Pillow for Hawaiian Ocean Quilt Completed

Yes, I made a pillow to match.  Does anyone recall me working on the beading on this pillow?  DD was very impressed with the final product so we took some time yesterday afternoon to talk about the difference between glass beads and plastic ones both of which are used on the pillow, as well as some of the other kinds out there.  

The piping is blue around the edge and the back is a wonderful watercolor teal blue with hints of other colors in it as well. 

Can anyone see my little furry helper in the bottom corner of the picture?  Feel free to click on the image to see more closely.

Hawaiian Ocean Turtle Quilt Finished!

Oh I love a good finish.  This one is especially nice for me because you see, Vicki gave me this pattern Fall of 2009! Now your eyes just flew open at it having been that long.  I started on it right away.  She told me to practice so I did, and made one quilt which was a charity quilt, I told you about it the other day.  Then I had to go and make things difficult.  I had seen a website selling both halves of the applique as two different blocks (of a completely different pattern mind you and that was die cute), the cutaway parts can be used on a second quilt which I thought was excellent, after all why waste fabric?  I asked DH to redraft the pattern so it could be used in that way.  Which he did.

Hawaiian Ocean Applique Turtle Quilt

Turtle Quilt Reversible Back

Hence Ocean Turtles, this quilt and Earth Turtles were born.  Earth turtles is awaiting a quilt back before it can be quilted, but my Hawaiian Ocean Applique Turtles are all done!  Yippie and hooray.   This is a twin/twin xl and my pictures show it on a double sized bed where it rests nicely on top.

The back is pieced as well, with the green squares within in the water sashing highlighting the colors of the back and really making the entire quilt come together.  The binding is the same green fabric that the turtles are made from.

Water lapping echos move around the turtles and the borders have small turtles swimming up and down with the lapping water echo quilting moving around the baby turtles as they swim.

Turtle Quilting Detail

This is my first finish of 2012, though with it being this big and this pretty I can only hope all the others I finish this year will be as charming.

Tiny on Ocean Turtles

Turtle Quilting Finished, Or not?

Oppsie!  I thought the quilting for the turtle quilt was all done.  Yet when I was tucking in the quilting thread ends I found this odd little spot.  Notice anything?

Turtle quilting detail

If you're stumped that roman cross should close as it makes up the side of two of the turtles heads when it does.  Good thing I can fix that on the Elna.

I'll work on that tomorrow along with the binding.

 

Turtle Quilting

Two mornings in a row we've spilled juice.  Yesterday it was DD and then today it was my turn.  I honestly have no idea what happened, the cup just sort of slipped out of my fingertips and landed splat upside down in front of Sunny.  Mere inches from him, oh you should have see the expression on his face, sort of a bewildered where did that come from look.  He was so surprised, his front feet started slipping out from under him while I cleaned up the mess.

Reverse of Hawaiian Turtle Applique Quilt - Quilting

While on the floor I happened to look up and saw the first row of turtle quilting that I've done.  I added a bit of echoing last night in blue like ripples in the water and I really liked that.  Looking up at my work I knew I just had to show you.

This picture reminds me of Dory from Finding Nemo, "Just keep swimming, what do we do, we swim, swimming, swimming."

The frame is set up just right and the carriage moves even more smoothly over the center joint than it did the last time DH had it set up extra long.

March New FO Posting

Front

Today is the last day of March, can you believe it?  I can.  Truly it seems like only a short time ago we were selecting DH's vacation time and April seemed rather far off, sure will be nice having him around more for the next week.

This has been a good month both New FO and FO wise.  I revisited the Hawaiian Applique Turtle Quilt, and decided to scale back.  Instead of it being a Full/Double bed size quilt, I opted for a Twin size instead, and then started and finished up the last two blocks needed.  I also made an entire pieced back and have everything waiting on the frame.  As you can see from the pictures Tiny likes this one and just when I thought I had everything ready to go I found she'd made herself a bed between the rails.  I'll need to fix that before I start quilting.  Someone once told me that's why they use zippers for attaching quilts to the frame, that way when they are done for the day they can just unzip one side of the quilt.  Yet, I was sure it would take her more than 6 hours to find the frame had a quilt on it again...

Back

Though that wasn't what I'd intended as my March FO.  You see I have long wanted to take apart one of the cat water filters, which I have to buy on a regular basis, make a new one with natural batting and fresh carbon.  Call me crazy but I just had to do it.  I used to know someone who owned an aquarium business as well as maintaining some of the not going to name drop big tanks in Orlando.  Well, I ran my idea by him and the consensus was that my theory was sound - if a bit spend thrift and so after all this time I did it.  I seem to have deleted the picture I took for you though so when I make another one I'll photograph that one.

