Funny how things look different

when there is a big gap between the last time you touched something and a more recent time. First, though, here is this one all finished. I like it alot although it goes absolutely no where in my house. It's just so happy! I was able to use a different colourway of the pink border for the back. I like that about it, too.

Here is another one I finished. Here is its back.

And here is its front. It is a lap from fat quilt from when I was trying to use up my fat quarters. The pattern had multiple borders of the various strips like the sashing but I just didn't like it so I didn't do it that way. Quilters' license, right? These were all kind of deep colours -- not exactly jewel tones but approaching that. Mr THQ likes this one alot. I like it, too. I like the extra bits in the star points.

I like the back, too. That back fabric is absolutely ancient. I bought it originally in 3 colourways. You will notice that one of them is blue. I guess it's time to explain my blue aversion. It's really a result of an overload of blue. My FIL could reupholster anything. We had an old couch that we had gotten cheap from friends that needed to be recovered. We lived in Reno at the time and I was walking past a store window of a kind of off the beaten path weird store and they had a bolt of upholstery fabric in the window. It was love at first sight! The fabric was basically royal blue with lots of rust and some kind of taupey brown in a southwestern pattern. I will have to look through old photos and see if I can find one that I can scan.

Anyway, he recovered that couch and a loveseat and from that moment on all my decorating had blue and orange in it. Of course the part I am leaving out is that the house in Reno had bright blue carpet -- royal blue -- I referred to it as Crisco can blue. We only lived in Reno that time for a couple of years but that couch stayed with us for a long time. I think it finally drowned in the great 1984 Tulsa Memorial Day flood that we got to participate in. Sort of a fitting ending, I guess.

The blue and orange versions of these fabrics were in pillows along with lots of other blues and oranges. I never did use the taupe until this backing. Anyway, before he died FIL recovered the loveseat in a brown fabric which is a good thing!

Boy, I am in a multiple colourway frame of mind aren't I? How strange. I didn't realize I did that so much. Anyway, the above two fabrics were ordered online as backing for the quilt that is coming up. I could not decide looking at my computer which wa the better colour. I ended up using the red but if I had it to do over I would definitely use the pink.

This quilt was a kit from Fons & Porter a long time ago. It has been waiting to be quilted for a while because I couldn't decide how to quilt it. I ended up using my walking foot which has spent lots of box time and not much machine time. I like the way it came out and will use the foot again I am sure. I tried to use only the fabrics that came in the kit even though I didn't like some of them AT ALL and as a whole it looks good. This was one of the first times I used a solid, too. Since then I have noticed lots of solids used in blogland, especially on contemporary quilts so I have started using them a little more. This is actually baby quilt size.

Even though I have a couple more quilts that are pinned and ready to be quilted (yes, still including the monster) I decided it was time to do something new. Actually I was looking for something else and came across this kitty angel fabric and decided its time had come. Isn't it cute?

Here is the finished top. I would have liked a slightly wider kitty angel fabric border but I didn't have enough to go any wider. It makes me smile, too.

Now I guess it's time to get back to the quilting. I have another one that I am not sure how to quilt so that is my excuse. Is it working?

Favourite things

I was reading one of my all time favourite cooking blogs, Mel's Kitchen Cafe, and noticed a section of favourite things. Related to cooking, of course. Well, I had just been thinking about a couple of my favourite things, quilting related, of course, and thought I would share them. This is the best seam ripper on the face of the earth. I love it so much I want to buy another one. If I could find it. I found another by Clover but it has a rougher tip -- not ball point I suppose -- and despite Mr THQ's best efforts at smoothing it out, it is, alas, not as good. But I am always searching.
This is another. Although I certainly missed half of it in the picture. Oh, well. It is just a box with sections and I keep all my Bernina feet in it. They sit nicely protected and dust free. Which is important since dusting is not one of my highly developed skills.

And my baby scissors. They are out all the time when I am sewing, and go into their case when I am not.

My quilting gloves. They are wonderful for free motion because they grip so well. And they are small. I have small hands so it is hard to find gloves that fit. I actually wore through my first pair. Then I discovered that the company for which I worked carried these in some of the locations. But not in small, of course. I got them to order me an entire dozen in my size! So as long as I can find them when I need them I am set for life.

Now I know I have mentioned this staple puller before. I use it to close the safety pins when I am pin basing the layers together. It works much better than spoons or anything else I have found. It was a freebie. Fortunately I have a few of them, too.

