At last.......a flimsy!

The 2,112 piece puzzle has been sewing into a top.

I have pieced the top of my Brother's quilt. I wanted this project finished for his birthday. So I worked like a mad woman until the wee hours of Saturday morning to have it ready in time for their weekend visit.

My father and brother were coming down for a small birthday celebration. You see, their birthdays are 2 (two) days apart.

We had a wonderful dinner Saturday evening. I made fresh pasta and baked my brother's favourite cake and for my father, date squares.

It was great to see his expression when he opened the box! He's been nagging me to get it done. ;o) I can hardly blame him, it does have beautiful fabrics in it.

Will I ever make another one? I don't think so. There are so many pieces to this quilt. Towards the end of putting this puzzle together, I just wanted to get it over with. Not good! When there are many pieces I feel the need to take a break from it, otherwise I find it tedious! The pleasure is no longer there.

I also finished another flimsy. I call this one History Repeats Itself. The picture really does not do it justice.

The fabrics are all Smithsonian reproductions. I've had these fabrics for years in my stash and had bought them for a specific project in mind. With time, I no longer liked the pattern so the fabric stayed in my stash. Some did get used in other quilts.

I chose this pattern because it was the only one I felt would not detract from the beauty of the reproduction fabrics. I wanted a sort of fabric scrapbook. I still have lots of fabric left. With time, they will be used in another project. I've been eying the book Prairie Children and Their Quilts: 14 Little Projects That Honor the Pioneer Spirit. I'm positive the fabrics would work well with the quilts in these books. Hum... perhaps it's time to help the economy again! ;o)

Aside from a busy weekend, not much is happening. School is picking up so I'll be doing a balancing act again.

Thank you for stopping by! I truly enjoy reading your comments!

A give away -Time for some new friends!

Well, since I haven't much to share with you in the way of quilting, I thought I would brag a bit about a few gifts I received from friends in Blog Land.

These treasures come from Sharon. Aren't they just the cutest?

I tell you that chocolate bar was delicious! Had I known it was that good, I wouldn't have shared it with anyone! ROFLOL

Yea, silly me brought it to my machine embroidery class. Big mistake! I didn't think I'd like a peppermint chocolate bar! Wrong!

Now, if you haven't been keeping up with Sharon's blog Red Geranium Cottage, I invite you to do so. Not only is she funny, kind and generous, but she's a hoot to read. I always enjoy reading a post from her. Let me warm you though, she doesn't give "Spew Warnings", so make sure you're not drinking anything when you read her blog. Don't say I didn't warn you!!!

Now, I received these beautiful treasures from Pam down at Pam's Page. Aren't they just the loveliest?

Notice there are 2 (two) chocolates! Well, I didn't make the same mistake twice. No sirrreee! I tested them before I even gave it a thought to share. Fortunately, that was the right thing to do cause they were yummy. Well, I did let dd have a small bite! But that's all!

Look at that cute mitten! It's Pam's first attempt at working with wool and she gave it to moi! I feel honoured! It's just so sweet of her to think of me this way. Of course we won't talk about my constant nagging at her to try wool! ROFLOL I love the sewing case!

If you haven't paid Pam a visit, I suggest that you do so. She's a hoot. You might want to check out her new shades. She's styling!

I received these two hand embroidery pattern from none other than May Britt.

I just love the trollbarn stitchery! It is so unique! It is from Norway, Langebraaten design.

Now, if you haven't paid a visit to May Britt at Abyquilt, I invite you to do so. She's presently offering "kicks in the butt" for those in need of one in order to complete a WIPS or UFO. I'll be heading on over there after this post for one myself! LOL Yes, Darlene I should be quilting but I just had to do this! ;o)

Okay, now for the give away.

It would appear, according to a couple of my friends, Darlene and Sharon, that the way to friendship is to offer a "give away". Well, it's been a while since I've had one of those so why not today!

Let's celebrate my 154th post! Yea for me! Notice I've been in Blog Land longer than Sharon and haven't reached my 200th yet! ;o)

So leave a comment on this post and I will gather up a gift bag of goodies. Oh, how I love to shop with a purpose. Deadline January 31, 2008 draw to take place in February!

Have fun and thanks for stopping by! In friendship!

Moving along on the quilt front!

It's been quite the week! Wednesday I took Bernina 180 to the dealer. She really doesn't like bulk and we've been having a tension problem. All my quilts in waiting were pieced with that machine, so that's really putting a damper on my quilt production. I'm hoping to have some news by Monday.

