HELLO QUILTCON

We left early in the morning on Alaska Airlines for LAX.  Our plane was about 1-1/2 late taking off, but this was probably the only time I wasn't hysterically freaking out because we didn't have another flight to catch and we had plenty of time once we get there.  [Alaska Airlines gave us a $75 credit for a future flight, yea!]

We landed, got a rental car, had lunch and then headed to Pasadena.  Darrell dropped me at the Convention Center in Pasadena and he headed to the Gamble House (of course).

I had a great afternoon looking at the quilts and buying stuff.

Here are the highlights:

I didn't get a lot of pictures of quilts.  I didn't think about it until it was about time to go.  

 Goodbye Quiltcon, see you next year...I hope.

OOPSIE FIXED

After I got the Autumn 2017 quilt off the machine and was putting the binding on, I noticed that I had missed one of the leaf squares.  I set it aside until I could get it onto the machine, which was today.

Voila, it's done - I gave it to Darrell.

This is the first time I have reloaded a quilted quilt onto the machine.  It wasn't as traumatic as I thought it might be.

FLORAL TRAILS FINISHED

In record time, I've finished the quilting on Floral Trails.  It's 87" by 102".  I used Hobbs 80/20 batting and Signature thread, top and bottom.  I was not happy with that thread by the end.  After several hours of quilting it would start breaking and shredding.  I never did figure out why.  

I did a Baptist Fan over the body and Piano Keys on the border.  I used Lisa Calle's Pro Circle Rulers - and I love them.  They are easy to use and just feel good in your hands.  They made quilting this huge quilt fun and easy.  This was definitely one of the biggest quilts I've quilted.  I used 7-1/2 bobbins and racked up 6:06 hours on the machine.  I'm very happy with it.

VALENTINES FLOWERS 2018

Here is the finished portrait of the Valentine's flowers my sweetheart gave me:

On another note, Bentley was not happy about this being the Year of the Dog.

WHERE ARE MY PAINTS?

I found my acrylic paints, which I haven't used in at least a year, dusted off my brushes and knives, put in a new paper palette and got to work on arranging my Valentine's Day flowers into something interesting to paint.

I was horrified to find a couple of tubes were dried up and unusable, but luckily I had more than one tube of my favorites.

This leads me to believe I need to paint more often.

A pencil drawing to start.

I got most of it blocked out today, but I didn't want to post a picture of an incomplete painting.

More to come...

NEW HAND WORK PROJECT

I sent away for a Sue Spargo's kit.  I started working on it today.  It's so relaxing - even at work.

I'll fill you in on the details about it as we go.

 I left work early, came home and put a little time in quilting.

Here's one of the rulers I'm using on the Baptist Fan.

BAPTIST FAN FAN

I am a big fan of the Baptist Fan quilting pattern.  I love how it looks - it's simple and clean, yet not easy.  The curves really complement an all straight line quilt.

I'm using it on this quilt, which is all 1-1/2" squares.  It is looking so good!  And I'm enjoying doing the quilting and it's going well.  All good stuff.  I love the feel and ease of Lisa Calle's circle rulers.  They are making this go so smoothly.

 

ONTO THE MACHINE

I spent most of the afternoon loading "Floral Trails" onto the machine.  It's bigger than I remembered.  The back is 95" wide by 105" long.  The quilt top is 87" wide by 102" long.  What was I thinking!?

It took a while to get it pinned onto the rollers - I ran out of pins and had to use my numbered flat flower pins.  I need to order some more tonight.

Then I struggled and fought with it trying to get the borders straight.  The inside of the quilt is made up of gazillions of 1-1/2" squares, then there's a 6" border around it.  I know I measured and cut the borders to the right length, but I think the squares are kind of drawing together.  I needed to stretch the insides, but not the borders.  It was interesting.  I've got the top pinned and basted.  Let's hope it's not this difficult the whole way down.  (Right).

Looks pretty straight!

I got out my new Lisa Calle's Circle Rulers.  Boy, they sure feel nice to the touch, I don't know why, but I'm thinking they are made from high quality acrylic.

I'm going to do a Baptist Fan in the center and Piano Keys in the borders. 

Here's a rare sight - the dogs sharing a bed:

Jax and Jelly

MINNIE DONE

I got the binding made and sewn on this morning - it's all done, ready to be gifted. 

Making the binding

Sewing the binding onto the back first.

The quilting on the back

The label

The back

All finished, ready to go.

MINNIE IS QUILTED

It didn't take long to quilt this baby quilt - my A-1 says it was just 55 minutes of stitch time.  I got it done in a couple of hours using an arc ruler to arc around every seam.

I had a hard time deciding on thread color since this quilt is basically black and white.  I settled on a very light grey Aurifil thread on the top, and a little bit darker grey on the back.  There is grey in one of the prints. 

 I had the top thread break for no apparent reason a couple of times.  Don't know why! 

So this is LA018, about 30" by 37".  It will be gifted to Kimberly this weekend at her baby shower to welcome Scarlett. 

MINNIE QUILT

I just realized that I've got to get to work on the baby quilt for Darrell's granddaughter, Kimberly's first child, due in March.  I thought I had more time - but when I had flipped the calendar to February I noticed that the baby shower is next Saturday!

I've got to get the Autumn Quilt off the machine, too.

