Hello again motivated do'ers. Welcome to another
Tuesday To Do party hosted by Quilt Schmilt!
Today I'm also linking up with Sew & Tell over
How did everyone do this past week?
I had a pretty stressed one but, after more troubleshooting
with APQS, I think we've solved the problem I was having
with occasional wobbly stitches. I feel like I wasted yet
another week, but I have to keep reminding myself that I'm
really learning my way around the system. Longarmers aren't
just quilters; they also become their machine's technician.
My regret is that I really didn't help hubs set everything up;
if I had, I would have learned a lot from the get-go.
Ah well, live and learn. And learn and learn...
Let's move on to more fun things:
I have THREE big finishes today, and
a couple minis for icing on the finish cake!
My first finish to share today was accidentally omitted
from last week's list but I fully intended on completing
it along with the others. I'll just start with it today.
Cascade (83x94)
Not only is it looking wrinkly while laying on the lawn,
the colors aren't looking right in this lighting. If I can't
find a way to bring out the truth of this quilt in pics for
my shop, I am not gonna be happy.
(Research into photography is next on my To Learn list.)
Label making and sewing on binding are a
breeze on the new Pfaff! I think I did all three
of my finishes in about half the usual time!
Feathers would have looked beautiful but I'd
like this quilt to work for a man as well.
It's a little hard to see in the pic above, but I chose
a nice neutral design that I feel works really well,
and perhaps brings just a touch of modern to it.
(When I take pics for my shop, I'll get better closeups
and share them here.)
Okay, moving on:
* * My Priority! * *
Bind, label and finish both Meadow and Rosie.
(Shortened their names)
DONE.
Rosie (71x71)
I used the remaining red jelly strips for a
scrappy pieced binding on this one.
I always like using everything up!
Meadow (90X102)
This is another one that I just haven't been able to catch
in great lighting so I'll need to really work on this before
I can list it in the shop. Above is about as close as I've
gotten but obviously it was too big for hubs to hold out
for a full view.
Terrible lighting but here is the full quilt.
A pieced back.
Nope, that light's not gonna do it either
but you can see the quilting at least.
2) Bind, label and finish the 2 minis
DONE.
These are from a little squirrel session last February ('22).
By adding in a little extra background fabric, I was able
to squeeze two toppers (19x19) out of a kit for one.
This was right before moving everything into my new
studio so the finished tops were set aside until just
last week--a year later--when they were allowed to
join the ranks of The Finished. I'm still looking for
a good spot for them around the house though.
3) Make a form to receive quilts for quilting jobs
Made a start.
4) Start on next quilt
Nothing happened here.
Other notable things:
I waited over a month for this to show up and was about
to write it off for lost but over the weekend it finally found
its way into my mailbox. No idea what happened but it's
here now so my Martingale collection is now complete.
I re-joined our sewing group at church. Leave it to me to
show up when someone had just donated a ton of fabric.
You all know how much I need to focus on getting my Etsy
shop re-stocked with finishes, but what did I do?
First, I couldn't resist creating fabric pulls, and then once
I had created them, I couldn't resist making something out
of them so they all came home with me. And now I have
about 6 or so various projects to make for charity.
Good grief.
(Some hand-pieced blocks were included in the donated fabric)
But, I guess if God has seen fit to bless me with
such a studio, then I should be totally open to doing
any work that might be asked of me with my gifts.
And along that note:
MIL's first quilt (88x112)
My mother-in-law is not a quilter but about 5 or 6 years ago
she tried her hand at it, making a king and a lap quilt top.
I was very happy to get her to bring them over for me to
turn these WIP's into finishes. Above is the king; the lap
will be quilted today.
It's now well into March so the garden is needing attention.
Hubs and I have been so indecisive on every aspect of our
garden upgrade project that we skipped it entirely last year.
This year, we had a row of ugly cedar trees pulled because
of the shadow they cast on a good portion of the garden
throughout the early spring--when I need the soil dry
and warm. Plus they were ugly and we were tired of
spraying the bagworms, getting that poison near my
almost-completely organic garden.
Next we're adding a wrought iron fence and hopefully soon
hubs will find time soon to build up at least a few of the
beds so I can get some things planted.
Usually I have onions, potatoes and all kinds of greens
in by now but I haven't even tilled. That soil is calling
so I'm really hoping to get at least some onions in
later this week but rain is on the way.
The studio also calls but a person can't stay in there
all day, every day, right? (Don't answer that!)
Besides, I have a helper now and with that in mind,
here's my list for the week ahead:
* * Week 11 Priority! * *
Start on West Point quilt #5
This is at the request of a customer.
2) Design and start challenge quilt
This is for a local charity.
3) Start on church group charity quilts
4) Quilt MIL's second quilt
Well, it's not like me to have so many quilts going
at once but I have some shopping to do soon and
I'd like to know where I'm at with some of these.
And just to keep a track of a things--because I can't
stand UFO's--I also have these two others started.
They're on semi-hold but I'm still hoping to get to
them here and there.
2) Second of "two baby quilts from one layer cake"
One last fun note:
My collection of 2022's Emptied Spools.
25,821 yards of thread. Or, 14.67 miles.
Happy quilting!
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