Free motion play

This week was somewhat of mishmash with no deliberate plans as things just tend to simply happen.  I started by putting one of my own quilts on the frame with the sole purpose of using this as a skill builder or an experiment and try something new.

First experiment was to use two layers of batting and two thirds down the quilt I realized this was not ideal for a bed quilt.  The roll on the take up bar became so thick it was almost impossible to advance and this was only when I did all the stitching in black (sashing).

When I got to the bottom border I wanted to use a ruler I’ve never used before and decided on Taj from Angela Walters.  Started with an outline and inner and then needed filler in between.

After doing about 7 of these I decided I really didn’t like it so one day was spent unpicking.

Everyday brought its own miseries and the motor of our huge garden gate decided to quit. Now hubby was on his way on a business trip with no time to investigate or try to repair, so slipping and sliding in my high heels and neat dress I had to push that thing aside to get my car out and get to work.

Repairman called and appointment made I had to further unzip my quilt from the frame as my machine too had to be fixed.  This has been the sixth component replaced in my machine in just over a year.  Surely if they gave me a new machine after my first complaint it would have been much cheaper for them and less frustrating to me.  I always said I got the only dud that was imported to South Africa and now with the last two PC boards I heard that my machine still had the previous, not so successful version of boards which has been updated and luckily I have these in too.  Hoping this would be the very last of my problems.

With the quilt off the frame on a guest bed I for a moment there wondered if I should just quit with quilting it as is, as it really didn’t look bad.

I however needed to test the machine and zipped it up again, trying out my new motif on the border and this looked much better.

The gate repairman did his fix hubby returned safe and sound, so life was good again.

With the bottom border and sashing done I rolled the quilt backwards and decided to do dense free motion filler in every block, another first for me.  It started out terrible but as they say ‘practice makes perfect’, it got much better as I went along. Now this should keep me busy for a while.

Good Fortune 10

I am done piecing the center but there is truly nothing I like about this quilt and I think the color combinations might be the main problem.  I don’t dislike any of the colors used but dislike the combinations in the blocks.

Furthermore I am upset with myself for not checking the completed quilt size before starting – something I always do especially when making a mystery – as I cannot imagine it would fit on any of our beds. I suppose because the previous mystery fitted a double bed I simply presumed this one would too.

Now the hardest part will be to finish this up with the already pieced border sets knowing that I already don’t like it.  May not even happen, will see.

First customers quilt for the year

Stopped by quilting friend Karin this afternoon to pick up a quilt by a fellow quilter but knowing hubby would be home after his trip this evening,  thought I’d just set everything up and start the quilting tomorrow.  This quilter however warned me beforehand that she wanted the quilt done, so the cleaning, oiling and new needle already happened.

With quilt loaded I started playing and by the time hubby arrived home I had two-thirds done.  When he went to walk the dogs, who missed their daily walk, while he was gone, I could finish the last bit.

This was not a big quilt and rather busy therefore all-over quilting was called for and it went much faster than I anticipated.  So much for planning some fun free motion quilting this weekend.

This is the back of this little quilt.

Good Fortune 9

I have kind of forgotten about this project but with hubby out of town for 4 days/3 nights on a business trip and me having plenty of leftover food to keep myself fed for 3 suppers, I had time to think about my sins and remembered that if I don’t get going with this, it might just turn into a UFO and no-one needs more of those.

I started assembling the second block and I am not too sure I like these colours together but I guess I should only form an opinion once the whole quilt is put together.

Quilting is much slower now as hubby is the gardener in our relationship (I am the shopper… if you win, you win) but he’d surely strangle this ‘shopper’ if he returns and I’ve let his carefully planned and planted flowers and shrubs die and with the heat we are experiencing, it would really not be too strange but where he is, they have thunderstorms and rain EVERY afternoon, so at this moment we are on separate planets and he has no idea what I am talking about.

As I was typing hubby just phoned, busy indoors on the site and when they came out, both batteries of truck was stolen…. Third flippen time but as a South African you must uplift, enrich and educate but hell man, 25 years after apartheid??  Exactly how long will this education process have to go on?  Gatvol!! (Google translate says it is ‘fed up’ but I guarantee you it is worse than that.)

Anyway… done this far.

Cat panel quilt 4

What to do with this little panel quilt?  I could do another round of borders with cornerstones to all 4 sides but then ran out of cornerstone fabric.  The quilt then was wide enough for a single bed but still not long enough.

Time to rediscover more of my stash and look what I found.  Purchased this while attending the Quilt Festival in Port Elizabeth with Karin and bought all 5 meters from the vendor who still wanted to know what I plan to do with it and at that stage I just knew it was pretty and I will use it someday.

Placed this to the side of the top and I thought it would work perfectly.  Time to finish this one.

This morning it is officially back to the office for me and I suppose my quilting will slow down somewhat now.