I cut out the triangles at work last Saturday and laid them out on the desk and moved them around.  Then after I thought about it for a while, I wanted to try a more organized arrangement.  So I finished the quilt that was on the wall this morning because I needed the wall for the baby quilt.  It only needed a few rows sewn together.  I ironed it and set it aside.

I put the Minnie Mouse triangles up on the wall, so I could see how it looked and let it sink in.  Then I went to work on quilting the Autumn Quilt then took the dogs for a walk.

Triangles stuck up on the wall.

 After lunch I sewed it together.

Here it is - all sewn together. 

WORKING ON IT

I'm still working on  the Autumn Quilt - it's going slow going - there are lots of thread changes and a lot of stitch-in-the-ditch.  But, I'm making progress.

Jelly helped.

CHANGING THREADS

I'm having to change thread colors a lot with this quilt.

I'm enjoying using this new HQ Ditch Ruler from HandiQuilter.  It does it's job very well.  It has a little arch at each end that I'm using on the smaller leaves.  

I got my mom to do a paint-by-numbers of sunflowers to add to my collection.  And then was pleasantly thrilled when my sister, Sue, surprised me with a colored pencil drawing she did.

Mom's is bottom left, Sue's is bottom middle.  I did the paint-by-number in the center and the original painting on the bottom right.  Van Gogh did the two big ones.  The upper middle that you can't really see is what started it.  I bought this really cool instant-photo art of sunflowers and haven't been able to stop.

I'M WORKING ON IT!

I've been procrastinating about the quilting on my Autumn Quilt.  It's been on the machine for over a week.

I took today off, because they made me crazy yesterday.  So, part of the deal I made with myself was to get started on it.

So, I did.  It's looking good so far.

I started by doing stitch in the ditch around the leaves, then I put the 'wind' in between them.

Next, it was doing different designs in the leaves - with different colored threads to match the leaves.  (I think I need more thread!)

I got most of this part done, but had to stop - my knees hurt.

DUMP KITTIES

It was back to work today.  After it gets light out I usually walk out to the ladies locker room trailer and see how the feral kitties are doing.

One of the gals that retired last year, used to be their main provider.  I have sort of taken over the job.  But since I'm only there every other week, I don't know what happens when I'm not working.

I've been trying to talk one of the newly hired women to take over, since I'm leaving soon.

There are two kitties that live under the Ladies locker room - Tux and One-Eye.  They were both captured and neutered, but they are definitely feral.  They have been here for 3-4 years at least.  They will only let me get so close when I feed them.

They are still looking quite healthy.

STAINED!

I was happily sewing the rows together, when my old Rowenta iron decided to puke up on my project!  I drenched the spots with water and rubbed and rubbed.  They mostly came out.  Then I put some citrus cleaner on it, which scared me.  I wasn't sure what it would do to the colors.  But, it looks okay, so far.  I put lots more water on it and then gave up, because I couldn't iron it dry.

Now what do I do, I don't trust that iron anymore.

Before

After - I put it back up on the wall.  You can see the top three rows are wet.

MONTHLY PRESENT

I signed up to receive a monthly shipment of Kona Solids from Circa15 Fabric Studios.  The plan is that over the next 12 months I will receive all of the existing colors, 340 in all, plus some bonus items.  It's so exciting!  I have been thinking that I should start buying all of the different colors anyway.  This will make it really easy!  

I got my first shipment yesterday.

I spent a few hours sewing on the Dots and Triangles quilt too.  Here's one of the blocks where I used some of the fabric I dyed using leaves.  It was the perfect color.

You can see the leaf imprint in the gold fabric here. 

ROW BY ROW

I'm sewing the triangles in each row together, but not sewing the rows to each other.  I was thinking I might flip every other one so that all of the triangles that line up vertically point in the same direction.

I've got about half of the rows sewn now. I'm really loving how this seams-pressed-open looks on the back.  It takes a little more time, but it's going to be worth it.

The top half has the triangles sewn together and the triangles are vertically all pointing in the same direction.  The bottom half, that I haven't sewn together is how I originally put it up on the wall, with every other row the triangles are going the opposite directions.  (This is very hard to explain, I hope you're following me). 

TWO ROWS

I've just got two of the rows sewn, and I realized that I had miscalculated and it was going to be too wide if I went ten across.  So, I stopped at nine across and added another row to the bottom.

And, I included a picture of the backing that I'm drawing the colors from.

TRIANGLES AND DOTS

Of course I've started a new project.  Those 128 old ones are just boring.  I bought some fabric a little while ago to use as the back of a project.  I'm using sorta matching colors of mostly solids on the front.  I don't have the colors I wished I had, so we are making do. 

I'm doing triangles.

I've finally decided to press seams open.

Up on  the wall - needs lots of work yet.

FIRST DAY OF 2018

I finally turned my finished needlepoint fox into a pillow.  I finished the needlepoint a while back, but had problems finding the right fabric and color for the back.  I wanted green wool velvet.  I don't think they make such a thing anymore.  The few green velvets I found were the wrong color green.  I ended up going with an orangy-brown back - it matches the fox!  Even after I got that fabric, I procrastinated because I don't really know how to make a pillow.

So, I just went ahead and did the best I could.  I wanted it to be done.

And it is!