Saturday, June 29, 2019

Dark Blue RSC19

I made two blocks for Owl's Well That Ends Well in dark blue.



I also had time to make a bunch of blue 4-patches out of my 1.5" squares (1" finished.)



I'm linking up with Angela at SoScrappy for the RSC19.  Check out all of the creative links today at RSC19 -- ScrapHappy Saturday.

SoScrappy

Mr. Sunshine worked on his "homework" from "mommy school" by reading two of his library books to me.  He is definitely improving on breaking down the big words this summer.  He is also realizing that it's not just reading anymore.  It's retaining and looking for meaning.  He knows there's going to be a quiz to follow.  LOL.  He amazes us every day!

I had a fun picture of him to post reading to me by my sewing machine.  Unfortunately I ticked him off this week.  He purposely splashed my phone by the pool and the picture is gone.  The next day he got made at me and deleted all of the things we had recorded on the dvr.  I guess he's thinking that if he can't have his choice of electronics neither can we.  Not ever day is full of roses and sunshine--it's like that for everybody.  We are all a work in progress, but in the same thought, we are all HIS masterpiece.


Thursday, June 27, 2019

WIP Wednesday...on a Thursday



I was working on this customer quilt when the thread kept breaking.  Here's a pic from the back.  I'll just call it the Veggie Tales customer quilt.



My husband is now working on putting my machine back into time.  I'll probably not be quilting until the weekend.



Hope everything goes smoothly because I have a high school student coming over to quilt her fair quilt next week.  It will be her first time using a longarm.

I made seven orange sand castle blocks this week (pattern by Bonnie Hunter.)



I also made five blocks in darker blues:



I finished the 1.5" orange squares by making them into 4-patches.  This will help in my variety of 4-patches for more sand castle blocks when Angela announces the color for July for the RSC19.



I finished this customer blue and 4-patch quilt and returned all THREE QUILTS to her!




I'm starting a new summer project!!!  Woohoo!!!

Check out all the details on Kevin the Quilter's Blog.  It starts TODAY!!!

I have already decided that one of my colors will be NEUTRALS!!!  I have plenty of them.  This big bin is already handy and by my sewing machine.



I'm linking up to:


I currently have 69 on-going projects.

Pieces Still Need to be Cut & Sewn
1.  Cheddar Jack cat pattern from Mama Spark's World 
2.  Digging up Bones (Owen's dinosaur quilt)
3.  Rock Island Campfire Quilt
4.  Picadilly Circle
5.  ...And Sew On BOM at Quiet Play (one block to go)
6.  Go Four It! -- Scrappy 4-patches started as leader/ender June 2017
7.  Patriotic Folk Animals (from Americana Quilts Book) -- hand work for school
8.   Soul Searching -- need 1 PINK block!
9.   Leah Day Building Blocks QA
10.  Love Laugh Quilt Christmas Improv QA
11.  Classic Meets Modern BOM
12.  Mod Mod QA (turning this one into a baby quilt) (from block Lotto, mostly circles w/lines)
13.  Owl's Well That Ends Well (RSC19 project started 1.26.19)
14.  Linen and Threads - Mystery Sampler SAL Sew-to-go bag project started 1.21.19
15.  Temperature QA (2019 block-a-day according to high and low temps.)
16.  Kite Girl (RSC14)
17.  Amish Country BOM (from Lynn, Johnna's mom)
18.  Cabins at the Lake (from Fons & Porter Magazine) (only one house block complete.)
19.   2.5" Scraps from Dani making "cracker" blocks
20.  EPP mini table topper (grey, maroon, blue, cream...)
21.  Little Houses (3.5" blocks)
22.  Pumpkins & the Beanstalk (a second quilt.)
23.  Set of note cards and envelopes
24.  Wings of Spring -- Block Lotto win 3.31.19
25.  Slabs with White Rectangle (RSC14 started -- need blocks each month)
26.  Bonnie Hunter Box Kite class from March, 2017 (Will make baby quilt.)
27.  Super Mario QA
28.  2015 Orange, pink, grey kite blocks (from Accuquilt die, RSC17)
29.  Maroon Sampler Quilt
30.  Gypsy Wife QA (started again with Angie at Gnome Angel, August 2017) (2019 QA)
31.  Kathleen Tracy’s 2019 Mystery Quilt -- Facebook QA started in March, 2019. 
32.  2016 Plus Blocks (from left over pieces of Soul Searching blocks)
33.  RSC16 Folk Art Birds
34.  Kevin the Quilter's Sapphire Stars Mystery (started Summer 2017) 
35.  Secret O - H - I - O quilt.  Shhhh.  Can't show this one--but it's cool!
36.  Jelly Roll Rug
37.  Sand Castles -- Bonnie Hunter string quilt started January, 2019 -- an RSC project
38.  Parallelogram Strings -- 2019 String Along at Humble Quilts, started 1.31.19
39.  Simply Summer Sensational QA with Kevin the Quilter (started 6.27.19)
  
