Life is good!

With the new long-arm, I find myself making quick quilt tops to practice the free motion quilting.  So I'm ending up with a LOT of finished quilts!  The quilting on some of them is still a bit rougher than I'd like, but hey, that's more quilts that the kids can use to build forts! This one I'm actually pretty pleased with, and it is headed off with my dear Aunt Susie. This is a pattern from a magazine, although I can't recall which one just now.  Very simple, but I had recently purchased a bundle of batiks and it seemed a great fit.  I loaded it onto the machine sideways, and did a different quilting motif in each band.  Feathers, loops, straight lines, I had some fun with them!  Feathers definitely require practice...  Straight lines also require practice... Overall I'm pretty happy with my progress.  I've been using a roll of poly batting; less expensive to practice with, and I actually like the fluff factor.   ...

The amazing Jo at Jo's Country Junction  does a ton of wonderful work doing long-arm for charity quilts.  After my friend, Natalie, and I purchased our long-arm, we both wanted to help do charity work, so I reached out to Jo to see if she needed some assistance.  She sent along five quilt tops, along with backings and bindings, and Natalie and I got to work! This first finish is a wonderful, happy, bright pinwheel quilt, made by Sharon Judkins of Hatfield, Arkansas.   (And special thanks to my 11 year old for photographing - she's working on photography for her 4-H projects, and wanted to help out in her own way!) Natalie did the long-arm work on this one.  Each pinwheel got it's own spiral, and there are spirals in all the sashing and borders.  Natalie made sure to get a pinwheel in cornerstone, as well. It was bound in a lovely blue, with the ladies in our local quilt guild stepping up to do the actual binding work.  This one will ...