Happy May Day Sale!

     I've always loved May Day. Some of my fondest childhood memories are of dancing around the May Pole at school. Then we would make little bouquets from what little flowers, which wasn't easy as about the only thing blooming were the lilac's, bridal wreath and a few late forsythias and take them to our neighbors and friends.
     To celebrate the month of May I'm offering a sale on my machine quilting. 10% Off any Edge to Edge or Overall patterns. I've also included a few quilts with flower quilted on them. Happy May Day! Click on the machine quilting tab to get a quilt submission form with my contact information on it.

Not me, but I danced around the May Pole when I was a child and remember it like this. 

Some cute May flowers quilted on a customers cute scrappy baby quilt.

These daisy worked out perfectly on this border.

The front of the daisy border quilt. 

Yes, I know the boots, hats & horseshoes aren't in keeping with the May Flower theme but they were just too darn cute not to  post. Again my camera didn't' pick up the navy blue of the backing. 

A Little Gammill Should Fall into Everyones Life

     Since I've been quilting I've always quilted for others but on rented machines. I rationalized I could never have a long arm because my house is too small. Four short weeks ago, life hit me between the eyes with an opportunity and I grabbed it. The Engineer and I created a space large enough for a long arm by remodeling, heating & air conditioning the garage. It was that easy, well honestly, that exhausting, but well worth it. The Engineer and I spent a lot of evenings on ladders, wiring, insulating & painting. Then I was the construction cleanup crew, all one of me. But as we say here in Idaho, I "got er' done!"

     On March 10th my new Gammill Statler Stitcher will be delivered and I'll be in the long arm quilting business, officially! I'm excited to start quilting your beautiful quilts. I'll also be putting specials together for my first customers. Watch this blog for those and I'll post the specials on Instagram as well. I'll also be posting pictures of my quilting so you can see my work.
     Quilt On! Life is Good!

My Second IG Swap and Hooked

I've been absent for about 9 months from blogging. One of the side effects of cancer chemo is depression. It's a tough hole to climb out of and I didn't want to take anything, so I "holed up," for way too long. I'm back, though some days I have to make myself do what I need to do, including quilting. I do have a few I put together last year which I'll post about. I've got my energy and hair back, life is good.

 If you have an Instagram Account and follow quilters you're probably aware of the swaps, they seem to have gone viral, this is a good virus to catch. My first swap I was lucky enough to get in, sign ups start and end fast, was the #disneyquiltswap2015. (I'll post a blog about the Disney mini I made in another post.)

Here's how swaps work: After the signup you receive a questionnaire with your likes/dislikes, fave colors, fabric designers and a few other bits of info about yourself. You get to see your secret partners info sheet complete with their IG account so you can start stalking them to figure out what they want. You can also follow the hash tag to see what everyone else in the swap is doing and guess which one is for you.

My partner for the #rainbowminiswap favorite designer is Denyse Schmidt. I purchased a couple of charm packs, Hadley and Shelburne Falls to get a good selection of colors and started to make a rainbow with. The pattern I used is Tula Pinks, Free Moxi pattern, I just sized it down, laid out the fabric and got this. :) I wish it were are easy as that last sentence, I did sweat it out a bit but it was a a fun project.

 I decided to quilt it in concentric circles and chose three different ares to start. I used the edge of my walking foot as a guide, it creates just under 1/2 inch space. between each circle.

I'm super excited about the back, the quilting circles show up better. What do you think? 

Now a swap isn't a swap unless there are extras. So from the little left overs I made a mug rug and a wide open pouch using Denyse Schmidt scraps. If you've never made a wide open pouch before its easy, I can finish one in 20 minutes. Heres a link to Anna's blog: Wide Open Pouch

I have to give credit to Elaine from Hemmed in By Him for the Wonky Flying Geese Tutorial

Here is the Plus Mug Rug, which sports my first concentric circle quilting, it was a learning experience.

 The squares are one inch finished. The lighting isn't real good in this picture, the fabric is all blues and greens.
Instagram Swaps are addicting, I'm limiting myself so I can get my other projects done and sell enough houses to pay for my quilting habit. Next up that has to ship by the 27th of April is the Spring Fling Mini Swap. I haven't even thought about it, I'd better get busy.