Blocks Still Need to be Made
1.  Bluepatch Mystery Quilt
2.  Scrap Crystals (working on blue pieces for RSC15)
3.  We Can Do It Skill Builder Sampler
4.  Amanda Murphy Designs (ugly fabric quilt)
5.  Finding Nemo Scrappy Trip quilt (my seams don't match Julianne's seams...)
6.  Drunkard's Path Variation baby quilt
7.  Kim Diehl's Table Topper from her book Simple Charm (Started August, 2017 for to-go bag.)

Blocks are made but need to be sewn together (and/or some sashing)
1.  Block Swap Adventure Orange/Yellow Sampler (2011-2012)
2.  Cruise blocks won from Libby
3.  Orange/Blue Fish Blocks (that I won)
4.  Split Stars (blocks won from Block Lotto; October, 2012)
5.  African Violet baby quilt (Block Lotto inspired)
6.  Tall Fly 
7.  Fortune Teller (RSC14 started)
8.  Sonja's Windows string quilt 
9.   Block Swap Adventure (2013) Churn Dash Blocks 
10.  Tula Pink's City Sampler 100 Modern Quilt Blocks (New QA starting 5/7/17 Gnome Angel)
11.  Flower Baskets (blue and white with some applique) Block Lotto win 10/1/18
12.  Pre-printed cross stitch pillow sham (May, 2018 sew-to-go bag)
13.  Bonnie Hunter Garden Party (started 3.18.17.)
14.   Cathy's CRAZY BY DESIGN.  It's the Dot Dot Dash Bag. (new to the list April, 2018)
15.  Block Lotto December Scrappy Stars (blue/purple) -- I won the star blocks December, 2018.

Quilts back needs to be made (tops are done) 
1. Card Trick (pink and blue) HUGE charity quilt for local quilt guild
2. Hunter green large (bubbly -- will be a challenge to longarm) charity quilt for the local guild
3. Bubble Gum pink and navy charity quilt for local quilt guild
4. Good Fortune -- A Bonnie Hunter Quiltville Mystery started Thanksgiving weekend, 2018.

5.  Customer Quilt with patches in the center (from customer 6.22.19) (CM)

Ready to longarm
1.  Veggie Tales (from customer 6.22.19) customer quilt (CM)
2.  Customer quilt with special block in the center (CM)
3.  Catchin' Some Rays needle turn applique crib quilt started March, 2018 (adding EPP hexies!)

Recently finished
1.  Blue and 4-patch customer quilt (CM)

Monday, June 24, 2019

Nolting 23XL Stitch Problems...


On Friday I dropped off three finished quilts to my customer.  I had them a little over six months and was wondering if I was still her favorite longarmer...  I was.  She gave me two more quilts to longarm for her.  I dropped our son off at church camp on Sunday and came home and got busy on the first quilt. 

I was quilting along using my Circle Lord giant template board called Clam Shell.  The quilt was looking fabulous.  I found it odd what if I quilted west to east (right to left from the backside of the longarm) that it would make a beautiful line of stitches all the way across the quilt.  When I quilted east to west the thread would break about every four swoops of clam shells.  (I believe this green board design has been retired.)

I thought to myself, hmmm let's troubleshoot.  If I called my Nolting dealer he would ask me what has changed since I quilted the last quilt nicely?

