Guild meeting

Last night was guild meeting and I introduced one of 3 block of the month projects that we're offering this year.  Mine is the Civil War Jubilee pattern designed by Barbara Brackman for Moda Fabrics. I think she's also launching a fabric line by that name as well.

Barbara is what I would call an authority on Civil War era quilts and fabrics. She's published quite a few books about these topics and I have some of them on a wish list for myself!  I've been following her blog at Civil War Quilts for a couple of years and although I've not been making the blocks and stars, I find it very interesting to read the stories she adds about the fabrics, patterns and quilts that she writes about. Disclaimer here:  I'm a history buff!  In case you hadn't noticed.

Without realizing that it was the 150th anniversary of the ending of the Civil War, Don, Lily and I stopped at Appomattox Courthouse, VA . . .

in our travels last June and found it very interesting.  It's a national site and as always the rangers were extremely knowledgeable and entertaining as they described for us General Lee's surrender of the Army of Virginia to General Grant's Army of the Potomac in April, 1865. Which was the beginning of the end of the war.

There were 2 or 3 more armies that had to surrender before the war was officially finished which was in June, I think, of 1865.  

What better way to commemorate the 150th anniversary than by making a Civil War era quilt! I decided to offer a Civil War quilt to the guild as a monthly exchange.  Many of the quilters who expressed interest the Civil War Jubilee said they couldn't make it to all the meetings to do the exchange so we decided to make it a quilt along instead. We'll each work on our own blocks and make our own quilts, using the same Jubilee pattern.  It's not what I had in mind, but I'm okay with it.  I just want to use up some of my large collection of CW fabrics and get another quilt on the bed!

So, today, I hope to make up a few more of these blocks, but first, I'm in the garden. Don cleaned up the second half of our garden plot and spread horse manure all over it. Today I get to dig it in as I did the first half last week.  Then, my gardening chores will be finished except for cleaning up a little bit of flower bed that's left over from last week.  I hope you have a more exciting day planned than shoveling horse shit doodoo.

I'm getting quilt crazy--again!

Arrrrgggghhhhhh!  I can't stand it!  Everywhere I look, I see another quilt that I simply have to make!  I have such a long list of quilts that I absolutely must make, I'd have to live as long as Methuselah in order to get them all done. And not develop Alzheimer's  or some such thing.  What's a gal to do?

This is what's set me off today.  This is from the Moda Bake shop and I just love it!



I've been wanting to make an orange peel quilt for some time now and this is perfect.  I will make it out of one of the Civil War repro jelly rolls that I've been saving for who knows what but it'll be perfect in this quilt.  So, the directions are cut and pasted and printed, stapled together and are ready to go into my sewing room, and who knows when I'll get around to actually making this quilt! Aaaarrrggghhhh!

The second thing that caught my interest is this.   Sharon at vroomans quilts posted this house tutorial using 6" nine patch blocks for the body of the house.

I have a stack of waiting-to-be-used either 6 or 8 inch nine patches left over from a guild exchange that will be perfect in these houses.  Sharon included how to enlarge the blocks to accommodate other sized nine patch blocks, so I should be able to figure it out.  Every home should have a house quilt, don't you think?  

In the meantime, I've worked up a half dozen or so blocks for the guild block exchange that I'm in charge of this year.  We're making Barbara Brackman's Civil War Jubilee pattern out of 6 different color groups and then exchanging blocks every month. These are the blocks I've done up--37 left to go!  They go together very easily. The hardest part is deciding which 2 fabrics to use in each block. I've decided that I'm not going to be a stickler for the Civil War fabrics--mainly because I don't know enough about them to know exactly what colors and patterns were used during that specific time period.  I'm just going to ask the group to use fabric repros from the 19th century--nothing from the 20th or 21st centuries.  Don't want any Amy Butler or Kaffe Fassett, or 30's repros mixed in with the 19th century colors and designs.  It should work okay.  I hope.

I've also been diligently embroidering while watching TV in the evenings.  Thank goodness for Netflicks and Hulu Plus!  I only have one Santa left to stitch and this will be ready to be bordered and quilted and put in the Jolly Ruby shop on Etsy in time for Christmas.  

Also in progress is a cover for my daughter's stand mixer.  I'd made her placemats and a table runner out of 30's repro fabrics with a kitchen window valance and now she wants a cover out of the same kind of fabrics.  She's just bought her first house and is wanting to make it oh so nice!

