Slow and steady progress

It’s been several days since I blogged. A lot has happened.  School started on Monday.  That was both a good and a bad thing as I had to take over my old chores again.  Ugh.  That afternoon, I had jury duty, which consisted of sitting around while the judge heard 14 motions, any of which could have turned into a trial, but none of which actually did, meaning I sat around for a very long time while lawyers wrangled in the adjoining room, only to be dismissed with no excitement.  hmmm.

And, on Tuesday, I had some minor oral surgery.  I’m still on a very soft, diet…liquids and pasta and eggs and smoothies.  Lots of nutrition drinks.  But, it’s had to get calories out of a liquid diet unless you walk around with a drink in your hand all the time.  So, I’m hungry most of the time and just want something to chew…maybe we’ll have a roast on Monday, when I can eat again. 

The Point is the Points is finished and hanging for our pleasure. 

And, we’re loving it.  I’m going to make a slight adjustment to the sleeve to get rid of a wrinkle in the bottom hem.  But, other than that, it’s ready to be folded and dropped off for the show.

And, I’m sewing the sleeve to the silk quilt.  So far, I’ve only put one stitch with a green thread all the way through to the brown front of the quilt.  That’s going to have to be fixed.  Oops!

And, I finished the transport and storage bag for The Geronimo Quilt.

It’s made like a messenger bag without straps, with a foldover top that buttons.  When I make a bag, I make it to use long term.  This will be the quilt’s permanent storage bag.  I’m trying to get all my quilts in protective bags, but alas, that urge comes and goes and I have a lot of quilts.

And, while I was taking pain meds, I was afraid to use a rotary cutter or even a needle, so I made significant progress on my scarf.

I think I’m at about three and a half feet.  It’s got a herringbone look on one side and I’m really enjoying that.  It took me several false starts to figure out the pattern, but once I got it, it was very simple.  A video on the internet saved the day.

The gears for my Mom’s sewing machine came in yesterday.  I bought the service manual, thinking it would include the repair manual like many other Singer service manuals do.  Not so on this one.  The manual did not include any repairs, except the basic repairs to be encountered in routinely servicing the machine.  Still valuable, but not what I expected.  Anyway, I found a video of a repairman replacing these exact gears and I’m feeling ready to tackle it.  It took him 15 minutes.  Probably take me a whole day of muttering swear words under my breath. 

Have a great Friday.  Looking forward to a three day weekend. 

Lane

Problems and successes

This weekend was for making labels for the show quilts.  And, washing and blocking.  It started on Friday, when Sydney and I hand washed the Geronimo Quilt.

You might not be able to tell here, but the colors are much brighter.  And, I figured out why it looked so dark after the last wash.

That’s the wash with Oxy-Clean.

First rinse.  Holy unstable brown dye, Batman!

Third rinse and we quit.  From here, we drained all the water out and then rolled the quilt into a sheet and then twisted heck out of that sheet to wring out the excess water.  Then, it lay spread on the floor for four hours until it was dry enough to put it in the dryer, where it tumbled for 10 minutes precisely.  Then, it was pinned to the floor in the shape most closely approximating a rectangle that it could be stretched into.

I also set up all the text for my labels and embroidered it out in a test sample.

I’ve only completed two labels and only one of them is sewn to the quilt.

Nice, simple, neat.

And, I made Syd three shirts about four years ago.  She never wore them.  I kept asking for them back because they’re nice shirts and I want to take them to the office and see if anyone wants them before sending them to Goodwill.  She couldn’t find them.  But, last week, cleaning out her closet and planning her outfits for this year, she found them, and decided one of them is good enough to wear.

It needed some fitting, tho.  Four inches out of the side seams at the waist and I took out the darts in back and put them back so that it gave her more room in….the back porch area and stopped the pulling at the bottom facings.  You can tell she likes it.  And, it only took four years.

