Busy Week

 Last week was busy! Or maybe I should say busy for me. Aside from some yardwork, housework, and driving a friend to the hospital for hand surgery (at 7 a.m.) I also attended a Handi Quilter 3-day hands on longarm quilting event. OMG - it was intense, very informative, and wonderful! Very hands on. The experience levels of the other participants varied from no machine quilting at all to experienced long arm quilters. I was probably in the middle.

Other than a session on the Handi Quilter Pro Stitcher (which I skipped), the event covered long arm machine quilting basics, different types of feet, free motion quilting including basic shapes, gridwork, backgrounds and fillers. AND (insert happy dance) ruler work safety and basics. I love using rulers! I can't wait to load my next quilt.

I did manage to get some work done on a few projects. I did some sewing and cutting on a guild community service quilt.

This is going to be a very scrappy quilt. The blocks are about half done.

The June Aunt Daisy sew-a-long unit is square-in-a-square.  I need to make 80. Not my favorite block so I'm going to paper piece it. Everything is cut out and ready to go - 

I also finished up two folded star pin cushions (colors are kinda washed out it the picture). One for the long arm and one to put next to my sewing machine...hmmm should have made a third one as I currently have two sewing machines set up. These are fun and easy to make - deciding on fabric takes the longest.

June UFO Challenge

 Have you noticed I haven't mentioned my June UFO Challenge project? Last June it was the ornament walling hanging, the ornament wall hanging came up again this June. Hmmm, I've decided I really don't want to make it. I have one finished, I really don't need a second one and don't feel like making it as a possible Xmas gift...soooo, I kitted everything up with a few process notes and took it to my guild meeting today. The person who chairs our quilt show country store grabbed it. She is hoping someone in the guild will finish it to sell or, if not, they will sell the kit at the show. Win win and out of my house. Wonder if I have others lurking in the closets that I could donate.

So far I'm five for five...five finished quilt tops in five weeks. Four on the Moxie. This week's quilt started out like this:

I picked this top up at a Quilts for Kids meeting. It was about 25 x 43 inches. Kinda small. Cute but needed something more. So I added more fabric to the sides (love love love the bug fabric given to me by Angela) then did an all over design using a variegated thread.

Not the best lighting for the picture. I hate quilting with variegated threads (never got the tension 100% perfect and the thread kept breaking) but I think it was the perfect choice for this quilt. This was so fun to quilt. The colorful stripe back and stripe binding put the icing on the cake. 

I'm not sure I'll be able to load and quilt a top this week. I have three days of Handi Quilter classes this week - including a ruler class (so excited!!!). So may be a bit quilted out to actually quilt something.

Finished!

 I started quilting this back in January. I've avoided finishing it for three reasons (1) the horrible hi-loft poly batting, (2) didn't know what else to quilt, and (3) I wanted to use the Juki to finish quilting it. So this week I bit the bullet. It was easier using the Juki but it was still a wrestling match. Initially my thread kept breaking, so I loosened the tension and very very slowing quilted through those very bulking seams.

I'm not sure if I won or not.

This will be a very warm quilt, the back is a very soft flannel. It finished about 44 inches square and will be donated this Friday to Kiwanis Quilts for Kids.

Hahahaha

 

Did you really think I'd get all those chores done? Hahahaha! Never happen in a single week. I hate housework and I'm not too fond of yardwork either.

I did get everything that was moved from the long arm room to the spare bedroom back into the long arm room. Both rooms were cleaned. I cleaned and rearranged the sewing room - not sure if I like it - we'll see how it works out. The whole house has been vacuumed and the kitchen floor partially mopped because I tripped over Bella's water bowl and sent water everywhere. :o(

We've had more rain, which means more weeds and no mowing. Hopefully I'll get a bit of yard work done tomorrow.

I can't even blame the lack of chores completed on productive sewing...unless shopping at a quilt store counts as productive sewing? The store closing in Medford finally reduced their prices by 50%. Here is my haul:

Jelly roll of black solid. Back for the race car quilt. Cat's Cradle ruler tool, Purse emory boards. The real score was needles for the Moxie - 7 packages - shouldn't have to buy needles for a very long time.  Not much of a haul but I have a really difficult time justifying buying fabric when I have so much already.

Last Monday I dropped off the bear panel quilt and picked up two finished quilt tops from my guild community service chairperson. One was pinned the other wasn't - both had backs and batting.

I loaded, quilted, squared and added the binding to this scrappy rail quilt. It's about 40 x 50 so a really quick easy finish. I returned it at today's guild meeting. The second quilt I picked up is a different story - it is sparsely pinned, very wrinkled, and the batting was cut the exact same size as the quilt top (grrr), so it has been put in the back of the line.

No to-do list this week. What gets done will get done and what doesn't get done...oh well.