Epic Fail! Well...

...more like try again.

Do you see anything wrong with this picture?  Let me give you a hint.  The row I sewed to the top should have been attached to the bottom.  I just realized I was hurrying to get it attached before I went to get lunch.  I did not even give it a second thought.

When I got back I cut the borders then pressed the top.  I lay out the border pieces to cut to fit.  Couldn’t I have taken a moment to look at it?  Why yes but I was talking.  Hmmm....  I’ve been contemplating to fix or not.  Yes I must fix it.  Then how best to fix it.  I could surgically remove the pieces and swap them around.  12 pieces times 4 sides to do that.  Suddenly pulling borders off and reversing the two bottom rows then reattaching borders isn’t looking so bad!  Maybe 5 long seams.  Better!

I came home from church and continued dusting off the longarm and getting ready to oil and thread it.  Both of these activities will happen tomorrow.  Both steps towards accomplishing this months OMG.  I’ll also be back here in the next day or two and let you know what I have in mind for my quilty works.

Would you fix this mistake if it were your quilt?

January 2021 OMG

I really tried to encourage myself to make this a quilting goal instead of a piecing goal.  But I know doing this makes me resist getting back to my machine even more.  So for this month I’m going to bring my Scooch Over 1 top to flimsy.  Here are layouts I’ve been playing with.

Regarding the actual act of quilting I will get my machine threaded and dusted off and ready to go.  The bonus will be if I do more!  We will see.

Linking up with Patty at Elm Street Quilts One Monthly goal.  Are you playing too?

What are the Mountains of your Mind?

I borrowed this from a friend that heard Bonita speak.  This was what he took away from her lecture.

When Bonita Norris, the youngest British woman to climb Mount Everest, set out on her quest to conquer this mountain, she faced much resistance. She was told by experts that 99% of the people who say that they’re going to climb Mount Everest, fail. That’s pretty disheartening news to someone who has never climbed a mountain. Instead of listening to the loudest voices of the ninety-nine percentile, she decided to focus on the quieter 1%. What is it about that 1% that sets them apart? With this focus, just a few years later she conquered that mountain and stood on the summit.

What are your mountains? What do you need to conquer? Listen to that still small voice, the voice of victory and focus on that. Take it one step at a time. Don’t worry about the thousands of steps or decisions ahead of you. Just the next one. That’s the only one you need to take right now. Also note that the steps you’ve taken so far, every single one of them, has brought you to this place, this moment, this decision point. I don’t know about you, but my biggest mountains are those that exist in my mind. I’m learning how to quiet those loud voices, the naysayers, your enemy and focus on my champion, the victory, the 1%. It could take you to great heights.

This is my mountain.  My Avante that I’ve owned since August 2015.  I can probably count the number of quilts I’ve quilted on it with two hands.  Why do I not use it more?  You’ve seen me crank out tops left and right.  I taken several ruler classes.  I’ve quilted for others both for group gifts and commissions I’ve taken on.  Not one single time has my work been criticized.  

So why?  I’ve tried talking to others about it.  I’ve tried to enlist a coach or encourager.  No luck.  I’ve thought about it many times and tried to pin the reason on others.  My son complains it’s too noisy.  He’s barely around anymore.  There goes that excuse.  My daughters cats were always using it for a hammock.  They became interested in the thread so it was immediately unthreaded and not used since.  Neither the daughter nor cats live here any longer.   I know it’s me.  All me!

I had a quilt on the frame that my design was too complex for my skill set at the time.  I took it off until my skill set matched my desired plan.  I’ve mostly freehand quilted with good success.  I have a tendency to want to custom quilt everything.  I can’t seem to see that an all over pattern will be just fine for what I am doing.   What I am doing is quilting every day quilts.  The current quilt on the frame is one that I’m doing an all over swirl pattern on.  It’s boring, I’m bored, I don’t want to do it.  I’ve learned a lot about myself haven’t I?

So here I am.  I don’t want to take that quilt off.  I need to move forward.  Do I pick it out and do something else?  No, I’m a quarter to a third way through.  Can I change the pattern up?  Doubtful but I may be able to make the designs more open so it’s less quilting but it’s still a lot of quilting.  I just need to commit myself to doing a little on it everyday until it’s done.

Do you have something you’re trying to overcome?

December 2020 OMG Complete

I waited until the last minute, why?  I don’t know why!  But I didn’t!  I finished everything on my list.

Borders added.

  Pillowcases made

Blocks made.  50 of them!

That was my goal.  All complete.  Linking up with Patty at Elm Street Quilts.

I hope you had a very Merry Christmas and I wish you the happiest New Year.

Swooze

Retreat Day At Church

Can you have too much fun?  A few friends gathered today at church to sew.  We had a small gift exchange.  This group has so much fun together.  Lots of laughter, teasing and love!  The really fun part was that Karen and I are addicted to The Quilted Cow’s weekly live on Facebook.  Be warned it’s a super long sales pitch and they have awesome stuff!  The one thing I’ve fallen in love with are the shirts.

