WOW December 28, 2011

Well the last week of 2011 hard to believe.  I have spent all day yesterday and all day today quilting my nephew Dominic’s quilt. I have been working on the quilt ever since the summer it will be so great to finally finish it and put it on his bed. I think it will take me the rest of today and all day tomorrow to finish.  It’s going very slow I have changed thread color 5 times so far and I’m still not done.

I hope everyone’s Christmas was wonderful.

Regards,

Lisa

WOW – December 21, 20011

Today is my mother’s birthday so “Happy Birthday Mommy!!!!!”

I spent most of my sewing time this week making the other 19 blocks for my Peaceful Pathways quilt they look wonderful it's going to be very scrappy. I’m getting use to my new sewing machine and really enjoying it. And look i bought the backing fabric!!!

Not much more sewing going on.  I went to two Quilt Guild Christmas parties and it was fun to celebrate with my fellow quilter. 

I just want to say Marry Christmas and God Bless to everyone this weekend while they celebrate the birth of our savor.

Regards,

Lisa

WOW - December 14, 2011

My new baby!

I was able to take my new sewing machine home with me last Friday I have not had that much time to play with her.  There is just enough difference between my old machines and the 830 that I will need to take the usage classes offered by my dealer and my sewing tables insert has not arrived yet.  Almost all my projects right now are hand sewing so I decided to start working on Part four of the Peaceful Pathways quilt.  I will eventually get the handwork done on part three but for now I’m going to be piecing all the 20 blocks.

Only 19 more to go!!!!

Have a great week,

Lisa

WOW – December 7, 2011

The closer I get to Christmas the less sewing I’m going to get done.  I did not even go into my sewing room this week.  My daughter and I share the room and she has been in the mist of her finals for the quarter (she is an apparel design student) and she has taken over the room her stuff is everywhere and I did not want to stress her out by moving anything.  Last night we cleaned things up and she will be done with everything for the quarter on Friday.

I worked on my hand embroidery corner units for Peaceful Pathways but they are still not done. I will continue to work on them next week hopefully get them done.

It was my grandmothers 96^th Birthday and I did bake her cake. It was an orange caret cake with cream cheese frosting and gum past flowers on top. Pretty simple put my time was limited. 

I spent even more time making biscotti this week.  I make them all year, but at Christmas I give them to so many people I have to make many extra batches.

Hope everyone is enjoying the holiday! I am.

Regards

Lisa

WOW- November 30, 2011

I’m very happy with what I accomplished this week. Thanksgiving was wonderful and my dinner turned out great.  I always like when it’s my turn to host Thanksgiving you get to keep the leftovers!!!

I finished my very last Affairs of the Heart block Thirty-six blocks completed when I started this quilt in April and the first block took me 12 hours I thought well maybe I will make four blocks and use them for a wall hanging or something, and here I am almost done with the entire quilt. I spent most of the day on Sunday putting the blocks together.  Now I have to start the border and I’m not going to using the one in the book.  I have decided to design my own because the fabric I’m using has inspired me to show it off better than the pattern would. The only problem with this is I keep changing my mind I have done a few samples and I keep tweaking it. Maybe next week I will have something to show you for the border.

I’m so happy that I had time to work on my Peaceful Pathways quilt because I’m still not done with part three.  I was able to complete one of my corner blocks and got working on the second.  I decided to use the alternative design that Esther included with the pattern because I’m doing hand embroidery and have a more rustic scrappy feel to my project. I also needle turned hearts in the embroidery.  I hope I can finish the rest of these corner units this upcoming week.

The most wonderful thing that happened to me this week was my husband told me that I could have the sewing machine I have wanted to purchase for two years.  Financially the timing was right and he surprised me with taking me to order it so it will come for Christmas, but he wanted me to come with to make sure he ordered it the way I wanted it.  So sometime next week my new Bernina 830 LE should be delivered to the dealer.  I still cannot believe that it will be mine.  This is why I decided not to quilt Dominic’s quilt top yet.  I want to wait and use my new machine with its 12 inches of room instead of the 7 inches my Artista 200 has.

