You Know You've...

... been bitten by the Quilting Bug when you look down your street

and of course think how lucky you are to see such natural beauty. 

Then immediately think --- WOW those colors would be GREAT in a quilt!  Wonder if I have time before Christmas to whip something up.

the answer to that is NO, not with what we've got going on around our house!

Now for my sewing updates ---

CHRISTMAS QUILT - ready for binding!!!

I chose an all over squiggle pattern for free motion quilting.  I honestly do not enjoy free motion quilting.  I wish I did.  I think a few factors play in to why I don't:

1.  I'm using a small sewing machine to quilt a 55"x55" quilt

2.  the surface of my quilting table only goes about 12" behind my machine, so I'm constantly fighting friction and gravity when my quilt hangs over the edges

3.  I suffer from arthritis and my hands just aren't as strong as they need to work a free motion design - I do much better with straight lines or stitch in the ditch.  I use gloves and drop the feed dogs... but it's still a battle between me, weight, friction, gravity, and the sewing gods.

4.  I'm definitely left brained... I like the symmetric, predictable, straight line paths made by stitching in the ditch...

HOWEVER, it is MUCH MUCH MUCH quicker to free motion quilt an all over random squiggle, then stitch in the ditch. 

Hope to have hand-sewn the binding down on this one by the end of Turkey week.

CRISS CROSS QUILT - also ready for the binding to be hand sewn down.

I L O V E  this quilt so much!  I really don't want to give it to my aunt... but alas, I've already made a promise.  I just love the colors, the pattern, every thing.  And I stitched in the ditch on this one.

BEAN BAG - finished!

YAY!  I think it turned out pretty funky and cool... perfect for my funky and cool little cousin!

I use this super easy pattern found on this page.

Of course my munchkin had to do some quality assurance testing on it...

Pounce test... check

Wiggle test... check

Comfy test... check

Yep, she says it's good to go!

TRAVELING QUILT - one more block done

This thing is going to take me forever!  But I do find the hand-sewing relaxing... plus it's nice to have a project where I don't have to stand at the ironing board pressing seams.

Although I think I've found a solution for that

My little helper... helping along!

*DISCLAIMER*  - the iron is NOT plugged in

Hope you all have a blessed Thanksgiving!

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"May the colors of your life be bright and the threads in your life be very strong."

Author Unknown

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