A Pretty Productive Week

This week I feel like I really accomplished some things.  Despite having to work long hours and being sick one day. I got a lot accomplished and learned some thing new along the way.  Even with the grand-babies coming over.

I started out this week by trying to figure out why Quilt Path and Millie weren't talking. Last year when I bought this set up, I was told to let windows update about once a month. Otherwise keep the tablet in airplane mode. Yeah, I never did update the software. I spent most of the week getting the tablet software to update. Then Friday night I finally got the new version of Windows 10 installed and the software updated. Saturday morning, I woke up at 4:00 am despite being up from 3:30 am until 11:00 pm the day before.  I finally gave up on getting back to sleep and got up around 5:00 am. (my son insists it was 4:30 am)  I reinstalled the Quilt Path drivers and I was good to go. When all else fails read the manual. Sometimes I can be as bad as a man when it comes to reading the directions.

Some of the quilting 

I got the center part of the Christmas Lemonade quilted. I didn't get quite how I wanted it. I wanted a panto-graph in the center but not in the borders. I have some space along the edges.
After reading the Thread Waggle Quilting blog, I think I may be able to figure out how to not have that happen again.

Empty space

Now I just need to do the borders. I was going to quilt around a star shaped ruler/template but I am struggling with that. I did find a border pattern that might work but I am not sure how to make that work in quilt path. I think I probably should have designed that before I started quilting. I may have to draw on the border and then quilt freehand.  I will figure it out one way or another.  But this is definitely slowing down the completion of the quilt. But that is okay to because I am learning so much. I know I have made the binding for it. the question is where did I put it? Oh well still plenty of time to find it.

Star Quilt top

Since I was home sick one day, I got to do some more concentrated sewing than I usually would. The top of the star quilt is now done. Yay!!! I really like how it turned out. The colors pop and I am pretty proud of the little star corner stones. I haven't done the back or binding yet. I am toying with using the left over 5 inch squares. cutting them in half and sewing them end to end for the binding. But then again I planned just binding it in the same fabric as the sashing and I think it will frame it the way I want it too. Decisions, decisions! Oh well I will figure it out sometime this week or next. Or maybe just wait until I am ready to quilt it. 

star corner stone

I am not sure how I want to quilt it yet and I really do want to do more of a customized pattern on it.  Which means more time to quilt it. I do have to granddaughter quilts to make before the end of summer. Plus I still have the Christmas Lemonade quilt on Millie.

Speaking of Granddaughter quilts. I have marked the blocks for the first one. I will start sewing it this week. I finally settled on Ribbon Dance. I am using 1930's prints. One bordered in pink and one bordered in lavender. I am kind of excite to get moving on these. 

Plus I finally figured out what to do for my youngest grandson's quilt. I am going to do a Keyhole quilt and use some of the Batik jelly roll strips I have. They are the primary colors so it will be masculine and can grow with him. Yay for using stash items. Then I think I may do the Butterfly Blossom quilt for his older sister. I have the squares for that as well. Lots of quilts planned, now to just execute them. I have more projects than time. 

Anyway that was my quilting week. How did yours go?

Missing Week and Target Practice

Wow it has been two weeks already. Not sure where the last week went. Life continues to be crazy.  Short handed at work. Hubby is in and out of town. And I now have grand-babies living close by.  Which is totally great but wonderfully time consuming. So time just slipped away. 

I did get some things done though.  I mended the slit in the backing for the Christmas Lemonade quilt and it is now on the machine ready to quilt. I have the pattern loaded into QuiltPath and everything.  I just need to get QuiltPath to communicate with Millie.  I don't know what happened but I will be trying to figure that out this week. I would love to get this one finished and figure out who I am going to give it to.

The Nevada Grand-babies quilts are out of the planning stage. I have the fabric picked out to do two Ribbons Dance quilts. I have even started marking the 5 inch squares. Okay, that was only because the power was out and I couldn't sew on other projects. But I did work on a quilt for over 20 minutes even though there wasn't any power. that counts toward the goal. I will need to order some backing material though.  That can wait until the tops are done. 

I also worked on the Star quilt. I sewed the star points on the remaining sashing strips. I was going to put this quilt away but thought I would just lay out the blocks and maybe pre-sash them.  Then it happened. The quilt I was getting bored with became exciting again.  I love how the blocks are looking with the sashing on them. The dark batik sashing makes the colors really pop. I have the first row sewn together and have started the next row. I expect I will finish the top at least before putting the quilt away. I did order the backing fabric for this quilt.  I needed it to finish the quilt so I am still good with the no buying fabric except to finish a project goal.

