Uh-Oh….A Couple Of Quilting Boo-Boos!

I was just whizzing along doing the machine quilting on the guild Panel Challenge and didn’t even know I had a portion turned under, so you can guess what happened.  Yes I quilted part of the edge to the center so had to rip out that part of the quilting and re-do it.  I do remember that the machine seemed to be working hard and I was figuring I would need to change needles and clean out the lint as I thought that might be the problem.
I got it ripped out and was sailing along again and so proud of myself for how the quilting was going.  Had a stopping point so took it out of the machine and spread it out to look at it…..beautiful!  I wondered how the back was looking so flipped it over.  (I was quilting with black thread on the top and gold thread on the back so wondered if the tension was still good as I didn’t want a lot of black thread showing and this is what I saw. 
What a pretty piece of fabric don’t you think?  Very pretty, but it sure doesn’t belong on the back of this quilt and it is two layers of fabric as well.  This is a folded piece that I use for a leader or ender when chain sewing pieces together.  I wonder how it got stuck to the back of my quilt and where it came from?  Wherever it came from I stitched it down good and it had to be removed.  I didn’t want to rip out my stitching so tried a very scary technique as I used a very sharp, skinny pointed scissors to cut just on the outside of the stitches.  I then used tweezers to pull the blue fabric threads from under the stitches.  It took a while but I was successful – YAY!
This procedure is not for the faint of heart to be sure.  There are a few fuzzies of blue still in the stitches but those will be removed with painters tape and even I won't be able to find the spot later. I do have a few black dots of the top thread showing on the back but not bad enough to remove.  Onward now to finish quilting this quilt!

Until later,
Lynn

Another Winner

I am happy to announce that I won another blog giveaway, can you believe it?  This giveaway was from the blog Quilty Pleasures a blog for Quiltmaker Magazine.  I am the recipient of Quiltmaker’s magazine “Small Quilts and Gifts.” and it just came in the mail.  The giveaway was sometime ago and I can’t find the post telling about it right now....I can’t believe it I won another giveaway.  I must do one on my site soon but need to figure out what to give away.  This magazine has lots of small projects but nice looking projects in it.  The patterns and directions are all in there…I can see several that interest me right away.
Check out the Quilty Pleasures blog as there is another big giveaway going on now through Quiltmaker with lots of prizes….I think it is still going on so hurry to check it out.

Until Later,
Lynn

Improved Basting Boards

I have used Sharon Schamber’s method of basting the three layers of a quilt together with the use of two boards for several years.  Sharon has a couple of great videos on YouTube here and here that shows in great detail how she does it.  When you have time check out her other videos as she goes in great detail no matter what she is teaching on her videos.When I basted this mystery challenge quilt (that I can’t show you yet) I improved the technique a little.  I took my two boards and marked the center point and then marked one inch increments to the end of the boards.  I numbered the center at 0 then 1s on either side, then 2s next and so on to the last mark.  I can position my top and backing more easily on the center of the boards after marking the center of the quilt and the quilt backing.
I use painter’s tape to get my backing and quilt top started on the boards then carefully roll them up, keeping the ends as even as I can so it is rolled straight.

Rolling Quilt Top and Backing on Boards VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Lay the batting on a section of unrolled backing smoothing it to the backing then center a portion of the unrolled quilt top smoothing it down too, then baste the layers together.  I keep my basting lines about 2 fingers distance apart.

Backing, Batting, Top, Basting VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

You did get a peek at which panel I choose to work on but now you can wonder what I did to it.  It is really hard not to share everything I am doing to this quilt as I am working on it.  May give you a few more sneak peeks before I finish it……just have to wait and see.

Lynn

Harvesting Corn

This first photo shows the combine dumping harvested corn onto the grain cart pulled by the tractor.  They do this on the go so you must drive steady so it doesn’t get dumped on the ground.  The combine makes better time with this method if you have enough workers to have one in the tractor/grain cart and one or two driving the trucks as they are filled plus the combine driver.

John standing on the deck outside the combine cab for this photo op.  The new combine is working well so he has a smile on his face even though you can’t see it.

This photo shows the driver of the tractor/grain cart dumping the harvested corn onto one of the semi-trucks which will haul it to the grain elevator or our bins. 
This was my job a few years ago.  I couldn’t help last year because of my broken ankle and I really don’t like running that large equipment and asked John if he could get along without me that would be just fine and dandy as far as I was concerned.  I didn’t have to be in the tractor at all this year but concentrated my efforts on making good hot meals to take to the field.  Our crew doesn’t like to stop and eat anything with a fork or spoon so I had to be real creative to make hot, hand held meals.  Think I did a good job as John commented several times on how good something tasted.  The crew all bring sack lunches at noon so I would just bring something hot at night for the evening meal (actually think they bring small coolers but you get the idea.)  They put in long days working until 10 pm at night lots of nights during harvest so everyone is relieved when it is over.

Lynn