A Little Progress

I had a lot of appointments Thursday, so I was on the run all day, but yesterday, I doubled down and made some progress. I was able to load two charity quilts at the same time using the frankenbatting I made earlier in the week. The two quilts loaded side by side needed over 100" wide batting and I ended up stitching four pieces together plus adding two wider pieces to the bottom.

It was a real pain. Yuck! I use a wide serpentine stitch in neutral colored thread to stitch it together. Unfortunately, I need to conserve money where I can on the charity quilts. I had just enough batting and just enough backing for these.

I tried a pattern I haven't used before--it's waves.

I like the pattern okay, but I didn't like the thread I used. About halfway through the quilt, it started breaking about every row. I had enough rows done, I didn't want to rip it out and start over with a different thread so I pushed through it. After I finished, the spool went straight into the trash can! It was very linty, and I think the lint was causing the breakage. I will have to take the throat plate off and clean really good around the hook before I attempt another quilt.

I also packed up some of the finished quilts with the available bags I had. I still need to make more bags and pillowcases.

I was lucky enough to find a dinosaur pillowcase at Goodwill which is a good match for this quilt, so that's one less I have to make. Here it is all packed up and ready to deliver:

When I was running around town Thursday, I stopped at Aldi, and they had raspberry Kringle!

They only had two left, and I bought both. I took one over to Julia's house, and she already had an almond one from Trader Joe's. I tasted it, and I have to say it is better than the Aldi one--in case you were wondering! 

I also got to see William's Christmas program. I wasn't sure if I would get through with an appointment in time to make it, but I did. He is the shepherd with the beard. 

He had one line--"Come on sheep! Let's go." It was pretty funny.

Busy Work

Not too much going on here for a change. We’ve had some cool weather so I moved some plants inside. 

This Christmas cactus is looking good, but it doesn’t like the cold weather, so we’ll see how it does indoors. Last year it didn’t bloom until after the new year, and this year it started blooming the first week in December. I need to figure out what to fertilize it with. If you know, leave a comment and let me know.

Speaking of Christmas, we decorated the tree in the church sanctuary today.

We’ve switched to a smaller tree, and I’m not sure I like it as well as the great big one we had, but it is certainly easier to reach the top branches.

We are able to use a step ladder instead of the big ladder we had to use in the past.

Here’s a picture from last year for comparison:

After all the tree decorating, I went to my shop and sewed together several pieces of leftover batting to make a big frankenbatting for two charity quilts. Getting them quilted will be the goal for tomorrow. I fed my orange kitty while I was there.

I sent my daughter (who has a strong partiality to orange kitties) the picture, and she sent this back.

I guess he does look like Morris.

To-Do-List Tuesday 12-12-23

I’ve had a week to work on my to-do list, and I’m happy to say it mostly got done.

1) Borders on blue quilt. Yes!

2) Bind placemats. Yes. 

I saw some thread ends that still need to be knotted and buried, but I’m counting it as done.

3) Quilt some donation quilts. Yes. Quite a few got done.

4) Put border on vintage trip around the world. Yes.

It’s not perfect, but it’s a lot better than it was.

5) Wrap Christmas gifts. I wrapped a few, but there are quite a few more that need to be done.

I’m totally pleased with all the progress. I know I put a lot of time into getting things moving along, and I can see the results. I don’t think I can do as much this week, as I have other things on the calendar. Today I’m at church all morning, and tomorrow I need to get some paperwork done. I’m going to see my lawyer Thursday about updating my will, and she sent me a whole bunch of paperwork to fill out before I go. And, the grandkids have Christmas programs Thursday and Friday that I will attend.

So, what’s on my list for this week? 

1) Quilt blue quilt.

2) Quilt one of the vintage quilts….or both if there’s time.

3) Quilt a couple of charity quilts.

4) Make some more binding.

5) Wrap the rest of the Christmas gifts.

I won’t be disappointed if everything doesn’t get done, but who knows? I have a few more of my quilts I want to get done before the end of the year, and I would like to make pillowcases and bags to go with the charity quilts, but I realize there’s not much time left in the year. 

I am linking this post to Quilt Schmilt. Thanks for visiting and have a great week!

Playing Catch-Up Again

What a week! I have been so busy catching up on what I needed to get done, I didn’t even take time to write a blog post. My friend Betty offered to help me catch up on binding donation quilts, and I certainly didn’t want to miss an opportunity to get some help. While Betty was working on binding, I was getting caught up on customer commitments. I got Janice’s quilt done.

