This and That and Wallpaper

 

I finally decided on a peel and stick wallpaper for my sewing room closet! I love this print!

It didn't take long to install it. I finished it Saturday (with a tiny bit of help from Hubby). I have ordered a ruler rack for the side of the closet - I'll share more once it comes in.

We had a huge hail storm here Saturday. I've never experienced hail like this before - it was like we were under attack. Luckly, no damage for us.

Strawberries! These became a delicious strawberry cobbler and strawberry bars. Yum!

I've been busy at my Accuquilt cutting half square triangle pieces. HUNDREDS of half square triangle pieces. Theses will be various shades of gray paired with a grunge white. I'm going to a quilt retreat in a few weeks (TRIPLE YAY!) and I'll take these to sew. 

I've made progress on my Blessings/Marshal hand quilting. I'll share a photo next time. 

Every single day is filled and busy with Sadie, quilting, and golf (for Hubby). We love our busy life. Sadie is walking a bit now so she is officially a 'toddler.' Fun times!

Continue to stay safe!

On to Hand Quilting and Jen Kingwell

This one little picture represents a lot of work/fun. Thursday I finished all the ditch quilting on Blessings/Marshal. That was indeed a big relief to my shoulders and chest muscles. A LOT of quilt wrestling!! 

Thursday night was our virtual quilt guild meeting and we were fortunate to have Jen Kingwell give our program...all the way from Australia. She gave a wonderful program, just sitting and chatting about how she got to the point she is in her quilting career. She also shared lots of quilts she has designed, including Marshal. It was interesting that she said that she had to design Marshal completely before she ever took a stitch and this is different than she usually works. It seems she usually starts by making a block or two and letting the design evolve as she sews. 

Jen also said that because of the way she had to work on Marshall (she was hired to do this quilt by Quiltmania), she was not totally pleased with the final design and that she had seen other Marshal quilts (where the quilter did their own thing with the units) that she preferred over her own. I think she would like mine - I'll send her a picture when I'm done. 

Jen Kingwell handpieces and hand quilts most of her own quilts. After the program we could ask questions - I asked her what hand quilting thread she uses. Aurifil 12 weight. So Friday morning  I went to my sewing room to see if I had any. YES! I found one spool of 12 wt and it was the perfect color for this quilt. Lucky me!

Jen (we're on a first name basis now - haha!) also showed one quilt on which she quilting enough around the outside edges to sew on the binding early in the process and then she could go back and finish the quilt. Eureka! So I started the hand quilting process on Friday around the last border. I can do this because the entire quilt has been stitched in the ditch. Saturday morning I finished the border quilting, trimmed the quilt. and made the binding. Saturday afternoon I machine sewed the binding in place. Sunday afternoon I finished hand stitching the binding down.

And here we are now. Let the hand quilting continue! 

Continue to stay safe!

 

Backside of Machine Embroidery Quilting AND Another Happy Bird

 

Paula asked on Facebook to see the backside of this little quilt. She wanted to know if the quilting looked as good on the back. I think it does - what do you think? I will definitely keep doing more quilts like this.

And here is the latest Happy Bird. Always good to finish one of these. 

I'm happy to report that my shoulder and chest muscle pain died down after a couple of days of rest. Tuesday I was able to quilt a bit more stitch in the ditch on Blessing (Marshal). I only have one more large motif to quilt around that involves quilt wrestling with my machine. And then it will be on to the borders

which require no wrestling at all. Yay! I hope to do this later today.

Continue to stay safe!

One Thing Figured Out!

I called the sweet people at DIME (Designs in Machine Embroidery) and they knew what I was doing wrong. Yay! It worked! I made this photo big so hopefully you can see the machine quilting done by my embroidery machine. I still need some practice in lining up each time, but this was a good little top on which to practice.

Done!

Here's the backing I used. 

I've decided to wait until the next instructions (for the road) come out to fix my Color My World quilt. I think it will be easier to do the road first, and then put the houses together again.

I did a bit more quilting in the ditch on my Blessings (Marshal) quilt yesterday. Unfortunately, it was a bit too much. Today my shoulders and chest are sore. No sewing for me today. I hate my new body. It doesn't cooperate when I want it to.....

Continue to stay safe....

 

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

 

I have not accomplished much in the last couple of weeks. I did get these babies stitched together. And I've embroidered one more hexit.

I've made a bit of progress on the Needle Dance cross stitch project.

And we've bought oodles of plants and flowers for our yard. This hanging basket is one of my favorite finds - Trailing Fuchsia - Corabells Dark Eyes. I just love the buds - they look like little balls. And the blooms are lucious, aren't they?

Here's where my frustrations have come in. I bought a new machine embroidery hoop. It's a DIME (Designs in Machine Embroidery) magnetic hoop. Designs by Juju sells quilting end-to-end quilting software. I bought the hoop to try this out for myself. To begin, you have to baste the quilt with adhesive spray. That's the picture you see above - I spray basted this little scrappy top that I made over 10 years ago. I thought a small quilt would be good for practice.

Here I have the basted quilt in the hoop, hooked to my Bernina. And that's where I stopped. I couldn't get it to go. I think I'll call the DIME people tomorrow and ask for help. I'm determined to figure this out!

And here's my other OOPS. The April instructions for Color My World had me make the trees and then sew the house units together to make a circle. Trees made. BUT, when I sewed the units together...they don't lie flat. EEK. I have now taken it apart and will sew it back together again. It will lay flat by the end of the month. IT MUST!

Other than that, we've been busy with the lake. We bought 2 new SeaDoos and had them delivered over the weekend. We spent a nice day there yesterday and went on a boat ride. We are definitely ready for summer at the lake!

Stay safe!