Orca Bay - FINALLY a finish!

84" x 93" Orca Bay

I'll let the pictures tell the story......

Ummm....well.  I HAD intentions of having this finished in September!  That's when it was loaded on the quilting frame anyway. :\

And then, since I still had half the day left, I loaded Ann Marie's quilt on the frame.  

I had enough motivation to finish all the quilting in one sitting!

The fabrics are AMAZING sea-life batiks;  I used a 'wave-like' pantograph and some a blendable taupe thread color. 

Such a shame that the weekend has to come to a close.  :\

Insert grumpy face :{

Here's me...in all my 'non-showering-day' glory....

I don't like it when this weapon tool has to come out!

And why????........

:\

I can't remember the last time I have had tension issues!!!!!  Hmmm...I wonder if one of the girls was playing with the tension knob---it certainly doesn't seem like something they would do.  

Frustrating, tension is something I don't check for anymore...so I was quilting away....la...la....la..... finding a groove..... beboppin'.....

And then I rolled the quilt.

Gah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

At least it appears to be easy to 'rip' out.  **sigh**  Weird.  I'm using my normal Aurifil.  I'm using my normal warm-n-white batting.  I gave the machine a little oiling like always.  Hm.......it appears it may just be this one bobbin's worth. ??????

Back to it.

I'll check back in later with a FINISHED quilt (minus binding).  Then I'll catch y'all up on my day.

Small observation----

do you see the needle pinned in my front, right shoulder area?  That's where I keep my needle handy for tying off seams.

Procrastination meets Deadline.

So, recall last Tuesday when I loaded Diamond Fields onto the quilting frame and only did a couple of bobbins worth before walking away from it.  At that time, I had said LOTS of time was available without much of a rush needed to meet the Wedding deadline (this Saturday).

And honestly...I'm still not in too much of a need for a big crazy push to meet the deadline, even though I'm at a workshop for 8 hours today and tomorrow.... and appointments on Wednesday.... in addition to the afternoon swimming lessons as well, and the gardening that will be screaming at me Thursday, and an early Friday-morning departure time for the 10-hour North Dakota road trip.  Really!  I should have plenty of time to meet the deadline 8-)

PLENTY OF TIME.....

as long as everything keeps running smoothly......

!??!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!!??!??!?!

Holy buckets!!!!!  Imagine the noise that came from my machine when the bottom of the quilting foot broke clear off its shank!!!  It nearly gave me a full-blown heart attack!

And then....the PANIC!  

You have GOT to be kidding me!!!  I mean.....what???  Thankfully the machine wasn't damaged.  Thankfully the quilt wasn't damaged.   The needle (obviously) lost its life, but I have PLENTY of those!  

But a quilting foot?!?!?!?  

Who do I know that has a Juki?  What company do I know in the area that even carries Juki accessories????

 And then.....Good ol' Murphy lost at his own game!

When I checked my accessory bag..... A SPARE quilting foot was in it!   I had had the 1/4" quilting foot on the machine, and I completely forgot that a 1/5" quilting foot also came with the machine!!!!

...and the Heavens opened up and the Angels sang...

So, after a little loosening and tightening of some screws....I was back underway.  Tragedy escaped.

And I ALMOST finished it!  Almost.  I finished up the last bobbin I had prepped, and with the Olympics full underway, I simply wasn't in the mood anymore to wind up one more bobbin and finish it up.

Tomorrow, once I arrive back home at 4:00, I'll finish this up and hopefully get the binding on too.

Mom's retirement quilt [quilting]

Mom's Retirement quilt

So, yesterday....while talking about the progress I have been making on my parent's Bear Paw quilt, my mother asked about her retirement quilt that she gave to me to finish up a couple of months ago....

??????

I completely had let it slide right out of my mind!  She had handed it to me the weekend after Easter, and with all the school stuff flying around in my mind, I simply forgot about it!!! Honestly......CLEAR out of my mind!!!!!  In fact, I had Mom in a slight panic yesterday when I gave her a blank stare, saying I really didn't recall even taking it home from her house....

After 2 minutes of looking, however....I spied it....stashed downstairs ...... in the corner...in a bag.  

One of the Sunday School teachers pieced the quilt and did the embroidery...

all of the Sunday School kids and teachers signed in the white areas and added their thumb prints...

