Month: March 2018

It is regret that I announce that my Rainbow Regatta has bit the dust! This quilt was doomed from the moment I loaded it on the HQ16! From the 3 backings prepared, to the ripping out twice, need I say more? I had to cut about 20″ off the length thinking that maybe I MIGHT try again on my Husqvarna but then decided to call my cousin Susan and offer it to her. I had 6 other quilt tops that I would probably never quilt and packaged them up and they are now on their way to her! She is thrilled to be the recipient of the flimsy’s and that makes me happy sharing with her. I am also happy, and relieved, because I have 6 flimsy’s less to quilt and no more Rainbow Regatta. Talk about a happy camper…..

I wanted to have at least one quilt completed this month from my ‘flimsy’ stash, and I did just that today! I made this Bear Paw quilt about 10 years ago. I fixed the backing, loaded the quilt, and quilted it! Tomorrow I am hoping I will have some time to do the binding. I will machine quilt the binding. The backing fabric is Mimi Dietrich fabric from 2006! I loved that fabric and must have purchased 8 yards total because there is plenty left over for other projects!

All in all, I am happy and pleased that have been able to complete at least 1/2 of my goals for March. Here she is ready to go!

Tomorrow is house cleaning day and Sunday we will spend Easter with our Melissa! I should have time to work on the binding, but if too worn out, I will work on my Indian Summer hand quilting project! May you have a blessed Easter with your family and/or friends.

Good Thursday morning!  Nice 4″ of rain this go round!  We will enjoy the beautiful green grass and trees while we have them.  Hopefully we are not heading for a drought.

I finished the binding on my 2003 Christmas Heart Quilt.  I made this quilt in 2003 and it was my first applique quilt!  So I can now add one more complete to my OMG for March – Still 2 more days to complete a few more things!

The pictures are not the best and it is difficult to really make out the back of the fabric.  It is a very small plaid Christmas fabric that has black, green and reds.  I did the binding in the same fabric.  I am pleased with it.  I did not hand sew the binding as I usually do, I am trying to get better with machine binding to save time.  If it is not a quilt for a Show or a gift – it will be machined!  Although it took me 2 hours to do it, better than 8 hours of hand work.

This is a close up of the meandering with circles that I did when I quilted it.

The fabric used in this quilt is not the type of fabric I use now.  But I was a beginner and did not know that fabric had changed so much – This is a Hobby Lobby fabric quilt, and I think a few good fabrics.  It is a quilt to keep because it was my first!

Today I am going to quilt Regatta!  The long arm is loaded and ready to go!  Now to get the pattern in my brain and it will be done!  Things are looking up!  Have a great day!

OK – Spring has arrived in South Texas, and waiting for those Spring Showers for the next few days… hope they arrive. This will be the shortest post I will ever write because to re-document all I went through last week would take up just too much time to read! But believe me when I say it was the week from @@@@.

Oh how we plan and organize our efforts, only to have Unforeseen Requirements (UFR’s) screw us up and I do hope Caremark goes out of business!!!!!

So since my last post of 17 Mar – (Think the Ides of March got me) – here are my accomplishments and disasters.

1. Hand Quilting on my Indian Summer Quilt (found the pattern). I have finished the block I was working on last week. I am pleased with my quilting.

I am now about 1/3rd through. It was the only thing that was relaxing last week!

2. Rainbow Regata loaded and ready to go! See that neat Cutting Board Clock on the wall? Well, Lori sent that to me! I love it! That was so sweet of you to think of me Lori and I enjoy it so much. Thank you!

Here it is after I quilted 2 rows…….

Here it is after the tension messed up and something was not making my HQ16 happy, but as you see I kept going for 2 rows and then it was RIP time! The batting and 2 backings are now in the land fill trash! You can fill in the blanks – enough said about this disaster!

3. Now on to the next show and tell and accomplishment. Isn’t this just the neatest iron? I found them on Amazon for $29.00 about 5 years ago when those expensive irons started spitting out black stuff on my quilts. This is a Continental Dry Iron and no automatic cut off. The first one I had quit working last week and of course, I had a backup.

I do believe it was just not my week because as I was working on my RSC 2018 Squared Away Block’s, I began to notice something black on the white fabric!. When I tried to clean the iron plate with traditional wax, it went through the pad I was using and of course messed up my ironing board cover! Whatever was happening with this puppy it was enough for me to shut down the Studio (on Saturday) and went into the Den to just sit and watch movies Saturday evening. My sweet Clay stayed and cleaned the iron plate and iron with Acetone. It is fine now, but not on Saturday!

4. Sunday morning I made me a new cover with some muslin for the ironing board! Now I do love this ironing station, no stooping, or problems ironing large pieces of fabric. I enjoyed doing this – no disaster here!

5. Finally after 6 days of @@@@ I finished something! My 3 blocks for RSC 2018 Squared Away. I was able to salvage them on Sunday as the black whatever came off with water. Whew!

Here is another view of the blocks.

I tried to write a funny post about my week, but then Mr Fibro came and that did it for the brain. I gave up and came in and now sitting in the Den relaxing! Hummmm, I wonder how my day will go tomorrow? Have a great evening and week! Mine has to be better than last week!

