Projects Nearing Completion and Projects Revisited

I honestly have not done very much this week. I have been feeling very tired. Well that is not totally true either. Tuesday I felt really good. I had slept most of Sunday and Monday while on a business trip with my husband. But I did put in some long hours this week and was wiped out by the time I got home from work.

While on the trip I did get the binding on the small around the rail fence quilt. I just need to put the label on it and it will be complete. That will make four quilts completed this year.

I have not started quilting the braid quilt yet. I had it on the machine, backing, top and batting, all set to start as soon as I wound some bobbins. But then we needed to move some stuff around, my husband and son were supposed to put a batting bar on my Millie. They asked us to clear out underneath Millie to make room for them to work. That was a couple of weeks ago. Anyway the roll of batting has been sitting on Millie's table, making it impossible to quilt. I am actually glad that I had the delay. You see I fold up the batting onto the machine to keep it off the floor. When I am not quilting I fold it up even more to keep the cat from attacking it. I notice one day that the middle part of the batting was not as wide as the ends. In fact it may not have been wide enough to go past the edges of the top. I decided to play it safe, I took the batting off and folded it neatly and then put it in a storage basket. I will take the time to measure and cut the batting accurately. Why set myself up for problems that can be avoided. I can us the small batt in another project down the road.

The good news is that the batting bar is now in place with the roll of batt on it. So this week I need to cut the right size batt and put it place on the machine.

Unfortunately, the process of getting the roll of batting on the bar was not without casualties. Remember last week, I said the design wall was flimsy and that when it got bumped blocks would fall off?

Yes, those are the blocks of my quilt all over the floor. Fortunately there were only about six rows left on the design wall. With the help of the picture I took for last week's post, I got the blocks back up in what I hope is close to the same order as before. I know it is not exact because I had done some tweaking of the design after I took the picture. Either way I will just have to live with the results.


While I didn't get any long arm work done. I have been working on the Christmas Lemonade quilt. (the blocks on the floor) I only have 3 more rows to stitch together and then add the borders, Then of course make the back. Soon it will be ready to go on the long arm. So I need to get the quilting done on the braid quilt.

With these two quilts coming to completion I got to thinking about where to put my focus next. I decided to revisit the Irish Chain quilt. If you recall I had made it too long and not a bed friendly size. I was going to leave it that way. I didn't have any more of the batik fabric to make the blocks and I didn't want to tear it apart. Well, I found some similar fabric on the Missouri Star Quilt Company website. I still didn't want to tear apart the top and re sew it but I came up with another plan. I ordered yard lengths of several colors that were similar to the batiks in the chain blocks. I still have plenty of the white fabric left. I decided to do put a row of flying geese blocks along each side of the chain. I plan to put a two inch border between the chain part and the geese. Then run the same border along the top, bottom and outer edges to tie it all together. That will make the quilt wide enough for a bed. So once the Christmas lemonade is done, I am returning to that project.

I also need to finish my Star quilt. That one is a lot farther away from being done. But I should be able to work on a block or two here and there in the evenings.

After that I really need to plan a quilt for my sister-in-law. (maybe before the star quilt) She has opened her home to two of my daughters and one of them brought a husband and two little children with her. Lynn has a family of her own to take care of. We owe her big time, even if it was her idea.

Then there is the quilt for my bother in-law. He sent my husband a picture of a quilt, asking if I could make one similar. Since he has employed my son last year, my youngest daughter this year as well as a son in-law. I need to try and do that quilt for him. I think he wants to donate it to a fund raising program.

Plus there is the flower quilt I want to do. The Minion wall hanging for my husband. The Grand Adventures quilt, the All Boxed In quilt, a pineapple quilt and so very many more. There is not enough time in my day to get all of these done. Sometimes I wish I was independently wealthy so I didn't have to work.  I could just sew and quilt all day, every day. The reality is I wouldn't though. I have too many interests for my own good.

But I am still working towards the quilt shop/business. My mood is so much better now that I have taken the attitude that my job is just a job and not a career. While I haven't made it to the tech to find out about the entrepreneur classes yet (work was too crazy this week) I am not giving up on the plan. I will work to improve my long arm skills to get me started. And this next weekend I am gong down to Brookeville Florida to take the beginning long arm class. I will be at Katydids Quilting Studio. Patty Butcher is an APQS dealer and the person who set up my machine for me. It is her studio and she will be teaching some of us novice long arm quilters how to use our machines. I am really looking forward to the class. Tatianna will be going with me since her midterms will be over this week. It will be a good break for both of us.

This week's plans:

1. go to the beginning long arm class
2. put the label on the small around the rail fence quilt.
3. finish the Christmas lemonade quilt top
4. clean up the studio
5. start quilting the braid quilt
6. But mostly sew a little each night.

What projects are you working on? What projects are you planning to do? Do you even plan that far out?