So I Was Stitching Away and CRAP!!

You have got to be kidding me? Seriously!?

HOW did that seam get THERE??? I was SOOOO careful to lay out the binding and go ALL THE WAY AROUND the quilt with it to make sure THAT did NOT happen.  Crap, crap, crap!! So, that put a halt to my happy stitching…bragging to myself about how I think this is the BEST binding I have EVER done.  Now I have to completely undo that section and splice in a new piece, because I am not going to let one stinking corner ruin the best binding I have ever done.  Crap.

And yeah, I cleaned it up for the blog…I don’t think I was really saying crap.

Who knew?

Who knew that I could sew something other than a quilt? Tada!

Thank you to Becca for the pattern.  It’s certainly not perfect, so don’t look too close. There is a shorter version, and I think I will make it, also, as I think it will be my favorite of the two.  I thought that bias tape was going to do me in, but I finally got it on there.  The pockets were the most challenging, and I’m sure I didn’t do them quite right.  Also, the zigzag stitching of the unfinished seams.  How do you do that without it just kind of chewing them up? Can you tell that garment construction is not my strong suit? But, there are so many cute apron patterns, and I won this pattern from Becca, so I had to give it a try.  I’m pretty happy with the end result…better than I thought I would do.  It was a good distraction from other issues on my mind this weekend.

And I used 2.5 yards from my stash making it.  Year to date stash totals:

• Incoming Yardage to date: 75 yds.
• Outgoing Yardage to date:  66.75 yds.
• Total Stash Busted to date: -8.25 yds.

And now this weekend is almost over…way…too…soon.

Sunday Stash Quilting Report

I have stash reporting this week! I finished the quilting on my Gracie’s Star quilt.  The pattern is from www.quiltintia.com.  I quilted it with Jodie Beamish’s Rosie panto.  Seems I use that one a lot, but this is the only quilt of my very own with it.  Today I got the binding stitched to the front, ready for nighttime snuggling under it, while I do the hand stitching, watching TV.  I used 8 yards backing and binding.  I am going to enjoy using this quilt.  It just makes me feel good.

I used the red in this star for the binding.

I love this fabric, that is in some of the blocks, and I used it for backing, also.

I’m getting kind of antsy to start some new projects, but I’m trying to make myself finish some first.  I want some finishes before this year is finished! I do need to start a commissioned baby quilt soon, though.  I keep forgetting about that, and the baby is due the end of January.  Better start picking some fabric from my stash for that!

My Mom delivered the comfort quilt I made, for our friend with breast cancer, to her today.  She loved it.  She had a mastectomy a week ago Thursday. The test results have revealed that she had two different cancers in that breast.  There will be some chemo, but I think the prognosis is still good.  She has an appointment tomorrow, so maybe we will know more after that.

I’ve had a wonderful weekend, here at home, with my family.  I hope yours has been good, as well!

YTD totals:

• Incoming Yardage to date: 75 yds.
• Outgoing Yardage to date:  64.25 yds.
• Total Stash Busted to date: -10.75 yds.

The Chickies Are Ready to Fly Home

These cute little guys are boxed up and will be flying home to Joanna, as soon as I can get to the Post Office with them.  I enjoyed working on this!

Finally Made It To the Green Thread

Today, I finished up all the quilting with white thread, and started on the green.  I had already been at it for about three hours by then, and my shoulder couldn’t take anymore, so I didn’t get far with the green.  But I wanted to give Joanna a quickie update, and answer a previous question wanting to know what I was going to put in the outer border.

I love the movement that CC (continuous curve) give to the pinwheel blocks.  It really seems to  make them “spin”.

Off to bed now…I’m exhausted!

Wednesday WIP

Still quilting on Joanna’s Chicks!

Stash & Quilting Report

• Incoming Yardage to date: 75 yds.
• Outgoing Yardage to date:  56.25 yds.
• Total Stash Busted to date: -18.75 yds.

Ok, so my time in the positive was short lived.  But I love my new batiks! (see previous post for the full disclosure with photos you will drool over) So, I’m not feeling too bad about it.  Ok, not bad at all.   I don’t think I will, either, as long as there is movement going through my stash.  Some in, some out…just not all in, in, in.

During my lunch hours, or while I’m cooking something for dinner, and I’m waiting, I’ve been sitting down at the sewing machine and working on the pieced borders for my Boston Commons.

