John Deere of course!

I really loved the floral print for mine - but don't know that I would use it for anything other than a pillow case. Who says we can't have something a little different now and then? :-)

It's been a long time!

I have worked on a few things, but mostly focused in school and clinicals this past semester. One more semester to go!! I will sit down later and write posts to share a couple completed projects, but for now just a couple pics of my current headache. After three years, my sewing machine hit a glitch! It gave me an error that said the motor froze up because of tangled thread. After taking it all apart with the help of the hubby and cleaning every book and cranny possible, it will only work on the very slowest mode. Time to take it to the shop I guess!!

In the mean time I have this old machine to play with. It came from somewhere in the family but no one quite knows who it belonged to. It says pfaff on the case but guessing from the manual and some online research, I think it was probably made in Japan. It sure runs smooth though! Might give up my little white plastic machine after all... We'll see!

Spiderwebs (The good kind)

I've started to accumulate little scraps now that I've finished a few projects. I've bagged them up in ziplocks and they've just been sitting. Until now.

The other night I decided to do something with them. I used the free tutorial from www.quiltville.com  and started sewing away. I LOVE this type of sewing - no precision cutting, not color matching, no planning... just petal to the metal! :-) Can't wait to see where this goes!!

Purple Birdies

I love Jen's finished quilt! She picked such cute colors! Like I said before, I don't think I would have chosen these, but it ended up so pretty.

I traveled with my husband for work and spent some time in a hotel room. I took Jen's quilt with me and got it stitched most of the way - a great way to put my hands and time to use!

 

Quilting around the block borders and the embroidery ~

 

Little daisy flowers in the sashing ~

 

Finished!

LOVE the texture - this might be my new favorite of quilting!

 Cables ~

A soft cotton sheet used for the backing

 My quilt "holder-upper" - this his *smile* for his sister in law and her quilt. :-P

An instagram shot of or dog-dog Jack - he keeps me company while I sew.

Northern Montana wheat fields are already cut, it's been a hot summer! This was taken mid-July.

Beautiful rainbow!

I love the mountains! These are about as close as you get to them where we live in Northern Montana. Smells like hay!

Show some Bobcat Spirit!

Glad to finally have this quilt done! It was started this spring, and took approx. 6 months to finish. I'm pretty excited about it though, because it's the first one I've ever completed - start to finish - by myself! 

My husband requested an MSU Bobcat quilt. The requirements were that it had to be "big, heavy, and soft". Hmm... okay!? How do I do that?? I Started with this stack of blues and the solid yellow. When I showed them to the hubs, he nixed the swirly fabric 2nd from the bottom. He had a hand in every part of this process too!

 He picked out the rail fence blocks for the background, and had wanted the pinwheel orientation.

 After laying the blocks out and thinking about the logo that would be stitched on top, we decided that we liked the zig zag layout better - it's a more "quiet" option and wouldn't distract from the logo or lettering.

 The bobcat logo was something of a challenge for me. I printed out the logo from online (I hope that doesn't cross any boundaries... we are bobcat students, and there is no printed fabric available in this specific logo/brand), then I took it Staples to have it enlarged. I had envisioned it even larger...but they could only do so much with what I had. I watched several videos on YouTube and decided that I could try to needle turn applique the shape. It went okay for my first attempt - but there's always room for improvement!!

 Next I asked for input on the lettering, and we selected the font below. The letters were enlarged and printed out on cardstock. I don't have a picture, but I cut out each individual letter with added seam allowance, and then appliqued them to the quilt top. This was a tough job - I should have added them BEFORE the top was complete. It's hard to wrangle a queen+ quilt top to sew on each letter!

My first try at hand quilting! I used cardboard templates and cut out oval shapes to trace. I think the round shapes added a little softness. In the outer borders, I used masking tape and duct tape to mark out straight lines. Worked pretty good!

Finished and folded.

Love the way the quilting looks!

Pretty blue ~

The bobcat logo with 2012 quilted in the middle~

Don't mind the suitcases - we had just been on the road. :-)

Trying it to see if it's "big enough"

He loves it - can't you tell? You mean that face doesn't scream with joy? (Heh - tired of taking pictures.)

The backing - FLEECE! This quilt has a cotton batting and he picked out the yellow fleece for the back. It made it tough to quilt, but what did I know - it was my first! Live and learn!

A dark photo - but the quilting texture shows up ~

Go Bobcats!