1.  At the end of the last quilt I broke a needle and didn't know why the old needle broke.

2.  I changed thread, but I believe this tread is the same brand and weight of the last thread.  Only the color is different.

3.  This quilt is of all cotton fabric with a piece of sheet here and there as a scrap.  Hmmm.


I wasn't a tension issue.  The stitches were beautiful.  But I did find a thread stuck in the bobbin area.


It was a pesky little thread.  I'm pointing at it with my stitch ripper.


Hooray!  I got it out in one piece!


My husband arrives to the scene about 8pm.  He's always interested in anything mechanical -- ANYTHING -- as long as they don't have to do with my computer, phone,  tv set-up or cameras.  The bigger the piece of equipment, the better.  He is always intrigued by my Nolting 23XL longarm but not my sewing machine.

I explain in detail what it is doing.  I demonstrate a few rows that I can perfectly stitch from west to east (it's always best to talk in the most possible technical terms with him and use part names vs. "thingy" or "dohicky".  I show him the tread breaking when I stitch east to west.  My longarm (unlike my truck) was predictable and the thread broke every fourth clam shell!

My husband thinks that I need to change the needle again.  I told him that I thought maybe the thread was not aligning properly in the needle and that I had already tried positioning the needle again.  I got out another brand new needle from the manufacture package and put that one in.  Same results.

Then he takes this apart.  He thinks the needle is hitting something and bending.  Hmmm.  I know that there is supposed to be a little flex in the needle to make the hook in the thread, but I left him go.  My husband has adjusted the timing on my longarm previously.


Next he takes everything apart.  I think at this point he is fascinated by the amount of my own tools I have.  He's going through my tool box saying, "Hmmm.  Hmmm.  Hmmm."  Tools are his thing.  He does not recognize any of the tools in the box as his and is slightly impressed that I went to a store and got my own set of tools that I needed such as Allen wrenches, mini screw drivers, screw drivers, flashlights, and pliers.  Later I showed him the set of tools that I inherited from his mom in her sewing things.  His mom and I had very similar interests.

You can also see in the customer quilt pic below that the quilt stitches an seams aren't perfect on her quilts.  I always think this gives her quilts personality.  She loves to sew and quilt.  She uses fabrics that she has.  She cuts everything with scissors and does not like to use a rotary cutter.  She wants to make a quilt for every one of her grandchildren.  I think there are about 15 of them.


An hour later hours later...  Still working on it.

He's super cute!  He is one of the most patient people I know!


The manual, the internet on my phone, and a YouTube video and two hours later he was still working on it.  It's almost back into time, but there is a skipped stitch here and there.  Because it was skipping stitches I did not try the east to west thread breaking problem.  It has to be in time before I test that.  We went to bed a little after 11pm.  Tomorrow is another day to work on it.  Instead of longarming my customer quilts and getting them done lickety split, I guess I'll have to work on a few other things today.


To be continued...

Moving It Forward Monday




I finally finished the orange Sand Castle blocks (a Bonnie Hunter pattern).  I was supposed to work on orange scraps in May for the RSC19, but the month got away from me.  They are all complete now for orange.

I'm linking up at Em's Scrap Bag for Moving it Forward Monday.




Sunday, June 23, 2019

Simply Sensational Summer Scrap Quilt -- With Kevin the Quilter!


I'm starting a new summer project!!!  Woohoo!!!

Check out all the details on Kevin the Quilter's Blog.

I have already decided that one of my colors will be NEUTRALS!!!  I have plenty of them.  This big bin is already handy and by my sewing machine. 



I'm not sure what other color to pick yet.  Hmmmm.  I have a lot of blues and greens...  Hmmmm.

Marking these days on my calendar... Hope you play along too.

June 27

July 25
and
August 22



The 2019 Garden

Here's the current situation of my garden.  Hopefully it will be dry enough to run my rototiller and/or Mantis this week.  We have had more rain here in Ohio than usual this year.  The plants look great so far!



The zucchini and squash are doing great.  I hope to have some baby zucchinis next week.  I finally found a zoodle maker that I love.  I got it on eBay.  

