Corners Quilted - Fabric Sort

Good morning everyone! Looks like a nice sunny day even though it is supposed to get warmer than it has the last few weeks it is still going to be a beautiful day. John says the crops really need some hotter weather to mature before it freezes so guess I had better wish for a hotter day as well.

Think I will be inside most of the day unless I get out to mow later this afternoon. The grass and weeds are so wet early in the morning and don't dry off until at least noon anyway. Mowing is not my favorite thing to do but John mows now and again when he has time. Mowing the lawn is not a pain but it is mowing all the other areas of the farm I don't like. It takes 4 hours at least to get it all done and mowing the farm yard is always so dirty too. It always looks so nice when I finish that I try to think of that as the dirt is showering down on me. For you "city" friends the farm yard, with the exception of the lawn around the house, has some grass but it is mostly low growing weeds. The grass and weeds in those areas don't grow as close together so the dirt in between the plants gets disturbed and comes shooting out the side along with the cut grass/weeds. If there is any wind it blows back in your face - YUCK!

I got so much done yesterday - must have had an energy serge. At least it felt like I got a lot done anyway. I quilted the cat in the center and worked on getting the corners quilted. I really like how this is coming along so far.

Using the BSR is getting easier the more I quilt but I still quilt very slow. I quilted the outside motif in orange thread then outlined it in the silk thread. The area between the points and the motif I did the tiny circles with the silk thread. Not sure I am doing them right but they are looking OK.

Will be doing the outline and circles on the outside of the orange motifs too but will stop short of the corner a little. I want that last pointy part of the motif to point exactly to the corner so will trim the quilt and make sure it is drawn correctly then quilt that last before I bind it.

I stopped quilting early last evening to watch the University of Nebraska girls play their first Volleyball game. It was really exciting to watch them beat Stanford the #2 ranked team in 3 sets.

While I watched the game I worked on sorting my fabrics. I had hauled all the boxes from their shelves and deposited them in the family room. Figured I would get them sorted quickly if I wanted that room to be livable again, plus I would not stop at sorting just a box or two if they are all sitting out on my table and floor. I managed to get several sorted and re-folded but have a couple more to do. I took a photo this morning of what they looked like - should have taken one last evening before I started. There was fabric draped over everything, plus a few other missing things as well - have been looking for that bungee cord! Anyway it is a good start and will continue to straighten tonight.

I am trying to sort out a lot of fabrics that I don't think I will use and putting them in bags. Will use this fabric to make lap quilts for the various donation projects our guild does and thought this would be a good way to use up the fabric plus practice my machine quilting skills.

We go to the State Fair early tomorrow to watch my nieces show their 4-H chickens. Is always a fun day! Will take John in to see the quilts sometime tomorrow too. I like him to see what everyone else is doing and exhibiting and he is getting better at appreciating the quality of the really good ones and the not so good ones. At least he makes the right comments when looking at them - now he will pause and look at the quilts. Years ago it was almost a race to see how fast he could walk by the rows and rows of quilts!

Later...Lynn

Choosing Quilting Thread

When you live in the country away from any close shopping areas you learn to make do with what you have on hand sometimes. (It is at least an hour drive to any quilt shop and then they don't carry all the threads that I like. End up going to Grand Island which is an hour and 20 minutes away or to Lincoln which is an hour and 45 minutes away if I need specific thread or fabrics. Needless to say I need to have a bigger shopping list than just thread to travel that far.) That is the case this time when I looked through my threads to find what I wanted to use to quilt this quilt I am now calling - "Waiting for Halloween"

I have read of quilters using silk thread for their machine quilting so am giving it a try. I had the perfect shade of YLI Silk #100 http://www.ylicorp.com/YLIProducts.html thread to match the background behind the applique in my thread stash that I usually use for hand applique. I stipple quilted plus used it to outline the applique and to quilt on the pumpkin, flowers and leaf. I really like how the thread almost disappears into the background but when you look close you can see it.

I am using Bottom Line thread from Superior Threads http://www.superiorthreads.com/ in my bobbin and that is working great too. I am now a convert from using all cotton thread I think. The last few pieces I have quilted using Bottom Line have turned out wonderful and it really is nice that the tension stays so good - the top threads are not pulled to the bottom or the bottom threads being pulled to the top. They stay where they belong so I can change colors of top thread and you would never know it by looking at the back of my quilt. Click on the pictures to get a larger view of what has been quilted so far.

This morning right before noon I started quilting on the corner motifs in orange thread. (Will show a photo of that maybe tomorrow) I am using 100% cotton 50/3 Mettler thread http://www.amefird.com/mettler.htm as I wanted a little thicker thread so it would show up better. I do happen to have some orange silk thread but oped not to use that this time.

Not sure what thread I will use for the cat but since I don't have any black silk am thinking of using black 100% cotton 2 ply DMC machine embroidery thread that I have on hand.

Am posting this on a break from quilting. I tend to get tense when I am machine quilting and forget to relax and breath, another habit I am trying to break. The computer is in the same room as the sewing machine so just hop from one chair to another for my breaks.

Guess it is time to "hop" back to my quilting now.

Lynn

Ready to Sew - What to Sew?

