Quilting like a Maniac- Relaxing through Quilting.

OK, I know I go overboard, and it states that you only have to do one, so that's what I'm doing, I'm giving in to only one because it's a queen size quilt, and I'm doing tiny, tiny circles of quilting.  You've seen the picture.... Material Girl's Block of the Month Layer Cake. Here's some of the quilting already quilted and for you to understand the size of the circles: Section between the blocks and more. Can you see the circles? Need to pick the quilted section on the pastel. This would take a lot of time for me to complete, the entire month for sure.... If I complete that one, I do have another that I would love to complete, it's an Aurifill Quilt with Spools that can download at this site .  Its the feature Designer Brigitte Heitland.  Here's a picture of the one she made: From the web site January 'sAuribuzz Mine is twice the size of this one for an end quilt for the bed.    I have cut some of it already

I'm getting a little depressed how my Sycamore rose quilt blocks that are behind is growing, and growing and growing.  Need to do something about that this month. I am making a promise that I will complete 2 of them this month as I am away a lot this month in a car and that's the best time to hand applique.   There are some things that are personal goals and some that I will be entering for the "A Year of Lovely Finishes", because being in that group keeps me honest and makes sure I finish a quilt or two for the month.  I'm like that (OCD and a list maker - have you noticed?), needing a bit of a push to compete.  And there are so many fantastic quilters out there in the internet world.  One of my goals this year was to connect with others quilting on the Internet.  I thought joining Blocks of the Months groups was one way, and it was, but joining "Finishing" groups was another way of meeting people online in groups on Flickr, or just on people&

Well, it's almost the end of the month and I need to share my "Lovely Year of Finishes" quilts.  I know we're suppose to do one and one was fully pieced, quilted and binded but I also finished piecing together my other BOM from Material Girl's Block of the Month with Layer Cakes.  I learned many different patterns using large HSTs.  I'm definitely doing a quilt with these two patterns only. Love the look of these two blocks, put them together and make sure the curve  of the 2nd one matches the corner of the other, and it would look great.  The final quilt top is below.  I'm free style quilting small circles on the black part only.  I guess that will be July's ALYF's.  There were 20 squares in total, and 3 inch borders around each one, plus if you look at the top of the picture you'll see the black with some left over yellow.  For the top.  The other side of the quilt has the light pastel purple for the quilt.  Fits my queen size bed a

The biggest challenge this month was to try to get everything done.  Last month I finished two of the "Blocks of the Month", Material girls, and Down the Rabbit Hole.  These two were what I promised to complete for the "A Lovely Year of Finishes" (see to the side).  Although I promised to complete these two quilts (sandwich, quilt, bind, the whole thing), I still have a large list of things to do.  The bold items are the ones that I am behind in.  My main goal is to keep up with the BOMs but the appliques are just not happening (the sycamore rose block is 4 months behind now. I can honestly say that I am disappointed with myself this month.  I understand why I am behind but still, I should of enjoyed relaxing more with the quilting, and July is almost a write off because I'm away travelling.  So that will be the perfect time to do some of the applique for the sycamore rose quilt blocks.  I really need to catch up on those. Material Girl's Layer Cake f

I've been meaning to complete another one of these boxes.  They are from the 3D Quilting book and 6 sides, each different I've made some table runners from it. This is the third box that I've made, I quite enjoy making them, and each one really turns out differently from the other one.  This one has fall colours, with some purple and brown.  Made it for a girlfriend of mine, to make her smile and remind her of me because I moved schools. The other great thing to know is that this was also on my things to do list, which is running out of time  ;)  That's probably why I didn't take tons of pictures and make a tutorial out of this one.  In the end I didn't have all the squares cut,  had extra squares cut, and basically needed to "fold as I went". The results are evident.  I love how this box looked.  One day I'll make my own.  It only seems right  ;)

I must of sewn and undid this block 6 or 7 times. Not both just the one below. It was the fact that the HSTs had to be in a specific order and a specific way down. But in the end I got both. I just can't stand to undo things because of all the threads to pick up. Next time I'll take my time. One problem though, they're only 12 1/4 inches in size. I'll have to think about this.... Kept on getting the points in the wrong direction. Easy one. Looking perfect. Although they look perfect, they are unfortunately 12 1/4 in size, smaller, like some of my others so I'll have to 

Today I decided to do some tangles, another thing on my To Do list.  Thangles are great and easy to do.  Here's a video form the Tangles company, it doesn't have sound, but it does explain it. This link will take you to another video on thangles .  There are a number of sizes you can get the thangles in.  The chart below shows the cutting size of the strips and the size the hst will be. Just to show you, these are some quilts that were made by Thangles.  You can see more at  http://www.thangles.com/gallery.html  After seeing those take  a look at what I'm working at, a number of different blocks you can do with Thangles.  Red, pink and green with little apple pattern.  Light tan in the background.  Made 7 today.  But that's only in 2 packs and with left overs for the flying geese.  This quilt will be fabulous.

