Lemon Tree Tales

Kansas Troubles Quilters Jelly Roll Race Quilt

Before we moved back to CA, I sewed together a quilt flimsy using a Moda Kansas Troubles Quilters jelly roll that I bought from Barbara at the Fort Collins Modern Quilt Guild. She was destashing and didn't want any of her jelly rolls anymore. It worked well for me because I got two Moda jelly rolls and four Hoffman Bali Pops. This is the first project that I made with my new found loot.

Sewing all the strips together:

 

Once the strips were sewn together I wanted to do something a bit different. So about 10" from one end I sliced the top vertically. The thin strip was flipped and placed on the oppostite side. A contrasting strip of Civil War Reproduction fabric was then sewn in between them. There was a bit left over so it then became a skinny 1/2" border followed by a large border of another Civil War Repro print. It's amazing how much interest this gave to the ordinary jelly roll race quilt. Finally I chose an Andover plaid fabric for the binding. Overall I think it gave the final masculine touch to this quilt.

 

 

 

 

Steve helped me with a photo shoot at the local park on Sunday morning. Quilted on Freddie and IQ using Superior Threads So Fine thread in a rust color, Quilter's Dream Wool batting for that extra bit of puff, quilted with Patricia Ritter's Diagonal Plaid pantograph. It's for my dad as both a thank you gift for supporting my new longarm venture as well as a 70th birthday gift. Hopefully he'll like it because I'm really pleased with how the quilting turned out.

Experimental Quilting

As you can tell by the above practice quilt, I've been having a blast experimenting with a variety of panto patterns on my longarm using the IntelliQuilter. It's nice to have fabric other than muslin to work on. This was pieced on the fly so the color strips aren't level and straight. I used Freddie to trace the actual sections before quilting each color. There's a bit of FMQ in a few odd places on the left side. Lots of opportunities to learn new techniques with this little quilt. It needs a binding ... maybe something in a contrast color and then it'll find it's new home in the car for emergencies.

Mason Jars for Summertime

The other day I was in Target getting some plastic drawers for the studio when I saw these mason jar cups. I couldn't resist. They're actually faux mason jars, not the real thing, and are made of plastic. They're perfect for drinking all those icy summer drinks during the heat ... iced tea, smoothies and lemonade! Oh and Fearghus just had to photo bomb the photography shot. He's a cutie so I don't mind. Hope your summer is going well. What are you doing to keep cool?

Second Quilt on Freddie

Once I got that first baby quilt off of the frame I couldn't wait to get the second one all loaded on Freddie. This time I used a different panto, Diagonal Plaid by Patricia Ritter of Urban Elementz. It definitely has a modern geometric look to it and would love to see it quilted on a man's lap quilt. It gives a very nice texture to the quilt. I couldn't stop touching it.

 

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First Quilt on Freddie the longarm

Introducing Freddie the Longarm Quilting Machine

First Quilt on Freddie the longarm

So far I've quilted two muslin practice quilts on Freddie the longarm. The first one was all done with free motion quilting. Steve took a couple turns on it too. Then I loaded up a second one to practice with the IntelliQuilter (IQ). What fun! Of course quite a bit of the time I was experimenting with learning how to adjust the machine's tension, bobbin tension as well as the top thread tension. Both of them are pretty funky looking but I'll bind them with all of my scrap binding pieces so that we can have extra quilts for the dogs in the RV.

Yesterday I decided it was time to take Freddie for a real test run. Have you ever heard of the quick and easy supersized nine patch baby quilt that Anita Grossman Solomon wrote for Quiltmaker magazine? It's where you take three different yard cuts of fabrics, cut them and switch the pieces, then sew up three baby quilts. Last week I went on a mini shop hop with my friend Valerie to five shops. It was the perfect time to get some fabrics for these quick baby quilts.

I just fell in love with these adorable little ships and airplanes. Aren't they the cutest?!

 

By the time I got the quilt ready to go it was late last night. But I was too excited to wait until today to quilt it up. IntelliQuilter did a great job and I was much happier with all of the quilt tensions this time around. It's all a learning curve.

 

The pantograph pattern is called Double Bubble by Patricia Ritter. It's a very fun pattern but perhaps next time I'll make it a bit smaller. There's two more quilt tops to piece and quilt. After that I have enough fabric to sew up a total of nine baby quilts. One or two I'll keep to have on hand as gifts but the rest will be donated to the Linus project. The next time you need to make a quick baby gift I highly recommend that you give the supersized nine patch a go.

Happy 4th of July

I hope everyone in the USA had a fantastic 4th of July celebration yesterday. We took it easy and fortunately the dogs weren't too scared by the noise of fireworks. I'll be celebrating by taking this eagle quilt panel and adding some blocks to it to make a Quilt of Valor for somebody very important to me. I bought it from a quilt show in Loveland, CO a few months ago before we moved back to California. Aren't you glad that Benjamin Franklin didn't get his way to have the wild turkey be our country's emblem? I much prefer the majestic bald eagle. Have you ever seen one in person before? Steve and I were about a foot away from a female many years ago in Ireland at a bird sanctuary there. Very impressive raptor!

Cairn-tastic

This past weekend we drove up to Bend, OR to join our cairn terrier friends while they competed at the Mt Bachelor dog show. Fearghus and Fiona are pet quality but their sires, dams, and grands were all champions in the show ring circuit. We saw three of Fiona's littermates compete and they did great! Her brother is pretty close to finishing. That's what they call it when a dog gets all of his competition points in the various shows. Once that happens he'll get to be a stud doggie. That's why he didn't get to play in the backyard with all of the other dogs. Only the neutered males and females that weren't in season got to play. Fearghus and Fiona are neutered and spayed so they were good to go.

Fiona's breeder asked me to help a friend of her show two Scotties. They were "filler" bitches, meaning that they needed a minimum number of entrants for a certain number of points. They were two sweet girls, didn't even bark at all. Luckily the judge was nice and told me that every one starts out new at some point. My second time running around I realized that I was supposed to hold the lead up higher so that their heads would be up. It was fun but I know that's just the "glamorous" part of the show dog circuit. All the real work happens at home in training and the constant grooming. No thanks. I'm just happy to have helped out.

We even signed up Fearghus and Fiona for the lure coursing event. That's where a line runs through a little motor with three white plastic bags attached. Think of greyhounds chasing the mechanical rabbit. But it was running so late and we were the very last dogs in line. Instead we opted to go to the big cairn party instead. Next time we'll sign up earlier. I can't wait to see what Fiona does. She was giving the cairn shriek of death whenever she saw those white bags fly by. Every one across the field heard her!

The picture above is just a quick snap of some of the cairns at the party. Fiona is the little black one at the lower left. She doesn't like to hold her tail vertical like all the others. Fearghus only has his rear end and side showing just to the right of the tree trunk. His tail bends forward a bit, banana tail style. That little wheaten guy in front desperately wanted a treat from me. I had a bit of buffalo jerky treat left in my pocket. In the end I gave it to the hostess so that the dogs would stop pestering me for some. The only dog we didn't get a picture of is the sweet little Belle. She's a little dwarf cairn and belongs to the very sweet hostess and amiable host.

Yes, we had an amazing time and hope that we'll be able to make it again next year.