Happy Birthday to me and Merry Christmas too for that matter. My birthday/Christmas gift has arrived and I'm thrilled with it. My husband ordered a new quilting frame for me sometime in August and it has arrived. It is a hand made Amish quilt hoop on a stand that tilts and rotates as needed. It's beautiful and works like a charm. I have a large Q-Snap frame that I've used for hand quilting in the past, but the new house does not really lend itself to it's use. The new frame can easily be moved around the house so I can do my hand quilting by my bedroom window, or carry it to the living room to stitch while I'm watching TV - the larger frame didn't fit through any doorway in the house and was a pain to take apart and put back together.
String Quilt: I've made good progress on my string quilt, though I've been slowed down over the last couple of weeks because our power has been shut off three times over that time period. My plan with getting that pieced was to do four or five blocks first thing each morning, which would have been enough for a small quilt in a short amount of time, the blocks would be complete by now if it hadn't been for the power outages. They are frustrating but better than having another wildfire blow through town on the high winds we get here. The yellow scraps in these blocks are the only yellow I've worked with this month, so my mostly pink blocks will have to do for the October Yellow RSC - I missed the pink month all together so I'm making up for that now.
November update: I've finished piecing the string quilt. I've been dithering about whether or not to applique something on it. I wanted to put a few butterflies on the front but think I'm going to let that idea go. There are a couple of little ones pinned on but I found the solid colors boring and didn't want to use them. So I pulled out my butterfly coloring book and traced some of the butterflies onto a bit of white fabric.November update: I'm still keeping up with the QAL and enjoying the process of doing a different block each week. This was week five of nine. The challenge is keeping the colors coordinated within each block and between the blocks. I'm not sure that my addition of the red fabric was such a good idea, but I've gone with it so hope that it won't overtake some of the quieter colors. I've not begun to make any of the setting blocks yet, not sure I want to use the court house steps pattern that Pat has chosen for them. No need to hurry on that decision though. Four more blocks to go and that will take me close to Christmas. So I will set the blocks aside to work on sometime next year. I'll be linking up with Susan at Quilt Fabrication for Midweek Makers.
Machine Mess: Besides power outages tension troubles with my Brother 1500s machine stopped my work on the large Magic Stars quilt that I was so close to having finished. It made a horrible mess on the back of the quilt on the last row that I did - the whole row. The problem wasn't showing on the front so I was finished with the row before I discovered the disaster. So during the first of our three outages over the last couple of weeks I spent time ripping out the mess. I also took my machine in for repair. I have it back now but the last two power outages have kept me from getting it going again. I'm afraid the problem isn't actually fixed as I can still see the top thread on the bottom fabric - it shows on the sample that the repair person did. I had quite a conversation with the person who was checking the machine out when I went to pick it up - that what I had brought it in for hadn't been fixed. He said it was normal, the machines they fixed always came out that way. Very frustrating. However, he didn't charge me for the service, and for that I am very grateful and will support his shop in any way I can in the future - except maybe not get my machines serviced there. I'll be linking up with Kelly at My Quilt Infatuation for Needle and Thread Thursday.November update: My machine is set up and I have yet to do the sample quilting I need to see how it's behaving. I just haven't gotten myself into the space of mind to do it just yet. I did take out the horrible mess from the back of the quilt but haven't moved on to restitching it. I will. I will also be very glad when this quilt is finally finished, it's taken way too long. It has me rather convinced though that if I ever do another quilt that size that I need to just send it out to be quilted. Someone with a long arm machine could do a big quilt like that in a fraction of the time it's taken me.
My small Magic Stars leader/ender project is coming along nicely - making real progress while working on other things. I would never have thought of getting the piecing done that way but am glad for finding the tutorial about it on Bonnie Hunter's blog. All of the initial piecing is done now and the diagonal cuts are all done. I'm not doing the diagonal seams as leader/ender pieces due to the bias. Once all the bias seams have been sewn I will go back to using the pieces as leaders/enders. I'm trying to get eight or twelve of those bias seams done each morning. If the power outages will hold off for a while I'll be able to get that part done within another week or so.November update: Well I still have half a dozen blocks worth of diagonal seams to complete and have sewn most of the completed small squares together into the final blocks. Not what I had intended, but what felt right at the time, as I have been finding lots of things to do while avoiding going back to work on my quilting machine. I've been so pleased with the progress that I've made with this little quilt as a leader/ender project that I've chosen another project to get cut and organized to use as another leader/ender project. More on that below. I'll be linking up with Beth at Love, Laugh, Quilt for Monday Making.
