Drawing on your quilt with a wet erase Marker????

OR

How to decide how to quilt a quilt top.

Recently I finished the quilting on this lovely blue and white quilt.

Deciding how to quilt this quilt made my little brain hurt!

When you look at this quilt with your naked eye you do not

see the circles that the quilt pattern creates. 

However thru the camera eye (or the picture that you see above)

you can clearly see the circle pattern.

So one of the things that I wanted to accomplish with thread

was to enhance the circles.

So here is how I started the quilt design process:

First I measured the circle

and made a paper pattern with that measurement.

Then I used my secret weapon....my most used design tool.

I have a piece of heavy plastic that I have edged with blue painters tape.

(I added the painters tape to clearly

mark the edge of the plastic you will see why soon)

I placed the paper circle pattern under the plastic

and on top of the area I want to design topped it with the heavy plastic

and using a wet erase marker I draw

the circle pattern on top of the plastic.

**Important**

Use the utmost care when using a marker around a quilt top!

The reason for the blue tape is to CLEARLY mark the edge of plastic.

You don't want any stray marks on the quilt top that could be permanent.

So now that I have the area I want to design clearly marked

I can pick up the wet erase marker and start drawing right on

top of the plastic protected quilt top.

With the plastic in place I can draw until I am happy with the design,

both in the circle area and also the design in the in between areas.

Then I can remove the plastic and place it where I can see it

while I am quilting the top on the longarm.

Unfortunately with this quilt I STILL couldn't decide on the quilting pattern,

so I had to move on to my next little design tool.

As you may have noticed my little plastic does not cover the entire quilt top.

It is great to use for small areas or to use for block design, but not so

great to use for the overall design of the quilt including the

outside border and any area that is in between the blocks.

I put the quilt up on my design wall.

In this case I folded this large quilt in 1/2,

but I still got the main part and borders.

I photograph the quilt, upload it to my computer,

set my printer to print a low quality, low ink

black and white image of the quilt.

This gives me a look at the pattern of the quilt only and not the color.

Next I slip the copy of the image into a plastic page protector

and get out my handy dandy wet erase marker and

start designing.

This is a great tool since I can see the whole quilt

and how all the quilting elements will work together.

Plus, it provides me with a map on how the top needs to be quilted.

So there you have it......my quilt design secrets.

Now get on out there and do some quilting!

Piece out,

tammy

Design Wall Monday

Still on my design wall this week....

but progress has been made on the guitar quilt!

Hopefully I'll find the time this week to do the machine applique!

This lovely quilt was also on my design wall/table this week.

Do you ever have a quilt that makes your brain hurt?

I worked for days trying to decide how to quilt this particular quilt.

I wanted to accentuate the pieced circle design, but had trouble

deciding how on earth to MARK this quilt since my go-to marking

powders are, you guessed it, blue and white. 

On my next post I'll share with you a couple of really neat tricks

I use in deciding how to quilt a pieced top.

 

Do you want to be inspired by other design wall?

Then check out Judy's blog:

http://www.patchworktimes.com/2011/09/26/design-wall-monday-september-26-2011/

 

So now I'll leave you with another pic of my sweet granddaughter.

 

Happy quilting today!

tammy

Stuffed

Christmas before last Mike and I were given a

gift certificate from Fogo De Chao.

Tonight we finally used it!

Anticipating a large amount of food we didn't want to

eat a late dinner, so I called earlier in the day and made reservations for 4:30pm.

I know, I know.......old people eat at 4:30, but we ate a light lunch early

and by 4:30 we were both hungry.

Here is how this Brazilian steakhouse works......

They serve 2 courses.

A salad bar and Meat.....lots of meat.

The salad bar was wonderful!

Lots and lots of very fresh selections.

Beautiful salad greens, vegetables, various cheeses & breads.

Potato salad, apple salad and many others.

Sliced meats including salmon.

I don't particuraly enjoy seafood, but I always try it when offered.

Guess it is just not meant for me to like seafood......

On to the second course:

MEAT!

And lots of it!

