quilting away

I've seen a few other posts where Blogger is being fussy, so let's see if I can get this to work (so far, I've had to go old-school and use the tab key to move the cursor into the field to type...remember that from before we had mice?)...

I've been trying to be busy quilting and this time I took my camera around to get photos of goodies and some of what I've been working on.

First, because goodies are more fun, I'll share what I got while in Iowa on the family reunion (that turned into something of a shop hop, as I believe I visited 5 different shops!)

Included in this stash are 3 books (Better by the Dozen from Susan Teegarden Dissmore, Log Cabin Fever by Evelyn Sloppy, and Pumpkins and Spice by Terri Degenkolb), a scrap bag that was such an odd purchase for me, but I'm GOING to have fun with it, and a kit to make a little pincushion using the Iowa shop hop fabric.  There is also a fourth book, but it's a gifts, so you'll maybe see it around Christmas...

Two of the books look much scrappier than I usually purchase, but have some fantastic quilts and setting ideas, so it's all good.  The third is just plain cute!

And then there's the goodies from the AQS show in Grand Rapids (a bit more spent here, but whatever...)

Three more books (because I can't help myself when they're $5 - Quilt Fiesta! by Cheryl Lynch, Summer at the Lake Quilts by Susan Maw and Sally Bell, and Colorful Stash Busters by Mary Cowan),  two embroidery patterns (A Cat is a Cat and Love Me, Love My Cat, both by Bird Brain Designs) and half of a quilt kit (the purples - greys are coming in the mail soon) to make the Feng Shui pattern by Janine Burke.

Those purples didn't photograph well (they never do), but this is the quilt that was on display that sucked me right in:

Beautiful, right?  And the purples actually look purple in that light!

I haven't been using my little machine much, but a couple of weeks ago I purchased a rolling clothes hanger-thing and hung up all my quilts that are going to be quilted (not the ones that are waiting in a closet for me to decide what I'll do with them) and realized I had 14.  So I set myself a goal of quilting one per week.  Of course last weekend I wasn't even home until dinnertime Sunday, but I did two this weekend to get caught up.

One was the second of the baseball quilts that I am so not proud of (they weren't exactly square to begin with...) but today I finally quilted the purple and lime green baby quilt!  She's due in October, so it's about time right?

Here it is loaded - me taking a few deep breaths while getting a quick photo before I start.

And I hope you can see the quilting - the finished product!  I had an idea for a more custom design and just couldn't wrap my brain around getting all the nooks and crannies with designs that worked together and then I saw these echoing hearts as an all-over design and decided it would work.  If I step back and look at the whole, I'm pleased.  I have to remind myself I NEED to do that, otherwise I'm far too criticial.

This took a bit longer than anticipated because the back was about 1" longer than the top and I didn't realize it until, of course, I got to the last pass on the longarm.  So I hauled my little machine downstairs, took that end off the longarm and sewed on another 6" so I had room to maneuver the longarm.  You'd think I'd learn from the last time I had to do that, but nope.

But it's finished.  Maybe I'll get the binding sewn on tonight, maybe not...might just go take a nap since I've also baked cupcakes for the hubby and washed the dishes!

Only 12 quilts to go!  (Never mind the few that are in progress!)

Happy quilting,

Katie