Accomplisments, Plans, and Food for Thought

So I took my third quilt off the long arm this week. I have trimmed it and have it ready to put the binding on. I am kind of stalled out because two thirds of my wonder clips are still on the second quilt. Tatianna is still working on sewing that binding down. She thought she needed to use tiny stitches to secure the binding. When I say tiny, think a short machine stitch. Since she is a quarter of the way done she feels she needs to finish it with those tiny stitches. I think I said before she is a little OCD. I do have more wonder clips on the way, so when they get here I will start working on the binding. Arianna will be so pleased if I get it done before her anniversary.

I also did a lot of organizing in my studio this week. I have all the planned or in progress quilts and kits on the shelf, I went through old projects and organized them. I have them all on this really neat wire shelf from Lowe's. One of the things about this shelf that I really like is the fact that I can hang things on it. I took some "S" hooks and hung my cut and press pad on the end along with my larger lint rollers, on the front I used smaller "S" hooks and hung little things like box openers and little screwdrivers

   

 I placed things under my long arm neatly to have ready at hand without being in the way. Still is messy but better than before. I will have to come up with a better arrangement when my husband gets the batting bar installed. If you look in the back you can see my granddaughter's tricycle which needs to find a new home. Preferably in Idaho with her. If I can figure out how to get it out there I will send her Mother's sewing machine along as well. 

I gave away my mother's sewing machine this weekend. I don't need six machines. It was not the one I learned to sew on and in reality it wasn't really my mother's machine. She never liked it. It was one my dad bought when I couldn't get her old singer to work on the knit fabric I was sewing into a dress for my friends wedding rehearsal dinner.  They went out and bought a Kenmore that would sew the knit fabric. It was similar to one I had used in school so I liked it, but Mom never did get used to it. Mom would be happy that I gave it to some one who will use it. Anyway one machine down.


I still have a couple of boxes to go through and some filing to get done but the studio is coming together. I even cleaned off my sewing desk and have it ready to sew one. I have to post a picture of it because I don't know how long it will stay that way. My family has a habit of putting things on my desk for me to take care of. It is frustrating especially if I am wanting to sew. I tend to just move it to another place and then the piles start to grow. I need to find away to quickly take care of these things instead of piling them up elsewhere. I like having a clean work surface.

I also made the difficult decision to quit holding onto some quilts I started seven years ago. These were from a block of the month club that a very small quilt shop was doing. The shop is now defunct. I don't know if I even have all the instructions. I was doing three at a time. Two were to practice the blocks on before cutting into the very expensive $10.00 a yard fabric. The shop is now defunct. Mostly because they marked everything up so much and really gouged their customers. $25.00 a month to get a photocopy of the instructions for that month's block.  People got tired of that real quick plus they didn't pay the teachers very well. Anyway. I put the fabric in yardage and I will make hot pads out of the completed blocks. That cleared up some of the clutter.

Last week I mentioned that I had bought some quilt tops on e-bay. One was fairly good sized but ugly. The thing is the blocks were hand sewn. It looks like someone found them and just sewed them together without any thought. The fabric they used in between the rows of blocks was totally wrong for the the blocks. It was obvious the work of two different people. Tatianna and I think we may take it apart and sash the blocks with white. Plus the bocks need squared up to lay flat anyway. That means quilting it is now on hold until we do the original quilter's work justice.

The other quilt top was a disappearing nine patch. It was obviously the work of a beginner. The seller mentioned that she hoped I liked it. I do! I told her so but asked why she never finished it. She said she had taken a class and when the class was finished, the instructor gave them a list of quilters to send their quilts to. When she found out how much it would cost to have it quilted she decided to wait until she was better at making the tops. I asked her why she didn't quilt it on her sewing machine. She said the instructor told her it would be too difficult and it wouldn't really work on a regular machine. That made me sad. This was a small top only 42 inches square. It could have been done on a regular sewing machine. From talking to the woman, I think the class was sponsored by a group quilters that were drumming up quilting business. The cost was nominal and they provided their own fabric. While I can understand the idea it still makes me kind of sad.  The woman now doesn't have her first quilt because it would cost too much to finish it. When I have my own quilt shop, I will encourage women to do what they can to finish their quilts even if it is to hand quilt them. Plus I will help them if I can.

The quilt didn't have any borders. It had 1/2 inch seams instead of 1/4 inch. The blocks weren't totally straight but it was a really good job done by a first timer. I decided to add borders to make it larger. I was totally pleased with how it looked after I added the borders. The purple borders make the whole thing pop. I can't wait to quilt it now. I already have the back made and will put this on the machine this week. Not sure what design I am going to do but I have the perfect color purple thread to quilt it with. I may send the seller a picture of the finished quilt.

