Busy Weekend!

On Friday, I left work at lunch and went by the local quilt shop to help them with their move.  Lots of trips back and forth from one shop to the other.  Got quite a bit of exercising of my talent for packing my vehicle.  All kinds of things fit in all kinds of nooks and crannies if you look hard enough.  Lots of vacuuming, etc.  

Then off to a friend's house to visit and get a preview of what to expect on the mystery quilt.  She's quite a few steps ahead of me and was able to impart some wisdom and what to do and what not to do.  Then of course, we were off to dinner.  This time it was Mexican.  Mmmmmm good!

DBF bought a treadmill.  No doubt that he needs one.  His doctor keeps after him about exercising.  One good thing is that he actually used it the night he brought it home.  I wonder if that will continue.  Teenie thinks it's a great platform for hanging out.

That's all fine and good, but now this huge treadmill is firmly planted in the living room.  The house is a mess and I have totally given up on the kitchen, the living room, the dining room, the hall bathroom.  Everything is the domain of the fishing lure.   I live my life in the master bedroom, the master bathroom and my sewing room.  They are the only rooms I have any control over.  Heaven forbid we should ever have company.  I'd be so embarrassed.

Up and out of the house by 9:30 this morning.  Off to the new quilt shop to meet the Christmas Lotto Block Committee to build kits.  We made quick business of that and were finished in about an hour.  Then over to Mom's to pick up the quilts she was binding for me.  Also a chance to visit my brother, who happened to be in town this weekend.  We all had lunch together and watched a movie.  Once home, I commenced to hiding all those threads on three quilts where the threads kept breaking.  A never ending job, for sure, but I'm making progress.  Ten a trip out to Springfield (45 minutes or so) to Charlie's to meet DBH's high school classmates for dinner.  It's a monthly ritual.  After I got home, I had to make a pound cake.  It's in the oven now.  Sooooo, back to burying threads while the cake is cooking.

The cake is for DBF's father's birthday tomorrow.  We'll probably be taking him to dinner and who knows what else.

I have planned to take Monday and Tuesday off this week, just to get a break.  I still have UFOs to finish and I"d like to have some time to breath before I have to return to work.

Delivery

Finished up the binding on Brenda's quilt last evening and brought it to work today.  I left it in her chair for her to find when she got to work.  She had given it to me so long ago, that she had forgotten all about it.  What a surprise!  She called me to tell me how "awesome" I was.  It was a good feeling to finally have something done, to know that she appreciated it, and to make her happy.  Now she has a quilt to pass down to her kids that she actually made.  It may be the only one, but there's one.

Handwork Time

I got the binding on my BQ this evening and am ready to begin the handwork on it and Brenda's.  I hope to be able to bring Brenda her finished quilt tomorrow.  I had better get busy.

While I was out today, I got a new library card.  When I got home, I spent a considerable amount of time reading up on how to download Ebooks from the library.  I downloaded 3 books to my PC and got them copied to the Nook.  I used to read every night before bed and over the past few years I've dropped off.  It'll be nice to have things to read without having to drive to the library to get them.  I still like the feel of a book in my hands, but this sure is convenient.

Progress and a Big To Do List

Got the binding made and sewn on four of the quilts. I have one left to do tomorrow.  After that, there's a whole lot of handwork in my future.  

I'll continue to concentrate on the quilting and leaving the handwork for when I need a break.  Originally, I was going to save them for a retreat coming in July, but I have a feeling I won't be able to wait that long.

I am really enjoying seeing my UFO list getting smaller and smaller. The weight is lifting.

Binding on - handwork next

Joni. (from Blackberry)

On to the next one

I pieced the back for Brenda's quilt and cut the appropriate sized batting and got it loaded up this morning while I was doing laundry.  Then I was preparing to wind some bobbins when I realized I had some leftover bobbins of Marathon thread that are the same color.  Anyway I decided to use them and was prepared to have more thread breakage like yesterday.  I was holding my breath as I started across the quilt and I actually made it all the way across with no thread breakage.  Wow!  So was it the Marathon bobbin?  Or is it because it's a different quilt with different fabrics?  At this point, I'm just happy not to have to struggle through the afternoon, but eventually I'll need to figure it out.

Four Down!

Well, it was a little slow going.  I continued to have thread breakage and can't figure out why, but I was able to get the whole thing quilted and the stitches look good.  I'll figure it out eventually, but I have to press on.

