Sunday, September 16, 2007

Leaf Quilt

Autumn is in the air. The mornings and evenings are crisp and cool. Sleeping in on the weekend under a cuddly, warm quilt is as close to Heaven as I hope to get for awhile. These chilly weekend mornings are perfect! Until our older cat, Button, stands on top of me, glaring, until I wake up, get out of bed, and feed her.


Aside from doing all that statistical research regarding boxers and briefs yesterday, I managed to get the tables set up on the patio and pin my leaf quilt. With the cooler weather, I'm getting in the mood to decorate for fall, and this quilt will, I think, be perfect on the bed in my daughter's former bedroom. I hope--hope!--to have it done by next weekend so I can start transforming the house with leaves and pumpkins and Autumn colors.



I never seem to be able to accurately predict how long the quilting will take, though. I spent several hours yesterday quilting these leaf blocks and have only gotten about half way done. And, of course, I'll still need to go back and add a lot of fill-in quilting between the leaves.



Here are the pesky appliqued leaf blocks that have taken most of my life to finish. I'm not sure how many there are any more because the number of blocks left to applique seemed to multiply every time I'd set it down.

I plan to quilt for a couple hours this morning, and then when my arms fall off, I'll take a break and clean house. Guess I'll need to use my toes for that. I'm hoping my arms will regenerate while I clean, so I can spend another couple hours quilting this afternoon. Do you think we build muscles and burn calories when we quilt? Judging from the way my shoulder muscles feel this morning, I'm sure we must. I wonder why there aren't more thin quilters?

21 comments:

Cheryl said...

I've always wanted to make a leaf quilt. I have just started pulling out the Fall decorations - love this time of year. We definitely burn calories quilting -
well that is if the M & M package isn't close by! :-)

Unknown said...

Great quilt Kim and wonderful quilting...I don't burn as many calories as you girls do, I don't machine quilt, I piece and write a check. How many calories would I burn doing that?

Kairle Oaks said...

That's going to be beautiful once finished, Kim. Maybe I'll have to come for another visit so I can sleep under it! lol!

I pulled out all of my fall decorations yesterday. Of course, half of them will have to wait until next month to be put out since it's still a little too early to put out my witches and boo bells.

I'm wondering if there is a humane way to kill off my red geraniums on the front porch. They're still looking beautiful, but I want to replace with with a potted mum. Hmmm....

Vicky said...

Beautiful, Kim! Just gorgeous!

Until they invent a sewing machine that I can operate standing up, I think I'll remain one of those fat quilters! LOL

Mar said...

Wow and here I thought you were so busy with your survey! So what those results?
Love the way you're quilting that!

Granny said...

The quilt and the quilting are beautiful! Surely hope the arms don't fall off because I really don't believe arms regenerate. But . . if the shoulders are hurting badly in the morning, you should probably call in sick and stay home and quilt!

Unknown said...

Gee, I don't think you'd shown this one to me. You always have to be a little different and you will be with no arms. LOL

Love the way you are quilting the leaves. The appliwuesed ones around the border certainly arn't what I expected. Love it.

Patti said...

The quilting may be taking forever but it certainly looks great! I love to quilt veins in leaves - pretty hard to screw those up,wouldn't you say?

Nancy Near Philadelphia said...

i LOVE this quilt. Just LOVE it.

tami said...

Your leaf quilt is absolutely gorgeous. Beaufitul color choices and I like the way you have quilted the veines in the leaves.

Anonymous said...

You do such nice quilting. I could no way do that on my machine. I'm with Carol, I piece it together then write the check. I even have a Grace quilter and still don't do much of my own.
If your arms fall off your gonna have to put your makeup on with your toes. LOL!!!! So be careful not to wash it off too soon. Reapplying will be a bite!!

Kim West said...

beautiful quilt and even more beautiful quilting.

MARCIE said...

Beauti-fall quilt Kim! Your quilting is awesome. See, I can say nice things too!

atet said...

Lovley quilt -- and I'm not going to even touch the comment about burning calories by quilting...just not gonna do it!

Carole said...

The guilts looks sweet! Yea I hear you about estimating machine quilting time! I should get back into my Pine grove! I've just been busy getting my quilts ready for the show. I still have one to make! Off to quilt! Thanks for sharing! I do like the machine quilting on the leafs; I can see why it's taking so long! Great work!

~Bren~ said...

Gorgeous! I LOVE leaf quilts anyway, so I am partial!

Darlene said...

Love it, love it! Can I have it????

LOL

Erin said...

Kim the leaf quilt is absolutely gorgeous! I am speechless! the colors are perfect! the quilting is beautiful! Can you tell I just love it? OH yes I do!

Teresa said...

For a moment there I had an insane vision of Kim as a lizard quilter since regenerating lost body parts seems to be more in their realm.

I do love that quilt, however. The quilting you are doing is beautiful and in the interest of helping your health, maybe we should start sending you quilts to help with your exercise regime. ;)

Yvonne said...

The quilt is gorgeous Kimmy! I'm happy to see you are quilting instead of doing boxer/brief research....lol

I do hope your arms are still attached....

Shelina said...

Kim, this is such a beautiful quilt. And the veins in the leaves is such a wonderful quilting idea. Definitely a great quilt to warm up under as the weather gets cooler.