I like to read Judy L’s blog and she’s always talking about using her stash so I decided to use some of my stash and make a sudoku quilt. I got out my sudoku puzzle book and went to the back where they have all the puzzles solved and picked one and then I took 9 of my charm squares and cut each one into 9 squares, numbered them and laid them out by number in the correct spot. Wow, I really used a lot of my stash. A whole 9 squares and some fabric that I had used on something else and had some strips laying there that were left over. I have to laugh!!! Anyway, I never have time to work on my own stuff, I’m always quilting on customer quilts, so I feel good that I got something done. We have a stash busters club at quild so I can get credit for making something from my stash. I have a larger quilt that I’m working on from my stash too, but in order to get in the drawing for this period, I have to show it next week and I can’t get it done in time. At our quilt show in Sept. we sell miniatures, so I’ll get this quilted and sell it at the show. I put a soup can beside it to show it’s size.

Well, I better get back to work. I loaded a quilt this morning and I guess I should go work on it. Have a great day.

Theresa

I sure wish the quilting would show up on the quilts that they show on the Quilt Gallery website. The ad is in the McCalls magazine. They show a small picture of each quilt, then when you go to the site, you can see each individual quilt. The bad thing is that you can never see the quilting on the quilts. Check it out for yourself. http://quiltgalleryshops.com

Here’s what the quilt looks like with the quilting. It really makes a difference.

I matched the blue thread so good that I couldn’t see it, the blue has some feathered hearts in it with stippling around them.

Hope you enjoyed seeing the quilting on the quilt. It’s just so plain without seeing the quilting.

Theresa

I was off work today and I planned on getting the quit finished that’s on the machine. HA!HA!HA! It didn’t happen!!! All I have left to do is the borders. You’d think I would finish it!! Instead, I started my day off visiting Bonnie Hunters blog and website. That got me motivated to go cut some charms squares up for a quilt. Every time I read her blog or go to her website, I end up starting another project. After cutting fabric for awhile, I decided to go quilt on the quilt that’s on the machine. I did quilt for a few minutes and finished the last 2 blocks on the quilt. Then I did one border and took it off, turned it, put it back on for the last 2 borders. I did half of one border then decided to work on my Mom’s quilt. I had the rows sewn so I put the sashing strips between them and added the borders. Here it is

I bought the kit for this, but I didn’t care for the whirlwind blocks that were in the kit, so I changed it around. I bought extra fabric that wasn’t in the kit so that I could make it the way I wanted it. I had extra little blocks so I put them in the corners of the border. I like the way it came out. Now to get it quilted………. I do have time, as I plan to give it to Mom for Mothers day. Well…..I’l have time if I ever finish the one that’s on there now……LOL!!!!!

Theresa

I’ve been slowly getting a few things done this week. I have so many things to do that I need to go at full speed but this last week I just haven’t been able to get in the mood to quilt.  After the lock in all day last Saturday, on Sunday morning I loaded a quilt and worked all day Sunday quilting it. My legs were killing me on Monday!! Being on my feet the entire weekend was too much!! Anyway, on Tuesday, I loaded a wall hanging and finished it on Wed, then Thursday I loaded a large quilt. It’s still on the machine. I just don’t want to do it. I keep forcing myself to go down and work on it. I keep doing other things even when I plan to quilt. Like today, I’ve been sewing on a quilt top that I’m making for my mom. It’s the Wizard of Oz fabric. I need to finish the quilt on the machine so that I can quilt my challenge fabric quilt for MQS.  Oh well, I don’t feel like quilting it either. I guess I better go work on something……

Hope you’re all getting more done than me!!

Theresa

Well,  Sharon and I hosted our 7th annual lock in on Saturday. It’s the 13th one that’s been held. Janel hosted the first 6 and Sharon and I the last 7. This year Sharon designed the quilt for the class. She wanted to do stars so here’s what she came up with. Hers is the lap size. I did the full size one. (of course mines NOT quilted LOL!) Everybody seemed to have a good time again this year. A few of the ladies had to leave early but the ones that stayed the whole time, all completed at least one block. I took pictures of them with their blocks and border fabric so if you’re interested in seeing the variety of fabrics they used you can view them on my webshots page.  We had 2 of the ladies that made the lap size and they were able to get their quilt tops completed. (not the borders)

Show and tell was great too! I didn’t count the quilts shown, but I bet there was close to 40 quilts brought in and shown. All from past lock ins. Except one that a lady wanted to show. It was a t-shirt quilt made from Harley t-shirts. It looked great!! I took pics of show and tell too.

I’m still trying to recoup from our busy day. It’s a long day and a lot of work getting ready for it, but it’s so much fun!!!

You can see all the blocks and quilts at

http://community.webshots.com/user/alwaysquilts      in the lock in 2008 file.

I guess that’s it for now. Have a great day!!

Theresa

I see I haven’t posted anything all month! I’ve been quilting like crazy trying to get quilts done. I’ve also been trying to get 2 of my own pieced. We are having a polkadot challenge at guild on the 10th of April. I have the quilt for that together, except for the borders. I still need to get them put on. I doubt if I get it quilted before the meeting.

The 12th of April is the day that me and my friend host a mystery lock in. We have 66 ladies signed up for the class. Sharon got the lap size quilt made and I did get it quilted. I’m making the full size. I have the rows pieced, now I just need to sew them together and get the borders on. This year Sharon designed the quilt, so I haven’t been as stressed out as I have in past years.

