OMG....(one more time for the record)....OMG!

I FINISHED IT! I finally finished it! I have been working so hard on this Churn Dash quilt and tonight I finished it! I hand quilted it all and it is amazing! The quilting is amazing...the "churn dash"??? Uh...well its a churn dash....Anyway, I love it! I can not believe how big it is. I have a queen size bed and it hangs to the floor on all sides! I have wrestled this quilt for what seems like forever and now its done...I do have to put a label on it though. OMG, its done! I am so proud of myself! Wow! I never thought that I would have it finished already. I barely had the blocks pieced when I started this blog, and now look its done....I am scared to death to put it in the wash, what if it falls apart? Now that would be my luck...I made it with the intention of using it on my bed, now...I just wanna go out and buy a huge space bag, and stash it away! Quilting has given me so much I just cant put it into words. Quilting makes my soul rejoice, I love it so much. What a blessing that my God has given to me. I gotta go and do my little completion dance and then off to snuggle my new treasure!

Its That Time Again...

Well Casey will be arriving home again in the morning. I have been busy for the past two weeks while he was at work. But now its time to put things away for the week. I got the jelly roll quilt half way put together...lol! My it was a lot of strip piecing. I swore that I would never do another one, but when I started getting the rows done it transformed into a awesome quilt! I will do another one, maybe even a couple of them. I got my rail fence all sandwiched together and I started hand quilting it. I love that quilt. It is so pretty. I love the colors! I'm so slow at hand quilting, I think its because I'm trying very hard to make small stitches. All that practice has finally paid off. My stitches are much smaller and more uniformly spaced. I am using a burnt orange thread to quilt with. It looks really good on the back of the quilt, the back is a chocolate brown. Something I learned while making this Rail Fence quilt is: SQUARE UP THE BLOCKS! I had never done this prior to making this quilt! I had to take a picture of all the mess that had to be cut off! I actually followed the reciepe for that quilt to the T, well I didnt wash the fabric prior. It came out so good, no puckers, the seams matched perfectly, and it looks fantastic! I am going to start following directions! Lesson learned. I still haven't got my churn dash quilted, but that's okay, I'm working on it, slowly but surely! If I get it done before spring that would be great! It will be nice for my bed in the summer time. My son adores his Scooby Doo quilt! I am happy that I made that for him. Now I only need three more! lol! Well Millie's is going to be the jelly roll quilt. I think I will attempt to machine quilt that one. Maybe in a little flower design...I don't know but something besides stippling. I really want to go fabric shopping. Casey said that he would take me...uggg! I hate it when he or my children are with me. I need concentration...lol!

I Rock the Rocking Stitch!!!

I have spent the weekend hand quilting my Churn Dash. I think I have finally got it down. I need to work on making my stitches smaller. However I have read that the small stitches come in time that uniform straight stitches are more important. My husband has been out of town working since late December and he is coming home tonight!!! I am so excited! He will be home for a week and then he will be gone for only two weeks. He works in the oilfield for Halliburton. I cant wait to see him! I have decided to put all my quilting stuff away so I can spend the entire week with him. I am going to take my sewing table down as well. I took the Churn Dash out of the hoop last night to see how much I still had to quilt. I have about 12 blocks left. Then I have to quilt a large square and then a small square between the blocks. I was on a mission to find the perfect thimbles and by golly I think I found them!!! After wasting money and time on some others that didn't work! I quilted several quilts without thimbles and without knowing the rocking stitch. They came out good, however my fingers would get so sore and I couldn't quilt very long bc of the pain. When I started this Churn Dash, I was determined that I would learn the rocking stitch! I read blog after blog, watched You Tube video after video trying to learn it. I bought several thimbles the ones that the ladies in the video swore by! They didn't work for me. I am still not sure what exactly my bottom hand is supposed to be doing. And really, I'm not sure what exactly it is doing under there...lol! But its working! Three weeks ago when I started this shit-nan-a-gan I felt like a total moron putting the thimbles on and then trying to pick up that teeny tiny needle! I didn't even think they made a needle that was an inch long....OMG those needles are sharp! Super sharp, I didn't even know I had pricked myself until I seen the blood on my quilt!!! But now after a few weeks of practice, a lot of finger poking, about $100.00 deposited into the swear jar, everything feels good! I can hand quilt!!! I have to say it again because I love seeing it in black and white!!! I CAN FREAKIN HAND QUILT!

Another Day....

Well another day has almost come to an end. Its still freezing cold here in South Dakota. We are supposed to get an ice storm tonight...this will make three for the week. I finally dug out my batik quilt that I have been working on since 2006....I got all the blocks finished and I am putting the sashing on. However I have no back for it yet. I made an agreement with myself that I could buy some Moda fabric but first I would have to finish all the projects that I had started. The batik is the last one! I am excited to start my Northern Solitude quilt. The fabric is so pretty. My blue and yellow Churn Dash is in my hoop getting hand quilted, my rail fence top is completed, and the batik is in my machine...Lots to do still! I love quilting. I taught myself how to quilt....At times I swear that I will never ever quilt again due to the trial and error process. I have wasted so much fabric by cutting it wrong. I have literally fried my brain doing the math...trying to understand "scant", how to do the rocking stitch, and how to make perfect points. But once I finally get it....ohhhh I love it! I have learned a lot by reading other people's blogs therefore I have decided to write my own.