I have not done a quilt in a MONTH!

Wow I can not believe that I have not done a quilt in an entire month, but that is because I have been sooo busy in the garden. Be sure and check out my other blog, Living Simple Again

Applique butterfly quilt

I was given this topper by my husbands 86 year old grandmother as a Christmas gift. After taking my time deciding on the backing, the binding and how I wanted to quilt it, I now have finished this piece of work. I am so excited, and this one is staying right here with US!

Another one done in Feb 09

This beautiful star quilt is shown on my king bed, however was made for a queen bed.
It took a little while to do this one. The thread I ordered for this kept breaking on me and frustration set in. When it was done though, it turned into a beauty!






I love the colors in this quilt.
I have been busy drafting a plan for your garden, canning some jelly and orange marmelade from some fruit that was about to go bad as well as making home make jerky.

Food Dehydrator

Yes I know, another non quilting post! And yes I am still quilting, I will post up some new pictures in a couple of days when I get my latest quilt binded. It took me a week on the frame, and not without a ton of frustration with the thread I chose, but I have a REALLY nice star quilt in King Size ready to be binded and laid to rest so I can start another quilt.

As you know from my previous post were planning a really nice garden this year. To add to it we have decided to try to dehydrate food this year. Canning is a lot of work, and well worth the time, but the jars are so bulky and storage is a premium here. So to save on some space as well as add some new recipes to our choices we decided to give drying foods a try.

Off to Wal Mart I went and purcahsed an inexpnsive dehydrator to make sure I would like drying things before I took a leap and invested in a more expensive machine. I not do not think I will invest in a more expensive machine, I think this cheap unit from Wal Mart is GREAT!

Our first try at deahydrating food was to make jerky. We all know how expensive jerly is and how much it is loved. Let me just say, we used ground sirloin and it is GREAT! I have requested some deer tenderloin from a friend becuase we all love deer jerky around here but unfortunatly, we were out of deer tenderloin (someone did not kill a deer this year, what a shame)

Over the next few days we will be drying some fruits, I will let you know how that goes. If the fruits and veggies come out as nice as the jerky, I will be on cloud nine!

Off Topic--- Lets talk Gardening

Yes this post is not about quilting… Yes something that is just around the corner. This weekend we took the time to make sure that our tiller was in proper working order. We started this early just in case that it was not so we would have a few weeks to get whatever repairs may be needed done.
Luckily for us just a little air in the tires, a new filter, and cleaning out the fuel lines was all we really needed to do. With that being done we decided to go ahead and give our ground the first round of breaking. Why do this so early? Because it will take several rounds of tilling to get the ground looking like it should, and we need to add some fertilizer to the ground as well. A lot of people use either too much or they plant too soon after adding the fertilizer to the ground and they end up burning up their plants.
By starting early and working the ground a little at a time, folding in some fertilizer, and working a little at a time will make planting season run much smoother.
Here in the Deep South we have more growing time than other parts of the country. Its kind of funny really, while we were starting our new garden spot some parts of the country were still getting snow. I am in now way making fun of anyone still having snow, it just seems odd that were starting to think about gardening and while were planning out what to plant this year the news is talking about snow in other parts of the country.
On a quilting note, I do have another quilt on the frame. I officially loaded it up on Sunday and started it this morning. This one is really pretty. I did not sew this topper myself, this one come from e-bay. It is some kind of star pattern and in burgundy colors. I can not wait to get it quilted and show it here. I am really excited about this one. It is a queen size quilt so this may take a bit longer than it has been taking me to quilt. I know it will be so worth the time though.
What are you working on? Let me know, leave a comment here.

1970's Vintage Quilt

I found this topper in a sale, and could not wait to quilt it. I had a hard time deciding on the binding but in the end I went with a pale green with tiny white flowers on it. Whoever gets this one I know they will LOVE it! I know I do.

