Hi fellow quilters, friends and family.

I had planned to share William's quilt with you this time, but I ran into a little competition. I have a friend who is battling cancer and undergoing a rough regime of chemo and I wanted to do something for her, so I made her a quilt!

This was made using a couple of the charm packs that I bought at the quilt show here a couple weeks ago. I bought a green coordinating print to go with the squares on the front and another green to go on the back (which I didn't have enough of, so added some fabric I had on hand) and here is the finished project.
It is a "rag quilt" and goes together pretty quickly. I cut 5" blocks to make a 4 patch with the charm packs, then cut the back squares 9 1/2" and layered 9 1/2" flannel squares in the center. I stitched the X across all block sandwiches, then stitched it all together; I washed it twice after clipping all the seams (whew, that takes a while). Start to finish, it took about a week to get this one done. She loves it!!! Yeah!!

On Monday, I received an invitation to a baby shower that was to be held on Thursday. Since I had just finished Deb's quilt, I decided to tackle a baby quilt. I dug out what flannel I had on hand and started whacking away.

Here is what I came up with!! We know it's a boy, so I used this cute blue print with boats. I cut all the blocks 7" - even had to piece a couple of blocks to have enough for this layout (I think I had 1/2 yard of the boat print).
I didn't put anything between the top and back as they were both flannel and I didn't want to make it too heavy.

I created this little boat with my software to stitch on it; this serves as the quilting (I don't want to do an X all the time!!!), and I stitched it on each block with my embroidery machine. Usually when I use my embroidery machine for quilting, I have the quilt all together first, but on this one, I thought the seams would be a problem, so I stitched the blocks first, then stitched them together. This process takes a little longer and I must say that just stitching the X would have been a little faster. Speaking of fast - I started this gem at 5 am Wednesday morning and finished with only 1 washing at 11:30 pm and I did work, make supper, and go to prayer meeting that day as well. Superwoman - yes, by the way, I am!!

ps - I updated my slideshow, so check it out again, sorry that I cannot add the new quilts to the voting process - it won't let me, but when I get all quilts done this year, I'll update the whole thing and ask you to vote again - won't that be fun????

Living and Loving,
Shirley

Hi all:

I went to a quilting class at a friend's house last Saturday morning - innocent as I was - and came home with a charm pack monster raging within!!! Ok, not quite that bad, but I'VE DISCOVERED CHARM PACKS!!! YEAH!!! Oh, they are so much fun, you just have to try them.

In this table runner project, we started out with a simple 9 patch, stitch it together and then cut it apart - you can google "disappearing 9 patch" and find all kinds of instructions with very nice pics, so I'm not going to go through it here.

So, I started with this red, green, brown, blue Christmasy looking pack of charm squares and just look what I came up with!!!




How did that happen you may wonder - oh, I'm sure you've figured it out quickly enough! I had to go back to the store for some fabric to go around my three Christmasy blocks and I was "just looking" at the other charm packs and found a gorgeous fall set - before I knew what was happening, I had purchased them, ran home and stitched the blocks into 9 patches, wacked them to pieces and stitched them again. I was smart this time and bought the extra fabric I needed while I was there so I could finish the whole thing. (Oh, gee, I guess that means I don't NEED to go back to the store!!).

I made the binding by using the extra blocks in the charm pack that I had leftover with alternating blocks from a coordinating fabric and I just love it, it's on my dining room table if you'd like to come and see it in person!!!

I used my embroidery machine to stitch a leaf in the center of each block (I digitized it from another pattern I had and blew it up to fit the block). Then I also "stitched in the ditch" around the outside of the blocks. I think it turned out just fabulous and was a really quick project to make!! Thanks, Debbie!!!

In case you're wondering - I did get back to the Christmas one and here it is, all put together, just needs to be quilted (haven't decided how I'm going to do that yet), the binding on this one will be from a coordinating green with red flower print. It is just gorgeous as well.



Now I'm off to Hearland Event Center for a quilting event and yes, I'm taking my money and Yes, I'm going to buy some charm packs - as many as I can afford to buy today. I have a $20 in my back pocket with no name on it and a coupon my Mom sent me, so I'm gonna use 'em!!

p.s. I've been working on the next birthday quilt, which is for Amy (birthday in mid November) but am taking a break to do a rag quilt for William (his birthday is in December, so I have to do it anyway. Why do things in order????). I came up with an idea to personalize it and I hope you are impressed because I impressed myself!! I stayed up late last night and have a great start on it, so I'll be showing you pics of it next week and hope that I can still get Amy's quilt done in time for her birthday. (I know I'll get feedback on that comment!!!) I love you, Amy!!

Blessings to you all.