And clips for holding the binding on. I knew these as pin curl clips when I was a kid but now they are sold as binding clips and they are terrific. As you know I sew all my bindings on by machine and these are hold it all in place.

My bobbin storage case. This is ancient. I bought enough bobbins to fill it plus one more that is in the machine. When I get ready to quilt I wind a whole row of the colour I am using. It saves lots of time, oh, and, dust free!

And my favourite ruler. 6.5 by 18.5. Creative Grids. I don't like Omnigrid too much because of the yellow lines. This is my second one. I wore the first one out. Absolutely the perfect size for me.

While I was thinking about favourite things and thinking about what I might make next once my quilting binge is finished I thought about how I love these types of patterns, buy them often, but rarely make them. I need to rectify that. There is one I finished in the to be quilted stack so you will see it soon. But these are all sooooooo darn cute I need to stop buying and start making. Or keep buying and start making. That is probably more likely.

I have finished quilting some tops. This is a kind of Christmassy one. I like the yellow green colour with red. Not too prim but I like it.

And this one was a charm pack plus some yardage. Minnick and Simpson. I like it okay but you know I think it is a little boring to only use one fabric line. For the flag room.

And this one was to make use of a fat quarter I really liked at one time. Now, not so much. Funny how that happens, isn't it?

And you probably remember this one because I took it apart and replaced some blocks because I was unhappy with it. It really is cute quilted and now I am ready for a boy baby to appear somewhere.

And another little one. I like these colours. It is already in my bedroom because the colours are perfect for in there.

And I love, love, love how this one came out. It is mostly a bunch of half yards that I thought went together really well. Oh, and a fabric I bought in Charlotte last time I visited my daughter.

And look at the back. It looks so great with it. And the back is from JoAnn's. Lots of my backs come from JoAnn's because of cost but this one is cute and perfect.

And you just saw this one. Another quick from start to finish!

Still a few more to quilt so best get going while the finishing bug is still active!

So I pinned and pinned

and this stack of tops and backs is still waiting to be pinned. And of course there are still tops that still need backs. I ran out of pins until we went to JoAnn's and used a coupon to get more. But I decided that was enough pinning anyway. Here are the small to medium ones ready to go.

And the larger ones. A couple of these have been sitting waiting for a long time. Especially that big one on the bottom. Its time just has not come... yet.

I pulled all my bindings from the various places they were tucked -- I had outgrown the binding drawer for sure! I think it is a good idea to make the bindings when completing the tops. Except when it is so long before the quilting I can't remember which binding goes with what. (Yes, I have tried to sew one meant for another onto the wrong one. But only once. So far...) I guess I need to pin post it notes to the bindings.

Don't they look nice in their boxes? I just look soooooooooo efficient... ha ha ha! Or as my best friend when I lived in Rhode Island as a kid would say, "snicker, snicker, snacker, snacker, ha, ha, laugh, laugh, ho, ho, hee, hee." Amazing that sticks in my mind. Had to be 5th grade-ish!

Anyway, while we were out we stopped at a thrift store and look what I found! What a lot of work, and so cute. I could do without the pearls but I love the little handle and the edging around the top.

I also kind of delayed the quilting until I had finished this top. It was one of those stacks. The pattern I used did not call for a border but it looked wrong to me ending with such a light colour so I added one. Now it goes into the needs a back stack.

So, did I ever stop procrastinating and start quilting? Well, yes, I did. And wouldn't you know the first few I quilted had NO bindings in those bins! So you are not seeing them. You are seeing some that were quilted later that did have bindings in the bins. This was done from left over half square triangles. I really like the sashing fabric. Kind of a nice light toasty colour background.

Then you remember this one I am sure. I added some borders but I am still not in love with this fabric.

And this one. I know I just showed you the top. This is definitely record top to finished time! I didn't do such a good job on the picture, now did I? Oh, well.

This was made of leftovers as well. The quilt that it is leftovers of is waiting to be pinned. Someday you will see it. The main fabric is some I bought years and years ago when I was about to make a quilt for my MIL who did her house in oriental style. I ended up doing something different so this one sat and sat. I mean for like 10 years. I kind of like it with all these also uncharacteristic florals.

I love this one. It was a panel and some coordinating fabric. I added the green border from my stash and I love the purple stripe border. I worked really hard to make the stripes all be at 90 degrees and straight, not my usual helte skelter scrappy style. Anf it came out cute, cute, cute I think.

