The "Before" Shot- feather quilting

It's always important to take photos before and after your diet, right?  Well, you sure aren't getting a photo of me in spandex biker shorts and a sports bra, but I will give you my "before" pic of my feather quilting. 

One of the thing I love about long arm quilting is that your improvement rate is exponential. In fact, I can tell which end of practically any quilt I started quilting because the other end looks so much better.  Anyway, this was my first try quilting feathers, and I wanted to document the occasion.  They look way better than I had anticipated.  By the time I finish this 4 yard piece of practice fabric, I'm thinking I'll be ready to use real fabric.

Oh, and regarding the photo-- please ignore the gimp feather on the right.  You know the one.  I ran out of thread there and apparently I messed up my mojo.  Oh, and ignore my chalk lines.  But hey, pretend this was on a busy piece of fabric.  It would look 1000 times better, I'm sure!

Diets:-(

Did I mention my husband and I started a diet a month ago?  He lost 11 pounds the first two weeks, and I lost 1 1/2.    I think I've since found the lost pound.  Anyway, aside from us dieting, we have a new diet in mind.  A fabric diet.  Yes, you heard me. 

Here's the issue.  We want a farm.  Well, not 40 acres, but maybe 10.  I want to be able to have some chickens so I can have fresh eggs.  Yes, I've heard chickens are disgusting, but please, let me hang on to this dream.  If they're too disgusting, I'll eat them.  and the rooster, too.  Besides chickens, I want to garden and of course, compost.  But I want enough room to not have to smell the compost.  Anyway, if we are going to have our own little farm, we need the money to buy it.

I looked at our budget trying to figure out where I can make some changes.  You don't even want to know what my tab is for my quilting lifestyle.  It's a lot.  So I need to find a way for my hobby to pay for itself.  I think it's time I take on long arming some quilts to support my addiction.  Unless you have a better idea.

Happy Anniversary, Nina!

My mom is so cool.  Did you know that instead of an Easter basket each year, she had the Easter Bunny bring me a designer purse filled with lovely things like perfume, make up, coin purses, etc.?  (Added note: some of us didn't need the calories!)  This tradition started when I was in seventh grade and ended when I was a sophomore in college, 1993.  That year, the Easter Bunny brought me my Bernina 1000.

I love this machine.  In fact, when I was pregnant (2005), I told my husband that I wanted to name our daughter Nina, after my sewing machine.  Let's just say he's glad we had a son.  Mom bought this machine for $300 when a little sewing shop was going out of business and selling their classroom models.  It was a steal.  Years later, in 2004, I decided I wanted a fancy machine.  Being loyal to Bernina, I bought another one, which I've mostly been using since.  Of course, Nina still does my bindings because I'm cheap.  I just can't stomach the $169 to buy another walking foot for my new machine when I have one for my old machine.  Pathetic, isn't it?  Anyway, I just dusted off Nina a couple weeks ago and have been sewing on her lately, and it's like I'm falling in love all over again.  That's the best darn sewing machine in the world.  Do you have a favorite sewing machine? Or do you love all of your machines equally?

I'm off to sew a little more before bed, but I just had to let you guys know that it's almost the 17th anniversary of Nina coming to live with me.  Cheers!

By the way, can you figure out what I'm making yet?

Mystery Quilt/Mystery Quilting Design

I fell in love.  With Poppy by Laura Gunn for Michael Miller.  I mean really, though, who wouldn't love these fabrics?  From the moment I saw these fabrics, I couldn't wait to do something with them.  This weekend, I had another mystery class, and here's the product (minus the quilting).

You know, a poppy by any other name just isn't as sweet.
Any ideas on how I should quilt it?  I want to try something fancy.  Not sure if I should just do some feathery doodling or what.  I haven't tried that yet, and I'm kind of scared to do this on pretty fabric.

On another note, since I've been back from spring break, I've had a hard time getting back into quilting since I basically took off a week & went to my grandparents' house.  I looked at my fabric, but I just wasn't sure what to sew next.  Even Friday night-- I sat at the sewing table with my friend Kim and just looked at fabric but couldn't find anything to sew.  The good news, though, is that I've started my next project.  Here are the scraps.  Any idea what it's going to be?

My Kind of Neutrals

Another one finished!

Last spring, when my sister-in-law got married, my mom and I hit the local quilt shops and ended up at The Rabbit's Lair in Rogers, Arkansas.

After falling in love with these fabrics because they are my kind of neutrals, I knew exactly what I would do with them.  I made this quilt for my friend Kim who was battling breast cancer.  She needed something to show she was loved and supported (plus, this coordinated perfectly with her decor).

A year has gone by.  Now she's free of breast cancer.  Yea!

And is also now an avid quilter herself.  She's crazy-addicted!

I feel her pain:-)

Have you checked out AmyLouWho's Sew & Tell Fridays?  There are always some really cool projects to see, plus, and this is something I look forward to every Friday!

Chirp!

Here's another quilt.  I made this for Lizzy's baby.  Remember Lizzy?  I made wonky squares for her.  Hopefully she doesn't read the blog and this will be a surprise to her.

The fabric came with a series of panels, which was an unexpected surprise.

And then I added a little bit of fabric from my stash to add a little more depth to the chirp fabrics.  Easy peasy.

Sew & Tell- Totally Blue

Is this blue or what?

 I really kind of like it.  I just might have to stash bust a few more quilts in other color schemes using this pattern:-)

This took seven Class M bobbins to quilt.  Like, for real.

Have you checked out AmyLouWho's Sew & Tell?  Fun stuff.