Where to begin....

I can't believe that it is a week before Christmas! it seems as though we were just packing away the Christmas decor from last year. So much has happened this year and to tell you the truth, I am happy that this year is almost over. Ok so let's recap my year so far....

My brother in law, passed away just a few weeks after Christmas last year (mid January to be exact) leaving behind 3 kids (20 yr old, 18 yr old and a 15 yr old).

To help my nieces and nephew through this difficult time I offered to make them each a memory quilt using their father's clothing.

 

 This is Tommy's, made from blue jeans, khakis, dress shirts, and ties. I used a Bonnie Hunter pattern to make all 3 quilts.

 

His dad belonged to the Viper Club, it's a car club that the 2 of them enjoyed together so I took the logo from a t-shirt to place it front and center in the quilt. 

 

This is Kristin's quilt...

 

and a close up of it.

 

and this one belongs to Jessie,

 

and a close up of hers. Since they all wanted large full size quilts (better for wrapping themselves up in when they needed a special hug from their dad), it took me quite a long time to make these. But I finished all 3 (bindings, labels, delivered) the week of Thanksgiving.  I am so glad that this huge project is finally done.

But that is not all that I have been doing here at Gecko Quilts. This past fall I announced that I was going to sell my APQS Liberty to purchase a newer larger model with a larger table and that was computerized. After about a month listed on Craigs list, I started to worry that it wouldn't sell quick enough in order for me to have the new set up delivered, and have time to get use to it before my Grand Re-opening in January. So I ended up going with my plan B. Which was to keep my APQS Liberty but upgrade to the larger and newer table that is available and add Quilt Path (the computerized portion) to it. It all got delivered the week of Thanksgiving.   

 

 Here are the new upgrades in my living room waiting for my DH to put it all together. Of course when I went to take the picture Hossa (my daughter's dog) thought I wanted to take his picture so he posed for the camera. 

 

These are my old rails and carriage from my old 12 ft table

  

and my DH Chris putting together the new  14ft table.

 

He thought it would be a good idea if he read the directions on how to attach the new carriage to the table.

 

 There were a lot more wires and parts than my old set up had.

 

 Here's the new carriage on the table. It has a belt on it to make the machine move vertical on the table. There is also another belt that spans the length of the table to move the machine horizontal on the table.

 

 Here is my APQS Liberty all upgraded on her new longer table and decked out with her Surface Pro 3 tablet. After we got it to this part the system wouldn't work like it was suppose to...after several weeks of swapping out this part for that one and replacing one thing for another...APQS decided that the only thing that didn't get replaced at this point was the carriage itself. Se they shipped us out another new carriage. Yup, wouldn't you know the very last thing that we swapped out was the problem. So now that the problems have been resolved I decided to take it for a test ride....

 

Here is what I see when I have a pantograph loaded to be stitched out on a quilt top. Pretty cool, huh?

 

 

This is the small quilt I put on the machine to test it out. It will be turned into a sewing machine cover for my Bernina sewing machine. I just went with a basic meander for my first try...the pattern is called BAM...and will be featured all year long in the seasonal pantographs that I offer.

 

 Well that should catch you all up on what is going on here at Gecko Quilts....everything is up and running (with just a few more additions needing to be added to the website) and we will be right on schedule for the Grand Re-opening in January!!!!! I am so ready to get back to longarming!!! Have a Merry Christmas, and I hope to see you in the next few months.

 

 

Working On My UFO's

After my last post where I fessed up about my UFO's I got busy on trying to reduced the number of them. I am happy to say that I am making progress on them. Here are a few pics of what I have been up to....

 

This is my nephew Tommy's  memory quilt from his father's clothing.

 

This is my niece Kristin's memory quilt from her father's clothing.

 

& this is my other niece Jessie's memory quilt in progress from her father's clothing.

 

This is a preview of my leaders & enders split 9 patch blocks being sewn into a quilt top (will post the full pic of it when I get it quilted).

 

This is my Celtic Solstice Jr. quilt which I am also happy to report is now finished and is waiting to be quilted.

 

My hand pieced Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt that is FINALLY done (only took 5 years) and is also waiting to be quilted.

 

And finally yes, my Hocuspocusville Quilt is now being worked on as well. I am 1/2 way done stitching block 8 and I have traced the remaining patterns on the fabric for blocks 9,10,11,12.      

 

 Remember this one? I finished piecing this quilt back in 2011 but it sat, and sat waiting to be quilted...well today I quilted it!!!

  

 

 I quilted a panto called Spring Garland on it. Now it will wait until cooler weather so I can bind it.

Hopefully this is a sign of things to come here at Gecko Quilts, a lot more UFO finishes and reducing the spreadsheet number of UFOs...I think my word for 2015 will be UFO :0)

 

Crazy Year So Far

It's hard to believe that the year is half over already.

I have been a bad blogger, but it couldn't be helped, this year has been very crazy busy, with the sudden passing of my DH's brother, and taking care of his estate and all that it entails. Having it been the senior year of my 3rd child, Rachel and her graduating high school, and the twins very busy with every thing 14 year

olds do. 