So that pretty much gives you and idea of this coming week's projects. Quilt the purple quilt. Bind Ariannna's quilt. Work on the studio. I may even manage sewing everyday since my husband is out of town again. What will you work on?

The Learning Curve and Then Some

A round of applause, please. I have completely finished one quilt. It only needs a label and the I will ship it off to my oldest son and his wife. It is my first quilt done on the long arm. I hope they don't mind all the errors but I am just learning and well it is made with love. It is not a true bed size quilt but I figure it is a good size for the grand kids to cuddle under on the couch when they are sick. In the picture you can see my son Killian's feet and the top of his head. He is about 5'10" so it is a good size.


Here is a closer look at the pattern. The random fabric in the rails works because the rails didn't have to match up to make the pattern. I used fat quarters for this so I needed to be able to not match up rails.  I am really pleased with how it came out.

If you remember, I said in a previous post that this was not a quilt I particularly wanted to do. It was a project planned for the young women at my church. But it was canceled and I had already cut the fabric. If I didn't make it those strips would have sat in a bin for all eternity. I just don't need another millennial project. I guess I should explain "millennial project" My friend Kerri Lynn refers to projects that sit on shelves half finished as millennial projects. It implies that the projects will get done some time during the millennial (a religious term referring to Christ's reign of a thousand years before the judgment day) I think of it as taking a thousand years to finish it. I already have enough of those. Ask my daughter Arianna about the quilt I started her at the end of her senior year of high school.


This quilt was a learning quilt. I learned  how to design a pattern for the quilt. I am still learning about placement of  the design and how to get it meshed right. I learned how to optimized the pattern, and when and where I want pattern breaks. This pictures show where I took out a pattern break that I should have left in. Every so often there is a line of stitching connecting the rows of stitching. I also learned that while I have no problem threading a hand needle for sewing, a needle threader is really the best way to get the ends of both threads through the eye of the needle so I can bury them. It was really hard to get both threads through the eye, even with a large eye. I bought several needle threaders this last week.


I also learned about the importance of pulling the bobbin thread. This is what happens when you forget to pull the bobbin thread. I have little birds nests in a few spots on the quilt. And I just couldn't get them out with out tearing out the quilting. These are mistakes that I can't make when I am quilting for others.So I need to learn from them.



I did like the stitch pattern though. Flowing vines and leaves. It seemed to go with the fabric and I quilted it in a brown despite having a light back ground. It is little difficult to see in the picture, but they are really pretty.


I also said in a previous post, I had enough blocks left to make a small quilt. I am pleased to say that quilt is also almost done. It is quilted and the binding is on it, turned and ready to be stitched down on the back. You can see the Wonder Clips holding the binding in place. These last two quilts are the first time I have used the Wonder Clips. I hate getting stuck with the pins while I sew down the binding. In the store Wonder Clips cost about $7.00 for ten. I may be cheap but I thought that was insane and I would just use pins and get stuck. I was online one day and saw a set of fifty for around $8.00. So I thought why not and ordered 2 sets of 50. You need enough to go around the quilt right? I loved them. I actually went back to the site, Quilting Treasures, and ordered 2 more sets of fifty. They weren't on sale anymore but fifty for $22.00 still beats ten for $7.00.

I would have stitched the binding down this weekend but Tatianna asked me to leave for her to take to work with her.  Tatianna works with an elderly couple for half a day, everyday. She usually ends there all day because we are down to three vheicles. Killian has to drop her off on his way to work, and pickes her up on his way home. She wants to use that extra time to stitch the binding on. She is feeling the need to do more sewing. It is a stress relief for her as well.

Any way this little quilt will make a nice lap quilt for someone. It was also stitched in brown but it has a brown back. The quilting pattern I used on this quilt was called diamonds and truthfully I like it even better that the vines and leaves. The stitching is much denser. It gives the quilt a much more substantial feel to it.

I have learned a great deal doing these two quilts but I have so much more to learn. My third quilt is on the long arm and I am really struggling with this one. Part of the problem is the quilt itself but a good deal of it is I got cocky. I had thought I got this and well I didn't.  I am really needing to learn more about the program that drives the machine. It is called Quiltpath.  I have decided that when Patty Butcher of Katydids Quilting Studio offers the Quiltpath quilt camp I am going. I am setting aside the money out of my bonus and taking the time off from work and going. I need more training on the Quiltpath so I can be a better quilter. And of course my husband is all about me getting the training. I am greatful he is so supportive of this enterpise. Even though he can't stand to listen to the machine run. (he feels the same about my sewing machine).