Everybody have a great Sunday.  I’m back to hand sewing labels.  Lane

Look out the window

I was on the way to the Optometrist yesterday afternoon and he was sitting on the side of the road, in the shade of an overpass with two dogs; one white and big and powerful, clearly the brawn of the organization and the other black, with smart, sparkling eyes; both sleek and well fed and watered.  The boy was young, probably not 30.  I don’t usually give to panhandlers that look like they’re as able to work as I am.  I know, I shouldn’t judge one more deserving than the other, but I prefer to share what I can with the schizophrenic lady and the one legged man. 

His sign said “Anything Helps”.  Anything?  No, not anything.  Any Amount.  And, I reached into my pocket and pulled out what I had and passed it through the window.  Not much; couple of bucks.  Enough for a couple of tacos for supper.  When he opened his mouth to thank me, I realized he had maybe a half dozen teeth.  It likely should have made me sad, but it made me smile.  And, it broke my mood of the day.  I always wish a good day and share with a big smile and usually an admonishment to stay cool or warm, depending on the season.  Yesterday was no different. 

And, as I drove away, I felt good.  Real good.  As though the whole point of my day was to share with this young man and his dogs.  And, that kind of made the allergies and the heat and the news and the politics and the quilt show just a background noise, like static on the radio. 

My real purpose was to buy a guy supper.  And, help make sure Sydney grows into a productive member of society.  And, hold dinner for Rob when he was late from work, just to show him how important I think he is.  And, help my friend at work figure out how to piece the quiltblock she’s working on, and seeing that look of relief in her eyes when she understood why her triangles wouldn’t line up. 

My Mom would call this counting my blessings.  So, let’s call it that.  Blessed by the things I can do, more than the things I can’t do anything about. 

Have a great Friday.

Lane

Days out

For me, it’s a hard time of year.  My allergies are at their worst.  And, it’s freakin hot.  Sooooo hot.  In fact, I probably don’t need to tell you how hot because it’s going to be as hot today in Minnesota as it is in Texas.  And, it’s hot.

Plus, the kid is ready to go back to school and I’m really tired of hauling myself out of this house every day, into the heat to work, and hearing her talk about how she’s exhausted from being so bored. 

And, I’m feeling the pressure of entering quilts in the show next month.  So much so that at least once every other day, I say I’m just going to pull them all.  I don’t care.  But, I know I do.  And, I know I won’t.  And, I just keep plugging away at my entries, bored, sewing on sleeves by hand.  One after the other. 

I have jury duty on Monday.  They sent me a questionnaire to fill out and one of the things was days I wasn’t available.  I put Tuesday as a day I wasn’t available because I have some minor oral surgery scheduled.  This week, I got back my acceptance and it says I need to be available both Monday and Tuesday.  WTH…what did you ask me about unavailable days for then?  So now I have to call some bored bureaucrat, who listens to people try to get out of jury duty all day, every day, (which I’m not trying to do) and get them to help me reschedule mine.  I plan to call as soon as they open, when they’re at their freshest.  And, I’ve got my big happy “can you help me, please” smile on.

And, the news.  OMG, I can’t even hardly watch the news.  It’s like the world has gone crazy around me and all I can do is try to get through every day, hoping the news will get better tomorrow.  And, I watch for those human interest stories that show good things happening (You go, Mo’Ne…throw like a girl and show those boys how it’s done!) and I grab onto those and let them bring tears to my eyes and warmth to my heart…at least until the next story about people killing one another because of s#!* that don’t matter. 

And, from the time I wake (at 3am, damnit!) until the time I fall back into bed, I feel like a spring, wound just a little bit too tight.  And, not able to do anything about it but hold on and not pop.

It’s hard to keep a positive attitude for me right now, so I haven’t posted in a couple days.  And, it might be a couple days before I’m ready to post again.  Til then, I’m enjoying lots of wonderful quilting posts that you all are writing and I started knitting a new scarf as a distraction…It’s so decadent.  I don’t have time for anything but finishing these quilts…but I’m making time for something I want to do, just because I want to do it. 

HA!  Thumb’s to you, deadlines.

Hope you have found a cool spot and that your days are filled with positivity and quilting.  Tell me about it.  Your story may be just what I need to hear to pull me through these last few one hundred degree days of summer.  And, then the rains will come again and the air will cool and whatever I’m allergic to will stop pollinating and my nose will stop running and my attitude will get better and hopefully, so will the news.

