Priorities…

Today I have worked hard to… sew the binding on a customer quilt.  Check the back of the super-king-size quilt that I finished quilting at (UGGHHH!) 10:30 PM last night.

Now I am going to go sew the borders on that “America The Beautiful” quilt top that has been waiting.  I finished the body of the quilt at SIL Retreat 3 WEEKS ago, and it has been waiting, and waiting, to arrive at the “completed” stage.  It has been sitting on the table next to my machine.  Today it YELLED at me as I was finishing the customer quilt, “What about ME??”  I heard it… I really did!

I know… there are other things I SHOULD be doing.  BUT this is what is calling my name the loudest.

Yes, I fully realize that I may not have any CLEAN UNDERWEAR to take on the trip we are going on tomorrow.  Priorities!  I know that I will probably return to a very messy house, but right now I don’t care.  Priorities!  When the quilt/sewing muse strikes, one must just “go with it”!

Priorities… we’ve all got them.  And they are subject to change the instant we view fabric waiting to be worked into a quilt top.  That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it!

Have a great day!  I HOPE to have pictures for you soon.

KAT

The Healing Power of Quilting

All quilters know that sewing and quilting is great therapy.  We can use it to either take our mind off whatever problems/issues we are facing at the time, or use it to bring the issues close to our heart as we work through the grieving process.

If you are interested in an inspirational quilting story, check out the link below from Jamie in Houma, LA.  And as she says in her title, “Get the Kleenex!

http://babyboomerquiltingbee.blogspot.com/2012/01/quilting-to-heal-quilts-for-healing-get.html

Thank you, Jamie, for reminding us of the healing power of fabric, thread, and needles.

Be blessed today!

KAT

Just Playin’ Around!

My friend Marty said, “I’m sending you a quilt to play on.”  It is made from half-square triangles, and a few squares.   Seriously!  Now just looking at this, you would never guess that!  Isn’t it neat?  It is 32” x 32”.

Fleur-de-lis  (Go Saints!  Sorry, I just had to throw that in!) and feathers now cover her little quilt.  (Click on pictures to get a better view of the quilting.)

It seemed to take FOR.E.VER. because I really have not done much with the custom quilting features on IQ.

I really learned a lot and found some short-cuts as I was working through this (for days and days).  I did a lot of adapting designs for the unusual areas, then chunking them and starting over.

Tomorrow it will be sent zooming back to her. 

I think she will like it.

I think I will be glad to get back to quilting pantos on customer quilt…  Playing was fun, but it was HARD WORK!  Work hard, play hard.  Such is my world!

Be blessed!

KAT

I Did Not Intend To…

I did not intend to take a blogging vacation for a whole MONTH, but that is exactly what has happened.  Life was SOOO busy in December with customer quilts, working on gifts, and other Christmas preparations.

SO, I still won’t be blogging for a few more days because…

IN ABOUT 30 MINUTES I AM LEAVING FOR SIL QUILT RETREAT AT THE LAKE !!  Let the sewing, fun, food, and fellowship begin! 

My projects are ready…

1.  America The Beautiful quilt top, a McCall’s Quilting magazine series pattern…  (All blocks are made.  I just need to join them together and add borders.)

2.  Night and Day quilt, an Eleanor Burns pattern…  (All cut out and ready to sew)

3.  Farmer’s Wife quilt (I am hauling tons of fabric and will begin cutting my first few blocks for that.)

4.  Plaid Obsession quilt, an Evelyn Sloppy pattern… (I made one of these for a gift, and DH loved it, so I will be working on one for him.)

I hope this is enough to keep me busy for 3 days!

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!  I pray God’s blessings upon you and all your family in 2012!

KAT

Things Just Not “Lining Up”!

Most days my job as a machine quilter flows smoothly.  The quilt goes in the machine, Gussie and Inetta (my Gammill machine with IntelliQuilter Robotics) do their thing of quilting, the quilt comes out of the machine, and we are all happy.

Sometimes there are slight “issues” I have to deal with… wavy borders, puffy blocks, lining (quilt backing) issues, but I am well practiced at dealing with minor issues.  MOST days things just “work”.

TODAY IS NOT ONE OF THOSE DAYS!  I will admit… this is a whiney post.  If you can’t tolerate a little whine you may want to just exit out now.

As I was loading today’s second quilt, I noticed the lining fabric was going to BARELY be enough.  Upon further inspection, I realized that the cut on both ends of the wide lining the customer supplied was way off-grain.  (PET PEAVE:  I TEAR my linings to be sure what you measure is what you get.  Why can’t other fabric sources do that?  There is no way to cut a 108” wide lining fabric on grain!)  A quick snip with the scissors, a strong tug, and I tore it across to get the grain straight.  I lost 6” of fabric!!  There is now no way this will work.  I called the customer and she chose a red lining that I sell to replace the one that won’t work. 

So, while dealing with this I decide to load another quilt in.  I get to the lining fabric, customer supplied, barely enough, both ends are way off grain.  Same scenario… except this one was so badly cut I lost 8”!!  A quick call to the other customer, she also wants the red lining.  No problem.  BUT…

I check the bolt, and there appears to be just enough.  I measure it out, and it is 6” short of what I need, so that means both linings will have to be smaller than I like on the sides in order to have enough fabric to do both quilts.  OK… I may just have to sew extra fabric strips to the side of one of them to get the larger quilt done.  I have a plan!

