Light at the end of the tunnel

;MIGHT be in sight.  I just finished the last of the blocks on my "One of these blocks is not like the others" and went back, ripped out and restitched an earlier block that had tension issues.  Now, all that's left are the two borders; they're pretty easy... I just need to mark for the inner border and I don't feel like doing it right now... it took wayyy too long to finish the last four blocks - Mo'e was stopping for no apparent reason here and there... I stitched one quarter of a block in the wrong direction ( or over went the boundary - or both) and had to remove that stitching and redo it correctly.

Here's a small pic of the two borders... I have to mark distance for the inner border so I know where to put the circles ( freehand)... the quilting in the outside border won't be seen as easily so I'm just doing the meandering.


 Anyway, I'm done for now... hubby and I are going 'out' for dinner... there is a fund raiser for a family battling cancer and tacos are on the menu - #1 we're going out  #2 family needs financial help that we can give and  #3 I don't have to figure out something for dinner and then cook it.... sounds like a win-win-win to me.  I'll probably start the marking on the quilt later tonight and then do the quilting tomorrow... OH YEAH... have to make sure I have enough fabric for the binding, too.  If not, then it will be a quick run down to The Hen House sometime tomorrow.

Speaking of quilt shops... I've been ordering my Glide thread and, now, magna glide bobbins online from Quilted Joy.  Well, my latest order was for the bobbins in cream and black.  They sent the black but said the cream was backordered - even at the factory and they would send them as soon as they got them in.  After a couple of weeks, I called to check on my order and Kelsey informed me they still weren't in.  They arrived here yesterday - with a nice note from Kelsey AND a fat quarter of fabric with an apology.  This is the fabric... I LOVE it.  It's called 8 Days a Week and I want MORE MORE MORE  LOL.  Not sure what I'm going to do with it... it will have to age for awhile, I guess.

that's all for now....

TTYL

Checking in....

I've  been  busy; almost too busy to stop and take pics..  actually, too tired to take pics when I think of it ( or  the quilt has already been  rolled up so the quilting doesn't show).  The latest quilt is ALMOST done... one more row and then the borders need to be completed -  and I have to rip the stitching out in one of  the blocks in the first or second row and re-stitch because the tension was BADDD.
I've had quite a few issues with this quilt.... first the tension, which wasn't  that hard to adjust - just took time and some froggin'.  Then the thread kept shredding... I switched to a new needle but that didn't seem to help; I switched from a 16 to an 18 after checking Superior's website to see what they  recommend for So-Fine thread... that helped a little but it still kept shredding occasionally ... I loosened  the tension one more time and that seems to have fixed it.. knock on wood.

Ok, here's a pic of what I've been working on... I'm calling it  "One of these blocks is not like the others" because that's what happened.  I accidentally cut one of the blocks backwards and didn't have any  more fabric and didn't want to go buy  more.  The reds are from a layer cake that I bought at MSQC that sat around here for months waiting for me to decide what to do with it.  I used one of their videos to do the quilt, but I'm not sure I did it right - it might be a whole new design LOL.

I think with this quilting pattern it will be harder to pick out the odd one.  Sure is time consuming  -  about 15 minutes per block... ruler work.  It's far from perfect, but hopefully before guild meeting tomorrow night, I'll be able to call it done. 

I'm liking it a whole lot  better with the quilting.... LOTS of texture.  I'm putting just  a big meander in the outer border - it's red print so hard to see so I didn't want to do anything labor intensive or detailed.  In the small inner border I'm doing just a somewhat straight line down the middle with a circle every two or so inches.  It didn't need a lot and I thought that it gave it a little more movement.  I'll take a pic of the inner border tomorrow.

We got our new numbers for the All People  Quilt UFO 2017...this month is #2 - my 'beach quilt'... a top that's done but not done... it's HUGE - too huge and I need to figure out how to make it shorter - it covers a queen size bed from the head to the floor at the foot.  arghhhh  and I've got some more things that I want to do to it before I put it on Mo'e to get it finished.

TTYL

Next!

I got another quilt loaded onto Mo'e today...another HUGE one  about 95" x 95" before quilting ( of course)

 no quilting yet - couldn't decide HOW to quilt it... went on pinterest and found something that will work....

 I was also pondering about the thread color... the backing is a Kona solid Khaki and, of course, I don't have any prewound bobbins in that color ... I did find a rust in So-Fine that will work for the top and will have to work for the backing - I'll just have to wind bobbins before I start the quilting.

Still waiting on my cream magna glide bobbins - it's been more than two weeks since they contacted me and said that it's on backorder but they should have some soon.  They'd better hurry up... I'm pretty sure I'll be needing the cream for the next quilt on my to-do list  -

this one still needs the side borders added, but that won't take long - then it will be ready to go onto Mo'e.


Ok, bedtime for me.... dr appointments for both hubby and myself tomorrow - and guild tomorrow night.

TTYL

Stars in My Garden - DONE DONE DONE

All I have left to do is hand stitch the two remaining sides of the label... ((((( doing happy dance)))))... as much work and PIA moments I had with this quilt and it still ended up a little wonky; I think it's one of my favorites - too bad I'm not keeping it.  It goes to a second cousin, who's birthday just happens to be today.  I'll be taking it to guild next week - when others are showing their April UFO's, I'll show this one - I already showed my April one since it was finished first.  Sure hope next month's UFO is a simpler one.

Since the March and April UFO's are now done.. and there's five more days left in this month, I'm going to try and get caught up on my BOM's - one of which I completely forgot about and I'm not even sure that I have all the pattern pieces -- technically, it's not a BOM, -- think it was a 16 week project with one block being released each week - I can't remember where I left off....