In the meantime, I am finishing up quilts and practicing and learning as I go. I have a quilt top that Miss Betty's mother made that I am going to quilt. I have another that I need to put a couple of borders on. Then I got 2 tops on ebay really cheap (less than ten dollars) that will work for practice peices even if they turn out to be poor quality. I don't think I will mind making mistakes on those as much as I do on the ones I peice.

So the coming weeks will be more practice and more learning. Now if I can just get over the fact I have to go to work and not stay home and quilt. I really would rather stay home.

What are you learning this week?

First Tries and Mistakes

Well, I finally quilted a quilt on the long arm. It was a whole lot easier than doing it on my sewing machine. It was a whole lot faster too. I would not go back to trying to quilt on my regular machine despite the fact I made mistakes and had to unpick several rows or that I had a little trouble with the placement. I figure all of these things can eventually be mastered. The truth is I made mistakes in quilting on the sewing machine too and with a more experience than I had when doing this one on the long arm.

I view these quilts as learning experiences. I will get better but only if I learn from each quilt. So lessons from quilt number one.

1. Don't rush the planning and placement. I was so eager to get quilting that I didn't quite get the pattern set the way it would look best. I quilted a leaf/vine pattern. I got the size the way I wanted it and I flipped the directionn0f every other row. It looked good. But as I started quilting it I realized I should have off set every other row as well. The pattern would have filled the space better. 
2. Trace back isn't necessarily going to put you right back where the thread broke. Take time to nudge to get the needle in the right place before resuming sewing. better yet get back to a junction of threads. If you are slightly off it won't be as noticeable.
3. When a thread breaks un-stitch enough that you can knot and bury the thread. Don't think you are going to stitch over it and lock the stitches in place.
4. Take care in pinning and leave them in until it is done. I had pinned the top to the leader in such a way that it folded over. When I got to the last row I was concerned about not having enough space for the final row of stitching so I unpinned it. Which removed tension and caused a little buckling.
5. Don't be stressed while quilting. You are more likely to make mistakes if you are stressed. So if your daughter is nagging you to get it quilted, don't start until you are ready. Also if you are getting frustrated. walk away for a few minutes.
6. Remember this is your work, you are learning, mistakes happen. minor mistakes add character. As Jenny Doan says finished is better than perfect. Also she said that she never had anyone turn down a quilt because her points didn't match.

But if I am being Honest the biggest lesson I learned is Don't wait three months between quilts. I had forgotten so much that I was getting very frustrated. So that being said I am eager to get the next one on and quilted. It really was a lot of fun. The next one is smaller so it won't take as much time. I just need to get the back put together and put it on the machine. 

What mistakes did you learn from this week? 

Organization and Small Accomplishments

I want to apologize to those who follow me. I had company last week and didn't get around to blogging. I am sorry I missed last week. I know I only have a few followers but I love the encouragement and feed back they give me.

These past two weeks have been busy ones. As I said above we had company over the 4th of July weekend/week. So the week before was a mad race to get the spare room ready for them. That meant a lot of things that we had just piled up in the various rooms had to be pulled out and organized. That meant a lot of the stuff I had stashed while we worked on the studio had to find a home.

Killian, my son, built me this lovely shelf to hold some of the jewelry making stuff. I couldn't find a shelf that would hold as much as I needed it to. I had this one spot we could use. I told my husband that I was beginning to think we would have to build one to meet my needs. Being the problem solver and engineer that he is, my husband designed this shelf. He then tasked Killian with building it. I tasked my daughter Perigrine with painting it. The shelf goes from floor to ceiling and replaces two small shelves that I had in the studio before I got the long arm. It is made out of 2x12 and put together with lag bolts. Killian jokes that in case of tornado he is tying himself to the shelf.

As you can see there is still quite a lot of clutter. I will be taking time every night to sort through boxes and bins and trying to find a place for all of it. I have manage to empty three bins and four boxes in the past week. I have lots more to do. I know that I won't be able to put all of my craft stuff in the studio. So I decided to focus on the things I do the most. One of course is the sewing/quilting. The other is jewelry making. Most of which you can see on the shelf. I have also decided that once the studio is organized I will invite my friends over to check out the long arm. I really do want to share my joy with my friends.

