Part I Construction Video

Finished Scrappy Hobo Bag

Here is the finished product!

Doreen Speckman's Provincial prints

Some of you have read the Crossroads Chronicle today or the Highlander and read about my meeting with Doreen Speckman a few years ago in Shannon, Ireland airport. Most of you know that she died of a heart attack the first night in Ireland. This is my memorial quilt for a dear quilter, Doreen Speckman, that I made upon returning from that trip. What a loss to the quilt world losing her!

Quilting Has Started on Amazing FLower Quilt in NC

Finally got the sashing quilted around the Dogwood block. I just quilted a quarter inch away from all three strips of the sashing. Don't want anything fancy on that as it will take away from the quilting on the blocks. I am starting the quilting of the first plain block. It will be a challenge to fill up those 4 plain blocks with quilting, but that is what I enjoy most of all. I am using just a simple 12" feather stencil that I ordered from The Stencil Company. They have every kind of stencil known to man! or woman..........ha. Once I finish quilting one plain block I'll put the picture of it on this blog. This hot weather all over the country is most conducive to sitting and quilting under the AC.........Happy Days.....B

FLORIDA FLOWER WALL HANGING #3 flower

Hi, you all,
Hope you are working hard on your flower wall hanging down there in Florida. The next flower is the Hibiscus, and wow, is it fun to do. This flower comes in many colors so take your pick. The pattern has been sent to you or will be on the Ocean Wave Quilters' website soon. Only one more flower to go and then I'll share the idea for putting this together into a lovely wall hanging.
Stay cool down there.........it's even hot up here in NC. WOW
Happy Days!

The Quilting has started/ sashing

Finished quilting the Dogwood block this past week. Had a terrible tooth problem and had to take care of that before continuing on with the quilting. Now, I am ready to start quilting the sashing around the dogwood. Thank goodness, my friend, Lois had some 1/4" tape for me to use to get the lines nice and straight; nothing worse than seeing a quilt where someone has guessed at the quarter inch. mercy!

I shall put two lines of quilting in each of the darker green strips,(hope you can see the tape on the strip in the picture) and then a decorative design in the middle strip. That will come next.

Some people do a great job of quilting the blocks, and then fudge on the quilting of the sashing. Not a nice thing. It is always very obvious to someone that it has been done that way, so don't be tempted. I shall have the next installment for doing the decorative design, hopefully this next week.

The Quilting has Started

Today is June 3rd, and I am trying to quilt on the Amazing Flower Quilt every evening for a little while. My fingers were really sore the first night, as I haven't done any handquilting since last August. With a little Bag Balm on them at night, they are getting toughened up pretty well. I buy this at Walmart in a little green can over in the "stuff for animals." Read on the can and get a good laugh. How anyone ever thought of using this for quilters' fingers, is beyond me!

As you can see in the picture, I am doing "shadow quilting" on the Dogwood, and I am trying to get one flower block done by next Monday, which is a week from when I started. I know I can't keep this up, as some of the flower blocks have much more space to be quilted than this Dogwood.

I am using 1/8" tape around the outside edges of the block up next to the sashing, as this gives the shadow quilting a place to stop. I found this tape at some quilt shop ages ago, and hope it is still available for anyone who likes to use it.

I am drawing the quilting lines with washable blue thin-line pens and washing the blue away with distilled water using a q-tip. After so much of the blue fluid gets in the water, it has to be replaced as you can see a slight hint of it still on the quilted area from last night. I shall just reapply the distilled water tonight before I go to bed and let the block dry overnight.

I am using a size 12 quilting needle which is very very tiny, but the smaller the needle, the smaller the stitches.

Don't cut thread too long...........I cut it no longer than 12" at most.

It doesn't get tangled as easily as a long long thread does.

Tonight I am watching (no, listening to a movie with Mr. Whoozy) while quilting. Great fun!