Thread Tales From A Scrappy Quilter

Quilted up several T-shirt quilts, my fall Charm quilt and then had some fun Friday creating a little pillow for my niece.   Her son's girlfriend had given her a little drawing that she posted on facebook that I turned into a pillow using her requested color of green.  I thought that it looked like a  continuous line design that I could stitch out.  I just printed it and traced over it taped to my light box (window with sunlight streaming in LOL!) and traced with a water erase pen.  They don't really work that well in that position but I got the basics down.  I could have quilted that design directly with my laser light and maybe have done a better job... but I worried about the eye detail looking at the laser and not my stitching lines.  As it turned out, I did not like a single line anyway and would stitch about a 1/4" and backtrack for several passes to build up some thread more like an embroidery machine might do. ...

Another UFO almost done!   This little top has lots of history and started back in the fall of 2006!   4 of us went to one of the best quilt retreats I have attended.  Thunder Bay Resort in Michigan.  Sadly, they have since stopped offering the Quilt Retreat.   We had fantastic lodging, a beautiful barn created for our sewing retreat area, vendors, personal spa pampering, good food.   Even a carriage ride with elk viewings to enjoy a gourmet meal made entirely on wood burning stoves.   Part of the activies for the retreat was exchanging fall "nickel" (5") cuts of fabric.  This is the top I made from most of those nickels, plus others from my stash  (121 fall fabrics in the body of the quilt) :       I pieced the top in the fall of 2008, but ended with the small beige border.   I had hoped that another fall nickel swap would come around... but it never did.   I wanted ...