A mother's pride

I have the next quilt stabilized. I had planned to start quilting it this morning but I had something on my mind. I simply had to work it out or it would bug me continuously until I actually did what I believed was possible to do.

What was bugging me was this block on that quilt. A simple star block that looked perfect for a backwards piecing project. In the quiet of the morning I started working out the steps. I borrowed Jeanie's idea to just work on two to see how it worked as an experiment. Then two more for more experimenting. Then another two more. In all I used 12 blocks until I figured out all the details.

These are the last two I did and they came out ok. Not perfect but passable. Now that I have it all worked out, I can go back to a regular quilting day.

I just gotta tell ya about this cordless drill. It's not mine. It belongs to my daughter. I think she took a little after me after all. She just had her 5 year anniversary at work. They gave her a brochure full of cheap jewelry and told her she could pick something out as her gift. She requested that they get her this drill instead. She said that a piece of jewelry wouldn't help her with do it yourself projects in her new home but a drill would. How practical. I'm so proud! I never thought I'd see the day my daughter thought of practical things instead of romantic things as gifts. (shhh, don't tell her I said that or she might want to return it) They even got her an engraved tag for it. I hope she has many, many do it yourself projects in her future home.

I haven't said it in awhile but thank you to all my blog readers. Welcome to the new people who have just joined me. Knowing there are people who enjoy my blogs enough to keep coming back is an inspiration. Seeing the list of friends and reading comments from those who can't get signed on to blogger to become friends gives me a lot of joy. Both my blogs are journals of things I want to show others or to remember myself or things I want my kids and grands and great-grands to have to read someday.

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Thank you!

Another snowy weekend

Like many places, we got more snow over the weekend. It used to be that a snowy weekend meant I would be quilting away and getting lots done because I couldn't get out. Not anymore. I'm still getting used to having a toddler follow my every move and wanting to get into everything. These days, snowy weekends mean lots of playtime with Ladybug. Gosh, I sure will miss her when they move into their new house.... whenever they find the right one.

Ladybug had her very first snow outing. She's never been allowed to get into the snow before so the experience was pretty exciting. At first she didn't know quite what to think about actually walking in it. Then she discovered it was like lots and lots of ice.... she's crazy about ice chips in a cup. She wanted to eat it but the Mommie said no.



When the mommie thought she was cold enough and should come in to get warmed up.... Ladybug had a fit! A full out two year old's tantrum. She didn't want to leave the snow fun. Mommie had to struggle just to get Ladybug's coat off so we could give her hot chocolate to warm up. I guess Ladybug will become a snow bunny when she's older.

Today, hopefully, I'll get some quilting stuff done. The daycare is open and the Mommie could get to work safely. I do have the next quilt on the machine. I should be able to get it stabilized and ready for the quilting. The day seems so short when there are so many things to accomplish.

The fix all fairies

Issue quilts are the bread and butter of machine quilting. Without the issue quilts our machines would be idle most of the time because perfect quilts are rare. I'm no quilt judge and also who am I to question another person's frugal use of fabrics? 98 percent of the tops I take in to be quilted have at least one issue. Many often have several issues.... each one as the result of the first issue and multiplied as the top is created.

Please don't think I'm complaining because I'm not. I love all those issue quilts! I love all my beginning toppers and the long time toppers who take plenty of short cuts. Each quilt has it's own set of challenges that test me and my ability as a machine quilter.

When a person buys a quilting machine to open a business..... they automatically become the "fix all fairy of quilting". If the quilt has a D cup center, we are asked.... you can quilt it flat can't you? If the center is very small and the outside border waves at the neighbors down the street, we are asked.... you can straighten it out with the quilting can't you? If there is a gap in the piecing seam line, we are asked.... you can sew it together with the quilting can't you? Yes, there are many issues that come to the machine quilter... the fix all fairy.... and we either work with what we are given or else give up a lot of our income. My motto: your quilt will be quilted as it is when received.

No matter how many times I explain that I need at least 3 full inches of extra backing all the way around a quilt.... I often get 1 inch or less. Ok, I admire their frugality but it doesn't make my job easy. There are machine quilters who would send the topper back home with the backing to make it larger. There are some machine quilters who will sew an extra scrap piece of fabric onto the backing then remove it when the quilting is finished. I don't want to send work away and I often don't have time to locate scraps of fabric or time to sew it on there either. So I deal with issues as they are.



