Winner Winner!!!!

Sorry guys, I was with out my laptop computer this weekend

and I find it very difficult to post using my phone,

so I am just now announcing the

winner of my

GROW YOUR BLOG

giveaway.

I don't know how to use the random number

generator thingy, so I did it the old fashion way.

I wrote 1-126 on little pieces of paper and had

Stevie, (my son) pick one.  I must admit he thought it

was a pretty good game and we had to play it

a couple more times. 

(good way for him to practice his numbers,

two birds with one stone kind of thing)

Anyway, for the official drawing, he choose 99 which is

Sarah at

http://confessionsofafabricaddict.blogspot.com/

Congratulations Sarah, I will contact you by email.

I cannot thank everyone enough for visiting and following.

My followers almost tripled and that's just through Goggle,

I don't know how many signed up using a different method.

I wish I could send each and everyone a thank you gift.

I hope everyone has a great week. 

 I have not said a lot about this

but I will have surgery on Wednesday

for a blocked carotid artery.

I will be back to posting and quilting soon.

Until then, I am blown away by the response of BYG

and I cannot give everyone a prize but let's give one more

follower a chance to win.

Leave me a comment and I will draw a winner when I get out of the hospital, that way we are both winners.

(I'll be out of the hospital and you will have a prize)

I don't know what just yet, I'll have to look in the black hole (sewing room  quilting studio closet)

All you have to do is leave a comment.

Good Luck!!

 

You Guys Are Awesome!!

I am just overwhelmed and excited with all the visitors and new followers.

I did not expect to GROW like this.

Thank you so much Amy Vicki, sorry about that Vicki) for

Grow Your Blog.

http://dewquilting.blogspot.com/2014/01/grow-your-blog_24.html

Mine certainly grew by leaps and bounds.

Thank you to everyone for your sweet and encouraging comments.

I am still answering all of the comments, so if I haven't gotten to you yet, I will.

 

Now let's see what's been happening.

I have had some medical issues arise, so I have had a lot on my mind and a lot of stress.

I will be out of commission for a week or so, so I am trying to get a lot done at home and at work.

I have jumped from one thing to another, not finishing anything.

It has been cold here, just like everywhere. 

But we are in the south our lows are suppose to be in the 30,s - 40's, not 3,s and 4's. 

I have not spent a lot of time in my sewing room studio because it is very cold in there.

 

I am still working on Diane's quilt.  Progress is slow, mostly because of the cold.

 

 

I have 1 more row of flowers to fill in with background and some on the border,

 but I am not motivated for some reason.

 

 

When I didn't feel like quilting I pieced some on the Dresden Plate

quilt for my late boss's (is that right?) wife made from his shirts.

I decided after I had a few rows sewed together

that it needed to be bigger so rip rip.

The centers will be black.  I tried different fabrics but always came back to the black.

What do you think? Black centers? 

Each of the blocks have one of two red shirts. 

          Would you use one of the red shirt as the middle?    

                          

This big star will be a quilt for one of his sons. This is about 24" square.

 

I made this wall hanging this morning. 

See what I mean about hopping around.

I should have worked on one of the above quilts

but oh no let's start something new.

 

At least I finished it. It's about 43X43,

I want to hang it in my office at work.

  I used Fig Tree's Jelly Star pattern but just made one block.

The fabric is by Sweetwater.

This was a test block to see if I wanted to make a quilt.

The answer is yes, I want to make a quilt using this pattern.

When I don't know.

 

 

Now I want to quilt it, but Diane's quilt is still on the frame.

 

I'm linking up with Sarah

http://confessionsofafabricaddict.blogspot.com

this week.

 

Thank you for visiting.

Stay warm.

Think Spring.

I'm ready to complain about it being too hot!!

 

Leave a comment on the Grow Your Blog 

http://dewquilting.blogspot.com/2014/01/grow-your-blog_24.html

post for a chance to win this

drawing will be Feb 15th.

 

See what I mean about hopping around.

 

 

 

 

Grow Your Blog

Vicki is hosting

Grow Your Blog

 http://vicki-2bagsfull.blogspot.com
again this year. 

 
A great way to find new friends.
I would love to have new followers and
find blogs that I never knew about before.
Thanks Vicki.
 

Welcome to my blog, 
I dew quilting,
my name is Diane
and I love quilting.

