Rambling Rose Layout

From Quilted with Love

This pattern is driving me nuts. The written directions aren't making sense on the rose bud blocks nor is the diagram. You are supposed to have "extension" strips which I've added. But when I went to sew the sections, they don't fit. I'm going to email Pam Bono and see where I've messed up. Once I get the center together, the rest of the quilt will go together fairly quickly.

My Topaz was throwing tantrums again this morning so I pulled out my Sapphire from the basement and used it. It sews so amazingly well. In the 4 or so months I've had it, I've never had any problems with it unthreading. I wonder why the Topaz does as it's the same thing as the Sapphire.

I checked the settings on both machines. They are the same. I sewed on both. The Sapphire has more of a "growl" to it with less give on the feed dogs. The Topaz has a smoother feed but seems "loose" compared to the Sapphire. Since I had both machines up I used the Sapphire to do the detailed work and the Topaz to do the piecing. The Topaz behaved itself until about an hour ago which was really nice. Competition for attention between both machines? LOL. Too bad I can't keep both machines upstairs. My family doesn't need the kitchen table. It's always covered with quilting projects anyway. It would be nice to have the Topaz set up for machine embroidery and the Sapphire set up for piecing/quilting.

The construction guys came today with TWO cement trucks and did my driveway. I can't use it for another week though. My car has only been sitting out in the field across the street for two weeks now. But it looks wonderful!

From Quilted with Love

Then the guys asked if they knew what paint color the cinderblocks were as they wanted to match the new cinderblocks to it. If I didn't know, they'd paint the entire front a different color. They went with the tan of the siding. I can't believe the difference a color makes.  The cinderblocks were the same color as the garage door.

From Quilted with Love

After 7 years of being in this house, it's starting to really feel like it's mine.  We've added siding and windows a few years ago.  We replaced the gutters over a year ago.  Last year we replaced the water and sewer lines to the street.  

My poor front yard.  It keeps getting dug up.

Horses And Roses

My package came today!! Kristie, you are going to die over this quilt:


The pattern is called "Spring Storm" from Bigfork Bay Cotton Company. I fell in love with the pattern even though horses aren't my thing. This kit will keep me motivated to finish up some previous projects even though I want to start right now.

I'm slowly getting these roses done for my "Rambling Rose" quilt.  It's not that it's hard, it's just time consuming working with a zillion little pieces.  I need 6 of one direction and 6 going the other direction.  Here are 4 of them.  5 and 6 are being worked on:

From Quilted with Love

 Does anyone else's quilting area look like this while working on a project?

From Quilted with Love

Stacks of papers?  Boxes of stuff?  Fabric everywhere?  I really do have a method to my madness in there.  Maybe.  This quilt has made a HUGE mess with all the bags of labeled pieces and strips of fabric.  I still have about 200 pieces more to cut out with all the extra strips.

The next 6 roses will be fairly easy now that I know where all the pieces go.  The worst is going to be the lace border. 

"Rambling Rose" Block 1 Done

I've gone through 2 rotary blades cutting out this quilt and I'm still not done.  I still have 300 plus more to go!  But I do have the first of 12 rose blocks done!  Now that I know how to put it together it will be a piece of cake.  I'm SO glad I didn't decide to make the larger quilt.  

I'm now going to chain sew the pieces.  Ie, all the 1 and 1a's together so I can get these done.  

From Quilted with Love

Rambling Rose Fabric Cutting

Jen..are we still doing the Waun a Quilt?  Cause I have over 300 pieces cut out for my "Rambling Rose" quilt.  I still have several hundred more to go.  LOL.

From Quilted with Love

This is only a small part of it.  Pam Bono does very complicated but easy piecing.  If that makes sense.  Once I get started piecing, it will be much easier.  The secret to quilts with hundreds of pieces is to label them.  Pam does a great job with labeling the pieces.  I just label with paper and a pin the information to the fabric.  The next step is putting the same pieces together and labeling them as "rose" so I don't have go digging through the different fabrics looking for fabric as I go.

It doesn't look like much in the bags, but there are smaller pieces behind the larger ones.  I'm going to need a new mat after this.  And a box of new blades.  

I also marked in my new thread chart all the spools I have.  That will help when I need to buy more thread.