Wow who would have thought...

That we would get 22 inches of snow in October.  Well, we did.  Where I live, we were fortunate, yes we got 22 inches of snow, but others were not as fortunate as we were.  Many areas got less snow, but they lost their power and some still don't have their power 4 days later.  The last I heard there are more than 200,000 customers still without power.  I feel so bad for those people, if it wasn't so cold it probably wouldn't be so bad, but it is COLD!!  Here is a picture of our picnic table, buried under the snow.

I get a chuckle from the next picture.  I took a picture of the roof of our 3 season room, but I noticed while looking at the picture, the pole that the clothes line is hooked up to is also in the picture, but look at the leaning tower of snow on that pole.  It shows how much snow built up on this one little pole.  Look for yourself.

Isn't that funny looking?  I chuckle everytime I look a it.

On Saturday, the day of the storm, I was able to get 2 tops made.  I now have to take my mystery quilt off the frame, one more time, to quilt these tops.  I really need to stop making tops that need to be quilted right away so that I can  get my mystery quilt quilted.  Oh well, someday that quilt will get quilted.  When, is the mystery,  I suppose.  Hah, get it, a mystery when the mystery quilt gets quilted.

Great visit but I forgot

Today we had our children and grandchildren over for a wonderful visit.  I had to think of something special to do for the grandchildren, so I made 11 halloween pillowcases, filled them with toys and candy.  I thought it would be fun to hide the bags so the kids could try to find them.  I told the kids before searching, that if they found a bag that didn't have their name on it, they had to leave it there for the actual owner to find.  They had a really good time trying to find them.  I knew that Jake and Nate, the oldest grandsons, would find some of the bags first because I didn't really hide them in difficult places, so I hid Jake and Nate's in a more difficult place.  It took them quite a while to find their bags, but they finally did.  I think the kids really enjoyed that hunt and the toys they got.

The only thing that I did not do, shame on me, is take pictures of those pillowcases.  I was having so much fun making, filling and hiding them that I completely forgot about taking pictures of them.  Oh well, next time. 

Now I am off to making yo-yo's.  I am going on a business trip to NJ and VA this week, so I thought I would make some yo-yo's while I am away.  I am still waiting for my yellow thread that is on back order before I can continue working on my mystery quilt. 

Jelly roll race

Well, I tried it and they sew up pretty fast.  I have made 2 and I like them.  I take the jelly rolls and put them in a bag, mix up the strips and sew them together.  You don't know how the strips will end up.  It's like sewing a mystery quilt, you just don't know how it is going to turn out.  The first one I made, Happy, I didn't make it right.  I cut the 1st strip in half and sewed the strips together, but put the other half of the first strip in later on.  As you can see, by doing this, the seams are not staggered and doesn't give it an attractive look.  It still looks nice but not as nice as the second one, Gelato.

The first one is a Jelly Roll called Happy by Moda.  This one is really cute, bright and just makes you happy.  I guess that is why it is called Happy.

This second one is a Tonga Treat-Gelato by Timeless Treasures.  I love the pinks and purples in this quilt.  The yellow makes it pop too.  This one reminds me of raspberry ice cream.

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Life gets in the way

Well my life certainly has gotten in the way of quilting, as you can tell by the last time I wrote in my blog.  I put my mystery quilt back on the frame but I only got the first border done before I had to take it off to work on a customer quilt. 

This quilt was made by a 91 year old lady.  She is donating it to her church bazaar and she needed it done in a jiffy.  She wanted a pantograph on the quilt, so that is what I did. 

I am going to put my mystery quilt back on the frame so I can try to get that done. 

The fish are up...

Today we finally hung up my fish quilt.  I can't say enough about the talent the women have that made these blocks for me.  These blocks were the result of a friendship block.  I picked the theme of an "undersea the sea" theme.  I wanted a quilt to hang in my bathroom.  I asked that they embellish the quilt as they wish.  I provided the background fabric, some fabric and embellishments.  They had to come up with their own theme.  I got 14 great blocks but only used 12 because the space was limited.  The other 2 I will mount on canvas. 

Anyways, I just love this quilt.  It looks awesome hanging in my bathroom.  It looks so nice I had to share.

