The Binding Begins

February 16, 2021 9:53 am ⋅ Pam

I cannot believe I’m hand stitching another binding down. I don’t think I’ll be finished by next Tuesday, but I’m going to show the quilt anyway. I would love to get a snow pic, but with any luck by the time I’m done with the binding the snow will be melted.

Yesterday I was in my sewing room cutting the strips around noon. I didn’t have any lights on because it was bright enough with the light streaming through the big picture window. At one point I walked into the kitchen to put my lunch in the microwave. I opened my refrigerator and the light was out. I looked around the kitchen and realized the power was out. The rolling blackouts had started – only I didn’t know that’s what was going on.

I called the power company, they said it would be another 1-1/2 hours before power was restored. I sent an email to my bosses at work via my phone to let them know I had now power, fixed lunch and sat down to eat. In less than 20 minutes the power was back up. On the news they said the outages in our area were up to an hour. This morning as I was looking at the clocks which I had not reset, sure enough they were about 45 minutes off.

My power had been off for about 25 minutes by the time I noticed it. Had I been anywhere else in the house other than my sewing room, I would have noticed immediately.

Posted in: binding, wonky dishes

Design Wall Monday – 2/15/21

February 14, 2021 11:43 pm ⋅ Pam

I still need to bind the wonky dishes quilt, but it is quilted.

The next blocks in Ruby’s Sampler is done. I need to stop and write the directions for this block and the one I did Saturday.

No new Easy Breezy blocks were made. I need to stop and kit up pieces. I think I’ll dig into the scrap boxes under my longarm for more variety since I’ve used just about everything in my 1-1/2″ strip box.

I’m linking up with Small Quilts and Doll Quilts for Design Wall Monday.

350 Challenge February = 41
350 Challenge Cumulative = 97
Easy Breezy = 111

Posted in: 2021 - 350 Blocks, designwall, wonky dishes

My LongArm

February 14, 2021 10:20 am ⋅ Pam

I was asked about my longarm last week only to discover I hadn’t written about it. So this is the LongArm post.

I quilt on a 26″ Innova longarm with stitch regulation, Lightning Stitch and AutoPiolot Mach3. It sits on a 12-foot table. Although a longarm was on my dream list, it was just that a dream. Where would I put it, how could I afford it? It was through a series of events (both good and bad) that this fully loaded machine came to live with me. Never in my dreams did I think I would own a machine with all the bells and whistles.

The architect calls this room the Den. It is 13′ x 18 1/2′. I think the room was used as a den for about a year. Then it was a bedroom for my nephews for a year, then my sewing room and office (I’ve worked from home for 20 years), and now it is just my quilting studio, my office desk moving to the spare bedroom when the long arm arrived. These pictures are from shortly after the machine was setup in December 2019. My room is no longer this clean.

Under the machine on the “back side” I have built a couple of PVC batting racks. The batting on the roll in the foreground is 120″ wide and the other roll is 96″ wide.

Since the machine moved in my cats are not happy. They are no longer allowed in the space. To assist with that, I’ve hung a screen door in the opening going into the kitchen. I now also keep the door going into the living room closed. It was hung when the room was used as a bedroom.

I started longarming in September 2010, renting time on an HandiQuitler a little over an hour away from me. In June 2012 I found a shop about 15 minutes from me which rented time on Noltings. I don’t think either shop rents time anymore. I started quilting on the Innova in August 2018.

Posted in: Uncategorized

A Little Bit of This, A Little Bit of That

February 14, 2021 1:10 am ⋅ Pam

I spent the better part of Saturday in my sewing room. First up were 3 more of the Addicted to Scrap Blocks. That’s Hot Cross Buns from Nov/Dec ’10, Scrap Basket from Mar/Apr ’11, and 4 Patch X from Sep/Oct ’10. I pulled out my bonus HSTs for the last two blocks. My entire cutting board was covered in bits and pieces of leftover blocks and parts. I was not working on ripping out the quilting on the Wonky Dishes quilt. Given I have a deadline, even if it is self-imposed, I shoved everything back in to the box and put away my Addicted to Scrap Blocks. My current plan is when I receive each issue of Quiltmaker over the next 2 years, I’ll make the current block plus 6 of the ‘backlog’ blocks.

Eventually, I did get the quilting ripped out. I finished up the feathered squares and found a feathered circle to put in the smaller blocks. In fact, I finished all of the quilting in the neutral squares. Now I have to go back and quilt the broken dish units.

While the computer was running the machine, I made one of the sampler blocks for my SILs sampler quilt. I started another block but ran into issues with my instructions. Since this was about 10:30 and the quilting was done I decided to call it a night.

I have just 9 days left on my Personal Challenge and I oscillate between I’m not going to get my main list done and I might just make it happen. Here’s the latest status:

Alphabet BOM – Complete the top, I have a plan.
MQA BOM – Assuming the rest of the tops is released I’d like to get at a minimum the rest of the blocks made. – Done 2/7
Red, White & Blue Wonky Broken Dishes – Quilt and Bind. This is what I want to show at the meeting. – in progress
Moda U – finish the binding. – Done 1/25
Ruby’s BOM – I’d like to get at least the next 4 blocks made and instructions written. – in progress
Runaround Bag – Everyone needs a new start on occasion. This is mine. – Done 1/16
Wedding Quilt – Finish the top. – Done 2/6

I’ll go on the record and say none of the stretch goals are going to happen.