Speaking of goals,Time for a goal review:

1. Three quilts for family - can be started, especially finish UFO (UnFinished Objects) or NSY (Not Started Yet) - one quilt done for Aliyah. Two more planned and started.
2. Complete three UFO or NSY - can be used for #1 - one down and two more nearing completion
3. Work on something 20-30 minutes each day. Can be sewing, Cutting, Prepping, Quilting or Studying -  a hold over from last year  -  not even close but I am doing more than I did last year so am improvement but I still need to be better about it.
4. Use what I have and only buy fabric to finish a project. - So far so good, but I see a possible break down here when the 3 of us girls do a Girls Day trip to the Suwanee quilt shop. If we can get the grand babies' daddy to watch them it might be 4 girls
5. Document Quilts I have made, this is a hold over from last year. - still haven't started this.
6. Read The Technical part of the Thread Waggle quilt blog. - haven't done much with this either.
7. Try Paper piecing - use the cake mixes you have. - still in the planning stage
8. Do an easy project now and then. Life isn't all about learning. - this will be coming up soon
9. Clean up after each project. it is easy to let things sit and then I don't get going on the next project. - doing much better with this than I had thought I would.

Okay, I am not doing as well as I had thought I would, but I am making progress. That is what counts. Goals are simply targets. In shooting when you don't hit a target, you look at  where you did hit, make adjustments, re-aim and shoot again.  Repeat the process until you hit the target. Then practice until you can hit the target consistently. That is what I am trying to do. Every little bit counts. Each mis-step or set back is an opportunity to re-aim and shoot again. Eventually I will be consistently achieving these goals and they will eventually become habits.

How is your quilting going? Where are you with your goals? Remember to keep trying, adjust where needed and try again. 

Busy Life

Here it is Thursday and I am just starting my post for the week. I usually do it on Sunday but well life has gone awry again. My daughter and her family have moved back to Georgia.  I have 2 grand babies near by. Then we had Easter, with 2 children, It was an adventure. It has been awhile since I have had little ones around. They wear you out. Plus we had my daughters birthday. On top of that I have been putting in 12 -13 hour days at work.  I did make some progress though.

First - I changed the hopping foot on Millie. It was a lot easier than I thought it would be. And it was level on the first try. I also carefully checked the height to make sure it was just two business cards high. So I now have the scoop foot on to go over the thick seams in the Christmas Lemonade quilt.  I also changed the needle and threaded the machine with the red thread. I think I will adopt the habit of putting a new needle in with every new quilt. And I wound some bobbins.  I am just about ready to get the quilting started. First I need to mend a nick in the backing I have no idea where it came from but it should land in the selvage of the quilt. (the part I will trim off) I expect I will get going with the quilting on Saturday, if life doesn't go awry again.

Second - I got the remaining sashing strips cut for the star quilt. I still need to put the star points on them. I hope to work on that a little tonight and tomorrow. No hurry there and I may put it away for a while.

Viri and Winry need their quilts made. I am now leaning towards Ribbon Dance. It is suppose to use 10 inch squares but I can do it with 5 inch squares.  I just have to make all the half square triangles separately instead of 8 at once. I will make the same pattern but use different borders and backing. That should let them coordinate for their bedroom but still be different.

Third - I cleaned up the studio. I moved stuff and mopped the floor and dusted the corners. I didn't get it all completed but it felt so much nicer to have things cleaned up a little.

So with Easter and Birthdays I didn't get as much done as I would have liked but I did make Progress.
And that is what counts.

Hope you had a Joyful Easter or Passover.

Rough Week

Well, my week started out poorly. I hydroplaned into a guard rail on Monday night. I was truly blessed that the truck wasn't totaled, there weren't any other cars involved, and I was relatively unscathed. Still I was/am sore and frustrated. I did not get a whole lot done as I basically came home every night and soaked in a hot bath and went to bed because I was so sore. Despite being sore I managed to work at least 8 hours a day. Plus on Friday as I was getting close to my 8 hours, crap hit the fan and I had to stay and work the problem. I worked 13 1/2 hours not counting the stuff I had to do after I got home. It was a long and frustrating week.