I made my first quilt top in 1994

(wow that seems like forever ago)

I have learned, I have grown and love everything about
quilting (except maybe binding).
I make traditional and modern quilts.

  I have now found a new love...

I have fallen in love with longarm quilting.

I bought my first machine in 2011 or 2012.

I didn't use it a lot.  I couldn't quilt the way I wanted to

so I just didn't use it very much.

Then I discovered the Internet and books and rulers and teachers.

Bloggers that shared their beautiful quilting and even showed and explained how they did what they did.

I sold my first machine
 and I bought a APQS Millie last year.

Millie and I get along great. 

 

I make Memory quilts for family and friends
 (even a few for strangers)

 

This one was for a friend at work, whose parents passed on within

6 months of each other.  It was made out of their clothing.
Mother and father stars surrounded by nine stars, one for each of their children.  I quilted each of their names, dates and symbols of
their life together.

 

Then I made one for his son 

 and his daughter.
 The children's had 23 quilted pinwheels, one for each of the grandchildren.
 

 

More pictures here Jimmy's Memory quilt http://dewquilting.blogspot.com/2013/12/jimmys-memory-quilt.html
and
here Details, details http://dewquilting.blogspot.com/2013/12/i-dont-have-anything-new-to-show.html
(because I love pictures)

My favorite quilt this past year
has to be the one I made for my son's shop.
http://dewquilting.blogspot.com/2013/10/iq-quilt.html
 

 

He loved it.

 

It was so much fun to make,
inspired by a quilt made by
Lisa Snipes
I love the way it finished.
Even won a 1st place ribbon in a local quilt show.

Another one of my favorites is one I made for myself.

A wall hanging
for myself.
I drafted everything and free hand quilted it with Millie's help.

I make t-shirt quilts.

Wedding quilts.

Well that's a little of what I do, in addition to quilting
I work a full time job, married, have an incredible 11 year old son with Down syndrome and an older son mentioned above.

I don't post everyday, gosh I might not post every week but I do share my quilting and hope you see something that will bring you back again.

Now let's have some fun. 

 Let's have a giveaway!!

 

I have a Scrap Basket Surprises Quilt Club Kit.

You can make anything you like

or use the quilt on page 44 of

the Scrap Basket Surprises book.

This kit includes:

two Fresh Cotton Jelly Rolls by Fig Tree Quilts

1 3/8 yards background

5/8 yard binding

and

3 3/4 yards of Fresh Cotton for the backing.

I bought this kit from the Fat Quarter Shop,

it is beautiful fabric, but I know I will not use it for a long time (too many things on my list) and it is too beautiful to stay on my shelf.

Just leave a comment for a chance to win.
Drawing will be Feb 15th.
 

Thank you for visiting and

I hope you come back and visit again.

Would love to have you as a follower.

 

 

Diane

 

 

 

 

 

 

A little progress

I started quilting Diane's quilt on New Year Day.

I am really loving the way it is

developing.  I say developing

because I knew how I wanted to quilt some areas

but others remain a mystery, so

it is developing.

 

Feathers in the middle.

I'm thinking some pebbles and McTavishing around the

applique.  What do you think?  Or a circle, maybe 3/4 inch,

right there between the feathers and flowers, straight

up from that leaf. 

 

 

I had already rolled the top, but look a little dragonfly,

thanks to Judi at http://www.greenfairyquiltsblog.com/

It's in her new book Quilting Wide Open Spaces.

Great book by the way.

Then there was two.

 

 

Then three finished.

Applique stitched around.

Almost ready to start the background fill.

 

Linking  up with Sarah

http://confessionsofafabricaddict.blogspot.com/

 

 

Have a wonderful weekend and stay warm.

We are having really cold weather in TN.

 

 

almost over

Do you reflect back on the past year?

Do you like to look forward to the new year with hopefulness?

 I do.

I did not make as many quilts this year

but

I think my longarm quilting has improved greatly.

Still learning a few tricks of the trade but happy and pleased at where I am right now.

 

There was a lot of sickness and death in

my life this past year and hopefully everyone will

be better this coming year.

 

This will be my first project for the new year

 

This top is huge 85X103.

This was made by a friend of mine.

She needle turned the applique.

I think the pattern is Mexican Rose or Mexican Flower, something like that.

