Winter Wonderland Pictures...

Here are all of the pictures of the quilting I did on my mom's Winter Wonderland quilt.  I'm posting them here because I had such trouble coming up with ideas for quilting this and I hope they might help someone else.

It's a Winter Wonderland...

It's somehow fitting that as I've finally finished quilting a winter themed quilt, spring looks like it might be making an appearance.  Yeah!  I have never spent as much time quilting a quilt as I did this one.  I started it last August (although I truthfully I didn't get that much quilting done during the holidays).  Please ignore the photo bombing cat in any pictures.  She was being a pest that day.

My mom hand embroidered all of the snowmen blocks and pieced the top.  The pattern is Winter Wonderland by Crabapple Hill Studio.  I offered to quilt it for her a couple of years ago but only just got around to it.  One of the reasons I waited so long was because I wasn't quite sure how to quilt the embroidered blocks.  Kathy from Troublesome Creek Quilts was nice enough to share some links where she had seen the the same quilt quilted, including a great one by the Quilted Pineapple.  I took some inspiration from her in quilting mine.

I started by outlining all of the embroidery with silk thread.  Obviously that took a while.  Then for each embroidered block, I drew my quilting design on Golden Threads quilting paper and quilted it.  I did the same thing for the large snowflakes in the solid blocks in the border.  Everything else, I freehanded.

Deciding how to quilt something can be the hardest part for me.  I look on the internet and in books for inspiration.  And because I had such a difficult time with this one, I'm going to share pictures of all of my quilting for anyone else who makes this quilt.  (Also, I made this exact same quilt for myself and would like to remember how I quilted it when I finally get around to quilting mine!)  However, there are a ton of pictures so I'm going to put it in a separate post.  If you're not interested, you can skip right past it.

I was so happy to finish quilting this and give it to my mom.  I love how it turned out.  And although she put absolutely no pressure on me to get it done, it's nice to have it off my list and be able to move on to something else.

And so, Lord, where do I put my hope? My only hope is in you. 

Psalm 39:7 (NLT)

A little late...

OK, so it was the last day of the month (again) and I hadn't quite finished my quilt for the AYOS parade hosted by Sinta and Sherri.  I spent most of the month working on other quilts and didn't start this one until late.  It was 8:30 that night and I really only needed to sew the outer border on, but instead I decided to skip it and go to bed.  (That's just how I roll around here.)  I missed the parade this month, but finished the top the next day.

The pattern this time was Harvey by Miss Rosie's Quilt Co.  Although it is still made with charm squares, it's a much larger quilt than most Schnibbles at 72" square.

I love the center of this quilt and the border, but basket quilts aren't really my style so I changed it up a little and made a giant star quilt instead.

I used 4 charm packs of Strawberry Fields by Fig Tree & Co. and Bella Solid Snow for the background.  Fortunately, I happen to have a whole bolt of the red polka dot from this line that will be perfect for the backing.

After last month's quilt with the gazillion 1" x 2" flying geese, these 4" HST felt huge!  It went together pretty quickly though and I have a petty good idea how I would like to quilt it (when I can find the time).  This is another bright cheerful quilt that helps me forget it's below freezing outside right now.

As for the bulk of my quilting time last month, it was spent working on this quilt.  I've finished quilting the center of it and have moved on to the borders, but I'll have to share that in another post.

I'm off on a quilting retreat this week.  Although if you looked at all I've packed, one might think I was moving there instead.  I have yet to master the art of packing light!  My husband will be holding down the fort while I'm gone which means caring for our herd of 4 legged creatures.  They have an unfortunate habit of getting sick on him whenever I go somewhere.  One of them woke us up this morning at 3:30 with a hairball.  His only comment was, "And so it begins."  On the positive side, everyone's always so happy to see me return.  Here's a picture of one of the worst culprits, Jack...

“If you want to know what God really wants you to do, ask him ... but if you don’t ask in faith, don’t expect the Lord to give you any solid answer.” 

James 1:5-6 (TLB)

Multitasking...

Perhaps in an effort to make up for my lack of sewing over the summer, I've suddenly become energized to work on so many different projects.  All at the same time.  And if you ask anyone who knows me, they'll tell you I don't like clutter.  I'm a very organized person, maybe even a little too much so. (I'm working on that)  When I redid my sewing room last year, I wanted to make sure everything had a place and the room was very clean and clutter free.  And it's remained that way since then.  However, I'm now working on so many projects simultaneously that almost every surface seems to have something on it.  If I wasn't enjoying the projects so much, it would be driving me crazy.  As it is, it's only bugging me enough that I keep trying to rearrange the piles more neatly.  This is the surface of my cutting table right now.

I have stuff for 3 projects on there right now - the Little Bite quilt Whit, Winter Wonderland and a free motion fillers quilt.  My sewing table is also covered with more of the same...

I'm rotating back and forth between machines depending on which project I'm working on.  One's set up for FMQ and the other for piecing.

I also want to fit in this Miranda Day Bag by Lazy Girl Designs.  I currently carry my knitting around in a free bag I got in the mail.  It's functional, but not very attractive.  This would be so much nicer.

And finally, there's still the mystery quilt hanging around on the quilt frame waiting for me to quilt it.  Somehow, I predict that one is going to have to wait a little longer before it sees any progress.

It's nice to have so many projects I'm excited to work on, but I admit I'm also eager to finish a couple of them and clear off my workspace.  (And of course it will be nice to have the finished quilts too.)

I could probably finish whatever I'm working on a little bit sooner if I didn't have so much help, but honestly, it wouldn't be nearly as much fun.

