Completed tops!!

I went to a retreat over the last weekend and actually got quite a bit accomplished.  I'm so pleased with myself!! LOL  If you remember, at my first retreat, I got hardly anything done.  This year I put together 2 tops from last year's BOM overload, as well as nearly half complete of the Christmas Quilt that I didn't get done at last year's retreat.  So..........

BlockBase Sew Along 2012

I wanted the blocks to float on the black, so no points touch the seams and I tilted every other block.  Blocks are all batiks on solid black background as is the outer boarder.  The inner border is a black with white swirls batik.

Funky Chicken!!

Funky Chickens from fatcatpatterns.com  still makes me smile! I used different colors in the cornerstones, solid black sashing and inner border and a black confetti for the outer border.

Funky Chicken border fabric

I had to wash out the colors a bit in the picture to get the colors to show on the border fabric.  It's really a pretty fabric with all the bright colored confetti.

Christmas Quilt about half complete

I got the upper left diagonal portion sewn together.  The lower right diagonal is just laid out on the floor and there are pins keeping pieces together.  I have also turned under the inset triangles (they are full blocks to be trimmed down) and there are no corner pieces sewn on yet.  And of course, no borders yet.

All in all a very successful retreat.  Can hardly wait until next year!  Until then, I have plenty of tops to keep the Bailey15 busy.

Keep on Stitchin'!!

I Have A New Quilting Machine!!

I finally did it.  I bought a Bailey 15 inch quilting machine.  http://www.baileyssewingcenter.com/
Here's the progression from the box!

What's in the box???

 Made in America!!!!

Just pulled from the box

That baby was packaged really good!

Bolted to particle wood!

Handles

Feet and instructional cd

Lotsa parts in there!!

And it's on the frame!!

I had to put the handles and some other things onto the machine, but it was pretty easy.  There really were no instructions for this part...just some pictures.  This gives me a few more inches to work with than the 9" Juki offered.  I put the Bailey15 on my Start Right Frame and it works very well.  Hopefully, down the road I can get a better frame with a carriage that will better suit the Bailey15. 

The Bailey is nothing fancy, but is a solid workhorse and affordable!  Now all I need to do is rack a quilt and get to practicing!!

Keep on Stitchin'!!

BlockBase Sew Along - All blocks are done!

Molasses flows faster than I paper piece! I finally got all 12 blocks done.

BlockBase Sew Along blocks

I'll use black as the background and see if I can't float these 8.5 inch blocks.  I'm taking this project to retreat later this month.

Keep on Stitchin'!!

Craftsy BOM August 2013

Got this block done in a hurry!  It was a truly easy block.

Craftsy Aug 2013

We will use this block for next month's lesson appliquing flowers onto the basket.  The handle has been glued down, but not yet sewn.  It was suggested to wait until next month.  The picture I took was a bit crooked.  The basket is actually straight in the block! LOL

Keep on Stitchin'!!