Not the Faces!

If you've read my blog for very long, you'll know I use quite a bit of novelty prints. A lot of the people in my life like themed quilts, which often leads to the use of novelty prints. Most of the time when I'm quilting, I can happily quilt through whatever is on the fabric and only think about the quilting design, but when there are faces...well, let's just say I have a really hard time quilting through faces. I can quilt across bodies or trucks or fruits and vegetables without a problem, but a face??? I've done it, but it bothered me the whole time, and if I see it later on, it still bothers me. 

The last wedding quilt of 2021 was superhero themed, so lots of faces! I had originally planned to do walking foot quilting on it, since I backed it with minky and that causes too much drag for my arm to handle it well. When it came right down to it, I knew any walking foot design I had considered was going to have me quilting through faces, and I just couldn't bring myself to do it. I ended up doing an easy meander on it, but it was still a chore moving it around.

I thought I was home free, I made it through the quilting without any serious pain. When I started sewing on the binding my arm started hurting. Surely it will be fine, I'm almost done, right? I finished the quilt, and my niece should get it today. I mailed it out on Monday. I'm happy with how it came out, and I think she and her husband will enjoy it.

If I had been smart, I would have taken a couple days off after that, but I still have two more deadline quilts for 2021, and the year is almost over. I usually start my sewing day with an hour of FMQ, so I grabbed the next basted quilt, which is not a deadline quilt, but neither of those are ready to to quilt, so I just grabbed the next in the pile. It's a big quilt, but normal quilting fabric for the backing, so I wasn't worried about it. I quilted for an hour, and my arm was a bit sore, but not too bad. I took a long break, then spent some time piecing on a different machine. Again, sore arm, but nothing drastic. I quit sewing earlier than usual that day, but of course, that evening I was doing some prep work for the next quilt, and I did a bunch of ironing...That hurt quite a bit. 

Next day I decided to try doing my hour of FMQ, which I shouldn't have done. I got my hour in, but now not only was my upper arm near my bicep hurting like usual, but my shoulder, elbow and wrist are also hurting. I'm reading a really good book right now (if you like time travel books try The Celtic Brooch Series by Katherine Lowry Logan), and I usually only read in bed, but to make myself take a long break, I grabbed my kindle and read during the day! By late afternoon, my arm was feeling a bit better, so I decided to just see about piecing some Star Wars blocks for one of the deadline quilts. I made it through six blocks, that's it. Once that RSI flares up, it gets aggravated very easily. 

Funny how things work out though. I was supposed to be going to spend a week at DD#2's house November 7-14. She contacted me, and now things got moved up and she needs me next week instead, could I make that work? I told her that was perfect, because if I'm not home I won't be sewing and my arm can use the break! 

Now I'll be leaving in a couple days, so I'll be making sure DH has what he'll need while I'm gone. I won't be doing any more FMQ until after my trip, but I am hoping to get a couple smaller jobs done. This morning I finished piecing the blocks for the Star Wars quilt.

I haven't pressed this block yet, but it gives you an idea of where I'm going with that quilt. I really did opt for simple blocks because of the time constraints. 

I have some really easy cutting that I need to get done, and it's not going through multiple layers of fabric, so I might actually be able to do that. If I don't finish that's OK.

This is what I've got done so far on my washer/dryer runner. It needs a border to bring it up to size, and I'd like to get the border on tomorrow, along with the border on the deadline baby quilt. If I only get the two borders on I'll consider that a huge win! The Star Wars quilt can wait, though I'd like to get the blocks pressed. 

I've been mulling over why my RSI got so bad this time, and I think it's because I haven't been taking weekends off lately. DH has weekends off work, but he has had a ton of stuff going on with his side business. Since he's been busy, I've just kept myself busy, to my own detriment. My arm needs those days off, and I have to be better about making myself take them. 

All-in-all, I'm happy with my progress, and I knew I was pushing it too hard, so having my arm act up isn't that much of a surprise. It's a bummer, yes, but a surprise, not really. The change in my daughters schedule really works to my advantage, so next week my arm gets a break, while I'm busy with a couple of grandkids! I won't be blogging next week, because I don't feel like bringing my laptop or iPad with me, and I don't enjoy blogging from my phone. Enjoy the next couple of weeks without me, and if you need a break, try to take one!

