What's Been in the Works

I have been busy doing a little cutting for one Quilts of Valor Mystery – the clues will be offered on Aug 12^th.  And I have been following the clues for a second QOV Mystery – clue 1 has been posted so far:

I have quilted two of the tops I brought back with me from my fun quilting retreat in Omaha:

Floral Wave

Butterfly Enchantment

And I did a little yardwork – not too much since it has been oppressively hot and humid here.

This is our typical forecast – the lightning chases me out of the sewing room each day:

mon	tue	wed	thu	fri	sat	sun
jul 17 Scattered Thunderstorms 90° 78°	jul 18 Thunderstorms 88° 77°	jul 19 Scattered Thunderstorms 91° 78°	jul 20 Scattered Thunderstorms 91° 78°	jul 21 Scattered Thunderstorms 90° 78°	jul 22 PM Thunderstorms 91° 79°	jul 23 AM Thunderstorms 91° 78°

And this is my latest kitchen gadget purchase.  So far, I love, love, love it.  I’ve made lots of chicken, beef roasts, and these pork chops:

Several things I really like about it are that it keeps the kitchen cooler since I am not using the hot oven and it makes putting an entire meal on the table much quicker.  The roast took 40 minutes rather than 3 hours.  That’s a win!

Sunday Summary

After attending a quilting Retreat in Omaha, I brought home 13 quilt tops to quilt and bind.  Oh my!  I had to quickly finish up a few bindings that I had left from quilting the same groups' lotto tops and fill a box for Quilts Beyond Borders.  Just one more to bind and that box will be on its way and I can load up those Omaha tops.

Here's the recent finishes in the box.  These were assembled by Tammy S from blocks sent to her by members of the Sunshine On-line Quilt Group:

Panto is called Cotton Candy

Panto is called Cotton Candy

Panto is called Cotton Candy

This was  panel sent to me a while back from Ann D, a Regional Coordinator of Quilts Beyond Borders.  It's just too cute!  And it's in the box, ready to go out:

Panto is called Cotton Candy

And this is the preview of the one that still needs binding.  The crumb blocks were sent to me by another member of the group, Lois.  Hope to show the finished quilt tomorrow and get that box in the mail ...

Panto is called Delight

Sunday Summary

I haven't been writing, but I HAVE been quilting!  I hate to shop, but the spring sales have been rampant here and I needed a few things for my prospective travels, so out I went.  Got a new dress (none of the ones I haven't worn in ten years fit, but I need just ONE dress), a few new tops, a pair of shorts, and a new jacket/sweater.  That's a lot for me to get at one time.  If it all works out right, I won't have to shop again for five years - lol !!

I've been toying with the KonMari method for how to organize and streamline your wardrobe, but did not really embrace the concept, and then I found Project 33.  This worked much better for me.  With this method, you look out towards the next three months, so I'll be doing this again in the fall for the winter side of my clothes.

I now have a simplified "pocket wardrobe" in just a few colors.  I have taken three bags of old, tacky, don't fit or just don't like clothes out of my closet.  Some were trashed, some went into the rag bag and some got donated.  The closet looks much better and I found out that I actually had a style that I like!  Who knew I had a style?  I usually purchase in a time crunch to go to something special and buy whatever is there, even if I don't like it that much.  This time I went with a purpose in mind just to fill in a few things and with particular colors selected.  If I didn't find those, I didn't buy it.  My closet looks much better since I was ruthless in removing items!


But back on the quilty-front - just a sneak peek until I get these all finished.  These two are quilted:

I can't remember the second quilting design name, but one is called Mod Hearts:

And this is ironed and ready to go on the frame:

Then I'll have to stop temporarily with the kids' quilts and quilt one for my Quilts of Valor meeting on Friday, but progress is being made.

QBB FQ Challenge

Quilts Beyond Borders has a booth at the Houston Quilt Show each year and gives fat quarters to quilters as a Challenge to add their own fabrics and return a finished quilt as a donation to the group.  Those that return their quilts are eligible to enter a drawing to win prizes!

This is my finished FQ Challenge quilt and detail of the quilting:

The fern-like fabric was the original FQ fabric and I added the various green and blue frames and the alternating squares with the froggie fabric.  Since I quilted it with my new panto called Route 66 that is wavy, I call it Ripples in the Frog Pond.