Hope you had a great March and that April will be even better.  Did you do anything new this month?  Why not take a minute to join us and drop your name in the hat for one of the quilters pins Barbara at Cat Patches is giving away?

Hawaiian Ocean Quilt Back Completed

Well now the last time we talked, I was just beginning to think about how to put the quilt back together for my Hawaiian Ocean Applique Quilt and now here it is all done.  The back is 67.5" x 109" so instead of having a border around my pieced center, the quilt will just flow off the edges.  With a bit of centering I think it will look quite good, giving a glass bottom boat effect.

Now I'm all ready for quilting, well almost, I ordered some larger needles in titanium that I will be trying for the first time together with a thicker thread than I normally give the Janome 1600P, those are all set to arrive on Tuesday and then it will be time to quilt, quilt, quilt.

When I finished the top of this quilt I set two goals; one for DH and one for myself.  My goal was to piece this back and have it ready before the machine quilting needles arrived and the goal for DH was to extend the Inspira quilt frame from it's little size the way we had it for Christmas to the larger size that I prefer.  I think he was waiting to see if I made my own goal before starting his.  Isn't it nice to finish something when you plan to?

Now for the quilting I'm going to quilt this one sideways so that it goes on the uptake roller more slowly and my throat space wont shrink as fast, hence why I need the frame extended.  As a bonus this quilt doesn't have borders on the top nor the bottom so I will not need to turn it when I'm finished.  You can scroll down to the previous post or click here to see the completed top.

This will mean my quilt status is back to right where I like it.  With one quilt on the quilt frame and one quilt at my domestic sewing machine.  Are you wondering which quilt is going to be on the sewing machine?  It's the Lone Star Glows!  I ran into some trouble with the fabric which I will go into later and I'm really looking forward to getting back into the swing of working on that quilt.

Ocean Turtles Flood Living Room: Cat Swims!

My ocean turtle quilt top is done.  Yippie!  This is a twin/twin XL measuring at 62.5" x 100".  I have a really wonderful dolphin print that will make up the quilt back and I'm thinking I'd like to restate the green for the binding.

DH took this picture.  I left the quilt on the floor for him to see when he walked by and it seems Tiny was loving all over it after I left the room.

Of course while I was taking pictures she was much more reserved...

I'm am planning to stitch around the turtles and then to a variation of quilted echos which will ripple over the water.  The variation will allow me to use the mid arm on the frame and will hopefully will work out nicely enough that I can apply it to other quilts that I'd like to echo in the future.

I'm also planning quilt baby turtles swimming up the sides and then a row swimming down the middle, in the spacer strips on the sides as well as the one in the center.  As for thread colors, I believe I will quilt the echos in blue and the turtles in green.  What do you think?  The threads I have in mind to use are a bit heavier so I'll need bigger needles for the Janome, oh darn that means I'll have to go shopping.

Now to figure out how to make my 40" wide novelty print become 60" wide...  Have you been up to anything fun lately?

Who Remembers these?

These are my Hawaiian Ocean Applique Turtles.  I've decided I'm tired of them being a UFO not to mention being burned out on this method of quilting.  Would you believe me if I told you this is the third quilt I've made with this turtle pattern?  So I've moved them to the WIP pile.  After having them there for a couple of days (a week?) I started thinking that if I downsize this quilt from a full size to a twin size it will match it's reverse applique twin (see below) both in pattern and in finished quilt size.  So I'm going for it.  I finished up block number 9 yesterday afternoon and am ready to begin working on the final block number 10.  Wont it be great to see these laid out as a quilt soon?

Now just in case you were wondering about the third quilt I used this pattern in you can see it below.  It was a reversible lap quilt that I donated to project Linus in 2010.  This was my test quilt for the Ocean turtles and the earth turtles seen above are a happy coincidence of my DH's careful planning and cutting. Hopefully it's seeing plenty of use these days.

It's surprising but after all this time I almost like the back the best.

Christmas Quilt-A-Long Year 2 May: Art for Your Bed

I was really torn between the Quilt Festival, Blog hop more or Quilt?  Sheesh, what a pair to be torn between.  I did get back to my little project for the day though.

This is the reverse applique turtle quilt I've been talking so much about.  It's planned to be a twin size, but it might have it's own designs on me, we'll just have to wait and see.  Already this block walked all over me.  Look at the way it pops and crinkles!  Not my normal method at all, but I just love how organic it is.  What do you think?

