Rags N Quilts

Archive for April, 2009

Postcards first…got this pretty one from Mary yesterday for our April family exchange.  Thanks Mary.And this is mine for April, it is on it’s way to Mother.  We are sure enjoying those die cutters we bought! 
I am using both the sizzix and the ‘Go’ cutter to make my latest MQR postcards…those cutters are truly addicting.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Now, on to Mary’s quilt…. “For Services Rendered”   For those of you who don’t know the story of this quilt, it belongs to Mary. Mother made it for her to ‘pay’ Mary for all the quilting she does for her.  Then Mary decided I needed to quilt it. I finished quilting it back in November, but kept putting off doing the binding…I hate binding.  Well, It has to get shipped off to MQS tomorrow, so I figured I’d better get it done.  So this past week I did the binding, sleeve and label.  Then I had to soak it in cold water to get all the marks out, then wash and block it.

Happily, there was no bleeding!  And now it’s all blocked and dry and packed up ready to ship out first thing in the morning.  Here are the photos after binding but before soaking and washing/blocking.  The blue you see is from the marking pen.  It’s all gone now.
The light isn’t the best, but you get the idea.
The lattice…pretty, but very time consuming. Of course, now I have figured out a quicker way to do it…by just backtracking tiny segments you can zip right along…duh!  And I figured this out on the LAST row…LOL
 It’s far from perfect, but all in all it turned out fairly well.



Now to finish putting my class kits together and finish up some postcards!

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The fruit trees love it! That is one of the biggest perks here, having a  mini orchard in my back yard.   First up is the fig.A better view

And this is the lime tree…see the tiny baby limes starting? 

Also fruiting right now is the lemon, kumquat, Mango and Avocado…pictures of those another day.

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My goodness, where does the time go? I haven’t posted for ages!  I assure you though I haven’t been slacking off!  I just last week finished teaching a 4 week online class on custom quilting, and started another on Monday. The class is offered through MQR…a great resource for machine quilters…if you haven’t checked it out yet you really should.  Just click the button on the right hand side of the page.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                In addition to teaching those classes, I’m trying to getthe editing done for a DVD, and also getting ready for MQS.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           I decided “Bye Bye Blackbird” needed more quilting in the large leaves, so that’s back on the frame.  I’m also working on my little quilt for the auction for education that they have each year. And… putting the kits together for the art quilt class I’m teaching there.  Lots to do and very little time left to do it.  Oh, and I’m still hand stitching the binding ,sleeve and label for Mary’s quilt. I’ve been putting that off for months due to our quilt show, finishing up client quilts…you know stuff! Then it’s got to be washed and blocked.   Trying to get all this stuff ready to ship.  in 10 days.  Soon, it’ll be time for me to pack and head out to Overland Park!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                But I got two nice surprises in today’s mail.  This cute postcard from my cousin Mary Ann!   

And this beauty from Mother.  Boy, I think she is really enjoying her new die cutter!  You should see all the great postcards she has made….I hope she sends me more, hint, hint!

She is getting very creative with her postcards.

Well, break time is over, so I’m back to work!  I’ll try to check in a little more frequently…and maybe after it’s washed and blocked, I’ll share a picture of Mary’s quilt before I ship it off….we’ll see!

Have a great weekend!

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