First up, though, is catching up on my Sindy Nedermyer (sp?) Caught Ya!  BOM... I completed Jan.'s pair, but the background is going the opposite way than the other block backgrounds so I want to re-do them... hoping I can just unstitch the fish and move them over to new backgrounds; I don't use fusible so it MIGHT be possible.  If not, I'll just have to start over.

Ok   tv programs are on...

TTYL

Rip It Rip It Rip It

That's what I've done for the past two days.... ripped out the quilting I did around the applique'... finally finished after dinner tonight.  I sprayed water over the holes left behind - I had done the same thing last night and it did seem to shrink the holes.  Now, I probably won't get back to quilting it until Friday or Saturday since I put off paying bills and grocery shopping today so that I could continue the 'unstitching'; they were predicting a thunderstorm for this afternoon ( which didn't happen - just a little rain) and I wasn't going to be loading groceries into the car and taking them back out once home if it was raining.  Hopefully, weather will be better tomorrow - I've been out of diet pepsi since yesterday and chocolate is just about gone, too.

Tonight, after I finished the unstitching, I made a label for the quilt and then went back to work on the quilt top that I laid out at the library last Friday.  All the rows are now together and just waiting for the two side borders, so maybe I'll get to quilt it as soon as I finish the one that's on Mo'e now.  I did take a pic of the almost completed top..

I'm really beginning to like this quilt... a lot.... especially since I know what I'm using for the backing... I am going to have to go get another 1/2 yd of Kona white at one of the LQSs - not enough left from what I had to do the binding and that's what I want to use.

I've really got to get back to my BOMs.. I'm sooo far behind ( like Feb. on some)... one I haven't even started.  Maybe next weekend I can finally start getting caught up.

Ok  time for bed...

TTYL

Time to catch up (again)

Here's my April UFO... completed - Glide Cream thread on top and Ivory bottomline in the bottom.  It's the one for my granddaughter and almost matches the one I made for myself... her's has a pink background and mine has white.  I had some issues when I started quilting it and ended up ripping out stitches from the top inner row across and up to the top - arghhhh.  Got the tension fixed ( simple to do) then Mo'e decided that he didn't want to go any further.. I'd stop to adjust the ruler or move to get my body in front of Mo'e's head and hit start  - he wouldn't move until I went around to the back and turned the wheel... he wasn't stuck like can happen when you're at an intersection that has lots of fabrics... he just refused to move.  I called Jason at Gall to 'pick his brain'... he talked to Mike and they thought that MAYBE there was some dust caught inside back by the wheel and told me to use canned air to clean it out.  Well, I don't have canned air here at home ( I don't think helium counts) and I didn't want to get dressed just to go to Walmart to get some; I was going to wait until he stopped again and then I'd get dressed and go.  You know what.... it didn't happen again.... until today and just a gentle shove got him going again this time.  I will get some canned air when I go to get groceries on Wed.  I wouldn't be surprised if he's full of not just dust but probably some cat hair, too.  Finished this one up on Saturday and made & stitched on the binding & label before going over to family in Grand Ledge for Easter dinner yesterday.

Got home last night and loaded this one onto Mo'e.... It's my March UFO... yes, it seems like I did them backwards, but I had a lot to do to get the March one to the quilting stage, so started on the April one in the meantime.

I went to the sew in at the library on Friday afternoon... just for a couple of hours.... I thought I took a pic of what I did, but can't find it so I guess I didn't... what I did was lay out blocks for another quilt... not space here at home to do it and it had to be laid out in a certain pattern.  I used up a large packet I had of 5" squares... beautiful colors and the prints are kind of a mix between Stonehenge and Batik.

 Once back home, I started sewing the blocks into rows and then joining the rows together.. I have three sections of rows and then the side borders to do yet... bought a beautiful purple/blue fabric from The Hen House for the backing and binding... I was hoping to have it done this week, but the March UFO is going to take longer than I had thought ( and I'm pretty stiff and hurting so it's slow going).

I wasn't going to start quilting on the current quilt until today, but I couldn't wait and started last night... it's slow going.... after working on it for about 4-5 hours today this is as far as I've gotten...

the three borders and the outer sashing ON ONE SIDE.... maybe I shouldn't be doing such dense work around the applique' but I'm having fun 'winging it'.  Pretty pleased with it so far.  This was a good place to stop because I still haven't figured out what I want to do with the stars in the center.

It's a dark pic, but best I could do this time of night...

and on that note, I'll say

TTFN


next morning:  as I was trying to go to sleep last night, I decided that I don't like all the stitching around the applique' and that I should really 'frog' it out and start again with less dense stitching. Maybe I will; maybe I won't... will decide in a little while when I get off this computer and out to Mo'e.

Sigh

After a week of doing absolutely nothing at all quilt wise and then another week of 'frogging' (ripping out stitches), I don't have much of anything worthy of sharing.  I DID finish the top for my March UFO challenge, but it's not quilted yet

- I had put my second Garden quilt onto Mo'e thinking that I'd just do the same quilting as I did on the first one and it would be done in no time... which would have been true IF my tension had been right, but it wasn't and that's where the 'frogging' comes in.

Actually, that was a good idea in more ways than one... I found that some of my applique was not stitched down as well as it should have been.  Now that the top is separated from the batting and backing again, I can take it back to my domestic and restitch the 'floppies' down - using invisible thread.  I had planned to do it today, but with rainy weather and not enough sleep last night - and eye dr appt., I just didn't feel up to it.

Tomorrow afternoon, hubby has an appt with sleep dr so I probably won't get a whole lot done then either... and another appt with his cardiologist on Friday - sure messes up my week.

I'm also tired of watching to see if April the giraffe has her baby... I've been watching for at least a month - I'm beginning to think it's all a big hoax and she's just FAT.  LOL

TTYL