MONDAY MADNESS

 It was a busy day.  First a nice morning walk - it was almost 60 degrees this morning and no rain.  First, it was get a package ready to ship (a return) and take it to UPS in Burien.  Then off to Tukwila to deposit all that money from the sale of Eduard.  109 Benjamins, 4 Jacksons and 2 Hamiltons.  

Then on to Renton to Sewing Machine Service from where I'm purchasing the new Q24.  I needed to drop off some paperwork and see about a new fancy magnetic metal bowl - but they don't make them.  Boy, downtown Renton is a mess with all of the street re-construction going on - neverending.

On my way home, I made a trip to Harbor Freight where I could buy a new magnetic metal bowl for my longarm straight pins.  It wasn't until later, after I bought the fancy red one, that I began to think the reason Bernina doesn't make one with their name on it - like all of the other manufacturers do - is because the longarm frame is aluminum and the rollers are a hard plastic.  No sticky.

After lunch with D, I went up to the studio to visit with my Brave Patch friends.  We had a nice talk while I was working on my old Pi project - Clocks.

EDUARD GETS NEW HOME

 Unfortunately, I had to let my A-1, Eduard, go.  I've purchased a new Bernina Q24 and I needed to sell Eduard.  I placed an ad on Longarm University and was contacted the next day by someone in Snohomish that wanted to come check him out.

I think he has found a very good home with the people that bought him.

They came today and tried him out, paid me cash, disassembled him, packed him up and drove away with him hanging a bit out the back of their covered pickup bed.

Good luck to you Eduard!  I'll miss you!  You were a good friend.

BINDING ON OPENING NIGHT

 I sewed the binding onto Opening Night while Eduard quilted on the Floating Squares quilt.

Got them both done!

I gotta say, putting binding on a 90" by 90" quilt is a pain!  I really don't want to do that anymore.  

QUILTING RHYTHM

 I've loaded the bars quilt, Rhythm, onto the longarm and have Eduard quilting a panto called 'Sunshine' over it.

All done!

QUILTING AND MASKS

While my A-1 is sewing a pantograph on Constellation, I'm making masks for the Covid-19 Pandemic.  

I found this cool fabric in my batik stash that looks somewhat like a large Coronavirus.  I'm using it to make a few masks.  It's the virus's bigger badder brother and will scare the virus away!

I'm using  some craft wire to make wires for the nose in my masks.

When I started up the pantograph this morning, it didn't line up right so I had to pick out a whole bunch of stitching (aarrgg).  Not how I wanted to start my day.

I made eleven masks over the last two days, in between setting up and moving the pantograph for Constellation.

I like it though when you can finally see the end in sight.

I did finish it, but left it on the machine for tomorrow - I'm tired.

BIG QUILT ON A-1

Okay, I think this is the biggest quilt I've ever put on Eduard, my A-1 quilting machine.  Its 99" by 117".  The backing is even bigger and is exactly as wide as my leaders - 108".

Here we go.

I'm doing an allover panto called Damask.  It's very nice.  I'm making masks while Eduard works.

QUILTING STAR

I loaded the Star Storm quilt, named "Starry Starry Peace" onto my longarm today.  

I decided on the quilting, which I will start bright and early tomorrow.  I want to finish it in one day. It is 80" by 80"... Stay tuned.

To keep busy, I finished the Modern Fans 2 quilt.  It needed to be trimmed and the binding put on.  Easy peasy.

Earlier in the day, I saw the coolest group of dandelion seed heads on my morning walk.  They were totally undisturbed and perfectly round, near the P-Patch on the south end of the Longfellow Creek Trail.

END OF THE WEEK

Here it is Sunday again.

We went for a walk in Lincoln Park and were entertained by a hungry squirrel who got very close to the dogs while begging for peanuts.

Then back in the studio, I loaded the backing for Trinket Six onto the machine, and then realized I didn't have a batting that would fit.

With nothing further to do, I did Bryan House Quilts project of making a personal color wheel.  It was very fun and educational.  I'll finish it when I have more time, adding tints and shades.  Right now, I'm off to my drawing class at Daniel Smith (where we've been talking about color). 

BLOCK 8 VARIATION

Moda Block Heads 2 Block 8 was released this morning.  It's a Jan Patek appliqued Pineapple in her primitive style.

I just couldn't see it working with my fabrics.  Luckily Corey Yoder published a variation.

I went with hers.

I was making decisions and cutting out the fabrics for it while Eduard worked on the Frolic quilt.  

After he was done with his part, I filled in the blank spots and did some stitch-in-the-ditch around the medallions.

After lunch, I got it sewed together, then made another City Sampler block before it got too hot up in the studio.

TIRED HEAD

I got the backing and the top loaded onto Eduard yesterday.  I got out some batting - a twin sized Dream Cotton Select White.  It's 72" by 90".  Frolic is 75" square.  Hmmm.

Being the cheapskate that I am, I couldn't see using a bigger size bat.  I thought about stretching it out to fit - knowing I'd probably have troubles about half way into it.  Darrell came up and said,  why don't you add some to the sides?   Hmmm.   Good idea.  I don't usually do that, but I can't think of a reason not to.

So, this morning I cut two 5" strips off the bottom.  Took them over to the Bernina, sewed them end to end then brought the whole bat over and proceeded to sew them back onto the short side.   

That's what happens when you don't get enough sleep. 

So I cut it off, made double sure I turned the bat a quarter turn and sewed it on the side this time.  It was actually easy to tell, because the dimples were going in opposing directions.    Okay.

I got some good work done.

I used a computer motif for the corners.  It was too small and left some blank spots, so I free-motioned to fill it in.  

IMPROV ON EDUARD

I finished my Improv quilt from a class with Debbie Jeske.  I made a label and pieced it into the back and loaded it up on Eduard to quilt.

I'm using the Westalee Circle Ruler, I just purchased, for the first time.

There was a slight learning curve, hence I had to pick out half of the first circles I tried.

 The ruler is actually pretty neat and simple to use, once you figure it out.  The only thing I don't like is putting that big tack through your quilt.  It leaves a big hole.  Hopefully, it will disappear.

PRELUDE QUILT

I heard a great idea a while back about using precut squares as the lead in and out while piecing (I don't know how to explain this).  I cut a group of leftover fabrics from a previous project into 3" squares and have been sewing them together as I piece other projects.

They finally came together into a small quilt, 35" by 45".

I put it on Eduard, my A-1 Longarm, (he finally gets a name) on Monday morning.  I set up a pantograph for the first time.  I used "Chinook" by Urban Elementz.  I was finished before dinner.  Yea!

I got out the thesaurus and looked for a name that meant something about lead-in or in-the-beginning and came up with "Prelude".  This is LA004.