They serve 15 different types of meat which

they bring to your table on a spit and carve to your liking.

During this course they also bring side dishes of

garlic mashed potatoes, crispy polenta, bread and carmalized bananas.

This is a photo of the slab of meat and the gaucho slicing tableside.

Most folks just got a slice of each of the 15 selections.

I think we tried 12 of the 15....some of which I had merely a bite.

There were several top sirloin offerings, filet mignon, filet wrapped in bacon,

chicken wrapped in bacon, little chicken legs,

sausage, ribeye, lamb chops, leg of lamb and several pork offerings.

I was stuffed!

TOO MUCH FOOD!

We overheard the lady sitting at the table beside us

asking if she could have the WHOLE piece of filet mignon

instead of just a little slice. 

This was a piece of meat about the size of a man's hand....

not just the palm....the whole palm and fingers too!

She said it was her favorite.

Not a bad idea I thought.....might as well have a whole piece of

your favorite instead of little pieces of everything.

However she partook of every selection that was brought

to her table!  She must have been slipping to into a bag in her purse!

I honestly don't know how anyone could eat so much!

We scored an extra bonus.....

Phoenix happens to be in the middle of Restaurant week.

I've heard about it, but didn't really know what it entailed.

It seems that a number of restaurants offer a lowered price

and special offerings during this week.

So Fogo de Chao offered a reduced rate on our meal

AND included DESSERT!

Now I was STUFFED!

But you know I didn't turn down dessert!

Key Lime pie and Turtle Cheesecake.

Delicious!

(no I didn't eat BOTH of them.  one of these was Mike's!)

Would I go again?

Maybe I should answer that question tomorrow

when I am not still full!

Honestly it was too much meat for me.

If I were to do it again I would have had my salad course

and meat course together.

I would have enjoyed having the different flavors and textures

offered at the salad bar along with my meat.

Mike thought that it would be nice to have a selection of

different sauces to have with the meat.

All in all it was a great evening.

Good food, good company.

Thanks to our kiddos for such a thoughtful gift!

Sorry we took so long to use it!

Anyone want to meet meat me at the mountain tomorrow?

I really need to start hiking again!

Any guesses who might be in this ladybug costume?

Totally stuffed,

tammy

Design Wall Monday

This is what is on my design wall today.

(okay, it is pictured on my table here,

but it is on my wall now!)

I had some leftover curved blocks that I put together

in this little quilt.  Initially I was planning on making

a baby quilt, but I decided on making a wall hanging instead.

It just didn't want to be a baby quilt, it wanted to be an art quilt!

I drew out this guitar shape based on the Guitar Center logo,

since I really didn't want to cover up the pretty batik fabrics.

The guitar will be black fabric and machine appliqued onto the top.

Head on over to Judy Laquidera's blog and check out

what is on the design wall of many other quilters!

http://www.patchworktimes.com/

Prepare to be inspired!

Speaking of inspiring.......Here is a picture of my sweet little granddaughter.

I put her in front of the sewing machine every chance I get!  I am hoping to grow a new quilter!  Mia just turned one a couple of months ago, so of course she can't really sew on the machine yet, but I put my hands on her little hands and we guide the fabric thru the machine together.  (while talking about keeping our little fingers a good distance from the sharp needle!)

Don't you just love rapt attention Mia is giving this project?  Do you think I may have an aspiring quilter on my hands?   Hope so!

Hope you have a great Monday!

tammy

Christmas is Coming!

Look up.

I mean it.....Look UP!

Do you see that it is exactly 125 days until Christmas?

Christmas is coming and it will be here before you know it!

Every year just before Christmas I promise myself that

NEXT year I will be more organized!  and I vow to start in January

and do a little bit each month.  Ha! 

I love Christmas but it's always so hectic and as the mom I always have tons to do to facilitate all the family traditions that we have started over the years.

And now we have sweet Mia............this year should be a barrel of fun with her.  Here she is last year:

She was just a wee babe!

Isn't she cute in her Elf shirt and hat?

So I thought that this year I would share my journey with you all on this here blog by sharing some of the tips and tricks of managing the season

that I'll be trying.  We can all support each other!

