another quilt quilted

I think that late snow we had this year should have tipped me off that we'd have an odd spring, but maybe Mother Nature heard me wrong and thought I said we WERE amused?  It was supposed to be 88 today, probably a bit warmer than average, but not unheard of.  If our high has hit 70 today, I'd be suprized.  And it's raining.  Again.

So what to do?  Quilt of course!

I'm a bit backed up on the longarming part of quilting, so I put the second baby quilt on this morning and whipped right through it!

Of course, the icky weather doesn't help my terrible photography skills, but those lights my dad built to go over my longarm sure did!

I just did an overall big stipple because short of something really technical, nothing would have really stood out for this quilt.  And the back...

...the back isn't so forgiving of mistakes, so simple is better here.

It went so fast.  Once you attach the back at top and bottom and pull it taut, you attach the sides to help keep everything even.  I think a photo will explain this better...

Emma is helping model again...

The machine comes with clamps on adjustable bungee cords to attach to the sides.  See what the yellow arrow is pointing to?  They're about 3" wide.  Not terribly effective.  So the gal who sold me the longarm taught me to take some scrappy muslin, sew a casing for a skinny dowel (1/4") at one end, and while the clamp hangs onto the dowel end, you pin the other end of the fabric to the sides of the backing - the red arrow.  It works pretty slick and everything is nicely stretched.

But...with this quilt, the pinning (about 9 T-pins each side) took longer than the actual quilting across the opening!

I'm happy it's done and happy with how it looks.  The binding is machine sewn and waiting for the hand sewing portion.  If this weather keeps up, I see myself sitting under it very soon!

And this was today's help:

I've been hanging quilts (finished and unfinished) over the bar on the quilt frame for lack of a better place (and easier place) to store them and keep cats off them.  I obviously had to remove them to use the machine and I hadn't had these sitting on the end of the table of the machine for 30 seconds when Tucker helped himself.  Burrowed right in and napped through the whole process - air compressor and all!

Once the quilt was done, I decided to make myself a bag.  I've been wanting to make this one for quite a while and finally decided it was time.  I took myself to Hobby Lobby last night for some fun, bigger prints and made this in no time at all:

It's a reversible purse and you can find the pattern here!  I don't love that seam up the middle, and it's a bit smaller than I expected, but it's how the bag is made and it's pretty simple.  (These might be on the list for homemade Christmas gifts this year!)

(The colors are a little off, too, but since it's the purple that's looking grey, I know it's my photography skills more than the weather!)

Now we're off to go bowling for a friend's birthday.  It should be fun and I hope I have enough sense to stop before I won't be able to get out of bed tomorrow!

Happy quilting!

Katie