November update: I've made good progress on my little crochet project. I do a row or two most every day. It will be a slow project at that rate, but I'm perfectly okay with that. I'm enjoying the process, it's quite relaxing.
Current new project: I mentioned above that I've chosen a pattern to use with my favorite fabrics. It's from an old book The Simple Joys of Quilting by Joan Hanson and Mary Hickey, it's called Swedish Stepping Stars. I'm dropping the Swedish bit because I'm not using the blue and yellow that makes theirs have that Swedish look. It's a two block pattern using a star block and a stepping stones block. The star block has quarter square triangles and they have a few pages at the beginning of the book detailing their method of making them. I'm not using their approach so have been doing some practice pieces to make sure I've got that bit down before I start cutting anything for the project. I made a tablecloth in fall colors some years ago for my kitchen table and have wanted a runner to go with it for the top of the china cabinet that sits in the dining area by the table. I just happened to pull scraps that will go with it nicely - did one block as a sample. I liked it so much I wanted to do some more and found that I had plenty of scraps of the same fabrics to make three more blocks as well as enough background fabric to make sashing between the blocks. I will be pulling a black fabric from my stash and making a small border for it today. I'll be linking up with Cynthia at Quilting is More Fun than Housework for Oh Scrap! and with Alycia Quilts for Finished or Not FridayThe quilt I have in the frame at the moment is a whole cloth quilt I started long ago, but only the center is completed. I have too many projects going at once to keep up very well with any of them. It's a wonder I ever get anything finished because I'm always starting new projects that take my attention away from my works in progress. Somehow I can't help myself, too many interesting and exciting ideas.
Comments are always welcome and I try always to respond to each of them when they come in. Thanks for reading!
14 comments:
That looks like a wonderful new quilting frame - Happy Birthday and Merry Christmas! I enjoyed getting a peek at your projects and seeing the progress you've been making. The pink and yellow string quilt is beautiful! Appliqueing the butterflies on it is a fun idea!
Congrats on that beautiful new standing quilt hoop and happy birthday!! Sorry about the butterfly incident. Had you heat set them before washing?
Happy Birthday (whenever that is). I'm jealous, haha. I want a standing hoop for the longest time ... maybe my day will come too. Leaving the butterflies behind on the string quilt was a good decision in my book. Hope your sewing machine is quilting happily now. Enjoy! ;^)
I hate when my machine tension acts up like that! I am surprised the permanent markers bled. Frustrating!
Happy birthday and your new quilting frame looks wonderful. Such a lot of great projects on the go. I really enjoyed reading your post.
I adore the photos of you quilting at your new quilt stand! What a lovely gift for you! Thanks for sharing with the Slow Sunday Stitching crew!
Happy Birthday! Your new frame looks great, and the lovely projects you have going.
That quilt frame is now on my Christmas wish list. I love all of your projects and the glimpses of your sewing room. So sorry that you have had difficulties with your machine.
Itsn't it wonderful to have a husband that is thoughtful enough to really think about the gift. You have a lot of wonderful projects going! Plenty of relaxing stitching to get you thru the winter.
Gosh, just look at all your gorgeous quilting pretties...here, there and everywhere. Love your design wall. Love your string quilt decorating the wall so beautifully. How wonderful to be gifted with your quilting hoop. Such a lovely photo of you quilting. Your Log Cabin quilt is a beauty!
This post is filled with so many pretty projects. But I love seeing you at your quilting frame!
Thanks for linking up with Oh Scrap!
Happy Birthday and Merry Christmas! That hoop looks like it was the perfect fit for you! I wondered if the squirrel made it out of your space without leaving behind more of a story to tell. Way to go on figuring out a better way to utilize your space!
What a goodness filled post!!! That frame is awesome- and that string quilt - oh man do I love those colors!
You had at least ten posts' worth of goodies to share in this one! Gosh, you're working on a lot of pretty things right now. I love your butterfly idea. What kind of permanent ink did you use for them, and did you try heat setting the ink with your iron before washing? I've had good luck with Pigma Micron ultra fine point permanent markers in the past, but haven't tried to use them as extensively as what you were doing. Usually I just grab them to "disappear" a white stitch of ditch quilting that accidentally wandered onto the navy high side of the ditch. Another idea would be to search for a commercially printed butterfly fabric that has butterflies in the right size, style and color for your quilt. There are so many butterfly print quilt fabrics out there -- I know because I was hunting all over the Internet for them a couple months ago to find just the right ones to applique to a baby quilt: https://www.rebeccagracequilting.com/2020/09/lal7-inspired-by-online-ruler-work.html.
Enjoy your beautiful new quilting frame!
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