Monday, March 29, 2021

One Monthly Goal and PhD



March One Monthly Goal Complete

My March goal was to make the backing and binding for Night Stars, make a quilting plan, and quilt the stars. I didn't think I was going to make it, but I finished the last star amd began quilting between them. This quilt may have caused permanent shoulder damage. Good news though, the long arm quilter just called and Baby Bow Tie is ready to be picked up. It is so much easier to have someone else do the quilting that I may start scrimping on other budget items just to pay for it.

Please don't look carefully at the quilting. The sewing machine foot screw kept getting hung on the safety pins when the quilt was bunched under the harp of the machine and jerking over to stitch in another spot. At first, I was picking those out, and when it kept happening, I decided I could live with it.



April One Monthly Goal(s)

With some misgivings, I've decided that April's goal will be to get all the blocks made for Blue and Yellow Glory Boxes. I don't want to spend much time on this since it isn't even on my PhD list for 2021. But it is such a mess that I'd like to at least get it moved to an organized project box this year. I've found 16 intact plus sign blocks, but I may have to bring in a new fabric to finish the flying geese on some of the floral blocks.


PhD Report

Since I am using LibreOffice with my new laptop, I had to remake all of Gail's charts as closely as Calc would allow, and I added another chart just for me.


Linking to:
One Monthly Goal March Finish at Elm Street Quilts
One Monthly Goal April Beginning at Elm Street Quilts
PhD March Report at QuiltingGail

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Gairden Walk




Began February 2010. Finsihed March 2021

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Sunday, March 28, 2021

Design Board and To Do List



Design Board Monday!

After I ran out of thread on Thursday, I hunted for another project to work on. The box at the top of the heap was Blue and Yellow Glory Boxes. Last seen, it looked like this:



But at some point, I must have started cutting it apart and used some of the blocks. I spent a few hours with my best buddy, Jack, and managed to separate these from the solid color polyester blocks. There are a few more in the box, but not as many as there were originally. I need to come up with a new plan for these blocks now.


I used my new seam ripper and it's a bit of a disappointment.


It is nice to have the magnification, but it makes a bit of a shadow and the light is too far away to really put light on the thread being ripped. So I'll probably continue to use my regular seam ripper unless I have some tiny threads or the thread is the same color as the cloth.


To Do Tuesday

I completely forgot about my To Do List! I'll make this short. Last week's list and how much I completed:

    ✔ Make binding for Gairden Walk
    ✔Put on binding for Gairden Walk
    I won't post it again, but you can see here that I finished Gairden Walk
    X Make a small embroidery project
    I put all my effort into completing quilts, not starting new projects.
    ✔ Make quilting design for Night Sky
    ✔ Quilt stars on Night Sky
    I posted yesterday that I made the design, quilted all the stars and began quilting the interior.
So what's on the agenda for the coming week?

New goals for March 30, 2021

  • Finish quilting Night Sky
  • Put on binding for Night Sky
  • Finish ripping out all the blocks of Blue and Yellow Glory Boxes
  • Make a redwork Christmas block
  • Make a Christmas gift bag
  • Make backing for Christmas Among Friends
Linking to:
Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts
To Do Tuesday at ChrisKnits

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Sunday Sewing Week 13

After the week of freezing weather we had in February, I was sure we would lose our fruit trees and bushes. But spring has blown in this month on 30 mph winds and lo and behold, the peach and apple trees have blossoms and tiny little leaves. The pecan tree, an electric company bare root and almost dead on arrival freebie, struggled last year and shows no signs of life this year. The blueberry bush has leaves and so does the lavender. Best of all, the hummingbirds are back.

I made an appointment with an eye surgeon who specializes in strabismus surgery (moving the muscles of the eyes). This is the last option to correct the double vision and diplopia in each eye. I've been trying to finish as many quilts as I can before I do the surgery, just in case the results are as bad as the decompression surgeries and I have even less vision afterward. I finished the binding on Gairden Walk Friday night, but haven't gotten a picture of it yet.

Friday afternoon, I begged for an afternoon out of the house (I called it my prison) and Hubby took me to Walmart. I ran out of thread Thursday and needed him to match the color for me. Then he thought it would be a good confidence builder for me to shop alone and he went to the car to get some work done. An hour later, he came in and asked what was taking me so long. I told him I had to ask people to read labels for me and I ran into a couple of people. He brightened and said, "Good, you got to talk to some friends!" and I said, "No, I misjudged the distance between the buggy and people in the aisle and I. ran. into. them." "Oh," he says, "that's not good." "No, that's not good." But it was a conversation starter.

So back home with my thread, and a nifty new seam ripper with lighted magnifying glass, I resumed quilting Night Sky. On the recommendation of an older quilting friend, I used a blanket for batting. That was a big mistake. It's true that it doesn't stretch like Warm and Natural, but it is heavy and cumbersome. Both shoulders hurt from dragging that bulk through the opening in my sewing machine. I can't wait to finish this and move onto something fun.

So here are my sewing reports. I made a new backing for Night Stars so got to use a bit of fabric, so that was good for the Stash report. It's been so windy this week that I haven't ventured out of the house (except for the Walmart trip) and that was good for the daily stitching.


