I Almost Forgot

Actually I did forget. I signed up to do a block swap on one of the Facebook groups, and I did get the blocks made, but then I got busy with other stuff and forgot to mail them. I got these in the mail a few days ago:

I was pretty surprised as I had forgotten all about it. Luckily, mine were made and easy to locate so I was able to get them in the mail yesterday. I made two sets….one to mail, and one to keep.

They are supposed to be flowers. I will most likely appliqué yellow circles to the middles so they look a little more flower-like. Anyway, I wasn’t planning to do any more swaps, because for me, swap blocks equal more UFO’s, but these are so easy, and I couldn’t resist. I think I can also incorporate these into the RSC challenge. 

I also forgot to share some pictures of granddaughter’s confirmation.

It was a pretty big group. Here is K with her sponsor:

K and family:

And, just K:

This is what I spent my time and energy on:

Needless to say, there was plenty of food. I took chicken salad and pimento cheese to the neighbors, and I still have some left.

Lots of Activity

Happy Thursday! I have had lots of fun things to do this week; mostly crafty things, but still fun. Our quilt guild meets at the library one afternoon every other month to work on things to sell at our quilt show in September. This week we worked on some angel ornaments.

They were a little bit more labor intensive than I had expected, but we had about fifteen people there, so we worked assembly line style and got some finished. I'm not sure how many were done; I took this photo about half way through:

We also had our family fun night at church this week. It is usually games; either board games or dominoes or bunco, but last night we painted. You had a choice of things to paint. Here are some of the signs that were made.

I didn't get finished, but I got mine painted and got my bow made. I just need to hot glue it all together.

I will finish gluing it as soon as I get a chance and get it hung up in my shop. 

I am finishing up on the last few of the customer quilts and will get pictures posted soon. There are also three here that are finished and just need to be picked up. Any progress is good.

Temperature Quilts

I have been thinking about making a temperature quilt for some time. There was a quilt-along a few years ago, but I was still working full time (plus more), and I was pretty sure I wouldn’t be able to keep up with it. 

I spent some time on Pinterest looking for ideas, and there are a lot of options. 

Some I really liked:

I went through my solid fabrics and made a list of what I can use for temperatures.

I didn’t have any purple, but I have since bought a half yard. That should be plenty for South Texas. I have recorded the daily highs and lows and can get started pretty soon.

To-Do-List Tuesday 2-14-23

Happy Valentines Day!

I am ready to make some progress on my to-do-list. Here's what I got done last week:

1) Put the borders on the Cheaper by the Dozen quilt. No. I didn't have time to even touch it.

2) Quilt three customer quilts. Yes, plus a couple of more. 

3) Finish the piecing on the commission quilt I am working on. Another no.

4) Continue working on the borders quilt. I am still working on the flying geese.

Here's my current list:

1) Put the borders on the Cheaper by the Dozen quilt.

2) Finish binding on customer quilt.

3) Finish the piecing on commission quilt.

4) Continue working on borders quilt.

I am caught up with shop hop and quilt show deadlines, so I think I will be more successful this week. I need to squeeze in some time for house cleaning and laundry. ☹️ Not my favorite, but I hate to get too far behind on it, and soon enough it will be time to start working on the yard. I am linking this post to Quilt Schmilt.

Weekend Update

I have been really busy. There is a shop hop coming up in early March, and the Calhoun County quilt show is the last weekend of this month. I am trying to not take on more than I can comfortably do, but that is hard to calculate, so I am dealing with the deadlines. Here are three I quilted for the shop hop:

All are pretty quilts. The top on is a new line of fabric called Sun Washed, the second in a panel, and the third is the new American Jane line. It is made from a pattern called "Brick Layer", and uses an entire layer cake plus a little yardage. It is a pattern I would like to make myself.

These are for the Calhoun County show:

The second one is on the frame now.....the centers are men's ties surrounded by strips from men's shirts. The sashing is a batik.

Other than that, I am keeping myself occupied with non-sewing stuff. I finally got my back in good enough shape to go back to the gym, and my exercise class is Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7am. I am still hoping to do yoga on Tuesday and Thursday, but that's how I hurt my back, so I'm not pushing it. I went to bingo on Wednesday night, and went to see some live music on Tuesday night. I am not used to being out after dark! LOL.