LOOK at these amazing mitered corners!!!!!!!!!

I loaded it up lickity-split after finishing "A Scrappy Picnic"; quilting completed yesterday evening;  binding just completed this morning.

It's not a technical finish of my own, but some more quilting completed :D

10-minute block! MOTIVATION was found!!!

While parking my butt last night, I perused some new sites I found via a "King-size quick quilt pattern" goggle search. (HEY! When suddenly THREE new quilts are sequestered in the same weekend, ONE MONTH from Christmas---the quilts need to be QUICK!) ;0)

Well....check out this 10-minute block video clip. It just seemed too slick NOT to try out immediately!!!!

V'iola....this is ABSO-TOOTIN-LUTELY a quick, simple and neat-o block! These fabrics have been sitting, waiting patiently since this summer when my SIL requested another "floofy" quilt. Remember that post???

If you visit that post, you'll see I took a pic of the originally planned pattern, but....eh......that one would have also been quick to piece, but.....I just really was impressed with this 10-minute block.

So, I grabbed a pencil and scrap paper to draft up a quick pattern. My plan (which may not be easily seen) is to alternate a lighter block with a darker block, with alternating light/dark sashings, pending what color block is next to it. {{did that even make sense????}} I think I have a name for this already too!! Jen's Diamonds.

Anyway...I whipped up two 10-minute blocks before closing up shop last night. And they'll need to just wait patiently on the side because my Connecting Threads shipment arrived today. I ordered some of the Essential Pro threads to try out on a customer quilt and so far, being three passes into the quilting, so good. NO thread breakage....very little lint so far. Once I'm finished with the quilt (Twilight), I'll give a complete review of the thread in case some of you have been curious about trying it out too. I REALLLY like Connecting Threads! I've ordered fabric a few different times......{{**sigh**}} and yeah.....this time too! I'm not really looking forward to figuring out my Stash Report for this week! YIKERS! {{I'm sure Jill won't mind it though. She'd love some company in the "red-world".}} :0)

So...took a little break to have a snack and some tea (and to update the blog). I'll see how far I can get with the quilting of Twilight tonight; I set Sunday as the deadline so it can be mailed out on Monday. I'm EASILY going to make that deadline :0)

OH GREAT! Now I need to find some wood to knock----knowing Murphy, my machine will probably go wacky on me so that I won't be able to finish this quilt, not to mention all the others that are awaiting completion before that glorious day 26 days from now!

Happy Tuesday!
;0)

Change of plans...

AGH!
Yesterday morning, I was talking the schedule out loud so that DH and I knew where everyone needed to be, who was picking up whom, etc......I'm sure you understand. It's not like we want to forget anyone like a certain someone in Florida did the other day ;0)

Anyway....we have a party we need to head to later this afternoon and I had all intentions of spending the morning doing my Statistics planning, paper grading, etc.

Suddenly-----it hit me!

Me: **gasp** Paul! That quilt you mother gave me at the beginning of volleyball season to finish up....is that for the party??
DH: ???? {grabbed phone}....'Mom...is that quilt a gift for Anita's party tomorrow?.......ah-huh......okay......Love you.'
DH: Yup.
Me: #&*@*!

SO!
Guess what I started last night INSTEAD of attending the Homecoming football game? And guess what I'm going to be doing for most of the day until we need to leave at 3:00?

So much for being a dutiful teacher today!

Another quilt for MIL...

My MIL's Balloon quilt didn't really inspire me today when I eventually made my way downstairs, but it needed to get done. It measures 38.5" x 44".











backing fabric

Definitely nothing that would win me any awards.....but as (I believe it was Candace?) who said something like......."Done is better than perfect." Or maybe it was Linda (TX)?.....

Anyway.....this lil' quilt confirmed that I MUCH prefer to quilt using a pantograph than freehand. Not having a stitch regulator to help me when I get to corners...it's a bit difficult. However, an edge-to-edge pantograph doesn't have any (many) corners that I need to stop for....

365 Days of Freemotion Fillers

Okay----HOW has this blog never crossed my path before???

FreeMotionQuilting

AN ABSOLUTE if you are puzting with FMQ!!!!