Until then, I’m still sewing. (and knitting…)

Lane

Marathon of quilting

I took Friday off.  I spent most of it on the town with Sydney, shopping and having a nice lunch.  We tried to get a haircut, but there was an issue after I dropped her at the salon and she had me come pick her right back up.  It was all good. 

And, I spent the hot part of the afternoon, the part where no body wants to be outside, quilting.  That afternoon, I realized I only had three weekends before quilts need to be turned in.  That led me to decide that I was going to finish the quilts this weekend because I still have sleeves, labels, transportation bags, and washing/blocking to do. 

Thank goodness, Rob understood.  He knew we were coming up on this weekend, the one where I would panic.  Except I didn’t need to panic, I just needed to put the seam ripper down and decide that what I had was good enough.  Believe me, that was not easy.  But, it was very liberating.  I don’t have to be perfect.  I just have to be as good as I can be in the time allotted.  And, that time is up.

The sewing room is a wreck.

And, the cutting table in the garage looks even worse.  I couldn’t be bothered with putting things away.  That’s okay, there’s plenty of time for that.  And, Sydney will deal with vacuuming the 10,000 snips of thread off the floor. 

But, A Place for Life to Happen is completed, and the crooked lines are straight again (each put in twice!)

I finished The Point is the Points, too.

That got me where I needed to be, but being who I am, I also finished the restoration quilt, even taking out the red that ran and replacing some of the pieces it ran onto so the quilt can be washed again.  I chose to only replace two of the three pieces that got red bleed.  The third was a fabric used a lot in the quilt and I decided it was okay to have that red tint along one edge.

   

And, I still had time to make all four sleeves for the quilts.  This week, I’ll focus on getting them sewn to the backs and next weekend, I can start designing labels and washing/blocking

Labels are a lot of work and I need to make two for each quilt, one for the transportation bag and one for the quilt.  The transportation bag protects the quilt from the floor between dropoff and hanging, so they’re very important.  And, the silk quilt will be rolled onto a pool noodle and that has to be covered with muslin as well as a long tubular bag made for it.  Two quilts will be delivered rolled.  The others will be folded and inserted into pillow case size bags. 

Ya’ gotta love a man that says he understands and while we did have to run some errands over the weekend, he was focused on making sure I got as much quilting time as I could.  Sydney even kicked in and helped clean up after us.  Great support system.  They’re always such a part of my quilting and my successes.  Rob kept me in ice water and entertainment for both days.  It was a good weekend.  No panic.  Thanks, Y’ALL!  At 5:45 yesterday afternoon, I was sore and stiff and declared that there would be no more sewing that day.  And, it felt good to be that far along.  But, I bet there are other quilters in town that are going in for that final push…the one that gets them over the finish line in their own marathons of quilting.

Be well.  Have a great Monday.  Lane

Restoration progress

Thought it must be time for an update on the quilt restoration.  The quilt has a name.  I’m calling it “The Geronimo Quilt”.  The story of how it came to me is here.

The first thing I did when I started the restoration was look at the quilt’s problems.  They aren’t all solved yet.  But, most of the big ones are either corrected, or nearly so. 

There was the folded over corner.

Which turned out to be a repair of a rotten spot.

And, now looks like this.

You can see the new fabric along the bottom right.  Slightly different.  I dipped it in coffee to turn the bright white to the more subdued tone of the original fabric.  That forgave a lot of the issues with the two plaids being different sizes.

There was the mouse hole.

And, now it looks like this

 

and this

 

There was a tear in one of the pink squares.

You can see the patch fabric next to it.  That came from my stash.  Instead of patching over the tear, I laid the new fabric under the tear and sewed the raw edges to it, using a dark pink thread and long stitches that tied both the fabric edge, and an imaginary line about an eighth of an inch away to the new, more stable fabric.

The binding is sewn to the quilt front, all the way around and joined at the ends, all by hand.  Now, I’m just sewing it to the back by hand.  The old binding was just the brown backing fabric folded over the front and sewn down with the tiniest machine stitch you can imagine, making it dang near impossible to remove, but I did.  I cut the top thread off the bottom thread, so if I don’t wash the quilt again, I’m going to have to go back and pluck out all those tiny bits of thread left behind, in a curvy edge along the binding.