Then as I was loading the smaller one I realize there is super-sticky masking tape on several places on the right side of the fabric.  I pull it off and of COURSE it leaves sticky residue.  YUCK!  I worked with it for a while and finally sprayed with alcohol, then rubbed a lot.  The sticky stuff did finally come up.

I am now sitting here, a cup of strong coffee in my hand, whining to you all.  It has made me feel better (the coffee and the “unloading”).  A few more sips, then back to work on what was going to be an easy job, but now made more difficult by the short linings.  I WILL make it happen!  I am not going to let a little piece of fabric get the best of me!!

So what are YOU wrestling with today?  I hope you are able to find solutions over a cup of coffee or tea, too!  Thanks for listening!

KAT

What Happens When…

What happens when your internet service is down for 9 days?  You have 153 emails waiting for you.  I did not realize how dependent I am on the internet.

What’s the weather going to be like tomorrow?  Just go check the internet.  Oh wait… it’s not working.

Are the Saints playing today?  I can’t find the game.  Just go check… Oh wait… it’s not working.

Quilters have been calling.  “I sent you an email but I have not heard back from you!”  The internet is not working.

When #1 son got to his South America work location, he was instructed to send me an email or comment on Facebook.  But… it’s not working.  (He DID get there safe and sound.  I found this out from #1 daughter.)

My friend said, “I sent you an email about something special we could do at church for  our Christmas program.”  I just got it today, when after 9 LONG days of walking toward my office to check my email, then remembering it is not working, then turning around and heading back to the sewing machine (because if you can’t read email you might as well sew!), I am finally able to get caught up with what has happened while my misaligned Hughes.net satellite dish was not connecting us to the internet.

I am glad to say we are back connected with the rest of the world.  The good in all of this?   I got a LOT of sewing done!  Pictures to follow later.

Now the hardest part?  Catching up on what all of YOU have been up to while I was MIA!

Have a wonderfully blessed Thanksgiving Day!

KAT

What Can You Get For $20?

A TREADLE SEWING MACHINE!!

(You would think I would have at least DUSTED it before taking pictures, but obviously I did not, as demonstrated by my fat footprint left on the footboard!)

Yes, when I stopped at the garage sale they were trying to get rid of things.  I found ONE man’s shirt that I could use for quilt making.  I paid the man $1,  got in my car, and drove around the circle drive to leave.  WAIT A MINUTE!  What was THIS I saw out of the corner of my eye?

When I stopped and got out of my car again, the man informed me that he had been asking $45 for it, but I could have it for $20.  SOLD!

It is a small cabinet and takes up very little room in my house… good thing!  This cabinet is not actually made for this machine.  There is a gap of about 1/2” on the right side, but someone has made it fit nicely.  The cabinet itself has signs of much use.  That is OK…. I am not buying it for a museum piece… I want to SEW on it!

 

The decals are in excellent shape.

Here is what I could find out on the internet.  It is German made by Adolph Knoch.  It was probably made around the early 1900s, but that is a guess from the little bit I could locate on several different web sites.  Info was hard to come by… when you type in “Knoch treadle sewing machine” on any of the search engines it assumes you are talking about a Singer brand, since that is the most common type.

  

The inscription above the bobbin winder is something I can’t read… no experience with German.

If you can help me find any other info on this machine I would be very appreciative!

SOOOO, as soon as I order a new belt for it and spend a little time cleaning and oiling, I will get to sew on my new baby.  I have named my longarm, perhaps I need to name this machine?  I’ll have to give it some thought.

What can you get for $20?  A wonderful trip down memory lane.  I sewed on a treadle machine in Home Economics in high school back in 1970.  Yes, we had electric machines, but you had to SHARE the electric machines.  If you were willing to treadle, you could sew every day, so that is what I did.

From now on, I will slow down and take a good look around at every garage sale I go to looking for shirts.  Who knows what other treasures are there for $20?

KAT

It’s Not My Quilt…

 

It’s not MY quilt, but I sure would love to keep it!  These 20 hand-embroidered blocks belong to a customer.  My task was to turn them into a completed quilt.  

I have always heard that the back side of the embroidery should look as good as the front… these do!  So much so, that I turned one of the blocks wrong-side up, but thankfully discovered it as I was stitching the rows together.  They are absolutely BEAUTIFUL! 

       

I wanted them to have an old-fashioned look, so I went for 30s reproduction fabrics.  If you are a quilter, you will understand my dilemma…  it was impossible to find a sold fabric (or ANY type of small print) to match the background color of the outer border. 

The background was a very pinkish-lavender.  All fabrics I could find (shopping 5 different locations in the “Big City”) were either too dark purple or a very light lavender. 

I finally ordered something off the net listed as “Aunt Grace 30s Lavender, but it still did not match the background as well as I would have liked.  It looks fine, but it just did not match the picture in my head of what the sashing fabric should look like.  That “picture in my head” often causes MORE trouble when trying to find the right fabric!

All that is left to do is to hand-stitch the binding down, and that will be finished this week.  I’ll have just a few days to enjoy being in the presence of this lovely quilt, and then will pass it back to the owner.  I have really enjoyed working on this one, other than the fabric challenge.

Have a wonderfully blessed week!  I’ll see you on the blog next week with an update on a wonderful garage sale find.  What can you buy with $20?  You will be very surprised!

KAT