Fan section I really had fun on the Block of the month. For the first time I sewed curves, and I liked it ;) Made fans for the corner. Free styled quilted the block. I like the my friend gave me 50 pieces of material for my 50th. Like hoe the entire quilt turned out, and I'm happy with the quilting results. It's a combination of machine quilting, free style quilting and some embroidery stitching with my machine. What do you think? It's a lap quilt, and it's colourful. Entire quilt All done. Free style quilting my own pattern. Machine Embroidery Free Style around the Roses It's thick, but I'm really happy with the results. It's part of my great year of finishes for the month of June.  I did good!!!

The previous one took two months to complete, but this one took approximately two days - one to cut out the pieces and one to sewing the applique on.  That's the fastest I have ever completed one of these blocks.  It's not like there are not a lot of pieces to this block, there were but I had time to sit and work on it, with my husband cooking the barbecue, I just sat and sewed.   This one is #9 the sunflower - for September.  the centre flower has 11 petals to it, and the other flowers have a number of them as well.  So it wasn't an easy project, it was busy.  Each leaf was two pieces, and I button stitched around each section, right around.  It was lovely to complete.

It took me two months to finish this appliqué and when you see it you'll understand why. It's all hand stitched, button stitch, around every single flower. Right from the start I knew I was going to stitch on the beads, and they really add to the appliqué. That means I'll have to do all of the blocks ;) What do you think? Full view, the entire block. Individual flowers... Notice the bead work. Every flower has 4 - 7 beads. Many of the beads didn't fit on the needle, it was piece work, let me tell you. But well worth it. I feel good.

Well it's almost completed. Got all the pieces together, and now I'm free style quilting it. The quilt is king size now, so backing it was difficult, but I'm doing my best.  The background is small white dots on black, so I'm making free style circles on the black.  It will take me quite a while, but I have until the end of the month to get this done for the "2014 - A lovely year of finishes."  I promised myself two quilts finished, and I almost have the backing completed on the other one.  I'm so happy with how the quilt looks below!  Three inches in between each block and each block is 12 inches in size.  It's a big quilt!  Click on the size tags to see the process. I would definitely do another quilt like this, maybe do one or two blocks only.

It's a full out strike now here in BC for teachers, which gives me time to quilt to calm my stress! I'm having trouble just sitting., when I read I read a book in a day. The only thing that I do slow is quilting, it continues to relax me, thank goodness. With 11 BOMs (two down but they need quilting now) I have a lot to do. Today I started catching up. International quilt by Pat Sloan. Aurifill's June block. All of Aurifill's quilt blocks so far - six of them. Doodle Quilt for June. A line of skates, which includes shoelaces. Very happy with that look. A full row. Three BOMs done, and a few more to go ;)

Although I promised to complete two quilts (sandwich, quilt, bind, the whole thing), I still have a large list of things to do.  So to keep track of it, I've made my list and checked it twice.  Here it is below. Everything you see if bold is late for my blocks of the month. Material Girl's Layer Cake finishing off the quilt (put the borders on it) and quilt the entire things.  Finish it off. Down the Rabbit Hole - finish off the quilt. sycamore-rose-block-2  February  sycamore-rose-block-3  March Sycamore Rose block 4 (April) Sycamore Rose Block 5 - May Sycamore Rose Block 6 - June Free Motion Quilt along Block 2 styles  Free Motion Quilt along Block 3 - 4 styles Free Motion Quilt Along Block 4 - 4 styles Free Motion Quilt Along Block 5 - 4 styles Aurifill June Prairie flower #4 - half way through it but it's so complicated!!! Prairie flower #9 Galaxy of the Stars - May - from FVRQ Guild. Did it on Sunday.    Star quilt for May Galaxy of the Stars - J