Un-quilting Happens

 Un-quilting happens.

ME wanted all over feathers because of this fabric.

I went across one pass and absolutely hated it.  They were way too small and looked like scribbles.  I was afraid she would be strong and then get home and cry because it wasn't what she expected.  That's what I would have done.

About 9 hours of un-quilting and I'm halfway. 😒

Stitchin happens too.

Another Long Time Gone block completed (bottom right)

I rolled the dice and Beach Camping came up.  I was trying to use my stash when I started this quilt.  But when I pulled the completed blocks out of the box and put them on the wall, they did nothing for me.  So, the uncut fabric went back into the stash, and these blocks will make a charity quilt.

I purchased this half yard bundle at Bib and Tucker and they will become the new beginning of Beach Camping.  I will find some dark browns while on shop hop in a couple of weeks.

And, finally, North Star top is complete.  I will add it to the "to be quilted" pile.  Number 22.

Until next time, wishing you more stitchin time than I will have.

Rose

Linking with Sew & Tell

October Wrap up

Quilting has happened.

I quilted one for Lori.

Pantograph:  Swirling Leaves by Urban Elementz.

Thread:  Maderia - Sandstone

One for Dianne.

Pantograph:  Bellflower by Urban Elementz

Thread:  Glide - White

One for Mary.  This was a team effort.  She cut and stabilized the t-shirts, I designed the layout and assembled, she added the borders, I quilted and then she put the binding on.

Stitched with a meander.

Thread:  Glide - White

I also quilted two small quilts for Pam but didn't get photos.

And my design wall was quite chaotic a week ago.

From left:  The guild is having a quilt along beginning in January using Longtime Gone by Jen Kingwell and I am making the scrappy version for demonstration purposes.  

The squares with lime green are my leader/ender blocks.  

Stars are paper pieced and these final ones were completed at retreat. The pattern is North Star also by Jen Kingwell. (I'm kind of obsessed).  

And the rainbow blocks are paper pieced.  The pattern is Arcadia Avenue from Sassafras Lane Designs.  Booklet stated that it was a block of the month so that's how I'm treating it.

Until next time, wishing you more stitchin time than I will have.

Rose

Linking with Sew & Tell

Quilting has been happening

I think I have figured out why I have such trouble posting.  I haven't completed a quilt since April. I have finished quilt tops, but quilting hasn't happened. 

I'm learning, firsthand, what I've been told.  When you quilt for others, you tend not to have time for your own.

Don't get me wrong, I love quilting even if they aren't mine.  But I've decided I need to insert one of mine into the cue every now and then.

So, on to what has been done.

This is Mary's #1 quilt.  I could not bring myself to quilt this with a pantograph, so medium custom was done.

  

Then Mary's #2.

 

Panto:  Paisley Park from Urban Elementz

Thread:  Glide White

And Mary's #3

 

Panto:  Bellflower from Urban Elementz

Thread:  Glide White

Another from Mary.

Panto:  Christmas Doodle - Trees from Urban Elementz

Thread:  Glide White

One from ME.  This was a good sized quilt.

 

Panto:  Bauhaus from Urban Elementz

Thread:  Omni in a shade of gray

Cotton Patch Quilters made our semiannual donation to Butterfly Bridge, a child advocacy center.

Finally, we went on our fall retreat.  Sixteen of us, four were first timers.  And a good time was had by all.

I will do my best not to wait almost 3 months before I post again.

Until next time, wishing you more stitchin time than I will have.

Rose

Repairs-complete, vacation-complete, stitching-some complete

REPAIRS:  Repairs are complete except for the glass doors on our new shower.  The doors should be here on Tuesday and Jorge (who is awesome) will come and install them.

They started in my sewing room with insulation and a new half wall and moved through the house with paint and flooring while moving a utility sink in my laundry room, replacing shutters, front porch rail, decking on the lower section of the deck and sealing the entire deck, replacing a door on my shop, rear doors in the living room, blinds on all of the front windows, 6-panel doors throughout, and adding a hot water heater under my kitchen sink.  All of this took 14 only working days.