Oh man..

It's been a long time since I wrote in my blog.  In my last post I mentioned I was going on vacation.  Carl and I went to Las Vegas.  We did a lot of walking.  We saw the Terry Fator show. We got to see my 3 brothers and mom. We also went to my nephews graduation.  We were in Vegas for a week and we stayed at the Bellagio.  We had a good time but by the time the week was over, we were ready to come home.

When we got home from Vegas, I only had 11 days before my guild's quilt show.  The show was very successful.  It was our first time at that particular venue and I think that helped make the show a success. 

Now that the show is over, I promised I would make a quilt for an ex co-workers granddaughter.  When we first discussed this quilt 3 years ago, he couldn't make up his mind for a theme, so I didn't pursue it.  In April he finally told me that he would like a quilt with dinosaurs on it.  So while I was at MQX show I found the perfect fabric.  But, because of our upcoming show I didn't have a chance to make it until the beginning of July.  Unfortunately, I didn't get it made before my co-workers wife passed away.  Sad, I know.   I wanted to have this quilt made so she could give it to her granddaughter.  I did get the quilt done and mailed this weekend.  Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of it quilted, but here it is.  I did the same pattern as I did for the other kids quilt because it was fast and easy.  I also made a pillowcase to match.  I hope that Katie likes it.

After finishing the above quilt I was hired to make these things called drones.  These drones are for bagpipes.  I had a problem with my serger even before I got this project started.  Once I got the serger going it took me 8 hours to figure out how to sew the ends.  I was just about to give up when I finally figured it out.  This morning I serged the edges and then this afternoon I finished them off.  I am so happy this job is completed.  I am not a sewer of any other kind than for quilts, so when I get these kinds of jobs, I am happy when I can complete them. 

They are not perfect but I think they are good enough.

My next project is to complete my mystery quilt that has been put on, taken off, put on and taken off the frame.  I am bound and determined to get this quilt done.  I also have a quilt in mind that I am going to make next.  I need to work with EQ6 to get the design and pieces figured out. 

Until the next time....



Wow...I am on a roll

I am just moving right along here. I set a goal at the beginning of the year and I have almost reached that goal.  Of course having a quilt show scheduled in less than a month certainly helps with finishing these tops.  I am going on vacation in a week, so that kind of pushes me along as well.

I finished two more quilts this past week. One of them was my "under the sea" quilt. These blocks were made from members of a program called Friendship blocks within my guild. There were 14 members and we each chose something that we wanted to have blocks made of. These 14 members would work on each other's blocks. I chose to have the members make me a block from something under the sea. I asked each member to use embellishments, whether it be beads, yarns, buttons, anything they felt would work for an under the sea theme.  I also requested they use batik fabrics.  This quilt will go into my bathroom where I have a fake aquarium above my shower.

 

After finishing my fish quilt I decided to quilt my quilt that is called Shadow Play.  I made this quilt back in 2008.  Wow, how time flies between making quilts.  I put this to the side not knowing how I was going to quilt it.  I put it on my frame know that I wanted to quilt it with a feather meandering design.  I got this quilt quilted in almost a day.  I loaded this quilt the long way on the frame and because the panto design was so big I only had to advance this quilt 4 full times and a fifth with about 6 inches to do.  I like it and I think it came out pretty good.

I guess I have to load my mystery quilt from 2009-2010 guild year.  I had this quilt loaded once but had to take it off and remove the quilting because the tension was horrible.  Hopefully I can get this quilted nicely and looking good for the show.  

Finished...the mystery

I finished the mystery quilt.  I ended up taking out all the stitches from that quilt, I skinned it, as they call it.  I couldn't just let it go.  The stitches looked terrible.  I posted a picture of the backing in the previous post. Once I got the stitches removed, I changed my bobbin thread, tested it on the side of the quilt and VOILA, the stitches look great, the backing looks so much better.  I am back in business.  I used the new thread from Superior Thread, called Omni, and I was impressed by it.  I used it on the top and bottom.  I used the Warm and White batting.