The maker didn’t quite spread her batting to the edge and folded part of the quilt into her binding to make it tight.  By releasing the binding and replacing it, I got an extra three quarters of an inch of quilt, all the way around.  But, I’ve been having to pretty consistently add wadding to the edge, under the binding, to get that tight effect again.

It’s not finished yet.  I’ve left quilting threads dangling here and there and I’ll come in and tie them off and replace the thread where quilting stitches had to be removed or knots came out or threads broke.  And, I found a little tear that I made when I was cutting the old binding off and I”m going to have to go back and patch that.  But, it won’t be a problem.  And, I have to decide what I’m going to do about that piece of red homespun that ran in the wash…if I do anything.  That might just need to be part of the charm of the quilt. 

While I was sewing on binding last night, I noticed these for the first time. 

I must not be the first person to repair this quilt.  Now, I get to wonder, not just about whoever made this wonderful quilt with its awful blocks, but who thought enough of it, before me, to make repairs to it.

I like feeling like part of a line of quilters who have touched and enjoyed this quilt, even if the blocks are all messed up.  I’m trying to find the block name in Barbara Brackman’s book, but no luck yet.  It seems like a variation of a carpenter’s wheel, where the center is a square instead of a pieced block. 

Okay, so that’s it for me.  I spent my quilting time this morning putting in the fourth side of leaves on the silk quilt.  Just a few inches to go.  As I’ve quilted the border and pulled the edges of the quilt inward so they lay flat, I’ve noticed that some of the straight lines I put in the border separator aren’t straight anymore.  That will need to be corrected.  I wish I was as patient in all my life as I am in my quilting.  Imagine what I could be if I could manage that.

Lane

The trip that wasn’t

My trip this week was not meant to be.  I did my part.  The airline cancelled my flight, and because I’m not gold-diamond-platinum-special, they wouldn’t put me on another airline.  So, I had them bring me home.  But, even that was long and drawn out.

I understand business.  I know that things happen.  But, I felt like they kept us in the dark.  Every hour, on the hour, they delayed the flight by another hour.  But nobody came out and told us.  We only found out when one of us went to the monitor and saw the delay and came back and told the rest. 

Anyway, by mid afternoon, when they cancelled, there just weren’t any flights left that would get me there.  Not even with an extra stop.

And, there were some very angry and aggressive people at that gate.  I pulled my smile out of my pocket and I called a customer service rep and I was polite and understanding and friendly and she got me on a flight to Austin.  BUT, my travel woes weren’t over.  There was bad weather north of Austin.  Dallas is also north of Austin.  So, we went to west and then south and then we went East, and finally, north to Austin.  My 27 minute flight took an hour and a half. 

But, I was home by bedtime.

So, how about a quilt picture to cheer me up. 

Around the border, here are the leaves. 

There were questions about the paper marking.

Here, you can see the needle punched paper on the left.  I’ve pinned it to the quilt, and quilted along the lines.  Then, I tear the paper away and that leaves the quilting. 

I had planned to fill in the background with filler, but now that I’m seeing it, I’m not sure i want to.  One of the main purposes of that filler was to quilt the quilt in an equal density over the whole thing so it would lay flat.  But, just this much quilting brought the border into control and it’s nearly flat.  I can block the rest out after the quilt is washed.  I’m going to try an eighth inch outline around the leaves, but I don’t know.  There are a couple of places that might need a leaf or two to fill an empty space, and there’s a short section where the backing shows around the fold…oops!  But, I might be about done.  

Everybody have a great Tuesday.  Lane

Waiting at the airport

It's the wee small hours before dawn. I was lucky enough to be randomly selected for precheck service, which meant I didn't have to unpack or unload my pockets. Whooo-eee. And the line was short enough to make me feel guilty.

Now, it's just waiting for the day to start. It's a rough trip. I always feel that way about the ones where I think my time is being wasted. But, such is life until i can afford to buy an island.

