Three for September, and Log Cabin Loonies

This morning I pulled out the next Three for September project, wherein I am working on one WIP for three days at a time, then switching to another.  I snagged the Garden Pinwheel flimsy from the depths of the coat closet where it has hung for an age. 

Would you look at that?   I had to laugh at the saggy plastic hanger, so pitiful!  And, hey, I already made the binding... 

...and the backing!  I have no recollection of constructing this back, but am happy to see it.  At lunch time I dug out the old plastic project box from the depths of the Hoosier cabinet. Fortunately I am in that cabinet often enough to know the fabrics I set aside for the leaves were in there. 

The quilt pattern sheet came in a magazine solicitation and that inspired the pinwheels I made.  You can see that a bias vine was part of the detail and that is where I stalled.  The Accuquilt GO cutter and Alex Anderson's Pomegranate die (which I specifically bought a few years ago for this project) were fished out after dinner, and I started adhering fabric pieces to sheets of Steam a Seam 2.  

I have not yet decided if I want the leaves to extend the length of the borders, or stop short as in the inspiration pattern.  There are lots of green scraps to cut and play with.  

Speaking of scraps, today is the link up for Log Cabin Loonies on JulieK's blog.  I am up to 20 finished blocks now. 

I've already shared this photo on Lori's Humble Quilts Facebook page, and on Instagram.  My plan is for a total of 80 blocks to made a nice couch quilt.  So fun to play with all the colors in the scrap boxes!

Progress on UFOs, etc

Over the weekend I got through prepping the backings and tops for two quilts, the UFO picks for January and this month.  I set up a table on risers in the garage and both were spray basted, a process that involved a great deal of walking around the table, pulling and clamping, and smoothing, as every quilter knows.  There was also some swearing, as I once again proved my advanced ability to bungle MATH for quilts by shorting the batting, and also drifting one layer crookedly despite multiple measuring tape checks.  Sigh. I'll just show the one that came out well, lol.

Thank goodness my sister Kathy had brought over another can of 505 spray the day before, as I ran out of my can on the very LAST section I needed to spray of the second quilt.  Isn't that typical?  No quilting has begun as yet, but soon!

The last stitches were taken for the border of this cross-stitch UFO.  There are some small pomegranate motifs to add to each corner and very few detail stitches to the center and this will be finished.  I did struggle a little with the border as the number of stitches in the side borders is different from the top and bottom.  Nothing a little unpicking and restitching couldn't fix.  Love it!

 DD Erica sent this photo of the finished Star-Crossed quilt in its new home.  She included the rug that inspired the colorway, and I think it looks great with the pillows I made her several years ago.  I've asked for full length quilt photos when she gets a chance. 

And now, some grand-baby spam.

Hunter and big brother Cove playing in Hunter's crib a few weeks ago.  They will have their shared birthday later this month.  Can't stop time from making them older, but love spending any minute we can with these darling grandsons. Hunter is not yet walking, but may in the next few weeks.  He's a really fast crawler, though :)

Finally, I must apologize for doubling the photo of the Venice scene art quilt in nearly consecutive posts.   #mindlikeasteeltrap  I do really admire that quilt a lot!

Aftermath

Thanksgiving was its usual day full of craziness and peace--and dishes, lots of dishes!  We got a late start on our cooking since I neglected to borrow a roasting pan from my mom, and the box of cornmeal for muffins was full of bugs.  So I sent Grant to the store for cornmeal while calling my mom and dad.  They didn't answer.  I left a plaintive message.  Grant called from the store to see if I got a hold of them and then he went to their house while I left another plaintive message.  He called me to say no one answered the door and their car was gone.  A total mystery!  So he went back to the store and bought one of those aluminum roasting pans and a rack.

Meanwhile, I prepped the celery and onions for the stuffing and then started vacuuming the family room.  When Grant got back home, I was on the floor with a screwdriver and the vacuum cleaner torn apart.  The belt was broken.  I put on the new belt, reassembled the vacuum cleaner, washed my hands, and proceeded to get the cornmeal muffins mixed and into the tin and oven.  Then while they were cooking we got the bird ready.  Did I mention it was still frozen when we took it out of the fridge that morning?  That had necessitated getting out the picnic cooler and putting the bird in cold water, changing it out every 20-30 minutes for about an hour and a half.  Anyway, now completely defrosted, Ms. Turkey got washed, dried, stuffed and slathered in butter and into the hot oven forthwith, about an hour later than planned.  Oh well!

Then came the mad rush to finish cleaning and prepping.  Sometime during this whirlwind my parents called back to say they were not home because they had been doing a self-assigned weekly community chore wherein they take trash bags, "grabbers", and rubber gloves and pick up all the garbage that thoughtless, careless, lazy people leave on the sidewalk behind the houses on their block. Their back wall is on a busy street across from the Community College so there is lots of traffic both auto and foot every day of the week, and no regular city cleaning of the sidewalks.