Mom and I went to check out the area's new quilt store today.  It was farther out than I thought, but it was nice and the ladies were very nice.  They helped me find some binding for a quilt I'm finishing up for Norma's daughter.  And we also found a back and some binding fabric for a quilt I'm finishing up for my friend Brenda.  She had started a quilt a while back and then decided that it was not her cup of tea, so she gave me all her left over fabric and asked me to finish it for her.  I'd like to get both of these done and out of my way. They are both relatively small so I should be able to accomplish that in a short time.  

After that, I have one more of Norma's and at least four of mine that are ready to be quilted.  I have at least nine others in various stages of completion, but they are not yet ready to be quilted, so no pressure there.

I can feel the weight lifting from my back with each quilt I get quilted.  I want to get back to the fun quilting I used to do.

Progress and Problems

I've made it almost half way through the quilt, but it was a little slow going.  I have been experiencing problems with thread breakage.  I changed the needle and made sure it was in straight.  I have adjusted the tension several times and verified my threading.  As I said, I've made SOME progress, but I'm ready to break for the evening.

Next!

This evening I got a new quilt loaded onto the frame.  This one is called Hither and Yon.  It's 90x114 and it really fills up my frame.  I'm really being ambitious tackling this one right off the bat, but then again, that BQ was 75x95 so it wasn't exactly small either.  

This is one of my dear friend Norma's quilts.  It was one of the 20 or so quilts that she left behind incomplete.  It was just blocks, so I had to finish the blocks and put them together and put on the borders.  It's been over six months since she passed and I have this one left.  She had so many things she wanted to do before she went and it caused her great concern.  I told her not to worry and I promised her that I would make sure that they were finished.  It's taken a while, but I'm getting there.

Right now I'm just working on cranking out the quilting.  Once they come off the frame, I am just piling them in a stack.  I have a retreat coming up in July and plan to square, trim and bind just before I go so I'l have bit of hand work to do when I take a break from the sewing machine. Also, with this group, we generally have at least one night when we have "binding and a movie".  Everybody gets into their pajamas and works on hand work while we watch a movie.  I may even be able to enlist some help with the three of Norma's that will be in the pile.  They were her friends too and I'm sure they'll help.

So, anyway, all loaded up and ready to start on the quilting......tomorrow.  I'm gonna wind some bobbins and then I'm hitting the sack.

Woohoo!

One down and *&^*&^* to go.

Well, technically that's two, since I did that Lone Star of Norma's first.

Had a few minor tension issues, but slowly adjusting to find the perfect spot.

What a load off my mind.

Now to tackle the rest of them.

Winning out over frustration

Well, Saturday was a total waste.  I worked off and on ALL DAY LONG on the tension on my sewing machine.

I tried using the So Fine! thread that Nancy gave me in a trial kit, but I couldn't get it to work.  After trying quite a bit with tension, I ended up having to put it back where I started.

Then I put the King Tut back on and thought I turned it back but I was having problems with it sewing along fine and then loops or a snag and then sewing along fine again.  Because of the loops I assumed that the tension needed to be tighter and yet it never seemed enough.

At the end of the day, I finally took a picture of my problem and sent it via email to Nancy at Pennywinkle Ranch.  Once you buy a Sunshine16, you are part of the family and Nancy is always there to help.  She suggested that I needed to check that the thread was all the way between the tension disks.  Her suggestion was that the tension was too tight and causing the thread to jump out from between the disks.  Well, that's logical.  It sews along fine and then all of a sudden the tension is too loose because it jumped out.  Then it was in again and then out again.  So I took a leap of faith and turned the disk a quarter turn looser and still had the problem.  Then I thought I was able to find the original mark I made and so I turned it practically a whole turn looser.  And Wala!  It was almost perfect!  After all of my frustration for a whole day and then I just stumbled into the right place.  Tiny, tiny increments allowed me to get closer to perfect and I think I am finally ready to go again.  Now I just need to make sure I can mark the tension dial to be able to get back here again.

That will be tomorrow's assignment.  So here I am STILL.  All loaded up and ready to be quilted.

And how fitting that my order of King Tut thread arrived this evening.

