WAITING SKETCH

 I took Darrell to a clinic for an appointment where they would be knocking him out for a short time.  They said he'd be with them for about two hours.  So, I ran down to Renton to pay for my new longarm frame.  I wrote a check this time, because it was such a hassle with the debit card last time.  (over the daily limit issues).

After that was done, I swung through Renton - oh my, it has really changed since I've lived there.  I stopped at the little quilt store on 3rd, Wyldwood Creative.  I figured I could spend a little money to help her out.  I know, I know, I don't need any fabric, but you gotta keep these little local stores open!  I did find a few things, mostly Ruby Star Society stuff, so everyone was happy.  I was also delighted to see a little cabinet out in front of the store that said 'Little Free Craft Cabinet' on it.  I went back to the car and grabbed some of Sue's 'coloring books' that I've been carrying around.  I put them in the cabinet.  Hopefully, someone will give them a good home.  I still have more to distribute around, too.

I headed back to the clinic to wait.  I brought my sketching bag so I could sketch while I waited.  I stayed in my car and sketched the car across from me.  It got my attention immediately because it was parked on the line - I hate that!

I just realized I love sketching on these little postcards.  There's no pressure to make a masterpiece, like I feel when sketching in a sketchbook.  Fun!

P.S. Darrell is fine.

HALF OF IT

 Got this first half all sewn together.

The other half is two thirds done, too.

BIGGER THAN I THOUGHT

 I've been sewing the parts of the Nebula BOM, that I've made over the last few days, together. It just keeps getting bigger and bigger.

I'm not a big fan of sewing large chunks - they tend to want to fall off my sewing table and they are just plain hard-to-handle.

There will be six big pieces to the top - then those will be sewn together and it will be done!

Upper center piece

Lower center piece

Upper left corner

Lower right corner

These went together pretty fast!  It's Monday so I was with the Monday Brave Patch group while I did this.

Speaking of too big...  I realized I wasn't happy with having just a 9-foot table for my Q24, so I've been shopping around and asking questions.  Looks like I'll be upgrading to a 12-foot table.   Soon, I hope.  This quilt will be one of the first I quilt on it, too.

ANOTHER BIG DIAMOND

 I've been working on the Nebula BOM.

I completed these big diamonds.  

FINISHING A TULA PROJECT

I got out the container with the Nebula BOM blocks, fabrics and instructions.  The blocks are all done, now the joining parts just need to be cut out and made.

I cut out a lot of triangles, diamonds and a few other shapes - but not all.

And the sewing together began. 

Chain-piecing...boring.

ANOTHER GIFT

 As a small project to do between bigger projects I made another block for the Gifts collection of blocks.

DANCING DONE

 While hashing over world problems with the Monday Brave Patchers, I finished up my Dancing With the Wall project.

I have nothing but small scraps of the lighter fabric, Kona Limestone, left over.   I need to order some more.  I like it.

BLISSFULLY DONE AND MORE

 I finished the quilting on Blissfully - it's done and off the machine.  It looks great.  I love this quilt.

Now I have to decide whether it wants binding or facing?  Hmmm.

After that, I went to work on the Dancing quilt.  I'm trying to work out how to sew everything together.  I should just be making pieces that fit in between and connect things.  But, I'm making more components, too.  It might be getting a little too busy.  Or not.

STILL WORKING ON IT

I spent the morning quilting straight lines onto the Blissfully quilt.  I got tired of that and moved on to something else...

I went back to work on the Dancing With the Wall quilt from Irene Roderick's workshop last weekend.  I'm still adding parts and pieces, and sometimes moving them around.

Here's what it looked like at the end of today.

DANCE STEPS

 I've been working on the Dancing With the Wall quilt - sewing things together and trying to figure it out.

I attended the first Brave Patch Friday morning Sew-in.  It started at 5:30am here.  That was a little early.

I completely changed the arrangement at the end of the day.  

I'm not sure - I might change it back.

LOADED THURSDAY

 I finally loaded the Blissfully quilt onto the longarm.  It just barely fits - but, it fits.

I thought I wanted to quilt it with a reddish thread, but it turns out it wanted to be quilted with a gold colored thread.

I also thought I was going to put some circles in the lines, but that didn't work out.  With the quilt completely covering the frame, it would have been very difficult to stop and disconnect the channel locks to insert a circle.  So I think I'll add them after all of the straight lines are done.  Maybe, I'll quilt them with a 'big stitch'.