I’m not sure how I found them but I quickly shared the info with Karen because she loves the quilt shirts too.  We planned that I wear my newest shirt today so that we could stage some funny pics.  The joke is on me because while Karen and I were discussing the staging, Linda started snapping pics.  I think what she captured was even funnier than what we were trying to do.

 This, to me, was the epic shot.  I was telling her what we were going for.  We were talking and that’s my listening face.  If you didn’t know you might think my thought bubble said “What?  You think I’m naughty?”

This was the staged shot.  “What can I say?”  Her thought.  “That’s funny!”

Another staged one.  “What can I say?”.  Her thought “She’s crazy!”

We had fun!  But there was sewing too.  The pillowcases are done and the borders are added to the camper quilt.  Parts are cut for the broken dishes blocks.

More to come!  I’ll show and talk more of the broken dishes blocks soon.

Slow But Forward Movement

In months past I’ve been whipping out quilt tops.  This month I’ve slowed waaaay down.  Can’t really put my finger on anything in particular that might be the cause.  I’m definitely thankful for the OMG because honestly that is what has propelled me forward this month.

I’ve added the borders to this one.

I had about a yard of that large print leftover.  My friend suggested I make a matching pillowcase so I did just that.  Although I still have to French seam it.

Another part of my goal was to make four pillowcases to go with my camper quilt.  All four are needing the final French seam.  I decided to sew down the flange on them which is shown here.  

I’ve always gifted cases in the past but never kept them for myself.  I did just that last year.  One cash convinced me to sew down the flange!

The last part of the goal is to add the final border to the camper quilt.  No new pic but the borders are cut.  They need to be trimmed to size and attached!  No worries!  I also have to make my broken dishes blocks.  They’re not hard just small and fiddly.  I think I said I’d make 50.  I can do it!  

I have two day long retreats at the church with friends this month.  I also have several days off from work in addition to the retreat days.  Watch this space for an update soon!

I hope you’re ready to pass the holidays however you like and that everyone is safe and sound.  Merry Christmas to all!

Swooze

Need Some Focus

I can’t help but think about the many things I want to work on.  “One” of those things is to dig into scraps and use them.  I’ve talked to several people about how they decide to cut up their scraps.  I do follow Bonnie Hunters techniques but really don’t want to cut everything down just yet.  I’ve made her last two mysteries by dipping into my scraps, then stash to make them.  

I haven’t started Grassy Creek yet but I think I will start soon.  I also picked three other quilts I want to make from my scraps and thought about sorting through and pulling for those quilts as I go.  In the process of choosing I realized that Jamestown Landing is a broken dishes pattern so will mishmash my pieces into a Jamestown like setting.

I make these decisions then waste time on lots of other things.  That’s why I’m glad I started doing One Monthly Goal again.  It keeps me moving forward.  I decided to sew the flange down on my pillowcases.  I tested a few designs and chose one last night.  That will go quickly.  

Yesterday I was at church and cut the final border for my split decision quilt.  I decided to continue cutting instead of sewing it on.

I have enough extra to make a pillow case to go along with this one.  Win!

Then I selected and attached the next borders on my camper quilt.  Just have to cut and attach the last border.

Good progress on my OMG goal.  I have 4 sew dates planned before the end of the year so should be able to finish everything!

How are you doing with your sewing goals?  Linking up with Love Laugh Quilt for Monday Making.

December 2020 OMG

Time to set my goal for the month with Patty at Elm Street Quilts.  I try to balance between it being achievable but also a little bit of a challenge.

Adding borders seems to be my thing this year.  So a repeat on that front.  I’ll add borders to these two quilts.

The second picture is my camper quilt.  I’ll also be making the four matching pillowcases.

Finally, I’ve had a broken dishes quilt on my bucket list for a long time.  I’ve started making some units and playing with a layout.  I also have had a Bonnie Hunter design, Jamestown Landing on my list.  In playing with the layout it seems that I was coincidentally trying to create that design.  I think I’m going to modify her design and make my quilt Jamestown Landingesque.  So my goal is to make 50 broken dishes blocks, or more.  More on this in future posts.

This picture represents 4 units.

Are you joining Patty and the rest of us OMGers?  I hope you do!

p.s.  I will confess that I have two kits here burning a hole in my desire to work on them.  Watch this space for those as well!

November 2020 OMG Complete!

I managed to complete my goal.  With the help of a four day stay at home retreat I got lots of sewing done and then some!

My two BOMs that I taught are completed tops.

I also finished the three QOV tops that remained.

Thanks to Patty at Elm Street Quilts for hosting this very motivating event!  Go take a look at everyone else’s accomplishments.

Camper Doings

I did a little sewing this week.  I have the quilt center done on my Split Decision quilt.  I’m looking for a neutral to use as the inner border.  Then the rest is TBD.  I’m planning to give this as a quilt of valor.  I have a fabric I was thinking I would use as the back but now that I plan to make it larger it would have to be enlarged as well.  You’ll be seeing more as I go

I was sewing at the church.  .I had to return to stash to continue so decided to move on to my other project.  I planned to add borders to my camper quilt.  I measured it on the camper bed so knew I was at the right size.  When I looked in the bag the only thing I had was the extra fabric intended for backing.  I was disappointed so visited with my friend.  She is a retired nurse and has been helping me with documentation I need so it was time well spent.

I blame my missing project on the stash shuffle.  I’m still working on that by the way.  I’ve had several items missing and managed over the past week to find quite a few, including the camper quilt.  I’m still missing a backing fabric and a pin keeper.  I’m trying hard not to stuff it away in my stash repository but I’m getting dangerously close to doing just that!

So about that camper the quilt is intended for.  On Tuesday the 10th I got a call from the local police department.  They had found our trailer abandoned on a street in our town.  It was hooked up to a stolen truck.  We keep it at a storage facility in Dallas and had no idea it had been taken.  I had to file a police report in Dallas in order for Mesquite to release it.  It was released and we got it after calling our insurance company.  We moved it to a repair facility after we assessed the damage ourselves.  So we are in the throes of estimates and negotiating with the insurance company.  I’m amazed it was not damaged worse than it was.  We will repair it and beef up the security the best we can.

Sewing is in my forecast this week.  I hope you have a great Thanksgiving.  It will just be my kids, dd’s boyfriend and Ray.  We are trying to keep it simple but the menu always seems to grow before the big day!

Big Accomplishments

I had Veterans Day off From work and decided to take advantage and added a vacation day to Thursday and Friday.  I went to the church and sewed with my friends.  There were just three of us.  Actually, we did have a fourth join us on Thursday.  We started as early as 9 and went until 9 two evenings.  We came and went as needed to take care of appointments.  We went out to get a few meals and brought others in.  All in all we had a very good time.

I got a lot done!  On the first day I finished the last two QOVs which gives me 6 completed tops.

With the completion of my OMG November goal under my belt I launched into new things.  Folks on my Stashbuster io group had been talking about this pattern.  Serendipitously a friend asked me if I wanted a layer cake she had.  BINGO!  Of course I did because I don’t buy them.  Here is the result. 

I love it!  Another added to the to be quilted pile.  It’s flannel and will be super snuggly and warm.  I started cutting it Wednesday and finished sewing it Thursday.

Friday I pulled out a panel I had kitted up myself.  In fact I made two kits and gifted one to a dear friend.  I had already cut all the strips a week or so ago.  The pattern is Fernanda by Villa Rose.  I set to sewing and here is the result.

Do you see my little helper down there holding the corner?  I use the term help loosely.  He was our sewing companion the majority of the time.  He gave us reason to get up and move.  Walking and playing helped us move!

I started cutting on my next kit.  I made up a single block before calling it a night.  I managed to get away for 6 hours Saturday.  I didn’t sew the entire time but made 28 of the 36 blocks needed.  It’s called Split Decision.  I’ll finish it later.  Here’s my progress.

I’m thinking this may be a good QOV.  It will be close to the size I want to achieve and I have extra fabric.

Are you getting a lot done?  What are you working on?

Big Accomplishments

I failed to mention I finally got my sewing machine back!  16 weeks and 2 days.  When I dropped it off they quoted 5 weeks before they’d even be able to look at it.  I was ok with that.  There was a good bit of what I call game playing through the whole process.  Telling me my machine was getting old and parts were hard to find, delays in working on it, trying to sell me a new machine, marking up replacement parts and terrible communication.  When I picked it up it supposedly had been serviced.  The oil wick was completely and the bobbin case was full of lint.  I wrote them a review and was contacted immediately.  I didn’t budge and they responded to my review that they don’t do business as I described.  Believe me when I tell you I encountered many others that were in the same boat with their machines and repairs.  Why am I the only nad review out there??  The Stitch House in Plano.  Beware.

So the good news about my machine is that it works. After my friend cleaned and oiled it I went right to work.  Since my last post I’ve managed to get my two BOMs together to the top stage and got the fourth of six QOV tops done.  Two more to go and they only lack the last border.  On a roll!

I’m taking two two days off in addition to Veterans day this coming week.  I’ll be sewing with my friend at the church.  I plan to finish off the two QOV tops,  sew together the panel that I just cut the coordinating fabric for and was just given a flannel layer cake that I’ll be trying a pattern out with.  These should be quick projects so I’ll be digging in the stash for other projects.  I have a few already cut so thos will be likely candidates!

What are you working on?

November OMG 2020

I’m feeling frisky this month.  Let’s see what I can do.  

Bring the last three QOVs to a completed top, complete the two BOMs, that I taught over the past year, to the top stage.  For the QOVs it’s all border work.  For the BOMs it’s assembling blocks into columns and assembling the columns x 2.  

 

Linking up with Patty at Elm Street Quilts for One Monthly Goal.  Are you participating?