On December 1st I crossed off an item on my bucket list for lack of a better term. I ran cross country in high school and since then have wanted to run a full marathon. For one reason or another I didn't run for the last 20 or so years. In 2005 I signed up and walked the Disney half marathon with Team in Training, the leukemia and lymphoma society group. I started running after that and signed up for the Lewis and Clark full in 2008. The morning of the race, Hurricane Ike made a detour through the St Louis region. I think about half of the people signed up for the race still started. The course was flooding so the course for both the full and the half marathon were shortened to 10 miles. Very disappointing but who can boss mother nature around? Ha. I developed a wonderful case of plantar fasciitis in training and spent way too much time working through that. But finally started running again this year. We signed up for the St Jude's marathon in June. A week later I sprained my ankle pretty badly and spent the next month sitting. So training wasn't going quite as well as I hoped. A good friend of mine and I planned to run together. She was having IT band issues so hadn't run in the last month or so. So the race was pretty questionable for both of us. With her wonderful help, some gel packets and bit of craziness, both she and I and my husband completed our first full marathon. A wonderful experience and we were all able to walk the next day. Ha!

I’m my mother’s daughter and possibly have more projects than I’ll ever complete (sorry Mom!). But that doesn’t always keep me from buying more. I only have 1 complete quilt top (also known as a flimsy apparently) ready to go and it’s just waiting on me to get some charity quilts done. A couple of weeks ago I was looking for a piece of fabric I wanted for another project and must have found at least 5 other quilts in various stages of being completed. Well, the top/flimsy being completed that is. One of them was called the flower of the month and I have 2 months completed on it and a 3rd almost done. I’ve also done a wall hanging with one month and it’s about halfway hand quilted. But it’s a very pretty flower series of fabric that came out probably 4 or 5 years ago. This is one of the two months I’ve completed. It’s moved up to the sooner rather than later pile of projects. As well as finishing the wall hanging. I actually have someone in mind to give that to for Christmas so I guess I should get a move on.

I've been working on a mystery quilt with the proceeds from it going to a cancer patient. It's been alot of fun and is almost done. There are 6 clues and we have thru clue 5 received. I haven't sewn the last one together. You sew them into strips. I did lay the current blocks out and compared ways I like them being put together. Although I may wait until clue 6 comes out to actually sew them together to see if there is something in that clue to make a difference. Currently, here are the blocks arranged in a couple of different ways. Here are photos of two of the different options. Anyone have any thoughts on these?

Check out my 365Project at: http://365project.org/jubileequilt

I've been asked to put Texture Magic on this wall hanging to give it more of a 3D effect. This is mine but I have a lady who wants one made as well. My thought was to just add it to the boy and the bear to make them stand out and look more alive. The lady would like the whole quilt done. I am planning on doing mine with just the boy and the bear, but just thought I'd see what others thoughts were. Or if anyone has any other totally different ideas. I like the wall hanging itself and I have teddy bear fabric for the backing that I think will looks awesome with this one.

Check out my 365Project at: http://365project.org/jubileequilt/365/2012-10-28

Spiro purse

In the middle of September I went to the Quilting with Machines show in Huron, Ohio. It was a great show as I believe I've said before, but I watched Dusty do Spiro quilting and loved it. I used to love my spirograph when I was a kid. He mentioned it made good purses and accents on quilts so I set my mind to making a purse. I've never made anything like that before but figured it was worth a shot. I happened to have a purse pattern I'd bought at Appletree Quilting in Columbia, MO. It's really neat, has a lattice pattern for the sides of the purse. So I just substituted that for a spiro design and made my purse. I've been working on it for awhile (have gotten side tracked a time or two with other items), but finally the purse is done. I love it and am very proud of it for a first attempt.

Check out my 365 Project http://365project.org/jubileequilt/365/2012-10-22

Making progress

I've been working on my Millenium, learning how to make it dance. We're working on learning to walk at this point, but it's getting better slowly. I have a quilt on the frame now that I may have jumped the gun on, but it's getting better all the time. I am really liking how it's turning out, even if it's not perfect. It's a slow process and I'm amazed at how long it really is taking to do the job I'm doing on it, but then it's all a learning process so I guess it's to be expected. I am excited tho because I hope to have it finished by tomorrow. That's not too much longer. I'm doing a pantograph (actually in different sizes based on the size of the area to quilt) in the sashes and borders and the braiding in the middle, I'm doing stitch in the ditch. The learning curve on the stitch in the ditch is more than I anticipated but I'm working on it. But it sure looks nice when you look at it right before you roll the quilt on the frame. I'm happy with the work so far.