I decided to do a pantograph on this quilt.  I wanted to do more of a custom job, but time is really short.  I have to get 2 more quilts quilted before vacation.  So I went the easy way with this quilt.  I decided to give this quilt to my friend Kathy for her birthday.  She does have a quilt from me, but that quilt is a memory quilt and she really can't use it like a quilt should be used.  From the beginning, Kathy has liked the fabric that I used, so I decided this was her quilt.  Today is Kathy's birthday.  I gave it to her, but took it back as I have to still need to put the binding on and I am putting it in my guild quilt show in June.  What an indian giver, I giveth and I taketh away.  Geez, what kind of friend am I?

Mother's Day was a good day until around 5:00, when I discovered that my washer broke on me.  I am glad that it broke at the end of the wash cycle.  I ended up getting a new front loading washer.  I hope I like it.  I read several reviews and hopefully they aren't true.  I don't like the reviews I read.  Errr!!  I guess I can't believe everything I read.

Back to quilting, that is much more fun.  I have 2 quilt tops to finish before going on vacation:  my fish quilt and last year's mystery quilt.  I am going to put last years mystery next on the frame.  Hopefully I will have a better beginning with that one than I did with the one I just finished. 

Oh, last Thursday I was on the phone with the insurance company discussing my minor fender bender, I got rear-ended again.  Anyways, we had a some sun, we had some rain, then we had some sun again and then we had this.  This was a great way to end a bad day.

I am not sure if you can see the double rainbow, but the second one is to the right of the one you can see.  This rainbow was practically in my back yard.  Wish the pot of gold was there too.   :)

12 Days of Christmas......

Well, this is the quilt that got peed on and is now finished and smelling good.  There is no foul smell, no dirty stains and it is looking good. 

I used Superior MonoPoly thread on the top and So Fine on the bottom.  I outlined the machine appliques with the invisible thread and quilted two straight lines all the way around in the last border.  Simple, but effective. 

I am elated that this quilt came out ok. 

Now I am working on my mystery quilt and I am a tad bit frustrated.  I have Warm and White as batting.  This is the first time I am getting pokies.  Well at least I think they are pokies.  I can't tell if the tension is bad, if it is pokies or if the backing is just bad fabric.  I've changed my needle 3 times.  I've changed the top thread.  I am using Masterpiece on the top and So Fine on the bottom.   I've never had this problem and I'm not sure how to fix it. 

Any ideas?

Started out as a bad weekend, but..

It finished pretty good.  On Friday, I went to work as usual and got home at the regular time.  We have two dogs and they are in the house all day (about 10 1/2 hours) without going to the bathroom.  I know, I know it is a long time, but they usually do pretty good without any messes.  Well, my DH got home before I did and he didn't let them out right away, so my boy dog lost control and peed in the house.

This went unnoticed for a little while until I went downstairs to continue quilting on my 12 days of Christmas quilt.  My quilt was soaked, with yup, you guessed it, pee!  ERRRRR!  The only good thing is that my machine was not in the line of fire.  So, of course I was mad, I was worried that my quilt wouldn't be salvageable, my quilt would smell, and well, just plain mad.

Now mind you, the quilt was only partially quilted and I had to take it off the frame to try to save it.  I soaked the quilt in laundry detergent, vinegar and water all night.  Then in the morning I rolled the quilt to ring out the water.  I didn't want to twist it too much because I couldn't iron it even if I wanted to because I used invisible thread.  I hung it up in the shower to drip as much water off as I could, then I laid it flat to dry.  Today the quilt is still drying but it is looking and smelling pretty good.  I did notice that a block has come undone so I will have to try to fix that.  These blocks are machine appliqued, so it appears that when it was sewn, it was sewn too close to the edge of the fabric.  I have to figure out how to fix this.  Any ideas?

This turned out to be a huge set back for me, I was planning on finishing this quilt so that I could move onto the next one.  Well, I did move onto the next one, but before I finished this one.  Hopefully tomorrow I can put the 12 days of Christmas back on the frame to finally finish it.  I did put my friendship blocks from 2009 together.  And, if I do say so myself, it came out awesome.  It is so pretty, thanks to my guild members who made the blocks.  I will take a picture of the quilt once it is quilted.  Don't want to ruin the surprise.

I still owe you a picture of the 12 days of Christmas, but that isn't completely quilted either, so that will have to be a surprise as well. 

