longarm quilting · machine quilting · nature · quilting

On a Fleece Roll


My customer picked up her state flower quilt yesterday and loved it.  She hugged me three times, she was so happy.  Which of course, made me so happy, too! 

I finished up another fleece today, except for the “fringing”.  Still need to do that part.  This one is a thank you gift for a local business man that did a very nice thing for my son & the rest of the high school golf team.  It’s one of those times where “thank you” just doesn’t seem quite enough, but what do you do for a man who has everything?  So, I thought he might like a snuggly fleece blanket made by me…a gift from the heart.  I laid it out on the grass in the backyard, in the sunshine, trying to capture the true color of it, but, the pictures do not show the true color…it’s a deep chocolate brown. 

Ready for more birds? I worked hard yesterday to get these to share with you.  My swallows are back to nest above my front door again.  It gets a little messy, but I don’t have it in me to run them off.  Besides, they eat lots of pesky skeeters.  Enjoy the show!

And while I was sitting below in my lawn chair looking up, I spied this under the edge of the shingles.  I had to share it for Jan 🙂  Praying mantis egg.

I have a stressful week ahead due to my day job.  Think lots of good thoughts for me.  It involves having to testify in a court hearing, in a county over five hours from here.  I keep praying I won’t have to go, but I don’t see that happening…so you prolly won’t hear much more from me til later this week. 

 

longarm quilting · machine quilting · quilt top · quilting · quilts · sewing · stash busting

Sunday Wrap Up


I did not buy any new fabric. 🙂  I used four yard of fleece fabric to make a wedding gift for a special young woman that is getting married this month.  I hope she likes it.  I still have to trim and fringe the edges.  I noticed that in her selections, she had some purple glasses, and there was some green on her dishes.  So I used a deep purple fleece with a seafoam green.  Not exactly the same green, but it was the closest I could get with my fleece.  The color does not show true at all in this photo.

The purple side:

So (I suppose I can include fleece fabric yardage used in my totals), that moves 4 more yards of fabric from my stash, bringing my year to date totals to:

  • In: 66 yds.
  • Out: 28.25 yds.
  • YTD: 37.75 yds.

Now, before you think I’ve been soooo good…I bought about $200.00 worth of thread, and $60.00 worth of stencils. 

I’ve been enjoying Vicki W.’s birdwatch updates on her blog, so I’m going to share a little birdwatching of my own with you today.  Earlier this week I caught a glimpse of this pheasant rooster in the field behind my house.  About the time I’d go to take a good pic, he’d duck back down in the grass. 

This morning, as DH & I were standing in the front of our garage, watching the swallows that are rebuiling on our front entryway, and the cute little finches at our birdfeeder, we were surprised by this treat.  DH ran into get my camera for me, and I was only able to get this one pic before he left.  I do believe it’s a Baltimore Oriole.  Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong.  When the sun was hitting him and we could get a good look, before we had the camera of course, his underside was a  bright orange.  I believe it’s more common to see the Scott’s Oriole here.  This little guy was gorgeous.

 

I realized this morning that I’ve been lax on the Sunday weigh-in, so I bit the bullet and got back on the scale.  I did workout twice this week, but I’ve been not so good til then, and have gained 2 lbs. back.  I started at 154, and now I’m 145, so I’m at a total loss of 9 lbs.  Got to get back on track with that!

 

longarm quilting · machine quilting · quilt top · quilting · quilts

A Friday Finish (almost)


I finished the quilting on the vintage top I’ve been working on…or so I thought.  I am not frogging the crosshatching, except for the state of Maine.  When I was reviewing the pics, I noticed the crosshatching on it was way off.  Then, I noticed that I failed to finish one of the flowers! It’s located by the state of Georgia…so I’ll be pinning it back on to finish that up and restitch the crosshatching on Maine.  Glad I noticed those before I called my customer to come pick it up! 

A bit of the back:

This is a little goodie I bought myself today.  I saw it and just couldn’t resist.  Maybe one of these days, I will do what it says!  Be sure to click on these pics to make them bigger and get a good look at it.

longarm quilting · machine quilting · quilt top · quilting · quilts

Met My Monday Goals


Quilting goals that is.  I’m lucky to get any quilting done on Mondays, but I’m trying hard to made good progess on the current customer jobs I have.  During my lunch break from my day job, I managed to get the binding sewn to the front of the commissioned quilt I’m making.  Now the handstitching can begin while I’m watching TV tonight.  Right after work, I finished up a row on the customer top I’m quilting.  It’s the 60 yr. old top I have previously posted.  If, and that’s a big if, I can finish up a row a day, between my lunch break and right after work, I can have this one done by the weekend.  Unless, I decide it needs some frogging once I get it off the machine.  This weekend, I crosshatched the 48 painted flower blocks.  I wasn’t thinking about the fact that the blocks don’t all match up perfectly, and they range in size from 8.5 to 9 inches on the sides.  Soooo,  I’m not sure crosshatching was the right choice, and it’s not perfect, but I’m hoping once it’s off the machine, it will look ok.  If you hear screaming, it’s probably me thinking about frogging 48 blocks of crosshatching.  What a nightmare that would be.  Here’s some peeks at what I have so far.

