Purple Mountains...

is now complete!  I put the final stitches in it around 11 pm last night.  (I had a midnight dealine, so I just made it.)

Purple Mountains

 I entered this quilt as my project for a UFO challenge.  Each month you can enter a new UFO (unfinished object) and you have one month to finish it.  You have to send pictures of the completed project by midnight of the deadline to be eligible for a prize.  Although finishing another project is enough of an incentive!

 I really didn't think I was going to make it, but after some long hours yesterday, I managed to finish.  And guess what...  It turns out I won the drawing!  Woohoo!!!

 The pattern for this quilt is "Sew What Quilt Mystery" by Debbie Caffrey.  I just made mine in a smaller size.  It finishes at 44" square.

 I quilted various fans in most of the light purple background and echo quilted around each star.  I was a little uncertain what to do in the outer border, but my friend, Susan, suggested some straight line stitching.  I took her suggestion and think it works well here.

 Again for this quilt I used YLI 100 wt silk thread in purple and red for the top and Aurifil thread in the bobbin.  Although I matched the bobbin thread to the backing, I think next time I would choose a contrasting thread.  I like all the quilting on the back and it would be great if it showed more.

 There were places on the quilt (where I did the large fans) that I kept coming to the same point as many as 20 times.  With the 100 wt silk thread, I had no problem with thread nests or buildup.

I don't know if you can see in the picture above, but there's a very slight waviness to the edges.  The quilt top was perfectly flat when I basted it, but I think the edges got stretched some during quilting.  So I'll block this quilt as soon as I have time.  Once it's dry, it should be fine.  And then I think I'll hang it in my entryway so I see it whenever I come home...

And I wanted to share a new tip I learned from The Quilt Show.  I bought a piece of plexiglass 28" x 30" from Lowe's.  I taped the edges with painter's tape and use it as a sounding board for my quilting designs.  Just lay it on top of your quilt and draw your designs with either a dry-erase marker or vis-a-vis marker.

Plexiglass sheet and possible quilting designs

Just don't forget to tape your edges because you don't want to accidentally draw off the edge and onto your quilt!  I also used a disappearing marking pen for the first time (but not the last).

Disappearing Ink Pen / Water Soluble Ink Pen

You just draw your design on your quilt and quilt over it.  The ink will disappear over time (less than a day).  The other end of the pen is the water soluble side.  It will stay on your quilt until you wet it.  Of course, if you iron over the blue side, it's there to stay!

I took this picture of my parents, nephew and Gabriel when they came up to celebrate my birthday.  Gabriel usually feels the need to be the center of attention...

Dad, Gabriel, Robbie and Mom

Until later...

"Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law [the Word]" 

Psalm 119:18

Blue Boxes...

Yeah!  I finished another quilt tonight.  It's such a nice feeling to put the last stitches in the binding.  I secure all my bindings to the back by hand so that step usually takes me a while.  This quilt is 66" x 72" and probably took about 5 hours to sew the binding.  (I didn't time myself so that's a guesstimate...)

Mr. Quilting Bug generously agreed to hold it over the side of our deck so I could get a picture while it was still light outside.

Blue Boxes

I'm calling this one Blue Boxes for obvious reasons.  My friend Bridget made the same quilt and when her daughter saw it, she said it looked like tissue boxes.  Which it does, but I don't think that's a bad thing.  I like the pattern so much that this is the second quilt I've finished using it.  And I have another top done and one more in the works.  But after that, I'll probably retire the pattern (for a while at least).

I quilted this one on my Grace frame with an allover meander...

It's kind of hard to see the quilting in the picture though.  This quilt will be a gift for someone special later this month.  (She probably already knows who she is...)

And remember how I said I messed up on the Purple Mountains quilt...

Quilting boo-boo

The 2 flying geese units with the safety pins should be facing the other direction.  It turns out I made this very same mistake 6 times!  I must of been in a hurry and not paying close enough attention.  Well, I ripped every one of them out and fixed them...

Corrected block

I'm trying to finish this quilt as part of a UFO (unfinished object) challenge I signed up for.  However, the deadline is a week from today and I have to quilt and bind it by then.  I'm not thinking that's too likely to happen, but we'll see...

David gave his approval of the new quilt...

David on Blue Boxes

He considers it nap worthy - his highest praise!

Until later...

Never tell your neighbors to wait until tomorrow if you can help them now. 

Proverbs 3:28 (TEV)

More 4 legged news...

Well, it looks like the hot weather is back.  It's supposed to be 99 degrees on Wednesday.  I'm so grateful for air conditioning!

I haven't been doing a lot of sewing or quilting lately.  It's been kind of hit or miss, but I did finish a couple of small things.  First, I have 60 of these bunnies that are done and ready to mail to a couple of local hospitals.

Care Wear bunnies

I got the pattern and information through Care Wear.

Our newest family member, Rocky, had to have emergency appendectomy surgery.  Or at least that's what Gabriel tried to tell me after she performed it...

Rocky's appendicitis

And she never did explain what happened to his tail either...

Mystery tail ailment

He had only been with us 6 days! before he was in the ICU.  He spent the last couple of days there, but I'm glad to say he's doing well.  He's lost some weight, particularly on the right side.

In recovery

With so many injuries in such a short life span, I'm a little concerned about his longevity.  But we'll see...

As for actual quilting, I was working on finishing up a mystery quilt my bee started last year.  As usual, David tried to help me in his own special way...

My little helper

Somehow he knew exactly which pieces I needed and kept them nice and warm (and out of reach) for me.

David in box

Despite his help, I did manage to get the top together.  It's about 40" square.

Purple Mountains quilt top

And looking at the picture, I see a couple of mistakes I made.  So I'll have to go back and fix them - perhaps while David is taking a nap...

Until later...

“If you think you are too important to help someone in need, you are only fooling yourself. You are really a nobody” 

Galatians 6:3 (NLT)