I also got labels made for my friend’s comfort quilt.  I haven’t finished trimming the jump threads, so just ignore them. It took me right at an hour to get the first one all programmed into the machine.  The stitchout was 74 minutes, and that did not include the time it took me to change thread colors.  I thought I was never going to get done with it.  I started on it after work one evening, so I was already tired, but it was worth it.  I also made a small label to go beside it, just stating that I made the quilt.  Couldn’t fit it on the other label.  A more experienced embroiderer might have been able to, but this was the best I could do.  I don’t have any embroidery software yet, so I have to sit at the machine and program each letter in one by one, and it will only let me put so many characters on a line.  So the machine stops after each line of stitching, and even if I’m not changing colors, I have to be close by to restart the machine.  I hate to invest a bunch of money in embroidery software that I’m not sure I will use that much.  There is a lot about the embroidery that still confuses me.  I may address some of that in a future post.  Maybe some of you embroidery gurus can clear up a question or two for me.

I started working on Joanna’s quilt a couple of days ago, but until today, I didn’t have anything to show for my efforts, except SID (stitch in the ditch).  I’m sure she is anxious to see how it’s coming, so if you can stand a dose of cuteness, I’ll show you a peek!

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday and have a great week, y’all!

The Stash

Judy has challenged us to post pictures of our stash.  I’m game.

This is more fabric, and my magazine stash, and the very bottom box is more fabric that I have set aside for two different quilts I plan to make.  Someday.  One is a chicken theme quilt, and you can see the rooster fabric in the box, that I plan to use for backing.  Those two sacks there are full of fabric, also.

And, this was going to be in tomorrow’s stash report, but I may as well spill the beans now! When I’m bad, I’m very bad.  23 yards of batiks were delivered to my door today.  It hasn’t even made it’s way to my stash yet.  I’m just enjoying it’s beauty as it lays there in my chair and across my ottoman.

In my defense, it was all on sale! I didn’t pay over $4.00 a yard for one piece of it.  Thousands of Bolts is having a big batik sale.  Hurry! Two days left! There’s still time for you to get some, too! Bwahahahaha!

And the Butterfly Emerges!

Remember the caterpillar post from a couple of weeks ago?  I’ve been watching the chrysalis, checking on it everyday.  I went to work this morning, came home at lunch and found this:

Beautiful!!

Stash & Progress Report

First, I will get my complaining and whining out of the way.  I had great intentions to get so much accomplished this weekend.  Then wham! Wake up Saturday morning, early, with a headache.  Get up, take Imitrex, back to bed, next time I wake up it is after 9! And I still feel cruddy.  Head is better, but I feel cruddy, sluggish, achy all over.  So needless to say, my Saturday wasn’t what I hoped it to be.  I did manage to get the cute piggie quilt finished and ready to be delivered this week. Today, I felt better, but my shoulder & rib pain has really been ramped up the last few days, as well as my allergies.  Some of you know the latest on my issues with my shoulder blade & ribs, but for those that don’t, I am now seeing a physical therapist, at the urging of my chiropractor.  I had my evaluation with her Wednesday, and she agrees that it is not normal, the way my shoulder blade is moving.   No one can really figure out WHY I am having the issues I am having, which is frustrating.

I go back next Wednesday, and she is going to show me how to tape my shoulder blade, to try to stabilize it, and will have some exercises for me then, also. She has had one other patient in her eleven years that had similar symptoms. She said my shoulder blade is the only one she has felt doing what mine is doing. Apparently, it is moving around way more than it should, and going where it shouldn’t. And, my chiro has to keep putting my stupid ribs back in place. My entire right side rib cage is lower than the left, and there are three that keep “popping out of place”. He can get them back, and within days, they are out again. My shoulder blade sounds like it is grinding against bone. It sounds, and feels, terrible. Pain ranges from moderate to excruciating, and is near constant. I also think it causes some of my migraines. The PT said she hopes that we can get some improvement, but that it will probably never be all the way better. But some better is better than none better.  Sorry to bore you with all that, but you never know when someone else might be having the same problems, and either you help them with sharing your information, or they might help you with some advice or answers you haven’t found yet.

So now, back to stash reporting.  After today, my stash amount busted is now back in the positive for the year.  A whopping 4.25 yards!  I busted another 4 yds. this week, backing the comfort quilt for our friend with breast cancer.  I got the quilting finished on it today.

I love the pink thread over the cream strips.

I also managed to get zippers attached to my leaders on my longarm.  I hope I like using them.  I did NOT enjoy the process of attaching them! But they are on, and I am looking forward to giving them a try.

I’m looking forward to getting started on my next customer quilt, but I still have some finalizing of the quilting plan to finish.  Joanna, I hope to be sending you some more ideas over the next day or two, if all goes as planned.  I will try very hard to be able to get started on it this coming weekend.

Speaking of weekend, I am sad that it is almost over already, especially since I wasted most of Saturday, just trying to feel better.  Oh well.  Have a blessed & wonderful week y’all!