Pleasant Quilter

What was under our Tree

2012-01-17T16:31:00.000-05:00

My husband and I decided not to exchange gifts this year. We were on vacation so we took a trip instead.

We didn't have presents under our tree but our dog sure liked to lay under it. She doesn't really like the wood floors so if there is something else to lay on, she will. Our uncluttered tree area was nice this year. I think we will do this every year.

Happy sewing,

Carol

A Quilt for my Dad

2012-01-17T16:26:00.000-05:00

I decided to make my Dad a quilt for Christmas this year. He watches tv in the basement (it is finished). I think it is cold down there so I wanted to make a quilt for him. I used some fabric that Oh Frannson had on her blog quite awhile ago. I used her Mix tape quilt pattern but changed the block size to be 10". I put a 3" grid around all the blocks. It ended up a good size for my Dad at 62x80.

I forgot to take a picture of it after I finished the binding. Here is just the top. I quilted straight lines with a brown thread. I used 505 spray to baste this quilt. I really like basting this way. It goes much faster. I will have to take my camera over to my parents so I can take pictures of my Dad's quilt and the one I made for my Mom. I can't believe I forgot to take pictures of either quilt.

Happy sewing.

Carol

Make Life

2012-01-17T16:16:00.000-05:00

I finished my Make Life quilt in time to give to my Aunt for Christmas. It is a nice lap size quilt for her.
I had a layer cake and cut it up into 5" squares and then sewed them together. A simple quilt to make. I quilted it with a simple diagonal grid (which is my favorite quilting look).

Today is a good day to snuggle up with a quilt. We are having a nasty rain to snow day and my husband had to drive an hour away for a meeting. He will have a clean house and a hot meal when he gets home.

Happy sewing,

Carol

Swoon Block

2011-11-09T11:03:00.002-05:00

Here is my sample Swoon block.

I used 2 fat quarters from a Moda Christmas line from a few years ago and some Kona white. This block goes together really well. I am going to buy some Thangles to make my actual quilt. I drew my line on my squares and then used my 1/4 inch foot to make my half square triangles and my seam lines ended up too big and my quilt block is a little smaller than 24.5 inches.

I am going use my Hullabaloo fat quarters for the real quilt. I just have to finish up 4 other quilts first.

Carol

Charm quilt along

2011-11-08T10:11:00.002-05:00

I am finally getting ready to quilt my charm pack quilt along that freckled whimsy did last year or early this year. I added a white border so the quilt will look a little more finished.

The fabric is Happy by Me and My Sisters Designs. My backing is a paw print done in the same colors as the charm pack. I got it at Joann's a while back. I am going use my 505 spray basting on this. Hopefully it will work better than the tack gun.

Carol

Basting Gun

2011-10-19T17:03:00.002-04:00

I bought a basting gun a while back with a 50% off coupon At Joann. I think it will work ok on a small quilt but not on bigger ones. I tried it out on my Make Life quilt and it makes you undo the tape to make your backing flat so you can get your hands under the quilt for the gun to all the way through all three layers.

You can see the little red tacks in my quilt. It took a lot of tacks and the gun jammed on me so I had to finish with pins. I have wood floors so I have to pick the quilt up off the floor high enough so the needle doesn't scratch.

I ordered some 505 spray today so I will see how that works. I will have to do it in the basement because I don't want sticky stuff on my floors. Only problem with that is I hate our basement.

Carol

make life

2011-10-18T17:13:00.000-04:00

I bought a layer cake of Make Life when it first came out. It sat around for awhile, I cut it into charm squares and it still sat. Earlier this year I started sewing the squares together and this is what I came up with.

Nothing hard just a simple patchwork. I made the backing for it today. Hopefully I will get around to basting the whole thing together and quilting it. Maybe tomorrow.

Carol

More blocks

2011-10-14T15:07:00.000-04:00

I now have most of my blocks finished for my quilt.

I only need 2 more to make my quilt this big. I think I will add 2 more rows for a really good queen size quilt. I need to cut out more white strips and then buy enough white for my setting triangles.

My poor little dog is tired since I had her outside while I was stacking wood for our fireplace and dropped a piece on her when it went flying out of my hand. I thought I would help my husband out and put together the log rack yesterday and filled it up today. We need 1 more rack since their is still more wood in our side yard. I'll let him deal with that.

Carol

WIP

2011-10-11T21:24:00.001-04:00

My current work in progress has been the only thing I have worked on for the last 2 months and I am not even finished with the blocks. I took my sanctuary fat quarters and cut 7.5in blocks out then quartered those and put a white border around the blocks. I want to make this a queen size quilt but I don't have enough fabric to do it. Plus, I got really bored making this.

Then something good happened this week. I have seen 5 different lattice quilts on blogs and decided to lay out the blocks on point.

Amazing, I love it this way. The the good news is, I even have enough fabric to make my oversize queen quilt. Maybe I can get in gear and finish the rest of my blocks.

I have been reading about the Sewing Summit on a lot of blogs and I wish I could have been there to take some of the classes. Maybe next year.

Carol

New quilts

2011-06-07T15:20:00.002-04:00

Hi, I haven't posted anything in a very long time. Our life has been busy with other things and some stress since we have not had a day off together in such a very long time. We finally had yesterday off together and went on a very hard and hot hike through the dunes along Lake Michigan north of Ludington.

I finally have my whirly gig quilt finished and I love this quilt. It is may favorite one to date. I wish it were a little bit bigger but it works as a lap quilt for me.

I even love the back. I quilted it with meandering straight line across the width.

I also made my mom a pair of pillows for mother's day. I only took a picture of the first one. They look almost the same. They look good in the chair she put them in at her house too.

I made a quilt for my Aunt for her birthday with a jelly roll, charm pack and some fat quarters that I picked up a JoAnns.

I outline quilted the rows and then did a diagonal over the whole thing. I used the fat quarters for the back and a pieced binding of the left over fat quarters.

Lastly, our dog hurt herself chasing a squirrel a few weeks ago. The vet thinks she tore her ACL so she might need surgery. Today I took her in to get her haircut and she looks so cute now.

We have an anti-inflamitory drug for her and then we will take her back to the vet to see if she will require surgery. She is moving better but can't jump on the furniture or into the cars.

Hope you all are having a good start to June. It is really hot here which is a change from the really cold winter and most of spring.

C.T.