I did get some stuff done this weekend though. I managed to get the star points on all my sashing strips or at least I thought I did. I also got the corner stones attached to the sashing strips that I need corner stones on. That was when I realized that I am short 19 sashing strips. I will need to cut them tomorrow and get the points on them. But I am a lot closer to assembling the start quilt.  Yay!!!!!

I am struggling with what I want to do for my granddaughters' quilts. I want it to be more than a simple patch work. I really like the Butterfly Blossom Quilt by Missouri Star Quilt Company. You can watch the tutorial on You Tube. I have the template and the 5 inch squares. But I have never been a big fan of applique of course all the applique I have ever done was by hand and very tedious to me. I don't do hand work well because it takes so long. But with this pattern, I could definitely do this on the machine. I think that may be the way I go. I can make 2 quilts and put different borders and backs on them. Then make sure their names are clearly marked on the the quilt labels.

Another intriguing pattern that I came across this week was Tag Team. Also by MSQC.  The patterns calls for 5" squares but I have all these natural tone on tone  4" squares plus a bunch of scrappy 4" squares and I am thinking this is a good way to use them up. I know I will need many more squares to make the quilt the right size but this would be more of a use it up project instead of need a quilt project. There is also a tutorial by MSQC on You Tube called Silly Goose Quilt that actually uses the same blocks as the Tag Team quilt. So I am probably going to shoot for doing one of those quilts. One of my goals is to use up my stash. This would be a great way to do that. Plus another goal is to do an easy quilt once in a while. This would be a good one for de-stressing or when I am sick and have the need to sew. I need simple patterns when I am sick but sewing makes me feel better.

Then Friday, I watched a tutorial by Jenny Doan of MSQC for a Double Churn and Dash. I have lots of jelly roll strips that I need to use as well. I love the Churn and Dash because it was one of the first quilt blocks I ever made (after doing a nine patch). I really like the idea of using up some of those strips in this quilt. Another stash buster that I have the materials for.

I think you can tell that while I wasn't sewing much this week I was perusing patterns and ideas. I like to plan but then I have so many projects I want to do that I get a little overwhelmed. I would really like about 6 weeks off from work just to sew. (okay six years) I have projects that will go up fast but haven't done them because I am either short on time or space. Or life gets in the way.

Space is another reason that I am keen to start using up my stash. I have been feeling like my belongings are taking over my house. Like pretty soon there isn't going to be room for me in it.  Part of that is the house is too small and part is that my husband and kids also have a variety of interests as well. So there are supplies and equipment every where. Plus I think my hubby and I are both part pack rat.

Well that was my week. I certainly hope yours went much better. Happy Quilting.

Advice from Friends

Some times I get down on myself for not doing more during the week. I tend to do a lot on the weekends and not much during the week. I also tend to put things off that I am not looking forward to doing. Especially if they are out of my comfort zone. I am sure a lot of people are like that. Because of this I don't make as much progress as I intend or want to.  Then I get frustrated with myself.

I have a friend Cindy who doesn't let me beat myself up. I don't know how long Cindy has been quilting or how long she has had a long arm. I met Cindy at church about 13 years ago. We worked in cub scouts and 4-H together as well taught Primary (children's program in the LDS church).

Cindy does wonderful quilts, both piecing and quilting. And she follows my blog. We have the whole country between us and yet she is there for me. After my last blog Cindy reminded me that I shouldn't feel guilty about not finishing the Christmas Lemonade quilt. After all Christmas is several months away.  So while the back and top to the quilt are loaded on Millie. I have not done much else with it. 

Another friend that keeps me straight actually works for me. My friend Dawn is a crochet person. She can generally look at an item and then make it. But she never learned to read a pattern. Dawn is about 5 years older than I am and she recently told me that she is getting some women at church to help learn to read patterns so she can improve.  She tends to have several projects going at once. That way she doesn't get bored with them. 

Dawn reminds me that I can't expect to do everything while working a full time job. I just need to do what I can/feel like doing and not worry about making some arbitrary goal. She helps me not beat myself up. When I mentioned how far behind I felt compared to other women who recently acquired long arms machines, she accurately pointed out that those women were retired and had much more time to work on developing their skills.

My friend Angela is another who helps me stay balanced with goals and expectations. Angela reminds me that love is the most important thing I put into my quilts. Angela said to me just the other day "Didn't you tell me that you bought the long arm now while you could afford it. And that you wanted to get good enough to be able to supplement your retirement income in about ten years? Well you are only 1 year into that 10 year goal. Give yourself a break." Angela (who is an accountant) also reminds me to set aside the time and money I need to take classes to improve.

