More FQ's???

Really now.... I must have folded over 100 FQ's this evening. I looked around and here is what I found.

 

This just so happens to be a box of Birthday FQ's from the HGTV Boards. I was in the Birthday Swap in 2006. Still in a box.... boy was I in need of de-cluttering. 5 years is a long time to stay in a box, especially Fabric, right? 

My Fat Quarter Shelf

Well, I had been at my husband about building me a Fat Quarter shelf so I could get the FQ's out of the bins. So yesterday he built me one from my specifications. He told me it was not going to be big enough but for some reason I thought it would be.

Here they are... all primed up! Was trying to decide which colors I wanted to go with in my room, although the other shelf is black and red. 

Well... when I awoke this afternoon after going back to bed (cause I woke up at 6am and had not gone to bed until 2:30) I found my FQ Shelf all painted. He made the decision to paint it like the other one, which is fine.  Here it is, and it has FQ's in it already. Not arranged really good but some are arranged.

Well, I'm on my way to getting my FQ's arranged on a shelf. I took these off the big shelf, but looks like I am going to have to put some FQ's back on that big shelf. This is just too small. Hubby got frustrated with me over this but... How's a girl supposed to know how much FQ's she has when they are in bins? That's why I need shelves now, so I can see them, hehe.

Hoping after all the folding is over I will have enough room to shop for more fabric. I'll just have to be creative in order to store some more, right?

My Messy Quilt Studio and new Table for my Horizon

So now that I have my new machine, I've had a hard time going into my sewing room to sew. I have bins of fabric everywhere, although you won't see the bins in the pictures, I have since then moved them in there as I prepare to fold each one of my FQ's and my yardage into small like books, with the help of Coroplast material. I seen this done by a lady on "The Quilting Board" and since we run a sign shop, it's easily accessible, but I can tell you it is by far the cheapest thing to use. What I do like about it though is it is very sturdy and you can wrap a lot of fabric around them. Here are some pics of my messy room! I hope it's soon organized so I can get in here and sew. I am missing it so much!  Also some pics of my new table.

 

See this 4'x8' Table here in my quilting studio? It's just way too big for my room. See under it? I had so many bins of fabric under this table. I know, you might say, out of site, out of mind, but even if I put a small curtain up there, I would still know what a mess it looked like. And... how aggravating it is to go look for fabric. I need to see what I have :)

This room is a complete mess right now. Cleaned the table off cause I am getting a new table for my Janome Horizon 7700QCP and hoping with the new table being smaller and turned a different way, it will look better in the room. 

One of the messy corners in the room.

So messy I have it even coming out the closets :(

Table is finally cleaned off, getting ready for it to be taken out.

Messy Closet!

Another part of the messy closet. See all those bins I have to go through? Some of it though have T-shirts in them, some have crafting items in them from a festival we did... had alot of things left over.

And more boxes and bins

I even have a soap kettle in here and I don't think I've ever used it yet, lol. I will someday though.

Woo Hoo.... a Table top for my Horizon, in the works :)

Working on the drawers to go in the cabinet of my Sewing Table.

Lots of painting going on here :)

This is the base to my cabinet the drawers are gonna fit in to. 

 

And finally, Ethel has a Table of her own to sit down in :)  Table top is on order.

The new table is turned a different way, I will have room on both sides of this table this time. The measurements on my new table are 3'x6'. See, I already have a mess all over it. It's gonna be like that until I am finished folding fabric.

 

If you look closely you can see some of the fabric which has been folded to look like books on the shelf. Right now I have alot of things on that shelf which are just sitting there until I figure out what I am going to do with everything.

My baby is here :)

Our tax check arrived and my hubby took me to the local Janome dealer and bought me a Horizon 7700 QCP. When it came in, I was so excited!! I unpacked it and couldn't wait to get started viewing the videos. There are many videos on the DVD but there are also some really good ones on the Janome Website, so you are never in the dark as to how to operate the machine, nor how to use the many stitches it came with. Here are some pics of it.

Here it is! Still not even out of the plastic yet. I have named her Ethel after my grandmother who used to sew my clothing. I loved her so much and I miss her very much. She died before I started to sew, so she would have been so honored to know I named my precious machine after her. And... if she were living today, what fun her and I could have had on this machine.
 I'm so happy I have it. I've never owned an expensive machine before. Thank you sweet darling husband for this wonderful machine :)

 

This is the top of the machine. It flips open to reveal all the stitches as well as the thread holder and a compartment for the feet. How neat is that? It has so many many stitches. 

Here is another pic of some of the stitches it has available.

And... the last pic of the remaining stitches.

















Taylor is taking a look at the machine here. YES it's really big Taylor...and so different than my Brother 6000ie which I loved, but didn't have enough quilting space.

Here is a pic of the compartment on the bottom of the machine which holds some more feet. Gotta love it!

I'm getting a new baby!!!

