More quilts in gallery

Just posted some fall wallhangings on my gallery page. I definitely have a soft spot for the colors of fall. I will try to keep posting a few more every week.

Love Cheddar and Black

Love the civil war cheddar and black fabrics together. I have done a cheddar and navy wallhanging but now have started collecting for cheddar and black. What I have so far.

Dear Jane Quilt

Today I thought I would share my Dear Jane quilt....another WIP. Once a month I meet with 6 other quilters who are also working on DJ blocks. Some are doing 6 and 7 inch blocks but mine were the original 4 1/2 inch. Because I like to move onto another quilt I stopped making blocks at number 60. Some are paper pieced, some needleturned applique and others just pieced. Now I am needing to get the paper off the backs of some of the blocks and get it layered for
quilting. I will begin by quilting in the ditch to stabilize the quilt for free motion quilting. I will use muslin for backing and warm and natural cotton batting. At a quilt show recently one of the vendors had many "civil war" type quilts on display with tiny stippling done throughout. It was awesome and made the quilt look antique. That is my plan for this quilt.

 This quilt finishes at 57" by 68".
Here is a favorite block, a basket. Love those baskets.

 This is a needleturn applique block.

Paper-pieced block.

Binding Tutorial

I have been working all day on a power point presentation on the method of machine binding I mentioned in a previous posting. My goal is to present a program to my guild on binding. I am using as samples the seasonal miniatures from Patch Abilities, Inc. This was a little quilt of the month from Quilt N'Go Quilt Shop. This was December.

My friend, Nonnie, and I finally decided on a Bunny Hill Design, Catch a Christmas Star, to do together. Here is the pattern and some of the fabrics I plan to use. The red fabric with white snowflakes will the border. This will be a large wallhanging. I foresee an evening getting applique pieces ready for needleturning.

Machine Binding

Just read on another blog a different way of doing machine binding. This one I am going to definitely try. Read down to the second posting on this blog. http://www.mylifeasaquilter.blogspot.com/

Tea Towel Apron Picture

Abbi and I making our Christmas cookies.

Tea Towel Aprons and Christmas Cookies

This morning my darling granddaughter, Abbi, came over to make our traditional Christmas cookies. For our baking experience this year I added tea towel aprons that were way too easy to make. I made mine similar to these directions: http://www.theartofdoingstuff.com/how-to-make-a-tea-towel-apron/ but made a casing for the ties....a very long one to go up around the neck, down the sides and to the back. Because Abbi is so much shorter I folded up the bottom of hers and made it into pockets. She loved putting the food coloring and colored sprinkles in her pockets.

Newest Obsession: English Paper Piecing

English Paper Piecing is my newest craze even though I have done some before. Now I am back at it again with more vigor and more ideas. It is perfect for tv watching on these cold evenings. I can use up old thread basting the fabric around the shapes that I have purchased from Paper Pieces. http://www.paperpieces.com/  They have every shape in every size. The shapes I am nuts about are the smallest ones. They are so cute!!

These are 1 inch tumbler blocks. If I want more than 100 blocks I can take out the paper pieces and reuse them. When I baste the fabric I do not sew into the paper piece so they are easily reusable.

Here are some finished pieces. I am using mostly civil war repro fabrics from my stash. Can't say yet how many or how big this quilt will end up.

 Half inch hexagons are making these little flowers. I fussy cut the little ornaments. These little flowers will be appliqued onto another Christmas fabric for a little Christmas cheer.

 Sorry I didn't get the pics straight. These are more packages of paper pieces with which I will be doing more piecing exploration....doll quilts, maybe. Hubby said he would like make a couple little doll beds. Fun time. I see a miniature dresden quilt in my future.

New Amy Bradley Wallhanging

My newest project completed and ready to take to the quilt shop. This is one of Amy Bradley's newest patterns. http://www.amybradleydesigns.com/ On this website you can see all her new patterns. She always uses wonderful bright colors. This will have a spot on my sewing room when it is retired from the quilt shop.