Twisted Rail Completed

And 2019 has started with a bang!  First my washing machine packed up and I never realized how much I needed clean stuff.  I am totally lost without it but the technician said I might have it back tomorrow…. So laundry I’ll be doing! 

Then my domestic sewing machine – or then my absolute favorite – is in for its annual service.  Again I warned them beforehand that I might suffer from withdrawal without this, so I might just have that back tomorrow too.  So guess what?  Tomorrow is going to be a ‘good-good day’!

I went in to the office yesterday and today but only for a couple of hours per day, just to ease myself into working life again.  When the other staff return on Friday at least the first 3 hours of the morning will be spend on chatting about the holidays and to me wasting 3 hours of my valuable working time on small talk, is a little too much asked.

Anyway…. (after I small talked) here is the front of my completed Twisted Rail.  My first quilt for 2019.

Good Fortune 8

We got the reveal and assembly instructions on Friday but I think I’ve satisfied my need for ‘quilting for myself’ as I notice I become less eager to discover and make.  However I’ve spent much of my morning watching You Tube videos – gosh I learn so much from these. This may be a good thing as having to get back into a routine of going to the office, cooking meals daily and doing my bit of cleaning is more needed than my urge to constantly quilt.

This is only the first part of the assembly.

Twisted Rail 6

I treated myself to a well needed hair colour and cut this morning. One and a half hours of total relaxation and pampering feeling and looking so much better.

I am done quilting this and I love how a secondary diagonal line pattern formed on the back even though it wasn’t planned.  This quilt was fun to do, no marking, no rulers, all just free motion.  Once I have the binding done I will show the front of the completed quilt.

I am toning down on my downtime quilting to start preparing mentally (yes, it takes me a while) for work next week.  Fortunately the office only opens on Friday, so just one day of work and then it is weekend again.

Cat panel quilt 3

With all the blocks to this one done, I found it a fairly useless size.  It was just too big for a crib and not big enough for any other bed, so I opted to add sashing.  This was slightly wider but still not long enough

I then added sashing to the length too and the nice thing about having just reorganized my sewing room is that I actually still remember where I found what!  So I wanted cornerstones between the sashing – it just makes measuring the right size so much easier – and I remembered a colorful remnant from an older project and used that.

I also remembered to look in my remnant drawers and found black fabric that I could still use for sashing.  If I keep this ‘remembering thing’ up I might just work away some of the fabric in my scrap drawers!

However, even after this, I am still not satisfied with the size.  I should have called it “The Piece as You Go” quilt as with every step, I wonder what the next would be.

Twisted Rail 5

With hubby off to yet another golf game the quilting on this has started and for once I remembered to take photos as I went along.  I can’t describe how many times I’ve started a quilt, rolled it to advance and then for the life of me couldn’t remember how I quilted a certain section.  That meant rolling back and forth to see past work done which is no fun.

I am keeping these not only on my PC but my phone too so I can look at them often!

I took somewhat of a chance today being behind the frame with parrot awake.  Pets are not allowed in my frame room as the frustration one has due to pet hair or a lost feather stuck on your rail or a wheel is not worth the little time they spend with their human.  

As a rule I use the frame only when she sleeps or when hubby is here to entertain her but today I got risky and left her in my sewing room risking pins, electrical cord and fabric to be destroyed but I so wanted to get going with this one.

Invited the kids over for supper tonight, so not much more quilt happenings after that.

Good Fortune 7

After a late night to stay up for New Years’ we were surprised with the next clue and not on the regular Fridays but on the very first day of the year.  We however had grandson visiting and it is not a very good idea for him to see me behind my sewing machine…… monkey see, monkey wants to do!

With hubby leaving early for a golf game today I used my morning to start with this one.

This clue had two parts and this is what my sewing table looked like after being done with the first part.

With part two done I neatly pressed all the pieces and is ready for whatever and whenever the next clue will be or will arrive.

Cat panel quilt 2

Happy New Year to all!

I got a little more sewing done before having to start with the preparation for our New Years’ eve celebration yesterday.  I started sewing the blocks to the background but did it somewhat different from what the video shows in that I placed my picture block on top of the background in the position that I wanted this and pinned it.

I’d then flip the block on the light table so I could mark the outline

Once marked I had clear lines on where I should fold when ironing

Done stitching and I ended up with 11½” square blocks and it even looks as if I used borders of different widths.

I placed my picture blocks in different positions on my backgrounds.

I played a little game with myself…. Duh, with only me in the house, who else would I play with?  I could stitch 4 pictures to their background blocks (one row) and then I had to do a little cleaning… anything, empty trash cans, mop, vacuum, wipe and when done with a couple of tasks, I could sew the next 4. It turned out good.  When hubby returned from the golf course it was to a tidy house with me having all my blocks sewn to the backgrounds.