Happy Anniversary, Nina!

My mom is so cool.  Did you know that instead of an Easter basket each year, she had the Easter Bunny bring me a designer purse filled with lovely things like perfume, make up, coin purses, etc.?  (Added note: some of us didn't need the calories!)  This tradition started when I was in seventh grade and ended when I was a sophomore in college, 1993.  That year, the Easter Bunny brought me my Bernina 1000.

I love this machine.  In fact, when I was pregnant (2005), I told my husband that I wanted to name our daughter Nina, after my sewing machine.  Let's just say he's glad we had a son.  Mom bought this machine for $300 when a little sewing shop was going out of business and selling their classroom models.  It was a steal.  Years later, in 2004, I decided I wanted a fancy machine.  Being loyal to Bernina, I bought another one, which I've mostly been using since.  Of course, Nina still does my bindings because I'm cheap.  I just can't stomach the $169 to buy another walking foot for my new machine when I have one for my old machine.  Pathetic, isn't it?  Anyway, I just dusted off Nina a couple weeks ago and have been sewing on her lately, and it's like I'm falling in love all over again.  That's the best darn sewing machine in the world.  Do you have a favorite sewing machine? Or do you love all of your machines equally?

I'm off to sew a little more before bed, but I just had to let you guys know that it's almost the 17th anniversary of Nina coming to live with me.  Cheers!

By the way, can you figure out what I'm making yet?

Mystery Quilt/Mystery Quilting Design

I fell in love.  With Poppy by Laura Gunn for Michael Miller.  I mean really, though, who wouldn't love these fabrics?  From the moment I saw these fabrics, I couldn't wait to do something with them.  This weekend, I had another mystery class, and here's the product (minus the quilting).

You know, a poppy by any other name just isn't as sweet.
Any ideas on how I should quilt it?  I want to try something fancy.  Not sure if I should just do some feathery doodling or what.  I haven't tried that yet, and I'm kind of scared to do this on pretty fabric.

On another note, since I've been back from spring break, I've had a hard time getting back into quilting since I basically took off a week & went to my grandparents' house.  I looked at my fabric, but I just wasn't sure what to sew next.  Even Friday night-- I sat at the sewing table with my friend Kim and just looked at fabric but couldn't find anything to sew.  The good news, though, is that I've started my next project.  Here are the scraps.  Any idea what it's going to be?

My Kind of Neutrals

Another one finished!

Last spring, when my sister-in-law got married, my mom and I hit the local quilt shops and ended up at The Rabbit's Lair in Rogers, Arkansas.

After falling in love with these fabrics because they are my kind of neutrals, I knew exactly what I would do with them.  I made this quilt for my friend Kim who was battling breast cancer.  She needed something to show she was loved and supported (plus, this coordinated perfectly with her decor).

A year has gone by.  Now she's free of breast cancer.  Yea!

And is also now an avid quilter herself.  She's crazy-addicted!

I feel her pain:-)

Have you checked out AmyLouWho's Sew & Tell Fridays?  There are always some really cool projects to see, plus, and this is something I look forward to every Friday!

Chirp!

Here's another quilt.  I made this for Lizzy's baby.  Remember Lizzy?  I made wonky squares for her.  Hopefully she doesn't read the blog and this will be a surprise to her.

The fabric came with a series of panels, which was an unexpected surprise.

And then I added a little bit of fabric from my stash to add a little more depth to the chirp fabrics.  Easy peasy.

Sew & Tell- Totally Blue

Is this blue or what?

 I really kind of like it.  I just might have to stash bust a few more quilts in other color schemes using this pattern:-)

This took seven Class M bobbins to quilt.  Like, for real.

Have you checked out AmyLouWho's Sew & Tell?  Fun stuff.

Aggie Fever

Here's a quilt my mom made from the jungle fever pattern, but we are calling it Aggie Fever (Texas A&M's colors are maroon and maroon).  Mom hopped all over that end of the color wheel, and the result is gorgeous.