My granddaughter has confirmation today at 2pm, and we will go back to their house after for a reception. I offered to cater it, so I have been busy making salads.....tuna, chicken, pasta. The other grandmother is making a cake so dessert is taken care of. All of this means probably no sewing today either. 

To-Do List Tuesday 2-7-23

It really felt like I wasted a lot of time (on I don't know what) last week, but when I looked back at last Tuesday's list, I got more done than I thought.

1) Put borders on the Cheaper by the Dozen quilt. Still a no. I need to get in gear and get this one done. 

2) Finish the borders on the Two-Step quilt. Done 

3) Add a label and finish binding on keyhole quilt. Done 

4) Work on borders quilt. I worked on the flying geese rounds, but I don't have them sewn onto the quilt yet.

5) Three customer quilts Done. I apparently didn't take pictures of all of them though. 

I have plenty more I need to work on this week. First of all, I want that Cheaper by the Dozen Quilt done so I don't have to see it on my list again. Also, there is a Shop Hop coming up in March, so I will need to quilt a couple of tops for my local shop. I need to squeeze in one for another customer that I have had hanging on my rack for a little over a week. Here's the complete list:

1) Put the borders on the Cheaper by the Dozen quilt.

2) Quilt three customer quilts.

3) Finish the piecing on the commission quilt I am working on.

4) Continue working on the borders quilt.

I'm pretty sure that should be enough to keep me busy. I am linking this post to Quilt Schmilt. It has finally stopped raining (I hope), and I need to spend some time cleaning the house. I am the slowest house cleaner, but I eventually get it all done......usually just in time to start again. Unfortunately, I got really behind on things last week and the week before due to the rain and my back was bothering me so much. This morning, I swept and mopped and washed all the rugs which the dogs had totally tracked up with their muddy paws. I got the bathrooms partially cleaned, but I still need to finish that chore. 

Quilting Dilemmas

Let me start by saying I really like machine quilting. I know many people who only like to piece tops, and I like that part too, but I also like to quilt. I have done longarm quilting since about 2005, but most of that time, I was quilting my own tops. Oh, I would do an occasional one for friends, but I was working full time, and quilting time was limited. The longarm I had then was not computerized, and was a lighter weight machine. I’m glad I started that way, although it had its own frustrations, because I learned a lot. I developed confidence in working on the machine and trouble shooting all the problems. 

After I retired last year, I upgraded to a bigger, computerized machine and started quilting for others. I found out there are still challenges. There is still mechanical maintenance that has to be done to keep the machine operating it’s best, there is a learning curve with setting up the computerized designs, there are customers who have a clear idea of what they want but can’t communicate it, and say, “oh, just do what you want”. 

Then there are construction issues with the tops themselves. I got almost to the last row of this one

and figured out there was a whole lot of fullness at the bottom. Everything had gone well up to this point, but I could not make the last section lay flat. I tried all the little tricks, but there was just too much fullness to work in. I measured the blocks and noticed two of them were a full inch wider than all the rest.

I could see where the fullness had been eased in at the top when the blocks were joined to the row above them. I was really conflicted about how to deal with the issue and had to walk away from it for a while. I ended up taking it off the frame, removing the last row, cutting down the two oversized blocks, reattaching the row, and reloading the top. I use the red snappers for loading, so that part goes pretty fast.

Once I got it back on the frame, it was easy to get the quilting finished. I know a lot of longarmers would have returned it to the customer and asked them to fix it, but this lady is older than my mother, and I didn’t have the heart to say anything. I hope I am still sewing when I get to be her age.

Another issue I run into at times is borders that haven’t been properly measured. Those don’t lay flat either. Oh, and seams at the end of rows that haven’t been backstitched. The stretching that happens when a quilt is frame loaded will almost always cause those seams to pop open. I could go on, but I won’t. Let me just say, most of my customers are wonderful piecers, and a few are darned near perfect. I think I am lucky to work with all levels of quilters because it is all a learning experience for me.