Quilt 7 – Stitches for Africa

 

This then is the last of the quilts I received from Stitches for Africa. I think it is made using the Jelly Roll Race pattern but to me, an ideal chance to practise my border/sashing designs.  I counted 35 rows, so if I select 5 motifs I can repeat them 7 times.

For this one, I joined batting again and made a nice dent in my batting stash doing these quilts.  We have a public holiday and hubby made me breakfast as he didn’t yesterday when it was Woman’s Day; he played golf early morning.  He then left to help the younger kids with their fence, so I had the day all to myself.

I started off with a motif that I am fairly familiar with but once done from left to right I came back for a second pass doing a smaller motif inside the first.

The second motif I’ve seen many times but never applied it to any of the quilts I’ve done, so this was new to me and I think rather pretty and easy.

Third up was the paperclip, a motif I learnt when doing an internet class through Bold Notion Quilting, this was so much fun way back then and now.

This motif is called Penguin Curl and I first saw a video on it by Quilted Joy and months ago promised a quilter that I’d do it on her border but I chickened out last minute.  At that stage, I did not feel comfortable trying something new on a customer quilt.  Well, now I can do it.

Another trusted old favourite is the herringbone and I spaced mine out wide for the first pass and came back with a smaller version inside from the right to left

I should have stopped at the fifth motif but there are just so many to choose from that I changed my calculations and opted for 7 motifs repeating these only 5 times.  This was a continuous half heart.

Last up was Onion Peel a motif I tried when doing a dog blanket a while ago.  I don’t think I got it quite right this time but it is done and that’s the way it will stay for all the other repeats.

For the two side borders, I did half-inch wide piano keys as these are fairly successfully done when quilting from top to bottom having to advance the quilt regularly.  The blue water-soluble pen lines will be removed during the first cold water wash.

Done just as hubby arrived back home.

That concludes all the quilts for others that I had in my possession and I think my arthritis hands and shoulder can do with a break.

So I ended off this public holiday in the best possible way.

Quilt 6 – Stitches for Africa

Repeat number 3 using the same pattern in different colours.  After the extremely slow ditch stitching, I needed a fast going quilt.  Loaded this one early this morning, decided on a motif and I planned to try and finish this before hubby returns from his Sunday golfing.  The only distraction can be the parrot who becomes extremely bored having to just sit by me while I quilt but I thought whenever I give my back a break, I’ll take her out for a while.

Mission accomplished…. At 11:20 I switched off my machine and this quilt was done.

Another postage stamp quilt

I had somewhat of a different afternoon on Thursday in that I didn’t just come home, prep salad and put the parrot to bed before I started to quilt.  I went shopping.  We are looking for a new bed for one of the guest bedrooms, I don’t feel it is tediously uncomfortable, but then I don’t sleep there often but my daughter complained the mattress was really bad.  So after many years, I had the shock of my life to see what a brand new bed (without headset) cost nowadays.  Not purchased yet but at least I know what to expect.

Then I went shopping for a wedding gift for friends.  With all the commotion around COVID, they had to put off their wedding plans with invited guests and make it a tiny event.  Bottom-line, they still get married, and that needs celebrating and good memories.

While in the streets I bought raw peanuts to roast at home.  I eat heaps of peanuts (any nut for that matter).  Drizzled my raw nuts with a little olive oil and roasted them, leaving some to slightly burn…. My favourite when I add salt to it.  So now I have a huge dish to take to bed as my bedtime snack.

I cut, joined and stitched the binding to the front of the previous quilt.  Hand stitching the back will be done when I sit by hubby of have some TV time.

As for my computer at the office, it WORKS!  Apparently, the network cable was faulty, so at least not a user error.

This quilt was brought to me on Tuesday but then I still had the previous quilt on the frame and the quilter, a very brave soul, only wants me to stitch around the large blocks as she wants to do the rest by hand.  I admire the persistence of these quilters, little old me is way too impatient.

I squared the backing, oiled and cleaned my machine but then watched TV with hubby and started on the binding of the previous quilt.  Loaded the layers Friday after work just to realise I’ve got the front stuck between the back and batting…. What a struggle!  I thought to only remove the top pole,but with my lack of space, I simply couldn’t move the pole out, so unrolled the batting from its pole to redo the whole process.  Still struggling with this, my daughter sent a message to say their geyser burst and everything in the baby’s room was soaked.  I at least can do cleaning clothes, seeing that after almost 3 years, I still screw up the loading of a quilt, so I went to her to see where and how I can help.

