On Ringo Lake Clue #1

These are the blocks I just completed for the new Quiltville Mystery, On Ringo Lake. I've always wanted to take part in one of Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilts so I decided to go for it! I'm challenging myself to use scraps from my stash. 

These are the fat quarters I pulled from my stash. Bonnie Hunter is using dark brown which I replaced with black. She's also using shades of peach but I chose pink instead. The neutrals and aqua/blues are the same. My pile of fat quarters actually looks a little smaller! 

I made lots of strip sets. She gives excellent directions and tips to make things easier.  I think her advice really helped me keep my 1/4 inch seam allowance. 

I cut my strips and started making my nine patches. That's it for the first clue! I'm already looking forward to the next clue. So fun! I'll be linking to Quiltville's On Ringo Lake Mystery Monday Link up that you can find here.

Two Finishes

I finished these mittens a few days ago. I ended up giving them to my mother. My brother bought her some type of hand warmers and she thought mittens would be perfect. I was going to wait for Christmas but she just had a birthday. She's all set for the winter!

I had to take this picture in the semi-dark so you can see the quilting. My whole cloth table runner is done! I'm still deciding if I should make it into a wall quilt. It would look so nice on the wall behind my longarm. Still thinking about it!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving! I'm late getting this out. It was my turn to work so I've been gone all day. I tried posting last night but Blogger was not cooperating. 

Hope you all had an enjoyable holiday. I heard calories don't count today!! I can't wait to enjoy my day off tomorrow. I have lots of sewing to do!

Log Cabin for Christmas

The Log Cabin for my neighbor is done! I'll call her at the beginning of the week to give her the good news. She wanted to have it for Christmas so she could give it to her daughter. I'm happy I finished it. It took a long time but I'm glad I helped her out. I hate to think this quilt was in a tote for 7 years. I'm glad I got to make it into a real quilt so her daughter can enjoy it. 

I'll finally get back to my own projects. I have a few holiday gifts to make of my own. Between my real job and this quilt, I've fallen a bit behind. It's nice I can get back to my old routine. I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders! Enjoy the weekend!

FMQ Quilting Finished!

I finished my whole cloth table runner. I've never quilted this many swirls! I had such a great time working on this piece. I'm actually thinking of making another! There are 2 more whole cloth projects in Longarm Quilting Workbook. These are fun and fast as well as great way to learn new motifs and patterns.

Here's a closeup. I wasn't sure how my quilting would look. Some of these patterns are new to me. I'm happy with the overall effect. Not perfect but good. Much better than I expected!

I've been diligently working on my neighbor's quilt. I'm sewing down the binding by hand. I'm so happy to say I'm on the very last side! Almost done! She'll have her quilt in plenty of time for Christmas. 

Whole Cloth Quilting

I told you in my last post that I bought the Longarm Quilting Workbook by Teresa Silva. I marked my whole cloth table runner this past weekend. This picture shows how much quilting I've done so far on this piece. It's so hard to get a decent picture of a small quilt on the longarm. There are all sorts of shadows. I think if you ignore the blue lines, you can get an idea of what I've been doing. I did some free motion quilting as well as ruler work. There are a few patterns I've never tried before. 

It's not perfect by any means, but I'm happy with it. I feel I still have to learn how to control the weight of the longarm. Sometimes, I feel it controls me! Working on a small piece requires good control to keep your stitching in a specific area. That's something I'm still working on. I think that just comes with experience. I think this whole cloth piece is just perfect for helping me increase that control. I'm not sure I'll be using this as a table runner. The wall behind my longarm is completely bare. This piece might make a nice wall hanging. I'll decide when it's done!

Whole Cloth Quilted Table Runner

I bought this wonderful book. I've been looking through it and drooling over the beautiful quilting. The author includes many projects that not only helps you practice your longarm quilting but also gives the quilter a finished project to display. Her easier projects are whole cloth small quilts.

This picture is a little difficult to see but it's a whole cloth table runner with an on-point square. The author used thread the same color as the fabric. It hides those little mistakes that we would like to keep from being too obvious! (Nice tip!)

Here's my fabric all marked and ready to go! I'll have to load it tomorrow at the earliest. It's already so late. And thanks to the change in time, it's going to get dark so early. Can't wait to start working on it! 

Power Restored!

We had an awful wind and rain storm Sunday night. I had to work Monday morning at 7am. I set the alarm on my cell phone but I still kept waking up to check the time. I think we lost power around 4am. I had flash lights ready and it wasn't too bad. Unfortunately, the power didn't return until Wednesday afternoon at 3pm. It was not a pleasant experience! My house was so cold Wednesday morning. I was very grateful when the power got restored. What a relief!

I wish I could say I got a lot of handwork done. I found the lack of power to be very stressful and just didn't even feel like doing handwork. I kept reading my book but that's the most I accomplished. Once the power was back, I had a ton of laundry to catch up. I did start sewing down the binding on my neighbor's quilt last night. I have one short side done as you can see above.

These is just a close up. It's hard to get the whole side into one picture. I'm actually turning the corner. 

I feel like I wasted the week but there wasn't much I could do. Our town is having Trick or Treat tomorrow night. I'm hoping we finally get back to normal. We're also looking into a generator. Don't want to go through this again!!