 I have been busy working on memory quilts for my nieces & nephew using clothing that was their dads.

 This is Tommy's, his dad and he enjoyed cars especially the Dodge Viper. So it was only fitting that this block be the center of his quilt. 

 His quilt is done being pieced (it's a full sz).

 and a close up.

 

This is Kristin's, all of the blocks are finished, I just need to sew the blocks together for the center of the quilt then add the pieced border. 

 However, that is on break for now because my studio is a mess. I have a years worth of scraps and pieces that need cutting down into my scrap user system.

 

Also I have been making progress on my Celtic Solstice Jr. Quilt. All of the units are made for the small quilt and 1/2 the blocks are together. Need to finish this soon or it will be a new mystery tugging at my heart this fall.

So what's up with my business? We were having problems with the server to our website crashing all of the time. The server has been replaced however the software we were using for my website is old and decided not to let us update the website any longer (which is why there has been no updates to it since the first week of January). DH & I are trying to figure out if we want to redo the whole website using new software, or just stop using the website all together. It has been nice having the website and I know alot of you liked it as well but redoing a whole new one right now just doesn't fit into our limited time schedule. It would fall on to DH's shoulders and he already has way too much on his plate. Also I have decided that for now I am not taking on any new customers...I already have a substantial  customer base that keep coming back to Gecko Quilts and it is enough to keep me as busy as I want to be and still have time to take care of my family and tend to my own projects. 

We took our first family vacation in over 14 years! We went to San Diego after the kids got out of school. Boy did we need that vacation. More about the vacation in another post.  

Preserving Memories

All families have to go through it, at some time, when it happens to your own well...you should pull together and help each other get through it the best you can. I am doing just that with the help of memory quilts.

On 1/18/14 my husband's brother (my BIL) died unexpectedly. He leaves behind 3 children (ages are 19, 17 & 14), an ex-wife of over 17 years of marriage, a mom, a brother, 3 sisters and of course all of the extended families. Needless to say news of his passing was a shock to all of us and we are all pulling together to help each other get through this difficult time. Being a quilter, for me this involves making 3 memory quilts out of my BIL's clothing for his children. I asked if they would like me to do this for them and they all said yes. I went with them to their dad's place so they could pick out the pieces of clothing of their dads that they wanted in their quilts so it would be unique and special for each one of them. Even though it was only 2 days since their dad's passing they were laughing, smiling, joking around with each other as they searched for the clothing that was special to them. They were choosing golf/ polo shirts because they were soft, they chose ties because he was a business man and had quit a lot of them in many colors. They chose dress shirts, and khakis because his was often in them and they even chose some blue jeans because they want to remember him as just hanging out with them. It was a nice day for them, where they were able to remember stories, and memories that were special and dear to them.

 I placed what each one selected into their own container as to not mix the clothing up.

 

 

 This one belongs to Kristin, she is the oldest at 19 and is in her first year of college. Her quilt will be based on the pattern "Fair & Square" which is located in Bonnie Hunter's book "Scraps & Shirttails II" I am adding some charcoal grey and light grey yardage to her quilt to pull the many colors and fabrics together.   

 

Next is Jessie's, she is 17 and will be graduating high school this year and is also the same age as my Rachel. Her quilt will be based on the pattern "Cactus Patch" which can be located in Bonnie Hunter's book "Scraps & Shirttails". Both Jessie's quilt and Kristin's quilts will have string blocks made from their dad's golf shirts and ties. Above you can see a test block I did for Jessie's quilt, since there is a lot of knit fabrics I needed to see if using a muslin foundation instead of a paper foundation would stabilize the fabrics better....and it did. Yes the muslin will be left in the quilt for durability. She wanted her extra yardage to be red, black and light grey (her favorite colors....Rachel's as well) to help tie all the fabrics together.

  

This one belongs to Tommy, he's 14 and his sister's pretty much picked over the clothing so he was not left with too much, a pair of jeans, a golf shirt, a few ties and a Dodge Viper t-shirt his dad had and loved. So for his quilt I suggested that we pull some more blue jeans, dress shirts and khakis and showed him a quilt in Bonnie Hunter's book "Scraps & Shirttails" called "Denim Rails". His eyes brightened up quickly. He loved the manly style of quilt that will have his dad's clothing in it. 

So for the past week and a half I have been busy deconstructing clothing.

  

Yesterday and today I worked on cutting into the light and dark jeans as well as the khakis to get them into 3 1/2" X 9 1/2" strips so I can turn them into 48 (9" finished) rail fence blocks. They will alternate in the quilt with 9 Patch blocks made up of dress shirts of blue & white with 1/2 of the centers being from ties and the other 1/2 being from the 1 striped golf shirt he chose. There will be no additional yardage used in making his quilt top. Everything he chose goes really well together already. All 3 quilts will be full sized, requested by the kids that they be large enough for extra snuggling when they want to be close to/ or when they are missing their dad. 

I have my work cut out for me, I am hoping to have these done in time for Jessie's graduation at the end of May. I will post my progress as it comes. 

Please pray for them and all of the family as they go forward without Tom.