dragon on the loose

Today I finished a table topper with a dragon design by Lone Minkkinen. I like how it turned out. I also have to make binding for my son Kevin's quilt. It's a snowball and nine patch.

Finished at last

Finished Katie's quilt. Will post a few more pics soon. I was so proud of Katie. She had never sewn on the binding before. We both worked on the binding while watching "Rango" until it was my bedtime. Then she stayed up until 2:00 AM to finish. Her binding looked so much better than mine! She left last Sunday to get back to Iowa where she attends college with her finished quilt and a matching pillow case. I know she is enjoying her new bedding.

Update on Katie's quilt

I finally got Katie's quilt off the frame. I used 4 different threads and had to sew a 20" piece of fabric on to the backing. I have never come up short like this. I vaugely remember thinking about remeasuring after adding the borders but dismissed the thought. Won't do that again. I found a perfect fabric for the binding so tonight I will start that. I have a new baby (machine) coming in the mail. I will show a pic when it gets here. I saw all of Bonnie Hunter's new machines and had to have one too. By new I mean 1950's new. I love how they look, all chrome and beautiful. Bonnie bought a lavender machine and a pink one. Mine is mint green. I want a pink one too but they are hard to find. Happy Monday!

quilting problems

     Katie's quilt was coming along nicely until last night. Well, maybe it was Saturday. I had previously made my own dead bar for my quilting frame. It seemed to be working but now my thread is breaking all the time. I changed needles twice. Threaded and rethreaded, changed bobbins, took apart the tension thingy. I don't want to, but I  might have to take the dead bar off.
     It is discouraging but I must be brave and figure this out once and for all. That is what I thought I was doing last night...I kept leaving and coming back. I will try again tonight, sans deadbar. I want to finish this quilt so I can quilt a mystery quilt. I don't want mom showing me up. : )

A sampling of my daughter Katie's quilt. I enjoy quilting it but it does take a long time with my setup.

Katie's tripple Irish chain

   Yesterday, I finally fixed the boo boos in my daughter's quilt, a tripple Irish chain she made last summer. There were about 7 pieces that were coming apart because they were a tad smaller than the others. I guess she thought there was not enough fabric. They might not have come apart except that fabric was so ravelly. It was an expensive quilt shop fabric, but the loose threads! I got the quilt onto the frame and have begun quilting with a lime green poly thread on top. It looks good so far. I will post a pic soon.

Sow along

Hello quilt friends! Welcome!
      I just got done reading about the Farmer's Wife debacle. What a load of manure. Randy- The Barrister, is hosting a sow along based on traditional blocks. Originally, it was to be like the Farmer's Wife book (which I would have purchased but won't now). The author of the book emailed Randy and said Randy was to stop referring to the page numbers of the book. The author thought people would be less likely to buy the book, only people bought it because of the sow along. Now there is a boycott of the author's new book Pony Express quilt (or something like that). I fully agree that a boycott is the only solution to getting through to dim witted, short sighted authors.
     Randy is doing us all a service by giving directions for the quilt blocks which are missing in the book. The blocks are all in the public domain. It's just nice she is doing all the leg work for us. Although the sow along has already started, I plan on joining in and catching up.
     Bonnie Hunter is also partnering up and making the blocks. Bonnie is the reason I discovered the sow along and started this blog. I want to be a part of the quilting community online. As soon as I figure out how to add buttons I will.
     That's it for now....

Loretta Blasko (Quiltetta)