Progress is Rewarding! – 14 January 2023

It is a nice morning with temps in the 40’s and a great morning walk! I took 2 days off and really enjoyed the walk today. I love the days when I can start with the walk and be able to stick to my daily “to do” list. Productivity is important in retirement along with a “mild” schedule. It keeps me young and healthy (well, except when the extreme weather changes happen) !! LOL. Yesterday I spent the early morning visiting HEB – and left them a hefty amount of funds but saved about $35.00 with store coupons. I shop for the month and hopefully won’t see much of them again this month! (HA! won’t happen)

If you keep up with me I am on a mission to finish my “to be quilted” stack. Rebecca has finished 3 of the 12 quilts I sent her and I have now finished 9 projects, with 2 in the process of getting the binding them. I received the following 3 on Thursday!

I first want to show you the beautiful work that Rebecca did on York Lodge, Irish Mist, and Radiant Feathered Star. She is an amazing woman who has perfected the art of Edge to Edge quilting. I know of no other long arm quilter who takes the time to do each quilt and have them turn out absolutely perfect! The quilts will be entered in a local quilt show this year!

York Lodge (Quilt, Quilting, and Back)

Radiant Feathered Star (Quilt, Block and Back)

Irish Mist (Quilt and Back).

Next on the list of completions that I am quilting. Of course, I am only doing a Free Motion meandering on the quilts that I did not send to Rebecca. These are the fun quilts I made that will not be entered in any quilt show.

My Celtic Table Runner – Completed and in place!

The Geo Quilt – I am half way through the binding.

Backing

Blue Breeze Easy Block Quilt – Binding on and being worked.

Mrs Potts is completed!

I have completed 9 projects with one more being loaded today and the remaining 6 hopefully can be completed sooner than later! Check out the previously completed quilts.

I also was having issues with the Blue Easy Peasy binding – I prefer to use a 2″ strip for my bindings. This provides the same size of the binding on the top and back. It is tricky but it really makes the difference, especially when those darn Judges are checking for full bindings. Quilting my backlog of quilts is allowing me to get back into the swing of things. There are so many things to remember.

I started the binding on Blue EP only to begin to have problems with the Walking Foot and keeping my seam line straight. I had to put blue tape on the machine for a guide, and then realized I had been using the walking foot for my Husqvarna Sapphire sewing machine – not the one for my D1 Husqvarna. Error corrected!

Some ripping had to happen to get it right.

I was very careful in ripping the sew binding because I had used the last of this Moda Blue fabric in the quilt. I set the machine for a 1/4″ (at least I thought it was accurate) but when I started sewing the binding down last night I found that it was off about 1/8″ all the way around. It was going to be very hard on my hands to get the binding correctly sewn down.

At first I thought that I would just continue on with the hand binding, but today I decided that the best fix was to trim the edge of the quilt by 1/8″ – and it works!!! I have now adjusted the machine to sew an accurate 1/4″ so I will not have that issue again. It will become critical when I start squaring and adding binding to the quilts Rebecca has quilted because they are my quilts for quilt shows. If you look closely, you can see how I like the back of the quilt to look when I finish binding. The binding is the same size on the top and bottom!

Easy Peasy in Blue.

My next quilt was scheduled for quilting Friday, the Red and Green Easy Peasy quilt top. But as I took a rest break before I started loading the quilt, I happened to see an problem with 2 blocks when I had put the top together! Whew! A Good Friday the 13th! I would have been screaming and pulling hair if I had not caught this before I started quilting it. So after correcting Blue EP, I took the 1 and 1/2 hour to rip the 3 blocks out of the quilt and correct the mistake. If you look closely you will see where I had 2 blocks turned the wrong way where the diamond pattern is not correct.

The 3 blocks removed.

All is corrected now and I am going to prepare the backing and load this quilt. When it is quilted I will only have 6 quilt tops to machine quilt! The remaining 10 quilt tops are candidates for hand quilting, but sometime in the future!!!

It is time for me to get with the program and fix a back for this puppy, get it loaded, and end the day with a quilt ready to go in the morning! After Red Easy Peasy quilt I have 2 smaller ones to quilt and would like to have them done by next Tuesday!

Have a great week-end and happy stitching!

Hugs, Nanette

© Nanette Chopin Cook at Doitrightquilter.com 2022. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Nanette Chopin Cook and Doitrightquilter.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Linking To:  My Quilt Infatuation; Confessions of a Fabric Addict; Finished or Not Friday ; Em’s Scrap Bag; BOM’s Away;  Sew Fresh Quilts; Crazy Mom Quilts;  Oh Scrap; Scrap Happy Saturday; Slow Sunday Stitching  Quilt Fabrication Mid Week Makers; Peacock Party; Design Wall Monday, Scrap Happy Days, Quilting Patch Linky Party, To Do Tuesdays