Other than cleaning the house and having friends over, I have managed to finish piecing the lap quilt. If you recall I made the Around the Rail Fence quilt and had enough blocks left over to do a lap quilt. I had almost finished putting it together but with the chaos that has been my life both at work and home I had not put the final borders on it until this past Friday. I love how it turned out and am looking forward to getting it quilted as soon as I get the larger version done. (I laid this out on my bed. Don't you love the camo sheets. I am married to a hunter after all.)

When it comes to fabrics, I tend towards bright colors. When I found the fat quarters I used for this quilt on clearance, I almost didn't buy them. I loved the bold colorful floral that can bee seen in most of the blocks. However brown is not a color I tend to buy. But the price was too good to pass up so I bought the two bundles they had. I am really glad that I did. You never know just how much you are going to like a project until it starts to come together.

This week I also started the Star block quilt I planned last December. I have gotten four blocks done and will be blogging about that next week.

My goals for the next week? I am sticking with the same goals. Sew/Quilt each night for 20 minutes or more. Work on the studio for 20 minutes or more. Hopefully, this week I can keep my hours at work down to eight a day and get home in time to get things done.

Oh and I need to take the time to mend a pair of trousers for a missionary. He had a seam give out. As I looked at the trousers, I discovered he has several more about to give out. I will get them reinforced and back to him this week.

Those are my plans. What are yours?

Slow and Steady Wins the Race

This week has not seen a lot of sewing or quilting. I spent most of my time at home working on the studio and dejunking. I got a couple of shelves up and put a few other things in place. My son, under the guidance of his father, built a floor to ceiling set of shelves. He needs to add a few finishing touches and then my daughter, Perigrine, will sand and paint it. I am hoping to be able to put things on it by Friday evening.

As I said I have also been de-junking. I have started in my bedroom. I had a lot of fabric bins in there and needed to move them out. I also went through my dresser and tossed stained and torn clothes. I still have too many clothes for my dresser but I am not ready to get rid of quite that much. Next I will be moving on to my closet where I have too many bins of craft supplies. I hate to admit it but I have things I haven't touched in the 8 1/2 years I have lived here. Some of that stuff needs to go.

I won't get too much done this week though. We have friends arriving on Saturday for a week. I need to get things ready for them. I just hope to have the studio somewhat organized and the house in guest ready state. Housework is not my long suit. I would much rather sew, quilt and craft. You would think that in a house of adults there wouldn't be much mess. But we all are working and well come home tired. It is a good night if we sit down to eat as a family.

So like I said I am hoping to get the studio somewhat organized and my closet cleaned out this week. I am not sure what to put where just yet but I need to start somewhere. I expect that I will rearrange things a few times before I find the right place for everything. I hate organizing!!! But I love things to be organized. Whenever I can, I con Tatianna into doing the organizing. I joke that she is more than a little OCD. She just has to have things be in a sensible order. For example fabric and beads organized by color or type. Most likely both. But lately she is not that easily conned. Plus it is my studio and even if she shares it with me, it needs to suit my needs. She is not going to be here forever.

Progress has been slow but everyday it has seen some progress. I am getting things done a little by little. Like Aesop's Fable of the Tortoise and the Hare teaches us, "Slow and steady wins the race."

Better Spirits

I have been feeling much better this week. I am much less depressed and am feeling physically better. I suppose it is due partly to the medicines, partly to the weight loss (I am now below 300 lbs), and partly to the fact that I have decided that I can handle this new lifestyle. I have come to grips with my reality.

I had much more energy this week, despite having to go into work very early Monday and Tuesday.. Which means I have actually felt like doing things. So I didn't come home and collapse on my bed.

I have sewn at least 30 minutes a day during the work week. Sometimes more than 30 minutes. The last three days of the work week, I woke up very early and could not get back to sleep. So I got up and sewed. That made for long days but the truth is I was in a much better mood those days. I have finished the top to the Around the Rail Fence quilt. I really liked how it turned out. It is partially on the long arm now. I hope to start quilting it tomorrow.  I will post pictures when I have it done. I also had enough blocks left to make a lap quilt, the top of which is almost done, I just need to put the outer borders on it. This project had caught me by surprise. I was not expecting it to give me such a boost.

The last couple of days, I have been focusing on the Studio. I have convinced my husband and son to build me a shelf unit. I had given up on finding one to meet my needs. We bought the materials on Saturday. Hopefully it will be done Tuesday night. With the custom shelf unit and the two wall shelves  that I still need to hang, I should be able to make a dent in the chaos that has been my studio.

