another quilty saturday (and some new quilting terms)

I remembered to get my batting out last night, so it was all relaxed when I was ready to sew today.  Yay!

It takes a while to prep everything and get the quilt ready to be quilted...oiling, cleaning wheels, winding bobbins (through about 7 guides), threading the machine (through about 15 guides), loading the back, wrestling the batting, straightening the top, checking the tension, adjusting the tension, checking the tension, adjusting the tension, checking the tension, adjusting the tension...

Finally I was ready to sew!

I think this is by far the brightest quilt this machine has seen.  It was such a grey, dreary day, this was nice to look at.

I chose to use a variegated thread for this - pink, orange, purple and yellow - something I didn't think I'd ever choose.  But what color would you have chosen for this if you didn't want to fuss with changing threads often?

I had a lot of fun, but had a definite timeline.  I had a birthday party for my hubby's best friend's 3-year-old to attend this afternoon!  (She got a quilt for turning 2 - remember Makayla's I Spy quilt?  This year she got a Barbie tent and clothes.  More exciting for her, less fun for me - no, I didn't sew any of that.)

I made it - just in time to print out directions to their new house and slap some wrapping paper around the gifts.

Another tease!  I will get better photos of both this and the MSU quilt soon.

Ready for binding!

I love the quilting I did in the centers of the big stars.  The quilt on display where I bought this kit was quilted in a similar manner, but I only vaguely remember it.  Part of me wishes I'd studied it more, but most of me is thrilled with how it came out.

The hubby even complimented my technique!  Of course, the part he complimented (the star centers) was done freehand and supposed to be less than perfect, so go figure.  I didn't let on, though...I'll take that compliment.

And speaking of the hubby...I forgot to share this with the last post.  Some of you may remember my story from quite a while ago where he was attempting to "speak biddy" and mentioned casually something about a "fat half" because he'd heard me talking about fat quarters.  He was teasing and had no idea there was such a thing, but he's now been dubbed my fat half.  (Don't worry, he can defend himself just fine.)

But that's not the recent story - he's at it again.  I was talking about stitching in the ditch on the MSU quilt...mostly just thinking out loud.  Well, either he heard wrong or he's teasing again, but he thought he heard ditch starting with a B.  I giggled again because, well, isn't stitching in the ditch a bit of a pain in the behind?

Happy quilting!
Katie