Latest Inspiration

I've been inspired by the recent frenzy of sewing among my friends. For mothers day I was given the opportunity to help choose a sewing machine for a new seamstress. She really didn't know what she wanted but she had wanted the option for embroidery and monogramming. The sewing machine chosen that had all the options and was affordable was the Brother 950D. It's the newest model in the Brother line and its very user friendly. At about $750.00 its not the cheapest sewing and embroidery machine but it has the most functionality and options for monogramming. Her first project was a new pad for her baby stroller and she's already finished her second project. Between her and a few other of my students, I'm the proud teacher of a few protege's.

My sewing machine is a Janome DC 2007LE and has none of the embroidery or monogramming capabilities but it allows me to do what I love, QUILT and I've been quilting.

My latest projects are actually UFO's (Unfinished Objects). First, I finished quilting my "Fresh" tulip quilt by outlining the stars and then outlining the flowers n the panel. Next, I put together the quilt sandwich of an UFO of my female family members. I then quilted this quilt (Me and My Sister Design-Cherry Turnover, using Oh Cherry Oh fabrics) and finally I prepared and sewed on the binding. Lastly, I created finally decided which pattern to use from the book Sweet and Simple Baby Quilts and created a quilt by fussy cutting "Flower Fairies" from Michael Miller's
Fairy Dots Apple fabric. This is such a cute project and I'm uploading photos of the pattern and the quilt top.

I've finished so much in three days... So glad I was inspired.

Happy Quilting

Stitch-in-the-Ditch

It's a been quite awhile since I've been able to sit down and quilt. In fact, I'm still quilting the bright tulip quilt mentioned in my last post. I've been busy but also it takes me longer than the average quilter to decide on how I want to quilt a project.

For this project I outlined the quilt blocks in white and then used a variegated thread of orange red and yellow to outline or stitch in the ditch around each star. I'm about half way finished with the stars and then I need to decide what to do with the "Tulip" square in the middle.

I was inspired to return to this project when a friend of mine wanted to learn how to sew. Today we're headed to a local sewing machine store to check out a few sewing/embroidery machines. It's going to be fun!

P.S. Happy Mother's Day mom thank you for teaching me how to sew.

Old / New Project

Tonight I started quilting a quilt that I had started and put together earlier this year. I moved with it in that unfinished state and never got back to it. The quilt from the beginning was very "BRIGHT". It's a fun and bright quilt. I stepped outside of the box when I chose this pattern and fabrics. Most quilters that know me would call me a traditional quilter so this was a bit out there.

When I started this project early in 2009 I decided to change the pattern a bit to work with the line of fabric I had chosen. I fell in love the Moda Fresh by Debbie Strain and decided to fussy cut the panel for some of the blocks. I didn't have a purpose for this quilt except to learn how to make stars but I did learn a lot about putting this one together.

I decided to quilt in the ditch around the interior of each box with a white thread. I'd like to use a multi color thread around the stars. Here's an "as is" photo. I'm only about 1/4 of the way finished witht the quilting. I'll show you a finished quilt picture when I complete it.

Baby Quilt

After going to one quilt show you can't wait to get to another. I planned on visiting my second AQS quilt show in Nashville, TN, for months. I had decided to upgrade from my $99 dollar Brother from Walmart.

So in true quilt show fashion, I played hooky from work for a few hours, met up with my friends, we had to have gotten coffee, and then shopped all morning at the quilt show. Amy, Maria, Linda, and Pam were all there and they helped me to purchase a Janome sewing machine. We also had a great lunch at a pub in the Opry Mills Hotel and Convention Center.

Buying a sewing machine may have been my biggest and most exciting purchase to look forward to at the quilt show; but, the quilt show had another surprise in store for me. I found the fabric for my first child's quilt. A little "premature" my husband said but I couldn't risk not having this perfect fabric line for my baby quilt. That's the thing with fabrics, they are sold in lines, and new fabric lines come out often. Finding fabrics you've passed up the chance to purchase is nearly impossible especially if you are looking for more than one fabric from the line.

This quilt took me the longest to start due to my misunderstanding of the first instruction. I was also very wary of making a mistake because I purchased the quilt as a 'kit' and was limited to the amount of fabric I could screw up on. =-) Putting this quilt together was a lot of fun. I quilted all of it myself after attending a Beginning Quilting class with Linda Bridges at Blooming Stitches (Clarksville, TN). I finally finished the binding today and I am excited to say it is complete. (And I did it all - check out my first all over meander and lots of stitch in the ditch.)

First Quilt Commission - Complete

Since arriving in Cambridge, MA I've had multiple suggestions and requests from friends and family to work on quilts, create quilts or just sew for friends. I'd brushed off the requests in the past, until I had the request to make a quilt from someone's favorite childhood comforter.

I received the blanket in November/ December and was planning to finish it for the holidays. That however didn't happen in the midst of my normal life schedule. I took the queen size comforter (hershey kisses print), removed the original high loft batting, washed the fabric, cut out the border, backing and binding of coordinating fabric and put it together. Then I decided to keep the original quilting design, since twenty years of stitching has left a permanent impression in the fabric. I quilted this 57x75 quilt by quilting over the original design. The older fabric was slightly uncooperative and was extremely stretchy so it wasn't perfect; but, I think I worked it out. Then I spent the past few evenings sewing the binding on. I completed the quilt last night in time for the customer's husband's birthday. I'm excited that its done and I'm hoping its what she expected. Attached are photos of the completed quilt.

I have a few more UFO's (Un-Finished Objects) to finish this month; however, I've got my next commissioning on the horizon and I'm looking forward to it.

Carried Away

So I'm getting carried away with blogging... It's a bit like how I started quilting. Soon after starting to quilt I was introduced to Amy and Maria two fabulous domestic divas, writers, bloggers (It's Whatever - The Leaf Chronicle), and quilters/seamstresses.

So how did I get carried away with quilting, you wonder?

It all started with going to my first American Quilting Society, Quilt Show in Paducah KY.
Amy, Maria and I started the morning with coffee of course and headed off for my first quilt show. We stopped at Hancock's of Paducah, the largest fabric store I had ever seen. While standing over a bin of cut scraps I asked for help from Maria on colors because she is an awesome graphic designer and fabulous with choosing colors. An older quilter asked me something like why I needed help and I said because I'm a new quilter... she called over to her other friend and said, "Hey Mary (I'm paraphrasing) she's a new quilter". I was so excited to be part of the crowd, and felt so accepted....

The quilt show was huge and amazing and I came home with sooo much stuff! Here's a picture of my stash.

Here is what I've made so far with the items above. It's a wall hanging made with a picture of my wonderful husband while he was deployed in Iraq. I made this wall hanging and the photo included using Printed Treasures - Printing Fabric. ...

For those that are looking at the picture and only see a few items used ---this is the beauty of quilting... your stash just grows and grows....

9 Patch Pizazz - In design phase. This quilt was for my brother-in-law who loves to play chess and it inspired the choice of the pattern. For a new quilter you can see how the quilt looks completely different when you choose to move your blocks around.