Three Trips to the Fabric Store

I've been very busy this week. My list of things to do has gotten a lot smaller. The car is all taken care of. I still have to get the oil changed, but will do that tomorrow on my way to the state fair. Yes, I will bring lots of pictures back to share with you. I got lots of quilting done this week. That is, I got it done after three trips to the quilt shop. I had to get fabric for 3 different projects.

Seems that I need to have something always in the works. I know I've got projects in bags stored away that are only half done, but who wants to work on them when there is something new and exciting that can be done. Maybe it is the thrill of buying fabric, seeing my good friend who is the shop owner (She always gets me the right fabric to make my quilts pop and she can make me laugh) or spending money. Not sure what it is, but I do enjoy starting a new project. I do get some of them done. Take a look at my photos under quilts on facebook and you will see some of the ones that I've gotten done. In fact here is one that I finished just this week. This one is just so darn cute. I love everything about it. After it spends some time at work it's going on my wall in my quilt room.

Glad I pulled out the green and not the other colors.

Close up of the blocks.

I really like this block and it shows off the quilting. This quilt did not call for much quilting as the embroidery needed to be the main focus. All the quilting was done with a walking foot. Have you gotten your walking foot out and tried some of those stitches yet?

Remember this quilt? I'm quilting it with my walking foot. I'm going to do a pinwheel type of design on it and something else. What? I don't have a clue yet. Maybe diamonds. Just not sure.

You always know that when you don't hear from me for awhile, it means that I'm cooking up something good for ya.

So what the hell am I up to now? You will just have to wait and find out. I might use some of these in my project or none at all. I just know that I'm using homespun fabric in this project.

Fabric for a Qubee Quilts original quilt. The cream on the right has "love is" printed on it. These fabrics are just so romantic. The roses are from Robyn Pandolph Christmas line called Roses de Noel. There is nothing Christmas about this line other than the colors and the name. This is a great year round collection. This line would be great to use in a wedding quilt.

Busy. busy busy. Keeps me out of trouble. Sort of.

Grasshoper and Cheddar Cheese

Hi peeps. It's another rainy day here in Kansas City, Missouri. The kind of day that makes you lazy, but I need to get my butt in gear and get some quilting done or some housework. Hell, get anything done and I would happy. Here is a sneak peek at what I'm working on.

This is going to be an embroidered baby sized quilt using rail fence blocks. I think that is the cutest grasshopper I have ever seen. :-)

Here you get another look at a Qubee original quilt that I'm thinking of publishing. I just love the cheddar cheese fabric. Don't you just love when something is almost done and you look at it and think to yourself what you would have done differently?

This week I plan to get the car fixed. I need to get a new rim thanks to the Missouri roads and their damn pot holes and a front end alignment. Clean out the gutters at my parents and going to the Missouri State Fair. I will get lots of pictures for you.

It's off to work on my quilts.

Thread Art Tapestry

Click on picture for more detail

Giveaway!!!

Head on over to Rachel's of P.S. I Quilt and enter today!!!!

Let her know Charlie sent ya.

Walk Your Way Into Quilting

Several of you have asked how did I do the quilting on the Whirlygiggles quilt, and simply put, I chose the serpentine stitch on my machine, put on a walking foot and quilted straight lines ever so far apart both directions. I'm here to tell you if I can't do it with a walking foot then I ain't doing it. I have found that I can do most anything with a walking foot. Most people think you can only do a straight stitch. Well let's just get that out of our heads right here and now. You can do any stitch your machine has with a walking foot. I would suggest you try it out to see how it looks first. Remember that some stitches take longer to stitch out than others. I was doing a stitch on the border of a wall hanging and it took me like 20 mins to go around four sides. I said the hell with this and stopped at one row of stitching. Yes, it would have looked nicer with 3 or more rows, but this guy is not doing it. The wall hanging was just for me and I really did not care that much.

I've said it once and I'll say it again, get the book Foolproof Machine Quilting by Mary Mashuta. It's a MUST for anyone that does not like free motion quilting. I did a post on the book here.

I've quilted this quilt here with a walking foot and I think it has turned out great.

Click on photo to see quilting close up

No, it would not win a quilt show, but I did not make it for a quilt show. I would send out the quilt to be quilted if it was for a show. Well, maybe not with the luck I'm having with quilters. See a few posts back to hear all about that. I'm not going there again for a while. Well not 'till I have a homecoming story for you. Fingers crossed, even toes.

