Birthday Giveaway!

In celebration of my birthday today (It's getting close to a big one!) I'm offering up some charm packs!  I have one grey charm pack and two charm packs of Denyse Schmidt's Picnic and Fairground fabrics (left over from cutting up my quilt blocks yesterday) up  for giveaway.  If you would like to enter, please tell me anything about your experience with Long Arm Quilting in the comment.  Some possible ideas to comment about:   Do you have a long arm machine?  What do you like/dislike about it.  Do you have your quilts sent out to be long armed?  Do you think it is affordable?  Worth having done?  Or do you prefer to quilt your own quilts?  Have you had some good/bad experiences with sending your quilts out?  Please make any comment regarding long arm quilting--I will consider it as a birthday present to me as I really want to know how to make my upcoming long arm business a good one and I need your ideas!!!  Closing date for this draw will be May 6th and I will do the draw on May 9th.  First prize will receive the grey pack, second and third will receive the Denyse Schmidt packs...  Thank you so much for your comments and opinions:)

Wonky Picnic and Fairgrounds Quilt Blocks

So, I did say that I would try and blog more about the little steps I do in the process of quilting.  This is where I am at at the moment.  I couldn't resist cutting into my Denyse Schmidt Picnic and Fairgrounds fabrics.  I just sort of randomly decided at the last moment to do a small wonky quilt.  At first I meant only to make it with two different fabrics per block, but it didn't look right so I added one more which I think adds interest.  So far these blocks measure 12 inches and I intend to yet add some more Kona Snow to frame each block.  Unfortunately I used every last scrap of Kona Snow that I had and am waiting for more to arrive that I ordered about a month ago.  I will try and see how far I can get with this quilt this weekend...  Tomorrow is my birthday and I am planning to host a giveaway in celebration so stay tuned!

Folklorique Finish!

So, I have been busy with finishing old quilt tops this year.  This is a top that I've had sitting around for several years now waiting to get quilted.  The fabric is Moda's Joanna Figueroa called Folklorique.  The pattern was inspired by a quilt from one of Kaffe Fassett's first quilting books.  Originally I really loved the earthy tones of this fabric paired with the bright blue and red, but with so many new designers and much more interesting fabrics available now these fabrics are way less interesting to me now.  It's nice to have this one finished.  I ended up free motion quilting this on my domestic machine with continuous chain circles.  My husband said he didn't like it, but oh well, I'm glad I tried something new and different at the time.

My most exciting news of the moment is that soon I will be doing much more quilting!  We have decided to go ahead purchase a long arm quilting machine to start my business since with the current Aussie dollar exchange rate with the U.S. dollar it is a good time to take the plunge.  I'm so excited!  I've had this idea on the brain for nearly four years now and it looks like I will be set to start the business by September.  I will be getting a Gammill Statler Stitcher which is computerized.  I want to concentrate on doing all over patterns at an extremely affordable rate with fast quality service.  It's what I personally have been looking for but have not been able to find here in Australia.  It is sooo expensive to get a quilt long arm quilted and it takes forever to get back once they are sent off.  Sometimes half a year or longer!  Of course, it is hard to determine how much business I am going to get, but I do want to concentrate on fast service with mainly helping people to be able to afford to turn their quilt tops into quilts!  My dear blog readers, if you have any experience as either a long arm quilter or someone who sends their quilts off to be quilted, I would be more than appreciative to hear your advice and comments!

Denyse Schmidt Picnic and Fairground

The latest excitement in the world of Flickr has been the talk of the newest line of Denyse Schmidt fabric available only at Jo-ann Fabrics!  I have never been much for Jo-ann's in the past as most of their fabric is not quilter quality, but this newest line by Denyse Schmidt is definitely the exception.  Of course, I am here in Australia where there are no Jo-ann's but with the help of the online community, namely, Mamaspark, I was able to get some of each of this line!  She was very generous with her time and made great effort to prepare and send some of these beautiful fabrics to fellow online fabriholics.  I am so in love with this new line that arrived here today!  It is even better in person and the quality is amazing--so soft and as good as any you would find in the quilt shops.  Word on the street is that Denyse will have some new lines out with Jo-ann's this summer and fall and then a reprint of some of the Flea Market Fancy line with Free Spirit in January 2012!  Too exciting!    Now, to decide what I am going to create with these...

Authentic Quilt Top

I finally pulled out my Authentic fabrics by Sweetwater a couple weeks ago.  I started this quilt a long time ago but put it away for whatever reason.  Recently there has been a popularity in the Flickr community over the newspaper print.  When I originally bought this fabric I was absolutely in love with those newspaper prints and couldn't understand why other people weren't buying it up.  Now, of course that it is out of print, everyone wants it!  This quilt is huge!  It's at least a King sized quilt so it will be a big job for me to quilt on my domestic machine.   I think I will just stipple it the best that I can.  The design is my own, I spent a few days playing around with circles and this is what I came up with!

Wonky Log Cabin Quilt

So today I am finally able to do some blogging again.  My dad stayed with us for three months, so that kept me busy.  He had a good time and had a chance to get to know the boys quite well.  Though, the computer nerd he is, the day after he left the band width allowance was all used up and I've had terribly slow internet connection until today.  Now I'm all topped up again!  Geez, he's too used to city life or something where internet is fast and cheap!  I hate that here in the country we get charged so much for so little when we are more dependent on internet for communication with the outside world.

Anyway, I have been plugging along with my New Year's goals to finish quilts that I have started already in the last five years.  Some of them feel a bit outdated already, but it's nice to see some finishes.  I have a lot of finishes so far minus the bindings being sewn down, which usually takes me forever to get done!  Here is one  that I started not too long ago made with Momo's black and white fabrics in a line for Moda called Wonderland.  I featured the butterflies for the centers of the wonky log cabin blocks.  Plus, I added a Splash of Flea Market Fancy to each of the blocks to zing them up.  Have you heard that Denyse Schmidt has new fabrics out available at Joann's in quality quilting cotton?  It's beautiful and I have some on the way:)  Can't wait to show you!  If you get close to a Joann's, go and check it out!