The reason we need the extra backing is because of the way the backing is attached to the machine and the use of side clamps. When attaching the backing to the leaders it's hard to judge if we are going to have enough backing at the very end of the quilting. We don't know how much stretch will happen as the top is quilted to the backing. The side clamps are to hold the backing steady... not to pull it into submission. With too little backing there is little room for the machine bed at the sides which causes the machine to bump against the clamps. This causes a visible bump in the stitching design. Even with the trick of putting a yardstick under the clamps and over the rollers of the machine doesn't always help. It's just too close not to bump those clamps.

Another issue a machine quilter often encounters is lots of bias and....

blocks that measure one thing on one side.....

and something else on the other side.

A one inch difference on the two sides of the block causes this much extra fullness when it's combined with other things like bias.

The way I deal with all the extra fullness is to "ease" it in the same way the piecer eased the blocks together to fit. I spread the extra fabric with my fingers as I stitch in the ditch to stabilize the top. Being very careful not to stitch myself of course.

Once the extra fabric is eased into place then a design should be chosen that will not cause any folding (tucks) of the fullness as it's stitched. A design that doesn't cross over itself is best. Even then, a fold (tuck) in the fabric is unavoidable sometimes.

My motto: Your quilt will be quilted as received. If its wrinkled.... its quilted wrinkled. If if has a D cup center then the D cup will be quilted. If the borders are extra full then they will be quilted extra full. If the seams are not sewn then they will still be there when the tops is quilted. My customers all know this and are kind enough to understand my limitations.

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I told myself a long, long time ago that I couldn't take apart the tops to fix every customer's issues. If I did then it would be my work and not theirs. The only thing I could do is learn to work with the issues. For every issue you work with and figure out how to disguise, you will gain more skill as a professional machine quilter. So the point of this post is.... if you are new to machine quilting or simply thinking it would be a good business to get into..... learn to love those issue quilt tops. They will be your bread and butter.

Grocery day blues

Today was grocery day. I've been going every two weeks for about a year now instead of the way I prefer to shop. I would rather shop every 4 to 6 months instead. I've been chauffeur for my SIL. She shops every other week. I changed my preference to meet her special needs.



Today I got pretty depressed with the cost of the items at the store. Especially fresh fruits and veggies. I couldn't believe how much the costs have risen in just two short weeks. It's very depressing and scary. I'm so glad I was able to find peppers in the discount bin a couple of weeks ago because today the peppers were 1.98 per pound. A lot different from the costs a few years ago. I didn't need any but I wanted to check the price anyway.





Here's the costs for today:

Prescriptions 165.10
Food 125.60
Non-food 80.38
Tax 8.50
Total for all 370.58

Ok, that's really depressing! My money bought only a fraction of the food I could have bought a couple of years ago. I had some special non-food items that I needed to buy today. Photos developed, printer ink, printer paper, etc. Without those special items, my non-food total would have been around $30.

One thing I do to stay within budget is to separate edible items from non-edible items and pay for the food first. I actually have the cashier ring them up separately. I use only cash and buy the non-edible stuff with what is left after paying for the food. I line the non-food items up on the register in order of importance. I don't care if I make the people behind me angry for taking the time to do this. If the lines are too long then they need to hire more cashiers! My budget is more important than someone's impatience. I watch carefully as things are rung up and when the total gets to my limit I tell the cashier to stop.

We can't live without the food but we certainly can do without the other stuff.... except medications. Now days the shelf price and the register price don't always match which is why I watch carefully.

Does anyone still believe the economy is getting better? How can it be getting better when our dollars buy so much less each day? I will believe the economy is recovering when my grocery budget starts getting smaller each week instead of larger.

3rd quilt of 2010 is finished

This is the next quilt of 2010. A long double size.







This is the border design.

Hmm... duh! I don't know why I didn't think of this before. When the matching threads are so close in color it is hard to see, I can still show you the design. I can show you the wax paper drawing I use to audition designs.

Here is the block design. I wanted to do more than just line dancing. You can see the sashing design here too. Simple but gives plenty of frame to each block.

Here's the block design on wax paper.

The setting triangles.

The triangle design on wax paper.

I started working on the memory quilt. Not much got finished but at least it's a start. Today is shopping day so I won't be working in the studio. We may get another round of snow this weekend so I need to get out while I can. I won't get a chance to be in the studio again until Monday. If we do have snow again and the day care is closed again I won't be working Monday either. It's always best to plan how the days ahead might go in order to make the most of the time I do get to work.

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I want to enjoy the time I have with my daughter and grand while I can. There will be enough time for working when they move into their new house and I'm left here with too much alone time.