Quilting is an art----{{am I'm NO artist!!!}}

You have my permission to crinkle your nose, shake your head, or even giggle (which is what I'm doing)

I was tired of piecing with the Bernina---so tired....
so, I plugged in the Juki and played.
HOLY COW!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She's FAAAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSTTTTTTTT! I only played with her quilting-wise last week, but tonight, I tried piecing with her. HOLY BUCKETS! Now I guess I know what 1500 stitches-per-minute mean! I wonder what the Bernina does. {{no where NEAR 1500! That's for sure!}}

Well, I needed another bag-holder-stuffer thing: {{Moda Grocery Bag dispenser pattern}} So, I pulled out some blah-blah fabrics and speed-pieced this thing!

Then I played with the quilting...
I have been watching LOTS and LOTS of Youtube videos, waiting patiently for the blessed delivery of the GMQ-PRO (Tuesday is getting closer!!!) Anyway....I tinkered.....

...ummmmmm....yeah......feathers look A LOT easier to make than what they actually are......

....But I guess if there is ONE piece of advice that I WILL NOT {{NOT, NOT, NOT}} FORGET.....

Quilting is like writing.....

Look at a Kindergartner's writing vs. a Senior in high school (or even a 3rd grader)....

It takes practice for it to become 2nd nature and looking good....

So.....tonight was fun....
but ....


...definitely NOT pretty! :0)

Happy Sunday Night!

It's Saturday!!!

...and volleyball is over.

Coffee in hand....

DOWNSTAIRS I GO!!!!!

This -n- That day...

FIRST!!! To start the post; we are newly-made proud parents..... I really don't know if I ever informed any of you that my DH acquired yet another "Farmer Paul" animal. Last autumn, Cattle-ine joined our family, a pregnant heffer. This morning started with a new member. The picture is not the greatest, but I'm about 150 yards away, so....it'll do. Paul woke me up at 6:11 wondering if today was Monday or Sunday--UGH! Once I told him Sunday, he went "potty" and then snuggled back in. ME, on the other hand, shheeeesh---now I was wide awake, so....6:22 I finally rolled out of bed. Figured I might as well make use of the morning. Anyway---I peeked outside, and there she was, licking away. I got all excited and told Paul.....he didn't believe me! Come to find out that when he went to the bathroom, she was laying down with no calf, so she literally JUST calfed. The girls are still sleeping, but we both are up, eating muffins I made, drinking coffee, and are waiting patiently to share the news with the girls.

Okay---now to yesterday. I use this word a lot, but....it was a day of "putzing." It started out by working on the March quilt. All blocks were completed in the morning hours and were pieced into three sections. I think this will sit for a bit now while I decide how I want to quilt. I just purchased a new Machine Quilting book that takes me through the "practice" steps of accomplishing beautiful??? quilting.

After the sections were pieced, I came upstairs for a mid-morning snack and grabbed the book. Practicing my quilting sounded like a good plan, so I tore out a page of phone-book paper and traced a rather intriquite (sp?) design. I used an orphan Scrappy Basket block AND I grabbed the basting spray to finally try it out on a smaller-scale project. It worked rather slick! BUT, if you are going to use the "draw-motif-on-paper-and-sew-over-it-before-tearing-it-off method, I recommend to NOT spray the paper to the fabric. That was a PAIN to remove!!!

In addition to buying the quilting book last week, I also bought a whole bolt (25 yards) of white muslin (very nicely woven!!!) for $1.00 a yard! Couldn't go wrong there. Pictured is also a roll of 10 yards of Warm & Natural batting that was on sale for $5.99/yard. I should be set now for awhile :0)



While waiting for lunch to cook, I browsed over some of my online quilting bookmarks, and came across this Cathedral Windows tutorial from some time ago. I was instantly inspired, so I headed downstairs after lunch to give it a try using the new muslin. SLICK! This is FUN! I can foresee this being a larger-scale project in the future, but I think I want some sort of "controlled scrappiness" with the window colors, so this is just a small wall-hanging as a visual reminder for "someday."

Then...I actually was bored with the quilting room. I didn't know what else to work on and really didn't feel like sewing.


Paul was outside with the girls, working on his own version of "putzing." He was preparing the garden for tilling; covering it with some old leaves and compost that has been "brewing" since last year. I joined in the fun......

















And this last picture was a surprise on the camera this morning. Last night, Candace and Caitlyn "borrowed" the camera again. Caitlyn snapped the pic of her and Candace; it turned out amazing.

Happy Sunday