In the mean time, I have been working on machine quilting the Pine Grove quilt. I'm using a orange brown Mettler variegated thread. It doesn't show much on the blue paisley fabric. I'm basically looking for an effect when I wash the quilt.

Now that I have used a longarm, I can feel the difference between the two methods. Gosh my shoulders hurt! Of course it might be because I really over did it yesterday. I have all the blocks quilted in the ditch and have done at least 13 of the blue strips. I much prefer moving a machine as opposed to moving a queen size quilt!

This coming Tuesday, I booked some time with the longarm dealer. I was hoping to have a top finished but I guess that will have to wait. I haven't had the opportunity to practice since my course. I'm really looking forward to getting some practice time. I do have a couple of tops that only require an outside border, so I may just use Bernina 1090 for that. If not, I'll just bring some fabric to practice on.

Thank you for stopping by! I hope you are all having a wonderful weekend.

It's a finish...... Woooo.... hooo.....!!!!!

At last I have finished the Winter Sentry!

Isn't she sweet! I just love her! She looks so pretty against my brick wall!

Today was the day I decided that it had to be done. So I sat myself down and begin machine quilting. For the hat, I decided to follow the design on the fabric, which gave a cross hatch effect.

The only issue I have with her is that she's not hanging straight. I think, I hope, it's because I was a tad sloppy with the sleeve! Perhaps she just needs to hang out for a while to straighten herself out! ;o)

The other news is that I have completed my last two papers for school! What a great feeling it is! Wooooo Hoooooo.... I've got my music blaring and I'm in a dancing mood! Darn that music sounds good! I will be taking a small break from school before I bury myself in books again!

The other thing I want to tell you about is that Stephen finally decided to tackle the inserts for the drawers of my embroidery cabinet.

If you recall, last year he made me a Thread Notion Cabinet to store all my machine embroidery goodies. It's great to have it all organized. I enjoy opening the drawers and seeing all those colours. I will say, it was quite tedious for him to glue 3 (three) drawers of pegs. Thank you sweetie!

Thank you for stopping by! I always enjoy reading your comments!

I'm so excited... and I think I like it!

What an exciting day it was for me! I tell you I felt like a little kid waiting for a big surprise.

I had planned to take dd to school in the morning so that I could have a coffee at the new coffee shop that opened in a town close by and read from The Ultimate Guide to Longarm Machine Quilting: How to Use Any Longarm Machine:Techniques, Patterns, and Pantographs: Starting a Business: Hiring a Longarm Machine Quilter by Linda Taylor. (What a friggen long title that is!) I did want to look like I knew a bit what I was doing! ;o) But, the coffee shop is closed on Thursday. So I headed back home and caught up on my e-mails, anxiously waiting for 9:45 a.m. to arrive so I can head off to Cowles Quilting Machine!

The course was pretty much what I had expected. We worked with the Gammill Classic Plus machine. She taught me how to set up a quilt on the rollers etc… Once we were all set up, she went to answer a call and left me alone with that baby. Well, I m sure you can imagine what I did. Yes, sir, I stood there dutifully waiting for her to get back! LOL NO way! I took that baby for a spin! What a beauty it is! I was in heaven! Of course when she came back she looked at the cloth and said, “I guess we can skip the next lesson on loops, hearts meandering etc….” On ward we went to the pantograph.

This is the prize I came home with!

I will admit, I did not do as well with the pantographs. For the record, I uck at it!

She had a snow flake pantograph on the table that I found hard to get my points just right. All I wanted to do was get it right so I kept practicing on the previous stitching. She looked at me and said "you're a perfectionist aren't you?" Darn, it is that obvious?

This is not a pantograph I would use again. One of it's major issues, aside from the fact that my points aren't right, is that it was not designed in such a way that would make it look not “pantographic”. I think I just made up a new word, but you know what I mean. The flakes do not intertwine in the gaps of the previous row. So it really looks like straight line flakes. The last rows are my attempt at getting it right.

I did learn that I work much better without the stitch regulator. To get a perfect point you need to stop and proceed. I have a difficult time associating the sound of the needle with my position on the pantograph. The stitch regulator reminds me of those IBM ball typewriters. Gosh, here I go dating myself again! lol They drove me nuts! I'd sit waiting for the ball to catch up. lol I did book the machine for next Thursday! I need to practice and I do want to get working on some quilts!

Thank you so much for your encouragement. It meant so much to me! You guys are a blessing!