Today was a good day to finish off the weekend with the Easter holiday, the kids coming over for an egg hunt and beautiful weather.  Until the next time.  Hopefully I'll have the 12 Days of Christmas finished the next time I visit this blog.

What I am doing now..

Yesterday I went to MQX (Machine Quilter's Expo) in Providence, RI.  What a great show and the vendors, as always, are great too.   I bought this new system to load my quilts, no longer using pins, called Leader Grips.  I think I will like it once I make an extension to my zippers.  I hope I like it anyways because it was kind of expensive.  I enjoy pinning the quilts on the frame, but if this will take me less time to get started then it will be well worth the cost.

Today, I loaded my 12 Days of Christmas wall hanging.  The extra canvas on my leaders will have to wait until after June.  We have a quilt show in June, so my focus is getting the quilts done for this show before putting those extra leaders on. 

I am usng Superior Invisible Monopoly thread on this wall hanging.  I haven't used this type of thread before so it should be interesting.  I haven't had any breaks yet, knock on wood.  The backing is looking ok too.  So off to quilting again.  See ya soon.

Productive day...

Today was a very productive day for me.  It was beautiful outside today, but I was bound and determined to get this quilt done today so that my friend Phyllis can put the binding on for me.  Tomorrow will be a day for working outside.

I was able to finally get the custom quilting done on that quilt from the previous post.  I learned a lot from doing that quilt.  I learned that I definitely need more practice.  I was able to get my feathers to look pretty good.  The egg and darts came out pretty good.  I had to rip out the first set of egg and darts because when I started going down the side borders, I realized they weren't going to fit correctly.  I also had to rip out some of the feathers on the right side because they were going the wrong way and they just didn't look good. 

Here are some pics of the finished 1st custom quilt.

I took a break this morning from working on this quilt and decided to make some pillow cases for my granddaughter. These came out really cute but it took me about 3 1/2 hours to make all three of them. I hope that she'll like them.

Tomorow, I will start another UFO quilt.

Another one is..

started.  This quilt is one of the UFO's I have.  This quilt that I am doing is going to have easy peasy custom quilting.  Well, it is supposed to be easy peasy, but it isn't working out quite that way.  I have had my machine for almost a year and another machine before this one for a year and I have never quilted a custom quilt.  I can follow a panto pretty well but going self-guided is proving to be not as easy peasy as it should be.  My lines aren't very curvy where they should be, they are not straight where they should be and well, my feathers need help in some areas.  It's funny, sometimes my feathers look nice and in some spots they are pretty hideous.  This is where PPP comes in, right?

Here are some pix for you to either enjoy or laugh at.  :)

The Beast is done..

OK, the quilt, otherwise known as "the beast" is finally done.  I had to remove another row of stitching a couple of rows later, but I did and got it done.  A wonderful friend of mine put the binding on for me, as she has been doing for quite awhile now. 

This is one of the seven UFO's.  I now have 6 tops to quilt and 2 projects that are still in the process of getting completed.  I am working on getting the tops completed, so I am slowly working on my goals.

I not only finished the beast, I also finished the mystery quilt that I have been working on.  I run the mystery quilt program within my guild.  I usually put the mystery quilts together before starting the program, but with my mom's health issues last year, I wasn't able to get it done.  But, I have it done now and I like it.  I will show pictures of it after the June meeting (don't want to spoil the fun).

Here are some pics of the beast:

Back to sewing

I was able to remove the stitches relatively quickly.  I learned a new way of removing stitches.  A fellow quilter from Machine Quilter's Resource recommend I watch a video from you-tube.  You-tube is a great source for learning new things.  The technique I used is called skinning-the-quilt.   You take the top and pull it away from the batting and snip at the threads from below the top.  The recommendation was to use a razor, the rotary cutter or the tool that is used in the video.  I am not sure what it is called but it looks like a seam ripper but it is flat with a blade like tip.  This process, I found was much quicker than doing it from the top.  Thank you DebbieHQ for sharing that video.

So, I am back to quilting my quilt.  WooHoo!!

Frustration and more frustration

I was able to squeeze out enough dark fabric for my mystery quilt.  And then, I was concerned about my light fabric and I was able to squeeze enough of that out too.  So I am safe on the mystery quilt front.

