Community Quilts from Ray

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Ray has been so busy.  Seriously, I think he’s finished about 10 quilts just this month!!  Here are his latest.

Ray writes:
“Attached are pics of another quilt top from the Cresco ladies that I finished. I am really pleased with how it turned out.

When I got it, I was a bit intimidated by it. The center blocks of the stars had a modern art look to the fabric.  The stars are much like sawtooth stars but with a twist to them. The backing had a satin sheen to it.

Several firsts in just one quilt. After studying it, I knew it needed a quilt pattern that was curvy, with no straight lines. I finally decided on a stipple pattern but made it as big as the frame would allow to give it a more modern look.
I like the finished quilt. Just hope it meets the expectations of the piecer. The backing is fabric from Kathy S, in IL .

Many thanks to Jo, the Cresco ladies, and Kathy for their contributions for this community quilt.”

I have three “Ray quilts” for you, so keep reading…
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BUSY DAY!!

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It has been the busiest of days for me today.  I woke up with a plan in my head and that plan quickly changed.

Kalissa came over…I can’t even remember why she originally came. Oh, I know, she was going to help move the red tin cabinet.

My neighbor to the back yard had someone there with a skid loader and they were moving dirt.  I’ve wanted that red cabinet in my sewing room but there was no way to get it there.


I thought a skid loader could hoist it to the upper door of our house that goes directly into my sewing room.  Remember our staircase is too tight for anything to get up the stairs?

So I walked out and asked if he might stop over when he is done and I’d pay him to help us get it into that upper window.  He said sure.

I called Kalissa to help.  Karl was already here.  Ah.  I was finally going to get this done.  Kalissa came with the boys and the guy walked over to our house and told us, no.  He didn’t think he could do it.  He thought the skid loader would be tough on my grass and that he might ruin my cement pad.  AH.  I was so disappointed.

Well, Kalissa was here by then.  She was disappointed too.  Then she kicked into “she-man can do all things” version of Kalissa.  She was bound and determined that she and Karl were going to get the cabinet up the steps.

Here they are trying…
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Quilting Motif: Poinsettias and Ribbons

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When I was busy working on the quilts for the school kids, I did slow down long enough to shoot a new video on the quilting motif I was using.  I’m calling it Poinsettias and Ribbons.

I used it when I did this quilt from Jean in WI.


Here is the quilt while it was on the frame…



When I did the machine quilting, I used red thread on both the top and the bottom.


You can see the design has two elements, the flower or poinsettia, and the ribbons.  Both are relatively easy to do and both are very forgiving.


I did four petals on these poinsettias but I think I might want to mix it up next time and sometimes make four petals and sometimes five petals.  It’s all up to you and your personal preference as to how you would want to do it.


I’ve heard from many of you saying that watching my quilting videos have helped you get a little braver to do some free motion edge to edge quilting.  That makes me so happy to hear.

I had one reader write to me and told me that she only did pantographs at her machine and hated it.  She said watching one of my videos, got her to try free motion, and now wh is loving her machine.


I had another reader say that they were so afraid to try free motion but they think they are getting closer and closer to trying after they watched my video.

That makes me so happy to hear.  I am no expert at any of this nor do I claim to be.  I only want to be the cheerleader in the background helping you and cheering you to do some machine quilting that you might feel more and more confident about.

I will forever remember a conversation Kramer and I had several years ago.  The story goes like this…
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What I’m Reading: The Stranger Inside

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I was on Hoopla.  As part of my pact with myself to not renew my Audible this year, I’ve been trying really hard to make better use of free sources for books.  I was over on Hoopla looking for something interesting and found the book The Stranger Inside by Lisa Unger.


I’ve read several of Unger’s books previous to this read.  If I’m looking for something crime-related, I have to say, I do like her as an author.  This book had me thinking a lot.  What if that had happened to me?  How would I have felt?  Would I have reacted the same way?  Could I have let it go and moved on?  That kept me reading but from time to time, it did get a little bit repetitive and at one point, I felt like saying to the author, “yep, I understand you are saying now spit the story out”.

Here is what Amazon had to say:
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