Baptist fans

What I haven't posted anything since Oct 4! Oh boy, that's because I was so busy working on this beauty. I was really excited when Janice sent me a picture of her quilt and wanted Baptist Fans. I want a quilt so badly with Baptist Fans. You know I love quilting things to death, but my very most favorite quilting pattern is the Baptist Fan. I've done the large rainbow type baptist fans on two other quilts but this is the first that I've done the 5 arch traditional fan. And just look at this gorgeous, quilt I had the pleasure of quilting. Janice you made such a spectacular sampler quilt. I wish I could have gotten out in the natural light for pictures, but it just couldn't happen today. Details on the quilt - Hobbs Heirloom 80/20 batting, Premo-Soft 50 wt Khaki thread on top, with magna glide in the bobbin. It was a time consuming as each arc was a start and stop. Each row of arcs was a roll of the frame, but I do like end results. Great job Janice.

Oh and I have little more exciting news.  This month my husband and I celebrated 25 years of marriage.  The girls came home for the weekend.  Daughter number two is pregnant and when she came home she had a surprise.  She said the ultra sound revealed something.  We were so excited to find out if this baby was going to be a boy or would this baby be the first grand daughter.....Well, we still don't know but what we do know is that there are TWO!!!!  She's having twins!!!  Oh my goodness, my heart is filled with such joy.  Earlier in the year she had a miscarriage and was devastated.  And look at her now, two!!  My heart is going to burst I tell you!

What the last Design Wall Monday in September? Say it ain't so....

Oh boy where did Sept slip off to?  I've got to pay closer attention.  Well a whole month has gone by and not much to show for it.  I did make some progress on a much easier wind down project, my chevrons.  I've 2 of 3 put together.  They look very different don't they?  They both have similar yellows, one had a few more.  One has scrappy grey the a constant grey.  One more to go.  I think it's interesting how changing a couple of things  can make the fabrics look

I did get one little sweet thing quilted.  Just a plan simple all over stipple is all this crazy little guy could handle.  I think I like the back better than the front.  But it was nice to work on all that crazy color in my neutralized sewing space.  Hobbs 80/20 batting, glide thread on top, flannel and cotton backing, I love the binding.

Lots of visual stimulation for tummy time

Love those smiley faces!!

And I entered my first ever local quilt show, gotta say I was pretty nervous.  But much to my surprise, I won a blew ribbon for shining star!!  That just kinda made my day!

Shining Star

Hope everyone has a great week, check out the linky parties on the side bar.

How do you wind down after a big finish?

I have to say that finishing Black Sea was one of the best feelings ever.  When you really want to make a quilt that pushes you to the edge of you capabilities without pushing you over, is the biggest thing (literally) that you've made, and is just so perfect for the recipient, well what is it you do after THAT???  Here's the final post for Black Sea, the story behind it.  Such a great feeling that was all the way through it.  But now what? Well now we make 672 HSTs for three little baby quilts. That's what we do.  Here's the first, all three will be the same fabrics, different variations of chevron quilt.

224 of the 672 HSTs

And  you work on projects that you have going but halted completely because you were so enthralled with the other quilt.

Old Friends BOM getting it all together.

Then we do a little painting and redecorating.  We're are getting ready to sell the house in the next 6 months or so and my wonderful color has to be for some more marketable neutrals.  I've added splashes of color here and there.

The quilt hanging on the wall is going in the show

But the long arm room couldn't be neutralized as I had Black Sea on the frame.  Long arm room is going next.  White on these walls.  I'm getting quilts ready for the local quilt show the weekend of Sept 25.  Here's three in this in this room in the show

And this one as well. My first local quilt show, pretty exciting. If you are in the McHenry County area the weekend of the Sept 25, stop by the quilt show.  Here's the details: Join us for our triennial quilt show! Over 250 quilts on display. Vendors, silent auction, Civil War quilts, and more!
Friday, September 25th 10am - 6pm

Saturday, September 26th 10am - 3pm
St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church
1023 S Mchenry Ave, Crystal Lake, Illinois 60014

So what do you do after you wind down from a huge project?

Hope everyone has a great week.  Check out the linky parties on the side bar, something for everyday of the week.

