15 minute challenge

For once, I'm remembering to post my weekly progress on Kate's 15 minute challenge.  Even though I only spent two days quilting.  Hey, life interferes occasionally with my quiltmaking, what can I say?

Last week, I finished the auction quilt that I've been working on since January, but not steady. There have been other projects interspersed.  I posted pictures and narrative about this quilt in my previous post, if you want to take a look.  I spent 3 or 4 hours each on Tuesday and Wednesday stitching on the binding.  Since then I've looked around in my sewing room, but haven't done anything.

I find that after I've finished a quilt that's due on a deadline, I take a few days or a week off. It's like I have to decompress from the pressure of that deadline. Fortunately, I don't have any more deadlines in the immediate future.

A couple of weeks ago, I was telling one of my coworkers about this quilt and she asked me how long it will take to do the quilting on it. For once, I kept track. To quilt up the queensized quilt took 27 hours. I was amazed!  I imagine the piecing and all the rest took at least that long as well.  Wow!  No wonder I feel so burned out when I've finished one of these giants!  And I have 3 more big quilt tops in my cupboard waiting to be quilted up. 

Today, I'm planning on spending a few hours working on a little table quilt that I want to get pinned and quilted so I can put it in my Etsy store. I'll post a picture when it's finished.

The 2012 Auction Quilt is Finally Finished!

I put in the last stitch Wednesday night and took it from the drier this morning.  It's done and here it is:

This pattern is one I got in a magazine solicitation mailer several years ago and I thought it was one I'd like to make up one day.  Since the fundraiser is in early June every year, I thought this would be nice and springy/summery.

The blocks are simple pinwheels made of 5" or maybe 5 1/2" squares to start. I used a variety of florals alternating with a floral white-on-white fabric.  I FMQ it using a heart and loop continuous design in the body of the quilt.

In the border, I FMQ a design of leafy vines with two large florals on each side. I tried to take a pix of it but it's harder to see here than in real life.  I outline stitched around the appliqued leaves and stems.

The pattern I got was for a lap throw, but I enlarged it to be a queen sized bed quilt. I like this quilt a lot and wish I hadn't made it to be donated. :(  But it's for a good cause--our small local school--and likely will bring in several hundred dollars, if past experience holds. :)


By the time I'd finished the machine quilting and hand sewing the binding, my shoulders and back were screaming!  I've never felt such pain before in my life!  So I took the plunge and had a massage last night--my very first.  What heaven! By the time she was finished with me, I felt like a new person, although I can feel some pain between my shoulders this morning. Barb, the masseuse, told me it would take several sessions to get out all the knots, so I guess I'll just have to go back again, right? Can't ignore "medical" advice, you know.


Now that this huge quilt is finished, it's time to get outside to the gardens and see if I can win the Battle of the Weeds that I've lost every summer in my life! If you're a betting person, bet on the weeds. LOL

15 minute challenge

My fingers and hands have recovered from all the unstitching I did over the past few days. Can I count that as part of my 15 minute challenge?  Oh, yes, I can!  Yesterday, after giving my mitts a "Satin Hands" treatment (They are oh so smooth and soft now!  Love it!), I spent over 5 hours at the machine, re-quilting the auction quilt, this time in a design that works much better with the quilt blocks and which is much more suitable to me. I go about a third of the center done--Yea!

I seem to be working on my quilting only on my days off.  By the time I come home from work, I'm totally exhausted from the hampster-cage atmosphere of the office.  But on my days off, I can get in 4 or more hours at a time--and my back pain is lessening as I increase my time. Does that mean I'm turning into the Hunchback of Prairie Farm?  Or does it mean the muscles are getting stronger?  I hope it's the latter. :)

I have sore hands and fingers . . .

. . . from unstitching the quilting on my giant auction quilt.  I'd done about a third of the quilting in the center and on Friday, I saw that the tension on one of my bobbins was off and had left unsightly loops on the back that needed to be taken out. I thought I could simply take out that section and then carry on. Wrong!  As I ripped out the stitching, I gradually came to realize that the pattern I'd chosen for these blocks was wrong and that I should take it all out and do something different.  So, about 10 hours of unstitching later, I have finished with that task and am ready to move on with a different, better design, and with a proper bobbin tension--I hope! I think I need to give my fingers and hands a rest first--maybe treat them to a beauty treatment or something--before they tackle the quilt again. Wish me luck! ;-)

Grandma's quilt

I received a treasure today.  This is Grandma Pendarvis's quilt. 

About 20 years ago, my MIL gave me the quilt top. She told me that she had found it when she and her sisters were cleaning out their mother's house after she died. MIL said she knew that I, of all the DILs, would appreciate the quilt and would know how to finish it.  Well, truth be told, I didn't appreciate it.  It was nice and all, but I thought the colors were garish and would never fit in my so-called decor.  Besides, there were a few stains on it--Yuck!