Linking to:
Stitching Time at Life in Pieces
Sunday Stash at QuiltPaintCreate

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Monday, March 22, 2021

Tuesday To Do



I've missed a few Tuesdays so I had to go back a bit to see my last To Do weekly goals. Here's my last list and what I got done.

    ✔ Make a back and binding for Baby Bow Tie
    ✔ Experiment with water color on fabric
    I spent way too much time the last few weeks on this and so far, I don't like anything I tried. At least, I don't like anything well enough to put it in a quilt.
    ✔ Make a small embroidery project
    ✔ Reconstruct a pillowcase
New goals for March 23, 2021

  • Make binding for Gairden Walk
  • Put on binding for Gairden Walk
  • Make a small embroidery project
  • Make quilting design for Night Sky
  • Quilt stars on Night Sky
Linking to:
To Do Tuesday at ChrisKnits

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Sunday, March 21, 2021

Sewing Reports for Week 12 of 2021

I'm late with my reports today due to computer issues. My new computer doesn't seem to like my new office software. So I am back on my old laptop and hope it stays on long enough to finish this.

It seems like I've missed a couple of weeks but looking back, I only skipped one week. I don't have much to show for that missing week. I feel like I am spinning my wheels on projects. I know what I need to do, but just couldn't make myself do them. Instead, I tried some new techniques and threw most of it in the trash. One thing I tried was painting on duck cloth. For the most part, it didn't work at all. This one bag (out of 3 panels painted) turned out okay, but I won't try this again. This particular cloth is ribbed like cordoroy and is almost impossible to paint a straight line across the ribs. But I had this purple cloth from a daybed cover Brownie wanted me to make years ago. Her purple stage lasted a long time and I'll be a long time getting through purple fabrics. This was good practice though and I'll donate it to the library, so some good will come of it.


I am also brushing up on my embroidery so I can make some simple gifts for Christmas. This was a free pattern online and the designer used tan thread for the white around the hat and coat. I thought that made it look a little dirty, so I used gray. It looks white against the muslin so now I know why the designer used tan. I may try this again in redwork so I don't have to deal with white trim against white beard.



I tried painting this same pattern with fabric paint, and it was cute, but again, the white against white made the center very blah.

My stash report makes it look like I used a lot of fabric this week, but this is a combination of last week and this week. I finished another quilt back and it is at the quilter's now. That accounts for most of my fabric usage. In spite of spinning my wheels, I sewed five days last week and every day this week.


I'm linking this to:
Stitching Time at Life in Pieces
Sunday Stash at QuiltPaintCreate

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Saturday, March 6, 2021

Scrappy Pinwheel


Began 2018. Finished March 2021.

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Tuesday, March 2, 2021

February PHD and March OMG

One Monthly Goal for March

I've been putting this off, but it is time to see some progress so I can get Night Sky off the UFO list this year.



I don't like the quilt well enough to have it quilted, so a good OMG experiment will be to quilt loops in each of the star points. I just hope I don't have to rip out all the quilting multiple times. But first, I have to make a backing, using up some fabric I no longer like. It's not much but that is my March OMG.

PHD in 2021 End of February Report

So far, I've only finished two quilts, but I got another back from the quilter today, so I anticipate doubling that by the end of the month.


Linking to:
One Monthly Goal-March at Elm Street Quilts
PHD in 2021: February at Quilting Gail

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Monday, March 1, 2021

To Do Tuesday Week 9

Our roller coaster weather continues. From a week of freezing temperatures one week to a week of above average temperatures. We were just over 80F one day. This week, we are back to our normal 50-60F but have had rain for the last four days. Mom had her second Covid shot Wednesday and by Friday, she was so weak and sick that she had to be taken by helicoptor to a hospital in the largest town in her area. She's better now, but back in rehab trying to overcome the weakness. We made a flying trip up and back this past weekend, driving in thick fog on the way up and heavy thunderstorms on the way back. Thus, no sewing reports.

This is what I have done in the last week.
    ✔ Make another border for Scrappy Pinwheels
    ✔ Decide whether to make side borders
    ✔ Finish quilting borders and attach
  • Make and attach label
    • ✔Make and attach binding
I did everything except make a label. The binding took twice as long as it should have because of the batting. It was a high loft batting that Lil had picked out years ago and it was a real pain to work with. It bearded, it made the blocks a lot smaller after quilting, and it kept the binding from going on evenly. I finally took all the binding off and machine basted the edge of the quilt to make it lie flat. I was machine sewing the binding on when I got the call about Mom, and hand stitched the folded side as we drove.

Next, I was going to work on a quilt that still needs a bit of work, but I found out this weekend that Hubby's niece is expecting, so I want to get a baby quilt finished. Baby Bow Tie has pastel colors but isn't specifically girl. If I have time, I'll try to make a quilt just for this baby, but if not, this will be fine.


New goals for March 2, 2021

  • Make a back and binding for Baby Bow Tie
  • Experiment with water color on fabric
  • Make a small embroidery project
  • Reconstruct a pillowcase
Linking to:
To Do Tuesday at ChrisKnits

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