Hot Pink Chevrons and Baby Girls, They Go Together

     My close friend's daughter is having her first baby and it's a girl. She chose hot pink chevrons with purple accents for her nursery. Since I had Riley Blake Hot Pink Chevron in stock, I imagined 60's style flowers appliqued from a cute purple floral print. When I went shopping I couldn't find anything I had imagined. I did, however, find all the Michael Miller and Moda Dots pictured below and bought  them in 1/4 yards or fat quarters.

     I used the freezer paper method to make the flower applique then used the applique stitch on my machine. It was the first time I'd appliqued with the machine so I practiced first. It get easier the more you do and by the time I finished all 10 flowers I felt like an old pro.

     I used the lightest weight polyester batting and spray glued the layers together. Then I quilted just the top of every other chevron. When I finished hte quilting I showed The Engineer and his comment was that it didn't look complete with every other chevron being quilted, back to the machine, I quilted every chevron. He was right, it looked finished. I lengthened my stitch from a 2.5 to a 4, I think a little longer stitch looks better. 

     Here's the happy mom with her finished quilt. I forgot to show a picture of the backing, it's light purple minky with little swirls that look like flowers.  I was worried about the hot pink thread I used to quilt with, thinking it would stand out too much on the back. The minkie swallowed it but you can still see a slight chevron pattern on the back.  

    

The baby shower was fun, good friends and food were plentiful in Barbara's beautiful yard. 

I have to share with you the adorable baby buggy fruit bowl she made, 

have you ever seen anything so cute?!?!

FINALLY! But It's Worth It.

I have to say I can't recommend chemotherapy, it's not fun at all. Yeah! I'm done. However, I have been slow to start much of anything plus I don't have much energy. Now that I'm done there is this kind of lost feeling, like what do I do now? I was consumed with cancer, then chemo treatments and doctor appointments have defined my life since last July. I can't explain it other than it's sort of like Stockholm Syndrome. But on to brighter things...I FINALLY found the gumption to finish my nieces quilt. It's been with me the entire cancer journey as this is one of the two quilts I pieced the week I found I had cancer.

Since this has been such a long time coming I proudly (and with a lot of relief) post these pictures!

I'm really a beginner on the long arm and have never undertaken quite an aggressive design before, all of my own design. I did four different block patterns in each row and changed them up each row so no alike blocks were together. Then I tried a loopy wave pattern in the dark sashing with hot pink thread. What was I thinking?!?! Well, for better or worse, here it is.

Be kind with your thoughts here, I free handed this and I know it wouldn't win an award. But I do think the pink thread really makes the quilt. 

The picture above shows the true colors, it's a vibrant quilt. I thought the stitching on the black back looked really cool. I made one block too small by mistake and used it to make the back interesting. 

Here's proof in the pudding. My sweet niece Becky loving her quilt! Her smile makes it all worth while. 

WE HAVE A WINNER!!

CONGRATULATIONS!

Awyna B

You are now the proud owner of these three pink fat quarters.

I'll be emailing you to get your address and they will ship tomorrow. 

To all, keep your eyes on my website, I'm putting some charms on sale. 

NO MORE CHEMO!

Monday the 24th was my last day of chemotherapy! Shout Hooray with me!
I've lost my eyebrows, the lashes are going, I'm sad. After I read several cancer blogs and realized it could take almost 2 years for the brows to come back in, I was even more sad. The Engineer told me to shop for someone who does good work because he's taking me to get permanent eyebrows and eyeliner!! What a guy! He batted it out of the park with that one! My energy is low, the doctors say it will be about 90 days before I'm feeling all my juice again, I can wait. A few have asked...Yes, I'm starting reconstruction in January of 2015.

I'm wanting to build followers on my facebook page and to celebrate my chemotherapy being over, I'm giving away 3 pink fat quarters! Pink because it's breast cancers color.

Sign in with the Raffle Copter link below, enter your information, then like and follow my facebook page to win the fat quarters!  (If you already have LIKED my page you can still enter to win) To win extra entries leave the first name of someone who has been touched by cancer in  the comments below this post. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway