Problem Solving

I don’t think I’ve mentioned this here publicly. I have vision issues as a result of not taking care of my diabetes. I have a great doctor and he is working closely with me to get the problem solved.

Because of this I struggle with seeing the thread while quilting and where I’ve been unless I use a contrasting thread. This isn’t necessarily bad but I do get asked why I use high contrast colors and sometimes, frankly, it feels a little judgemental.

Somewhere over the course of the past two years I put a call out on a facebook group asking for ideas and help. Someone mentioned watching a Jamie Wallen video about side light. Also, I set out to get glasses that were for mid range vision only.

I went to Home Depot and bought a battery operated light and a board. The boyfriend taped it to the board so I could see if it worked. It was a failed experiment for me. I didn’t understand I’d have to turn off other lights.

This past week I found my light and decided to give it another try. Here are some pictures to illustrate.

My machine, overhead and ceiling fan light are on. Notice the shadow.

Here I turned off the machine light.

Here I turned on the sidelight and ceiling fan light is still on.

In the picture the contrast is better than to the naked eye.

Here I turned off the ceiling fan light. What an amazing difference.

Here is my little contraption. The boyfriend put screws on the side of the board to mount it properly.

The quilting you see in the pic was accomplished with my light. I have my glasses in hand and I’m ready to go!

Got any more tips for me? Hope someone finds this useful.

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Meh

I’m stuck once again. I have a quilt on the machine trying something new to me. I think I have the kinks worked out and will try again tonight. But, it’s been sitting there for weeks. Inertia!

Most of what I have to work on are unquilted tops. So I need to quilt or get off the pot!

I have decided to start some new things. Forcing myself to just quilt isn’t working so I may as well piece!

Last week I spotted the tote that I knew contained my shirt plaids. The only problem was there were two other heavy totes on top of it. I cornered one of the kids that run through my house on a regular basis and had him move them.

Friday night I started sorting the non-plaids out of the tote and started locating the other plaids I’ve acquired to put in this tote. I also started locating fabric that I wanted to group together for other projects and placed it in there.

Here is the tote I’ll be drawing from for my new projects. The plaids are for Bonnie Hunter’s Scrappy Mountain Majesties. The bright colors are two jelly rolls and a FQ bundle that I plan to make A Walk in the Park by Craft Sew Create from. I may add a neutral to the grouping.

Stayed tuned. You’ll be seeing more on these soon.

What are you piecing?

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Paper Piecing

I’m sure with more practice I would enjoy it more. For this block I had directional fabric I was trying to lay in a certain way. My spatial abilities were challenged.

Here is block 5 of my Saturday Sampler BOM.

Paper piecing...yes or no?

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Insert Your Title Here

I was prepared to make a post titled “Friends Don’t Send Friends UFOs”. The reason is my good friend Glen sent me one of her UFOs. THEN....she posted on my August OMG post and asked “where do you come up with all the quilts to quilt?”

Really? Well, it seems I have people that tell me their stories about their broken quilts and I fix them. I have people that make quilt tops and don’t like them so they give them to me. I have people that don’t like how their blocks are looking so they mail them to me. I buy them when I see them at antique stores, estate sales or garage sales. Finally, I make them myself from beginning to end. I think that about covers it. Oh wait, there are charity and comfort quilts too.

Where do you come up with all the quilts to quilt?

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August OMG

Not sure why I have to figure out what I am going to do for my goal when it’s right in front of my face. I’m going to quilt the quilt I loaded last week.

I was given pieces of this quilt way back in 2008. I made it into a top in late 2016. It’s time has come!

Linking up with Elm Street quilts for August goal setting.

Are you playing?

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Lynn’s Repaired Quilt

Here is #6 from my 3Q FAL list. I just pulled it from it’s spin through a wash and dry.

Here is the before.

The quilt had been repaired previously. The sides had been rolled up and sewn down and even then were damaged again. You can see most of the damage is to the green fabric. The back had damage too.

I took it apart. Cut away the ties. Picked out the straight line stitching. I found a very thick batting. I wasn’t sure of its makeup. It felt like cotton but then it didn’t. I talked to several people and they speculated it could be wool. I took it to my LQS and showed it to one of the ladies there. We pulled it apart and decided it was actually a cotton batting and a poly batting layered on top.

I replaced all the green fabric. I replaced the borders using some of the backing and the new green. The binding was also taken from the backing.

Other than the green I added, the blocks were repaired with parts from the back and the original border. Even then there were small tears in many places. I used a combination of fusible interfacing and zig zag stitching in matching thread. There is a new back and 2 new battings.

Hey, this thing saw 40 years of heavy use. I think it has at least another 10.

I finally asked Lynn what this quilt meant to him. He told me he had been a long haul driver and took it with him everywhere. I asked who gave it to him and he told me it was his 5th wife. I must have made a face because later our mutual friend said “Don’t worry, she was one of his favorites.”

It was a lot of work but Lynn’s happiness makes it worth it. I started this project on May 22nd and put the final stitches in it yesterday.

Here’s the happy customer!

Happy quilting!

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Got Pink?

I sewed at the church tonight. Cut strips for two bindings. Trimmed the repaired quilt the rest of the way.

I had trimmed it Wednesday but my back was a smidge short on one side. I pieced in a slice to fill in the empty spot and attached the binding as much as I could. Will finish attaching the binding Saturday.

I spent the rest of the night repairing the kite quilt. When the night ended I lacked two pieces to finish. I need one more red piece and I need a light pink. I know I have it I just have to find it.

Here are some closeups. The red at the top is new and in the middle is yet to be done.

The dark solid blue are the replaced pieces.

I was given this quilt by a friend. I loved it when I saw it and she handed it to me when I asked what she planned to do with it.

Have you noticed I like to repair quilts?

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Fraying Fabric

My friend Renee gave me a quilt top a few years ago. She had two and I love yellow so convinced her to give me this one. She told me there were holes. Upon closer inspection I found frayed taffeta. I’ve repaired other quilts that had this fabric in it. I would suggest you zig zag the edges if you plan to use it in anything!

The blue was the worst but while working on the top replacing those pieces I found red and green taffeta too. The green is shot just like the blue. The red held up but I’m going to replace it since there are only two of them.

There is one piece of, what I thought was cotton, that frayed badly. It’s light pink. I’ll have to check for more. I want to prevent future issues before I quilt it.

I’ll share more pictures of the whole top once I’ve sewn in the patches. They’re pinned in place right now.

Stay tuned!

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