Latest Quilt Top...

My daughter, Erin, has a friend who is pregnant and due in July with a baby girl.  Erin asked if I would make a "rainbow" quilt for her friend.

I did a search online for "rainbow baby quilts" and came up with several free patterns before settling on what I wanted to make.

My daughter said that her friend really liked this pattern that she had seen on Pinterest.  

The problem is that I like to make my baby quilts big enough so that they can be used into toddlerhood and even longer.  Not only is this tutorial for a small baby quilt, it also is missing the green stripe of the rainbow.  :(

But since her friend did like this pattern, I decided to "adjust" it to include the green as well as make the blocks bigger...thus making a bigger quilt.

I got out my graph paper and started designing...

But wait...that leaves a big white hole at the lower corner of the quilt.  Hmmm...what to do???  I got my creative juices flowing, showed my ideas to a non-quilter friend for her opinion, and then got to cutting and sewing.

I finished the top last night and sent a picture to my daughter for her approval.  She liked it!!!

The quilt looks big in these pictures, but unquilted it is currently 55" X 63", so it's really not as big as it appears.

The quilting part of it will have to wait for a couple of weeks, but I bought the backing fabric for it at Marden's when we were in Maine.  :)  This one will be machine-quilted on my new Juki!  

Loretta

Life...

Quote for the Day:

"There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven--

A time to give birth and a time to die"

~Ecclesiastes 3:1-2a, Holy Bible, New American Standard Version

Yes...I've been missing in action.  But I'm back...temporarily, anyway.

We had to make an emergency trip to Maine last Friday because Andy's brother, Joe, passed away unexpectedly.  

These pictures are about 30 years old, but I haven't been able to put my hands on any of the "recent" pictures that I have kicking around here somewhere.  

He will be missed so much by his family and friends...which are many!  It's been a hard week, but we are making our way through the grief.

On our way back from Maine we found out that our daughter had gone into labor!  She and Dale kept us updated with what was going on and then the news came that we had a new grandson!!!

Clark Christopher Paez

Born 6/18/14 at 4:29 PM 

7 lbs 3 oz, 19.5" long

I can't wait till we get to meet him and hold him next week!!!  He'll get all kinds of spoiled while I'm there!!!  :)

And now I need to go finish laundry and get ready for the rest of the week!

Loretta

Some Quilting Updates...

Quote for the Day:

“It's tough trying to keep your feet on the ground, 

your head above the clouds, your nose to the grindstone, 

your shoulder to the wheel, your finger on the pulse, 

your eye on the ball and your ear to the ground.”

~author unknown

I have that decided that as much as I would love to JUST hand quilt my quilt tops, it is really unreasonable to think that I will ever get all of the quilts done that way.   I'm going to have to resort to machine-quilting some of my quilt tops to get them done in this lifetime.  I don't have the room or the money for a long-arm quilting machine, and if I did have the money I'd buy myself one of the "sit-down" long-arms, anyway.

However, the money issue makes it a moot point.  However, I decided that I was going to buy a machine with a larger throat/harp area that would at least make it a little easier to wrangle large quilts through it so I could get some quilt tops quilted.

After a lot of research and reading reviews, I decided on the Juki TL 2000 Qi.  And as if it was a sign from heaven, www.sewingmachinesplus.com offered a $100 off any purchase over $500 for Memorial weekend!!  With the free shipping offer, it was too enticing of a deal to turn down!  :)  

It took about 10 days for it to arrive because there was an "error" on UPS's part.  UPS wouldn't tell me what it was, but I think they routed it wrong and it ended up in Timbuktu!  

But, she finally arrived and she is NICE!!!

The body is all metal so she weighs a freaking ton!  The extension table is plastic, but most are, anyway.  She is mechanical instead of computerized and only does a straight stitch.  However, she also does 1500 stitches/minute, so she FLIES!   She is made for quilting!!  

I put her to work as soon as I got her set up.  I'm using her to piece my next project...a rainbow baby quilt...

When the top is done, I will get to use her to machine quilt it.  For those who don't know this, Juki is one of the primary companies that makes industrial sewing machines, so they are hardy, built to last, and take on the work load!!!

I am seriously thinking about selling my Husqvarna Viking Platinum 775 computerized machine and just using the Juki for piecing.  If I need to hem or sew on knit fabric, I can use my Husqvarna Viking Scandinavia 400 machine...which is my "embroidery" machine, but it does regular sewing like zigzag, too.  (When you sew in knits, you have to use a zigzag or a special stitch to keep the stitch from breaking when the knit gets stretched.)

I just don't have room for all of my machines, so I'm giving the sale of the Platinum 775 some serious thought.  I currently have one of my three Singer 221 Featherweights and my Featherweight table up for sale.  There is someone who has expressed interest in it, but nothing is final, yet, so if you live nearby and are interested in it or know someone who might be, pass the word along.   I'm asking $175 for the machine and $75 for the table.

On the hand-quilting side of things, I've finished up the row that I've been working on on the Sherbet quilt...

I have rolled the quilt and am getting ready to start the next row...

 Loretta