Another WIP....#4

Good morning on a very rainy Tuesday. Feeling energetic and productive this morning before heading to the quilt shop. Feeling really good because I finally finished Month 3 of my BOM---block of the month---from Calico Cupboard quilt shop in Pataskala, Ohio where my friend, Nonnie lives. I send her the money and she picks up my blocks. Month 3 has taken me especially a long time to finish because it has been almost all applique and I am doing it by hand. This quilt is called Chestnut and Vine and is designed by Bloom Creek....love all their patterns too. So far this quilt is about 36 X 36 but will end up queen size when done. Love the fall colors.

Quiet, Rainy Sunday.

Spent a nice, quiet Sunday afternoon at the quilt shop working with Joyce after a busy Friday and Saturday. We are busy getting ready for our 8th anniversary sale next weekend as well as taking care of lots of quilters looking for Christmas fabrics to get those gifts made. I won't be doing any of that this year...just finish up a couple table runners. I will be working the next 2 days and plan to get pics of some of my samples that are hanging at the shop so stay tuned.

Christmas To Do's...This Year of Next???

2 Table Runners, a wallhanging and 3 snowmen blocks that need a back, batting, quilting, and binding. Will I do them for this year? Maybe. I could really use a couple longer table runners so there is a good chance they will get done.

Gotta love that bubble gum pink carpet remnant in our basement. That was the carpet that was throughout my living room, dining room, main hallway and master bedroom when we moved in 10 years ago. Not there anymore.

WIP #3

I am a lover of the all the batik "jelly rolls" and when the new Timeless Treasure's balipops came in I just had to have a couple. This past week I started a Strip Tube Ruler quilt using these 2 1/2 inch strips. Here is what I have done so far. The large blue petals will become a flower with a stem and leaves. I want the quilt to be longer and not a square so I will be adding a 10 inch wide strip across the top with a vine and a few more flowers and leaves before adding the borders. Can't wait to see this one when I get it done. It will hang in the Quilts at the Marshall House quilt shop and help sell more balipops and Strip Tube Rulers and Instruction Books.

Nonnie, I miss you!!!

My long distance quilting sister has been vacationing in the Caribbean this week and I missed her twice daily....if not more....emails so much I started this blog. Nonnie and I have made 2 Blackbird Design quilts "together", Cold Wind Blows and Country Inn. Both of us love civil war repro fabrics and needleturn applique. We get together once a year and attend the NQA quilt show in Columbus or the International Quilt Festival now being held in Cincinnatti and select our fabrics. Nonnie lives in Pataskala, Ohio outside Columbus. We have our next project picked out by Bunny Hill Designs called Catch a Christmas Star and are waiting for our patterns to come. We plan to get started after the new year using our stash....can get additional fabric needed in April at the quilt show.

Here is Country Inn that I did in batiks. A little different for me but loved how it turned out. I used my home machine to quilt the appliques and borders and the rented the longarm to quilt the blue background.

 A couple close up pics to see the quilting. I am no master by a longshot but love trying.

Little Basket Quilt - WIP Number 2

This quilt was started about 2 years ago with each little basket appliqued by hand using needleturn method. Most of the fabrics are civil war reproduction with some others thrown in that could pass

for reproductions. The little basket template was taken from a book by Blackbird Designs. So far 208 blocks are finished with 52 more to do. They will finish at 5 inches and will be set on point. Here are a couple of pictures.

WIP Number One

If you are a quilter you likely know that WIP means Work In Progress. I have soooo many of these. Just love getting started on another project and collecting fabrics. In an attempt to organize myself I will number my WIPs. Only time will tell how well this is going to work. The first WIP I want to share is a Piece O'Cake Design...love all their designs. http://www.pieceocake.com/. To save time I decided to do fusible applique instead of my usual needleturn applique. I will use buttonhole stitch on my machine to stitch the edges. Here are some blocks I have done.

Welcome

This is my first blog and I am so geeked and hardly know where to start. First let me clarify that
the title of my blog does mean I am a hand quilter....although I have quilted a couple of wallhangings by hand and loved it. The reality is that hand quilting just takes too much time and I want to move on to the next project. So my blog name comes from my maiden name, Hand, and I am a Quilter. Welcome to my little corner in cyberspace.