I'm into my 8th year of quilting. It has gotten to the point where I can't do anything but stipple using my 4.5" throat space on my Brother sewing machine. I had gotten so frustrated and had to do some ripping out cause I messed up my quilt. I had told my husband that if this was how it was gonna be, I'd just as soon pay someone to quilt my quilts. So I left the baby quilt lay there, and also a wall hanging I had done on the 1st of Jan.

A few days ago, we had talked about me trying to get another machine. I had tried for a long arm which wasn't all that expensive but due to some things right now that we can't fix, I was unable to get one. I had tried out a Janome 6600 in the LQS and I really loved it. The price was not too bad either. It had all the bells and whistles on it and it had a 9" throat space. That was pretty good space I thought. But over across the room, there was this beautiful Deep Red Machine that I think when I looked at it, it was "Love at first site"! Ever had that happen to you with a machine? After asking the price, I decided , "it was only a dream". Way more expensive than what I could afford. My husband decided to do some checking around on prices other places, for the same machine. He found a place which offered it cheaper than the place we originally seen it at. He took me to the sewing machine dealer and told me to order it. YAY... it will be in, sometime next week and I am thrilled!

Wanna take a look at it? Here is a review from Leah Day on it. She is an absolute awesome quilter. Make sure you check out her 365 Days of designs she did last year.
Leah Day's Review of the Horizon 7700

Here are some other Videos of the Horizon 7700
And...One more from Janome

I'm so excited about getting this machine. I just know it's gonna make quilting so much more easier :)
Well... I'll write more later, once I get the machine home.

My FireStorm Quilt

I decided to put my Firstorm Quilt on here and wanted to post my story to the quilt. I was featurned on MaryJo's Cloth Store Blog so you can go read it if you'd like to. A few of the fabrics were also bought from People Places and Quilts in Summerville, SC in order for me to finish up my quilt. I just shipped it off to Margaret Gunn, a professional quilter in Maine who is purchasing the variegated thread for the quilt right now. I'll have to show you some pics of the quilt and the backing I chose for it. Margaret does some of the best work I have to say I have seen yet. I'm excited about her doing it for me. If you get a chance, hop on over to her blog and look at her intricate designs. You will be in awe of her beautiful style.

So here we go.....
This quilt was started after a lady on the HGTV Quilting and Needlework Board that I frequent, posted a link to a Mystery Quilt Challenge which was going on, on Jan 1st, 2010 at Planet Patchwork . I got just about to the end of the challenge and decided I would just make mine larger. I was not sure how much larger I wanted to make it, but I wanted it to be a quilt for my husband and I since we didn't own one. So, the real challenge for me began. The Quilt finished at 89"X103".  It will fit nicely on my queen bed, IF/WHEN we ever get the smoke out of the frame. I think the mattresses are lost due to smoke damage but we'll have to see about that soon.

Here is a pic of my family holding up the Quilt. We were there at the gym for Homeschool Day and we got someone to take the pics for us.

This quilt was alot of fun to make and I someday hope to make another one from this pattern, The pattern was simple and the batiks certainly made it beautiful. From the story on the quilt, you can see, I waited a very long time to finally use the fabrics. One thing I can say. I will never hold on to something that long again. Those batiks could have been burn't up and no-one would have profited from the fabric. I'd rather give it away than lose it all. I am hoping once the quilt is quilted and I get it back, I can put it in some shows. I do want to enter it in the local Fair when it comes back this year. That's a little ways off for now but at least it will be ready to do.

Here is a  picture of me with the quilt. 

Here is another which looks 3D to me

Here is a pic of the borders

Here is another one of the  quilt

Here is another pic of the borders.

















Here is a pic of the bottom of the quilt.
















Here is the backing I chose for the quilt



















I will be posting more pics once I get some. Margaret will be sending me some samples of some quilting to choose from. This will be one quilt I am so very proud of!

My First Quilt..

This is my first post on my quilting blog so I wanted to start it off showing a picture of my quilt I did which will be raffled off Sept 11, 2010 along with about 39 more quilts where the proceeds will be going to the Ronald McDonald House in California. I am so happy to be giving for this charity as my husband had cancer at one time too. I never needed to stay at the Ronald McDonald House here, but I'm sure I could have. I for one know what it means to have a place to stay while your spouse is getting treated. I did have a room at the Atrium at the hospital where he was at, so I did get a few good nights rest at times :)

Ok, so on with the show..... here is the quilt top before it was quilted. I really enjoyed making it and I thought it turned out pretty good, although if I had it to do over again, I would have added more color to it. It's sorta plain looking like a "Sunday go to church quilt". Oh well... I'd love to win it back!  LOL

This is a more closeup pic of it! Not sure if you can see the all over quilting or not. I think it looks great with the matching thread. I was so thankful to Joyce Fehr  from the hgtv boards for quilting it for me, provided the backing, binding and batting for me. What an awesome gift!! Thank you Joyce!

Another close up pic!!!

If anyone is interested in buying a raffle ticket/tickets to win one of these beautiful quilts which will also be raffled off the same day mine does, please contact me to send the money  and I will get your name in the pot. Tickets are 2.00 each or 3 for 5.00.  Come on, what ya gotta lose?