Before I begin working on any of the above projects, I'm going to spend some time today in my flower beds, getting them ready for winter.  That may take the rest of the day since I've sorely neglected them this summer!  We have a beautiful cool but sunny day here, perfect for working outdoors.  I hope your day is beautiful too.

Gardening

I just returned from spending a couple of hours in the garden. Last week, Don and I cleaned up one  of our two plots, leaving the broccoli, peppers, eggplant, tomatoes and green beans, since they were still producing. I got many more bags of beans in the freezer and Don made up a batch of his salsa, and maybe there will be enough tomatoes for a second batch. Only he will determine that!

Today dawned clear and cool and I decided it was the day to begin digging in the newspapers and hay that has served as mulch all summer as well as the rotted horse manure that Don spread over the cleaned up half of the garden.  Yes, some people do think I'm a little crazy when I say I enjoy turning over dirt with a spade. I say, what's the difference between 2 hours digging and 2 hours of running in place on the treadmill.  Crazy is as crazy does.  For me, there's something therapeutic about actually working with the soil, nourishing it for the next season of growth. And it's a really good workout to boot!

In 2 hours I managed to dig in the cleaned up garden plot, and I feel as though it was time well spent. I took a couple of breaks during that time, chatting with the few other gardeners who were there and just enjoying the overall solitude of the place.  I listened for the birds that I normally hear out there but they've left--gone to warmer parts for the winter, I guess. There was a gentle breeze that kept me cool as I worked in the Autumn sun.  Even though the temp is in the low 60's today, I got quite warm in the garden.  I could hear the breeze rustling the leaves in the dried up corn stalks in the neighbor's garden.  So quiet and peaceful.  

So now I'm home and ready to do a little quilting. I have this banner pinned and ready to quilt up

and this table runner is ready as well. Both will go into the Etsy store for the fall season. 

Yesterday, I stitched the binding on the Swirling Geese quilt and made this for the label:  

and I just noticed that the date line is crooked.  I'm going to leave it like that.  In order to change it, I'd have to take off part of the binding and make an entire new label, and this is the best of the 4 or 5 practice ones that I made.  As you can see, I put Bonnie's name on the label. She and I worked together to piece the top, and she's going to do the final hand stitching.  Sandy, my teacher in my initial quilting class, explained that the last person to stitch on a quilt was the official quilter, so Bonnie's name goes on this quilt. Besides, it's being donated to her AAUW group, not mine, so it's fitting that her name be on the quilt.   

I also used up the extra fabric and made a couple of pillow cases to go with, one to store the quilt in and the second one, just because.

I'm having a peaceful and productive day and I hope you are too.

Quilting problem solved

In my last post, The feathers have been flying!, I was complaining explaining how I was again having problems with thread shredding and breaking as I was FMQ spirals. So frustrating since I had absolutely no problem when stitching FMQ feathers and when using the walking foot.  I'd had the machine to the repair guy last June when I was having the same problem, and he found nothing in the machine that would cause the thread breakage. So, on Friday, I decided to ask Professor Google about it.  I ignored the usual advice to rethread top and bottom, clean the machine, and to put in a new needle, because I'd already done that about 637 times already with no results.

One thing I did check was the throat plate. One person said that a burr on the throat plate can cause the thread to shred as it goes into the bobbin area and back up. Sure enough, I found what looks like a chip in the throat plate. I had a second plate handy--one with just a little hole in it for straight stitching instead of the oval opening in my usual throat plate--and I tried using that. Same shredding as before!  So that's not the problem but I'll still get that chip checked out.

The second suggestion was concerning the needle. One person suggested that the needle may be bending a little as I stitch circles, causing the thread to rub against the eye and shred.  She recommended using a 100/16 needle which would be stronger with a larger eye, so this weekend I looked for that size but could only find a jeans needle--like this picture off the Schmetz website but in size 110/18.

When I got home yesterday afternoon, I put in one of these needles and was able to finish all the spirals in the quilt without even one thread breakage.  I think I've found the solution to my problem! It's such a big needle though, it sounds like the machine is sewing with a spike as it goes into the fabric!  Definitely makes a large hole but in a cotton quilt that shouldn't be a problem. If I ever decide to quilt on silk, this large needle will stay in the package. :)

So, last night I finished the quilting on the AAUW quilt shown here:

I need to square it up and trim it today and stitch on the binding after I've made the label. Then I'll get together with my friend, Bonnie, and hand it over to her to do the hand stitching and to donate it to her AAUW fundraiser.  I've decided to name it "Geese in a Swirl" or "Geese A Swirlin'." I'm quite pleased overall with how it came out--not perfect quilting but quite nice all together. As someone said, "If you can't see the mistake while riding by on a galloping horse, it's all right."

