60 Blocks of Summer and Paying it Forward

I decided that with all my "free time" I'd play along with some other insane Flickr-ites and challenge myself to "60 Blocks of Summer". That is - to make 60 quilt blocks, basically one a day, between June 16th and September 3rd.

Yesterday I was afraid that I was already falling behind because it was June 18th (day 3) and I still had nothing. So, I broke out a box of scraps that Heather of A la Mode Fabric had gifted me with. I had promised Heather to make some things to be donated with those scraps, and since I'd already raided a couple of the scraps for my own projects, I thought it was time to use the scraps as I had originally intended. But, hey, with gorgeous scraps like these; who could blame me for wanting to keep some for myself? :)

I'm feeling pretty good about yesterday's accomplishments. I completed quilt blocks 1-9 for the 60 BoS and got most of a quilt top finished to be donated to Project Linus.

I was going to use the 60 BoS to push me to finish the Halloween spiderweb quilt I've started, but I think I'll focus instead on quilt blocks for donation.

With all that yesterday I also pulled the pressure cooker out of my pantry. I bought the thing years ago and never used it. As exciting as a new toy is, I was also afraid of it. Partially because of the 15 psi, even though it's a modern pressure cooker with a release valve and everything, but mainly because I'd never used one. Fear of not really understanding it stopped me. So, I checked out a cook book from the library and tackled the unknown. The recipe I chose was Dilly Mustard Chicken. The chicken meat came out wonderfully, moist and falling off the bone. But the recipe was a little bland. Now that I conquered the unknown I'm ready to dive back in!

One More Square

OK, I was going to get my Mod Bento Box squares in the mail on Friday, but then I decided to make just one more square. lol. What a great excuse for fabric shopping! A couple of the girls at work told me about a quilting shop in the area that I was unaware of, so I found my way over there on Friday afternoon. It carried pretty traditional fabrics. Though I did find a couple of things I liked. :)

Here is the extra block I made:

And, here are the four quarters I'm keeping for myself:

I Joined a Swap

I joined a swap and I'm very excited about it!

Jessica of Give it a Go is hosting a Mod Bento Box Swap using Film in the Fridge's Modified Bento Box block tutorial.

I've made 12 large blocks using her tutorial which will be cut down into 4 smaller blocks each. At this point though I'm hating having to chop my blocks up.

I'm loving these blocks and I hope that my fellow swappies love them as well. :)

New Project

We all know I've got a million things going on at once. I really should be working on finishing the summer picnic quilt I started with Jim last fall. I've got quilt tops that need to be quilted. But, I've started a new project. This one's been on my mind for a year. A Halloween spiderweb quilt. I love Halloween novelty fabric almost as much as I love Christmas novelty fabric! Here's the beginning. I've got one done - probably about 35 to go, lmao.

You might have noticed I haven't posted in like a month. Bran and I went on a cruise the end of last month and I was swamped with work the week before we left. We had a good time on the cruise, we went with a couple friends of ours and cruised from Ft. Lauderdale to Grand Cayman, Honduras, Mexico, then the Bahamas. It was a blast. Here's a photo of the four of us.

When we got home I was swamped with work once again. Last week I was scheduled to train two customers one here and one in Texas. While I was in Corpus Christi to train the second scheduled customer our project manager called and asked me to stay to train another customer in Corpus Christi. This was OK with me as I was staying for the weekend anyways. I lived in Corpus for 7 years with my ex-husband, so it was nice to see the old gang, sans the ex-husband. He's living in Houston now. :) He and I are on good terms, he just wasn't in the area to join us.

I miss being on vacation and seeing my old Corpus Christi friends, but now I'm finally back home and working on my own projects.

Busy

I've been so busy the last two weeks that I haven't had a chance to rest. Not that it's a bad thing...I'm just ragged around the edges. :)

Here's what's taken up so much of my time recently: the New Orleans Civic Symphony had two concerts last week and the Tulane Symphony has a performance Thursday night. This means the hour drive to New Orleans for rehearsals, dress rehearsals, and performances. I also did a wedding gig in the French Quarter on Friday. I love it though. :)

I also finished the "Spring in the 70's" quilt. Though a friend told me I should call it "Psychotic 70's". lol. All that's left to do is wash the quilt to bring out the crinkly goodness and then gift it to the recipient. I'm not sure I want to gift it now though, I've secretly begun to love it. I might make myself one, but use vintage linens instead of the Kaffe Fassett.

If anyone is interested - each patch in the giant nine patch squares are 4" finished (so the nine patch blocks are 12" finished), the sashing is 2" finished, and the border is 6" finished. The finished quilt is 66"x80". It was a quick and easy quilt top to put together and I'm loving the results. :)

Quilting Frame

OK, Jim this post is just for you...because I love you like that!

This is my B-Line quilting frame. Bran bought it for me last year - and I LOVE it. My only complaint is that the throat of my machine is too small, so when I get to the bottom edge of the quilt the rows of free motion are much much more narrow than the top. (This isn't the fault of the frame though, it means I need to get a new sewing machine with a wider throat.) This really bothered me at first, but once the quilt is finished and washed it's much harder to see the little narrow rows.

There are three bars. One for all three layers of the quilt, one for the quilt top, and one for the quilt bottom. I actually got a 4th bar for "free" that's intended for the batting, but it's actually just as easy to let the batting sit in a pile on the floor.

All three layers of the quilt top (at the top of the quilt) are pin basted to a leader that is attached to the bar that sits within the machine's throat. Then the top is pin basted (at the bottom of the quilt) to a leader. And the quilt bottom (at the bottom of the quilt) is pin basted to another leader. This makes up all three bars. Using the bars you create tension on the quilt from top to bottom.

The clamps are used to create tension from side to side. No basting, pin or otherwise, is needed on the sides, though I find that a couple of pins on each side helps.

The sewing machine sits in what I call the cradle. The cradle is two parts. The top part sits on wheels and rails that run vertically and the bottom part sits on wheels and rails that run horizontally along the length of my dining room table.

You attach your sewing machine's foot pedal to the side and squeeze it with your hand to run the machine. This actually bothers my wrist quite a bit so I only do one or two passes at a time and rest. I could quilt an entire quilt top in a day if I really really really wanted too...but I usually spend 4-5 days working to give my hand and wrist a break. I think they sell some kind of button you could use instead of squeezing the foot pedal, but I'm cheap. lol.

You mentioned that you were doing some free motion without a frame. I actually liked doing it that way better, but I didn't like that my quilt back would shift around and I'd get these big folded pieced of back that I couldn't fix or "ease" in. I still do baby quilts without the frame though, but I spray baste baby quilts. The best piece of advice I got for quilting without the frame was to wear gardening gloves. The little stickiness on the finger pads of the gloves make manipulating the material around much easier. Oh, and another good tip was to increase the top thread tension as well.

Regardless, you should come visit me down here in the South and play with my toys!

Proof Positive

Proof positive that I actually got this quilt on the frame and it's being quilted. Yes, I actually got to the next step with this quilt instead of starting another project. :) I went to my local quilt shop on Wednesday and bought the backing and binding material. I always buy more than I need when I'm there, I'm sure I'm not the only one who does this... I got a layer cake and some other little goodies.

After I'm done quilting this quilt I've got four others that need to be quilted as well. I may just leave the sewing machine where it is and start quilting at least one more of those quilt tops that are sitting there waiting. But, I've got this Halloween quilt idea in my head...