Meanwhile, Grant washed dishes for the second time, vacuumed the living room, we moved furniture out of the living room and Grant set up the folding table and chairs while I went up and down the stairs multiple times to get the boxes of dishes.  Subsequently I decided to iron tablecloths and picked two.  An hour later I had one tablecloth and 12 napkins done but had to take a break before getting the last one done.  Son Nick came in about that time and handed me a shirt to iron for him.  Grant decided the turkey was done--an hour early--and took it out of the oven.  Then we decided it wasn't done enough at only 180 degrees and he put it back in the oven alongside the casserole of extra stuffing .  I rushed through a shower and getting ready and then madly ran about decorating the tables until company started arriving.  I had to excuse myself to put my face on, then ran back down to get the appetizers prepped, side dishes finished and platters and serving pieces assembled....while people continued to arrive and bring things that needed to be put places, and of course greetings and drinks. DD Elaine brought the ham all cooked and helped me bunches by prepping for a salad and making the mashed potatoes. 

Finally everything was ready and the 10 of us sat down to turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, ham, broccoli salad, fruit salad, and cornmeal muffins.  I sat at a table with my son and daughter, and son in law Chris, who said he refused to sit at the adult table :)   Later there was pumpkin pie, pumpkin cheesecake, and Dutch apple pie, yum yum.  Lots of chatting and laughter throughout, and glasses raised to the chefs.  It is our habit to enjoy our guests and leave the cleanup til later.  Since Grant had already had two shifts on washing by hand, plus two times filling the dishwasher, it was my turn to wash.  We turned up the music, got the leftovers put away and cleaned up the kitchen.  Another successful holiday party!  Tell me, do your parties start like ours?

Things You Learn

Today's post has a hint and some valuable advice about reading: 

If you have a machine like my Husqvarna Lily that uses snap on feet, you might have an "ankle" that must be removed for the free motion foot or walking foot.  Here I have removed the 1/4" quilting snap on foot from the ankle.

See that tiny screw?  I am always afraid that, upon unscrewing, it is going to fall and get stuck in the machine innards, especially if I have the bobbin case cover off, which I often do when changing to quilting weight thread.

Therefore, I keep a piece of cardboard (this is the background of an old mini calendar) in my sewing desk and cover the entire area.  No chance of the tiny screw getting in now! 

It pays to read your owner's manual!  I have often referred to mine but in the nearly 11 years I have had this machine, had not until last month discovered an option I now use regularly.  See the U-shaped arrow above the 2.5 on the display screen?  I learned that by quickly pushing the big U-shaped reverse button twice, the reverse feature stays "on" until the button is pushed again.

I often found that having to take one hand off my project to hold down the reverse button resulted in my stitching being "off" or the project shifting.  Now with the reverse button engaged, I can start stitching backwards towards the edge while using both hands to guide the fabric.

Then hit the reverse button to release it and start forward again--much neater for turning corners on binding, or starting any seam where you want to backtack.  I can't explain why I missed this information in all these years, but obviously if I read it before, it didn't stick in my brain.  So, sewists, check your manual for features you may have missed!

Fluttering

Though I'm mostly unemployed I've been busy, really I have, but it seems to be in a peculiarly fluttering, mostly unproductive way, landing here and there for a moment or two and then acting on whatever else comes to mind.  There have been a few successes, however.

This tablerunner is destined for sale at the Seniors Craft Shoppe.  It is about 18-20" wide and maybe 50something long.  Haven't measured it!

Machine appliqued flowers and leaves and a little designing of my own from some purchased kits.

These clearanced block kits I picked up several years ago when the JoAnn's store in town was closing. I had no idea what I might do with them but they were $4 apiece, included precut pieces, and all the instructions.  The two kits on the left were for much wider sections than the pieced block kits but some MATH and just plain cutting down made them suitable for the tablerunner.  The above kits will be a near twin to the one I've already sewn.  I think they will look better once quilted and bound--that beige is pretty blah but I like the pink and green.

Backing for the larger witches quilt is selected but not yet sewn.

The mail mountain on the back counter has been tamed and is ready to be put in the filing cabinet.  Mail for five people is exhausting to go through but keeping it down to a minimum seems impossible in this household! 

Meanwhile, Grant and I are trying to complete the house painting job we started a couple of months ago. We have three sections left to paint, all with two story height walls in parts.  Today we are working on the hallway between the living room and sewing area.

"The cupboard under the stairs", but no young skinny wizard is in it.  This is where we keep the pet toys/leash, tablecloths, folding chairs, and other flotsam and jetsam.  Yesterday morning when I was about to leave I was surprised to hear a door close, and turned to see that Mini had apparently just exited this cupboard--she had knocked out the flashlight that lives just inside.  I had wondered where she hid sometimes! 

