Finished Quilt For Irish Chain Quilt-A-Long

 I AM FINISHED!!! 

I quilted it over a few days and I finished it yesterday. Today I put the binding on and took care of the thread ends. I love this quilt. I will wash it tomorrow and put it on my bed tomorrow evening. I can't wait to sleep under my own quilt. Chompie is helping hold down the quilt while I worked it around in my sewing machine. Nice doggie! Ha Ha!

Her is the finished quilt. I had my husband and brother-in-law hold it up. The both are over 6 feet and ti was way over their heads. I it s queen, 90" x 90". 

I thought I would show you what else I have been working on. I am now helping my husband and my brother-in-law make groomers for horse arenas. So I am working with metal. My hands do not look like a ladies hands, I can not get the black out all the way.

This is the finished groomer.

This is me cleaning one of the pieces.

I will leave you with a picture of my little family. Me, my husband, our daughters who are off at school again, my son, his wife and our two grand babies. 

TTFN

Irish Chain Twist Quilt-A-Long~Finished Top!!

I have been following along with Melissa over at Happy Quilting doing a quilt along, Irish Chain Twist. Tomorrow is the big day. We have gotten to the end of the steps and now it is time for the big reveal for our tops. This first picture is the top on my bed. It fits perfectly!! I am so excited.

 This picture is taken outside today in very strong winds. You can see how large it is. My daughters are standing on the seat of the picnic table. Sorry about the shade and sunny areas. With its size and the wind this was the only way we could take a picture.

 And then because the help I was getting here is a fun picture of the top facing into the wind. It did not turn out very well but the colors are truer to the way it really looks.

I went tonight and bought the backing and two bottles of spray baste. I will be working on getting it finished now. I want this quilt on my bed. We have until April 23rd, but I am hoping to be done before that. I love this quilt! Thank you Melissa for another great quilt along!

TTFN

An Exercise In Thread

I have really worked hard on getting my quilt done from Happy Quilting's Quilt Along. Each week we have been given a new step and even with school work and life I have found some time to sew. Yippee!! Things were going great until last week. The step was to applique our orange slices down. I looked through my thread, though it was older thread, I thought it might work. Then Started to mess up. Skipped stitches. Broken thread. I tried three or four different way of sewing those big blue petals down. ARG!! I was so mad. 

Then I figured it was just the thread. I switched back to my Gutermann thread and things worked like a charm. I usually only buy white or black so white it was. Here I tried a zig-zag and I think it worked wonderfully. 

 After sewing all 11 blocks this was the only flaw. 

 Bad BAD Thread!!!

Here is my top done laying on my bed. I don't have a floor big enough to spray baste it. I am not sure what I am going to do. I might have to take it up to my church to get it sprayed in the middle then bring it home to finish the edges. I am not sure how I am going to quilt it. My daughter said it looks like a tree. Brown branches, green leaves, and blue flowers. I will get a better picture of it later.

TTFN

Irish Chain Quilt-Along~Finished Blocks

I have finally finished the second set of block in the quilt-along going on over at Happy Quilting. I love these blocks. They are so cool. The only problem I had was lining up the two halves of the blocks. You an see how the two short sashing pieces don't line up. But after I looked and they are all like that I decided it just adds to the wonkiness of it.

Then today I finished the third block. I like this one even better. They are so fun to make. Melissa talked about in her tutorial of these blocks that if you used the fusible then the piece  would be stiff. I learned a little trick on another applique quilt I have done. If you trim out the insides of your fusible within an 1/8th to 1/4 of an inch then when you trim and iron on your pieces then the insides of the applique will not be glued down. I love doing it this way. The fusible holds the piece down until you sew it down. 

 Here are my finish blocks. They are so great. This next week will be sewing the applique pieces down. Then after that we will get to assemble our quilts. I can not wait!!!

TTFN

Irish Chain Twist Quilt Along Improvisational Piecing Block Step Done

Oh boy that was a lot of work but I loved every minute of it. It feel good to be busy making another quilt. I finished trimming all 160 squares. I just finished sewing all 40 blocks together. Why did I decide to make the queen size quilt? HA HA I know, because I want it for my bed. I know I will love it. So now I get to wait until Thursday when Melissa announces the next step. If you want to go check out the Quilt Along go here to the main page.

TTFN

Gifts, Quilt Alongs, and Babies

Last year after the H2H Challenge was done and the gifts were being sent out somehow mine got lost. I had won a years worth of magazines from Generation Q Magazine. Sarah over Confessions of a Fabric Addict felt bad and sent me these great treats. Thank you Sarah. Then within a few weeks I received my magazines. 

I am a bit slow on getting the steps done but I did get all of the pieces cut for my quilt that I am making following Melissa's Quilt Along over at Happy Quilting. I have all of the 320 triangles sewn onto the brown rectangles. This week I will focus on getting that next step done which is to cut them into squares.

I thought you might like a picture of my next granddaughter. This is Lillian or Lilly for short. She is about 5 months old and sucks on her fingers and not on a pacifier. Oh boy! HA HA

TTFN

Quilt-A-Longs

Hello everyone. I missed not blogging last week but it was a big homework week let me tell you. This week is not as bad. I have missed my daily sewing time. I just have so much going on now that if it does not have a deadline it gets pushed back. So when I saw the quilt-a-long over at Happy Quilting I knew I wanted to join in. It is a fabulous looking quilt. Melissa and started quilting at about the same time and I love to see how far she has come. This quilt-a-long leads right up to the release of her first book! How cool!! Here is some information if you would like to join up too. 

Schedule, Fabric Requirements, and Prizes - Jan 29th
 Cutting - Feb 5th
Twists on Tradition Units - Feb 12th
Modern Patchwork Block - Feb 19th
 Improvisational Piecing Units - Feb 26th
Improvisational Piecing Block - Mar 5th
Appliqued Chains Block - Assembling - Mar 12th
Appliqued Chains Block - Stitching - Mar 19
Piecing Top and Grand Prize Linky - Mar 26th
Parade and Grand Prizes - April 13th

It is also time to start thinking about Hands2Help (H2H). I have been a part of this Charity every year. 

Sarah is doing something a little different this year. She has started a Sweet 16 Quilt-a-long to help motivate us into making quilts using a simple 16 patch. She has shown a few different ways to work up quilts using the easy to make block. I loved her black and white quilt with just a touch of color. I want to make two, one very similar to her's and then a multi-colored one. I can't wait!

Are you doing any fun quilt-a-long this year? Join up with one they are great fun!! Now time to go buy some fun fabric.

TTFN