Another One Done!

This is the first time I'm blogging on my new-to-me computer. I've been wanting a MacBook for ages, but was put off by the price tag. One of my SIL's helped me buy one from his company, that sells them off every two years. So this computer was top of the line two years ago, and will still have decent specs for years to come, but I only had to pay 10% of the original purchase price, so definitely more in my budget! Since I was upgrading my computer, I upgraded my quilting software too. I already had two activations on my EQ7, and that's all you're allowed, so I upgraded to EQ8, and while I was at it, I added Blockbase to the mix. I was glancing through some of the blocks in that and my mind was racing with ideas.

 I finished the Pineapple Blossom quilt. I had debated scrappy binding, but I didn't think I had enough made to go around this king sized quilt, and I was too lazy to make more. I have a bin of cutoff binding, and I could have easily made more, but sometimes you just want something finished. I opted for a chambray binding, which doesn't really stand out against anything, and that's what I wanted. There's enough going on in this quilt it didn't need an eye catching binding.

As is the case with a lot of quilts, the quilting shows up better on the back. I started this quilt several years ago, and it feels good to have it finished! DD#1 fell in love with it so it can go live at her house.

I was busy crafting with the grandkids last week. 

Miss S made a mermaid shirt, and she beaded the whole bottom of her shirt by herself. What a difference a few years makes, the younger girls needed help, but she didn't. 

Mr L opted for a car design, and he mixed his paints for a camo look. 

Mr LJ wanted a fire engine with two stars. 

And Mr T wanted a school bus. 

This is a better pic of his.

The two little ones already chose what they want on their next shirts, and it just so happens I have extra shirts in their sizes, so I think we'll do that next month when I go spend a week at their house.

DH was busy with the grandkids too.

Mr T is especially fond of sidecar rides, and he was up at 4AM the next morning saying Pappy needed to wake up so they could go riding. I suggested we let Pappy sleep a bit more, but they were riding by 8:30. 

I started quilting on the last wedding quilt of 2021, but it will take a few days to get that done. I plan on doing some piecing this afternoon. I got the last fabric I needed for the baby quilt, and I can start piecing the Star Wars quilt. I have an inkling I'm going to need to make another baby quilt soon, but I don't have confirmation on that yet. 

Met My Goals

 I am a happy quilter! I had some pretty lofty goals and less than a week to get them done, but I met them all!

I just finished quilting this monster a few minutes ago. I need to trim the edges so I can get binding on it. I might be able to trim today, but likely the binding will have to wait. I've got a houseful of company tonight, and I've got a few things to do to get ready for that! So much mess in the background, ignore that. My studio seems to either be clean or productive, and lately I've been going for productive. 

I did baste the last wedding quilt of 2021, so it's all ready to quilt after this one is bound. Well, it's ready to quilt when my quilting thread arrives, which should be any day. 

I've gotten as far as I can on the baby quilt. I've got the borders planned, but I want to use a particular fabric as the cornerstones and part of the border. I only had a fat quarter of it left, and that wasn't enough. My local shop was sold out of it, so I had to order online. No worries, I won't have any sewing time before it gets here anyway. It's due to arrive Friday, and I have company until Sunday. 

I also got the Star Wars twin sized quilt cut out. That will go to the big brother of the baby that's getting the Marvel quilt. 

Those were all the goals I had hoped to get done before I got the grandkids this week, but was doubtful I could do it. I was so busy, I actually got a bit more done than that. 

I sewed all these yellow/orange blocks into four patches just to make assembling the quilts easier. I have enough for two twins.

Yesterday, I took some time in the afternoon to make two of my grandsons weighted snakes.

I didn't have a pattern, but they are snakes, how hard could it be? I did widen the head and taper the tail, but aside from that they are just straight. I thought that fabric would make great snakes, but I used different colors on the bellies so they could tell them apart. The two year old especially likes pressure on his shoulders, so I thought make a toy snake could drape over his shoulders like a shawl to provide some of the sensory input he needs. The eyes are safety eyes, not buttons, and I reenforced the fabric with fusible interfacing before putting them on, so I think it should be safe for them. They aren't big stuffed animal fans, but I thought a weighted option would be good for their sensory issues. I sewed channels in the snakes so all the pellets couldn't go down to one end, and it makes them more easily posable too! I had fun with them, we'll see if the boys like them. 

