Moving Day

They are packing up the truck and we're off to our new apartment - the beginning of the next adventure. Soon I will be able to set up my studio and get back to work. There are many projects percolating in my mind - which to do first.......?

Not Quilting

OK, this post is going to have nothing to do with quilting (because I haven't been doing any) but it's about what I have been doing - cleaning out for the move! I found a great site www.myboneyard.com for recycling old computer equipment and cell phones. It's easy to set up and do, and they pay the shipping costs. All you have to do is pack it up, print out the mailing label they email right away, and drop it off at a UPS place or the US Post Office. They even give a reward if you are recycling something of value - I can't tell you much about this part because mine didn't have any value! Now you can get rid of all that stuff you've been hanging on to because you didn't know what to do with it - or am I the only one in that situation......?
Anyway, it's a really good thing and it's easy to do!

Evenings to Come....

Sorry there haven't been many updates lately, but here's a photo of the evening view at our new apartment to enjoy. Gearing up to pack!


P.S. I put the 830 back together with no extra parts leftover, and it still works. Amazing!

Training

I'm in Hartford at the technical training for the 830 and this is what our machine looks like after I've been at it for a day. Can't wait until tomorrow.......

Scraps

Here's something which has been going together as a leader/ended project and now I'm assembling it. It's going to have a diamond border as well - soon.....

It's done!

Quilted, bound, washed and blocked!

Views

If all goes as planned, This first photo will be the view from our new dining room and the second, the view from my studio!

Family Weekend

So we went up to Boston for MIT Family Weekend and had a great time. We listened to some amazing speakers, had a wonderful dinner at our son's fraternity (cooked by the brothers along with the setting off the of fire alarm - just like home!), and got to see my first college football game. Here's the stadium and bleachers,





that handsome guy directly across the field with the ball is Anthony working the game,





here is the entire marching band,





and here they are running off the field after playing the theme song from the movie, Jaws. It was a kick!




And they won the game, too! The last photo is what I'll be doing this week.....

What I've been doing....

So this is what I've been doing! They are for the next session of classes up at the Happy Quilter. The first is a sampler, with applique, pper piecing, strip piecing, even a mitered corner, so that when you are done, you've learned a lot of skills. The second is an Angle Play quilt (I've been wanting to have fun with this for a long time) and here is just a peek at what I am doing. The top is actually almost complete, and I'll put up a photo soon. I'm also spending time getting to know the new 830 machine that we just got in up at the shop. I'm amazed!!! It's soooooo much fun to play with!

Sorry!!

I'm sorry that I haven't posted for awhile, but the For Sale sign just went on the front lawn, so I'm sure you can figure out what weve been doing around here!! Hoping to get back to the red and white sampler that I'm doing for an upcoming class schedule......I'll shoot a few photos soon.

The Next Adventure

Getting ready to put our house on the market. I love how it looks this time of year.








Looking across the the back yard.









The stone path and gardens to the side entrance. I call this my secret garden.

He's Off!

So here he is at MIT after a week of hiking in the White Mountains. A happy guy!

Now He's Ready

DS decided that a t-shirt quilt should have t-shirt pillow cases to go with it! DH found a bunch that he was willing to part with, so then I started sewing. An XL t-shirt is wide enough, but it's a little short, so I just cut the bottoms of a few old ones and attached them to increase the length and presto!!!! Now he can go off to college.

Glue for Binding?

Yes indeed!! I can't take any credit for this. I learned about it from the free videos posted on Sharon Schamber's site www.sharonschambernetwork.com/free_area/free.html
Look for the demo for Binding the Angel (and there are a lot of other good ones to check out as well). Use this on quilts that you plan to wash (I use Elmer's Washable School Glue). I've never used it on a quilt that I didn't intend to wash, so I don't know what would happen if you left the glue in there!
Here's a brief demo:
Sew your binding on as you usually do. Iron it out from the front, so that it will be easier to fold the binding around to the back without leaving puckers on the front.







