I have been practicing different techniques on my longarm quilter, my beloved Georgie the Gammill Optumum with a Statler.

I am having lots of fun and, more importantly, I have several lap and baby quilts to donate to my quilt guild for our designated charities.

I worked on spacing techniques, combining patterns, and, of course,

practiced applying the binding on the longarm machine.

There is lots of practicing left to do but I am definitely having a great time doing it.  Its all made even better that I am able to help those in our community that need a bit of comfort.

The gift of friendship given freely of my friends rival none.   Thus, I am thrilled to be able to reciprocate now and again.

Friend Leann was blessed with a beautiful new granddaughter and what better gift could I give to Leann and Emma than my time, love, and attention?

Emma deserved a quilt as cuddly as she is....  so flannel was the fabric of choice.  Plus, little Emma lives in Iowa so flannel is extremely fitting.

Isn't Emma beautiful??

I cruised through this quilt

Aside from a lap quilt here and there, I haven't kept any quilts for OUR bed...  or even our guest beds.  

I was completely thrilled and felt honored when I was asked to join a group of friends on a quilting cruise around the Caribbean last year.  I had never been on a cruise, let alone a QUILTING cruise and I was so excited!

The photo to the left shows our group and the three instructors. 

The next photo shows our ship on the right and our sister ship on the left docked in Jamaica.

I started three quilt tops on the cruise from Civil War fabric kits that I had purchased.  I had brought extra fabric on the cruised because I wanted to make each of the quilt tops larger so that they are more useful for my TALL family.  Whether they would get them or not was, as yet, undetermined but at least I would have options.

One quilt top in particular was close to finished by the end of the cruise so I decided to finish it first.  It was not my favorite of the three but one finished is better than three unfinished.

As I was working away on sashing and borders, the hubs noticed the fabrics and pattern, indicating that he really liked the quilt!

hmmmm, our anniversary was drawing near.....  I smelled an idea.......!!!

So I measured and calculated the sashing and borders for my husband's anniversary quilt.   I was determined to make the quilt big enough to cover our bed down to the side rails.

I had purchased a "new" 15' table and Gammill with a Statler stitch so I had a big enough table to quilt this monster quilt.   My old 10' table went to a new home (but only because I didn't have room for both).

After some practice on the new machine, I felt confident enough to quilt hubby's quilt.  I had no illusions of producing a ribbon worthy quilt but I felt ready to produce something of some level of quality.

I made the bed an odd way so that all of the pattern showed better.....
and it goes all the way down to cover blankets, mattress, foundation and all that other ugly stuff!

We are both pretty happy with the results.....  him with a quilt, and me with the quilting.

I hope you cuddle under a quilt full of love tonight!!!

belated, but so very loved

For a myriad of reasons (and/or excuses), I have been very late getting these quilts to the owners for which they were specifically made.

Life and other things affected my ability to work on them and I had needed to put them away for a while.   There was some personal pain that had ended up connected to these quilts and I had to work through some of it.

Not so long ago, I decided it was time to get them out and finished.

The pattern is Bonnie Hunter's 2014 Mystery Quilt, Celtic Solstice.

From the very beginning, I had planned to make a few extra blocks and make 2 nearly identical quilts. 

I chose to use a pink border and binding on one and purple on the other as the twins I was making them for were designated  as "pink" and "purple" pretty much at birth.

I used the same backing fabric on both quilts but used different quilting on them.  The pink bordered quilt was graced with bumblebees and foliage and the purple quilt shows large flowers and foliage.

Each quilt is adorned with a hand embroidered label.  The labels are different, yet still similar, as would be appropriate for twins.

To the adorable recipients:  The tardiness of your quilts has no bearing on my feelings for you.  I love you more than you can possible know.  May they wrap you in love and warmth forever and may you think of me.

Even though my blood pressure has been pretty unpredictable lately, I have still been able to be productive.  I can sit and do things that are not taxing, like cleaning out drawers and bins/boxes, or doing hand sewing.

In the last 10 days or so:

• I rounded up three large bags/boxes of stuff for donation to a second hand store.
  
• I kept the garbage man in business one more week by filling up our trash barrel to the brim.
  
  
  
  
• I was able to spend three days in the Angelgownsbyjacki studio, working on further preparing donated dresses for storage until their turn to be transformed into AngelGowns. 
  
• I was FINALLY able to get the hubby's quilt off the quilter but I haven't gotten it bound yet.  He choose a quilting in a Celtic knot pattern and I am fairly happy with the results.  It involved some new skills for me so there were a couple battles with the quilting machine that I am not sure I won.  BUT....  its off the quilter and that in itself is a victory!
  
