My Current Quilt Projects...

All of the Christmas fabrics start showing up in quilt stores in July.  There's a reason for this!  If you're gonna get a quilt made in time for Christmas, you've gotta start EARLY!!!

I actually started this wall hanging quilt about 3 years ago...at the beginning of December...not a good idea!  LOL  It was a panel that I saw on display at the LQS and I had to have it!  I started out handquilting it in my small, portable Q-Snap frame...taking it to guild meetings, etc., and working on it there.   It wasn't getting done very fast, OBVIOUSLY...so after I finished the Baskets quilt that was in my floor frame, I decided to put this one in the floor frame and finish it.  It is getting done a lot quicker now and will be ready to hang this Christmas season!

My current piecing project is also a Christmas quilt...this time a queen-sized quilt.  Last Christmas my daughter-in-law said she'd like a Christmas quilt, so I designed one in EQ7 for her...

It's coming along nicely!  All of the green/white blocks are pieced and squared up.  I'm currently piecing the star blocks and am about 1/3rd of the way done with them.  

When we were in Tennessee in June, we went to the Mt. Juliet Farmisan Market because our daughter had a booth there selling her glass bird feeders.   Across from her booth Crittenden Custom Creations had a booth set up and I went over to investigate.   Bill Crittenden makes hand-turned pens so I asked him if he had ever made any seam rippers.  He acknowledged that he had never done one before but was anxious to make one and took my order.  I received it about a week ago and am sooooooo impressed with it!  It is beautiful!!!

The handle is carved from a rectangled block of dyed plywood!  It is double-ended.  You pull out the metal end, turn it around and push the rounded piece back into the hole in the end to get this...

The end on the left is bigger...more for coarse cloth like denim or canvas.  The end on the right is finer and more for lightweight fabrics, like quilter's cotton.  I love the feel of it in my hand...it is very well balanced...like a nice writing instrument.  I haven't had any seams that needed ripped out since receiving it, but I'm sure that will all come to a screeching halt when I start joining my blocks on the Christmas quilt!  (Joining the blocks to make a top is ALWAYS where I make my mistakes!!!)  


Loretta