I have satisfied by taste for quilt shop open house trips. I made 2 to a LQS and 2 trips to another LQS a few days ago. I missed going to Columbus for the one at Red Rooster.
  I am playing with the google programs. I have installed Google talk and Google voice. It took forever to get Google voice to work. My firewall was blocking it. I had to work with the settings in it at least 3 times and finally browse to the file and force the firewall to see that it had permission. I felt like I was beating my head against the wall.
  I sent myself a text from it too. I set up a voice mail account. I still haven't been able to talk computer to computer to my brother but I drained my phone battery twice trying to get it setup and where he could hear me. It appears that one hurdle was the headset and recording ability in my computer. I made a test sound recording and that should be set up.
 I am trying to add a widget to the blog to have voicemail on it too. I think there is a problem with the fact that the programs have been updated and the steps to add/setup/access some of these things are not showing on my blog. I will work on it.
  My quilt shop hop ended up with more xmas fabric! What a surprise. I try to resist. It is what I had intended to work on tonight but did the google voice/google talk instead.

Blogging from kindle fire

Well, I have a new application for my new blog.  Current work is a star quilt.
I have another new app for the weather and I love it. I have always HATED  the weather programs on my computer and refused to have them. The one on my kindle is AWESOME.

quilting boat applique from July 17,2012

July 17, 2012 reposted here on new blog.
I am piecing a quilt from the video on applique by Missouri Quilt company. I thought it was going good and fast at first. Now, I feel like I have spent way too much time on it. It is larger than the one they demonstrate on. I cut all the heat and bond going the wrong direction for the sails and boats. I wasn’t totally satisfied with the fabric I chose. I decided that I would make a different set of fabric for boats and sails. I just wasn’t paying attention. This is the 3 strips of the quilt with the first choice fabrics of boats and sails placed on it.

layout of the brick area of blue and the boat area

webshots page

my webshots http://community.webshots.com/user/dspie?vhost=community

Quilting from July 12, 2012

quilting

July 12,2012
I have another purple strip quilt started and can’t find the butterfly templates I made for the first one. I guess I should be doing a better job with the drawings and templates. I can draw some more. I would have to do better if I were in business. I completed one of the nicest works I have done recently. I did hand guided crosshatch on a satin baby angel wing quilt. I was at least pleased with how good I did the ruler work. I had another quilt loaded that is the absolute first of perfect seams for my piecing (hate to admit it)
post from months ago…
I feel like I spent a small fortune to get fabrics for a couple of projects. I got several Moda Fruitcake fabrics to go with a layer cake I have had at least a year. I am planning 2 quilts from all the Fruitcake fabric. I am planning a 10 minute block quilt from the layer cake.
I purchased a jelly roll of Moda 3 Sisters “Grace” and border fabrics. I spent a couple hours 2 different days at the quilt shop gathering fabrics.
I purchased another set starting with the jelly roll of Blackbird designs “Wild Rose”. I purchased fabrics for a set of 3 as the border. I scrounged thru the Moda bake shop site and found a terrific free pattern for a quilt using “wild rose” fabrics. http://www.modabakeshop.com/2010/12/wild-rose-postage-stamp-quilt.html I don’t think I want to make it but I sure love the one there. I saw a lot of inspirational quilts on the flickr site and info from the quilts that they were patterns from Moda bake shop. I made sure I saved the files to have the instructions.
Last but not least here is my jelly roll of April Cornell “decadent victorian” I have 2 yards of fabric for a border but still seriously want a dark purple. The whole idea was to make the quilt in the strip quilt book that featured the fabric but I was so inexperienced about the designer fabrics, I had no idea the fabric was mostly sold out.

my notes

This is my todo list setting up and adding to my blog.
connections to fabric dying articles
connection to the printer info for photo quilts/printing on fabric/
camera info
Connections and shortcut buttons to add to blog.
recipe pdf of 1925 chocolate

