Sun Bonnet Sue Red Work at the Quilt Show!

H all!

I thought that I would share a few pictures of my finished red work that was hanging at our local guild show today.  Sorry for the not great pictures - I will have to photograph this again in better lighting!

 

Here she is!  Isn't it pretty.Again - sorry for the badly lit picture this is the best that I could do.   The quilt is so large that it is difficult to photograph easily.

 

A close-up of one of the blocks.  The embroideries are all done by machine in 50 weight thread and I think that they are so cute!

 

Another close-up showing some of the hand quilting in the border.

 

And the border!  The quilting is all 7/8" in between and done by hand!  I pieced the top and marked it with a clover blue pen.  It took over 20 hours to mark the top - whew!  We quilted it in the bee that I belong to The Silver Thimbles.  The blue all washed out and the quilt puffed back up wonderfully!

I used a silk batting in this quilt - it hand quilted like a hot knife through butter and it is so soft and just drapes beautifully!

Hope you like it!

 

Meet Phoebe!!

Here she is out of her boxes - Phoebe!!

This is the Pfaff P3 PowerQuilter and she is a dream!  I have been looking at this machine for a while now and I am so happy to add it to my sewing room! 

Isn't she purdy!?  I love the touchscreen and the sleek lines of her.

So why did I name her Phoebe?  Well she is the P3 - and if you're a Charmed fan like me - you'll know that they were always talking about their "power of three" and Piper's bar was called the P3.  But Phoebe was always my favorite character so Phoebe she is!

We got her all set-up this morning and I put some UGLY fabric on the frame and started quilting - what a dream!  I ripped that fabric off the frame after I filled it and started to get a quilt ready to go on the frame.  Our guild just happens to need a bunch of charity quilts quilted so one of these will be going on my frame next - exciting!

I am just itching to get back to quilting so I am going to sign off for now - yey!

A Find

Lookie lookie at what I found!

 

And there were two of them!  Beautifully hand embroidered children's blocks.  I fell in love with them and had to have them.  I was even willing to pay the big $1 for both of them - yep - only a buck!  It made me sad to leave them there so I grabbed them.

 

Look at that close-up.  Are they not wonderful!?  Look at the cutie owl!  He makes me want to hug him!  Someone (not me) spent hours embroidering these and I hate to see something like this go in the trash bin or be discarded and not used.   This work needs to be loved by someone.

When I bought them I had no clear purpose in mind (except saving them from the trash bin) but after I got them home I realized that they would each make a preemie quilt very nicely by just adding a border on each one!

What better use than to make two little babies a quilt using these wonderful hand embroideries!  If you can think of a better use please send me a message and I will send them to you - but - to me and my mind - two little babies should get a quilt :-)

Please let this be a lesson to you all - don't throw it out!  Donate it or - pass it on - or give it away - but please don't throw it out!  It will be gold for someone else!

Rug Hooking!

Ahhh I love Sundays!

Sundays are my day off and I try to really take them off and relax.  So today I pulled out my rug hooking - which I have not done in quite some time!  I almost forgot how much I enjoy it!

 

This is what I have been working on  - it is called Pickering Oak and it is a design by Gene Shepherd.  I love his designs and sense of colour.  I am a member of his Internet Rug Camp and find the videos to be absolutely amazing and so helpful.  If you have ever wondered about ug hooking hop over and check it out!

In quilty news I finally finished putting the binding on that large white quilt and am now waiting for it to get out of the dryer - yey!!!  I love how it turned out and can't wait to show it to you!!

Binding

It's no secret - binding is my least favorite part of making a quilt.  The odd thing is how picky I am about my binding.  I like a full and even binding done by hand with tiny stitches.

Right now I am binding a HUGE quilt that was hand quilted and I want the binding to be really well done so I am taking my time.

 

So here I sit making pretty little stitches on the back of this quilt.

What are you working on today?