An urgent job

Last Thursday I was contacted by a local curtain parlour. They moved shop, and after the move, her quilting machine refused to work, and she urgently needed a quilt.  I could feel her pain, but was hesitant to accept, as I know they use either curtaining or upholstery fabric, but she was in a pickle.  After looking at the fabric and size, while she sent me thick upholstery batting too, I had to inform her that I would not be able to use her thick batting along with the fabric on my entrée-level quilt machine.  She then agreed to use quilting batting, then the size worried me.  The longer side was 136” with the shorter side just fitting on the width of my frame.  Hubby promised to help me advance the quilt as I neared the end.  It was extremely thick by then. The rheumatism in my wrists and thumbs did not allow me to roll this thick mass.

Luckily, I did not have another quilt on the frame, so I could finish this one the next day (Friday).  I don’t think she would like the lack of loft compared to the thicker batting, but that was the best I could do, and I got it finished so she would not disappoint her customer.

However, no good deed goes unpunished, and although they fetched the quilt on Monday, I have yet to receive payment.  I already sent the manager a message and she promised to find out what the problem was, but as of yet… nothing.

Duvet cover turned quilt

My daughter bought a duvet cover made from an extremely slippery fabric, which led to the inner sliding down to their feet at night, leaving them without a cover or heat for their bodies. No problem for her; mom can quilt, so the cover, as is, was simply dropped off by me.  Sides not unpicked or cut, no batting and somehow, I had to work with a backing the same size as the top.  Sadly, I had to cut her top smaller to accommodate my side clamps on the frame.

This quilt also does not have 90° corners, as the purchased cover was so skewed and I wanted to use most of the available fabric.  Luckily, on a bed, the corners will hang down the sides; hopefully, it will not be that obvious.

After putting it on her bed, she sent me a photo.

In my previous post, I mentioned cleaning house, and I decided to take it a step further by cleaning out my e-mail list too.  Often, over several years, I’d read a blog post talking about a new pattern, block or technique, and in an attempt to find out more, I had to join their mailing list.

I helped hubby in our business for several years. On my way to the office in the morning, I’d stop by the mail box to get the new mail.  Once at the office, I’d open these and stack them in a pile, starting from the top. I would work through all the mail, doing reconciliations where needed, paying what needed to be paid, or simply responding to questions. 

Then I took an eight-year break. When I returned post was almost non-existent, and e-mail took over.  I hated it!  I preferred my stacked-up pile, seeing how it gets smaller with every finish, but e-mail never stopped coming.  I would still attend to number 5 when 2 or 3 new emails would pop up.

After selling the business and going on pension, I deliberately cut down on my computer time, especially e-mails, but then when I eventually got to it, I had heaps of emails and mostly junk I had no interest in.  I unsubscribed from a bunch of sites.  Now it is almost fun getting behind the computer again, checking out what I want to; not having to work through all, mostly wasting time.

Big blocks for a little one

This grandmother is expecting a new granddaughter soon and decided to make her a quilt using only large blocks.  She is also not a fan of dense quilting and opted for the large-scale meander.

Wildflowers

I had no quilting for just a little more than 2 weeks, and decided to take a serious look at the cleanliness of our house.  I do clean once a week and try to do it as thoroughly as possible, but still some things are overlooked.  Treating the leather furniture and polishing the wood are two things I can immediately think of.

During the ‘no-quilting’ weeks, I continued with once-a-week cleaning but had to tackle at least one other task on the other days.  I did well; things look great. I’ve also changed my cleaning routine somewhat in that I express clean most every day, which then includes those previously neglected tasks.  Now I have shiny windows (I found a new recipe for cleaning these on TikTok), mirrors, wood, leather and even the insides of cupboards are wiped down.

I don’t think anyone likes cleaning, but there is no better feeling than looking at my clean house with no less than 7 pets living indoors, and knowing I cleaned it!

Then I got this quilt named Wildflowers by the quilter.  This will be a gift for a little one.

Group mystery quilt

This is the fourth quilt done as a group mystery in 2024 that I had the honour to quilt.  It is amazing how the use of different colours in the same pattern can make every one of these look individual.

This quilt maker has every intention to use this one on her bed and chose just an edge-to-edge design.