Spiro quilting

The 3rd week of September I went to a Quilting with Machines show in Huron, Ohio. They had classes on long arm quilting and vendors and a quilt show. The quilts in the show were awesome. Simply amazing what some people can do with a quilting machine. One of the instructors that I had is a man, Dustin Farrell, and he is one of those who makes amazing quilts. He was nice enough to share how he does the spiro quilting in one of the classes. By luck, I took that class. I loved my Spirograph when I was a kid and love the look of these designs. So I've worked with them a little so far and plan to get better at it. But here are the sides to a purse I'm making with a couple of spiros I've made so far. I'll post photos of the purse when it's done. I'm very excited about it.

September Free Motion Challenge

I joined a Free Motion Quilting Challenge to improve my free motion quilting skills. This challenge is for items made on your domestic machine. I joined later in the year since I just started looking for free motion information. Starting in September instead of starting at the beginning (January), can present an interesting challenge I guess. I assume they started a little simpler and worked up to the harder items, but I haven’t gone back and looked at all the months so not sure. Either way, this is my first try at free motion on my domestic machine. It didn’t go too well with the thread. I have done some free motion on a frame with decent results once I got the tension figured out on that machine. Why it didn’t dawn on me that it could also be a problem on my dm, who knows. But there are lots of thread problems (mostly on the back) and several people on the Facebook group have suggested tension is the issue, so I will be looking into that on future free motion on this machine. But, I think this design is very pretty and thought for a first effort it came out pretty well. I will be continuing to practice this one, I would love to put it on more quilts. It’s a circular feather which was actually easier than I expected.

Let the games begin

Hello again. Now the blog should start getting interesting. A week ago tomorrow, I took a trip to Overland Park, KS and brought home my new to me APQS Millenium longarm machine. It's taken some work to get it setup. THe frame is 14' long and fairly wide so the space that I was sure it would fit in is pretty tight for sure. Some continued reorganizing in the area will help, but for now it's setup and ready to go. The next biggest thing I believe is the name. I'm told longarms need to have names. This is a Millenium so many of them are named Millie I believe. Although the picture I have of it to post on here, with the lights, to me it looks like a man's face. Willie is always an option. I really kind of like the name Wilbur but a friend of mine named her dog that. So many names, so many options. But for now, here is a photo of my Millenium, set up and just waiting for me to come make some masterpieces.

My new to me Millie

I did it. I have been researching and trying longarm machines. I went to a used machine blow out at the Quilted Memories shop in Overland Park, KS last weekend and picked out my “new to me” machine. It’s a 2006 APQS Millenium on a 14’ frame. I am excited to get it and start working on it. I am heading west of the shop this weekend for an endurance ride and am hopeful I can fit it in the trailer on the way home. Do you think the horses will mind if they have to ride with it? With the frame being 14’ and having an almost full trailer of horses, I’m not very convinced it will work, but hopefully. I'll post pictures once it's at home and setup. Lyn at Quilted Memories has been very helpful in the tryout and purchase, I just hope she is in for the questions I’m sure will follow. In fact, everyone I’ve talked to about it has been extremely helpful. Quilters are a great bunch of people from my experiences so far. Here are a couple of more photos of quilts I've done on the Juki I had before.

Awesome weekend

It was a great weekend spent with horses and friends at an endurance ride in Utica, ILL. Matthiessen State Park in Illinois is a great park I'd recommend, if you have a chance you visit. Nice walking trails, there were lots of families out for the day on Saturday. There are waterfalls and canyons, not what you expect in Illinois. My friend and I finished the 30 mile limited distance on Saturday with happy, healthy horses. After the horribly hot summer we've had and I sprained my ankle early in June, I wasn't sure if they were in condition for a 60 mile ride. We're counting it as a conditioning ride for Kanopolis Canyon ride in 2 weeks. Who knew there were beautiful red rock canyons in the middle of Kansas? Now it's back to the business of trying to start a business. There is a used quilting machine sale in Overland Park, Kansas this weekend I believe I will head to. They have at least a couple of brands of machines I've not had a chance to try out yet, in my looking for the perfect machine for me. One of the machines sounds very interesting to me. I'll keep you posted on what I think.

Hello to all

A new blog is hardly a novelty I'm sure but here goes mine.  It's a blog about a new venture of trying to start my own business of quilting and braiding horsehair jewelry. I'm in the process of researching long arm machines to find the one that works best for me. I've been using a medium arm for several years and am looking forward to the capabilities of the long arm.  I get good reviews on the free motion quilting I've done so hope the learning curve is relatively short. I have about 10 tops lined up for learning including some I plan to do for the Quilt Beyond Borders charity.  I also braid horsehair into bracelets, necklaces, and keychains. That comes from wanting momentos of my own horses and helping others who've lost their equine pals. As Winston Churchill said "there is something about the outside of a horse that's good for the inside of man". Stay tuned for the progress.  Lisa