Happy St Patricks Day! I remember when I was younger the San Antonio River in downtown SA was dyed Green and the “thing” was to go to a Pub on the River Walk and enjoy some beer with friends. So today in celebration of St Patty’s Day, I am going to hand quilt. Mainly because I wanted to do something different and I quit drinking in 1980’s, so no more green beer here! LOL

Yesterday my goal for the day was to load my Rainbow Regatta quilt on the long arm. I was really not in the mood for doing this task as ‘old age’ was showing up! This project did not go very far before I ran head on into issues. First, I realized that my pins needed to be replaced, secondly, the batting seemed to have a problem, third there were problems with the first fabric selected for the backing. But I had committed my day to get started on this quilt so I pushed through even with the body hurting!

I could not decide on a backing – muslin or some of my more expensive fabric. I decided that I would use muslin. I had a very nice piece that measured 98″ wide and cut what I needed and as I started pressing it when – BINGO – there it was, a little ‘very noticeable’ spot! Grrrr! So I selected another muslin that looked like it would be acceptable! MISTAKE – it must have been a cheap piece left over from the past before I started purchasing Moda muslin. I loaded the backing anyway and moved on to the batting issue, opened a new bag and realized that before I could use it I would have to spritz it and let it hang over night! Since this is not a show quilt I closed my eyes and decided to use the original batting I had cut and the ‘cheap’ muslin! (BIG BIG MISTAKE). I unloaded the backing and to the trash it went!

By this time I really wanted to just go to bed and wake up today and maybe things would go better, but no I preserved! This time it would mean additional work and time. The quilt measures 60″ x 78″ and I would need to add an extra 4″ on all sides. I found a piece of heavier fabric and had to cut 2 lengths at 83′, then cut one of the pieces in half and add them to the center piece! Of course pressing was again in the picture!

I decided that I will wash the original muslin with the “spot” and hopefully it would wash out and then spritz the new batting and get the wrinkles out for another project as it is not a white batting.

After going through this disaster, I did get the top loaded, a backing ready to load, but by this time I was really worn out (mentally and frustrated) and decided that I would close up the Studio and go do a weekly minor house cleaning to clear my mind and I guess to punish my body more!

All in all, my tracker says I did very close to 12,000 steps and 4,000 of that was attributed to my morning walk! I do believe I really have overdone things! This morning there was a tug of war between mind and body and both came to the agreement that I would sit and hand quilt and see if my body will recoup. I do believe that there was a reason for what transpired yesterday as I will change the backing and batting before this puppy gets quilted.

So for the day, and maybe tomorrow, I picked up a small quilt that I had partially hand quilted a few years back. The top was made in early 2002 or 2003 when I first started quilting. This was the first fabric I had ever purchased at a quilt store and probably one of the early applique pieces I had made. I need to do some practice quilting before I load a quilt in the Z44, so this will not be wasted time.

This is my Hinterberg lap frame and I love it! I found an 18″ hoop that Clay fixed it where I can switch from the 14″ to the 18″ with no problems. I also have a 24″ Grace hoop that I absolute hate and have tried to sell it but no one wants it. It is a poly type frame and I really made a mistake when I made the purchase!

This is the quilt I will be finishing up – not sure when – depends on the hands.

I will do a grid in each block.

I decided to do different designs in the borders.

And now – ready to go and quilt! (This project was forgotten as a UFO and not on my OMG for March but it will be worked on for awhile). I am ready for Slow Stitching Sunday!

This is the first time I have done a post using my new iPad and the WordPress App! WOW! Take a picture and have it immediately to include in a post! Love technology! Have a wonderful week-end and I hope I have learned that when the body wants to overrule the mind I let it!

Nanette

Greeting from South Texas where Spring is here and the weather is wonderful – just right for a hot natured Quilter!  I do not know when I will learn that medication that is good for most people is just not good for me!  But I digress away from my quilting!  Doing a 100% better and back to normal, thank you very much!  I started about a week ago on finishing my un-named 2007 BOM – Cannot believe that I started this in Arizona in 2007…and left it sit all these years.  I had 6 blocks to either design or to use EQ6 and EQ7 and 1 that had to be redone because of a discoloration on the background fabric.  I chose the EQ way.  Thinking of naming it Nanette’s 2007 Flower Quilt, but that may change.

But that did not make it easier.  The March Block (shamrocks) had issues with the background fabric – so one more to do!  Then I appliqued a single Sunflower (did not work – that is in the trash can).  Another one to redo.  Monday night I was down to the Oak Leaves for November – did one leaf and decided – ‘not going there’!  Decision time – it is going to be a Turkey.   Yesterday I had to design a Turkey of my own.

Now it is Wednesday and I am finished with all the blocks.  It would be sewn together this morning, but we have to go to San Antonio today so it will be later this evening or tomorrow and it will be sewn together.  I am going to take it to the quilt rack in the house and it will stay there until I make a decision on the border.  Besides, I am very tired of applique for a while!

You can see that in 2007, the BOM’s were quiet different.  This is a mixture of blocks that were provided by the Sierra Vista Quilt Guild each month and then the last 6 blocks I designed (well OK the Turkey) and then EQ6/7 did the rest.  The last block is a beautiful Red Poinsettia.  Not a good picture, may update the picture later.

Have a great day – I need to get going for Wednesday.  Spring is here and Summer is just around the corner.

Kathy, Lori, Kerry, Emma, Tracy, Deb, Connie, Deborah,  Susan, Jessisca, Sherry, Nanette, Sassy, Edith, Sharon and Bella.