Love Child revisited

 I ordered my Glide thread and magnaglides bobbins a week ago yesterday... they arrived three days later... this time, it was for Violet 40255 because I thought this color would blend the best with the red/purple blocks and with the scrappy blocks.  The thread came late Monday morning and by evening, it was quilted... the binding and label had to wait for the next day.

I'm pretty pleased with it... there are some OOPS here and there but I'm living the " better done than perfect" and I don't think too many other people are even going to notice the boo boos.

After finishing the binding and label on Tuesday morning, this quilt went onto the frame...

I just did an overall large meander... probably too large because I wasn't happy with it after I'd taken it off the frame and added the label and binding later that day... so it went back on the frame for more big meandering on Thursday after I finished the next quilt.

This was Wednesday and Thursday's quilting project... I had most of it done on Wednesday, but I'd been doing a lot of standing all week and by Thursday, I was pretty stiff and sore... I think I only had three wheels to quilt inside of, but since it was basically micro-quilting, I decided it could wait overnight.  It did and I finished it up on Thursday.

I spent the balance of Thursday and all of yesterday just chillin' .. had to go to recycling, the lqs and Walmart today so, after all that was done and I had taken a nap ( darned high heat/humidity is giving me sinus headaches), I got my dear hubby to help me take these quilts outside for their photo ops.

Tomorrow afternoon, we're going to one of our grandsons' high school graduation open house... it's about a two hour drive so I don't think we'll be doing much of anything else tomorrow.

Hopefully, Tuesday  I can finish slicing up the 9 patches for the Disappearing 9 patch quilt along that's being hosted by Julie Cefalu at the Crafty Quilter.  This week we get to decide on our layout.  Like I said, I still have slicing to finish up, but that won't take long and I already know what layout I'll use... I THINK.  We'll see for sure later this coming week.. maybe Wed.

And, now it's my turn to show off one of my cats... Mr. Prissy thinks he's my sewing room supervisor and sometimes my long arm supervisor... here he is watching a video that I'm listening to while I sew.  

I sometimes wonder just what he's thinking when he's watching the computer screen...  It's kind of like that corny joke I've heard several times in the past few months ( because it's on one of my favorite dvds) " Did you ever eat cured ham and wonder what it was cured of?"... sorry, I think it's funny.  I'm pretty sure that's not what Mr. Prissy is thinking, but I am kind of curious as to what it really is.

Ok, time to call it a night here....

take care....

ttyl....

Executive Decision becomes Love Child

Remember this project?  My plan was to use patterns offered by AQS to it's members to make appliques for the solid blocks in this quilt last month.  I didn't care for all of the birds they had and found some flowers they had offered in the past and decided to use some of them.  

Yesterday, I was finishing a fourth row of adding applique' and decided to make an 'executive decision' and stop there with four rows of applique'd blocks and four rows with plain blocks.  

Once the final applique' was done, I started sewing rows together but had to stop to fix dinner... with only two rows left to sew on; I thought I'd do them after dinner but it didn't happen because I was tired and wanted to go to bed early.

Below are the last three applique's I did... the first one is a peony, which I don't think comes in orange, but I couldn't use red and I didn't think blue, pink or purple would work and already used white a couple of times.

On this water lily block, I used some of my inktense pencils to give some color to the centers.

Ok, so how did this end up being named "Love Child" ?  LOL   This love child was the product of melding two different patterns into one top; it's that simple.  I guess I could have named it Executive Decision but since I've already made the label that says Love Child, that's what it will remain.

Now, it needs to sit for a bit until I can find backing for it... I already looked in my stash and nothing spoke to me.  I don't have a lot of yardage for backings anyway... a couple yards here and there although I am starting to buy in 4 or 4 1/2 yds now.  I did order the threads I want from QuiltedJoy.com and they should be here Monday or Tuesday... maybe I could make a quick trip down to The Hen House ( local quilt shop) to see what's available in the sale room.

Ok, my mind is starting to wander... time to get off here and on to doing something else... hubby and I are going to another gospel concert tonight (The Goodman Revival).  I've watched the group on youtube and enjoy them - hopefully, hubby will, too.

take care.......
ttyl........

well, darn!  Just decided I had to make another executive decision... after I posted the pic of the completed top, I realized it doesn't look 'done'... sent pic and message to my buddy, Katie, asking her opinion... guess I'll be checking to see if there's anymore of the red available at the lqs.  ...

later........
 nope, no more of the red... found this for the backing fabric, though... the pic is a little blurry - sorry about that...

and, while I was there, I also found some lovely gray that will work great for the backing of my fox  RSC quilt that I did last year ....

Those little white flowers reminded me of paw prints... :)

Withdrawals....

Yes, I've been going through withdrawals since I haven't been doing any sewing other than to finish quilting and then binding & labeling the Amish with a twist quilt.
Last night, quilting friend, Katie, and I went to the quilt show at the church that lets our guild meet in it's annex weekly.  I had dropped 4 quilts off earlier in the day for this three hour show.
As you'll be able to see from the pictures, most of the quilts were draped over the pews while some were hung from the choir loft and others were spread out on tables and the piano.

