Artful Homemade Quilts Have A Way

[koshergrl]

I haven't been doing anything lately. We still have boxes all over but we're slowly getting through them.

Good luck with that!

I haven't been doing anything lately, either, except trying to learn to pay bills and keep up the laundry. Dementia has been cruel to my dear man, who spoiled me rotten for 40 years. Now, I'm aware of his goodness, and I know, I can't touch him in that department, which tends to make me love him more and pining at the same time. Go figure. *sigh*

I did manage to check into getting the air conditioning system in the house replaced. The expense seems phenomenal to me.

It's like buying a new car. I almost fainted on reading the estimate.

Miss you Becki...

 

[Dot Com]

This bandwidth-sucking, thread needs to be axed since the OP bailed on it.

babble can start a new thread, if thats an issue. This thread has gotten too onerous and gobbles- up valuable bandwidth. Kill it.

 

[Dont Taz Me Bro]

This bandwidth-sucking, thread needs to be axed since the OP bailed on it.

Stop trolling this thread

 

[koshergrl]

So I dug out the niece's quilt:

That's hand quilting right there. When I'm finished with that I will use the machine to quilt the vast green border, but we are nearing the end of this project. I got it out this weekend, but was sidetracked by a little project I started with my daughter...a quilted tote bag. Plus I can't find my green thread...I've already used two different colors for the quilt, oh well, I guess a third won't be a deal breaker.

 

[koshergrl]

Here's the one I did years ago for my then-three year old boy:

I look at that now, though in many ways it's a good quilt in that it is square and even..but I see how the pattern of the red white and blue print isn't aligned...I wasn't even aware enough to know that back then. I quilted in the ditch on that one, which is why you don't see quilting.

 

[koshergrl]

I am still trying to decide what pattern to use for my son & daughter's quilt, my next project. I think I might go with the zig zag again....

 

[koshergrl]

STarted on a bag with my daughter:

Please ignore the glob of whatever that is on the mat, I need a new mat. That glob is on there and has been for some time.

 

[koshergrl]

Finished the tote, see things I should have done different. Like I should have used the material I used for the handles in place of the darker squares, so the bag bottom and the patchwork contrasts and looks grounded...and then used the dark color for the handles are well...tonight we're starting on a bunch more, I'm very excited. I have some cool fabric for some of them.

This is the way it looked before the quilting...^

Finished ^^^ My daughter helped with the stitching, what a fun project. Super gratifying.

There's the base of it, see that should be a diff color...but this was a true "let's see how it goes" project with leftover scraps and stuff...seeing it put together I see all that I could do different.

AND it has a LINING! How cool is that! Weird material that I picked up at a second hand store, thinking I would make a bedspread. HA!

 

[koshergrl]

And this is block one of my next quilt..only 44 or so more to go, the quilt is 42 but I cut for 45 or so blocks, so I'd have a couple leftover.

When cutting this, I learned that my mat is warped and I need a new blade on my cutter...so the middle points are just a little off. I have taken steps to remedy the situation.

Now I'm waiting for a quilting attachment for my little sewing machine so I can finish quilting the green quilt. I'm so excited!

Oh her's the block. This is a disappearing hourglass:

I actually thought that it was going to be a lot worse than this...I'm very happy with the fact that it is square. This will probably not go into the quilt, it will be my sample/master block that I keep by my sewing machine, may make it into a pillow when we're done. When it's quilted, the slight point discrepancies won't show so much. Hopefully.

 

[koshergrl]

I replaced my cutter blade last night, and a new mat and quilting foot thing are on the way, I should receive them by Friday (at the soonest) next week (latest). I am really, really excited about being able to quilt. I'm going to get my niece's quilt out of my house by Christmas, I hope.

She just bought a new house, so it can be her belated graduation (from college...before medical school, which is also years behind her, she is a couple of years into her residency now hahaha)/housewarming gift!

I'm thinking about scalloping the edges.

 

[koshergrl]

Oh and I cut material for 3 more bags last night and am well on the way to having them assembled. I expect to quilt them tonight.

 

[koshergrl]

I'm so excited, I have the hang of nesting my seams, and am learning little tricks to make everything line up so I don't have a nightmare like the baby blanket I did lol...and these bags are providing me with lots of quilting practice..by the time my foot gets here, I'll be ready to go!

 

[koshergrl]

I actually finished that one on the left..I took this pic before I had topstitched along the top so the pins are there. I've made another one, too. And I'm almost finished with yet another...4 down, about 10 to go.

I gave one as a white elephant gift today (we don't do mean gifts) and will give one at the church white elephant gift exchange on Saturday. Will also give a couple of hats and scarves.

 

[koshergrl]

Making a doggie bag for a friend:

and another one too:

But this is the material I want for me (and my daughter):

 

[koshergrl]

^^^I got my quilting foot. I LOVE quilting!

Made a bag for a friend:

It's bigger than the others:

Yes the girl really was THAT excited about this picture.

 

[koshergrl]

Made the girls horse bags...

On the other side, there's a Quarter Horse trotting. My granddaughter's bag has an Arab and a racking Saddlebred.

Also have started quilting my niece's quilt FINALLY and it's a freaking NIGHTMARE, lol. My brother machine is just a small beginner's machine. It's little to begin with, and I don't have a quilting table for it, and it doesn't set down in a stand....and also I can't get the tension right. So here's a close-up of that catastrophe, but I am soldiering on and will have it finished in not too many days:

I started hand quilting it years ago, and actually completed a lot. But in the end, I decided to just finish it, so I'm machine quilting over my hand quilting. It won't hurt anything, it's not going to be a work of art anyway. I've made just about every single mistake known to quilters on this quilt. The batting and backing are cut smaller than the top, I'm not sure how that happened, but my borders are immense so I'll just cut it down. The pieced part isn't perfectly square, and my quilting has jiggles, jaggles, and the tension is wrong which is why it has that jerky appearance. And I used a dark thread when I should have matched the light green instead....

All in all, a good experience, though, I'm glad I have it to practice on. The next quilt has a lot of white, so hopefully I'll have the quilting part down by the time I move on to it...if not, I'll have it quilted professionally. I really do enjoy quilting. I think I'm going to invest in a long arm machine (not the ginormous ones that cost $7000, just the table top ones). At the very least, I'll get a quilting table to support the quilt as I'm quilting...it sucks to just have a tiny little area to work in. But I still love it.

The quilt prior:

A good lot of that border is going bye-bye when I square it up and bind it.

I really want to try a scalloped edge! Might as well try out as many techniques as possible!

 

[koshergrl]

I miss Becki. She'd be so tickled, I've been on about quilting for years and finally I'm starting to make progress, and she's gone!

 

[MeBelle]

I miss Becki. She'd be so tickled, I've been on about quilting for years and finally I'm starting to make progress, and she's gone!

I checked on the quilting forum and shs hasn't been there for awhile either.

 

[koshergrl]

I made the girl an asymmetrical, cowl-necked shawl (crochet) and she loves it:

 

[koshergrl]

So I made some zippered pouches..I actually have made two, but I gave one as a gift at a birthday party last weekend (also gave another bag...which was green and darnit I didn't get a picture of it, it was my best one so far!!!)