I like the kitties. Mr THQ just told me he read an article that house cats can live to be 30 years old! Can you believe that? Ours seems to be feeling her age at 15 or 16 which I thought was the normal life expectancy. We keep having to put helper steps everywhere so she can get to where she used to jump up to. Of course she is not a true house cat as she does go outside all the time. Interesting, no?

Fabric stacking

is something that I do all the time. Even though my stash is basically sorted by colour I have these little stacks stuck everywhere of fabrics that go together really well. That's a problem because, first of all, those fabrics are not really available for use until I have made something from the little stack. And second, because I love to make scrap quilts, it is hard for me to start from the little stack and decide what quilt to make from it.

Usually what happens is I end up making a churn dash or Ohio star quilt from them with a nice planned colour scheme. I really like those two blocks. This time I am determined to do something different. Here is one of those little stacks. See that bottom (blue background) fabric? It is a Thimbleberries that I had just a fat quarter of. I loved it so searched the web until I found more and bought it. I bought those 3 star prints, too. They go great together. I just don't know what to make with them.
Here's another. When I was separating out fat quarters I stacked up these reds and whites. I like red and white quilts whenever I see them in a quilt show. Just need to decide what these should become.

Here's another little stack. I loved that star print when I found it. Red, white and blue with a twist.

Look! I actually decided what to make with it! I forgot to take a picture of it until I had put it on the pile of to be pinned quilts. I was intending to do a star fabric border but decided to end with the blue, yes, blue again.

Here is another. This fabric was actually part of a tote bag kit from Connecting Threads years ago when they sold fabric other than their own. I knew I would not make the tote, though. I love the shade of red --Gingham Rose is the name of the fabric line, I think.

And look, it actually became something, too. Very country French, don't you think? I was working on it while I watched "Julie and Julia" or "Julia and Julie", whichever way it is. Seems fitting. I will have to remember that when it is quilted and it comes time to name it. And, no, I didn't care very much for the movie. I have never been a Meryl Streep fan, and the Julie parts were not all that interesting, either. I used to watch Julia Child on TV but have never owned her cook book. I have made beef bourgenon (or however you spell it) but from my Good Housekeeping cookbook. I used to call it "alky stew" because it has so much alcohol in it -- wine and cognac. Good, though.

But I digress. I took a quick class at my local quilt shop on embroidery as I have not been too successful at teaching it to myself. I could never figure out for sure on the back stitch if you use the same hole. Well, you don't. And I have always hated and made poor French knots. I learned to make decent ones. Yay! I don't have much in the way of Valentine decorations so once this becomes a little pillow it will be a nice addition to next year's Valentine's decorations. Oh, and she recommended always putting batting behind the muslin when you stitch. I really like this idea. I may try it on cross stitch, too.

Boy, this post is all over the place, isn't it? That's what I get for posting so erratically. It's hard to believe it has been so long. I was lazy getting my pics off the camera. Anyway, I like to keep all my empty spools each year. Both in 2009 and 2010 I used 55 spools. Isn't that weird? The year before that only 34. Here is spool number 1 for 2011.

I had decided it was time to make backs for all the tops I had accumulated. In fact my next post was to be called "backs and bindings". Ahem, never happened. Anyway, I have now made backs for about 25 quilts of all sizes. I even made backs for these I just showed you made from little stacks. The pile to be pinned is now huge. I need to get pinning and quilting. Pinning the layers together is the only part of quilting I don't like so I tend to have to go on pinning binges. Look at this mess while I was auditioning backs.

Here was the stack needing to be pinned before I through those two more recent ones on top. Big, yes?

Long post, I know, with lots of pics, but there is more if you can take it! Remember I was trying to use up kits and pre-cuts? Here is a little tablerunner using precuts. It came out cute I think. I would use this pattern again.

Here it is full size.

Remember this fabric from putting together the work squares? I have had this Thimbleblossom pattern for a long time and could not decide what fabric to use for the big piece in the middle. The pattern pic has a pretty plain print. I thought this happy print would look great and it does. I like the big applique, too.

Done with machine blanket stitch of course.

I like it alot.

I liked it so much I decided to do a similar thing with another print for another Thimbleblossoms pattern.

I don't like this one anywhere near as much. Of course it doesn't have the flower applique. I am thinking I will make a house applique copying one of the houses in the fabirc. That will help it I think. Mr THQ was thinking it was just a piece of fabric on the floor when I took this picture. Definitely needs more work.

Sorry about the lumpy picture. Those red and white fabrics are lined up underneath this. I was too lazy to move them out of the way. Oops. Happy Valentine's Day Eve.