350 Challenge February = 40
350 Challenge Cumulative = 96
Easy Breezy = 111

Posted in: 2021 - 350 Blocks, 2021 Personal 1, Addicted To Scraps, Alphabet Blocks, Ruby's Sampler, wonky dishes

A New Project?!?

February 13, 2021 12:35 am ⋅ Pam

Back in December I gave myself a 2 year subscription to Quiltermaker magazine. That is the magazine with Bonnie Hunter’s Addicted to Scraps column. At the time I pondered putting together a quilt using the patterns from the column, but that was as far as I got. Then Thursday I received the March/April issue and Friday I received the January/February issue. This prompted me to start the project.

Pictured below the Easy Breezy blocks (#110 & 111) are In & Out from the J/F ’21 issue, Around the Corner from M/A ’21, Spinner from M/A ’10, 4 Patch X from S/O ’10, and Carolina Chain from M/J ’10. I pulled Carolina Chain from my orphan block box. It was leftover from my Carolina Chain quilt which I started in May/June 2018.

I’ve setup a page to track my progress under Quilts In Progress. For all I know this may go the way of other long-term projects. I’ll get there eventually.

As for the Wonky Dishes quilt, I’m still ripping. I got about 1/3 of it ripped out. I’ll work on it some more in the morning.

350 Challenge February = 36
350 Challenge Cumulative = 92
Easy Breezy = 111

Posted in: 2021 - 350 Blocks, Addicted To Scraps, Easy Breezy, wonky dishes

Don’t Get Cocky

February 12, 2021 12:46 am ⋅ Pam

My free-motion quilting will never improve if I keep using the computer on my quilting machine, but when it looks so good (and wasn’t cheap), it’s hard not to use it.

Yesterday I had a half-baked plan and I’ve tweaked it. The spots with the Xs I’ve done. Well, I’ve done more but didn’t go back and take a picture.

I wanted my feathers to show motion. This is what I came up with. The tail will point the direction, going around in a circle. Of course now that I look at this, maybe I should have pointed the far right blocks toward the top center. Oh well. That is what a practice quilt is for. Anyway, the center block has no point. On the second row of blocks, in the middle I ran out of bobbin, then my program shut down. Fortunately it was only the last two feathers in the wreath, so I did them free hand as it was easier than trying to realign the software.

I need practice (see opening comment).

But that’s not when I got cocky.

I dropped my motif in what I thought was a boundary. I thought it was a bit large on the screen, and ignored my instincts. I started up the machine and it started where I thought it was supposed to. I went back to my lap top to search for the perfect pattern for the small neutral blocks (I think I found it). With about 3 feathers left to stitch I realized the machine was stitching all over the HSTs – not because it was doing something wrong, but because I told it wrong. I stopped the machine and started ripping out. That will be tomorrow’s after work activity.

I’m second guessing my thread color now as well. Originally I was going to use a red, white and blue thread on the top and a blue bobbin. But I changed my mind and opted for Linen on the top. Not wanting to deal with blue coming through to the top, I used Linen in the bobbin.

When I wrote this post, I forgot that I needed to link it up to Finished (or Not) Friday over at Alycia Quilts.

Posted in: wonky dishes

A Partial Decision

February 10, 2021 11:48 pm ⋅ Pam

I’ve come to a partial decision. I’m going to use Feathered Square Block # 1 in the larger neutral areas. If you look closely you might see the “tail” in the top right corner. I’m going to rotate the block so that tail “leads”. It’s not exactly what I was visualizing, but I hope it will at least evoke in my mind what I was after. As for the rest of the quilt — who knows. I have 4 more of these to do before that decision needs to be made.

Posted in: wonky dishes

Quilting Design Dilema

February 9, 2021 6:45 am ⋅ Pam

Sunday afternoon I pieced the back for the Red, White, & Blue Wonky Dishes quilt. Yes, when it comes to plaids, they must match. That goes way back to my garment sewing days. That was the easy part.

The quilt is loaded. but now I have to figure out the quilting design. I want to use this quilt to practice the quilting for the wedding quilt.

About the only thing I know is that I want the quilting to enhance the ‘rings’. I’m just struggling with what the motif to use. I guess I need to pull out a big white board and start doodling until I figure something out. This quilt is on my 2021 Personal Challenge #1 list and is the quilt I want to show at the Guild meeting later this month.

Posted in: 2021 Personal 1, Wedding Quilt, wonky dishes

Design Wall Monday – February 8th

February 8, 2021 10:51 am ⋅ Pam

Yes, the Wedding Quilt top is complete. I finished it Saturday afternoon, then took this snowy picture. It measures 120″ square. 512 Lavender/Neutral HST, 512 Seafoam/Neutral HST and 320 Neutral squares. The Broken Dish units and Squares measure 5″ finished. This is my own design, so there is no pattern.

I also finished the last two blocks of the MQA BOM. Of course a few Easy Breezy blocks were made along the way.

350 Challenge February = 30
350 Challenge Cumulative = 86
Easy Breezy = 109

Linking up with Small Quilts and Doll Quilts for Design Wall Monday.

Posted in: 2021 - 350 Blocks, Easy Breezy, MQA BOM, Wedding Quilt

Saturday’s Stitching

February 7, 2021 6:44 am ⋅ Pam

My quilt guild has stared a BOM. The quilt will be the right size for our Cancer Center Project. It will be a mix of different size blocks. The first one was released on Friday and is the largest one we’ll do. It’s 24″ square.

A few more Easy Breezy blocks were made and I made a bonus pinwheel from the BOM.