Then run a small bead of glue (what you see here is probably too much!) in the seam allowance on the edge of the back of the quilt. I use these smaller caps for the glue. You can find them at a craft store. The metal ones leave a clean, small bead of glue but I find it hard to squeeze the glue out when I use them, so I just deal with it and use the slightly larger plastic tip.








Then iron the binding in place!! The heat of the iron sets the glue quickly and it will hold it long enough for you to hand sew it in place. It's especially handy for fixing the corners neatly - just as you would like them to be!!







And the last little hint - I hate making labels, but I do use the alphabet on my machine to stitch my initials and the year into the binding.






Now I'm off to watch some Olympics and finish this binding!

T-Shirt Quilt

So now it just needs the binding! We decided to try making this without any stabilizer (so it would be softer) and it worked! I did quilt it rather heavily (and there are a few hearts hiding in the quilting), but I think it is going to work. I joined the pieces with my walking foot attached, and this kept the seams from distorting and stretching. There are a lot of good memories in this quilt. I can't wait to bind it and wash it to see how soft it will be.....

Sad Eyes

The other day, my son and I started a bit of college shopping. Rulie (that's him in the photo) found the towels we bought and rolled himself up into one of them. How could he know his boy is leaving?!?

Hints

Just a quick hint - These are small things to hold your hair in place - or - if you are like me and have hair so short they would never be needed - you use them to keep your bobbins neat (especially the slippery threads and invisible thread).

Lemonade

It's finished! Actually the binding is just glued around to the back ready to finish hand sewing tonight while I watch "Bella". Who knew that Elmer's Washable School Glue was a quilting necessity?!?


Now this other photo is of a crumby thing that was supposed to use up lots of random scraps (although it's hard to make a dent). The sashing choices are kind of lame, but I did figure a few things out and use up some (not enough) things I wanted to get rid of. Now I can piece more rejects to use them up on the back. It will go to Project Linus NJ and Hillary Roberts will figure out what to do with it! She always finds a home for everything!

Jasper, CA

Here's my favorite photo from our recent trip to Jasper, before we left DH to teach/coach/play at a music festival in Banff. It was a great hike - complete with a thunderstorm that went by as we reached the top (had lunch just below and waited for it to pass). We're on top of the world!

A bit of Lemonade on a hot day.....

Finished quilting this today. Now I just have to get the binding on (of course I forgot to get that, so it will have to wait until I get up to the shop). It's all lines, mostly curvy. This is one of my favorite ways to quickly quilt and it's easy for beginners as well. I agree with Tonya, there is something about lines. She is hooked on freehand fans. Check out what she does with them!

Next is a photo of another project in progress. I call it "something from nothing" since it's all the little scraps I would have thrown away before I started reading Bonnie's site! I'm working out a fun pattern for all the little bits with some sashings to perk it up. You see that soon.....





And by the way, check out Judy L's method for planning borders when you want to make them out of pieced blocks. She's figured out the math!!! Go to "Fitting a Pieced Border" on the links on the left at her site. There is a lot of other useful info there as well.

Lemonade

Here's today's project, along with the motivational cup of coffee in the lower corner. It's called Lemonade (thanks Gloria for the name) and it's a beginner class for the fall session at the Happy Quilter. It's a bunch of fabric strips joined on the diagonal and the triangle border is made from the leftover scraps from joining the strips - cool! It had better get done this weekend - quilting it all (or mostly all) with the walking foot so it's "beginner" from start to finish.

So...... I'm up and running with my first post! Thought I'd begin to share what's coming up for my fall classes at the Happy Quilter. Here is a shot of The Natural (check out the Hemingworth Thread I used for quilting if you can. I decided it was time to use all my favorite gold fabrics.
When DH gets home (with his computer) from Utah tomorrow, I can post my favorite photo from our recent trip to Jasper, CA. In the mean time here's a photo of a very happy day.