Ten years later I began quilting and with experience and knowledge, my appreciation of antique quilts grew. I took out the old top occasionally and each time, I liked it more. I decided that this top needed professional quilting--my skills weren't good enough. I finally had the extra cash and I took it to Lynette Gelling of Pine Cone Quilting in nearby Clayton, WI in early March.  She called me today to say it was finished and I brought it home.

She and I realized that the top is all hand pieced and hand appliqued. Such incredibly tiny stitches!  Lynette pointed out that the green stems were silk and that the yellow flower centers weren't a 30's print as I thought, but earlier than that.  I'll try to get the fabric dated.  With that information, I decided that my MIL was wrong when she told me her mother had made it.  I think it was her Grandmother who made it.  She's the one who would more likely have done it by hand instead of machine. She's the one who more likely had silk fabric available to her.  So, I've made the executive decision that this is my husband's great grandmother's quilt, and I'll stand by that unless someone tells me differently. :)

Here's a somewhat glaring look at the quilting Lynette did on the blocks--outline quilting of the applique and below, is a look at the setting triangles and outer border.  She did feather wreaths in each of the plain alternating blocks and you can see that a bit in the first picture. I think it's wonderfully beautiful! And I think Lynette is a truly gifted artist with her long arm.

And those few spots by the flowers!  Nothing but character, in my mind.  I imagine Grandma had a bit of oil on her fingers from polishing the furniture or from the cooking she did for the boarders in her house, and she left some of it in the fabric as she picked up her needle to work on the project in the evenings when the work was finished. Those "garish" colors?  They look beautiful to me now and will fit in quite well with the "decor" I have. I have the perfect empty wall where I'll hang this quilt--everyone will see it as they come through the front door.  I can't wait to put it on display but first I have to stitch the muslin binding and find a quilt rack for the wall that's big enough for it.

Grandma Pendarvis, Grandma Gray, and MIL have all gone on to their just reward, but this quilt will live on as a tribute to the women in my husband's family. Thank you, Leona, for giving this quilt to me 20 years ago.

The "joys" of gardening

Yesterday, we had warm and partially sunny weather here so I spent several hours outdoors doing some gardening--pruning (don't yell at me, gardeners, for not getting this done last winter--I know I should have), weeding, and generally starting to tidy things up.  Well, the price I'm paying today is stiff, achy fingers, knees, and back. I didn't think I'd overdone it but I guess I did. So, today is another warm and sunny day and I'll be working on quilting instead of going outside and adding to my misery. Well, maybe I'll be out for only an hour or so. We've had such a cloudy, cold and rainy April that I hate to waste a day like this, but that's how it's to be.


I've been getting that giant auction quilt ready to be sandwiched.  I have the back all pieced together and I just have to  piece a bit of batting and then take it to work with me on Wed to get it all pinned.  I use the tables in the meeting room after work to lay it all out rather than crawling around on the floor--No mam! Those days are gone for me!  I'll try to get a picture of it when it's all laid out.


I've also made a set of place mats for my Etsy store and I posted them today. I made them to coordinate with the table runner I had posted earlier.  

I think they're pretty.  I've been using quilted place mats for the past 10 years or so and I love them. They add a texture that's missing from other mats, and when I set a plate or a glass on them, it just sounds different--soft and nice.


Today, I'm making a table quilt that will probably come out to about 50" square.  Pastel spring colors I think.  Probably some applique as well as a pinwheel block.  We'll see.

I just read Kate's blog http://kate-life-in-pieces.blogspot.com/ and remembered it was Tuesday and I've not posted the 15 minute challenge for a long time.  Well, I've been on vacation for 8 days so that's one excuse.

I've been working like mad on the auction quilt I began in January and by burning the midnight oil, the top is finished!  I spent at least an hour or two every day this past week working on it--except for the weekend when we had Lily and Tessa here most of the time. 

Anyway, the top is done and I did a final measurement to see how much batting and backing I'll need, and that darn thing has grown from a double/queen as intended to a king!  Now I have to quilt it on my DSM!  Yikes!  I've done a king quilt on that machine once before so I know it can be done, but I also know my shoulders will take a beating doing this!  When I finished the other King, I felt like a linebacker for the GB packers!  I also know that I'm not going to do any real fancy stitching on this quilt--too much mass to manage on the home machine.  I figured out a simple loopy design to do in every triangle piece that should be easy as well as good looking.  Hey, isn't that what I said 40 years ago that I wanted in a husband?  :o)

Anyway, my sewing machine has been working a lot and will continue to do so until this thing is finished and on the auction block in June.