A good start

Life has been quite hectic lately and every minute seems to be over-committed and over-scheduled to the point where I was getting totally claustrophobic.  My plan for this weekend is to spend some quality time in my sewing room.  It's been a long time.    It's gotten off to a good start.

When I got home today, I pieced the back for the BQ quilt that's been on my UFO waiting list forever.  Then I got it all ironed and loaded on the frame ready to quilt.   It's all ready to go and I'll start on it first thing in the morning when I am fresh. I was beginning to think this quilt would never get finished, but here I am ...... actually doing it.  Finally! 

This will be my second quilt since I got my machine fixed.  I'm still a little hesitant, but after this one, I think I'll have my confidence back in my machine and feel more comfortable quilting again.  

Since the machine was fixed, I have changed to King Tut thread.  It took a bit to get the tension set, but it seems to be working well.  The King Tut thread has a lot less lint than the thread I used to use.  Now that I am happy with the thread, I've decided to go ahead and place an order. I did that today, so for now (at least until my order comes), I only have one cone of green thread, and that means I can only do quilts that this thread can be used on.  I hope that the new thread comes in quickly.

I'll have to go through my other UFO quilts to see which others can be quilted with this thread.  I know I have at least one, but it will be tight to get it to fit on my quilting frame and I may even have to piece the batting, which I am not very good at.  The back for it is not complete either, but I suppose I could get that done as well.  I just have to push myself.  I need to have a sense of accomplishment this weekend.

We'll see how that goes.

Slow down....I want to get off

Lately it seems like I am stuck on a merry-go-round out of control.  Every day after work, there's some place I have to be.  The last few weekends have been last minute harried trips out of town.  My sewing machine and I have not had any quality time together in what seems like ages.  Please just slow down so I can get off.  Aaaahhhhh!

I am hoping against hope that this weekend will be all sewing, but we'll see how that goes.  Most times, I get ready to sew or cut or quilt or something sewing related and then I start to get the guilt feelings about the carpet that needs shampooing or the kitchen that needs cleaning or whatever.   I am going to do my best to keep out the "guilties" this weekend and just do what I want to do.

We'll see how that goes.....

Fabric Sale!

The local quilt store is having a 50% off sale on fabric.  They are needing to downsize before they move in a week or so.  Needless to say, I was there yesterday and today and I may go again tomorrow.  I bought 17 yards yesterday and 11 yards today.  While I was there today, I saw another piece I need to have for a back but I need to check my pattern.  Once I get the numbers straight, I'll go back and get it tomorrow.  As a friend of mine says, "Why not?  It'll never be this cheap again."

Planning?

You have to wonder what kinds of minds are doing the planning when the "powers that be" decide to close 2 of the 3 lanes on the interstate and close an exit on the outbound lanes of traffic just before rush hour.  What were they thinking?  Were they thinking?

My usual 20 minute drive to physical therapy took 1 hour and 45 minutes.  I sure did need some physical therapy when I got there, just to relieve the stress caused by the drive. What a day!

Reunions

I attended my 35th high school class reunion last night.  This is the first one I have been to.  I was amazed at how I was able to recognize people.  There were not a lot of us there, but those who were there had a good time.  Perhaps I'll have to go back for the 40th to see everybody else.

Times Change

I was looking through my high school yearbook and I came across this article.  I'm not labeled, but that's me with the Farrah Fawcett wings and no feet.    I have a reunion this weekend.  It'll be nice to see how everybody has changed and yet still stayed the same.

Design Wall Monday

Kathy Brown's Take 5 Crosses the Line 
Love those polka dots!

Back in Business!

I was having trouble with my Sunshine 16 earlier this year.  As usual, I contacted Nancy and she immediately responded with suggestions and offers of assistance.  Eventually it was determined that Sunny needed some service.  I could have taken her to the local repair shop, but I chose to take her back to Nancy and Jerry.  After all, they are the ones who built her and there can be no better expert than them.

On Tuesday, Mom and I drove from Baton Rouge, LA to Jackson, TN and spent the night.  On Wednesday morning, we went on to Waverly, TN to Nancy and Jerry's.  They changed out the problem part and I spent time with Nancy getting the machine tensioned correctly and getting some very special tutelage.

After returning home, I immediately started in on quilting.  It's been a while now.  The quilt in this picture is one of the ones my friend Norma left behind.  I am quilting them for her family.

Sunny

And piles of UFOs to go!