The customer had drawn flowers in the yellow blocks with pencil, and intended to hand quilt this.  I’m using a fabric eraser to lighten the marks as much as I can, then I’m trying to quilt over them as closely as I can, adding some embellishments of my own.

Here’s a shot of the back:

 

Can you see what I’m worried about in the last pic?  Maybe I won’t have to frog ALL of it…maybe I can just make a few rows a bit better.  Live and learn…

butterflies · caterpillars · gardening · Mark Lipinski · quilting · stash busting

Sunday Reporting


With the traveling this past week, there’s not much quilting progress to report.  However, I made some purchases while in Midland, but NOT fabric.  I went to Hobby Lobby in search of some applique supplies recommended by Sharon Schamber.  I bought some Liquid Stitch and some basting glue.  I also bought some Sulky medium weight water soluble stabilizer, for a freeform scarf project I saw on Fons & Porter.  Who knows when I will have time to play with it, but at least I have some stuff…lol.  I also went to Barnes & Noble and picked up the latest edition of Quilter’s Home.  Mark’s Quiltzilla article is hysterical! I also bought a mag I hadn’t seen before, Quilting Arts.  And I found a copy of The Persian Pickle Club.  I’ve already read it and enjoyed every minute. 

We had a freeze warning last night, and I had a little grape tomato plant that already had some blooms and two tiny tomatoes on it.  I carefully put some batting scraps over it and around it to protect it, and when I uncovered it this morning, I discovered that in the process of trying to protect it, I knocked off the little stem with the ‘maters.  Waaaa! And it only got to 34 last night…shoulda left it alone. 

Now, I’m hoping someone can solve a mystery for me.  I have this plant in the front yard.  It was here when we moved in…can anyone tell me what it is? It blooms early every spring.

Before I left town last Sunday, I was in my yard filling my bird feeders, and almost stepped on this in the grass. Thank goodness I saw it!

My first Swallowtail Butterfly of the year.  Apparently, it had recently come out of it’s chrysalis, and was trying to dry out it’s wings.  I helped it get to higher ground.  I’m glad I already have some parsley coming up, and I have planted some dill seeds already, just so they can lay their eggs on it, and I will have more caterpillars this year.  If you have found my blog, by searching for what kind of caterpillars are eating your dill or your parsley, they are Swallowtail butterflies.  Please spare a bit of your garden for them.  Give them a chance to find their wings.

It won’t be long, and I bet I have pics of it’s offspring munching happily in my garden.  Have a great day!

daily life · quilting

Search Engine Terms


Ok, I know that several of us like to see the search engine terms in our stats page, that have led people to our blogs.  Lots of quilt related searches, I get lots looking for the caterpillars that are on dill, since I post about them.  Often, there are some very amusing things in there.  Today, I have one that really gave me a chuckle…thought I’d share it:

“My dog died now I have chest pain”

Ok, so it’s funny and not funny at the same time.  I mean, I’m sorry their dog died and I hope the chest pain wasn’t serious.

I get a lot of hits from people looking for shoulder pain info, and that one I understand, since I gripe about my shoulder so often.  However, today I am NOT griping about it.  I actually have some good news on that subject.  If you’ve read my blog for long, you know I’ve been suffering with pain in my shoulder blade area, that has at times led to muscle spasms so bad that I could hardly move, even being painful to breathe.  I’ve been seeing my chiropractor for almost 2 yrs.  My doc had done an MRI on my shoulder, which didn’t show anything, nor do xrays.  I have all this popping going on in there, also, and it feels like things are “out of place”.  I could move my shoulder blade up and down, and it was like it was bouncing over another bone.  Well, I’ve been thinking that maybe it’s actually coming from my ribs, and not my shoulder.  After my adjustment two weeks ago, I had some improvement.  It felt pretty good for about a week.  So this week, I saw my massage therapist (who I’ve only been going to for about 2 months) right before I saw my chiro.  They are in the same office.  Actually, my massage therapist is married to my chiro’s brother, so they are in the same family, too.  But I digress.  Anyway, she really worked on the muscles around and under my shoulder blade, before I went to get adjusted.  My chiro did the usual adjusting, then sat me up and was feeling around my shoulder blade with his thumb and fingers, and he hit the spot that I felt had been giving me so much trouble lately.  He was really feeling around it and I said “that’s it…that’s where it seems to be coming from”, and he said “yes, THAT rib, right THERE”.  Then he tried an adjustment we hadn’t done before, where I had to put my hands behind my head with my fingers laced, lean back, and he somehow pulled me from behind.  And “POP!” Deep inside my chest.  He said, “I got it!”  I was like…hey….I think you did!  Anyway, I’m sore, but I have felt better for the last three days, than in FOREVER!  He said he hopes it lasts at least a week…lol.  (he says I’m “stucturally unstable”)  He also said he thinks the massage therapy is helping, as that was the farthest he’s ever been able to get his thumb up underneath that shoulder blade.  I told him I had started to think maybe it was a rib and not my shoulder, after all.  He said that the rib being out there aggravates the subscapularis muscle, which sucks the shoulder blade down and up against the rib cage, so everytime I move it, my arm or shoulder, it aggravates all that more, eventually getting the whole shoulder involved.  I’m going to start some light weight lifting, to try to strengthen the muscles more, so that maybe they will hold things in place better.  Will it last?  I don’t know yet.  But right now, my chiro and my massage therapist are two of my favorite people!