No more sewing for me until next week, and I will likely need a day or two of recovery time after having a houseful! We'll have six extras tonight, four tomorrow night, and two until Sunday. We have two guest rooms, but even that's not quite enough for tonight. I'll figure it out! That's why we also have a cot and air mattresses. 

Maybe on my recovery days, I can do a little bit of clean up in the studio, in between all the loads of laundry I'll need to do,  it could use it!

Closet full of Quilt Tops

 Quite a while ago, I bought a 25 pack of skirt hangers to hang quilt tops on, and I've never had all of those hangers full, until now. I've actually got 27 quilt tops hanging in the closet now, plus the superhero wedding quilt that's still draped over the cutting table, and I've got a couple quilts basted as well. You'd think after assembling three quilt tops last week, and another five this week, I'd be catching up as far as assembling quilt tops goes. Well, in all actuality, I've still got several more quilts worth of quilt blocks waiting to be assembled, and I've got several more quilts in some stage of sewing, and even a couple quilts cut out that aren't sewn at all. 

I wish I could say I've been doing lots of quilting as well, but I haven't done any FMQ in over a week. I knew sewing time would be iffy for a while, and if I only have have small bits of time, piecing is easier than quilting. 

Over a year ago, I was overrun with 2.5" inch squares, and I took all the squares I had four or five of the same fabric and matched them up for nine patches. I've been using those as leaders/enders for a year, and let me tell you, I am sick of sewing nine patches! This week I decided to make those my main project, just to get them done.

This is the result of a year or so of sewing nine patches as my leader/ender project. I started out counting and clipping them together in sets of ten, but I soon gave up on that. I'm estimating about 500 nine patches, which will make a lot of scrap quilts. I put those all aside for now, I'm pretty sick of looking at them, and I'm using some quilts I have cut out as my leader/ender projects right now. I am considering setting options, and some of my next leaders will likely be alternate blocks for some of these. 

I made several of these blocks this week, because I'm debating using them in the baby Marvel quilt I need to make. I made them in different colorways, and on several I tried to stick with colors representing different superheroes, like a red and yellow one for Ironman, and red and blue for Captain America. I made more blocks than I need, and I need to lay them out with the Marvel fabric to see if that's the direction I want to go. If I decide against it, which I might, I'll just make a whole quilt of these star blocks. I've got several ideas running through my head for the baby quilt, and I haven't made any firm decisions yet. 

Last week I had two of my granddaughters for three days, and we got busy crafting!

I cut out their names and the design they wanted from freezer paper, ironed the freezer paper onto the shirts, and then let then use fabric paint to stamp around the paper. When the paint was almost dry, I used a toothpick to get under the freezer paper and peeled it off. The next day, I fringed the bottom of their shirts and we strung pony beads onto them. These two were my test subjects, and all went well with the craft, so next week when I have four different grandkids, we're going to try it all again! Next week I'll have three boys and only girl, so I think we'll skip the beading unless Miss S wants them. In case you are wondering, neither girl had enough patience to finish the beading, so I finished both of their shirts. These two are 3 and 7, so I figured that would be the case. Next week I'll have two 10 year olds, and a 2 and 4 year old. Fall break makes for a busy Nana with no sewing going on!

I do have a couple sewing days available before they get here, and my hope is to get the wedding quilt basted, and get back to FMQ the quilt I'm about 1/3 done quilting. I'm also hoping to get a bit of cutting done, but we'll see. That may be too ambitious for the time I'll have.

Tomorrow DH and I are going on a day trip. Yesterday we took a day to go see DD#2 and family up in Phoenix. These two weeks off he's had have not turned out the way we thought they would, and we debated going away for a couple nights, but decided we had enough to do, so a couple day trips was a wiser way to go. Next week he's back at work, but I'll be in Nana mode, so I'm not expecting much sewing progress to be made. I do, however, expect another tea party to happen. I have tea parties with all the grandkids, boys like tea and cookies too!