Remember this quilt from Thursday? The perfect quilt. It is a quilt made from blocks received in a block exchange during Christmas. Ok, so let me tell you what happened....


When I first received the quilt in the mail my first reaction was.... hmm.... how fast can I quilt it to enter MQX? The deadline for receiving entries is January 15. Could I do a really good job of quilting.... get it photographed.... get the entry filled out and mailed in time? Would she give me permission to enter? Where in this house can I take a full photo?

The more I worked on it the better I liked it. Yesterday was a mad rush to get an entry ready. First I had to contact the owner to get permission to enter it. Computer was acting up so that took awhile. I send an email asking permission. Then I wait.... and wait.... Ok, stop waiting and do more quilting....

Quilting finished.... yes, it still looks good enough to enter. No machine problems with tension that I could spot anywhere. Design looks good too. Time to take a picture...

Uh, where? Same problem I've had all along.... no place to take pictures of full quilts. I decide to move things out of the way of the one uninterrupted wall large enough to hang a quilt. I think to myself.... if I put some nails in the wall and use binder clips I can take the pictures. I get out the ladder.... now where did I put the hammer and nails? Mad search through the house to locate those. I measure down from the ceiling to get the nails placed evenly. By the way, my daughter says I'm the holes in the wall queen. I seem to have nail holes everywhere.

Next I need binder clips.... another mad search for those. Hmmm... I do remember putting them into a green bag... but what on earth did I do with them after that? I move things around and search through all the rooms. Ah ha! Now I remember, I put the bag into a plastic tool box. I dig under a few plastic boxes to find the right one.

I take the quilt off the machine.... put the binder clips on... try to hang the quilt... uh, the clips won't hold. The quilt slips out of them. Now what? I spend some time thinking.... ok, maybe safety pins.... I do a mad search for safety pins. Great! The safety pins work. I hang the quilt and take the pictures.

Ok, now I need to get them printed. Geeze.... the computer doesn't want to print pictures. I have 5 different softwares on my computer for printing pictures and none will print. I keep getting error messages. I want to run to a store to print them but I can't. I have customers coming by to drop off quilts. So I keep trying.... One customer arrives and leaves. I try again. Ah ha! I have another inspiration... put the pictures in MS Word and print. Yup, it works. Not great but good enough.

Ok now... I'm still waiting on permission. I decide to go ahead and send the entry. If the owner says no I can always withdraw the entry. I go on a mad rush to find someone to take the envelope to the post office for me and send it by priority mail.

Well dang! Not one person around to take it to the post office.... now what? I still can't leave because I'm expecting another customer. Ok, I think about it and realize... our mailman doesn't get here until about 6 or 6:30 most days... I can go online to get a priority label. I grab the credit card and go online.... I sign up for USPS online service and get a pre-paid label.

I double check everything.... seal the envelope... attach the label... put it on the mailbox. Another customer arrives with her quilt top. We chat for over an hour... she's a talker. customer leaves. She also rides the bus so I can't ask her to take the envelope to the post office. It would be out of her way.

Mailman still hasn't arrived and its after 5. Still no one around to take it to the post office. I pace the floor and watch for the mailman. I put the quilt back onto the machine for the last little bit of quilting. I forgot to put something inside three of the center squares.

The owner of the quilt calls... wow, she sounds exactly like my niece. We talk for awhile. She's happy to be able to enter the quilt. It will be her first entry into a show anywhere. I ask if she can do good binding? Yes, she does. I asked because that's one of the first things a judge looks at. Bad binding eliminates many quilts. I've just learned how to do good binding in the last couple of years myself. I'll finish the quilting and get it picked up by UPS on Monday to be on its way to her. I want to talk longer but I'm still pacing the floor watching for the mailman.

At 7:30 I give up.... mailman isn't coming today. This happens a lot here. The mailman just doesn't show up. Today, I will have two mail deliveries. What happens is the mail that wasn't delivered yesterday gets here in the morning when he finishes his route. Then he starts all over on the route. Which means he will be here again in the afternoon. Why this way instead of just putting it all together.... who knows? It's a government thing. The government doesn't make sense most of the time.

What will I do about the priority envelope? My sister in law is coming over this morning for a day of quilt lessons. I'll ask my brother to run it to the post office after he drops her off. All I can do now is hope and wait... Hope it arrives in time.... wait to see if the quilt is accepted.

So here is the finished quilt....


And a picture of the center that I missed.... it's quilted now though. On my computer, when I click for the larger size, it looks like I used verigated thread. I didn't. I actually used a neutral color.

Recycle stuff can be helpful

Just look what I got! These are paper ends from the local newspaper company. Quilters can always use paper right? For drawing top designs.... for creating pantos... all kinds of things. My neighbor got them for me because I don't have a car. Best of all... these were free. I can get them anytime I need more. Fantastic!


Now if I could only find one of those contraptions like used to be used for butcher paper. I can't figure out what it was called. It held a large roll of paper on a rack. It had a bar that lay across the roll. The butcher pulled out what paper he wanted then pulled the paper against the bar. Perfect cut every time. I guess I will have to check into some antique shops for one of those.

Perfect quilt

Sometimes I get a quilt.... a perfect quilt.... that absolutely scares the heck out of me. It's so perfect that it scares me to start quilting it. I'm afraid of messing it up. Will I choose the right design to compliment the quilt? Will my machine act right with good tensions to do the designs? Will my hand move correctly to create the design? Will I choose the right threads? Will the customer like what I did when she sees it? Being behind schedule doesn't help either.

This week I was the lucky recipient of three perfect quilts to do. One is on the machine and getting quilted. And two more are waiting. All three are going to be multiple day quilts. I started this one yesterday afternoon.


After I had made phone calls, did a little house cleaning, and got some packages ready for ups pickup. The things I couldn't get to while feeling awful.


I also finished the binding and hanging sleeve on the Victorian couple quilt. I can't believe I actually did the binding by hand. That's something I rarely do. I'm still debating with myself whether to put it back on the machine and do more quilting on it. Each time I look at it I feel it needs something more.

I've had some invitations to attend meetings or have a day out. I love it when people think of me. As much as I would rather be having fun.... work is what pays the bills. Also... I've been invited to create some art quilts to be put in galleries during Derby this year. An opportunity I can't afford to miss out on. Only a few days ago I was anxious to start another art quilt.

Right now I'm asking myself if I can create 10 large art quilts before April? Even if I get the tops made.... will I be able to get them quilted and bound and hanging sleeves on them? In my spare time? (There's no such thing) What I really mean is in between quilting to pay the bills and keeping house and eating. The quilting on these will happen at the same time I will be under pressure to finish the guild challenge quilts. Geeze.... more perfect quilts coming in and more stress for me to be perfect too..... aw heck.... too much thinking right now.... I'll go do some quilting and less thinking.... I'm scaring myself too much....

Today's finished quilt.




I hope all the pictures are clear enough to see the details.

My computer is still acting up. Nothing I've done fixes the problems. It needs a serious up grade which I can't do right now. I'll just have to do the best I can until I save enough. I have other priorities for my income.

2008 work begins....again

Now that I'm feeling better.... its my computer that's sick. I'm running virus scans today to see if I can fix it. If not, it goes to the puter doctor. Just want others to know that if I don't post for a couple of days that's why.

In the meantime, I'm feeling like my old self again. I'm back to quilting and hopefully organizing. Since I haven't done much for the last few days there isn't much to post about. I have a quilt on the machine ready to start. That's where I'm headed as soon as I start the scanning.