I like the piano key border.

Another lady brought me two cross-stitched pieces her mom had made for stockings for the great grands. They asked me to do the sewing.

After i cut the stockings out and got them sewed together, I made linings for them and hand stitched them in.

Once the customer stuff was done, I was trying to stay ahead of Betty on the donation quilts, and I got quite a few quilted. I tried to concentrate on ones I could load in pairs so I could do two at once.

Here are all the ones we got done:

I think there are 12 in the stack, and two more will get bound today. Betty is going on a cruise Thursday, and I hope to get some more quilted while she is gone.

The dogs are still monopolizing the soft blanket I bought.

Ruthie managed to get it last night, although Reba was lying close by in case it became available. They make me laugh. 

To-Do-List Tuesday 12-5-23

It’s been a super busy week. Today is our WELCA Christmas party at church, and I spent yesterday evening making ham salad and egg salad for sandwiches. I think we’ll finish decorating the sanctuary today. We were also instructed to bring a $5 gift card for some kind of game. I wasn’t sure you could even buy a $5 gift card, but I got one at the grocery store.

So, how did my list turn out?

1) Replace the border on the vintage trip around the world. No.

2) Put borders on vintage log cabin. Yes.

3) Put borders on blue quilt. No.

4) Make more bindings for charity quilts. Yes. 

5) Bind Christmas table runner and placemats. The table runner is done.

6) Put borders on two charity quilts. Yes.

I have a few things I need to get done this week. Namely, get that blue quilt done before Christmas.

1) Borders on blue quilt.

2) Bind placemats.

3) Quilt some donation quilts.

4) Put border on vintage trip around the world.

5) Wrap Christmas gifts. 

I am linking this post to Quilt Schmilt. I hope everyone has a wonderful week!

Monday Musings

It was a good weekend. The sunset on Sunday evening looked like the sky was glowing.

We hadn’t seen much sun for a couple of days, so it was nice to have a fairly sunny day. I had just come from Sam’s (it was a rat race in there!) and decided to drive over to my shop to leave food for the cat(s). I will be there today but I’m not sure what time I’ll make it as I want to go by Hobby Lobby and get some fabric for binding these two:

They’re not quilted yet, but that will happen soon. And, Betty has been coming over and helping me catch up on the binding, so I want to have it ready while I have competent help.

My grandson had another piano recital Saturday morning. It was nice.

They had some photo props for picture taking, and he was making the most of it. He handed his mom the naughty sign and he took the nice one. LOL. 

I did a little sewing and finished the quilting on the vintage log cabin quilt. It was a total challenge like I expected. I’ll have pictures as soon as I get it off the frame. I hope to get the other vintage one done soon also.

I bought a new fleece blanket that is so soft. Unfortunately, I haven’t gotten to enjoy it as the dogs have claimed it.

They love all soft things.

December Already?

I looked at my phone yesterday, and it said 12/1. I think I did a double take. I'm not ready yet! Ready or not, it's here. I need to start working on sales tax stuff--technically, I can't finish it until the year is over, but I don't think I will have any customer stuff for the rest of the year once I get a couple of pending things done. I can always get started and then just modify the totals to capture any late invoices. 

I did get Susan's quilt finished and she picked it up yesterday.

I don't know how the colors show up on the monitor, but it's navy blue and cheddar. Under the lights over the longarm, it looked very purple, but it's not. I used medium gray thread on it. That seemed like the safest choice. Look at this beautiful quilt design:

It's called "Summer Feathers". It probably shows better on the back.

I got the borders put on two donation quilts—finally. The quilts have been done for a while, but I didn’t have enough fabric left for the borders. That’s been an ongoing problem with using the JoAnn’s fabric for the three-yard quilts. They are really skimpy with their cutting, and there’s not more than 40” on the width.

I had to get creative with what I had left. I think it looks okay.

More importantly, they are done, and I can move them to the “to be quilted” stack. 

I worked last night on cutting out some kits from the new Villa Rosa patterns I ordered. I don’t know when I’ll get to work on them, but I like to have some things cut and ready to go. When I finished cutting, I went back to the couch and found these two sharing one dog bed.

Ryder (right) and Reba (left), aka Pete and Repeat or Thing One and Thing Two. They are worth their weight in entertainment value. I keep reminding myself of that when I am out in the yard picking up dog poo. Like most Jagdterriers, they are a handful. You can see from the picture, Reba has lost her rabies tag and her microchip tag. They are rough little dogs.