Happy Fall!

 Isn't the weather supposed to be cooler now? The nights may be a tad cooler the days are still hot. Guess I have to wait for December 21's Winter Solstice.

Last week was fun and busy. Donna from Idaho visited for a week. There was lots of sewing, shopping and gabbing!

I haven't been able to show a sewing session picture in a long time. Donna brought up kits to make Emmaline Retreat Bags. This is Donna's bag. Tula Pink fabric. The inside is a matching lime green.

So cute. They are actually very easy to make and a nice large size.

Here's mine.

Please notice the straight evenness of the directional fabric...outside and inside.

All by accident. If I'd tried to do that intentionally it would have looked like a drunk person made it with the design going from the bottom left to the top right. 

We also took a class at one of the local quilt shops. The pattern is called Thready Bear's Quilter's Coat. We made ours with kantha quilts (we couldn't bear the thought of cutting up an actual quilt, although two people did). This is the front of mine.

The kantha quilts are made from three layers of old sarees. Some had holes and stains, which is why I appliqued a flower design on the front of mine. Here's the back of mine.

Here's the back of Donna's. I forgot to take a picture of the front.

Here's the back. They were very easy to make.

Before Donna's visit I quilted two small quilts.

The second one doesn't have the binding sewn on yet, I'll show it when it's finished.

Two more pouches.

Another Aunt Daisy block and a few more Bright blocks.

I'm getting ready to load this quilt...

It has a few issues the need to be repaired first...so I'm procrastinating, which means nothing is getting done.

Bella also enjoyed Donna's visit and the box she brought up with wonderful canned tomatoes, salsa and peaches. 

I haven't decided if I'm off my break yet or not. We'll see how much procrastinating occurs this week.

Still on a Break

 With a few exceptions everything I've been doing sewing / quilting has been pretty routine or downright boring. I received a bunch of fabric from the Quilts 4 Kids free table and from my guild free table. Lots of ironing and folding - boring.

Then I had to try to find someplace to put them...lots of sorting, consolidating and labeling of tote boxes - boring.

Part of that was grouping my 5 and 2.5 inch strips by color / type.

Boring.

Finished framing my string blocks.

Still need to make another 25 or so but bored with it so I put it back in a project box. I'll work on it again next year.

Cut out two scrappy quilts from 2 inch and 2.5 inch scraps. Put them in project boxes. Who knows when I'll get back to them.

Made one test block...I like it, okay, not boring.

Made another Aunt Daisy block - I have made half the blocks.

You can see it in the background of the above picture.

Not so boring, although starting to get boring, are the five pouches I cut out and am currently making.

Above are the two I've finished. I only had little bits of these border fabrics and thought they would look good as pouches. Three more to go.

I want to make this.

Sorry for the bad picture. I'm trying to decide on the background fabric.

It's paper pieced, made up of 14 small sections. It probably won't be boring but there may be a lot of bad words said.

Got to babysit this little cutie.

Tilly is smaller than Bella (they totally ignored each other). She was so sweet. I tried to steal her from my niece, but she wouldn't give her up. Definitely not boring.

Back to my blogging break.

Nothing New or Different

 Here is the finished Wind Drifter quilt hanging at my guild meeting this morning.

And the back.

Made from the leftover fat quarters.

It is my new favorite quilt. I love how it turned out.

Another finish...

Donna gave me all the nine patches years ago. The runner is long - 53 inches - she has a large dining room table that will really show the colors off, so I plan on gifting the runner to her when she visits next month.

Bella is not allowed outside - ever. But she is allowed in the garage. While there she likes to hunt / wait for lizards to appear under the garage door, catch the lizard and bring it into the house. She caught her second one this summer. Normally, I'm able to rescue them (usually without a tail). The newest lizard hid in the rails of the glass slider. I threw Bella in my bedroom and rescue the poor lizard still alive.

She sat there ALL day and half the night, waiting for it to show up again.

Mama finally showed up with her babies.

They are so cute!

I think I'm going to take a few weeks off from blogging. I don't have anything loaded on the frame. I'm not starting anything new or finishing anything. The pieces and parts I may work on are the same pieces and parts I've been working on for months and if I'm bored of looking at them, I'm sure you are too. So it seems like a good time to take a break. See you in a few.

Lots of Quilting and Binding

 
I added a scrappy binding to the scrappy quilt.

I think I've already mentioned the pattern is Lady by Villa Rosa Designs. Very easy to make. It was a great leader ender project.

I finished quilting Wind Drifter.

I really like the quilt pantograph I used. Really easy and I love all the movement it gives the quilt. I've sewn the binding to the front and I'm about a third of the way done with hand sewing the binding to the back. I'll show the whole quilt next week.

Here is some more quilting I did.

My ribbons don't look very ribbonie but I like how the half daisys turned out.