This weekend I have gotten a few things hung up and am working on the organization of supplies in studio. This afternoon I spent folding fat quarters and putting them in my MSQC storage bags. I love the storage bags and have 11 of them now. All full of my fat quarter stash. In fact I didn't have quite enough bags. I could use another one or two or three. But I am not going to buy them. I am trying to not fill up containers. I have too many filled right now. 

 I have decided to focus on emptying the containers. I have been putting projects in bins until I can get to them. I have decided to put the bins with projects in a visible place in the studio. As I finish one project and get it on the machine, I will pick the next one off the shelf of  projects. If I get tired of the project (and some of them I will) I can put it back in the bin and back on the shelf. But it will be visible. Therefore not out of mind,

I also have decided to work on the studio for at least 30 minutes a day. I can't do it all at once but I figure I can knock things out a bit at a time. Some projects will take more time than others but that is okay. I will work on what I have time to work on and take it from there. It may only be to dust and sweep.

So hopefully my mood will remain positive, my health will continue to improve. and I will continue to progress in my quilting. I am starting to feel like I did a few years ago. I am also starting to dream about owning my own quilt shop again. Who knows what I will accomplish. I just know I am starting to feel like making plans again. Even better I am starting to feel like working on those plans.

Getting Back in the Swing of Things

I haven't blogged for a couple of weeks. In fact, I haven't been blogging regularly at all lately. I have been fighting a little bit a depression, facing some reality and learning how to change my lifestyle to deal with that reality. Add to that my husband has been traveling for work a lot and we have had a lot going on. So when he is home, we are booked up with activities.

One of the reasons for my lack of blogging is I haven't had much to blog about. That is because I haven't been sewing like I should. Now I know darn well that if I had been sewing more than I would not have had the depression or at least not much depression.  I just haven't felt like doing much of anything. With the new meds and lifestyle, I am exhausted by the time I get home. All I want to do is check e-mails and facebook and then crash. Most nights I don't even do that.What makes this even sadder is I am not spending time with my kids. I know that before too long they are going to be moving out to lead their own lives. I need to spend time with them now, but I am too tired to do anything..I just head to my room, bathe, and cuddle down in my pajamas for the night.

But this week things have started to look up a little. A couple of nights, I actually worked on the Around the Rail Fence quilt. I finished cutting the strip sets and started squaring up the blocks. Just a few a night. Friday and Saturday I finished squaring up the blocks and started the assembly. I am closing in on finishing it. I need to do the top and bottom rows of the last round of blocks and then put the outer border on it. As soon as I get that done it will go right on the long arm. I already know how I want to quilt it.

The thing is I am rather surprised at how thrilled I am with this quilt. This was not a project I had picked out for myself. This was originally going to be a project for the young women at church to do. It would be simple I didn't have to worry too much about matching corners etc. I had gotten everything prepped. they would sew the strip sets cut them into blocks and sew the rounds of blocks.  They were suppose to work on it during their spring break. That was the first week in April. But with family commitments, time constraints, etc. they ended up canceling the project.

Since it was all cut and ready to go, I decided to just make the quilt.  I wasn't all that excited about doing it, But I felt it was a waste to not make the quilt after all the prep that went into it. I had cut up fat quarters in strips and really didn't want the fabric, my fabric, to go to waste.  So I started working on it more out of obligation than desire.

My sister in law, Marjean, once told me that she had a hard time doing projects that that other people planned for her. I had a project that someone else had planned for the two of us to do. It was not well planned and it ended up being left for me to do. I had told Marjean about it and how I wasn't making any progress. I said that I just couldn't get excited about it. That was when my very wise Sister in Law explained to me that it was okay to not complete someone else's project. That their goal didn't have to be my goal. That was more than 10 years ago and I never did finish that project. I ended up donating the materials for it to a group working on lap quilts for veterans. I have to admit, I was concerned that this quilt was going to be like that project.

But much to my surprise I am getting more and more enjoyment out of it, The closer it gets to completion the more eager I am to get to the next step. It is really becoming a joy to work on it. I think the difference is I did the planning for this project. I chose the pattern and fabric (with consultation from the young women) So while it was not "my project" I do like the design and the fabric. It is much easier to work on a project if you like it.

I guess I needed to get some perspective on things. But this project has helped lift me out of the doldrums and get me back on track. I am starting to feel like doing things again and this quilt has helped me feel that way.

Have you ever had a project that got you back on your feet? I'd love to hear about it.