My daughters are also great advice givers. They are not too critical but still push me along. Arianna helps me reign in my projects by reminding me of projects long ago started and never finished. Yet she will tell me about cool projects she has seen. Tatianna is constantly urging me to finish started projects. Perigrine is great with positive praise and helps me to plan out projects. Both Tatianna and Perigrine remind me that my stash takes up their closet and I could help alleviate the storage problem if I would just get some quilts done. Yet they are still willing to take a road trip to a quilt shop if the fancy strikes.

Like all advice, it is worth what you make of it. I am thankful I have friends and family who keep me straight and therefor help me be a better quilter and person.

Who has your back when it comes to quilting?

Prepping and Progressing

This week was a different week for me. I did something sew/quilting related everyday. Just not so much what I would normally do. But it all has been prep work for projects or skill building.

I did get the top of the Christmas Lemonade quilt loaded on Millie. I just haven't finished getting it ready to quilt.  I did find the other hopping feet and watched the video on changing them. I will probably get it changed this week.  I will wind my bobbins and change the needle while I am at it. I am going to quilt it with red thread. I know "lack of imagination" but I like red and there is a lot of red in the quilt.  I have decided that I am going to do a panto in the pieced part of the quilt and a different pattern in the borders. So I am getting a little more adventurous. 

I also got all the little squares for my sashing start points pressed in half diagonally this week.  I plan to start sewing them onto the sashing pieces during the evenings.  Then maybe do the lay out of the quilt.  I am thinking I will try to do more of a custom quilt job on the star quilt.

I finally went and bought a laptop for my quilting. I got quilt path loaded on it as well as the digital quilting patterns. Not sure I got quilt path on there right. I will probably play with that more this week. Getting the lap top set up and transferring patterns and programs took a lot longer than I thought it would.  I still need to add Office but I am getting there.

I found out that my next grandchild will be a little girl. I think I will make her and her big sister, Viri, matching quilts. Well, not matching but at the very least coordinating. The quilts do need to be a bit different for their parents sake.

So not a lot of progress on projects but a lot of little things accomplished and progress towards building a business platform.  So prepping and progressing.

How did your week go?

At A Stand Still

Well this week disappeared for me. I just don't know where it went. Things I thought I would get done, didn't happen and things I didn't plan on did. Once again life has gone "awry"  I have accomplished nothing when it comes to quilting.

Well almost nothing.  I did get the quilt back loaded on Millie. And I did read up on changing the hopping foot.  I just need to get the box with the other feet down off the top shelf.

I did try to plan out how I am going to quilt the Christmas Lemonade Quilt. I have changed my mind about a dozen times. Right now I am pretty sure I am going to do a panto star design for the pieced section and big stars in the border. I have star templates to use for the border. I think I will rotate the stars as I go around the quilt. But that could still change. I am really lazy lately and want to finish this quilt quickly. I have been working on it for over a year (off and on) I still think the large border needs it's own pattern.  But Edge to edge over the whole quilt is very appealing right now.  While I really like the quilt (even more than I ever thought I would) I am getting bored with it. Time to move on.

I am in the process of planning out another quilt. My daughter Arianna is expecting at the end of June. I don't know what the gender is yet so I haven't done much with quilt ideas for this baby.  But her first child, Viri is turning three in July.  I haven't made her a quilt yet. I thought I could work on a quilt for Viri while waiting on the gender reveal. That way, when the baby comes, Viri gets her quilt at the same time.  Then Viri knows Grand-mama still loves her best. Just like I love each and every grandchild the best.

The Christmas Lemonade quilt is so close to the finish line.  Do I take the easy way out or do I take the time and work on a new skill?  I really want to get one project done and out of the way before starting another project. In reality two new projects, one for Viri and one for new baby. It is a toss up for me right now. This indecision is not helping matters either.

Right now, I feel like I am at a stand still with all my current projects. Mostly because I have just not had any energy.  I worked a couple of really long days this past week and the days I didn't I have been napping when I get home from work. Very  unlike me. I also have been very achy.  My joints and back have all been sore. I haven't done anything out of the normal so I am at a loss as to why. I am not ill or at least I haven't had any symptoms other than being tired and achy. So I have no idea where all my oomph has gone. This week I am hoping to push through it and get things moving again.

What has slowed you down in the past? How did you push through it? What kept you going on a project that has been in the work a long time?