Two quilts back from the quilter!

I got two quilts back from the quilter's yesterday.  I usually quilt my own quilts on my regular machine, but sometimes it's nice to have someone else do it.  The first one is a quilt I started for my brother and his new wife for a wedding present - oooh, probably 8 years ago.  I ran out of some of the fabric, and then hoped I would find it, but never did.  I ended up using a coordinating fabric about 4 years ago to finish the flimsy.   Then it sat in my drawer again until last month when I sent it to be quilted.  Wouldn't you know it, I found that same material not days after I sent the quilt to be quilted.  Murphy's law.   Now I wonder how long it will take me to get the binding done? LOL.   At least I have the green print that I ran out of to do the binding with now!  The third pic is of the back to show the 'art deco' pano I chose.

And here is son #2's ''money'' quilt (need to name it! Actually the first quilt needs a name too!  Maybe a 'decade of quilting'? LOL)

and the quilting pano I chose for his quilt is quite fitting I think!

I also wanted to show you a picture of one of the fish my guys caught this last weekend.  The first time ever, a local hatchery has released wild sockeye into a local lake and opened it for fishing!  Hubby and son #1 caught two on Sunday, and it is the most beautiful firm brilliant pink meat I've ever seen!  Here is my handsome hubby with his prize!

hunter star quilt

I drew this up in EQ6 of what the hunter star quilt in Dandelion Girl might look like when it's done.  I don't have the exact fabrics in there, but I tried to choose one's similar to the colors anyhow.  I'm deciding on if I want to do a solid border or a pieced one though......  I'm thinking I rather like the pieced border!

quilt project for vacation

I have been cutting 2 1/2'' squares for a quilt project for our vacation coming up.  We are going to the family cabins that have no electricity.  I am bringing a model 66 Singer treadle to leave for me and my mom to share.  I am going to be making the celtic knot quilt from Fresh Hope blog.  I am using similar dark greens, dark purples, black, and neutrals for the background.  I have a half yard each of 7 different purples, 7 different greens, and 10 different neutrals cut.  Now I know this is overkill on how much material I need, but I wanted to make sure I had more than enough when we got to the cabin.  I will probably cut 2-3 yards of squares of black too (going to use solid black I think).  I might use extra squares to make a scrappy border for it when the blocks are done.  We'll see how big it is.  I would like it to be plenty big for a full size bed.

Here's the box of blocks I've got so far!

I wish I would have thought of it before I started cutting - but this quilt would be really neat done in HST's.  If I had cut the blocks 3-3 1/2'' - then made 2 1/2'' HST blocks (two different fabrics of the same color), it would have given it a bit more scrappy look and been really interesting I think!  Hmm - maybe if I get the top done, I will do that with the extra squares (although the HST blocks would be smaller than 2 1/2'' so it would make a smaller quilt).  We'll see :)

I have a dilemma though - there is no electricity at the cabins.  I don't know what I'm going to do for an iron!  We have propane oven/stove and a propane fridge up there, but I don't have a non-electric iron.  What to do, what to do.........

finally bought a Featherweight!

I finally broke down and bought a Featherweight 221K for quilt piecing!  It's a white model from the 60's with the green case.  I will post pics as soon as I get batteries for my camera :)

Dresden plate top done and basted for quilting!

Well, my 100% hand-stitched dresden plate quilt top is DONE and I basted it this morning!  Usually I go back to bed when I get hubby off to work at 3:30AM, but today I stayed up..... got my 'work' sewing done first off, then got to work basting this beauty :)  I am so happy to have it ready to quilt.  Now, my first experience with hand-quilting a quilt should be interesting.  I had heard so many good things about wool batting for hand quilting, that is what I used.  This batting is not needled at all - it's very lofty, so it should be a wonderful fluffy quilt that will show the quilting very well!  I think I am mostly going to do outline quilting, and do a small amount of feathers in the open corners of the white background.  I will leave that for last though until I get the hang of the straight stitch quilting first :)  Anyhow, we are going camping this weekend for our 19th wedding anniversary and I wanted to have something to work on while relaxing.  I don't really know if I'll get to work on it much, but at least I'll have it with me if I do have time.  The quilt doesn't look too big because it only has 9 blocks, but each of those blocks are 18'' across, so this quilt is nearly 60x60.  Great couch/lap size :)