END OF 18

What a gorgeous last day of the year!

It was cold and foggy in places, but the sun was shining down at Lincoln Park with foggy spots out on the water.  

The Olympics were exceptionally tall today.

Boneheads.

I thought I better get my quilt, Carolinas, ready to mail to Quiltcon.  I still need to finish the binding.  

LAST SUNDAY OF THE YEAR

On our Sunday walk in the park, Darrell took Jax down by the water.  He seems to be obsessed with the waves - they are apparently too exciting.

 Then we went downtown to see Beethoven's Ninth.

BIG CiTY QUILT DONE

The big Paisley City Sampler quilt is completely done!

I really don't like working on quilts this big and it's only 90" by 90".

Because of this, I put it off for a few days, but today I finally got to it.

I cut the excess off, made the binding, sewed it down, top-stitched it over and called it done.

And put it away.

UNCLE EDDIES

We had lunch at Uncle Eddie's in South Park.

I love the Cubano sandwiches there.

TRINKET

I finished up the panto on my City Sampler quilt, but I didn't have time to take it off the machine.

And while Eduard was working on that, I was working on my latest new project - Trinkets.  I had changed the blocks from 4 inch to 6 inch in Electric Quilt and printed out all of the foundation papers I would need.  This quilt will be bigger than the original pattern by Alison Glass.

I had gotten caught up and bought the quilt kit.  It came with about 29 fat quarters in all those delicious colors in the Kaleidoscope collection, plus the dark grey (Raven) for the background and a funky black and white striped knubbly fabric (which I don't like for a quilt).  When I saw that there was plenty enough fabric there for a bigger quilt, I immediately sent away for more of the Raven fabric which I would need more of, and a grey and white stripe to use instead of the knubbly one.  Here we go - just what I needed, another project.  But, I love it!

CHRISTMAS LUNCH

We had lunch at Shanghai Garden downtown.  Our Christmas day tradition.

CHRISTMAS EVE EVE

Darrell's grandson Quentin came to spend the weekend with us.  We took him downtown today.  It's the Sunday before Christmas, the last weekend day before Christmas.  The shoppers have taken over the downtown!  We took a bus figuring there would be no place to park.

Our plan was to go see the gingerbread  house display at the Sheraton.

But, first stop was lunch at P.F. Chang's restaurant.

Afterward, we walked down to the Sheraton to discover a really long line to the gingerbread house exhibit.  An hour and a half wait was too much, so we left.

We went to Westlake Park where Darrell and Quentin rode the Merry-Go-Round.

Fun.

WAVY PANTO

I started a Modern Wave panto on my City Sampler quilt.

FIXED IT

I took my Modern Fans I quilt off the machine the other day, trimmed it up and then....

I turned it over and  noticed the horror on the back.

I hadn't checked the last bobbin's tension and I paid the price.

Actually, it was a partial bobbin I had put in.  I had wound two bobbins for this quilt, figuring that would be enough.  I had just one half row left in the pantograph when the last bobbin expired.  So, I figured I could use a partial bobbin of the same color left over from a previous project.  [Always nice to use use up the excess thread and free up a bobbin.]  I assumed [I know, never assume] that the tension would be fine since I had used it on some other project - so I didn't check the tension.  I just wanted to get it done.  And I did and I removed it from the machine and cut the excess off and squared it up before I noticed the tension problem.

So, I've been stewing about it for the last several days.  I was fretting about how to add fabric back to it so I could pin it back on the machine.  Then there was the worry about getting the pantograph lined up correctly.  It all sounded like too much.  Several times I had just decided to heck with it - I'd leave it as is.  Then I'd think, no!  You can't leave it like that!  

I made the binding and was about to put it on the other day when I decided that I had to fix it.  So, this morning, while on our morning walk, I came up with idea to re-quilt it on my new Bernina (with my new walking foot).

I picked out the bad stuff.  That went really fast - it was very loose on the back.  

Using the holes left from the previous quilting, I was able to easily re-quilt it.  They were all straight lines, so the walking foot worked perfectly.

With that done, I put the binding on, sewing it down with the Bernina on the back and then onto the front.

So, now it is done.  And I feel good about it.

BEAUTIFUL

It rained all night.

There was a break this morning and we went for a very nice walk on the beach at Lincoln Park.  It was windy and the waves were crashing on the shore.

It was exciting and beautiful.

MODERN FANS QUILTED

I finished up the quilting on Modern Fans I, or rather, Eduard did.  I facilitated.

I had filled two bobbins, the second one ran out exactly at the end of the second to last pass.  I had a partial bobbin with the same thread left over from a previous project.  I used that, it ran out when  I still had about a third of the last partial row to go.  I ended up using a different color.

BATTING ENLARGEMENT

In order to quilt my Modern Fans quilt, which is 56" by 56" I had to piece together some batting.  The only bat I had was 60" by 46".  Luckily, I had a big enough scrap.  I sewed a 14" piece onto the short side.  It will just be big enough now.  (I hope).

I used a nice wide zigzag on my new Bernina.  

I got everything loaded up on Eduard (my A-1 longarm) and started a pantograph going.  While that was working, I cut the sashing strips for my City Sampler quilt.

I figured I'd mark pencil lines across the width of the fabric to make it easier to line everything up.   Then cut all of the strips.    It worked out great.

Marking pencil lines to line up the seams across the width.

Then cutting all of the sashing strips.

FINISHED ANOTHER

This little quilt just needed a binding to be finished.  It's the quilt from Angela Walter's latest Quilt-a-Long Challenge.

It turned out pretty nice.

MY COLORS OF THE YEAR

Colour of the Year has a program that evaluates your Instagram posts and makes a little picture of them.  Here's mine:

REFINISHING TABLE

It was a beautiful morning for a walk.  I was somewhat surprised because it had been raining all night.  But, we lucked out.  It was clear and dry for a bit and the rains returned soon afterward.

On another note, we've put up with really bad chairs to my old dining room set for years.  The springs and cushions had collapsed and failed.  We've been sitting on the bones of the chairs - very uncomfortable.  So, on a whim, I talked Darrell into taking me and them to his upholsterer to get them re-upholstered.  They will be done in a few weeks.  

In the meantime, I decided to refinish the set.  I picked up some Restor-a-finish in Golden Oak and started in on the chairs.  Here is a before and after picture.  They definitely will look better.  I don't know why I didn't do this a long time ago.

HALLOWEEN DONE

Yesterday I went into Renton to Sewing  Machine Service.  They were having an open house and 25% off Bernina accessories.  I bought a walking foot and a rolled hem foot and some thread.  These people are much more informed than those at Quality Sewing.  I'm now wishing I had bought my machine through them.

Using my newly purchased walking foot, I put the bindings onto the two Halloween tablerunners.  It definitely worked better than just the dual feed.  But, I was really impressed - it is a much better design than my old walking foot.  The have improved it to make it easier to see where you are and where the quilting edge is, with markings for quarter inch.  I love it.

You gotta wonder why these are supposed to be the same size - yet, somehow, aren't.  

Mr. Bentley prefers staying inside where it's warm and dry on these rainy, drizzly days. Life is good.

HALLOWEEN OFF

I finally finished the quilting on  the second Halloween tablerunner and got it off the machine.