Happy Birthday, Arteria.  Hope you have a wonderful day... 

Happy Birthday, Arteria.  Hope your day is delightful...

Hi Arteria~thanks for writing back. I had noticed you weren't around much!  No wonder...you've been so busy!  I, on the otherhand, have had a serious quilters block, so I spend my quilting time here now.  I don't know what happened, but I just lost the mood.  Plus, my machine has been acting up and getting worse, so I didn't want to use it.  I finally took it in for servicing last week and should have it back by Friday.  I'm hoping it'll be good as new and that I can get back into the groove.  I have been quilting for 6 years and have never had a dry spell last this long!  I want that excited feeling back!

My first quilt ever was the Eleanor Burns Log Cabin.  I didn't take a class...just used her book and made a quilt from start to finish.  I was so proud of that...and I quilted it myself too because that's what the book showed and I assumed that's what I was supposed to do.  I was fine quilting on my own until I had a pattern that said, "quilt as desired".  That opened up a whole can of worms!  It didn't take long to get over my fear of free-motion quilting, but it seems like no matter how much you practice it's not enough.

It must be so much fun to teach!  I am not a teacher at all...I totally lack patience, but I think it would be fun nonetheless.  What kind of quilt did your daughter make?  I hope you'll post a picture of it when she's finished.

I've had a very lazy summer.  Usually I'd be sewing up a storm, but like I said, I'm in a dry zone.  So I've been doing a lot of reading and spending too much time on the computer!  I'll be having company in two weeks, so that'll be a nice diversion

Anyway, I hope you had a great day and I hope to see you around more soon!

Arteria,

I will be happy to share a picture of the quilt when I ever get it done. I never promise w-h-e-n a quilt will be done by, because I am making so many quilts at a time. I don't know why I do this to myself. Do you have more than one quilt going on at a time? I have 7 quilt tops finished and in a pile for my charity and I have a couple of quilts for myself that are waiting and waiting to be quilted. I also have a Christmas quilt that was supposed to be for my sister-in-law last Christmas. I hope to finish quilting it on the quilting machine on Labor Day weekend. My husband's cousin is in her 50's, and single, she is having a tumor removed from her brain in a couple of months, so of course I thought I'd make her a quilt to look at, cuddle under, and re-coup with. At this point the flip flop quilt is just an idea for a quilt. I have so many UFO's to finish.

Snowman quilt

scrappy hourglass/9-patch

Santa Banner quilt

Blue/White quilt

7 quilts for charity

Thanksgiving quilt

Winter Memories quilt

Those are all started, and the quilt tops are done and they need to be quilted. Then there's all the projects, I've bought to make.

Hi Arteria,

The sunny sandal pattern is adorable. Hmmmm this is going to be cute.

My daughter's college roommate comes from Juneau. She works here in MA now, but I think she is going back next summer to get married there.

Thanks,

Maryellen

Thanks for writing back!  I know what you mean about being intimidated quilting for others.  I have a quilt frame for my machine and a few of my friends are always trying to talk me into quilting their quilts for them.  No way!  I'd sure hate to mess up someones quilt!  Anyway, you've inspired me to work on my planned top for QOV.  Plus, piecing is fun!

I've only turned and tied a quilt once.  I have machine quilted mine since the beginning because I thought you were supposed to!  My first experience with quilting was using a book by Eleanor Burns...her Log Cabin book.  I didn't know a thing about quilting and followed the book step-by-step.  And of course at the end were the quilting instructions.  So I did it on my first quilt and it turned out fine.  When I heard about free-motion quilting I couldn't wait to try it.  I practiced a LOT before doing it on a "real" quilt.  I still have a hard time quilting borders because they're so close to the edge.  I usually have my borders 4" or less and don't quilt them.  The quilts turn out fine.  Anyway, stitch in the ditch is a good way to start...if you go slow it's pretty easy to stay in the seam (that's how I do it.  Some quilters stitch next to the seam, but I don't want the stitching to show...I just want to hold the quilt together!).

Anyway, let me know how it turns out!

I've wanted to make a quilt for QOV, but I like to make the entire quilt.  Do you piece for them or quilt?  Maybe I should go ahead and piece a top; a long time ago I wanted to participate and collected some fabrics specifically for a top and never did it just because I wanted to quilt it myself.  But now I think professional quilting is a much better idea (and I'm definitely not a professional!).  Anyway, I'm glad you mentioned QOV.  What branch of the service were you in?