All right, break time is over, back to the painting chore list. 

What's Happening

Surely not much on the quilting front, as we have been busy readying the living/dining room for painting.  I looked back in my photo files to May last year and found this pic I meant to share long ago regarding attaching a binding:  I lay my little 1 x 6" ruler with the 1/4 line horizontally on the unstitched edge, also making sure a vertical hash mark is at the raw edge of the side I'm currently sewing.  It is then easy to put in a pin at the quarter inch mark from the right edge to indicate where to stop stitching, then backstitch and remove the quilt from under the needle to do the miter fold of the binding. 

This photo struck me particularly because I cannot find this 1 x 6 ruler ANYWHERE. It usually lives in a drawer bin on the door of my sewing desk, but I last remember it out in the dining room where I was looking at a quilt template pattern in a magazine last weekend. I'm pretty sure I put it back on my desk, but am afraid it got accidentally swept off and into the trashcan when I was moving things around.  The trashcan was subsequently emptied by Grant for the weekly pickup and I didn't miss the ruler until mid week.  This ruler was my constant companion for years and will need to be replaced, as a seam gauge just doesn't work the same way as a quilting ruler!

The above binding was going on these two placemats I made for DD Erica for her little house in Arizona.  She has recently petitioned for another set in similar colors, and while combing my scrap boxes I found some suitable fabrics and even some scraps from these.  Erica also noted that my Blogger's Quilt Festival post was incorrect--her bed is a King, not Queen, and therefore the quilt I made her is even more impressive for its size :).  Thanks, Erica!

It is also Russell the dog's 12th  birthday today. 

Here he is at Christmas 2005.  He's a bit grayer now and has put on some weight, but is still going strong!

MATH is a four letter word

Mini likes playing with my tape measure.  I'm glad someone is enjoying this---because I'm not!  This is the underside of  the Mystery Quilt sandwich as laid out on tables.  You can see three layers and there seems to be a MATH problem because the green print at the top of the photo is the backing, which is supposed to be the LONGEST layer of this sandwich--you should not be able to see the other layers.  So not only is the backing a foot short but the batting is also not long enough. 

Taking a break for chocolate and despair.  Be back soon.

When Life Gives You Lemons, Make Binding

Through some overenthusiastic and premature fabric ripping, I managed to self-defeat my original plan to match the pattern on my lush botanical print backing for Judy's Mystery Quilt, the UFO pick of the month.

So instead of finishing the backing, I made binding.  Tonight I'll iron and cut more green fabric and make a frame for the print; the red print will be in the corners.  Only a few days left to make this quilt happen before the month's end and I don't have a quilting plan.  My original idea was to quilt from the back around the flowers and birds but I decided the project was just too large for me to do this well for the first time--I'll try it on a smaller project another time.  Back to square one!

Forgot a few orts

Sometimes I have trouble when I actually sit down to compose my Tuesday's Orts post.  I think I'll remember things to include but then they fly out of my head when faced with a blank page.  Surely I'm not the only one this happens to!

• On the Monday "holiday", I had to go in to the office because a new system needed to be installed--only because the installer was subsequently going out of town for 10 days.  So guess who volunteered to be there for what turned out to be 2.5 hours...
• Afterwards I did a couple errands and then stopped by my Mom & Dad's because I was hungry and Mom always feeds me.  She tried to give me hummus, which I hate, or microwaved bacon. Sheesh! We went out instead to CPK and split our usual pizza and salad.
• It was noted by the boss's wife that some newly printed checks (order form NOT filled out by her but by bank staff) state that we are a "Pofessional" Corporation. 
• Remember that nice new used car Grant bought on New Year's Eve?  Well, we sold my aging one over the weekend in less than a half hour of parking it on a main drag.  Amazing at what speed a low priced vehicle brings attention.
• Planning a getaway.  Wish me luck, since it involves Grant getting on a plane, something he is terribly UN-fond of.
• The 18th anniversary of the awful Northridge (Los Angeles) earthquake was yesterday. My sister Kathy and her two kids were out from Missouri visiting when it occurred. Nice timing, right?  Though we had no damage to speak of in our area, the power was out most of the day.  So we took the all the cousins to the park to play.

L to R: our brother Kevin's boys Jeff (4, who hated having his picture taken), and Matt (7, imitating his brother), my Erica (3 3/4, not looking at the camera), Kathy's Caitlin (4, boy those Midwestern kids are pale), my Elaine (6, with her cute holey smile), Kathy's Jake (5 1/2, getting ready to REALLY make a funny face), and my Nick (8, who found that superhero guy in the sand and was stoked).  Hard to believe it was so long ago!