Newish techniques, old favorite things

Garlic Knots - I'm practicing ruler work in the border - tedious, but kinda cool as well.  I lost my way, here and there.  Seams under the ruler sometimes helped, sometimes hindered.  I need to improve on sharper corners, and I also wish I had left more extra batting and backing on the outside of the border, to grip.  Two more sides to do, then just binding and it will be D O N E!  

I added a strip of sandpaper to the back of my ruler.   It might not be needed by others but helped me hold onto the fabric.  No technique is perfect - I had to make other adjustments when using this ruler, such as changing the large screw on the foot, to a smaller screw which allowed the ruler to slide under.  Also, it's still difficult to use this ruler behind the foot but must change to a  thinner ruler,  or else modify my approach to the quilting.  All do-able.  Live and learn.

I found this treasure among DH's stuff -- almost 100 years old.  

The pictures are kinda Amish in nature - something about being neat and tidy, use each day to the fullest, etc.  The beer box holds CDs, and the current one is called Ansel Adams - a very calming  instrumental.  The pencil sharpener?  Occasionally the top of the player needs some "weight" to play the CDs.  Yep, that's my technology solution - better than a brick! 

Wow, those white walls are glaring!  I need more stuff on the walls.  No curtain fabric has arrived yet. 

Tumalo Trails aka "Cowboy Up", DONE

I call this "Cowboy Up" because it looks so  ... blue sky, outdoors and I'm here in western Nebraska, where there are a LOT of blue skies, and real cowboys!    It's about 86"x 106", all MQ'ed on my Janome MC6500.  Whew!  In case anyone wonders, I have 8 7/8 inches from the needle to the machine housing. 

Thank you to Bonnie Hunter at Quiltville.com for the inspiration.  The border is my own idea. The darker blue corners took a little fidding on graph paper.

This is the quilt that started one day when I just HAD to sew something, and made about 100 little 9-patches, wondering what I could do with them.  At the same time, my PILE of accumulated stuff on my sewing table was out of control.  Suddenly a blue plaid shirt that I had not yet cut up, fell on top of the 9-patches.  My gosh, it was the PERFECT fabric!  It had been given to me by my friend Janet, who knew I liked cotton shirts.   I used every bit of that large shirt, with NOTHING left over. 

I learned the border quilted swirls using the clear Janome foot that glides, doesn't hop, with red guide lines that help to keep the arches approximately even.   Thanks to videos from talented Angela Walters.  This design uses a backtracking method.  It really helped to have thread matching closely to the background.  I quilted each side in about one hour.  That narrow dark blue in one of the borders is a dimensional flange - just for touching.

This clever design is called pea pods.  To avoid boredom, I used a number of quilting designs on different rows.  

Oh yes, about 3600 pieces!