Resurrection Sunday

Alleluia, the Lord is risen!

He is risen indeed, alleluia!

"Good Friday"

A couple of years ago I did a blog post on the background of Good Friday and the possible reasons it came to be named so. I doubt that I can improve upon it so I will simply show a link back to that post here.

May you have a very blessed "Good Friday"

Allietare

I think these last two posts got out of order because I forgot to publish this one!

Allietare is on the Longarm ready to quilt but I am still deciding on a quilting design

Because Wes is a bull rider I thought about putting a rope design in the narrow sashing/border areas, but what to do in the large dark border? The piano key is a no brainer but large borders are often a challenge.

I remembered a great quick feather border my friend Gale uses and decided to try it so I put a little trial quilt on the side of the longarm. 

 My brain had a bit of a struggle at first getting the top to bottom and vice versa feathers to work but after a couple of tries I got it and proceeded to do the top border of Wes's quilt. I am very happy with the result it was fast and effective I will be using it lots in the future, thanks Gale!

The piano key border will get a simple straight line 1/4" from the seam up and down it will be easy to do free hand it's only 4.5" tall.

Needlework Tuesday, A Little Late!

Usually I try to checkin with Heather over at Needlework Tuesday but I think she was a day late this week and consequently I am too!
So the Allietare quilt is underway on the long arm and today I received the awaited 1.5" rope stencil so I can get on with that now. Quiltingstencils.com is a great company, they have hundreds of stencils and ship priority so it comes in two days and they are nice, cooperative, helpful people.

I am not happy to find that my magic chalk pounce does not show up in white so I have to trace over the stencil with the yellow, that takes a little longer.
Heather talks about a discovery they made of printed piano key border fabric ready to use, I had never heard about it until yesterday when a quilter friend at the gym mentioned her daughter had searched all over the internet to find it. I did not even know it existed and have always used the fabric left from the body of the quilt so it matches. It's a lot more time consuming to make your own but I doubt I would ever take the easy way out, I am way too OCD and I also love to use up as much of the fabric as possible so as not to have dribs and drabs scraps left over!
This afternoon The Boy and I were out walking Button with a friend and her dog, we were hanging out in the greenbelt on this gorgeous, cooler Phoenix day, and Matthew was trying to eat his Wheat Thins but both Button and Bogart were pestering him to share! He was on their level after all and it was so very tempting, dogs are "opportunity eaters"!

These pics show the dogs crowding him for a bite and he endeavoring to keep his snacks for himself! Poor Bogey is salivating he is so anxious for a cracker!

Button almost managed to snag one- she's a terrier/terror after all- but Matthew was too quick for her!
We had a good laugh watching this interaction, kids and dogs will steal the show every time!

The Minnie Mouse/Minkee Baby Quilt

My friend came today and I guided her through the final process for her granddaughter's quilt, the binding, all done neatly and securely by machine.

First it had to be puppy approved, "now who is this one for?"

"Ah yes the lovely baby Rowen, I approve!" 

It is so soft and cuddly, so glad we agreed no batting.

If you look really close you can see Minnie Mouse.

And that wonderful cuddly soft minkee backing, what baby girl would not love it!

Great job Sueann on your very first quilt, I think you are hooked so what's next??

Linking up with Heather over at Needlework Tuesday

Marking Time!

There is still little I am supposed to be doing with my left arm/hand because it all impacts the injured shoulder, a very frustrating condition for me, I am not happy being idle and my default mode is quilting and related sewing! Each time I attempt any of the above my pain level increases, not a happy result.
I have been guiding my friend Sueann through her first quilting project a baby quilt for her new granddaughter.

We chose a simple nine patch, the center being a Minnie Mouse fabric as both parents are Disneyland fans. It is quilted,

 backed with a wonderfully soft minkee and no batting, that would have made it too heavy.

 And the label!

Next week we will tackle the binding using the pink print.

Meantime, I ordered a couple of wide  backings, one for my nephew's quilt "Allietare" a light/medium blue.

 The second is for the quilt I am planning for my own bed, grey and yellow with a little white.

 The bottom fabric is the wide back, I ordered both through eBay from seller "judipat47". I am always leary of ordering from a new online site so I enquired as to the manufacturer of the fabric, quality etc. Most fabrics from this seller come from "Santee Printworks" a privately owned NC mill that has been in business for over 60 years. Judipat assured me that the fabric had a nice "hand" and high thread count appropriate for any other quilt shop quality fabric. The mill manufactures fabric for many retail companies that market it under their own brand names, nice to able to buy USA made and at a great price.
I am quite satisfied with the quality of my purchase and recommend this eBay seller and Santee Printworks fabrics. I purchased four yards per quilt of these 108" fabrics at $39.80 each piece, totalling about $20 short of the $100 free shipping so of course rather than pay $20 shipping I purchased $22 more fabric! LOL!