I've always known this quilt to be the contrast of my Hawaiian Ocean Applique Quilt, born of one, but forever another.  I'll square it back to the green and we'll see how the other blocks go before really settling on a layout.

No worries, I am still working on the Hawaiian Ocean, I prepped another 3 blocks for DH to cut for me, and I'm sure there is an end in sight there somewhere.

How have you been getting along this find Quilt-a-long day?  It was beautiful and hot here earlier, but then the sky opened up and dumped rain all over us.  The sun is still hiding behind the clouds so I think I might just plan my colors and maybe cut the fabric for my Christmas Scatty Stars BOM, as the light just isn't good enough to keep working on these turtles.

Little Sweets

Today I appliqued on the last of all the shell pieces that DH cut for me.  I now am the proud owner of 5 turtle blocks that need their threads stuffed to the back.  I feel like each time I stuff threads there are more threads to be stuffed!  I've fallen asleep stuffing threads, not once on this project but twice already so far!

Applique Turtle Blocks 

So let's bring this project up to date shall we?  Eight blocks done. Four Turtle blocks left to go, plus the 44" dolphin and turtle block.  Is anyone envious of this project?  I mean seriously it's dragging on forever.  I think I'll need 3 packages of wonder under before I will be able to finish the top.

Nearly Done!

Tonight for dinner I am having an amazing Kahlua Mudslide Variation that my DH makes which is really great, as well as Homemade Stuffed Crust Pizza with Garlic Butter Sauce.  If you ever wondered what a high school job is good for knowing how to stuff a crust is surely one of the things.  Perhaps that would make a good blog post "All the Best Things I Learned in High School...  So if you'll excuse me I think dinner is ready!

Hawaiian Ocean Applique Progresses

One of 12 of my Turtle Blocks

I've been working on the applique turtles, currently I have five completed blocks and three blocks that are just appliqued turtle bodies awaiting their shell pieces.  It seems silly to me to take photos of what I have already showed you, so today I'm going to dream about another similar quilt with you that while I had it in the back of my mind for quite a while this change of color and place came roaring out at me the other day.

Approximation of Reverse Image

I call it the Reverse Applique Turtle Quilt.  I'm planning on using all of the leftover cut out pieces from the Hawaiian Ocean Applique Quilt and putting them into this second quilt.  As the back of my green fabric is covered entirely in Wonder Under and my husband and I planned it this way; all of the leftover pieces will be usable in this second quilt.  No waste not even one small scrap.  Off to the left you can see how it will work.  In case you are wondering the pattern was redrafted from a needle turn applique method to allow us to do this.

The background of this layout is white on white, but for the second quilt I plan on selecting a tan/sand batik for the turtle bodies.  I think using the sand color for the turtle bodies will give them an on land appearance instead of the swimming in the water look.

Neatly saved but never zipped in

Yes, Yes, I'm saving everything and in case anyone is worried the bags are merely for keeping everything together.  Here in Florida I wouldn't dare zip them up, locking in all that humidity?  Eek!  Or perhaps Eeww is a better word.  I promise there are no Ewws or ewes here for that matter (wool allergy).

Now I just have to keep my eyes pealed for the perfect fabric.  Whoa darn fabric shopping. LOL.  I hope everyone found what they were looking for on Black Friday and Cyber Monday.  Or perhaps you simply found a lot of what you weren't looking for?  I my case I did all of my shopping at the computer. Because no matter how fast I make that scooter go, you'd all still beat me to the sale.  That's why DD and I say "Wheee, and Zoom," as we shop with the scooter.  It helps to give the illusion of speed!  Now why not drop me a note and tell me how your shopping or lack there of went and why, I'd love to hear about it.

Sweet Lemonade

Last March I started something I called my Hawaiian Ocean Applique Quilt  through my practice with that I was able to make and donate my Turtle Applique Quilt.  I made these using Wonder Under a heat activated adhesive product and then blanket stitching over the raw edge.  Right in the middle of making these blocks my fancy sewing machine lost all will to sew after coaxing and numerous trips to the repair place I now have an oversized paperweight that is begging for the day I will trade it in for something else.

Luckily I have the Little Elna sewing machine which I had forgotten how much I love to sew on it.  So now that you're up to date, I want to say that yesterday I figured out how to make one of the 18 stitches that the Elna can do look like the blanket stitch the Brother was making and because it is a compressed hem stitch it sews out nice and quick and I don't have to be so careful about counting the stitches for making my turns.  Bottom line: Yesterday I had 2 completed blocks and 3 blocks with no shell pieces on the turtles.  I now have five completed blocks for this quilt (I will need 12 plus my dolphin center) of course I also have the one I'm detailing to be a matching pillow as well.  I think it will end up making a nice euro sham.