It would have been mailed out today, but I was able to stop myself from going to the Post Office on Tax Return day.  I have a penchant for going to the P.O. when normal people are trying to get their tax returns postmarked at the last minute ... not this year!  I'll go tomorrow...

On the Frame Friday

I have been quilting a little this week. But not much.  I hurt my back at the gym and have been resting on a heating pad a lot.   You know they say that fresh air and exercise will kill you - lol - but I'm doing much better now.  The Quilts Beyond Borders Fat Quarter Challenge quilt is what’s on the frame today:

 

I have a new panto called Route 66 that appears to be very versatile – It can resemble chicken wire, ocean waves, sound waves, lace, etc.  I might just take my time and play with this one a little just for practice on how to do mirror imaging and reverse paths on my computerized system.

On my way to the dreaded dentist, I saw a plane skywriting – haven’t seen that for a while, since I never go to the beach where they often are.  This guy wasn’t very good since I never could read what he was writing!

Our friendly neighborhood cormorant was drying his wings as my dog and I walked by today.  The dog is walking much better and her limp is almost gone.  We go back to the vet for her re-check on Monday.

 

And some more backing fabric came in this past week:

Still stocking up for the deluge of tops expected after our Quilt Retreat in June!

Local Community Service Part 2

In yesterday’s post I told of how I had spent a great deal of time in March working on Quilts of Valor projects.  My Local Community Service also includes quilting for Project Linus.

I was given four tops to work up and two were giant-sized compared to the children’s tops that I usually receive – these were more adult lap-sized.   I had a terrible time with the first of those.  It had some kind of fabric for the borders and a part of the blocks that was not 100% cotton.

I’m not sure if it was silk, poly or a poly/cotton blend, but I could not work with it at all.  It took me three days to get 15 inches of horizontal quilting (12 inches tall).  That is not much!  The thread broke every 3 to 6 inches and no adjustment I made would fix it – and believe me, I tried everything.  They had given me a wonky backing that was cut from a wide back and there was not enough there for me to pull a thread or rip it to find the straight of grain.  The combo of the off-kilter grain and the odd fabric might have been pulling the needle just enough to continuously break the bobbin thread.  But to end this poor long story, I ripped out the quilting stitches and I’m giving the top back to the Project Linus group so they can give it to a more experienced quilter. 

I was able to get two smaller tops quilted up for them – I don’t usually make tops for them as my contribution is the quilting.  My piecing is usually dedicated to sewing and quilting for the Sunshine On-line Quilt Guild.  Here are the two Project Linus quilts:

Panto is Surf

Panto is Stars 'n Clouds

I have a third top from Project Linus that is still in progress.  It is a two-color top in a zig zag design and I’m not so sure I made a wise decision about the quilting panto.  We’ll see how it looks when it comes off of the frame … this one is too far along to get ripped out, so it will stay with what I picked out.  Sometimes I wish I could stop and practice some fancier quilting, but I guess I do OK with edge-to-edge pantos and I’m pretty happy to keep cranking out kid’s quilts!

Local Community Service Part 1

The weeks have flown by.  I had my Local Community Service Week early this month and my calendar has been jam-packed.

My Quilts of Valor (QOV) group was to have a medium-size presentation (11 quilts) and a planned large presentation (30 quilts) plus several individual presentations and we started the year with zero quilts on hand.  Everybody in our group was enthused to get busy.  I was given a lovely quilt top to quilt, but it had an issue:

Did you see the block facing the wrong way?  So, even though it had its borders on, I couldn’t leave it that way:

It wasn’t a hard fix and now its lines are all straight:

And onto the frame it went to be quilted with a panto called Stardust:

Then it got returned to the group to get its binding sewn on and a label put on by hand (I don’t do any hand sewing, but some members of my group are delighted to do that part, thank heavens!).

And, of course, I had to finish up my QOVFoundation Mystery Quilt for 2017.  This quilt was designed by Sandy Berg of Raspberry Bramble Designs who coordinated the mystery.  It was fun to sew.  The pattern is available here:  http://2017qovmystery.weebly.com/

This is a little of my progress as I waited in between receiving clues:

See those little post-it notes on the computer?  I highly recommend you label your pieces as you go as Sandy suggests ... The result is grand!

It went off to another quilter since I have only done edge-to-edge pantos so far and it is more likely to get some special quilting with another quilter.

More on my Local Community Service Week activities in tomorrow’s post.