  
  
• I was able to complete four baby/lap quilts.  I haven't decided for sure yet, but these quilts may either be offered for sale to support Angelgownsbyjacki or donated to a program providing quilts to kids.  Two of the quilts in this batch (the red, black and white "transformer" quilts) are similar. Once of the quilts, the last one shown, was received from a long arm quilter who didn't get it finished and was no longer quilting.

I hope to have another productive couple weeks ahead of me as I feel like I am on a roll on my list of UFOs (UnFinishedObjects).  And to be honest, part of my motivation to get some of those old projects completed is so that I can start new ones!!

Ta Da!!  Last but NOT least...  Quilt # 5 finished in April 2016....  this one had to wait until it was gifted before I could share it.  This one is for the soon-to-arrive baby of an adored cousin.

Mommy-to-be requested woodland animals....  but didn't give me much more information.  I guess she trusted me....

I found a fabric line I really liked and sent a hint of the fabrics (didn't want to give too much away) to the "parents" just to make sure I was on the right track.  I received encouraging feedback but no confirmation that the colors were correct.  Again, I guess she trusted me..... 

I decided that a bow tie pattern would allow the muted colors to show well.

The layout game:  positioning the blocks in a.....  well, somewhat-sort-of kinda-organized manner!

When I received the invitation to the baby shower, I was pretty sure I had the colors right and was pretty excited about the whole thing.

With it quilted in baby animals in a cream color, I decided the fabric, the bow tie pattern, and the crib size measurements would make a perfect "little man" quilt for the precious baby they will raise into a "big man".  

And, of course, I included a hand embroidered label....

Dear A and B: 

Enjoy the screaming bundle of joy that will bring you soggy nappies, sweet baby breath, late night feedings, soft sighs, earaches, cuddles, sleepless days, peanut butter and jelly kisses, frogs and rocks in the pant pocket, that soft place to nuzzle just below their ear, gum in the hair, crushed dandelion bouquets, temper tantrums, and handmade cards reading things like "I love you like candy". 

Enjoy EVERY SINGLE MOMENT!!
Love, Jacki

The UFOs are falling like flies... April's quilt #4

It has been busy around here.  Just how busy you ask...  I finished several quilts (4 in 4 weeks, I am proud to say) that were on my bucket list.

My Mom is visiting again so I put her to work...  We finished 4quilts in 4 weeks and that is amazing for me.  Note that they were not all from scratch.  All except one still needed a bit of piecing and borders to make them ready to quilt.  I finished the piecing and quilted them, and she did 99% of the pressing and hand sewed the binding down. 

It was reminiscent the old days when we would sew together after all my brothers and sister were in bed.  She would provide the soda, the cutting, and the hand sewing and I did all that was machine sewn.  We had lots of laughs and it will remain a fond memory for both of us.

This quilt top was made by several sets of hands a couple years ago and will be passed to a very lucky little boy.

Happy Mother's Day, Mom!!

Quilt #3 for April

for my mom.....  


FYI:  the little cuties on the label are wearing flip flops because my mom is the flip flop queen!

It was a joint venture:  She knew exactly what she wanted...  I had made a similar quilt for a niece a couple years ago and she wanted one too. 

Mom ever so carefully picked the fabrics and as I pieced the hearts, she pressed, and then pulled the foundation paper off the back of the hearts as they were finished.

While she waited on me, she hand sewed the bindings on above quilts #2, 3, and 4.

We are both thrilled with her quilt, I am blessed to have this time with her, I deeply appreciate her help with these quilts, and I wish her a very happy Mother's Day.

oh, and mom, there is a quilt #5 if you have time before you go home.....   Just stayin'....

April's finished quilts #1 and #2

Gramma finally got the AZ twins (as I call them) a quilt.  Yes, very late.  Yes, I am ashamed.

The darling Grandson's quilt has been a long time coming but I think I hit the nail on the head and made up the perfect quilt for this rough and tumble boy.... 

I pieced it with shirting flannel and quilted with "dad's tools", including drills, hammers, saws, and nails.

This kid is happy with a hammer, a board, a bunch of nails, and a couple hours so maybe he will dream up his next project under this quilt!

(and yes, a lesson was learned about quilting over hand embroidered label with colored thread...)

And since twins happen to come in pairs, his twin received a quilt too!  

The darling Granddaughter has been so patient waiting for her quilt... She had already picked out the quilt she wants when she gets married, even though I won't hold her to it.

This one remained a surprise as she wasn't sure what she was going to get until she pulled it out of the bag. 

I must have chosen correctly as she loved it.  She immediately rolled up into her quilt even though its summer in Arizona.

I am so proud of these two kids and Gramma went home very, very happy!

"Blue, navy blue
I'm as blue as I can be
'cause my steady boy said "ship ahoy"
and joined the Navy (sha-la, la, la, sha-la, la)

Does anyone remember that song?  It is Navy Blue by Diane Renay and if you remember it,