Favorite sites

Hello, I have tons of favorite sites for all sorts of subjects but I am keeping it to quilting here.
My favorite is the longarm forum I belong to. There are tons of inspirational people sharing and helping each other on the forum. http://mqresource.com/forum/index.php?app=ccs
My favorite quick, free, warm and exciting quilting video site http://www.missouriquiltco.com/ click the “tutorials” link for video.
http://quiltbug.com/Articles/bubble-jet-set.htm *this site had stain removal site and tons of other tips/freebies great info
fabric search engine (utmost must have) http://www.quiltshops.com/search.htm
http://www.cjenkinscompany.com/Choosing_The_Right_Printer_s/21.htm for photo on fabric
http://www.quilthistory.com/stain.htm stain removal guide
Leslie and Curt Allen quilt business and soon to be shop owners http://finishingtouchesquiltingstudio.com/default.aspx
Karen McTavish http://www.designerquilts.com/ Instructor/quilter…Awesome!
Rebecca for some awesome work http://www.blog.rebeccasegura.com/
Renae Haddadin *quilt instructor http://www.renaequilts.com/
Jamie Whallen * quilt instructor http://www.jamiewallen.citymax.com/home.html

NOTE: this is from my old blog on wordpress. I am tyring not to lose the info there.

crazy quilting

March 19, 2012 I’m still toying with the idea of making a crazy quilt. I had the opportunity to watch 2 of the free shows on crazy quilting from The Quilt Show yesterday. I signed up to do this without a clue of what should go into this type of quilt. I have looked at and studied some of the techniques etc and almost decided I can’t do justice to it right now. I thought it was extremely interesting watching Susan Schrempf use the sewing machine to do silk ribbon embroidery. She does a cool job with it. I hope that everybody else can mananage to make theirs. I am not sure I will. I have so many that I want to do and the other shows I watched caused an even bigger problem. I want to make a Kaleidoscope quilt!
Feb. 10, 2012 and I haven’t started my crazy quilt yet. I have a bunch of new info from a really nice lady who gave me encouragement and info. I asked a slew of questions and got a list of sources and tips. I am just sucked into some of the quilts I already needed done. I will make an effort to get a block done with month.
I am including a link here to the blog site for the crazy quilt journal project. The registration for it ends Dec. 27, 2011 but the project is a year long activity. http://www.cqjp2012.blogspot.com/
http://www.kittyandmedesigns.com/ from tutorials on stitches to dying silk ribbons.
This looks like a MUST have site list:
http://stitchinfingers.ning.com/page/tutorials-1
I have no experience at crazy quilting but may make one. I have some fabrics and ideas for that type of quilt. I am sure I had a booklet on it years ago. I am gonna give a try anyway. I want some crushed velvet in mine.
I have 2 books from the 1990′s for silk ribbon embroidery which is one of the things I dabbled in back then. I have been researching the crazy quilts history. I was astounded at the stitchwork done by the ladies of the 1890′s. I found a lot of short videos on utube. I don’t really want to just use the sewing machine with fancy stitched on mine. There is a nice utube video to start with a 5 sided piece stitched onto a muslin block and how to add the other pieces around it.
*NEW interesting site for supplies: http://www.crazyquiltsilk.com/ they have silk kits! The site was down for the holidays when I found them but I saved it to look at supplies. They open back up Jan. 2. Check it out!
I am going to have to order supplies online. Our local stores phased out silk ribbon and Michaels Crafts closed here. It appears there are considerable silk ribbons on ebay. I also located silk ribbon supplies here:
http://www.silkribbon.com/category_23/YLI-Ribbon-Connections-Silk-Embroidery-Ribbon.htm
I see that it is mostly done with size 3mm,7mm, and 13mm. I want lace and beadwork too. I just got some small spools of cotton lace and I am looking for mother of pearl beads.