Now onto my more frustrating issue.  I still have that king sized quilt on my frame.  I am quilting a pantograph on my log cabin quilt.  In between rows, my friend notices that there is a pin in between the layers. Which layer I am not sure, but it is there.  We discuss where and how I will remove this pin and then I position the needle for the next row and start to quilt it.  Well, guess what, it was not the right spot to start quilting.  The current row is somewhat intermingled with the previous row. 

So not only do I have a pin I have to worry about removing from two or three rows previously quilted, but I now have a whole row of quilting I have to rip out.  ERRRR!!!

Carl asks, will you be happy leaving it the way it is?  Of course not.  It really isn't that obvious on the front but when you look at the back, it is definitely obvious.  I just can't see leaving it the way it is.  Thank goodness this is my quilt and not a customer's or a friends quilt.  I guess it is time to start frogging.  Rip it, rip it.

Another one...

loaded.  I finally got one of my king sized quilts on the frame.  I am using Quilter's Dream Blend for batting.  I have never used that brand of batting, so I am looking forward to the results.  I've had this one on the frame for about a week now, but it is so hard to go downstairs during the week to do any quilting.

I am in charge of sending out the instructions for the mystery quilt to my guild members.  Usually I have the mystery quilt completed before I even mention the fact that I am going to run the mystery quilt program, but this year I wasn't able to make it due to other obligations.  Well, I am currently in the process of making it along with the members.  The instructions called for 3 yards of dark fabric and I know that I had at least that. Well guess what?  I am a 3" strip short.  I can not believe this. I hope there is some way I can possibly piece some pieces together to make what I need or maybe I can  find some scrap pieces somewhere.

Progress

We have so much snow here that we are about buried.  We are supposed to have another snow storm on Wednesday into Thursday and if we are going to get as much as they say we are going to get, then that may be a stay at home day for me.  I might be able to get a quilt loaded if I do stay home.

I am slowly but surely making progress to getting a quilt on the frame.  Today I got a little waysided-I had to hem some pants for my daughter from short to shorter.  :) She starts back to work tomorrow after being on maternity leave for 2 months.  That will be a difficult day for her, but she will get back in the swing of things. 

So, since my last post I started to work on my mystery quilt.  I am in charge of the mystery quilt within my guild and I haven't even made the quilt yet.  I usually like to make the quilt prior to handing out the instructions to make sure that the instructions work, but I just didn't have time to put the quilt together this time.  I am working on getting caught up with that. 

I put the borders on my 12 days of Christmas friendship blocks and got the backing ready.  This is now ready to quilt.  Today I also got 3 other quilts ready, along with their backings.  I put one of the king sized quilts on my bed to see if it needed any additions and sure enough it needs at least 6" added to the sides.  I will try to add rows to it since it is a scrappy quilt or I will add borders.  I'll have to see if I have enough of those scraps hanging around.

I want to load the king sized quilts first so I guess I better get my butt moving on those.  The one king sized quilt that is ready just needs to have the backing adjusted just a little.  I bought a 108" piece of backing and the length is fine but I need to add about 3" of muslin on each side so that I can load the quilt on the frame.  My quilt measures 106" square.  Not quite enough of the backing to be loaded on the frame comfortably.  That will be done at some point this week.

Have a great week.l

Time for new goals...

Since I was able to complete my goal last year (a goal started later in the year, August to be exact), I am going to set myself another goal. I figure if I can complete 12 quilts in 5 months then I should be able to complete the next goal I set.

My goal for 2011 is to quilt the 7 quilt tops I have made. Two of the 7 quilt tops need borders added, but other than that they are ready to be quilted. I have 2 tops not part of the 7 that are in various stages. One is partially done, this was started at MQX in April 2010 (the feathered star) and the other one is my friendship blocks from my guild (under the sea blocks).

Well to start out, my friend Tracy and I purchased a pattern to make a "pooper scooper" last August, but it may have been April, not sure. Anyways, we finally made the scooper. It took several hours to make, but we are very happy with the results. This is not quite a project in progress, but it is a project that we wanted to get done.

This is a picture of our pooper scoopers:



And this is mine again