Then they waited a week for us to leave on our vacation before they began the master bedroom and bath.

This is what we returned to.

Master bath

 

Before

 After

Master bedroom

Before

After

We couldn't be happier with the results.  I have recommended them to several friends, and they are already working on a new sewing room for one of my Thursday stitching buddies.

VACATION:  Vacation had its ups and downs. Travel days from Alabama to Michigan were uneventful.  We arrived at my sisters on Sunday.  

Monday was gorgeous.

Tuesday the smoke rolled in from the Canada fires.

Wednesday was not much better.  And DH ended up in the hospital for an overnight visit.  He passed out on us twice and then again after the EMTs were there.  His cardiologist changed his BP meds the day before we left and his BP was low the whole time we were gone.

I attended my 50th class reunion on Saturday by myself because he still didn't feel like doing much.  Sorry, no pictures but it was a great time.

On Tuesday of the second week, I met on of my online quilting friends at a Dragonfly Quilt and Yarn and then we had lunch together.  It was awesome to meet face to face.  We sew together almost every day online.

Wednesday before we left for home on Friday, DH finally felt like getting out of the house.  So we went for a "tourist" ride and he got to have a look at the lake.

STITCHING:  I didn't sew the first stitch while we were gone.  But, upon return I completed my granddaughter's t-shirt quilt.

And I quilted a rush baby quilt for another Thursday Stitcher.  She will have a great grandson soon.

I'm in the process of replacing my design wall.  I have half of it up.  I may cover the second half with flannel tomorrow while the temps are only in the 80s.

I'm currently working on a Tilda Colorplay Leaf kit that I purchased some time back.  But I think it may be time to roll the dice.

Until next time, wishing you more stitchin time than I will have.

Rose

Repairs are underway

 The repairs began on the 18th of June.

They told me that it would take a month to a month and a half and they would start at one end of the house and sweep through to the other end instead of doing one step at a time throughout keeping the entire house tore up the whole time.  I asked them to start in the sewing studio so I could load the quilt frame when they finished.

Here are before....

Facing Southeast                                        Facing Northwest

And after pictures.

 

I still have to get a design wall, but I'm not sure about putting all the other stuff on the walls.  I believe the new blinds will go on the Northwest window tomorrow.

After only 12 days all of the repairs are complete except the master suite.  They are going to wait until we leave for our vacation to do that while we are gone.  It has been an awesome experience.  They even painted the inside of our garage!!  And he's putting 6-panel door on the storage room in the garage.

I missed a few days in the sewing room but set up a featherweight on the dining room table for those days.  I also missed a few days while attending school bus drivers training.  But I'm back now.

Until next time, wishing you more stitchin time than I will have.

Rose

What a Surprise!!

 Time has been limited in the sewing room while trying to prepare for home repairs.  But, I managed to get Mary's Summer Moon quilted.

Quiltfest for the Birmingham Quilters Guild was this weekend.  I have never entered a quilt show before.  I decided to show my mini-Storm at Sea for exhibit only because I didn't want it to be my first entry.

I just had to get a picture of it hanging there.

What a treat.

And now, here is the SURPRISE!!

I posted here about my friend that only quilts pantographs and wanted me to quilt her "favorite quilt so far" that she was entering in the show.  I stated that I don't consider myself a show quality quilter.  Well, maybe I was wrong.

What an honor!!!  And she was over the top!!

Until next time, wishing you more stitchin time than I will have.

Rose

What Happened to May?

 I don't know why I have so much trouble with these posts.

I attended a pin cushion workshop.  We took our containers ahead of time and the gentleman provided the insides for each of them.  Some were tomato pin cushions that were recovered at the workshop and inserted, and some were dryer balls.