I also want to mention how beautiful Esther's new quilt pattern is just stunning!!! What a Christmas gift hope my good fortune dose not end.

I hope everyone had a wonderful week!

Regards

Lisa

WOW – November 23rd, 2011

It’s the day before Thanksgiving and I have so much to be grateful for.  I will be spending most of the day cooking and preparing for having twenty four guests tomorrow.  I wish everyone that celebrates Thanksgiving a blessed time with their families and friends.

This week my creative juices were flowing.  I worked like a crazy women on my nephew Dominic’s quilt.  I actually got all the panels done and the entire top put together.  Now I have to decide how to quilt this. With so many different shapes and kind of a dark feel I want to take care that I do not distract form the appliqué. I do know I’m going to quilt with black thread on the border a barbed wire fence, but other than that I’m not sure.  Feel free to give me suggestions in the comments. There are so many very talented quilters in this group.

I finished another Affair of the Heart blocks and I’m about two thirds done with the very last one. I’m getting so excited to finish.  Then I will have to get busy putting it all together and deciding the positioning of the different blocks in the quilt.

I feel bad that I have not had time to work on my Peaceful Pathways quilt It’s been really wonderful to see others progress.  I have had to work on my projects according to their deadlines.  I hate having deadlines but Dominic quilt is already three months late. Maybe it will be done for Christmas since I missed his birthday. 

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

God Bless,

Lisa

WOW – November 16, 2011

Another week mostly dedicated to finishing my AOTH Quilt.  I completed another two blocks this week only two more to go.  I love these fabrics they keep me inspired to keep sewing. 

I took some time out this week to work up a pattern for a bag that my quilt guild will be making for a local charity called Safe Place.  They are a children’s shelter for kids that have not been placed in a foster home yet.   My first go at the pattern had to be corrected that is why I made two I wanted to make sure it was correct. It should be simple for anyone to complete now that I have tweaked the pattern.

My goal this Wednesday is to work on my nephews quit I’m really close to being able to put it together. We will see what I can get done.

Regards

Lisa Mortell

WOW – November 9, 2011

This week was all about Affairs of the Heart.  I completed three blocks this week and now I only have four more to go.  I will still have the border to do after that but once I get the center blocks done I can start putting it together and that will be exciting.  I have be working on this quilt for seven months now and I have three months to complete it if I’m going to put it in my guild quilt show. So I really need to step it up.  I have to admit that my hand is hurting from all the needle turn.

Hope everyone has a good week.

Regards

Lisa

Wow – November 2, 2011

It’s hard to believe it’s already November.  This week was better than last week for sewing time. I put the word blocks together for my Peaceful Pathways.  I have not started the corners yet I’m hand embroidering them to match the work blocks.  I’m hoping to get started on them soon.

I finished my art quilt that I started and I’m very happy with how it turned out the beading took a lot longer than I thought it would but it really enhanced the quilt.

I also made some progress on the nephews quilt and I hoping to finish the skull blocks today.  

Hope everyone has a wonderful week.

Regards

Lisa

WOW – October 26, 2011

This week did not allow for barely any sewing. The only think I worked on was my corset.  We had the last class last night and I got it almost finished I just had a little hand sewing left and I did it this morning at my hair dresser while I was under the dryer.  I think it was the first time she had anyone sew in her salon.  I love the way my corset turned out now I have to plane the rest of the outfit that will go with it.

Hope everyone else had a better sewing week then I did.

Regards

 Lisa Mortell

WOW – October 19, 2011

I had the most productive week in a long time.  I attribute that to my wonderful husband letting me hold up in my sewing room all last weekend.  It was also one of the busiest weeks I have had in a long time.  I attended two classes the first one was an all day workshop by Rosemary Eichorn call Collage-Crash Course (I took a day of vacation for this!!!) and the second was my second corset class. 