Paderno World Cuisine 3-Blade Vegetable Slicer / Spiralizer A4982799 



The tomato cages are re-purposed tv antennae pieced that I personally cut with the cutting torch one day while our son was in pre-school.  They make great heavy duty cages.  I need about 30 more cages for the rest of the tomatoes this year.  I'm not sure yet if I will just buy them or use fence posts and tie them with pretty fabric strings.  That would be more work, but I have all the materials.

It's a tomato canning year.  Hoping for a great crop.  

The swimming pool ladder is a great place for cucumbers to climb.  I saw a relative cleaned out his garage and put another one on our porch.  I may grab that and put it in the garden as well for the other hill of cucumbers.  Re-use and re-purpose -- love it!

Saturday, June 22, 2019

Scrap Happy Saturday -- The June Blues

I finally got out some blue scraps after being shamed out of using my orange scraps that I am STILL not done with... LOL.  Here's five Sand Castle block (a Bonnie Hunter pattern.)  They aren't all super dark blues, but blue none the less.


...and here's the last of the orange 4-patches for now.  You can see that I really needed to get some fun colors into the blocks above.  I'm almost out of purples and pinks already.  Those months should be coming... right?  Hint hint, Angela!  I'm still working on my orange sand castle blocks as well.


I'm linking up with Angela at SoScrappy for the RSC19.

SoScrappy

It other news, we have had SUNSHINE in Ohio for two days!!!  I could mow and my husband re-dug the washed out ditch and culvert last night and was able to grade the driveway today.  Ahhh.  I love a fresh graded driveway.  My hubby knows how to keep me happy. :)



I don't post that many pictures of my husband.  He's a little camera shy.  Don't worry... he is wearing shorts!  They blend in with the tractor a little.  I love the Discovery Channel show called Naked & Afraid.  LOL.  I am so blessed to have him as a partner in life. 


Last night was a great night for playing baseball.  Here's my favorite catcher.




Here's what it looked like after I mowed the muddy yard.  Some of the fancy allotments have fancy mowing stripes.  I have muddy brown stripes.  I love living out where we can't get cable or natural gas.  800 feet from the main road is fine with me.



My grandma was a quilter.  She was very talented and won many ribbons at the Ohio State Fair.   She passed away in 1975, but I am proud to say that she is the grandparent that I relate to the most -- my quilting, my thrifty heart, my crafts, my cooking, my chickens, my canning, my gardening, my spirituality...There is a little bad blood in our family.  I didn't get the things that were supposed to be divided in the will.  That's water under the bridge.  Every once in a while I find something tucked into a box that was regarded as "junk" from another family member.  This week I found her songbook from the 1950's.  It has things tucked in there in her handwriting and newspaper clippings and sewing/quilting patterns.  I believe that NOTHING happens by chance.  I believe that everything is perfectly timed by God.  I was meant to find this book this day.  Oh the sentimental value of this book.  I love it.  It will be at my sewing desk for quite a while.  It's amazing that the songs she loved in church are also some of the songs that I love in church.


Friday, June 21, 2019

Customer Blue and 4-Patch Quilt -- A Friday Finish!

I'm so happy that this blue and 4-patch customer quilt is finished.  I think part of the reason that it gave me longarm problems is that it is made from several different types of fabrics (front and back).  Done is done.  I called the customer and hopefully she's not upset for me having it for too long and I can drop it (and it's friends) off by the weekend.


I longarm quilted it with pink thread because the back was mostly pink.  I used my Circle Lord giant template board called Ribbles.  It's a looser pattern and allowed for me to work in some of the fullness.


Here's a glimpse of the back.  It was pieced.  It was part of a white sheet in the center and pink gingham check on the sides.  I had to add more white after the pink gingham because the backing fabric was not wide enough.  I had to add enough to the bottom so that I can use my grippers to clamp it into the frame = extra work...  But it's done.

I originally planned on using my Swirls template board, but I had tension issues and there was just too much fullness here and there.  That was unwanted re-work on my part, but like I said...DONE!

There are still threatening skies here in Ohio.  I didn't chance hanging it out on the clothesline.


Here it is rolled up and back in the batting bag just waiting with the other two quilts to get returned to the quilter.  :)  Oh what a happy sight to me!


