Busy, Busy

Happy Tuesday! I have been swamped this past week or so: end of school projects and programs, soccer, quilting getaway, swimming, gardening and vacation planning. Luckily I get to include quilting in my busy schedule. The last week or so I quilted 2 quilts on my machine (at home) Double Yikes!! It was challenging and fun. I bought my machine 6 years ago with the premise to quilt my own quilts, and finally I am just going for it. It feels great.

I tried my hand at stippling (below) on my improv quilt and straight line stitching on my 9-patch on point I had basted at the begining of the month. I had a few hiccups on my 9-patch because of a feed dog issue which I was very discouraged about....but once I figured that out it was smooth sailing.
 

I got to "escape" here and there last weekend to attending a scrapbook/quilting getaway my friend Ella hosts. I worked on BINDINGS,something I always procrastinate doing, one quilt hadn't been bound from 2 years ago! Oi!! I bound 4 quilts over the weekend. Feels like a weighs has seriously been lifted. I also started work on a block swap: Granny Squares in 30's prints. I love how they are turning out: red/yellow/peach. I am using a strip piece tutorial so things are moving along quickily. Most of the ladies at the getaway are participating so it was fun to see their fabrics and progress.

I can't wait for summer to officially start, school to be finished and to really enjoy the last 10 weeks before this baby arrives. Happy Quilting.

Weekend Catch-up

My husband was out of town all last week and I had a laundry list of things I wanted to get done. On the top of that list was basting 2 quilts that I had finished at the end of last year. Since getting pregnant I've had only baby and baby quilts on the brain, but with the weather warming and hubby out of town I pulled out my frames and got to work.

I basted my improve quilt  (above) as well as my 9-patch on point. Basting for me is the easy part, the hard part is "tacking" down the quilt. I have really good frames, its just making the quilt taunt enough and working with three layers of material that's tricky. Just handing it over to Ella's for quilting is sooooo much easier but in the same breathe I am learning to love machine quilting and as we all know, practice makes perfect.

I borrow my SIL's kwik klips for basting and they are a life saver. I didn't even know these existed until I helped her baste a quilt last summer and wallah: kwik klips ~ soooo genius!!