Much quilting was done this weekend around the packing. I got the leaf border on three sides of the silk quilt. And at bee on Saturday, I got a lot done on the restoration. I ended up six inches short on the binding and just wasnt up to correcting that yesterday. But all the holes are patched and look wonderful. I didn't find the exact match plaid but picked some cotton gingham that was really close and coffee dyed it. If you didn't know it was there, you'd have a hard time finding it.

They have finished calling the thirty seven classes of special people so I'll be boarding soon. With the commoners.

Paper marking the leaf pattern on my silk quilt worked perfect. The background stitchin I was going to use is unnecessary, meaning that quilt is nearly finished and there will be plenty of time to go back and work on little corrections.

Everybody have a great day!!

Lane

We interrupt our previously scheduled quilting to restore

A few months ago, I made a commitment.  And, then, as I do sometimes, because I had time, I put it off, and then forgot about it. 

Have I reminded you lately how much Sydney is like me?  It’s like we’re genetically related.

Anyway, I committed to restoring a quilt in my collection and lending it to the guild for the show this year.

 

It’s a quilt with no historical significance.  It started it’s current life in an antique store in Geronimo, TX, where I saw it and fell in love with the quilters use of the black/white plaid and the double pink.  It’s quilted in a huge baptist fan, and because it’s the old fashioned, heavy, packed cotton batting, that quilting really shows up.  The blocks are a mess.  The colors aren’t laid out to fully show the pattern. 

But, I fell in love with the artful combination of masculine and feminine; plaid and pink.  It had some problems, so I left it there.  But, I didn’t forget about it and the next time we were in that store, I hunted it down, and that time, it came home with us. 

This was one of the problems…I had no idea what I’d find under that tight little roll of backing fabric.  Can you see how the backing was rolled over and covers the border?  That’s a previous repair, I think…or maybe a cutting mistake?.

And, there was a mouse hole.  I don’t know if a mouse actually made the hole, but apparently, that’s the common term for little, thumb sized holes in a quilt. 

There were two completely missing diamonds, revealing the batting underneath and a very small tear in one of the pink squares.  Oh, and the binding was shot.  Dry rot along the fold.

I’ll show more about the repairs, which are proceeding at lightening pace, as I go.  For now, I just needed to know what I was dealing with; how much repair was going to be required. 

It’s not more than I can conveniently do.  I’ve already done a bunch of it, like replacing the missing fabric diamonds on the front, by appliqueing new fabric in.  That let me wash the quilt, because the dust was killing me.  And, I opened the old foldover binding and trimmed the quilt edges with a rotary cutter and ruler.  It won’t ever be square, but I was able to give it some straighter edges.  A bit of the excess backing I cut off got turned into a patch for the back of the mouse hole.  A new binding has been prepped.  I tried one store for anything close to that black and white plaid.  No luck.  This afternoon, I’ll try another.  Just need a little bit.  But, since the black and white plaid was one of the things I really loved about the quilt, I think it’s important to get as close as I can to a match.  I’ve found some gingham that’s got quarter inch stripes, and it’s close.  But, the plaid borders have a three eighths inch stripe and if I can find that in maybe a homespun, that would be perfect!

Wish me luck.  One piece of red fabric bled when I washed it.  It’s doubtful I would have missed that before.  That would indicate that maybe it was the first time the quilt had ever been washed. I’ll pull that red out and replace with something more appropriate, and then I can wash it again, because it’s still dusty. 

Wow, sounds like so much more work when I write it down that way.  Like I said, it’s going really fast, even if it is difficult, swear-inducing, name calling work.  But, the hard part should be over now.  From here on in, it’s just putting things back together…I hope.

Have a great Friday.  Lane

The lightbulb moment

I was sitting in a conference call yesterday, doodling. 

What a nice quilting design that doodle would make.  And, of course, because my mind is on borders, it was linear. 

I started to pay attention to the doodle.  Could I do that with a machine and needle?  I think so.

They asked me a question on the call, and I had to ask them to repeat it.  Crap, I hate that.  Caught not paying attention!