I need to quilt 2 quilts that ladies have made from past lock ins so that they will have them for show and tell. Oh…….I need more hours in my days.

Anyway, that’s it for now.

Theresa

I’ve had a busy week. I guess that’s good because it’s sure went by fast! I can’t believe it’s already Friday. I finished 2 customer quilts this week and the weather finally cooperated and let us have our MoKan longarm meeting. It’s been canceled twice because of bad weather. Anyway, we had it yesterday and our challenge quilts were due. I think there was about 30 quilts there. They were all made of the same fabric and pattern but the quilting was different on each one. Some of them were absolutely beautiful!! They all looked great! It’s always fun to see the different ways that people quilt the same quilt. Here’s mine. I left it for the last minute to quilt, so I had to do something quick and easy. After I quilted it, I thought it was too dull, so I added cystals.

Here’s the center.

Here’s the corner. I wasn’t sure what to do with the corners, so I just kept the flow of the vine going around and getting smaller through the corner area. Then continuing on up the side.

Last night I had my guild meeting and Amy Bradley was our speaker. She has the cutest quilts!!

I guess that’s it for now. I need to get back to work. Have a great day!!

Theresa

http://community.webshots.com/user/alwaysquilts

What a fun afternoon I had! I wrote about going to Italy a while back on my blog, so if you read it you’ll understand this……. Jill was here in Kansas this weekend and Pam brought her to Leavenworth today. They were going to come by my house but they’d been hitting quilt shops and were getting hungry and so I just met them in town and had lunch with them. We talked about our trip to Italy and got so excited. Jill was telling us about people and places and things we could do…….I can hardly wait!! Then we went to the LQS in Leavenworth and I’ve quilted several of the quilts there so Jill loved seeing them. She even had to buy one of my quilt patterns, then laughed and said that “now she knows a designer too”. We all laughed about that!!!!!!  It was fun getting to know Jill better. I had only met her in person once, and then it was when Pam brought Jill and both of their husbands to pick up some quilts. We only got to talk a little bit.  I enjoyed today and getting to know Jill better. She’s sooooo nice!!!!!! I’m so looking forward to going to Italy  this fall.  I hope everything works out for it.

I hope your day was as nice as mine!!

Theresa

Well, I didn’t plan on going anywhere today except the Post office. I needed to mail a few things out that required more than a regular stamp. Anyway, my mom called and wanted to know what I had planned for the day. (We usually go to town on Saturday’s.) I told her I just needed to go to the PO. She said “oh, good I need to take a few things and mail them” I said ok that I’d pick her up in about an hour……well, when I get there she comes out with nothing in her hands……I asked her if she forgot her stuff to mail……she says “no, I didn’t get it ready, I’ll go to the PO one day this week.”……….OK, whatever……….

Anyway, we still went to the PO and then we were just going to get some lunch and head back home. But I decided to run on up to the LQS and say “HI” to the girls because I hadn’t been in there this week. Well……… we got to the LQS and guess what my mom spotted? The new Wizard of Oz fabrics!

Now if you paid attention to the tittle of this, you’ll see that my mom’s name is Dorothy……..and she was born and raised in …….yep……. good old Kansas!!!!! She always tells people that she meets, that she’s Dorothy from Kansas!!!! (They seem to remember that!!!LOL!!!) Anyway, to get on with the story. She tells me that she needs a quilt made out of that fabric. (Mom’s not a quilter, but sometimes she’ll buy FQ’s if she thinks they’re pretty) …..By now if you’re a good guesser, you’ve probably figured out that —Yes, I bought the kit to make her the quilt. Like I really have time to do this. Anyway, my plan is to have it finished for Mothers Day. I HOPE anyway!!!

Here’s a shot of the fabric.

I like another print that wasn’t in the kit, so I bought some of it, I’m going to make some of the blocks out of these squares. I bought the backing for it too.

That ended up being one expensive trip just to say “Hi” to the girls! Oh, Mom did buy some fabric. A fat quarter of the ruby slippers fabric! LOL!!!!!!!!

Theresa

I’ve come to the conclusion that my life is either too busy or too boring to keep up with a blog! I never know what to write. When I do get on the computer, I feel guilty about being on it and not getting my customers quilts finished. I have one on the machine now that I need to get done. They come in faster than they go out. I’m not complaining!! I just feel like I need more hours in everyday!!

As far as getting my own stuff done. I never have time for that!!! But, I’ve decided that this year will be different!! So far, I’ve finished the MoKan challenge quilt and I’m sewing the binding on another of my UFO’s. I finally sewed the borders on the quilt and quilted it last week. I’m determined to get some of my unquilted tops finished!! I have 40 of them! I also want to use up my stash fabric. Here’s the quilt I’m putting the binding on.

I bought the newspaper quilt fabric several years ago and started making the quilt. I had the first border sewn on and then quit for some reason……anyway, I finally put the rest of the borders on and used the leftover fabric for the back. I didn’t quite have enough fabric left to do the whole back , so I added some black on the sides to make it big enough. I did use up all the newspaper fabric!!! One

piece of stash fabric gone, a whole lot more to go!!!!

I guess that’s it for now.

Theresa