I'm still working on quilting the elephant quilt. Been busy at work

and came home tonight with a sore ankle. I'm sitting in my

lazy boy chair with some ice tied around my ankle, and 

catching up on the blogs I read. :)

Hand Quilting

I really love the look of hand quilting, especially since I don't have a

 machine that does machine quilting! I can't imagine how much 

I'd get done if I had a fancy quilting machine. I have a very good and 

dependable sewing machine but it doesn't have a stitch that duplicates quilting.

 So I hand quilt.

I finished the borders for the elephant quilt and was able to pin the

 backing, batting and top together today. I started by quilting the 

center block then moved to doing the surrounding elephants. 

It is going pretty quickly and I hope to finish this up soon.

I thought I would have to order more fabric for backing 

but was able to match up the stripe so you wouldn't notice the seams 

unless you were aware they were there.

Tonight I am really feeling the pain in my left wrist,

 must've strained it putting in all the safety pins this afternoon. 

Elephant applique

My week of quilting  (vacation) is over :( !

Today I took my Airplane quilt in to work to give to Jeanne, but she wasn't there.

 I'll miss her all week due to different schedules but a

co-worker put it in the office to hold for her. I would've loved to see her reaction when she

saw the quilt. Hope she and the other girls like it. I'm never quite sure how others 

judge my handiwork, and I always want to please even though I know I can't please

everyone. I liked it, so that should be good enough, right?

Yesterday I started a pattern I got a few weeks ago from Bunny Hill.

I'm not quite sure why but I fell in love with her elephant and nine-patch

quilt but I love it!  

I decided to use some fabrics from the Peek a Boo fabric line, made by

Craft Town. I got the browns and blues. 

This quilt is for a friend who is having a baby at 41! A surprise, but a good surprise.

I'm not quite sure yet if she is having a boy or a girl so this is made on a "hunch".

They have had mostly boys in their families, I think her brother had 3 or 4 boys and 

she has had 2 already. They are ready for a girl but I've had a feeling she will

have another boy since I heard she was expecting! :)

If it turns out she is having a girl, I'll just have to make another quilt! LOL!

The nine patch blocks went together really fast and I've got most of the applique blocks ready to

stitch to the background fabric. The pattern is really easy.

I used freezer paper on the wrong side of the fabric, drew a pencil line around, then trimmed

leaving about a 1/8 - 1/4 turn under. I basted (yes, Mom I've learned to baste! LOL!) the edges

then basted the applique to the background square. It's time consuming but I find it relaxing.

I'm watching the Miss Marple series on public TV and have been

watching the Rosemary and Thyme English TV show from Netflix. 

It's kinda like Murder She Wrote, where no matter where she goes, someone dies! :)

I think if I ever won the lottery I will plan a trip to England. Want to see lots of

the places I've seen on these shows and the historical places I've read about.

Oh, dreams! :)

LOL!

Three finishes!

Airplane quilt finished!

Today I did this.

I cut and stitched the binding on the quilt after I finished 

quilting a few more clouds. Light and fluffy clouds, no rain clouds!

I like to stitch the binding on and then trim the seam to 1/4 inch. I am not

good at doing mitered corners so I just stitch binding on each side 

and then fiddle with the corners to not have too much bulk.

It works for me.

I love the final stitching of the binding. It takes so long to get to this

point that it is so great to finally be finished with a quilt.

Later, I started sewing the binding on the tumbler quilt, I had put this off to finish the 

airplane quilt. So tomorrow I will be washing the airplane quilt, the tumbler quilt

and the small doll quilt I finished up last week. I love when they come out of the 

dryer all fluffy and ready to cuddle. 

:)

On Monday I cleared off my work table.

Of course, I'm not taking pictures of the other side of the room

where I dumped all my "stuff"!

Then I laid out the backing of the airplane quilt

 using clamps to hold it taut.

Batting was added,

then added the top.

Added lots and lots of pins all over.

Then started doing this

I've done about 3/4's of the quilting. 

I'm doing lots of clouds and several airplane shapes.

I think it is going to be hard to say goodbye to this quilt.