quilting

I’m Home


We got home late last night, and tired doesn’t even come close to describing how I feel this morning.  And I have to get it together and go to work.  My son and his friend did not do well.  It’s frustrating, when you know they CAN do it, but they just seem to fall apart when it counts.  And you can see the disappointment in their body language when it starts going wrong.  He didn’t play that badly, but his putting was just not there.  He didn’t have any penalty strokes, and he was hitting his tee shots and his irons really well, but he just didn’t have his putter with him.  I did do some fun shopping thefirst day, but I’ll get to that later this week.  Right now I have to summon up some energy to get myself together, and that just feels like a monumental task in itself right now.

daily life · longarm quilting · machine quilting · quilting · quilts

Saturday Sunshine


The sun is shining this morning, the frogging is behind me and quilting has once again commenced.  And ya know, sometimes things do happen for a reason.  I decided not to use the variegated Lava on this quilt at all, and use black Signature cotton, and I’m liking it better anyway.  It is a better choice for this particular quilt. My husband is sweeping the floor right now.   One less thing yuck thing I have to do today.  I’m not the greatest housekeeper in the world to start with, and let my life get really busy, like it’s been lately, and the housework gets farther behind.  When I have to prioritize, it usually gets moved down farther on the list.  I can only do so much with the spare time I have…it used to really bother me.  I felt I was failing…not having everything in top shape all the time, but I’ve come to accept that I can’t do it ALL, ALL the time, so do the things that make me happiest or that matter the most, at that particular moment.  The rest will still be there when I can get to it.  And eventually, I’ll get to it. In the meantime, people will have to understand.

I went to the 20th birthday celebration of the local quilt guild last night.  It was a nice evening.  I need to join again.  I belonged for one year, almost 10 yrs ago, but life was busy then, too.  My son was much younger and involved in evening activities such as boy scouts, and Activity Center sports, that all conflicted with me making the meetings.  So, I’ll give it some thought…maybe I can fit that “spoon” back in now.  There was a delightful guest speaker, Jean Dean, from Midland, TX.  I enjoyed her.  One thing she did was give a book review on The Persian Pickle Club, by Sandra Dallas.  I want to read the book…I think I’d like it. 

Tomorrow I leave for Midland, TX, myself.  That’s where my son will be playing golf in the regional tournament.  So, I better finish up with my coffee and get back to busy!

longarm quilting · machine quilting · quilt top · quilting · quilts

Thursday Thumping


Kay does Thursday Thumpers. I have one today.  Frogging.  Yup, I’m frogging a whole row of stitching…a 91″ row of a panto by Dave Hudson that has cowboy boots & hats.  I had thread troubles.  Looked great on top, but apparently my machine does not like Lava thread in the bobbin, as it looked like it puked little blobs of it out intermittently on the back of the quilt.  Damn!  I hate frogging…hate, hate, hate it.  It’s on the commissioned quilt I’m making.  It will be ok, I just really hate frogging, THUMP, THUMP!

Now then, enough of that unpleasantness.  Congratulations are in order for my friend Ronda!! She won Best of Show at MQX! And Best Machine Quilting/Stand Up! Way to go, Ronda…I am so happy for you.  Her quilt is called Essence, and it is amazing. 

And here is a little treat for you, before I go back to frogging.  This is the quilt I have up in line next.  It’s the 60 yr. old top that my customer brought me this week.  I was hoping I would get to quilt it for her.  The only thing I’m worried about are the pencil marks.  She said to just ignore them and quilt it however I want, and if she can’t get them out she will just live with them.  I did order a fabric eraser, to see if I can at least lighten them some.  Anyway, here are some pics.