I am working on drawing out designs and plans for a star quilt. It is larger than my little 36" quilts. I have some drawings on freezer paper so it is large enough for the triangles. The problem is saving it that size. I may draw it small scale and scan into the computer.

patriotic star lap quilt

I have been getting back into quilting after replacing the tension spring on the longarm. I did around 9 small quilts and 7 have already been sent to a nursing home. I made some easy star quilts. I have several that were pastels and I did a patriotic one. I have 2 more strip quilts and the applique flower quilt that I am considering for the nursing home. I actually put bindings on 2 quilts last night. I am hoping to get binding on another one tonight. I had thread issues and was shocked since it acted like the new spring was bad. I do believe that most of it was a wad of lint in the bobbin case spring. I am hoping the issue is resolved. I wouldn't have thought the lint could have been in there like it was.
This is a 36" lap quilt with polyester batting.

Applique flowers quilted

I have the applique flower quilt completed and the binding on it. I am a bit concerned about a few of the petals not having the stitching on the edges good enough. I learned  many things doing this. I took out the stitching in the center of the petals that I had done that to. I didn't like it and it didn't look good on the front or back. It stopped the design from looking nice on the back. The stitching around the stems looks too wobbly on the back. It didn't really look as bad on the front. I got in a hurry and learned how bad that can be. I didn't stitch the outer circle around the center of the flowers in the dark pink area and it leaves it looking stupid on the back. I did the crosshatch in the center but not completing the outer edge as I went. I did all the outlining OUTSIDE the piecing and on this one, on mine, I would do it in the piecing. It will make the back look nice and it will anchor it down. The zigzag stitching that I used to apply the pieces is not enough in my opinion with the methods I used. There is only wash out glue in most of this and no fusible product. I would not feel the need to do that on the fusible. I don't have the lighting the way I want it here but I have so many other projects that I don't have any photos or notes for that I am gonna consider this acceptable. I have a Pellon batting 80/20 and it stitched like a dream. I don't have it washed yet and I think it will be nicer.

Bunny baby quilt

This is a panel that is called "Land of Milk and Honey" It is out of print and from my stash. I used cotton warm and natural batting and a pastel polka dot back with a matching stripe as the binding. It has simple scrolls on it in the main body of the panel. I did hearts in the green/white fake inner border and scroll in the fake outer border. This was requested to be completely neutral, pastel, and lightweight since it is going to California.

Raw edge applique

I have an experiement with Elmer's school glue, Elmer's purple glue, and Liquid Stitch glue. I am trying it instead of any of the products like Heat n Bond lite. I used that stuff on other things and am not truly happy with it. I stitched a narrow zigzag stitch around each area after gluing. My flowers and leaves are batiks and the background is a purple flannel. I wasn't sure it was a good idea to use the flannel but I wanted it to be very comfy. I will post more after it is stitched and washed.
           Before washing:

Wednesday Aug 9,2012 pastel lap quilt

I am making another of the lap quilts for the nursing home. It will be the 9th one. I'm having some issues with the tension and the check spring was replaced recently. I think it will take me a little while to get used to the difference with a new spring instead of a worn out one. I have made all of these after the change. Most of them have poly batting. Sorry about the design marks. I used orange crayon and won't be doing that again. Orange didn't want to wash out. The washable crayons have been great till that one.

  Since I just started the blog here, I will back track a bit. I made several 36" lap quilts that are for wheelchairs. I made a couple in pastel shades, a black and white, and a patriotic. I moved all the blocks on one that would have been a star and formed a diagonal design instead. I am hoping to do a small tutorial on the star quilt and include fabric amounts etc. I am pleased with the small amount of time and the backing for them as a quick small useful gift.

Hey, I just set up Google drive! I have 5gb of free space and can access my
documents on it with the Kindle Fire after I install the app on it. I am hoping to
use it for quilting. I should be able to access any of the quilt documents on it
without having them on the kindle. Of course, that is assuming it is a wifi place.
FROWN FACE HERE! I guess I didn't think it thru well. most quilt shops are not
wifi places.

blogging

Well, blogging might be fun now! I don't seem to have a way to put in a smiley face. That would have been nice but I will check on it.

Sept.3 2012
 I am starting a new blog to replace the one on wordpress. I liked it at first but they immediately changed it and I was disgusted. I am hoping that I can post articles and photos here without the same issues.