Feb 2009 Quilts

I have done 3 quilts this week. Each of these were hand pieced and were estate pieces. Enjoy!

The test quilt is off the frame.

The topper you seen on the frame below is finished, but I do not want to show it, and the reason being is that I tried out the patterns and really, the quilting looks funny because it is just all over the place. But it was excellent practice and just what I set out to do. Now that I have gotten the hang of using pattern perfect I feel confident that I can express myself even more with my quilting now. I will be putting another quilt on the frame really soon and I promise it will be worthy of showing.

A new topper on the frame...

I have loaded the frame and have started to learn how to use the pattern perfect. I am delighted that I chose to use an older top that was not in the best of condition because as easy as the pattern perfect looks, I had to remember that I am still operating on a wooden frame which makes curves a little difficult at times. So learning to use the new templates on a topper that would have never been sold to begin with was a wide decision. As you can see from the pictures I have outlined how I loaded the frame and I have now started to quilt using the pattern perfect.
Things are not running along totally smooth, but even so it’s a good thing because I will get to keep this quilt and I have not been allowed to do that in a very long time. Someone usually comes along and snags up the ones that I decide that I want for me and the other I do for sale. So this really is a good thing.
I will post more pictures of the quilt once I get it off the frame.

Pattern Perfect Installed

We have finally installed the patern perfect after making a small modification to the carriage. My next post will be how to load a quilt top, the batting and the backing to start using the pattern perfect.

Ole Miss is ready to go to its new home.

56 Yards of fabric added to stash

Like I really needed more fabric, I really should sew up some of what I have, but I could not resist. I went to Wal Mart to get a couple packs of bating because I was running low. I did get the batting by the way, but I also ended up with 56 yards of fabric to add to my collection. Here is the haul..........

New Leader Cloths have been installed

I installed the leaders today. I am excited about getting a topper on the frame and giving it a try.

Nearly Complete

I am glad to see this udnertaking nearly finished. Here are two pictures of the quilted quilt, I still have to put the binding on and make a couple of throw pillows to go with it. This quilt will go to its new home this weekend.

Now that I have this off the frame I can install my new toys! I am excited about getting the new leader clothes and the pattern perfect installed on the frame. I have already removed the old leaders when I took this quilt off the frame. So I am READY to get it all set up and put one of my UFO's on the frame to play with!

Frustrated with my Juki sewing machine.. and got some new quilty toys today!

Last night I spent a huge portion of the night not quilting, but working on my Juki sewing machine that I quilt with on my Grace GMQ frame. It had been about six months since I had used the machine. The last time that I quilted with it, everything was fine and I did a beautiful job. Apparently, unknown to myself, when I was quilting that last quilt with the machine some of the threads decided to wrap around the race.
Things started out fine with the quilt that is one the frame. But the further I went the more problems I had. I was shredding and breaking threads. So the first thing I did was to put a new needle in the machine. I still had the problem. The next step was to change out the thread thinking that the thread may either be old or not of good quality because yes, even with good quality thread, there are times when you get a spool that is not so great.
I messed with the tensions, and still I was shredding threads. By the time I had gone through all these steps and I still had issues, not to mention I was tired of ripping out bad stitches and thinking how I was going to repair some other places on the back, I had to take the machine off the frame, carefully mind you, not to encourage the quilt to get off track.
To my amazement it was a simple fix. Once I had the machine off the frame and opened it up I found threads from the last quilt I did wrapped all around the race. It is a wonder the machine was working at all.
The good news is, the machine is working like a dream now, it is all cleaned up, blown out and oiled up and I am ready to tackle the rest of this quilt in peace now.
More good news…. I got a package from UPS today. I am the proud new owner of some new Grace Leader cloths, we will not talk about how I ruined the first set *cough* as well as the proud new owner of the Grace Plastic Pattern Perfect. I can not wait to use the pattern perfect templates. I will let you know how that goes when I get the chance to use them on the next quilt that goes on the frame.