Rosemary was a wonderful teacher and I learned so much from this experience.  I have my wall hanging almost done I’m going to be doing some beading on the roses and the sky and then I will need to bind.  I really love the way it looks after you wash your collage. I will make sure and show you all what it looks like when I have it completely done. 

I finished two Affairs of the Heart block this week.  I’m getting closer to finishing. 

I finished my two appliqué panels for my nephews quilt and did the thread painting (my first time!!) I’m so happy with the way they turned out. I now have two more panels to do and ten other bocks to finish and then I can start putting this quilt together. 

Lastly I put the rest of the front and back to my corset together.  Next week will be the last class we will be installing the lacing, boning and binding.

Regards,

Lisa

WOW - October 12, 2011

I spent most of my week working on my Affairs of the Heart I finished one block and got another one 80% done.  I really can’t wait to finish this quilt and start putting it together.  I have nine more blocks to go so I can at least see the finish line.

The other highlight of me week was I took a corset class with my daughter.  Last night was the first class and we learned how to install the busks.  I have a little home work because I used a lace over satin and everything needs to be basted first so I will do that so I don’t get behind in class.

Hope everyone had a great week.

Regards

Lisa Mortell

WOW-October 5th 2011

This year is going so fast I find it hard to believe its October already.  I had a great week and I finished a few projects and took a really interesting class on how to bead with your sewing machine. As soon as I got my sewing machine back I went back to work on my QAYG project and I finished it.  Really happy with the way this turned out the colors are great and the quilt was fun to make.

  

This is the samples of the beading class that I took. The right sample is the beads on the top of the fabric and the left is putting the beads underneath the fabric.  I plane to add beads to the top and then cut it down and put a binding on it.

I finished my Peaceful Pathways Part two this week and I’m pretty happy with it. Looking forward for the next step.

Lastly I finally did a block to my Affairs of the Heart Quilt I have not picked it up for 8 week and I really need to get busy on it. So I finished this block last night and I plane to work on another one today.

Hope everyone had a great week.

Regards

Lisa Mortell  

WOW- September 28, 2011

I missed my sewing machine this week it was in for servicing and I picked it up last night.  I was so excited to put it in my new table with the insert that fits my machine.  My husband also built me a matching cutting table.  It’s so sturdy and he did a wonderful job we moved it in the room last night.

I used my daughters Juki to do the piecing on my Peaceful Pathways center unit and then I finished the hand needle turn on the hearts.  I’m really happy with the way they turned out.  I decided to wait for my machine to finish the center it will be on my agenda for this coming week.

I also finished my Henrietta Whiskers top I love this quilt and it’s going to hang on the wall in my kitchen eating area when it’s done.  Not sure when I will have time for the quilting hopefully soon.

Regards

Lisa Mortell

WOW – September 21, 2011

Last Thursday was my 45^th birthday and I spent the entire day at a quilting workshop that I learned a quilt as you go method.  Being a fairly new quilter I had no idea how it worked.  It’s really fun and you get to see results quickly.  So I spent most of my free time this week trying to finishing the quilt that I started at the workshop I was hoping to finish it today when my sewing machine started to make a strange noise so I decided I better bring it in.  So now I will be without a machine with a walking foot for a week.  I can use my old machine for piecing so maybe I will get started on my center blocks for Peaceful Pathways.  

The other fun thing that happened this week was my husband bought me a real sewing table for my birthday.  I was so excited I have wanted a table that my machine can sit down in ever since I started quilting.  But now I will have to wait to get my sewing machine back to use it.  Oh well just looking at it makes me happy.  My husband is also working on making me a custom cutting table as well. He bought all the supplies last night and I think he will get started on it this week.  So I will have perfect sewing room soon.



with my old machine sitting on top



All in all this last week has been great.  I guess turning 45 isn’t so bad.

Regards – Lisa