Projects, Projects

Here is my current problem project, block #3 from Esther Aliu’s BOM, Heart’s Desire. Here you see me taping the 5, yes I said 5, pages together to make that one block. Then I get to applique it….3 times. She expects me to make three Block 3’s. Oh, my. And then I get to make Block 2 (only 1) but that will be for another day, week, month.

What I did get done yesterday was my March Journal Quilt. It depicts our anniversary trip to visit Harry Potter, St. Patrick’s Day and DH’s 70th birthday which comes next week. It really seems like this has been a busy month and it is just half over.

I don’t know if I shared but last month I won a prize from 3 Creative Studios for my January Journal Quilt. Here you see the beautiful hand dyed fat quarters that Vickie sent. Aren’t they beautiful. I don’t have a plan for them yet but hope they will want to be a part of a future journal quilt. Oh, and it was a random drawing, not a judged event.

Here is my Eleanor Burns Egg Money quilt top all finished.

I am showing two of the four corners that I couldn’t make match up. See how far apart the stems are. But I think the “fix” I did looks pretty good and am happy with the result.

No sewing/quilting today or tomorrow, all WW both days. But with all the driving I do on those days, I get to do a lot of planning for both the next project and how to complete the ones I am already working on.

Mid-Week Working

This has been a great week.

I have been able to be in the studio every day so far.  My first completion was the first Henrietta Whiskers block.  Now, this isn’t really complete since I haven’t stitched the applique down yet, but I can see how cute it is already. 

When that was done I completed making the backing for this quilt.  The lighter printed fabric is really border fabric but I just couldn’t bear to cut it up.  So I added the center panel and put additional borders of it on the sides.  And, I was going to load it on the frame when I heard that the Red Snappers I had ordered from Renae Haddadin were going to be coming next week.  Well, that gave me permission to put it off so I don’t have to pin 102” x 2.  I am really looking forward to having an easier way to load a quilt.

So, with some time on my hands I decided to begin working on the BOM from my LQS.  We are making blocks from Eleanor Burns’ Underground Railroad book.  And, since we

 are making 15 blocks, we are making 2 a month for the first three months.  So here are my first ones done.  I am making mine in batik since I don’t much like civil war fabrics.  These went together really easily: I hope they all do.  So, what are you doing?

Busy, Busy, Busy

I have finished quilting the blocks on Baskets & Lace.
And, I believe I now know why I was having so much trouble with the bobbin. I believe the culprit was the thread seen to the right. This is some thread I bought when I first started longarming (I don't know where I got it). It is cotton and I have never seen anything as "linty" as it is.

Here you can see the lint both on the thread and attached to the bobbin itself. I was having to clean out the bobbin with each block and would come up with enough cotton lint to weave a sheet.

I even found some lint sewn into the quilting on the back of the quilt when I rolled the quilt.

I have taken some steps to make sure this doesn't happen again. Firstly I got a Bobbin Genie to put in the bobbin case. It is a DSM size but if it seems to help with tension problems, I will order the M size.

And secondly, I threw out the offending thread.

Now I just need to quilt the corner stones and the borders (with poly thread) and this quilting will be done.

When I get frustrated or tired from quilting I turn to the sewing part part of quilting. On the left you can see Block 6 of the Jelly Roll Sampler. I quite enjoyed making this block.

I also made up two more string blocks and finished appliqueing the flowers on the last border of the Eleanor Burns BOM (Egg Money Quilts).

My, my, I seem to have been busy, don't I?

DP Progress & Diamonds

I know it isn't Design Wall Monday but I wanted to share how far I have gotten with my current quilt. I am really liking how my Drunkard's Path blocks are turning out and what I am doing with them.

However, starting on Tuesday there has been no sewing going on. First came a concert. DH got tickets to see The Diamonds in Panama City, FL. Many will not have heard of them but when I was in high school, late 50s, they were a hot rock & roll singing group. And "our song" was Little Darlin'. The audience was about 300 people "of a certain age" who rocked with the music and happily remembered American Bandstand. What fun we had.

And, while we were driving to the concert we got a call from DH's sister saying that she and her husband were in our town, ready to visit. Did we know they were coming? No! So we told them we would be back after midnight and today has been a full day of visiting.

This is George and Cera. They are from NH and came south to find warmer weather. Boy did they pick the wrong winter to make this trip. Anyway, we just came home from dinner with our daughter, son in law, grandson, granddaughter, and great grandson. Lots of stories and laughter.

They will be here for the next two days and then I will have to do a big quilting push in order to have a February finish for OPAM. Wish me luck.

What fool decided… Part 2

If you remember from last time, I couldn’t find the drawing I made of the quilt using the drunkard’s path blocks. Well, I still haven’t found it so I spent Friday night, while watching TV, redrawing it. And guess what. I find that if I do it as I drew it I will be making 178 of those little 3” blocks. 178!!!!! So I am rethinking the design, just a little. Since I only have 46 made I figure I have a while to “rethink.”

Ed: Thought about doing appliqué in place of some of the DP blocks but decided I like my first idea and will just push through. I am kind of getting a rhythm going.

So on the design wall is the beginning of how this quilt center will be laid out. It is going to be pretty busy but I am liking it more and more. Nothing is sewn together because I will be moving both the sampler blocks and the DP blocks around to get the color matches as right as I can. But I can’t do that until all of the DP blocks are done.

Also on the wall are the Bunny Hill blocks that I have completely finished, 6 more to go.

Last time I showed them the appliqué was done but I hadn’t started the hand embroidery. This past week or two I have been taking a little time out to work on that and it has gone pretty well. I can’t remember how to do all the stitches I used to do but I’ve got the stem stitch down pat.

And look what I found.

I thought when I made my last move I had thrown all my embroidery stuff away: I had moved into the realm of machine embroidery. However, I did check in a storage area of the studio and there in a lone plastic bag was all this thread and a cross stitch project I started 15 years ago. Actually, the stitching is done but the young man I was making it for is graduating from high school this year so I don’t think he would appreciate it as much as he might have years ago.

And a little family stuff: This is our granddaughter’s boyfriend’s new car.

It is a customized Honda Civic. Check out those gull wing doors.

and here is Skylar, a man and his car. ;-)

And what did our granddaughter get? Well, meet Heineken. He is a 9 week old Great Pyrenees. Do you think they really know how big he is going to get or how much grooming they will have to do? I know that when we were that young we would never have done such a thing……NOT. I guess that’s what being young is for. Time enough for being practical.