Happy Birthday, America!
Stay SAFE, Everyone,
~Deb
The second 'Live Free II' patriotic quilt gets quilted:
Live Free II - coming off quilt frame |
One of our last thread cones of Superior's Lava Diamond Head, (has since been replaced w/Fantastico variegated), was used to quilt the 'West Wind At Night E2E' - one of our very favs for texture and movement!
Close-up of some of this wonderful quilting design:
Quilting close-up of West Wind At Night E2E |
Next in our recent quilting line-up in the process of being quilted is one of 'Our Doris's' latest - a Patriotic Signature/Rail Fence quilt that will soon be awarded in an upcoming Quilt of Honor event.
This quilt is being quilted in Silver machine quilting thread front and back, w/Fireworks quilting design from Deb Geissler:
Fireworks quilting |
Corner quilting |
Quilting back |
Digital Quilting Design - Deb Geissler's FIREWORKS |
Last pass quilting! |
Time to finish up quilting and get busy binding ;-)
Well...almost - skating under the wire on the last day of February!
Just yesterday it was late December and yours truly was catching up on the annual Bonnie Hunter Mystery - Rhodendron Trail! (I did finish it...btw - just put my personal 'spin' on it ;-)
Speaking of - meet Hello Sunshine!
Hello Sunshine! |
A few pics from the clues leading 'up to' the finish:
Yep - changed things up a bit in 'my version' - including going scrappy w/pinks, changed out the skinny turquoise border sashing for a Big fat 2 1/2" one, changed out those corner stones to different Sunshine yellows and went totally scrappy w/turquoise fabric sashing! It's ALL mine and I Totally Love it!
Kudos to Bonnie for coming up w/gorgeous color palette to play with that I would typically NEVER touch w/quilting 10' pole BUT...so glad I did!
Chaining Hour Glass units ...LOTS of them! |
Assembling into blocks |
Butterfly Blocks - aren't these amazing! |
Oh yeah - almost forgot...chose to forego the 'on point' setting so we could enjoy ALL those gorgeous butterfly blocks...still dream about sewing them ;-)
Sashed out - ready for some flying geese, which will ALL fly the same direction on 'my quilt' ;-) |
And finally - added a gorgeous batik border straight from my stash...LOVE!
Bordered out - ready for quilting! |
Been hosting a Sweet Freedom Mystery or two myself...Stop by and see what we're up to when you get a chance - look forward to seeing You! https://sweetfreedommystery.blogspot.com/
Hope you ALL had a very Merry Christmas and are eagerly anticipating our Brand NEW Year of 2022!
While waiting for our New Year to arrive, decided to get busy catching up on a few projects, including our annual Bonnie Hunter Mystery - this year's mystery has been named Rhododendron Trail by the creator herself ;-)
During Christmas and all the accompanying festivities, w/prep work and cooking/baking, as usual, fell behind on last week's clue, which btw, was a doozy! Got it ALL cut out Sunday eve and started sewing prior to Clue #5 being released Monday morning - nothing like a little pressure to get those motivating juices flowing!
Time to start sewing!
Chain piecing the hour glass units of Clue #4 |
And then there was the pressing of the 'first half' - took almost 2 hours just to press...Oh my.
First 'half' of the hour glass units getting pressed |
Finished pressing!
First half of the hour glass units pressed and ready for final assembly |
Hour Glass units assembled/pressed...Yes! |
Honestly, IF I don't see another Hour Glass unit in the near future, I'll be good w/that ;-)
Managed to get Clue #5 cut and assembled w/fabrics I had BUT, ran out and had to order another Pink fat quarter set to be able to finish. Should arrive by Friday when Clue #6 is released! NO worries - we've got the weekend...right?
I rummaged through my stash to see if I couldn't find some pinks to finish up with, that could also 'blend' with what I had already used. And I did find one pink batik that is a nice addition and got used BUT, it wasn't enough. Used up most of my pink stash last year creating face masks, and Pink is just NOT a fabric color I tend to purchase and/or keep on hand in my stash. Time to order more of some of my 'original' fabrics - thank goodness The Fat Quarter Lady still had some left...Lucky me!
