It wasn't too bad

My doctor appointment was at 8:30. I was there at 8:15. I sat in the waiting room until 11:00. Was called to sit in the exam room. I sat there until 12:20. Doctor came in and was there for about 10 minutes. I was given some new prescriptions and sent to the lab. I was out of there by 12:50. Prescriptions are filled at the pharmacy in the building but wouldn't be ready until 2:00. I decided to visit the thrift store across the street while I waited.




I ended up getting two pairs of summer pants, two shirts, a roasting pot, and a set of coffee cups for my daughter. I realized when I was at my daughter's house last weekend that she didn't have any coffee cups for my coffee. It's just not right to drink coffee from a glass.... know what I mean? I had thought I might find a mug or two but this was a really lucky find. These match her dishes perfectly. I do love the blue enamel ware cooking pots. I wish I could find more of them at the thrift store but either people don't donate them or I'm just not there at the right time.

I realized a few weeks (or was it months) ago that my clothing was starting to look a bit ragged. I rarely think of buying myself clothes. As long as my clothes are clean and my body is covered, I don't pay much attention to what I'm wearing. Maybe because I'm not much for simply "looking" while shopping. I like to get in then get out of stores as quickly as possible. Unless of course I'm looking at fabrics or the latest quilting gadgets.

Another thing that bothers me is that when I buy brand new clothing they fit somewhat ok until I wash them. I don't like paying good money for something I will only get to wear once before it shrinks or goes wonky. At least by getting things from the thrift store they have already been washed. I don't have to worry about shrinking or wonky looking clothes. I do wash them again before I will wear them.

When I got home I found a message from Bethany (a blog reader) explaining how to fix this problem star quilt with the small center. Thank you Bethany! I can't work on it this weekend but hopefully I can get it done this coming week.

Some people would say.... why bother to fix it? Well it's like this. Memory quilts are especially dear to my heart. There is just something about them that compels me to finish them for the one who has passed away. I also enjoy the look on the face of the loved one when they see it finished for the first time. Many get tears in their eyes which really fills my heart with pride. Not for myself; but, for the one who didn't finish the quilt before it was too late. At last it is finished and there to be enjoyed by those left behind. This is when I can almost hear an angel whisper in my ear..... thank you.

My brother should be here pretty soon to pick me up. We are visiting cemetaries where my sons, my husband, and our father are buried. The first cemetary where one of my sons and my husband is buried is a little over two hours away so that's the first one we will go to. We will make a circle to the other cemetaries before heading back here. It should be a very pleasant, although sad, day.

Set aside for awhile.... and still a puzzler


This top was brought to me back last fall. It was in pieces. The star points were already made by hand. All I was to do was set it with the corners and side triangles and quilt it. When I put it on the machine the fullness was way, way, way too much to quilt out. Almost a full star point fullness. In other words I could fold up one complete star point before it actually was straight on the machine. The owner agreed to let me set it aside until spring. Spring is here and now it's time to get this one done. Done is good.

This one has me really stumped as to how to quilt it. It looks pretty good just laying on the table. The fullness is not too noticeable.



This is one corner where I have pulled it into straight. That's about a 8 inch fold.

This is the opposite side with it pulled into straight. Another 8 inch fold.

The main problem seems to be in the center and not around the outside. I'm not getting paid to take the whole thing apart, re cut the pieces, piece it all over again, and then quilt it too. Besides, it was made by the owner's mother who has passed away. This is the last quilt she was working on when she passed. If I remake the top it will not be her work, it will be mine. I have to keep her work for the memories. There isn't anymore fabric either.

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I'm wondering if I can take the stitching out of the center pieces to relieve the tightness and maybe make a new center? I can do that much if it would work. I have a small piece of fabric in my stash that closely matches the corner fabric that I could use to make a new center. Anyone have any suggestions?

Moving right along


I have this quilt on the machine. I got it all stabilized and started doing some of the quilting on the blocks.

At the end of the workday I sat down with my schedule calendar. I was trying to figure out how close I am to getting caught up. At first glance I thought I was really close. Oh gee whiz.... I found some obligations I had forgotten about. So it seems that I won't be back on schedule just yet. Maybe by the end of April?

Productive day


This is the next finished quilt. It's all about sports.



So I did a sport theme for the quilting. This is the first border.

The second border.

The third border.

And the fourth border. The extra lines all over the designs are quilter's chalk.

The pieced blocks got line dancing.

The inside border got flying geese. There could be geese flying over a ball field of clover.... right? The clover is on the sashing.

I got the next quilt ready and onto the machine. Started working on it; but, I realized I would be fighting the machine again. That means a bit of lint someplace. It also occurred to me I will be gone this weekend. Friday, a doctor appointment that could take all day. Saturday, going to the cemetary to visit my sons and my father. Sunday, going to visit Mom in the nursing home.