Does anyone know?

She does wonderful work and she ask me to quilt it for her.

I have made some drawings and marked a few spots and now I am waiting for backing.

She had backing, but I don't know if this has ever happened to you, she prewashes all of her fabric (not me) when she washed and dried her backing it shrunk 5 inches!!!

5 inches!

I've never seen that before.  This was not big box store fabric,

this was name brand quilt shop fabric.

5 inches.....so it was too short for the quilt. 

 Had to order more, waiting for the UPS man.

Can hardly wait to get started.

 

 

 

Jimmy's Memory quilt

Jimmy's Christmas quilt has been delivered,

I was a couple of days late.

 I tried with everything I had in me to finish on time,

just didn't happen this time.

 

 

A lot of quilting.

As I was working on it, I kept wondering why it was taking me so much longer than Virginia's, but then I noticed

how much more detail this one had.

I was running behind and trying to finish for Christmas Eve,

being in a hurry I didn't get to quilt everything like I had intended.  When I had the quilt laying on my bed (found this is the best place in my house to take pictures, especially in the morning) I noticed I had failed to quilt a section, you might see it in the upper left corner by the pinwheel.

 

 

Since by that time I knew I was not going to have it finished by Christmas Eve I put it back on the frame and quilted  more. Wouldn't you know I didn't take a picture when I finished.  I was sewing the label on yesterday morning before I went to work.  I did quilt more on the middle star and the pinwheels, you will have to use your imagination or take a look at Virginia's (last post) I quilted them almost the same.

 

 

This might help with size. 

 

Some of the quilting is quite small.  Took a long time.

 

 

 

 

A closer look at the borders.  I did quilt some detail in the pinwheels and they looked a lot better.

Each border motif is quilted a little different, that way if I forgot what I did on the top border it wouldn't matter, plus I think it gives it a little motion.

 

 

 

 You can click on any picture to view full screen.

I used Glide thread, color Linen.  Not a true white but showed up nicely on the white background.  On the middle star and pinwheels I used So Fine navy, I didn't have time to change color for each pinwheel but the navy actually looked good on all of them.

 Look how the quilting shows on the back.  Just love it.

The quilt is 66X66.

 

Love how this one turned out.

Can't wait to hear about their reaction.

 

Almost forgot, I used two layers of batting W&N cotton on the bottom and a poly on the top.  If you followed on Virginia's quilt, I was trying to keep the cost down and that's why we decided to use a poly.  It quilted nicely, had no problems.

 

 The binding was a small stripe from the same fabric line.

 

I did deliver the Pinball quilts to their new owner but I did not take a picture (can't believe I did that)  She had me make four of them for her and her siblings out of their father's shirts.  She called me while I was driving back home to ask if I had enough shirts left to make 3 more for her aunt, uncle and niece.  So I guess she like them.

 

Probably too late to link up with everyone, maybe next week.

Sarah let me know that it was not too late to link up with
Whoop Whoop Friday. (thanks Sarah)
 

http://confessionsofafabricaddict.blogspot.com/

 

 

Details, details

I don't have anything new to show.

I have been working on Virginia's brother, Jimmy's

 quilt, similar to hers but

not quite.

Talking about Virginia's quilt,

 I have had quite a few questions about

her quilt.

 

Okay what's a post without pictures, right?

 

I was so excited to share pictures last week I forgot

to share the quilt details.

 

The quilt is 67X67.

I used 2 layers of batting, bottom layer is W&N 100 cotton,

top layer is a thin poly batting (don't remember the brand).

I usually use an 80/20 or wool (my favorite) on top.

I was trying to watch the cost, so I used the poly. 

 

 

Used Glide thread, I believe the color was linen.

Even thought the background was white I wanted to use an

off white thread.  Whenever I can I use pre-wound Glide bobbins.

 

 

 

The quilting shows nicely on the back also.

 

 

I was asked how the story or the meaning of the quilt

would be shared with Virginia and Jimmy.

This is the label that will be attached to the quilt back

 

 

 

Hopefully, I will be able to show Jimmy's quilt very soon.

 

 

Thank you for stopping by.

 

One more thing,

please say a little prayer for a friend

whose 4 day old son, didn't come home,

 but went to heaven instead. 

We never understand why, but

pray that they will find peace.