2013, Yeah.

Okay folks, I am so very sorry, but I did this last week and I though I got it posted but apparently I had that old brain thingie and it did not get posted.  So here I am posting this weeks first and last weeks behind it.  Sorry.

Well this new year has started.  I have to say I finished out the last year in a blaze as I completed a lot of quilts between my semi-retirement on Nov. 1, 2012 and the end of Dec. 2012.  Many of those I did not get to make pictures of since my camera died and I had to get a new camera, which I got my husband for Christmas.  Now I'm back to taking pictures and really have been doing quite a bit of quilting.

I'm going to go ahead an post some of the many pictures that I have taken so you will get to see some of what I have been working on so you will know I really have been busy.  Many new projects going also, which I think will be fun.  Also I need to finish some of those older projects that I have started but not yet completed.  I have some that I have been working on for a couple of years and they just sort of get put back when I hit a snag or something to wait for a later date.  I'm sure none of you ever do that, start working on a project and something interrupts like life, or you hit a snag that you just don't really know where to go from here so you have to put it down for a while and wait for inspiration to dawn!  Sometimes it takes a long time for that dawn to come!

So here go my photos in review!

A young lady I know had a baby this year and I decided to make something for the newborn, precious little Olivia.  Now the colors in this are the colors her parents had chosen and I made a cute little round pad to lay her down on to change diapers, or for her to play on when out and about.  It being round, I had these pieces of fabric that had the holes in the center, so what to do.  Well I decided to make a patchwork and cut it to fit into the hole, so that is what I did here.  The top is finished, now just got to get her quilted.  This is a she!  Pretty in pink!

Now this is one of Kay's quilts that she brought me.  The border has this wonderful print that ran diagonially so I just decided to do some wavey lines up through the lines and I really think this turned out quite well.  Of course, I also had to add some leaves in the gold border.  I love doing leaves.

I wanted to do something a little different so I did just some close straight lines where the four corners came together and made the lines in different directions.  I liked the effect as did Kay.  Whew!

Another of Kay's Quilts that I completed for her.  We were going to Florida for a conference and we stopped by The Scarlet Thread down below Atlanta and picked out these fabrics for a pattern that Kay found that she really liked.  They turned out really well together.  Kay has a knack for how to arrange lights and darks.

This top was so pretty but it had some challenges in that each time they added another border the edges were longer than the center portion of the quilt.  The colors were beautiful, but........There wound up being about 4-6" extra fabric sewn into outside border.  I had to whip this one into shape!

As you can see I did a lot of whipping.  The outer border had the closest quilting and the amount of quilting decreased as I moved toward the center of the quilt, until the center was an all over mofit.  Loved the lace and tatting used in this top, but once again that can produce challenges to the longarm quilter.

Wanted you to see a picture of the whole quilt.

Wow, sorry folks but this internet is moving so very slow today, it has taken me more than 5 minutes each to add these photos so I'm going to stop for today.

 

I will be posting next week and putting up some more of what I have been doing.  Just a couple of hints that I will pass along.  On the quilt top I made the circle in a square quilt, that is flannel and boy does that stuff stretch.  You really have to be careful when piecing flannel and take care so you don't stretch the pieces completely out of shape.  I'm sure I will have lots of practice at fixing problems by the time I get through quilting that one.

 

Second hint is to be sure and measure your quilt before adding each border.  If the length of your outside edges and the measurement across the middle of the quilt are not the same you need to make some adjustments so your last border means all three measurements are the same.  If you bring the measurements closer to the center measurement with each added border you will not have wavey edges.  If your measurements are 74", 68", and 76" then you will have wavey borders with the one with the longest measurement being the waviest.  If the issue is not addressed early and consistently by the quilter you will have pleats in your borders which no one wants.  Even with very experienced longarm quilters it is very, very difficult to fix a border that is over 6" longer than it should be according to the rest of the quilt. 

 

My pledge is, I will do my best to make each quilt I quilt the best that I can make it.  I really try to do that but being an imperfect person, in an imperfect world sometimes the results are not perfect.  I hope you all have a wonderful day quilting and piecing.  Practice makes perfect!  I'm still practicing!