Rather than just track down one piece of lint to keep quilting, I decided to go ahead and do the thorough cleaning of the machine and table. Hmm.... I don't want anyone thinking I don't take good care of my machine. I do clean the bobbin area at every bobbin change. Not thoroughly, just a general cleaning. I oil my machine regularly too. The cleaning I'm talking about doing is the not so routine cleaning. The taking apart everything, clean really well, and put it all back together again cleaning.

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I have a problem with black dust dots. On the table the dust dots look white but on other things they look black.... like these dust dots on this cabinet.

Or these black dust dots on the floor.

The black dust dots get onto the bottom of my shoes and are carried all over the house. Here are some that ended up on my bathroom floor. I dust mop the studio floor two or three times a day but these dust dots re appear like magic. The floors in the other rooms don't get dust mopped as often. Heck, in the time it would take to dust mop all the floors, I can get a whole lot of quilting done. Besides..... who's gonna see the other rooms but furkid Dylan and me?

I get started cleaning the machine. I find bits of lint under here. I remove the pointer holder and clean it really good.

I find lint and threads wound behind a couple of wheels. All the wheels get removed, cleaned, and put back on.

The table.... geeze, how long has this been here? Ok, only since the begnning of xmas season... but that's too long. I move everything from under the table, get down on the floor, and start cleaning.

Aaaah.... that's much better.

Hmm... can't have a clean table with dirty velcro now can I?

The velcro gets cleaned when I'm cleaning the rest of the table. Much better now.

The bobbin area is cleaned more thoroughly than the regular day to day routine. I take the cover off and get to all the tiny hidden areas.

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What I save for last is the dirtiest job of all. Cleaning the tracks and the bed. Wiping the bed off is not a big deal but just look at all the teeth and placement marks. It takes time to clean all these with a q-tip.

The tracks and wheels get this really awful black residue on them. I clean the tracks and wheels with crome polish and tissues. See what I get? Just looking at the tracks they seem clean enough but geeze..... clean them with crome polish and you'll see they aren't so clean after all.

That's where the black dust dots come from. Dust from the tracks that somehow finds it's way onto everything else in the room.... especially the floor.

I never got around to removing the leaders to wash them. It would take too much time. Down time for the sake of clean leaders is not something I have right now. Maybe this is something I can get done this weekend since I probably won't get much quilting done.

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So why is it so difficult for me to find time to clean the table more often? Well, it seems when I'm running really far behind schedule customers don't want to hear me say..... "I couldn't finish your quilt by the deadline because I had to clean the machine table." I delay the task as long as I can. I only stop for the thorough cleaning when it's causing many quilting problems.

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Oh geeze.... look at the time.... I'm loosing quilting time sitting here type-talking.

What a day!


First, here is the next finished quilt. It's already been picked up by the owner. This is the one that had me stumped about what to quilt on it. The owner was happy with the design I did. Whew. I always worry until I hear they are happy with the design.



I did stitch in the ditch around the stars then meandered in the background to make the stars pop out.

I did line dancing in the row squares and a leafy.... hmm.... feathery.... hmm... ribbony? Oh well it's what you see. Did this in pieced squares.

Then did this spiky leaf design on the sashing. It compliments the spikes of the stars.

I had the next quilt on the machine just a working away. I finished the starting row and then quilted the first part going down the sides.... nope, that's not gonna work. It needed something different so I stopped to pick it out so I could do something else.

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I start quilting the newer design and suddenly I start getting breaking threads and bad tension. Every inch or two the thread breaks and the tension looks awful. So I spend the next couple of hours trying to fix the problem. Well DUH! It dawns on me what the problem is..... the felt tension disk is dirty. I take apart the tension assembly to clean it. See what I mean?

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I start to put it back together...... well dang it! I don't have any more clean felt disks. I swear I had a whole dozen not long ago. Hmm.... just when did I order those last? I look it up and realized these were ordered a year ago. Well no wonder I'm out. I order more and turn the one I have over so I can keep quilting until the new ones arrive. It's a temporary fix but should last for at least two or three days so I can keep quilting.

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I've lost nearly a whole day of quilting time. I plan to work a couple of hours later than usual to make up for the lost time. Nope, didn't happen. I got a phone call from Alaska. I'm not going to miss the opportunity to talk with all my grandkids up there! They tell me that they are ok. The volcano is dropping some ash over their place but not enough to harm anything yet. If it gets bad enough they will go stay with relatives in the village for awhile. My great-grandkids are growing fast.

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After the phone call its much too late in the day to go back to working so I quit for the day. I've lost my momentum. I go to the computer and start writing some posts which keeps me busy until bedtime.

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Today I hope things go a little more smoothly. This weekend I'm going to clean the Gammill and table from top to bottom.... thoroughly! Not just the bobbin area. It's long past due. While I'm cleaning I'll make some notes of things I need to order.

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I hear my machine calling me so it's time to get to work.