Of course, how could you go wrong with batiks.

 Mom made this quilt for her friend Cindy, who is going to raffle it for the Texas Nurse Practitioner Organization (more information on this will come later if Cindy tells me how we can buy tickets to win it). 

 Silly Mom asked me to quilt it.  I'm definitely not "show quality," but I like what I can do so far:-)

A little bit inspired

You are never going to guess what I've done.  I've sewn up darn near all my fabric.  In fact, it pretty much fits all in one armoir.  For the first time in years!

Oh, and this pile on the floor.

Yeah, and this one, too.

I was making such great progress.  But then I got inspired when I found this fabric.

And I just had to start sewing, but more on that later.  Like tomorrow.

I'm just so excited.  And addicted to quilting!  It's weird, but I think I need a 12-step program for quilting.  Honestly, I can't get enough.  I probably sew on average 4 or more hours a day.  And I work full time.  But all those hours I'm not quilting, I'm thinking about it.  It's not like this is new either.  I've been doing quilting for 17 years... so why now am I obsessed?

They say to find what you love & do that as a career.  Is this God's way of telling me to quit my job and start quilting for a living?  How would I make a living if I kept or gave away all my projects?  Please provide input.  I don't want to dig in to my fabric money to pay for therapy.

My first award!

I rarely win awards.  In 4th grade, I won second place in an art contest in my homeroom.  A couple years ago, I was Teacher of the Year for my school.  Now, I'm up again:-)

Dee gave me this!

She said I make incredible quilts and have cute toes.  Or is it that I have incredible toes and make cute quilts?  LOL!  Anyway, Dee, I'm so honored to receive this award, so thank you!  You know, I started blogging so that I could find an online community and not feel like I was always sewing by myself, and it worked.  Guy and gals, thanks for having me-- it feels like home already.

Sew & Tell Friday- first pantograph

The wonky squares have been quilted!

And I used a pantograph for the first time.  I should have practiced on play fabric first, but I got a little cocky.

 

I am really in love with this quilt.  I used an Ikea sheet for the backing and sashing (for the first time ever).  The jury is still out on that.  I haven't washed this yet, so I have no idea if it will crinkle and all that good stuff.

                            

 

I can't wait to try out the pantograph on something else.  I have great hopes for this and can't wait to see how quickly the learning curve is.

 
This quilt is going to go live with my teaching partner Lizzy who is the peas to my carrots.  The Diet to my Coke.  The Thelma to my Louise.  She had a baby three weeks ago today, and work is just not the same without her.  I miss her like crazy and can't wait for her to return in April:-)

Thanks, Amy, for hosting Show & Tell Friday.  Without you, this project would sit another week or more waiting to be bound.

Flange Binding

I love learning new things, and tonight I learned something that I can't wait to try.

 

My friend Vickie came over to finish her first and last paper pieced quilt.  So we threw this baby on the long arm and stippled it up.  Paper piecing isn't the new thing I learned, though.  Check out what she did instead of binding it...

 

That edging is called flange.  Have you heard of it?  I know I'm a little cuckoo, but I love binding, so I've never searched for other options (nope, never tried prairie points either).  I really like this, though.

 

I think this quilt is just precious.  I also love how Vickie added a little variety to her blocks (the squares within the squares were the paper pieced blocks), but didn't end up with a sampler.   I also love that she is never paper piecing again.  I remember one era of my life when I bought a gazillion (or 7 or 8) paper piecing books and was really hooked on it.  How quickly that passes, thank goodness (Sorry, Carol Doak).  Of course, Vickie's quilt looks beautiful, and doesn't look paper pieced at all. 

Speaking of beautiful, here's my baby making his own quilt.  Clearly he's had good modeling.  He did ask me to take the walking foot off the machine so that he could sew.  I don't think it's normal for a four year old to know what a walking foot is, but whatever the case may be, I just love having his company while I sew... even if he is pinning his Thanksgiving fabrics on a pink background.