My sewing room was cleaned up a little this morning so took a photo before it became it's usual mess. I have a great view out the large windows when I am sitting at my machine and they let in a lot of natural light - we had replaced the old bedroom window with this bow window when we remodeled and I love it. The other half of this room is the office that I share with John. Sometime when that half of the room is clean I will snap a photo of it to show you but right now it is a disaster and I wouldn't want you to think we are slobs.

I have some tall bookshelves for my quilt books and magazines on one side and on the other is the island we took out of the kitchen when we remodeled. It is a great height to use for my cutting board and I also sit my large pressing board on it. Right now there is an ugly piece of fabric laying over the pressing board to protect it from the spray starch I was using.

Behind the island is a closet with a bi-fold door. This room was originally my in-laws bedroom and the closet was one of the two they used for their clothes. I use it for sewing stuff but it needs to be cleaned and organized after living here for 3 1/2 years. When we moved in I put things where I thought it all should go but by now it all needs organized a little better and some stuff needs to be sorted out and disposed of.

I want you to notice the small pin cushion sitting to the right of my machine. A friend made that for me recently and it is really handy in that it is small and I can use it beside my machine or take it to where ever I am working. She purchased a heavy napkin ring and some fabric to cover a filler of wool batting. It doesn't take up too much room and the napkin ring is metal so has some weight to keep it from tipping over.

Yesterday I worked as a "white glover" at the Nebraska State Fair quilt department. I always enjoy the job which really isn't work at all. There are chairs to sit in but most of the time I find myself walking in the area I am assigned to and looking at the quilts, studying the piecing/applique designs and the quilting on each piece. I did take a lot of photos but they are still on my camera. Maybe I will get to it tomorrow.

As "white glovers" we tried to answer visitors questions, most of which were pretty basic and were there to help protect the quilts. Only had one incident where I had to say something and that was when a few teenagers thought they were going to chase each other and run between the rows of quilts by going underneath the quilts - WRONG! Most of them sheepishly left the quilt area after being told that wasn't allowed.

There were a few vendors (just general fair vendors - not quilt supply vendors)around the edge of the quilt display. Our shift didn't get over until 1:30 pm so we were all getting a little hungry and my last station was right in front of a roasted soybean vendor. I would not have bought any except he had samples to taste and after trying several kinds I knew I just had to have some to take home. I bought some cherry coated roasted ones and some lightly salted roasted soybeans. I probably would never had bought the cherry ones if I had not tasted a sample but they are really very good. Now I am resisting the urge to open the packages but I decided I would wait until we had some company. Neither John or I have much will power when it comes to snacks so we would probably finish them off rather quickly.

Tuesday I wanted to work on something/anything on my new sewing machine but didn't have anything recent started or any ideas for something new. Really need to get a new quilt started so I will always have something to sew when the mood strikes. Since I got this machine I have wanted to use it everyday I can but just ran out of things to do. I got out my box of UFOs and pulled out a block I had started many years ago as a Haloween walhanging. I had hand appliqued the black cat and pumpkin block then had decided I would set it into a circle of triangles kind of like Mariner's Compass PP block with fat triangles. I had gotten the circle pieced and stitched to the appliqued block but had never put the rest of the background around the circle.

The background piece was with the rest of the block so got it reverse appliqued on yesterday. Hmmm.....What to do next to the wall hanging? After searching my fabric boxes I couldn't find any more of the dark dusty green background fabric and don't have a clue if there even was any left so decided that it is finished the way it is! It will make a nice small (aprox. 16") wall hanging to hang in my kitchen in October.

Marked it with a machine quilting design that took half the afternoon to design to fit in the corners and now it is basted ready to start quilting. I used Sharon Schamber's method of basting which works really well for me. http://tiny.cc/PinlessBasting I did baste a lot closer together than she does since this small piece I didn't want anything to shift as I quilt. Now to pick the thread color and start quilting ! Am thinking of quilting the corners in Orange and the rest in a thread to match. What do you think?

Back to work now....

Lynn

State Fair Quilts

I just found out that one of my quilts received a 2nd place ribbon and the other two didn't place. I am surprised about the quilt that did get the ribbon. I had thought about not taking it as I thought it had obvious problems. You never know what competition each quilt has and what the judge is looking for. Now I am anxious to go to the fair and see all the quilts.

Five of us will go up on Wed. to work as white glovers in the quilt department. We have been going up for more years than I can remember and everyone is quick to say yes when I ask if they want to do it each year. When you volunteer you get up close to the quilts and can really take a lot of time looking at them, answer questions from people walking through the show and also as quasi quilt police. (See there really are quilt police!) Our job is to keep people from touching the quilts or damaging them in any way.

The people wandering through the exhibit range from quilters of all ages to non-quilters that don't have any idea about the quilting process, judging process or even what is machine quilting or hand quilting. It is so much fun to visit with everyone and try to help them understand if they have questions.

This year there are 371 quilts in the exhibit from miniatures to full sized quilts. The quality of the quilts at Nebraska's state fair is always very good so is a treat to be able to get the chance to white glove.

Now for the photo for this blog. This is a clay frog a friend gave me a few years ago. I am a frog collector as well as a quilter and this was perfect - a frog and a quilt together! It is only about 1 3/4" tall and is so cute. It is meant to hang as an ornament but I have it sitting on a shelf. This photo is quite a bit bigger than the actual frog!

So long for now...

Lynn