I picked up the Care Bear and pink butterfly fabrics at last month's Quilts 4 Kids meeting. I love how these two little quilts turned out, soft flannel on the back...Bella liked them too.

On the frame now is the nine patch table runner I made last year.

I've completed all the in-the-ditch quilting, added a bit of cross hatch quilting and am now adding this ruler motif in the cream nine patches. I've finished 10 out of twenty blocks. Now I need to decide if I'm going to add anything to the setting triangles. And if I do, what?

I went from gung ho to ho hum.

I finished quilting the scrappy quilt.

I still have to add the binding. It will be scrappy also. The butterfly flannel was one of my "JoAnn's is closing" purchases. I wish I had bought more but part of me thinks I bought the last of the bolt.

I cut out the borders for the Care Bear quilts...and haven't touched them since.

I started getting Wind Drifter ready to quilt.

I got this far and started second guessing all my choices. So, it sat for most of last week.

I'm using black batting. The quilt is 73 inches square. For some reason I bought a queen size bat (I think the only options were queen or king). While the package said queen (93 x 108) the batting must have been a king. I cut over 35 inches from one side and will have more than that left on the bottom. Trimming the side was a booger.

After a week of procrastinating, I finally loaded it yesterday. Why do I torture myself second guessing things? 

When I stopped this afternoon I was about half done and everything is looking great. I'm using another new pantograph and it is easier to follow than the pantograph I used on the scrappy quilt.

Here is another distraction I had on Saturday. 

This is Oakley. She is about three years old and the sweetest girl. Her and Bella had a blast together...until Bella decided they weren't. Don't you love that she is the same color as my rug.

Too Many Irons in the Fire

Or maybe I'm trying to juggle too many balls with one hand...or maybe I just have a short attention span and can only work on something for a short amount of time before it's time to move on to something new.

Although one of the projects I have going on right now is definitely not new.

This is a UFO I've worked on periodically for years.  We'll see how long I last. Right now I'm adding the frames. For the size of quilt I originally planned on making I need to make 25 more string blocks. 

I also made another Aunt Daisy block...8 out 16 are now completed.

All the sub-units to Angela's Brightly quilt, my leader-ender project, are done. I want to group block units together before I start actually putting the blocks together. 

The new project is this cute Care Bear border print. There is almost two yards of the fabric so instead of making one quilt I'm going to make two. So it won't be too narrow, I'm going to add borders down the sides only. I'll put yellow on one and green on the other. Both will get the butterfly fabric.

Making both should go quickly.

I did focus on finishing the Winter Snow Friends quilt. I was able to get the tension to an acceptable level.

Once it's washed I don't think anything will show. I used the extra backing flannel as the binding. 

I loaded Lady on the frame and started quilting it tonight.

I'm loving this pantograph. So far no tension issues. 

So, do you think I should add more irons to the fire?

I Hate Tension Issues

 I did another "oh boogers, I forgot it was Monday" about 2 a.m. on Tuesday. I didn't have much to post so didn't bother on Tuesday.

I finished the Grid Girls mystery quilt.

All the borders are on and the binding is made. It will probably be a while before it gets quilted. I'm not thrilled with the quilt - I liked the pattern, not the fabric - and I don't have anything that matches it to use as a back.

I did finish quilting and hand sewing the binding of the sampler quilt.

This one I am thrilled with. I love the quilting in the blocks. The pantograph in the border? Not so much. It was hard lining up the pantograph edge with the border edges. Don't know why I stressed over it, you can barely see the quilting due to the busy floral print.

I think I've mention JoAnne, the Quilts 4 Kids coordinator, is downsizing the program a bit. She is no longer taking in new fabric donations and is getting rid of the fabric in her she-shed. She has been bringing 7-8 totes in each month. What is not taken, she is taking to Goodwill. My hoarder heart just can't let that happen.

This is what I brought home last Friday. I brought home almost as much last month.

There was a small tote full of airplane fabrics. Above are a few. I brought them all home. I don't know where I'm going to put it all but I brought it all home. :o(

Are you curious about this blog post title? I had some tension issue when I changed the bobbin quilting the sampler quilt. It took a while but I was able to resolve the issues. Last week I loaded this quilt.

It came from one of Angela's estate sales. I'm getting loops on the top. 

Checked the bobbin tension with the Towa gauge - all good. Loops on top - solution is to loosen the top tension. I've loosened it to the point of the knob is almost ready to fall off. ??? So what to do? My solution, ignore it hoping it will go away. Don't think that is going to work. This was last Monday (probably why I forgot to post). I haven't touched a sewing machine since. I did do a wicked clear out of everything, put everything away, scrub it cleaning of the sewing room. Maybe if I did the same thing in the long arm room it would resolve the tension issue.  

I know. But I can dream.