Some Quilting and Some Crochet

It's been a long while since I posted here. Sometimes life gets in the way of quilting but I'm starting to catch up now. I've sure been missing my studio time.

Last night I did a bit of stash re-organization and I thought I'd show you my stash. This is about 1/2 of it I still have more set aside in my cabinet in my longarm room for planned projects.

I finally finished quilting a customers quilt. The quilt is pieced in soft florals and solids from Robyn Pandolph's "Sumptuous Living" fabric line. This quilt makes me feel calm when I look at it. I quilted it with Floral Meander, a pantograph design by Diff'rent Strokes.

Last Sunday my family and I just needed to get away from home so we went up to Whistler for the day so the boys could mountain bike. It was such a pleasantly warm fall day. My daughter and I did lots of walking but when we got tired we parked ourselves on a bench in the village and she read her book while I crocheted. I just love crocheting outdoors, especially in a gorgeous alpine setting. It was a first for me and it was truly wonderful.

This is the first time I have crocheted a granny square and it was so much fun. I used a wonderfully soft cashmerino yarn called Cash Vero made by Cascade Yarns. It is so incredibly soft I just want to smoosh my face in it - OK, OK - I know I need some serious help!

Here it is blocked and ready to finish!

I am going to sew this granny square onto some black wool felt and cover an 18 inch cushion form. This project is for our master bedroom, as I don't want it in the main part of the house where the kids and schnauzers will get to it.

Back to School with Eric Carle

Due to school starting this week, I thought I'd post about 2 quilts I quilted for Ruth this past Spring. They are 2 quilts using the Brown Bear, Brown Bear fabric line based on the children's book by Eric Carle. Ruth is so generous she has donated 1 of the quilts to the MCC Sale and Auction.

Click on the picture to see a bigger view of the quilting

done in a beautiful King Tut variegated yarn.
I quilted each using Large Inkblot pantograph

When Ruth, an elementary school teacher brought me these quilts I had never heard of Eric Carle and she was astounded. I have since read 2 of his books! I think the quilts she did and the books they are based on are pretty awesome.

Mod Samplers

Hope everyone in the US and Canada are having a great holiday weekend. It's been raining and overcast here but still been a nice weekend as I've made some extra dinners and done a lot of baking so the kids have food for school lunches. School starts tomorrow and I think I'm really going to miss having the kids home.

On to some quilty content, I managed to get my second Mod Sampler from the Oh, Fransson Mod Sampler Quilt Along sashed and ready for the LongArm. I was supposed to be catching up on all my own LongArm quilting for the summer but instead my To Be Quilted stack has grown larger than ever. What can I say, I've been obsessed by piecing; I think I'll have to call this summer the "Summer of My Piecing Frenzy"!

Back in March I participated in the Quilt Along put on by Elizabeth Hartman; her cutting instructions and designs are simply amazing. Here is the quilt I came up with.

My 17 year old son wanted to claim it but I thought it was a bit too feminine, so, I decided to take the rest of the FQ stack of Mambo and make a more masculine quilt sashed in chocolate brown Kona for him. Here is a photo of the back first quilt-along quilt I completed.

So, in June I started piecing this one and made all the blocks and then I became distracted with some other piecing projects. Last week my sister and I laid out all of the blocks and determined the layout and I worked all week sashing it. I finally finished the quilt top last night. Yay!

Here it is all ready for quilting!

Back to my next project, I have figured out a layout for my Crazy Mom Quilts Quilt Along nine patch which I posted about here and here. I've cut out all of the sashing and have begun to assemble. Hopefully, I can show you that quilt top by next Monday!

Reorg and Redecorate of Blog and a New Blog!

Hi Everyone

It occurred to me this past week that many of my readers may not be interested in seeing my card making projects as I have tried to keep my blog mainly quilting focused; so, I have decided to move and do future posts with card making or scrapbooking as the main focus to my new papercraft design blog Design INK.

I have also decided to redecorate my blog for Fall. I hope you like the new look.

I'll be back on Monday with an update of my quilts in progress.

Hope everyone has a great weekend.

Marianne