I will also share some of my favorite patterns for the season,

but first I want to share with you a great organizing site.

http://flylady.net/images/HCJ2003.pdf

This link is to Flylady's Holiday Control Journal.

Have a look at these pages.

"Flylady" talks about alot of her other helpful routines

in the first couple of pages of this link,

but continue to read thru it, because at

the end there are some really great forms for getting organized.

One of the pages that I plan on using is the one to

organize all your holiday recipes all in one place!

I have several recipes that I use EVERY Christmas.

If you want you can even join the flyladies regular site, both

online and on facebook of course.

She'll send regular messages to help you get organized, both

in getting your house ready, menu planning and grocery shopping.

Here is the link for her regular site:

http://www.flylady.org/

Actually I have already started making some of my holiday crafts.

Okay, truth be told......these projects were started

LAST Christmas,

but they are done now!

See.....it pays to start thinking about Christmas now!

Merry Christmas from our family!

Hoarder?

Have you ever watched the show on the TLC network called

"Hoarding: Buried Alive"?

What do you think?

Are you a "saver"?

Do you feel the  compulsive need to clean after watching it?

Well I do!
I am a compulsive saver.
I just hate to throw anything away that I think I might have a use for in the future.  Trouble is.....sometimes I can't FIND "it" in the future!
I'm pretty sure that I AM NOT a hoarder........YET!
But I do need to do some serious re-organizing!

Today I started cleaning out some of the boxes I have

stashed away in my studio.

Here's a little glimpse into one of the boxes:

What is that?

Could that possibly be....?

REALLY?

Macrame.?.....that's SO 70's!?!

A macrame owl?

REALLY?

I still have a macrame owl?

I remember making macrame owls in my apartment in 1978!

HOW CAN I STILL HAVE A MACRAME OWL?

AND IT IS STILL UNFINISHED!

Do you think I could be a hoarder?

What should I do with it?

~cringe~

So the upside to going thru boxes is that I found two things I've been looking for!  I knew I had a roll of velcro somewhere!  And I've been looking

for the pattern for a bullseye quilt for some time now.

Didn't find the pattern, but looks like I already have quite a few blocks

already done!  Guess I can figure out the dimensions from this kit.

Quite a few boxes to go..........I can't wait to see what treasures I uncover.

Just hope I can make some decisions to

GET RID OF SOME STUFF!

Sweet Mia would LOVE to help me reorganize!

In Pieces,

tammy

OH man!  I've done it again! 

My last post was AGES ago!

How does this happen?

We spent a little over a week earlier this month in San Diego.

Mom and dad took a little vacation and asked if we could come over to stay with thier kitties. We had to think long and hard about leaving our 110 degree heat to stay where it was only in the 80's...........

One day we drove up the coast to visit with our friends that we met YEARS ago in South Africa.

It's always a great day getting together with Rusty, Lyn and Terry.

Here I am at the bay enjoying a picnic supper.

Thankfully we had a quilt in the car.....It was only 64 degrees!

We took several LONG bike rides  (15+ miles each),  went to the beach and bay, ate at Kono's and The Chicken Pot Pie shop, and basically just enjoyed the great weather.

I did work on several quilty type things while I was there.

I made mom some new kitchen curtains,

and made a whole stack of Petite Potholders

and of course visited The Quilted Rose and

Rosie's Calico Cupboard.

As you know, all good things must come to an end and well,

we are back in the 100+ degree heat.

Thank you God for Air Conditioning!

This is one of the projects that I am working on at the moment.

I had some leftover squares from a larger quilt I made and

thougth that it might make a baby quilt,

then reconsidered since the colors were not very babyish.

My brother is in a band and plays the guitar

so I thought that perhaps I could applique a guitar

and add a border to make a arty type wallhanging for his apartment.

Tonight I drafted the guitar pattern for the top using the

Guitar Center logo for the basis of my drawing.

Guess that's it for now.

Do you think our sweet angel knows

that she is loved alot?

Quilty Blessings,

tammy