A very long post

You're probably going to want to grab a cup of coffee before you start this one.  You may need it!  Sew, (because that is all I have been doing lately) I feel like I have not had much time lately to attend to my own post but thankfully have been able to squeeze out a few minutes to at look everyone else's great work out there!  Here is a bag I made for my friend Becky in Dubai.  She is from Louisiana and she used to live around the corner from us.  We had a lot of great afternoons just sitting on the sofa for some good girl chats and I really miss her.  I went to visit her a couple of weeks ago for just two days but it was well worth it.  I thought since Valentine's Day was around the corner I would make her a bag.  I think it came out really cute and unfortunately, you can't really tell but I had Cheryl, the teacher from Vancouver, do the quilting on it.

She even added Becky's name to the inside which I thought was a nice touch!  It was really great having a house guest for the first time and it also meant that I had some one-on-one lessons with Cheryl.  She is working on a quilt for herself that she is designing as she goes.  If it is anything like the one she just entered in the Dubai show it will be amazing.  This is what she did while she stayed with us.  I thought it came out a little arabic feeling so I told her that when she shares the story of the quilt that she would have to say this part was born in Kuwait!

I know she will probably kill me for putting her picture here too but wanted to share it anyway!

What are friends for anyway, eh, Cheryl?!  And the process she used to put the part with the stripes in is somewhat like reverse applique.  I thought Alisha might find that interesting since she is enjoying that process right now.  She did the design work with freezer paper.

  She also showed me how to do this for some quilting on my french braid quilt.  I wanted a fluer de lis for the centers so we drew one and I applied it to the block and quilted it with gold metallic thread.  I actually really like the affect but wish it had stood out more considering the time that was put into the technique.

Sew here is the begining of the quilting process.  I have to say I love my new Bernina 830 and all the neck room that it affords me makes a world of difference.  I tried to use my BSR foot but just couldn't get the result that I was looking for so ended up removing it and using a quilting foot and the foot pedal which was a bit of a challenge since I was standing the entire time.  My hip was killing me by the time I finished it but no worries, Andrew, my engineering husband, has already come up with an idea on how redesign my bernina to alleviate this in the future.  We are just waiting on some motorcycle handlebar parts to arrive from the states.  I will post pics when he has it finished.

Since this quilt was intended for an exhibition I decided that going through the thread changes was the only way to go!  There were a lot of thread changes!  But it I think it was worth it because they matched the fabrics very well and hopefully will hide a multitude of mistakes.  Then came the binding work.  I miss G'ma and Jawana, my professional binders!  Thank goodness this was just a wallhanging and not a bed quilt.  I finished the binding in a day but by the end of the day my finger was so numb that I couldn't feel it when I went to take out my contacts that night!And when it was all said and done here she is.

 I am really happy with the result and the quilt was delivered to Dubai last weekend to await the International Quilt Show February 18-21.  Not really expecting to win anything there but thought I should start somewhere with exhibiting my quilts and Ricky Tims from the US will be one of the judges.  He's a master quilter from Wichita Falls and I was hoping to get a critique from him and perhaps a picture with me and my quilt.

For those of you that don't know yet there is a very good chance that we will find ourselves in Texas in April.  I am so excited needless to say especially with a new grandbaby in the family.  Still can't believe I have two grandkids now!

But just as I was finishing this quilt Andrew told me that he would like for me to try and complete three more quilts before I leave at the end of March.  Now that sounds a little overwhelming but when you add that for the next three weekends we are traveling away and probably looking at a few days in the UK in early March it gets a bit manic!  I do think that two of them will proabably end up as a take on the french braid because I really like it and now that I have done one it should in theory be easier to duplicate.   The other is a new pattern that I am trying and here are the colors that I am working with.  I can't really share too much because it is a surprise for someone that I know reads my blogs.  I've already said too much.....enjoy.  But I do like the 25 different colors that are used here.

I thought I carefully put them in an order that would work and then when I read the pattern again it said 'If you are one of those people that needs to be organized and follow a pattern then now is a good time to let go!'  Apparently, you just willy nilly join these up in any order.  Oh, it is hard to let go!  Really, it's a lot harder then you would think having no clear path on order and just picking up a strip and sewing it with another.  I will try to keep you posted on how it is going.  I think the end product will be very nice.

But alas, today I am off to the fabric souq with a couple of friends as they have put the cottons out early this year since we really haven't had a winter.  I can't wait to see what they have brought in for us.  If you skip back up to the picture of Cheryl holding the quilt piece you can see a couple of my fabric cupboards behind her.  I have another on the opposite wall that is full too but Andrew keeps telling me to buy more fabric and don't come home with anything less that two meters of each.  Got to love that man!  But now I am looking for more cupboards to store it all in as well.  But when you consider the price of fabric in other places in the world it does seem silly not to buy it when it is so cheap here.