Final sail on the Black Sea

It's done, it's done.  I mean really done, binding is complete, better pictures, just has to be delivered. If you've been here in the past few months, you've heard a lot about this quilt, and I was sticking to it doing this and one other project together.  But when it comes to quilting, I've got a one track mind.  Now I can get back to getting the other project together. I did get some better pictures today,  but first it's time for the full story.

The pattern - Aegean Sea by Judy Martin.  I first saw this quilt over at Tamarack Shack   I loved it for the pattern but Kathy's quilting was burned in my memory.  I really loved the round feather wreaths she did in the white spaces.  It gave such motion  and enhanced an already spectacular quilt so wonderfully.  I knew when I saw this, after I stared and studied it for over an hour, that I wanted to make this quilt just so I could quilt it.  Two and half years later, I finally got my chance.

There is a warm hearted soul at work.  This guy has given me bags and bags of old shirts.  I've used them in Quilts of Valor, quilts for Happy Chemo, quilts for Project Linus and yes even some gifts for friends and family.  I know I've made over 15 donation quilts with his shirts and have enough to make 15 more.  This guy is interested in everyone, he makes everyone feel as though there is something special about them.  He chatted with one of the homeless guys by the train and one day on his way home he noticed that the homeless man didn't have any shoes.  He gave him his shoes and went home in his socks.  That's the kind of guy he is.  So he literally gave the shirt off his back because he knew they would be used to comfort someone that truly needed it.  I knew I wanted to make a quilt for Doug, but it had to be special.  You know how it is waiting for that special quilt to be created, time went by and no quilt.  Finally he asked me if I could make a quilt for his newly decorated room, you know just sew some squares together.  LOL, when you really want a special quilt, plain squares just won't do.  You need to cut that material into itty bitty pieces and then sew it all back together and quilt it like crazy.  And then it hit me, Aegan Sea, it was time.  I showed him Kathy's quilt and he said ok, if that's what you want to make.  He had no idea how badly I wanted to make this quilt.  There was one other special person that I made a quilt for, and I showed her the pattern, she didn't like it, she got a different quilt.   But finally, I had a taker.  He did want just black and grey.   Thus the name Black Sea.  I talked him into that tiny hint of blue in the stars to make them sparkle, for which he gave me three shirts. Funny right?  I wasn't too sure how that was going to work, but the in the end I really love it.  That is the story of how this quilt came to be.

Details of the quilt -

• Pattern Aegean Sea by Judy Martin - the book only had queen size, I just added another column of "great blocks" for 3x3 rather than 2x3, (now that was one big nine patch) and two borders:  one background material, six inches finished, one log cabin blocks.
• size 120 x 120, 118 x 118 after quilting.  
• I think there are close to 65 different fabrics in her, at least 8 of them are the recipients shirts
• Batting Hobbs Heirloom 80/20 (my favorite batting of all time, love this stuff).  It is a heavy quilt though, and probably should have gone for Polydown.  But I wanted the softer feel of cotton batting with all that quilting.
• Thread - lots of thread!!  Filtec Premo soft warm grey (50 wt)  on top and Superior Bottom Line (60 wt) in the bobbin.  It's been a while since I've wound my own bobbins.  I think this quilt took 24 bobbins.  Now that's a lot of thread.  
• No idea how many hours it took because when you're having fun creating something you don't even think about the time it takes.  

Now time for pictures.  I'm gonna miss this one on my frame.

Taken at Crystal Lake Beach, the closest I was getting to the Black Sea 

Added border - I wanted something shell like, circular and flowing

I really wanted the stars to shine brightly, framing them worked well.

This is what I think ties it all together, that circular wreath gives it motion and feels like rolling waves.  And really what else would I do besides feathers?

Plain grey on the back

The stars look quite different on the back don't they?

And there you have my Friday Finish on Thursday - woohoo!!!  Don't  you love the feeling of finishing a quilt that you were excited to make and quilt. The feeling of accomplishment is awesome.  This is my second king size quilt this year.  I'm so ready for some smaller projects for a little while.

Black Sea - all quilted!!!

It's quilted.  It's big, it used a lot of thread.  Now to get the binding on this one.  It's gonna be tricky this is one heavy quilt.  I'll have better pictures when mother nature allows, she obviously didn't think I would be ready today.  We have some showers so everything will be nice and green when I get to take pictures out side.  I'll have the full story behind this one with the good pictures.  Here's a sneak peak

Fresh off the frame, love the quilt release every time.