MORE DANCING

 I worked on my Quilt Dance a bit today during the Monday Brave Patch Sew-In.

DANCING

 I finally got into an Irene Roderick "Dancing With the Wall"  Workshop this weekend.  She's a great teacher.  This workshop was about learning her different components that make up her famous style.

The weekend was spent making components and adding them. 

It's a 'start in the middle' , observe, then make the next piece.

Here's where I was at at the end of Sunday.

STRIPS RE-DO

 I took apart a section of the Skinny Inset Strips quilt, now named Blissfully.  I wanted to tone down some of the lightest values.

It's now back together looking even better.

EXERCISING ERIK

 I had Erik the Bold (Bernina Q24) quilt a pantograph onto a small quilt I made in one of Sherri's Workshops - Making Do-odle (meaning we only use what we have, make do), while I was picking out some seams in my Blissfully quilt in order to change out some fabrics - to change their value.

It was another learning experience.

COMPLETED GIFTS

 Today is Monday.  It is now my favorite day of the week, where it was once one that I dreaded when I had to go back to work.  Life is funny.

Before our Brave Patch meeting, which is now called The Seam Allowance, I put a tape measure on the dead bar of the new Bernina Q24, Erik the Bold, using double-backed tape.

It starts at zero in the middle and measures out in both directions.  It should be very handy.

During our get-together I finished the Gifts block I started yesterday.  There was a lot of pinning, sewing, then un-sewing because the intersections were misaligned, then more pinning and re-sewing.  Sometimes, that was repeated a third time.  All but one looks acceptable.  I should fix that last one, too.  But I'm tired of pinning and un-sewing.

It does look good though, doesn't it.

NEW GIFTS BLOCK

 I'm enjoying making these Gifts blocks.  I don't know what I'll do with them, but I love em!

I got a good start on this one during our monthly Sew Modern Connection zoom get-together.

MAKING A BACKING

 I made a backing for the quilt I started in Sherri Lynn's workshop called Freestyle Strings.

It didn't have a name, but I had to come up with something for the label.  I thought about what joy I had in putting it together and came up with 'happiness' and put that in a Thesaurus until I settled on 'bliss' .  I named it 'Blissfully' and made the label and finished the back.

I used a lot of old fabrics.  It was a happy job, too.

ANOTHER BLOCK

After lunch, I didn't feel like starting a whole new project or getting out an old project that needed a lot of work.  So, I drew another block design and made it from the fabrics I used for the 'Gifts' blocks.  It is about 18" by 9".

That was fun.

QUILTING CABIN QUILT

 I finally took the Cabin quilt out and started to finish the quilting.  This is a quilt I put together probably over 20 years ago, when I was at Pieces Quilt Shop.  

It's mostly plaids, browns and tans.  It is not a style I work in now.  But, it deserves to be finished.

I had started the quilting on it using a domestic machine.  It has basic outline stitching around most of the elements.  There were still safety pins in it.

The backing and batting had been trimmed, making it a little difficult to pin to the longarm leaders.  But once I got it on there, I was able to get the borders and sashing quilted.

I added a few motifs to some of the blank spots, too.  Still more to do.

I had some issues with tension.  It took a while, but I figured it out.  When I ran the bobbin through the Towa, it initially read at 300, which surprised me.  But I adjusted the tension on the bobbin case until it was down to 230 or so.  Then when I quilted the top tension was too tight, so I adjust it down.  It still looked very bad.  

Then I re-tested the bobbin tension.  This time, half way through the bobbin, it tested very low. So, I adjusted the bobbin case up to 220 where it should be.  Then adjusted the machine tension back up and it was back to making a beautiful stitch.  That was strange.

WM MORRIS PONY

 Following along with Jo Avery's Patchwork Pony Sewalong, I've made two horses, so far.

My friend, Claudia in New York, sent me some great yarns in black, grey, taupe and gold.  They are the perfect mane for the William Morris horse.  Thank you Claudia!

I finished getting the mane and tail made and sewn on this morning.

He will be living on the new bed in our new spare bedroom downstairs.

DYED BOWLS

 I dyed this cotton cord the other day, with leftover dyes.  I sewed the cording into a few bowls today.

The big one is not what I was hoping for - I wanted straighter sides.  Oh, well.

BINDING IT

 I made the binding from the leftover 'focus fabric' and sewed it on and down today.

It's done!  I gotta say, the quilting is beautiful - very precise and even.  I love it!  Good job Erik.