It was a long time getting done!

I can't believe it's done...three years after starting it. It saw me through the worst time of my life and it saw me through picking up the pieces and it helped...more than it could ever know...

And now it is on my bed and I am happy to report that I had sweet dreams last night!

This quilt has consumed me for the last couple of weeks. As I got closer to finishing all I wanted to do was quilt and quilt and quilt some more...I was a little obsessive in fact.

And so what is a quilter to do when it is over? How about clean up her sewing room and look to see what is on the neglected pile?

So today I cleaned and was tempted by the call of some geese...

I got to work on my sashings!

It is going to take a lot of geese..

I also found the pieces for a quilt I started that I'd like to donate to the

 Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative.

Here is a possible layout..

What a great week! Happy Stitching!

May's Free Motion Quilting Challenge!

It is not even the last day of the month, and I did the challenge! During this months challenge I realized a few things about my free motion quilting...

First, I AM getting better!

Second, I can use dark thread on a light background!

And third, I need to practice starting and stopping. It seems that when I stop quilting to shift my fabric or my hands, my start off isn't as even as I would like it to be. Very soon I am just going to do a practice piece to get better at starting up again. Right now it is either OK or it jags a bit or that first stitch or two is too big.

I did 2 practice pieces of each design...

Practice piece #1

Practice piece #2

Practice piece #3- straight lines are harder than curvy lines!

Practice piece #4

And one more thing I learned...if I am going to do any design on a real quilt then I should always do a practice piece first...just to get into the swing of it!

Happy Stitching!

Last 5 Blocks!

My last 5 blocks are finished...

Now I am ready to start my flying geese sashings. I have started cutting so sewing will begin very soon. Too bad sewing time is competing against big stitch quilting and gardening season.

 I am thinking it will take just as long to do the sashings as the blocks themselves! I guess this quilt will not be ready for this summer...

Happy Stitching!

Oh my poor knees!

Yesterday was a basting day! It's always a bit of a production because I have to move the dining room table into the living room for the day to get enough room to spread out a quilt.

It was also a sad day because it was the end of a package of my favourite basting needles. I broke the last needle just 5 minutes into basting the first quilt.

I have had this package of needles for close to 15 years and they have seen me through basting many, many quilts. They are slightly flexible and after a time get a little bent but that just seemed to make basting easier.

Now that the last needle has broken , I am trying out a new brand of basting needles ...Roxanne's. They are OK, but they have no bend in them. It will take a while to get used to them but they did the job.

Here is the backing of the first quilt. I had one leftover block and some scraps left. It worked out well because I didn't quite have enough flannel for the whole backing.

The brown and pink quilt is now all ready for quilting. I am going to machine quilt this. It will be good practice for some of my new free motion machine quilting skills (if I can call them skills already). This quilt is about 60"x72".

This next quilt was made from all my hand dyed fabrics that I did a long time ago. It measures about 55"x65".

It is going to be hand quilted with black thread. I have done so much 'big stitching' lately I hope I remember how to do fine hand quilting. I am really out of practice using those little needles. Hopefully it is like riding a bicycle!

Happy Stitching!