Sew-In Saturday

This is a sew-in Saturday. DD2 (on the left) is piecing a top for one of our customers. She is patiently trimming down 2" HST. A laborious process. DD3 (on the right) is ironing her blocks for a quilt top she is making to list on eBay. It's called Party Mix. The pattern and all the fabrics are Thimbleberries.

Behind them is my design wall (which is 48" x 60"). Behind it is a gas log fireplace. We never use it, obviously. We have another one upstairs in the living room (directly above it). On top of the hearth is my 2-drawer filing cabinet. I lay UFO tops and blocks on there until I quilt them or sell them. You can see a couple works in progress there.

I'm hand quilting my string quilt while I visit with the girls. Making a lot of progress on that. I nearly have the Baptist fans finished on one edge.

The old dryer is all dead. A new dryer was purchased and installed this AM and has dried a few loads already. Yes, our old one was a goner. Thank God we had the money to buy a new washer and dryer. I hate to even consider the alternative!

~Joan

Dryer...Dead or Only Mostly Dead?

My DH has had a rough work week. Deadlines, quotes that have to go out NOW while doing a hundred other things. Our washer bit the dust last week, the dryer appears to have died yesterday, and when I was leaving to drive my son to work this AM, the car wouldn't start.

Guess it's time to adopt my sister's family motto..."if it ain't broke, it ain't ours!"

DH was going to take the dryer to the appliance place and have them listen to it. They don't charge a "visit" fee if you do that, saving close to $100. He couldn't get over there before they closed, so he and my 2 oldest boys are looking at it now. There's a shot of the action at the top. That's the drum in the foreground of the pic. DS1 is on the right, DS2 is on the left, and DH is in the background.

I hope it's only "mostly dead". If you've seen Princess Bride, you recognize that line from the movie.

~Joan

Roll Out the Red, White, and Blue

Here is a close-up of the runner I quilted and bound today. I started to finish a flannel UFO as promised, but my dryer died! I hadn't washed the fabrics for the borders yet, and that's all I need to do to finish piecing it.

So I got out all my UFOs (there aren't that many) and decided to quilt and bind this runner. The stars are paper pieced. They finish at 3-1/2" square. The entire runner measures 14" X 33".


I machine quilted with stippling in the blue with blue thread. I am now hand quilting around each star (you can see some of my stitches in the top picture). I have 4 stars finished, and 6 more to go. This will be my tiny travel project until it's finished. The stars poofed up w/o the hand quilting.

This will look lovely on my antique sideboard come summertime. I started this runner last summer and ran out of steam on piecing the stars. I really dislike paper piecing, although it does make lovely finished tiny points.

~Joan

Floopy Flower Echo Quilting

Above is the machine quilting I did on the latest I Spy quilt top. Check out Sunbonnet Sue sledding in the top picture!

I actually loaded it on my Little Gracie frame and attempted to quilt it with my Singer on there. The thread broke twice in the first few minutes. It was so frustrating! Plus, it is difficult to do smooth curves on there. Please don't be jealous of my set-up...it's more frustrating than one can possibly imagine. If I had the money, I'd get a long-arm in a minute.

Speaking of money, our dryer died today. DD3 says it just misses the washer it was married to for 10 years!! I have a feeling they will be reunited soon.

The above pictures are "floral echo" quilting from Pajama Quilter Reloaded. When Dawn shows how to do this pattern, she says, "floop, floop, floop" as she draws the petals. So I think of this as "floopy flowers". Practicing on a busy quilt such as this hides a multitude of mistakes. I can only dream of using a machine that is easily guided and one can see far enough ahead to actually PLAN. Sorry--I'm a little frustrated right now.

It has been fun to make I Spys for families we know. Maybe once I make one for everyone I know personally, I will start making them for charity. That is a long way off at this point.

Have a good evening,

~Joan

Engel-BRIGHT!!

This is a quilt DD2 pieced for one of our customers. It was packaged as a kit with Mary Engelbreit fabrics. Definitely NOT Thimbleberries! It will have prairie points around the edge and finish around 40" square. I am so glad my girls enjoy piecing. The quilting will probably come later!

~Joan

Scrappy Trips Top Finished

This is an all-over picture and close-up of my Scrappy Trips quilt top. It measures about 72" square. I am going to quilt it in black thread, hopefully starting on it tomorrow. I put a 9-patch in the corner instead of taking the border fabric all the way to the edge. I used up every bit of the strips I had cut, so I cut 36 more 2-1/2" squares for the corner blocks.

I rewatched part of the Pajama Quilter Reloaded DVD, and I want to do some freehand floral echo quilting on this quilt. I'll try to get a close-up of the quilting if I can.

The colors in the picture are not true on MY monitor. It was taken in the sewing area under fluorescent lights. This was made with all Thimbleberries (surprise, surprise), so the colors are dark. I did throw a few lighter ones in just to give it some sparkle.

Off to church tonight in about 30 minutes. We are keeping 2 of my Canadian friends' girls for a couple days. They are going to try to induce her labor tomorrow AM. Be praying all goes well for her. Not much sewing time for the next few days, but I think I've gotten my share's worth today and yesterday!

Can you believe I'm already thinking about the next piecing project? Of course you can!!

~Joan, who is going to tackle a UFO next...a flannel one

Scrappy Trips Nearing Completion!

This is the result of my laundry (sewing) day. I stayed up later than usual sewing. When this top is finished, it will be 72" square. I put 16 blocks together. The inner border is a 2-1/2" strip of a black with a tiny green and red print. I will put 2 rows of 2-1/2" squares outside of that on the three sides that don't have one yet, then a 6" border of the same black.

I hope to try some adventurous quilting on this one. We will see!

On another positive note, I took a walk with DS4 (child #8) this afternoon. I am trying to exercise occasionally. I also moved my ironing board all the way across the room. You can stop laughing now! Every little step helps.

Until tomorrow,

~Joan