Quilting disappearing nine patch

My stack of quilt tops has almost outgrown its shelf space, so I decided I had better get busy quilting some!  For me, the hardest part is figuring out what I want to quilt in all that space!  Do I want to emphasize the quilting itself, or do I want the blocks to take center stage?  I have been struggling to find my quilterly voice.  To develop my own style.  It is not easy, it takes a lot of practice!

Back in May, I blogged about a disappearing nine patch swap that I was participating in through the Land of Lincoln Quilters Assocation (http://maggiemayquilts.blogspot.com/2011/05/disappearing-nine-patchwith-twist.html).  At a recent retreat/pajama party, I put my swapped blocks together into a top that I am going to keep for myself.  I set my blocks in rows, with black sashing in between!  I liked the look, and immediately knew what I was going to quilt in the black sashing.  However, the block rows took a bit of a think.

At our quilt show, one of the vendors had these great pocket guides packaged together!  As I am always looking for inspiration, I grabbed the package.  But just this past weekend did I break the shrink wrap and take a look!

Oh, my!  What a lot of inspiration!  So worth the money, and more!

So this is the filler that I decided upon for the block rows!  Well, it is the inspiration for the quilting.  I think we all know that just like everybody's handwriting is unique, so is a quilter's meandering!

Not exactly like the picture, but gee golly gosh!  Am I ever having fun playing with this!  Fun now, not at first....I was having some issues with my thread!  First of all, although 60wt Bottom Line works great in my bobbin, it is not so great for a top thread.  Next I tried 50wt Masterpiece.  Shredding!  Then I went to 50wt SoFine.  Still shredding!  I changed needles, cleaned out the bobbin area and added a bit of oil.  I finally went with 40wt Isacord polyester.  Sweet success!

Stayed tuned for the black sashing treatment!

Embroidering aprons

I posted today on Facebook that I was going to WalMart to buy aprons to embroider on.  This brought up a query about embroidering on aprons.  So here's the run down.

I have found that WalMart sells plain, unadorned aprons for <$7.  I have gotten them in red, blue, white, khaki, and black.  Today, I could only find black and one white.  This is after visiting two different Super WalMarts.  Now, isn't that telling about my county.  We actually have 4 Super WalMarts in Champaign County! 

Where this all started is that I had embroidered 2 aprons for our quilt show boutique.  They sold before the show even started.  I had a request to make some more, so I did.  But I had more requests.  Thus the search.

This is what I had embroidered for our quilt show boutique.  I had done one in red and one in khaki.  I did this one in white, one in blue, and 5 more in khaki.  I was left with the white one.  Can't you imagine what this would look like after making spaghetti sauce!

When all I could find was black today, I thought I would try something festive for the upcoming holidays.  I love this little turkey, so I added the Happy Turkey Day!

I am going to do some Christmas aprons next!  I think the black will be a great backdrop for some metallic threads!

My embroidery machine is a Janome 11000SE.  I love it, but sometimes I get a back ache from leaning over to thread and work on my projects.  If it were only sitting higher.....

TaDa!  Hubby and I made a quick trip to Lowe's and found a perfect piece of wood.  The nice people at Lowe's made two cuts, we bought the angle hardware, and with hubby's handy dandy electric drill, we made a simple riser.  Now I don't have to stoop or bend to work on my embroidery!  Brilliant!  Plus, I know get a wee bit more surface area!