I know we all have quilts tucked away that need to be quilted and I'm here to tell you to get your butt in gear, put on the walking foot and get them done. Be sure to send me picture of your finished quilts.

P.S.

Hmm, wonder what these will be used in?

WABAC Machine.

Today we travel back to January of 2009. Where a quilt was given birth. You might remember these?
Remember me talking about a quilt called Whirlygiggles or even seen others in blog land. If you don't remember you can view it here. I'll wait as you go look. Insert hold music here.

I've got great news I have the binding on my version of the Whirlygiggles quilt.

I just love how this quilt turned out. It was going to be a gift for my three year old nephew, but I don't think I can give it up. It just so darn cute! I will have to make him another quilt.

Thread Velvet

Thread Velvet pillow done on embroidery machine.

At a Loss Too

I'm sending this out unedited, because my editor is out camping this weekend and I'm staying home to work.

This is a follow up post to At a Loss

I've had no luck in finding my quilts. Allot of you want to know who she is because you might know of a means of reaching her. At first I was thinking I did not want to run her name in the mud, but now I'm done with her and I want the whole world to know this. What she has done is WRONG. I'm not even sure how she could live with herself know this.

Amber Coffey of Coffey House Quilts

She lives in the Parkville, MO area or she did. I've sent her E-mail, phone calls, letters and nothing in return. She did pocket dial me from her cell phone the other day, but no one was on the other end. Yes, that did get my hopes up, but turned out to be a big let down.

I have sent out an e-mail to two quilt guilds and one quilt shop asking if they might have any information about her. I'm going to try all of the quilt shops here in Kansas City in hopes they might help me in some way., but most of them don't have E-mail :-(

I will keep you posted on what I find out. Maybe one day my quilts will show back up.

I will take any help one might give.

P.S. To those that have left me comments I'm sorry I don't write you back. I'm at a loss and there is really nothing more I can say. I know that you understnad. Thanks for all the love that your sending my way.

Giveaway Alert

Not one but two.

First: Head over to I'm Just A Guy Who Quilts for your chance to win one of three great gifts.

Second: Make life Sweet is giving away a charm park of their Authentic line due in shop in September. This line reminds me of newspaper print.

At a Loss

This is a post I've been putting off for a very long time. I thought that it would work it's way out by now, but it hasn't. This is going to be one of those put your trust in me and everything will be o.k. kind of posts. Let me just get right to the heart of it.

I sent two of my quilts out to be quilted by a lady friend of mine. She has been quilting my quilts for about four years now and I just love her work. She does some of the best work I have found here in Kansas City and does not charge me an arm and a leg for it. I just love her to pieces. Well, I used to. The last quilts I give her to finish for me were over seven months ago. It took her longer to do my quilts because she would always work me in where she could. That is how I got my deal. I was o.k. with that. The most I've ever had to wait was three months. I've talked with her a few times and she had an electrical fire and a death in the family that she's had to deal with. I understand all that and really feel for her, but you reach a point where enough is enough. I've been trying to reach her for the last two month by e-mail and phone, but they go unanswered. I just want my quilts back at this point. I almost want to sit down and cry about this, but where is that going to get me?

One of the quilts I really don't care about, but it's still my quilt. The other one is an original and it's been so long since I've seen the quilt I'm not even sure I can remember everything I did to it... That's the one I really want to get back. I have to gift it to a friends Mom and she keeps asking where's that quilt you said I was going to get? It seems that the quilters home phone is no longer in service. I think they might have moved, but I'm not sure of that. I've never been to her house as she has always met me somewhere so I could drop off the quilts.

My question for you is what is my next step? Do I send her a registered letter? Do I just call the quilt lost and hope one day she will contact me and say hey I have your quilt done where can I meet you? Like I said I just really want the one quilt back, but you know I'm not going to be able to give it away once it returns home because of what the quilt has gone through. Guess I'd better get busy making her another one.

I'm really at a loss and need your help.

P.S. I'm almost to the point of who can I trust anymore? I've been quilting my own quilts because this way I know where they are. Quilts become a part of people. We send so much time and effort making a quilt just so someone can take it away from us. It's almost like ripping your heart out. People keep talking about all the good quilters do for one another, but it seems that I am the one that has been shit on more than once by quilters. I'm losing my faith. It's a dog eat dog world and you had better believe I'm looking out only for myself from here on out. I say to hell with everyone else.

Don't get me wrong I am just upset and really don't hate anyone of my blog family. I've made a lot of friends and I love you all, but this just kind of hurts.

Peace out.