I took a teacup and the inside was a wool dryer ball.  One of the attendees had an old quilt that was not repairable and she was sharing, so I cut a piece to wrap my ball in.  The dryer ball fit perfectly in the teacup until I wrapped the quilt piece around it.  I was trying to push it down in and the cup broke.  The man glued it back together but while the glue would take some time to dry, I worked on someone else's container.  When I got home, I picked the batting out from around the edges of the piece of quilt, and it fit much better.  Then I glued it into the cup and glued the cup to the saucer.  One of the ladies that attended talked me into making a tea bag to act like the strawberry attached to a tomato pin cushion.

The quilt colors couldn't have matched any better.  The teabag has fine sand and shreds of felt inside.

I finished the binding on the Irish Chain quilt posted about here.

This will be a donation quilt.

We had our QOV presentation.  Eight veterans attended. Several didn't make it so we will deliver theirs.

It's always amazing to hear their stories. 

The QOV presentation opened our in-town retreat.  Sorry, I took no pictures.

The next week DH and I attended our granddaughter's high school graduation.  I can't believe this is happening.  She's still a baby.

Her momma didn't get her t-shirts to me until the first of May so I told her maybe I would get her quilt done by the time she went to college.

My sister sent me a text and said this was in the next-door neighbor's yard.

The video showed it much better.  She said it was there from 11:00 am until sometime in the night.

Kinda scary when you have little dogs.

We are about to break into home repairs in the next week or two.  Did you know you can't replace flooring if you can't see the floors?  I have been cleaning closets, laundry room and UGH the sewing room.  So far, I have made 4 trips to Goodwill.

I've been rolling the dice since I finished Jungle Magnolia, and I've worked on a few things, but I think I should finish that baby girl's t-shirt quilt first.

And our furry baby girl has been fixed.  She's not happy that she can't go to the sewing room with me for another week.

And, that's my month in a nutshell.

Until next time, wishing you more stitchin time than I will have.

Rose

Absent from blogging but not from the sewing room

 The last time I posted I had finished a project and was about to start Jungle Magnolia.  I started it on February 1st.  I tried to keep up with the number of hours put into the project.  On February 24th, at 66 hours, I quit counting.  Since then, I have worked on this project 6 days a week for at least 3 hours each.  I'm happy to say that the top is complete.  And it is beautiful, if I do say so myself.

In the meantime, I completed the quilting and binding on the 2025 SAHRR hosted by multiple bloggers.  This ended up being the "story of my life".  Read the life story here. 

I quilted this Irish Chain made with fabric a friend inherited and didn't know what to do with.  This was the project that I left at Thursday Stitchin so I didn't have to haul a project back and forth.  I will bind this tomorrow.

I also quilted this customer quilt.  It's two sided.  She had a quilt top that she didn't like.  She considered taking it apart and starting over but decided to use it as the back.

Front

Back

Other things that went on are.....my refrigerator quit so had to purchase a new one.  About a year ago a friend gave me a package of dragonfly tattoos from Urban Elementz and I couldn't decide which machine to put them on.  After the new refrigerator was delivered, DH said what if we get a big dragonfly (dragonflies have significance for my family) to put on the front.  Well, what do you know, these look great.

Then, my Panasonic cordless iron quit so I had to bring out trusty old Black and Decker.  

It's so old it doesn't have an automatic shut off so I had to come up with a reminder.  And since I turn the lights off at the end of each sew day, I added a reminder to the pull chain.

And finally, the A/C unit in my sewing room quit.  So, while the repairman was there and it was too hot to work on Jungle Magnolia, I drew projects to fill the tubs anticipating the completion of the current project so I can start rolling the dice again.  That will begin as soon as I get the binding on the Irish Chain!!!

So, not an unproductive 2 1/2 months.  Just nothing post worthy.  Well, none of it was post worthy until I completed Jungle Magnolia. HaHa.

Until next time, wishing you more stitchin time than I will have.

Rose.