But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."  Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.  2 Corinthians 12:9-10 (NIV)

Back to Quilting...

How can it possibly be the end of summer?  My internal clock is still stuck somewhere in June or July.  This summer has been a whirlwind and I feel like I've gone from one thing to another.  However someone told me the other day they're predicting this winter to be another cold and wet one.  If that's the case, I plan to hibernate in my sewing room until Spring.  I haven't had much time for quilting lately, but being shut in would give me lots of time to make up for it.

Recently I've started working on a quilt for my mom called Winter Wonderland.  We both made the same quilt back in 2011; hers is in blues and mine is in blacks and browns.  I promised to quilt hers over a year ago, but am only now getting around to it.

The first step to quilting it is to outline all of the embroidery.  It's slow, detailed work, but I'm halfway done with it.  Once I've finished that, I'll go back and quilt the background of each block.

I'm also burying all my thread tails on this quilt.  I've been doing that for about a year now.  I used to just stitch in place a few times when I started and stopped, but I feel like pulling the threads to the top, tying them in a knot and burying them is a little more secure.  (Not that I've ever had a quilt come undone doing it the other way.)  I also think it looks a little nicer.  In any case, I was trying to explain it to my mom and mentioned that I use the cheater needles to bury the threads.  She wasn't familiar with them.

Instead of threading the needle, you press your threads down through the slit on the top and they'll pop down into the eye, threading your needle.  You wouldn't use this for all of your sewing, but it's invaluable for things like burying thread tails.  (I'm using the John James Easy Threading Needles for this - aka cheater needles.)

I have both of my machines set up right now and so in between working on this quilt, I'm also practicing my FMQ (free motion quilting).  I recently took the Free Motion Fillers class with Leah Day on Craftsy.  (Hint:  If you're interested in taking one of her Craftsy classes, she offers a 50% discount on them if you go through her website.)    I've started quilting some of her fillers and plan to put together the sampler so I can try them all.  One thing I've already learned is straight lines are very difficult to quilt.

I have to mention one thing before I finish.  This time last year, our Sam was so sick we didn't think she was going to make it.  We had to carry her to the litter box to go to the bathroom and then hold her up.  However, she's doing amazing now.  She's more playful then she's been in years.  She has a birthday next week where she'll turn 14 and I'm so very grateful that's she's here with us to celebrate another one.  Thank you to everyone who prayed for her!

"Do not judge others, and you will not be judged.  For you will be treated as you treat others.  The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged."

Matthew 7:1-2 NLT

Catching up...

Until I started this post, I had no idea it's been so long since I last blogged.  It's been crazy busy around here lately and I've also been out of town for a few days.  I don't see it slowing down much either in the near future.

I haven't been doing a lot of quilting lately (certainly not finishing any projects), but I have made some forward progress on a few things.  Mostly making backings and basting quilts.  I've been meaning to baste 45 and Life to Go for over a month now and I finally buckled down last week to do it.  I had to move most of the furniture in my quilt room out of the way in order to have enough floor space.  I pinned the backing easily enough, but when I laid out the batting I discovered a problem...

When I purchased the batting, I thought the package said it was 120" square.  Even though I prewashed it, I didn't think it was possible for it to shrink this much.  When I looked again, I saw that it was 102" x 120".  The quilt itself is 109" square, so this just wasn't going to work.  Fortunately I had another package of batting that was the right size that I could use.  After a couple of hours, I had it together...

45 and Life to Go Quilt - now basted

You'll notice there aren't any pins in it.  That's because I used 505 basting spray instead...

This stuff is great!  I was a little nervous to use it on such a large quilt because I've never tried it on such a big project.  It took a little more than a can to baste all the layers together.  I also felt like I'd been sniffing glue when I was done and my nostrils wanted to stick together.  However, by morning, everything was back to normal.

And speaking of basting quilts, I also used the spray to baste this little Valentine's Day quilt.  I used a layer of cotton batting and a layer of wool.  I'm hoping the extra layers will give it a lot of definition once it's quilted.  I still want to finish this one and have it on the wall before February 14th.  (Just under 4 weeks to get it done.)

Here's My Heart

This past weekend, I also managed to piece the backing for Winter Wonderland using the label I made for it earlier...

Backing for Winter Wonderland

I know that I won't get around to quilting this one for at least several months (although I want to do it this year), so I've layered the backing, batting and quilt on a hanger.  Whenever I find the time to quilt it, it's all ready for me to pull out of the closet and either load it on the frame or baste it for use with my regular sewing machine.

Backing, batting and quilt - ready to be quilted

I've also finally started on my Full House quilt for the Another Year of Schnibbles challenge.  (You can read more about it here and here.)  I'm using Pom Pom de Paris for mine and changing up the pattern a little bit.  The houses are going together pretty quickly, but the only picture I have to share right now are of the roofs.

Full House Roofs

This one has to be done by January 31st, so it's high up on my to-do list.

On a non-quilting front, I caught David on the scratching post the other day.  I think it's the first time in 2 years he's paid any attention to it.

David on the scratching post

I think Jack got a little jealous though and had to hone in on the action...

David and Jack

I do have a stash report I need to do and hope to be able to show some houses as well, so hopefully I won't be gone so long this time.  Although with everything going on around here, I'm really finding it a struggle to find time to blog.  Hopefully your days are a little quieter wherever you are!

Until later...

The Lord will work out his plans for my life - for your faithful love, O Lord endures forever. Don't abandon me, for you made me. 

Psalm 138:8 (NLT)