Next on the agenda is to make a few sample blocks of Barbara Brackman's Civil War Jubilee quilt shown in this picture.

I took this from Pinterest and it's a little dark compared to the pic on the pattern. I'm coordinating a block exchange for my guild (one of three monthly projects for members to choose from) and we're introducing them at next week's meeting, so I want to be prepared.  I have a large collection of Civil War era repro fabrics and would love to have another bed quilt made from them. 

Other than those 2 projects, I have to get a few groceries--guest arriving tonight for a few days of golfing with Don--and do a little housecleaning before he gets here.  Should be a relaxed kind of day and I hope yours is too.

The feathers have been flying!

I've been stitching feathers on my  quilt for the last 2 days and yesterday, I finished the last one! Yea! I really enjoyed doing them and I definitely will be practicing more advanced ways to stitch them, and "fancier" ones too.  After I stitched the last feather, I began the design on the flying geese--a simple triple loop in the center of each one. But with the first one, I began getting huge skipped stitches and thread breakage.  So, I ripped out the 2 geese I'd done and decided to stitch in the ditch around each goose.

While I was doing that, I decided on doing a  spiral in each of the background triangles of the geese and leave the centers to "pop" out.  I got about a dozen spirals done--they looked really nice, btw--and again with the skipping and breakage! That's when the verbal feathers began flying!

I called the store where I'd bought the new, expensive, all computerized machine and all I got was, "Change the needle and clean out the thread uptake area and bobbin area.  I can't really help you without seeing what the problem is."  Grrrrr!  I shut everything down and will do the cleaning and give it another try this morning if I have time.

Here's the deal:  I had no problem when I did hours and hours of free motion feather stitching. When I finished that, I put in a new spool of thread, same company and same weight but different color, and kept the same bobbin thread.  No problem with stitching straight lines with the walking foot. But now, with the free motion stitching loops and spirals, the problem starts.  It seems that the thread is shredding somewhere in the thread uptake area.  I see a lump of thread above the needle eye that gets too large to pass through the needle.  I put in a new needle when I began the quilting--a #80 top stitching needle which has a larger eye than other needles.  What could be causing the shredding?  I'd be happy to hear from anyone who might be able to advise me on this.

In the meantime, I'll clean out the thread uptake area really good--I have a little vacuum I can use in there as well as manual cleaning--and try it again. Wish me luck!

By the way, this quilt is really looking good!  If only I could finish the quilting!

Horse Feathers!

For some reason, "horse feathers!" popped into my mind as I went to enter the title of this post.  I think it means something like "phooey" but I'm not sure. So I asked Professor Google about it and I learned that this term originated in the 1920's or 30's and it means

"A term used in place of swear words, but with the same emphasis. Rooted at meaning "impossible," as horses obviously lack feathers."

So, I can't really apply it to my recent experience quilting the feathers in the charity quilt my friend and I made but I think I'll still keep it as my title of the day.

Two days ago I spent most of the day in the kitchen working with carrots and green beans, getting them into the freezer. I remember thinking to myself at the end that I'd been on my feet a lot that day and I didn't feel very uncomfortable as I had in the past. Before my knee replacement I could stand no more than 10 minutes at a time and since the surgery, I've noticed a gradual increase in how long I can stand and have been very pleased.  Well, pride goes before the fall, I guess. After my work was done in the kitchen, I sat down and put my feet up to watch some TV before getting dinner ready. Within half an hour, I literally could not move my knee AT ALL!  It hurt soooo much to move it!  I was nearly in tears. Thankfully, Don was home and could help me get up so I could try to bend it a little otherwise, I couldn't stand on it at all much less walk anywhere.  A chat with the on-call orthopedic at Mayo Clinic, some ice, Ibuprofen, and gentle movement, and an hour later it was much improved.  The doc told me to stay off it for awhile so Don, great guy that he is, fixed and served dinner and did the clean up.  Yesterday the knee was better and it's almost normal today, but I'm still not standing or walking too much for now.  It's the perfect time to isolate in the sewing room and finish those feathers! 