Sewing the final piece of Clue #5 AND getting a bonus triangle unit for good measure |
Most of Clue #5 assembled/pressed and ready to be zip-locked:
3/4 of Clue #5 assembled/pressed and ready for storage |
Here's Wishing You and Yours a Happy New Year!
After a rather looooong sabbatical from the 'Bow Tie' project, decided to get back to it after stumbling across the ice cream bucket FULL of Bow Ties, while conducting the annual Christmas CLEAN.
Christmas RED seemed appropriate for the re-boot...aren't these too cute!
Christmas RED Bow Ties w/cheddar |
380 Bow Tie blocks so far |
When I started this Bonnie Hunter Leaders/Enders Bow Tie project, I decided to use Reproduction jelly roll prints AND I changed up Bonnie's original pattern to be able to accommodate my jelly roll strips. (ALL the math and other pertinent details are included at the previous blog posting - https://donebybettyboop.blogspot.com/2012/03/bow-ties-can-be-addictive.html)
Reproduction Jelly Roll Strips |
Now that I've decided to FINISH this project soon - hopefully by the first of the New Year, time to crank things up a bit and get this Bow Tie Party started!
I need 750 total blocks for my finished quilt and I currently have 380, means I need an additional 370 to finish. I can get five (5) blocks from each jelly roll strip, coupled w/cheddar background fabric, so four (4) strips per day will generate twenty (20) blocks per day...I'm on my way to the Bow Tie FINISH line.
I cut these out today:
Freshly cut/ready to assemble/two different fabric block units in each stack = 80 blocks! |
Chain piecing these Bow Tie units is fairly quick |
Five (5) of each fabric design = 10 more Bow Tie blocks! |
Working on these Bow Ties in between the latest Bonnie Hunter annual Mystery. First Clue #1 is Done!
Rhododendron Trail Mystery Clue #1 |
Time for some shut-eye!
First in our Patriotic quilting line-up, another 'Special' Doris original getting quilted up for an even more special Vet ;-)
Star Quilting = Becker's Shooting Star, one of our Favs! |
Becker's Shooting Star quilt pattern has been a long-time quilting fav - we even quilted it 'originally' w/paper pantos, prior to adding our computerized system...quilts out Beautifully EVERY time, adds wonderful dimension without over-powering the amazing design of 'any' quilt.
Quilting the Final Borders - love it when a good quilting combo comes together! |
Coming off the quilt frame - scrappy strip quilt 'original' from the Strip Quilting Diva herself - 'Our Doris', has outdone herself with this one for sure!
Patriotic Scrappy Strip quilt comes off the frame |
A glimpse at the back reveals a closer look at the quilting design:
Quilting design compliments Doris's Scrappy Strip quilt design = Win/WIN! |
Second in our patriotic quilting line-up and 'another' of Our Doris's patriotic quilt tops - we just added borders to 'size it out' and voila!
West Wind E2E Night |
Quilting w/West Wind E2E 'Night' brings movement and a starry field to compliment, once again - a wonderful 'Fence Rail w/Twist' of Doris's. Quilted w/Silver in the needle & bobbin just makes it Sparkle ;-)
Digital quilting design quilting progress - LOTS to quilt! |
A view of the back w/front:
Front w/back shows quilting detail coupled w/great fabrics & quilt design = Winning Combo! |
And finally - coming off the frame:
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Coming off the frame |
Time to Bind!
Just a few 'last minute' quick Halloween embroidery projects. What's Halloween without a proper Spooky coaster or two?
'Happy Haunting' Halloween Coaster |
A little 'Poison' for Good Measure?
'Poison' Coaster |
And then we needed some proper Halloween Masks ;-)
'Trick or TREAT' face mask |
A Tombstone Mug Rug...Why Not?
A few of our completed Halloween embroidery projects:
Halloween FUN Coasters & Face Masks |
And finally, a Special Halloween 'Surprise' embroidery project for one of my very Fav Farming Buddies:
Halfway through this 31,000+ stitch-count embroidery - building a 'thread' tire ;-) |
Messy FUN aftermath |
All Done!
Jacket back |
Jacket front |
Happy Halloween!
~Deb