Update:  When I dropped off the three above quilts my customer was satisfied with them and gave me two more to quilt for her.  Whew!  I was a little worried because I have had them since December '19.  My customer also understands that I don't longarm quilt during the cold winter months.  Glad they are done!

I'm linking up with Myra at Busy Hands Quilts for Finished or Not Friday.


Finished or Not Friday at Busy Hands Quilts

I found some new linky parties I hope to be part of the future as well.  I'm linking up with Michelle at From Bolt to Beaty and Nina at Creations - Quilts, Art...Whatever for Off the Wall Fridays.

Creations by Nina-Marie

I also found Wendy of Wendy's Quilts and More for the Peacock Party!


Speaking of Ohio weather.  Look!  I put stripes in the yard while getting a chance to mow today -- brown mud stripes that is.  LOL.  The entire ditch an culvert needed cleaned.  My husband did that an put back some of the washed out driveway back with the backhoe last night.


I got this photo of two turkeys in the yard this morning.  They are regulars.  The turkey on this side of the driveway is interacting with a bunny hiding in the grass (that little brown dot.)  See it?


Thursday, June 20, 2019

Bowling With the HIGH SCHOOL!

We spent the afternoon this week with our regular bowling activity.  He was starting to beat me.  Now, entering 6th grade this fall, he is allowed to practice with the high school bowling team.  Since they have been starting to coach things I am leaving things alone and letting them COACH.  His scores are going down, but he is learning fundamentals.  Glad they are starting at 6th grade!


Owen also participates in the summer reading program at our local library.  It's funny that's he's Mr. popular at our local branch.  EVERYBODY -- even the substitute librarians -- knows him.  Even his aunt can go into the library and they know HER just by association -- and she's such an amazing part of his life.  Anywho... one of the reading prizes this week was a free doughnut at a local doughnut place.  I confidentially left him out at the parking lot (and made sure he got to the sidewalk safely, of course.)  We had never been to this particular doughnut shop location.  He took his coupon and confidentially walked in, had a conversation with the person at the counter and proudly got his free cream stick with sprinkles.  I watched as the counter worker who has never met him before gave him a high five before he left.

We are SOOOOO PROUD of our son and the independent young man he is becoming.  Next week he'll be at church camp for the fourth year in a row.  He spends three nights and four days there!  We have an amazing church family.  He can't wait to go.  Like I said, we are just SO PROUD of him!

Unofficial Accuquilt Die Review

I am not an employee or affiliated with Accuquilt.  I am a HUGE Accuquilt fan and loyal user.  Let me tell you why...

It seems like some of my friend don't know what to do with little bits and pieces of scraps after they are done making their quilts.  They put them in a bag and surprise me when they see me... at home, at a guild meeting, at church, at school... Scraps just show up.  Here's an example of some neutral strips and pieces that I pulled from my bin today.


I love to work with 1.5" squares on so many things.  I used to cut them all to length by hand from my 1.5" strips (cut with my Accuquilt strip die #55024).

My newest die is the 1.5" square (1" finished) Accuquilt die #55470.  I like this die and will be using it often to get rid of my tiniest of scraps.  I'm not really sure why Accuquilt put spaces between each square unless it was for better visibility for fabric placement.


I ironed and layered my fabric up to six layers, put on a mat (all of my mats would work because they are all bigger than this die) and cranked them through.  Within 10 minutes I had over 200 accurately cut squares.


Sometimes I purchase my dies on eBay, Amazon, and sometimes just directly from the Accuquilt site.  I found the best deal on this die on the Accuquilt site.  (I had points and a coupon to use.)  It is a newer die.  That is where I normally purchase newer dies.

I once talked on the phone to a person that worked at Fabric Hut in Virginia. Fabric Hut is a great source via Amazon and Ebay and their website for Accuquilt dies.  They even offer free shipping from time to time.  The person I talked to said that they offer great Accuquilt die prices because when a die becomes "older" Fabric Hut purchases it by the pallet from Accuquilt and sells it at a discounted price.

I whipped up these 4-patches in no time...and yes, I'm still working on orange blocks for the RSC19.