Just after 8 PM I finished the last of the quilting on the wedding quilt.
Now on to the binding.
National Quilt Day
The third Saturday in March is National Quilt Day. It’s not even 3 PM and I’ve been doing all sorts of quilty stuff. Naturally I worked on the wedding quilt. I only got 2 rows done yesterday.
While I stitched out the next row, I logged into the Guild’s Zoom Sew Day. I was only able to stay for 30 minutes before a customer arrived. She brought me 5 quilts to quilt. Guess what I’m doing next week.
I then went to a quilt sale. I don’t need fabric, and in many ways I don’t want fabric. Don’t get me wrong, I love fabric, but when it comes to quilting my “eyes are bigger than my stomach” so to speak. That is to say I have so many ideas and not enough time to do them all – not to mention where am I going to put it. Generally I can contain myself, but I had a gift certificate…. The top piece is large enough to be a backing. I counted folds and apparently miss-counted, or simply didn’t remember the count when I said “I’ll take the rest of the bolt”. 6 1/4 yards. I just love the stripe. 3 yards so I don’t have to piece a border — if that’s what I decide to do with it. Then next 3 fabrics are from the same line. 2 yards of the paisley and a yard each of the other 2 prints. The orange I only bought 1/2 yard.
When I got home there was more quilting. As you can see from the picture at the top of the post, the end is near. I had to stop and wind a bobbin, so I think I’m done until later tonight. I’m guessing not more than an 1-1/2 hours of quilting is left. Then I’ll need to make miles of binding — nearly 500 inches.
As for the rest of the afternoon it’s either a nap or doing the data entry for the Quilt Festival. I’m leaning toward a nap.
Hope you had a quilty day on National Quilt Day.
Finished (or Not) Friday
It’s been 2 days since I’ve worked on the wedding quilt, so today’s post is “or Not”. I estimate I have 4 1/2 hours of quilting left.
Wednesday evening I spent playing “Quilt Tetris” with my guild’s quilts entries for the Kansas City Regional Quilt Festival. The deadline for entry is March 31st, and I needed to make sure I had gathered enough quilts to fill our assigned walls. Last go round I shoveled photos around physically and it took me several days to figure out the layout. This time I was able to build the layout in power point in a few hours.
Thursday I played ‘fix the sump pump’. We’ve had multiple days of rain around here. When I fixed breakfast, I realized the sump pump was running continuously. “We’ve had a lot of rain, and ground water is high”. When I fixed lunch it was still running, so I decided I really needed to check on it. The good news is the basement was dry. The bad news is the water was high in the bucket. Looked like a fountain.
I called my brother, he had me unplug it and I noticed the electrical cord was warm. Since he was on his way to the hardware store, he said he’d pick up a new pump and come fix it. When he dug into it,he discovered the clamps had rotted off, so it was simply a case of reattaching the pipe. What could have been a $200 repair cost me $8. But then we talked landscaping — specifically the need to fix/replace the retaining wall and dealing with the water in the backyard. Between this and dealing with side effects from 2nd vaccine, I didn’t make it into the sewing room except to show my brother the quilt.
There’s been way more “Stuff” than quilting in this post, so go check out what others are up to over at Alycia Quilts for Finished or Not Friday.
Another Day of Continuous Curves
I started right after work, and after an hour (and 2 rows) stopped to get a bite to eat. My plan was to go back and do at least another 2 rows, but stopped after 1 row. I just put in bobbin #10. I can’t remember if bobbin #9 was before or after I started the CC, so there may be one more bobbin in my future.
Quilting, Counted Cross Stitch, and Needlepoint
First the quilting. I’m making progress on the continuous curves. I think I’ve finally figured out the easiest way to get through the block. Three “rows” were done today. Assuming I can keep this pace up, I should be binding the quilt this weekend.
In the bags of Mom’s stuff I got the other day I found this magnolia counted cross stitch piece. I want to display it, so I’ll need to figure out if I want to hang it or make it into a throw pillow.
Keeping with the magnolia theme is this needlepoint piece my mom was filling in the background on.