After the call, I pulled out one of my strips of paper and did some more serious doodling.  And, then I pulled out some strips and taped them to the correct border length (which I have memorized…ughhh) and did some really serious doodling. 

I worked on it all during my lunch hour.  The most remarkable thing about that was I took the whole hour for lunch.  And, whenever I could steal 10 or 15 minutes, there I would be with Mr Pencil and Ms Eraser.  And, before I knew it, I had a border design.

So, why didn’t I just free hand this?  Well, it’s a show quilt.  And, while this looks like it would be easy to free hand, and I’ve certainly free handed similar designs before.  But, getting that perfectly balanced and equally full look took work.  Erasers were harmed in the drawing of this design.

Last night, I finished it up and pinned it to six layers of Golden Threads paper and this morning, I started copying.  Not tracing or photocopying.  I’m needle punch copying.

I sew along the design, without any thread in the machine and it gives me this nice needle punched copy…or, in this case, six.  I learned the hard way that ink or pencil lead transfers to the quilting thread, so a needle punch copy is the safest paper template to use for FMQ.  I’ve had good luck on the Indian Orange Peel marking tissue paper with water soluble ink, which can be washed out.  But, the needle punch makes the paper easier to remove after the quilting is done.  It’s like twice as many holes in the paper as I’d get if I just quilted through the solid paper.

So, onward we go. 

Everybody have a great Thursday.  This weekend will be a busy one and I will not get to quilt as much as I would like. 

But, I’ll quilt a lot.  Maybe I’ll pull a late night and quilt long after everyone else is in bed.  It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to do tha…uhm, since I’ve done that. 

Be well.  Lane

Missing border ideas

I am convinced that someone out there has all the border ideas and is not sharing.  Okay, so just give it up and stop bogarting the border ideas. 

I’ve been wracking my brain to come up with ideas.  And, I’ve been drawing any ideas I’ve gotten.  But, nothing sticks.  This morning, I thought of an idea in the shower, and while I was focused on adding some lines around it, to fit in my 4 1/2” wide space, I lost it. 

I’ve cut some paper strips and today, I’m going to draw on them while I’m at work.  I have one workable idea and one maybe workable idea and if I don’t come up with anything else today, I’m going with one of those.  I’m just wasting time trying to decide.

-------------------------

The other day, when I was cleaning in the sewing room, I came up with the bright idea to pull out all my pending projects and kits and put them in an order.  First to last.  I hope a plan will keep me from picking up random projects here and there and will jumpstart some of these really great ideas that I’ve already kitted up or started. 

I’ve picked my first one.  I’ve been collecting one inch wide strips of fabric for years.  They’re the last piece after I’ve cut all the other usable fabric and they’ve built up.  Last night, I drew a paper pieced log cabin block with half inch logs. 

All I have to do is transfer this to freezer paper and I can start this long term project. 

I know me well enough to know that I need a couple of long term projects; at least one for the machine and one for hand work.  Those are fall back projects when I’m out of ideas.  Then, I can toss in a short term project sometimes, just for fun. 

I also need to quilt.  I have the tops.  I have the backs.  I have the batting.  Goodness knows I have the thread.  So, it’s time to stop piecing so much and start quilting more. 

Is August an odd time to try a resolution?  My new year’s resolution was to work on these show quilts.  As they near their completion, it’s time to think about what comes next.

Everybody have a great Wednesday. 

Lane

A very good non-shopper

Last night, instead of a presenter, the guild held a “second chance boutique”, which is basically a garage sale where guild members can reserve a table and sell stuff they don’t want anymore.  I’m clearing out stuff, not buying more stuff, so I was doing my best not to shop.  And, I was pretty successful.  I spent all of $5 and got 3 yards of fabric and a pattern.

Willpower!  Believe me.  But, I had the best time walking around and visiting with guild members.  We chatted and talked and because several members of this guild are also members of the guild where I spoke, I got lots of positive feedback about my talk.  It was fun.  My only regret is that there was a guy there…yes a GUY at guild meeting, other than me.  At first, when I tried to speak, he wouldn’t meet my eye.  And, that put me off.  Later, he became more open and comfortable, but by that time, I was headed out and didn’t stop to talk.  I should have. 

