Sunday, June 24, 2012

A must have quilting book...

...called Sunday Morning Quilts.   It is a new book by Amanda Jean Nyberg and Cheryl Arkison.   I was thrilled when asked if I would test one of the patterns...thank you Mama Spark for suggesting me as a pattern tester to Amanda Jean. The pattern I tested was Up Up and Away and it is one of 16 Modern Scrap Projects found in Sunday Morning Quilts. The fabric I used was Lily and Will II by Bunny Hill Designs and Moda Ivory for the background.  It has 589 little triangles....

Up Up and Away

Last summer I was testing a pattern for Amanda Jean at Crazymomquilts.  When you are testing a pattern it is all hush hush until the pattern or book is released.  Well...I had completely forgotten about the quilt and had still not even finished it.....I do have a zillion UFO's...many stored in pizza boxes.  My DS bought me 2 crates of pizza boxes....a few years ago to kinda organize my UFO's

Well, Wednesday night I went to shut down the PC before bed and noticed an email from Amanda Jean.  She would like to blog about her pattern testers on her 'Sunday Morning Scrap' posting....this Sunday.  I'm in panic mode, not sure where to even find the quilt.  I knew the rows were made, but not all the rows were sewn together.

Thursday morning I found the quilt rows wrapped in a flannel table cloth that I use as my design wall. I had a busy day on Thursday and just had time to repress the rows and arrange the ones that I still had to sew together.  The rows are stitched on point and there were a lot of intersections that had to be pinned.  These are 2" squares. I had a quilt meeting Thursday night....and got home after 9.  It was 95F on Thursday and felt like 100F....and there was no air conditioning in the church.  To say the least I was whipped when I got home!!!!  I decide to send Amanda Jean an email to see if we could have another week or so to get pictures to her....she got back to me and she was going to think about it but would probably go with what the testers sent her and go ahead with the post this Sunday....in 4 days......I had to get my act together fast and get something worthwhile sent to Amanda Jean. I pinned, stitched and pressed 2 inch squares on Friday and finished the quilt top Friday evening.  I loaded it onto the long arm, picked my pattern and thread so I could start quilting it first thing Saturday morning.  I'm still pretty slow with the long arm but I managed to finish the quilt at 12:03 pm.  I trimmed it and decided I wanted to do a 2 colored binding, a little more time consuming and added pressure, but I wanted the back of the quilt plain.  I finished hand stitching the binding down about 8 o'clock....thank goodness it was still light outside for a few pictures to send to Amanda Jean.


I think I worked pretty good under pressure.  Thank you Amanda Jean for trusting me as a pattern tester and for getting me to finish one of my UFO's.  I luv it...it's my 'calming quilt'...all my worries are Up Up and Away.



Wednesday, June 13, 2012

I've been busy...

....cleaning like a mad woman....even washing windows.
I'm getting ready for NASCAR weekend.  There will be 7 for sure and
maybe 9 family and friends
arriving mid day on Friday.  
I think this will be year #7.
It is to be a hot weekend....like 90F and humid...ugh!!...
...today would have been a perfect day for the race....74F!!

On the weekend DH strung a clothes line from 2 of the trees in the back yard
...a NO NO in our subdivision....
I haven't hung any clothes on the line but have been tempted
...what would they do to me????

He took a few pictures of some quilts....
...this one is for the Veterans Hospital  in Ann Arbor....
using scraps from my stash.
I started it a long time ago and finally finished it...yipee



I have 2 more tops pieced
and I'll have pictures after they are quilted.
...they were pieced using  Moda's
'Independence Trail' and Prairie Paisley II fabrics by Minick and Simpson.
Thank you Laurie for giving me some Moda scrapes.
...I still have lots of scraps to make more quilts!!
They will be for the Veterans Hospital too.


...a few princess lap quilts 


3 Disney princess quilts on the line


and a few crib quilts were also on the line.


3 Hullabalou quilts on the line


I'll be back next week to show you what I've been 
hand embroidering!!!
I luv it but this one is not for me...


hugs and happy stitching

Pauline











Sunday, June 3, 2012

My Dresden Plate quilt has borders.....

and is ready for quilting....
....not sure when I will get to quilting it.
I really like how it turned out....
even Mr QnQ said he liked it...as he is waiting for the breeze to die down so
he can snap a few pictures!!


Mr QnQ hung wash line cord between 2 trees in the backyard
to take photos of some quilt tops and some finished quilts.
...hanging clothes in our subdivision is a NO NO...
and so far I've just hung quilts....for a few short minutes.
Some days it is very breezy and I would just luv to hang my sheets...
but I'm sure the ordinance 'police' would be at my door...

Remember this one..
It still has no borders, looks the same as it did 4 years ago
and back in February when I took it out of the pizza box
BUT...guess what
Purple Log Cabin UFO from about 2006 or  2007.
I entered it into the 
Greater Ann Arbor Quilt Show...
I have a dead line now...the quilt show is July 28th & 29th
The last day to enter a quilt was May 19th ...
as a procrastinator on May 19th I sent in my info...yep on the last day...
...crazy me, what was I thinking????
I'll have to add the hanging sleeve to it too...my LEAST favorite thing to do!


Thank you to all who left me sweet comments on my last post 
and to those who took the time to email me, even phone me.
 I am touched by your concern and caring thoughts.
You guys are the best!!!


hugs and happy stitching

Pauline