Thursday, May 14, 2015

Mamaw's Last Quilt Is Finished!


Mamaw passed away in April 1988. Here it is almost 30 years later, but her last quilt is finally finished. I've been in possesion of the pieces for about five years, maybe less. Does it count for double points when you are crossing a UFO off two people's lists? ;-)

I am happier with the quilt now that it's quilted. It needed some texture. In case you are wondering why I chose a pink binding, there are a couple of reasons. All the white fabrics in this have pink on them, and the backing I was given for it is predominantly pink, so I chose a pink binding to bring out the pink on the front.

I also finished another quilt this week, which I can't show pics of yet. I started quilting on yet another quilt. I am ahead of schedule for getting these quilts done before our trip. Maybe I can knock out some smaller projects before we leave too.

I am in several online quilting groups, and a lot of quilters who quilt on their DSM like I do, do not like to quilt in the summer. They think it's too hot with part of the quilt on their lap. I think about it differently, and I'd much rather quilt than have the iron on in the summer. When I'm cutting or piecing, I have the iron on a lot, and when it's really hot (I live in Southern Arizona) it's hard enough for the air conditioner to compensate for the outside temps, never mind deal with an iron heating the inside. To each his own, but if you end up with a lot of the quilt on your lap when quilting, perhaps you could support more of it with an ironing board lowered down next to you, or a table next to your cabinet if you have a small work space. I am blessed to have a big sewing cabinet with extensions, but I still grab the ironing board to sit to my left if I'm quilting a huge quilt.

Thanks to everyone who encouraged me about my attempts to be more active. So far, so good, I've been exercising for three weeks, and I'm noticing even on my days off the treadmill, I am moving more. Today was an errand day, and I've got almost as many steps as days I exercise. In fact, when DH was trying on shoes, I was walking the store just to get in some more steps.

Errand days can be a drain. We dropped off two vintage machines to be serviced. Both of those will be leaving the house, but I wanted them serviced before I pass them on. We then went to Costco, which was thankfully not too crowded today. Then it was home to put those groceries away, shoe shopping for DH (found some at the second shoe store), a quick run in to Joann to look at thread (didn't buy anything), then DH and I ate dinner out, and stopped at the grocery store to get a couple specialty items I couldn't get at Costco. Errand day was a drain, both on my energy and our bank account! It's all good though! DH has new shoes to hopefully ease his pain on his 12 hour ER shifts. The house is stocked with food, and I got to eat some yummy Greek food for dinner. So glad today was a "day off" for DH and me :-)

1 comment:

phxquilt said...

I find my errand days are the dys I get the most steps. Most any day I shop is a high step day. I'm even trying to sit at the farthest table from the iron on my quilt lub days. Any step is a good step I guess. I live in midlle AZ and when I'm piecing a big quilt I've been known to put a fan on the floor to keep the air moving under the quilt. I do the same thing in the longarm room which is only air conditioned when I'm working out there. My daughter who lives in sountern AZ has the perfet solution...she just sends them to Me to quilt!