Greatest temptation?  A black featherweight from the 30’s or 40’s with all the attachments, manual, case and table. 

I gave myself permission to look and read about it, until an actual potential buyer came along, and then I drifted away, like a good boy…who already owns so many machines.

Have a great Tuesday.  Lane

One minute at a time

I decided to give something a try this weekend.  Every time I went into or out of the sewing room, I cleaned for one minute. 

Yeah, I know.  Doesn’t make sense, but I’m the world’s worst “puller outer without putting upper” and you can actually put away a whole handful of stuff in a single minute.  Many times, my minute turned into 15 or 30 or more.  That was fine.  But, I had to clean at least one minute. 

It worked.  Oh, there’s no miracle picture that makes me proud to show off my cluttered sewing room, but at least most things are back where they belong and I can get to them. 

In the meantime, I threw away 4 bags of trash.  Stuff I didn’t need to keep.  Batting scraps for batting I didn’t like and don’t plan to use again.  No need to keep those.  The scrap cuttings that I’ve been saving in case I ever wanted to make a crumb quilt.  But, that stuff multiplies.  And, when you add it to every tool needed to make any kind of quilt or garment and a stash that I’ll never use up, you end up with a bunch of stuff.  And, sometimes, you need to let some of that stuff go.  I’ve even started a box of stuff to put on the free table at a future guild meeting.  Never thought I’d do that.

And, when I wasn’t cleaning, I was finishing the quilting on the Indian Orange Peel quilt (The Point is the Points).  I made myself a deal.  Instead of perpetually ripping out quilting on this one and replacing it, I’d just finish it and set it aside.  IF, after I have finished the other quilt for the show I have any time, I will come back to this quilt and work on making it better.  (invisible monofilament thread was not my best idea and it was an even worse idea to use it in the bobbin. 

I’m binding it in the same fabric I used for the backing. 

Hopefully, that will hide binding mistakes because we all know that no matter how good your binding is, every judge is required to give feedback on ways it could be better.  It’s also the narrowest binding I’ve ever used.  I cut it 2” wide instead of 2 1/4”.  Just that eighth of an inch on each side makes a huge difference in how tight the binding feels. 

There were a few places around the edge where I had to make a choice between points and straight lines.  And, in one place, I chose to include a slight curve that I intend to put on the lower right side of the quilt where I don’t think anyone will notice it.  At least I hope not.  And, if it can be seen, then I hope it looks like a fold line.  And, I hope the judge falls for that.

Okay, so that’s it for me today.  Still trying to figure out the last border for the silk house quilt.  I will not panic, I will not panic, I will not panic.  I’ve looked at quilt books and quilt pics and quilt show pics and I haven’t got a single idea.  Except maybe to draw something.  I pulled out something I drew for a quilt a few years ago, but it was too wide.  RATS! 

Everybody have a great Monday.  Lane

Something older

There was a time when I participated in things at my local quilt shop.  One of my favorite things was the five dollar quilts.  You went in and bought the cut fabric for a quilt block and on a certain day of the month, when you took it back, you got the fabric for the next block for free. 

I haven’t done one of those in a long time.  The last one I tried was hideous and I dropped out.  But, I have a few very cute quilts made over a series of years.  This is one that’s been hanging in Syd’s room for a while.  We took it down and laundered it and blocked it and now, it’s rolled up and stored and she’s getting something else…a quilt or a framed print, to hang in it’s place. 

This one is a cute one.  It’s all batiks and I finished it completely in that theme.  I’m pretty sure it’s one of the later ones I did because I recognize fabrics from my stash that did not come from the LQS that sponsored the quilts.  In the beginning, I used to buy all the finishing supplies from the quilt shop out of loyalty, but as things changed, I lost that sense of loyalty. 

Unfortunately, I can’t remember when this quilt was made.  Maybe I’ll be able to figure it out after I get all my photos moved.

Everybody have a great Friday.  It’s going to be a weekend quilting marathon with a small amount of gardening thrown in for good measure. 

I need to catch up and I need the stress relief. 

Be well.  Lane