My thread has arrived!

The Bottom Line thread from Superior arrived in last nights mail! I am excited and a little nervous to get started on the quilting for A Trail to Eagle.
 This quilt is special and I  want the quilting to turn out well. The size is good, about 71 inches and I have my table all set except for the vinyl cover ( see my very first post). I am going to mark the geese border with undulating feathers. I am not too sure what to quilt in the triangles in the star border.Also, I am thinking  straight lines, perpendicular to the  final borders, keep it simple. Somehow though, I think trying to quilt straight lines  on a domestic machine may be challenging. I know I will never again try to quilt circles after ripping out all the nasty circles on my brother's quilt.

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms! We have had crazy weather here the last couple of days. Yesterday the wind seemed to blow half the new leaves from the trees. Pat and I were shopping for hanging baskets for our moms and the wind was just whipping all the nursery stock all over the garden center. This morning the heat was on again and I looked out the window and it was snowing!
It might freeze tonight but I haven't planted anything yet so I don't need to worry.
I've put a roasting chicken in the oven  for dinner, and now I am going to my sewing room to play for a couple of hours.

EQ7

Electric Quilt 7 is coming out in June. Every EQ update has been fantastic; with new features, more blocks and layouts. There will be an expanded section on working with and manipulating photos. I can't wait except... A few months ago my cd and my dvd drives quit working so I will have to get new ones before my software comes. Actually we should start thinking about a new computer since this one is 6 or 7 years old!

Trail to Eagle top is finished. The final borders went on without any problems and now I have to figure out the quilting designs. I belong to Quiltwhisperers  a great yahoo group moderated by Carla of Feathered Fibers that helps those of us who struggle with choosing the perfect designs for our quilt. I posted pics and hope to get some great ideas. The quilt is too big for
my design wall so I pinned it onto the upstairs hallway, but
I could only get a portion of the quilt in the picture.
It feels so good to have the top done!

Eagles... his and mine

My son's Eagle Court of Honor was Saturday May 1st! I gave my mom my camera and she was a little nervous so I only have a couple of pictures. I will post one later.

I finally finished the pieced border on Trail to Eagle. Woot woot!
 I am out of wall space so my file cabinet and sewing machine are in the picture.Sorry.
It was easier to tear out paper before sewing to the green border pieces. I also pressed open the seams of each section hoping that the seams won't show as much.
I ordered my thread from Superior Threads today. I should be finished with the top by the time it gets here.
Just three plain borders to go.

Paper Piecing

Do you ever lose your motivation in the middle of a project? Even one you love? After going days without any sewing on the Trail to Eagle quilt I finally figured out my problem . I do love the quilt but I don't like paper piecing.

While sewing away on the outer border of curved geese sections I feel the tension building up in my neck and shoulders. Being surrounded by threads and trimmings from the process of paper piecing makes me crazy.

My solution is to sew two paper pieced sections then work on  a normal quilt block.

Ahhh, I feel better now. The block is Joseph's Coat. I drew the block in EQ6 then used the random recolor tool to come up with this color scheme.

I also designed the quilting for the center block of Trail to Eagle and marked it. Sharon Schamber has a free video on marking your quilt and she suggests marking in sections and using freezer paper to stabilize the section you are marking instead of wrestling with the whole quilt.

I bought the cheap bic pencils she recommends but I was too chicken to use them. They did erase I just didn't know if my machine quilting skills would be enough to avoid having to erase every mark where I missed the line.

Only one more border to paper piece. Yeah!

Happy sewing everyone.

"We say we waste time, but that is imposssible. We waste ourselves" Alice Bloch

Or as I like to say... Shoulda, coulda, woulda. I should be done piecing the Eagle quilt. I could have finished if... and I would have finished if only... Blah, blah blah.

I have enough stars done for one top border but I wanted to get started on the paper pieced geese. Rather than make the geese into rectangular blocks I am going to sew them together and cut out long background pieces and sew them together.
I would rather piece the gentle curves than applique  the geese to the border.

While unsewing one of the white triangles I noticed my Hera marker nearby and I had an ah ha moment.  Now I can line up my pieces without holding it up to the light.


I like to block my star blocks.It is much easier than trying to press the little 5 inch suckers!

Wonky block

Pinned Pressed

Nice!

I dreamed a new quilt design last night, and I can't wait to start working on it... after the Eagle.

Perfect practice makes perfect.

I have managed to finish two of the star borders in the Eagle quilt. Boy are they tricky buggers. If you want the stars to all face right side up make sure you triple check their orientation before sewing on the side triangles. Left side second from the top.

I have been thinking about the quilting designs and started looking around the internet for inspiration and I found Carla from feathered fibers. She has started a yahoo group called quiltwhisperers from a class she taught on how to come up with designs for your finished top. The class was offered here.

I decided to practice my machine quilting a little every day, so I fooled around with  plain muslin, but I want to work on some pieced blocks too. I have run into issues when crossing seams.

I finally sewed the binding down on my Molly's Meadow quilt.  The quilt is actually straight, I had to take the picture from the stairs. I'll try and retake the picture tomorrow during the day so the light will be better.

My husband and son are going camping this weekend so I am hoping for a marathon sewing weekend. I let them take the car ( we only have one) so I have to stay put unless I walk somewhere, plus, since the car is gone people think I am not home and don't stop by. I know that sounds terrible but I am really trying to get my quilting momentum back. Or do I mean stamina?
I just know that in my younger days I could cut and sew all day plus keep up with my kids schedules, clean, cook, ect.
Well I have blathered enough. Everyone have a good night. I'll be back.