Her dream was to recover the dining room chairs, but she had the foresight to only buy the one canvas and wool. Clearly she didn’t finish it. I’m putting it on my list to finish ‘someday’ with the intent of using it on my one armchair in the dinning room. I need to stop in at the local needlepoint shop to get some pointers – the canvas is distorted.
Design Wall Monday – March 14, 2021
The computerized quilting is finished on the wedding quilt. I’m now working on the continuous curves.
I have the quilt rolled and I am ready to start the next section. My goal is to have the quilt off the machine by this weekend. I have someone bringing me 3 tops to quilt and I’d like to work on them next week while I’m off from work.
While the computer was finishing up, I made 3 more blocks for Louisa Lattice. The blocks really are quick to do, but I can’t be manually running the long arm and sitting at my domestic machine at the same time. I may just try to do 3 blocks a night just to say I’ve worked on the quilt.
I’m linking up with Small Quilts and Doll Quilts for Design Wall Monday.
- 350 Challenge March = 16
- 350 Challenge Cumulative = 130
- Easy Breezy = 126
So Close
I finally got to the longarm around late Saturday afternoon. At 10 PM I called it a night. I have the last 1/2 row to stitch out with the computer, then it will be on to the continuous curves.
While the computer was doing it’s thing, I started on the layer cake project that I’m currently calling “Louise Lattice”. It’s a free pattern from The Fat Quarter Shop.
I picked out 30 of the squares to use for my quilt. At this point I’m planing on using the remaining squares to make a scrappy binding. But as I only have 9 blocks finished, I don’t have to worry about that. If you look close, you can see the 2 Easy Breezy blocks I made as well.
The other day I stopped back by my brother’s after my nephew’s play and several bags of “stuff” were put in my car. I finally brought it in looking for the needlepoint chair cushion my mom was working on. I found the wool, but apparently the needlepoint didn’t make it back into the bag before it was put in my car. I did however find 4 yards of this 59″ wide 4-way stretch material. It’s pretty but those flowers sure are big.
- 350 Challenge March = 13
- 350 Challenge Cumulative = 127
- Easy Breezy = 126
Finished (or Not) Friday – 3/12/2021
Thursday I attended my first “public-ish” event in a year. My nephew’s senior project was directing a one act play. Masks were required, they were taking your temperature at the door and like a big exclusive event your name had to be on the list. I enjoyed myself and hope he gets a good grade on the project. Needless to say, it was 10:30 by the time I got home. Fortunately I had all the pieces cut for this block. It’s the 2nd one from my Guild’s BOM. This is the “Finish”.
As for the “or Not”, the wedding quilt is still on the frame with no new progress and the music theme ‘jelly roll race’ quilt is still hanging for inspiration. If you look real close you’ll see an Easy Breezy Block. A third of the month is gone and I’ve only made 2 blocks this month.
I’m linking up with Alycia Quilts for Finished (or Not) Friday.
- 350 Challenge March = 2
- 350 Challenge Cumulative = 116
- Easy Breezy = 124
Squirrels!
This afternoon I looked out my window to see what got Butterscotch’s attention.
It was a squirrel!
It ran up and down the side of the house a couple of times.
She wasn’t the only one distracted today. The layer cake that I won playing Fabric Bingo last week was delivered. In anticipation of it’s arrival I started searching for layer cake patterns. I ended up with Layer Cake Lattice from the Fat Quarter Shop. I found a length of a solid off white in my stash for the background, so all I’ll need is backing and binding.
I had thread/tension issues today, so just finished the circle feathers before the thunderstorms rolled in. I’ll keep quilting in the rain, but when lighting starts flashing I shut the machine down.
Fabric for This Month’s Block
The latest block in my guild’s Block of the Month came out last Friday. While the square feathers were stitching on the wedding quilt, I picked fabrics and started cutting. After about an hour and quarter of tending the long arm, I my low bobbin indicator came on, so I shut everything down and called it a night. I quilted a row of square feathers and one circle feather.