Yesterday, I gathered up all my courage and began quilting the charity quilt. First I made a fresh quilt sandwich and practiced about 4 times and I rather liked the feathers I did there. So, on to the real thing. First, I stitched in the ditch along the edges of the green polka dot sashing in the quilt.  That went very well, in my opinion (sometimes stitching in the ditch can be a real bugger!) so, on to the feathers.  I'm using a black Frixion pen to mark the spines of the feathers and then I'm free handing it in making the petals or whatever they're called.  Amazingly, I can do this!  I'm so surprised!  I've struggled for YEARS to master quilting feathers and now I can finally do it!  

Because the sashings are pretty long, I decided to stitch separate  feathers about 15 inches long and I'm doing a separate feather around the corners that you can see in the second photo.

Are they perfect feathers?  No--I'm not a computer after all. Are they fancy feathers?  No, I"m just beginning.  Are they good enough for this project?  Absolutely!

Yesterday, I did about half of the sashings before my shoulders and arms were tired and I had developed a splitting headache, which went away as soon as I stopped the quilting. Do you think I may have been a little tense!!!!  When I'm finished with this post, I'll be back in the sewing room, finishing the feathers and beginning on the flying geese units. I have a design figured out for them and they should be pretty easy to do.  Fingers crossed!

I also finished up this pumpkin patch candle mat and got that posted on my Etsy store, Jolly Ruby so you can take a look at that if you like.

So, those are my latest adventures in rehabbing a metal knee and mastering quilting feathers!  I hope I don't find myself in a situation today where I scream "Horse Feathers!" out of frustration!  Wish me luck finishing this quilt, okay?

A happy weekend

I had a very nice weekend--a little work and a little play, and that made Barb a happy girl.  I spent both days at home.  On Saturday, I just did a little housework--remember, I'd really cleaned house for the Handwork Group on Thursday evening--and made a trip to the grocery store.  I spent the afternoon at the computer, learning how to quilt feathers in my Craftsy class with Angela Walters.  I was practicing with paper and pencil as she was teaching, and I think I can actually do this!  Of course, working on the quilt will be a bit different, I'm sure.

I was looking through my box of batting scraps when I found this. Back in 2013, I think, I'd taken a class at a machine quilting show in Milwaukee. This was the piece we worked on, honing our skills at quilting on the domestic sewing machine.  During class, I'd completed stitch in the ditch work around the wedding rings and also the more intricate designs in the center and corners of the square.  

 

But I didn't even get started on the second part of the exercise and I haven't done any of the quilting in the pink borders.  I'd planned on finishing it when I got home and making a large pillow out of it.  

So, when I discovered it, hidden in that bin of batting, I realized that this would be the perfect practice piece before I begin the feathers on the Flying Geese quilt. Working on this piece is on today's agenda. With luck and hope, I'll have enough confidence to begin quilting the real quilt after I finish with this.

On Saturday, I also did a little work on getting this candle mat completed.  I'd already embroidered the 4 pumpkin motifs so I just needed to add the borders and stitch it all together. I decided to follow the directions in the pattern which were to make the quilt sandwich kind of inside out (a little differently than when adding binding) and stitch it all together around the edges. Then I turned it right side out through a 3" opening, which ended up being 4" after I'd shoved all the fabric and batting through. But no matter--that opening is pressed and pinned and ready to be hand stitched. A little machine quilting and it'll be ready for the Jolly Ruby shop.

I love the little spiders!  But not in real life!

Sunday was a day for working in the garden. Both Don and I went out there--he harvested and I pulled weeds in preparation for sowing a cover crop for the winter.  In addition to bringing home some green beans, tomatoes, jalapenos, and cabbage, we also found these beautiful carrots ready to be pulled and brought home. Some of these carrots are between 2 and 3 inches in diameter!  We've never had such great carrots before. Also found a couple of onions that had  been overlooked when we harvested the onions.

And another good thing in the garden yesterday was my discovery of 2 earthworms!  This is great news since we've been gardening in very sandy soil and everyone is doing their best to add organic materials to lure in the worms.  Don and I have been spreading as much cow shit manure as we can, and I guess it's paying off now!  Welcome, little wormies!

Today's task is to get these carrots cleaned up and mostly in the freezer, as well as the green beans. Don will be making salsa out of the tomatoes and peppers he brought home.  I think for dinner tonight, I'll use some of the carrots for a grated carrot and apple salad and I'll cook up some of the green beans as well. I'm getting hungry just thinking about it so I'd better get a move on and get my work done.