Back home hubby helped to replace the top pole and hopefully now I can start having fun behind the frame again.

I said ‘fun’ forgetting how extremely slow stitching in the ditch is.  Just when I think I’ve hit the sweet spot, the needle would get to seams intersecting or a seam pressed in a different direction and hop out of the ditch.  With previous quilts I’ve made up my mind not to unpick every time I went out of the ditch as then I will never finish any quilt.

Finally done on Saturday evening and my back is screaming at me.  Not much quilting to show on this one but the quilter deserves a shout out for all the time, trouble and love that went into piecing this.

Quilt 5 – Stitches for Africa

I looked forward to this week’s Monday so badly, thinking I’ll go in, finish my month-end and be ready as can be when my NEW computer arrived on Tuesday.  The computer, I currently use, was purchased in 1998 and tediously slow.  While waiting for ANY program to open, I can easily play 2 games on my phone just to wile time.  Got going as I arrived at the office, patiently waiting between steps as I hoped the computer would get to where it needed to be but then NOTHING worked and I simply forced a shutdown.  After restarting it wanted to do a Windows update….. Boy did that take forever.  Finally at 12 noon I could only start working.  With parrot needing to take her afternoon nap just after 1 I barely got anything done before having to leave.

Tuesday the new computer arrived and the speed was amazing.  Sadly I leave even earlier on Tuesdays, so I barely had time to experiment before having to go home.

Leaving the office early on Tuesdays, that is the other wonderful news for this week.  My ‘once-a-week’ cleaners were closed during the lockdown and then restarted after 4 months.  It felt like Christmas walking into a clean house and knowing I don’t have to vacuum, mop, dust or wipe.  I, therefore, come home to let the dogs in as they are kept outside while the cleaners do their thing.

My third set of good news is that I again ordered meals for the week.  Tuesday evening we ate Chicken cheesecake and I added fried battered onion rings and a salad.  I can get used to this life with plenty of good news.

This quilt used the same pattern as quilt number 4 just in more girly colours.  I decided to do a flower motif in the hexagons more for me to practise backtracking as these were similar to stitching feathers.  I was not always successful but with practice, one tends to see what works better for you.  Unlike suggested, I rather have to go slower than faster.

I was up before 4 am on Wednesday, not because of a bad night but I think I was so eager to get to the office and try out the new computer.  The computer guy changed a couple of things and very new to me would be the way daily backups have to be done.  With one simple click, I can now backup all the admin computers in the office from my computer. Previously every computer had to be done individually. It may take up to 10 minutes but during that time I can set out the coffee mugs for when the other staff arrive at the office.

During those early hours, I got 2 more rows quilted so at that stage only 4 more to go. The flowers or rather the slower backtracking took some time.

As much as I looked forward to working on the new computer, it didn’t pan out that way.  I ran into so many ‘new’ issues and again sat idly around not knowing how to sort out the problems.  Computer guy was in a meeting and couldn’t rescue me.  Mysteriously after a couple of hours, the computer could suddenly link to the printer and I had all systems going but I was still so far behind on my work.  It was such a good feeling to be home in the afternoon, finish up this quilt…. At least something that worked in my life and had a feel-good ending to Wednesday.

Grandmother’s flower garden

The quilter dropped this quilt off at the office after I already left on Friday, so hubby brought it home.  Knowing that we’ll have the older grandkids for a sleepover, I opted to rather do the binding of the previous quilt by hand while sitting with them instead of trying to concentrate behind the frame.

Pizza and camp beds on Friday night was a huge (and messy) hit with the little ones.

Breakfast Saturday morning was equally interesting.  Our princess is a huge meat eater unlike her brother which is not too fond of dead animals, so I made bacon and cheese grillers and hubby made porridge but the little terror decided to make his own breakfast which looked like this……

… and he ate it!

Early Saturday morning I cut the batting and got the quilt loaded.  Sadly this quilter feels a quilt is just something that lies around in your house and not gets used.  She therefor got fleece as backing and just wanted me to echo inside and around the flowers.  I, however, wonder how the batting will withstand several washes in the not quilted areas or will it bunch up?

This photo shows a couple of flowers

Which can be seen better on the backing

The grandkids are becoming older now and can keep themselves busy for extensive lengths of time and I actually quilted while they were here.  Logan once came into my frame room once and asked what I was doing and not to complicate the answer, I said “I’m working” and so sweet he replied “o you are working” and left the room.

This morning we had the little one and her parents over and she had some fun with bubbles in the baby pool

I finished the quilt just before they arrived.