These are two of mine on the back table... and friend, Katie.

 So, to handle my withdrawals today, I decided that I'd just jump in and do SOMETHING!  First up, was finding my RSC tote ... that took a few minutes, argh.  Then, I grabbed the strip of blue that was scrap left from the "Amish"  quilt backing and cut some into 3.5" squares ( for guild charity quilt - this month it's 9 patches) and then cut the rest into 3" squares for the RSC.  Once done with that, I went and grabbed some blue scraps from their bin and cut enough to make the required ( by me) five

 blocks...

After that, I looked around for something 'quick' to do and saw the practice pieces I'd made using Mo'e ( my mid arm for those who doesn't know who Mo'e is).  I cut the pieces into roughly 16"x12" pieces and put binding on them.  They are going to go to an animal shelter to be used as bedding for cats or small dogs.  These pics are one side and then the other of most of the three I did today.  I don't know what happened to the photo of the reverse side of this first one... I KNOW I took one.....  Never mind, I found it.  

This last one doesn't have a lot of stitching on it... I may try and fill it up a little more using my domestic...

I was all excited about getting started on the Julie Cefalu quilt along that I thought was going to start today... well, it did, but not like I thought it would.  I thought we were ready to start sewing... I thought wrong; apparently that's next week.  I may just 'cheat' a little and start sewing a few anyway.  Since I have to work it around my housecleaning YUCK!!, it may take me a little longer than others.

take care......

ttyl .........

I GOT"ER DONE!!

I didn't think I'd ever be able to say that I finished it... it was such a mess at the end with wrinkles, and then the two 'bottom' corners which was really one bottom and one top corner came down further than the middle of the border did... not sure if it was because I'd already quilted that part or not.  There are a couple of pleats sewn in to the one side border and I somehow managed to pop a few stitches in one block and had to go back and hand stitch that closed.

Someone asked me what I was going to do with it... I replied that after all that I've gone through with this quilt, I'm keepin' it.

Tomorrow, I'll make my blocks for this month's RSC (dark blues - hmm wonder where I can find some lol) and that will be it for me for the rest of this month... or that's the plan right now.  Hubby's daughter and her husband will be coming up next month and I want to try and get the house cleaned before they arrive.  Since I'm old and slow, I'm going to need the rest of the month.

Saturday afternoon, Hubby, Buddy and I went to watch some radio controlled airplanes being flown and I captured a little video of Buddy enjoying himself. 

ttyl....
take care......

Still making progress

That's after I tackled a BIG OH OH yesterday.  The day before, while trying to baste the borders on the second half of the Amish with a Twist III quilt, I realized that the bottom border ( which is actually a side border) was 'waving' at me - really, REALLY waving.  I'm thinking  "Oh CHIT!!"... and got the steamer out - after I pinned the border as much as I could.  The steamer just seemed to make things worse...... arghhh!!!  Then I remembered someone saying to use starch and steam to tame those naughty borders... so I got the can of starch out and heavily sprayed the border then let it set over night to dry.  That's what I thought I was supposed to do.

Yesterday, when I reached out for advice from fellow longarmers on a fb group, I learned that you don't let the starch dry before trying to steam or press the border into submission.  It was suggested that I use mist to spray as I'm trying to press the wrinkles out.

The starching seemed to make it even worse :(

I ended up removing the border, measuring the inner border, which I thought was also a little wavy and caused my stress level to rise even higher.  After measuring the inner border and then the border that I had removed, I realized that there was like a 5" difference, the removed border being the larger.  ARGH!  How does that happen!?!?   

I trimmed the border to the corrected size and stitched it back onto the quilt, which meant that I had to remove it from the leader and ender bars on Mo'e.  First though, I had to clear out a large area around my sewing machine so that I could handle the quilt without things tumbling onto the floor or getting sewn into the quilt by accident.  The whole process was easier than I thought it would be... pinning the quilt back onto the frame was the difficult part.  

Once I got the correct size border sewn back on and the quilt pinned back onto the frame, I did not try to baste the un-quilted part... I just did the part that was right there in my quilting range and will continue to do the same as I roll to each new section.

I completed another section of the center of the quilt last night before calling it a night so we could have supper ( a late one).  Thankfully, hubby suggested I order pizza - I think he was realizing how stressed I had been.  

In the meantime, I've done nothing else sewing wise... no turtles, no birds, no flowers.... and here it is, June 1st and a new color (dark blue) for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge to make five blocks with.

AND... 'someone' needs to get outside and sand down the sharp edges on the deck so that I can call the guy who is going to come stain it for us.  I think it's supposed to rain again today, so sanding won't be happening - but weather is supposed to be good tomorrow and Monday.

Ok, I'm off to do SOMETHING.... 

take care....

ttyl.......