Turtle Applique Blocks awaiting thread trimming

I have now prepped three more fabric blocks so they are ready to be cut out with the rather detailed cuts of the turtles and their shells.  I am looking forward to making more progress on this quilt.

Turtle Beadwork needs Your help

I've been doing a bit of beading on the Appliqué Turtle Pillow. I just added the outline around the shell. But now I'm not certain where to go next. Can you help? I have just over an entire tube of the beads left from outlining the shells, which is not enough to outline each piece of shell. I'm not certain where to add those other beads, or should I just take them back and trade them in for something different. What do you think?

I also finished quilting the cat quilt. I ended up adding more quilting than I thought I would. Choosing to quilt around each cat as well as each block. I like the puffy look you see because the quilting.

The baby orchids arrived Wednesday and were all carefully planted by DH. Isn't that mounted one the cutest little thing? As that's not where I'd intended to put it, I think that spot under the grow lights might be to much for my Laelia purpurata var. carnea, so I'll keep an eye on it for a couple of days and if it doesn't like it I'll move it off to be with the Laelia purpurata I already have.

So what's in the humidity tray? Cattleya loddigesii var. alba as well as Cattleya harrisoniana, the hassisoniana's are the oldest being nearly 3 years old. I know! What a shock. We've also had them the longest as they arrived for my birthday last fall. I know those plants very well, as each one is a little different. My current favorite of those is one with 8 leaves that is one of the biggest and reaches as tall as it can towards the new light, but there is also one that arrived with a broken leaf tip (Which it has since lost) and I really enjoy watching how well it is doing.

A Bit of Sparkle

As the first Turtle block I made is not destined to be in the Hawaiian Ocean Appliqué quilt (for reasons I blogged about previously) I decided to embellish it up as a matching pillow. Keep in mind that I'm not finished yet. So far I've only run low on beads and ideas, but hopefully time will fix that.

We're all still sick, so any little thing that I can do like this feels worth mentioning.

National Quilting Day Follow Up

I was blogging around when I first read the word, National Quilting Day? A day to celebrate every thing about quilting that I hold dear? Besides it's a holiday so anyone wanting to tune me out or say "uh hu, yes..." while I rave about fabrics will just have to listen.

What would you do on such a great day? Rather than annoy those close to me with my deepest fabric fantasies, I headed for my sewing machine and settled down with my turtles from my Hawaiian Ocean Appliqué Quilt. I've been having a problem seeing my appliqué through the clear plastic of my "open toed foot". Open toed, my toilet! So I broke it, completely and totally on purpose. It was wonderful. I have never broken a sewing machine foot before, so this was something new.

I did increase the pressure on the presser foot to compensate for the missing plastic, but other than that I was good to go.  I thought for a moment it might be harder to line up without that little bit of plastic, but it took no more time getting used to than when I'd first switched to that foot in the first place, and I could see again! Did anything wonderful happen to you yesterday? I'd love to hear about it.

Hawaiian Ocean Appliqué - A Bed Quilt

I can hardly believe this will be my first post about my Hawaiian Ocean Appliqué Quilt as I have collected fabrics and planned this since I believe September. That's nine months!  I even made a practice charity quilt which you can read all about here.

I have nearly completed the first 20" block.  Above is the front and below is the back.  I'm concerned about the green thread on the back, it's showing over the dolphins on the back rather than blending in and allowing the dolphins to play.  I think perhaps the thread I placed in the photo might look better.  Of course if I change the color on the bottom I will have to be 10x more careful about my thread tension.  Who knows maybe it would just change the problem to the lighter end of the spectrum.

The fabrics I collected are South Sea Imports Zinnia's in Green, Michael Miller Dolphins at Play, and Moda's Atlantis in blue. I have done a mock up of the layout below for you to see; the 20" turtle blocks all around and one 42" dolphin and turtle block in the center. You can see the original pattern here, by Pacific Rim Appliqué, which was given to me by my friend Vicki.  I am using a method of quilt as you go machine hawaiian appliqué with a blanket stitch that I altered to suit my own quilting abilities.  I used fusible interfacing which Rob cut carefully enough that I will have the reverse image to use in a future quilt so there will be no leftover scraps, how about that?

The background of the center dolphins will match the water background behind the turtles when completed.