Steampunk Scooter Finish

The quilt I made for For a Few CC's More 5 scooter rally is finished!

This quilt with be raffled off along with some some other prizes at the scooter rally in November, then all proceeds from the raffle will go to the Food Bank of Southern Arizona! I hope it makes a lot of money for the food bank, and I hope whoever wins it, loves it! I've been wanting to make a steampunk scooter quilt for years, and I'm glad it finally came time to make it! 

There's been a lot more going on around here than just finishing the rally quilt. I finished the top for a doll quilt that has a deadline, I'm working frantically on a baby quilt for a baby due in October. I cut out a Christmas quilt for DD#2 that I promised for her birthday, also in October! 

I've been cutting out burp rags, and I've got more cut out than I need for the next two babies, but not as many I'd like to get cut. At least I can start sewing those up for the two babies I know are on the way. 

I got the binding sewn on one of the quilts in the binding queue.

This was one of the quilt tops I made in Yuma. It's finish #16 for the year, so I am on target to get my annual goal of 24 quilts made this year. On a year where my main focus is finishing quilts, and I don't have a bunch of deadline quilts, I've gotten around 40 quilts finished. On a bad year, I've finished as few as 4. My normal goal is to average 2 finishes per month, or 24 per year. The thing is, 11 of my 16 finishes this year were also started this year. I have mixed feelings about that. On one hand, any finish is a good thing, and anything finished in the same year it's started is never a UFO. One the other hand, I'm not working my way through my backlog of UFO's as quickly as I'd like. 

Our schedule is really filling up! I think the next six months are going to go by in a blur. I have 12 nights of grandkid sleepovers on my calendar, which should be great fun, as well as a couple birthday parties to throw, the scooter rally to host, the holidays, and a family reunion to host in February! It's all good stuff, and I'll have sewing time in between all the busy-ness. I'm going to enjoy this hectic season of life, knowing that the grandkids will grow up all too fast, and not want sleepovers with Nana and Pappy anymore, the people who come to the next family reunion, may not be here for the one after that, DH won't always be wanting to run a scooter rally, and life will get quiet. I'm going to soak up the activities and chaos and people while I can, so when life gets quiet, I'll be able to think about all the wonderful blessings I've been given. 

Thank God for Friends Who Help You Troubleshoot!

 My Janome M7 has been a great machine, except when FMQ with polyester threads. With cotton threads I've had no problems, no matter which brand I was using, even cheap cotton threads do fine. I've used everything from 50 wt threads to 28 wt threads with no issues. I actually prefer the look of cotton thread, I don't like the shine of poly, and to me even the matte poly threads have a bit of shine to them. I don't have an embroidery machine, so I had actually gotten to the point where I was considering selling off all of my poly quilting threads. 

I have a good online friend that helped me troubleshoot the problem, and it seemed like the issue was the bobbin tension was too high for the poly threads to work well. I've never adjusted bobbin tension on a drop in bobbin case, though I'm well practiced at doing it on a regular bobbin case. My friend suggested I buy a separate bobbin case and adjust the new one, that way I'd still have the one that's working well with cotton.

When I looked up Janome Bobbin cases, I found that Janome has low tension bobbin cases specifically for FMQ!!! I ordered the one that was for my M7, and for $28, my poly issues were resolved! I quilted a quilt this week with poly, and there was no drama at all. Right now I'm using the new bobbin case with cotton thread, and it's working great with it too. Now all my threads are possibilities again!

I was so excited to try out the new bobbin case, that I didn't bind any quilts this week either. Now I've got three quilts waiting for binding, and I'm quilting another quilt now so they will all wait until at least after that. I'll have to remember to switch bobbin cases before I sew the bindings on! 

The scooter rally quilt is a top now, basted, and I started quilting it today. I asked DH how he wanted me to quilt it, and he asked me to meander on it. It's not a bad option because meandering doesn't take away from the novelty fabrics, and although I know some people don't like quilting over applique, I do as some extra insurance it won't start coming off. The funny thing is, any time I ask DH how to quilt a quilt, his preference is always that I meander. He loves to draw curvy mazes, and my meander reminds him of his mazes. His genuine preference is meandering. 

My main goal for this week was to get the rally quilt top done and basted, and I exceeded that. I've got so many deadline projects to do right now, I'm making weekly and daily sewing goals around other obligations. Family stuff and housework stills needs to happen! 

Since I met this week's goal, I'm trying to use my extra time wisely. 

I got the August murder mystery blocks done! I was thankful for an easy month. I'm way behind on my temperature quilt, but I'm hoping to catch up soon. I've been keeping notes on my phone calendar on when we get rain at our house, and I can look up the highs and lows, so it shouldn't be hard to get caught up. 

To keep moving on everything that needs to be done, I'm always cutting a project, piecing a project (or two), and quilting a project. This week I cut all the blocks I need for several table toppers. For piecing I finished the rally quilt top, I starting piecing blocks for the table runners, and I'm almost finished piecing a doll quilt that has a deadline. Since I haven't had time for a basting spree, I'm also having to fit in basting time, but I basted two quilts this week which should be enough to keep me FMQ next week. 

Next week my goals for cutting are to cut out two Christmas quilts. For piecing I'd like to get the doll quilt top finished and basted, as well as a baby quilt I haven't started sewing on yet. Any extra piecing time will be the temperature quilt and the blocks for the table toppers. FMQ goals are to finish quilting the rally quilt and bind all the quilts waiting for binding.  

This weekend I don't have anything going with the grandkids, and DH is booked solid, so I'm hoping to clear off the Studio cutter and cut out a big stack of burp rags. I like to give several burp rags with every baby quilt I make, so I go through them pretty quickly. I like to make them in huge batches so I don't have to make them as frequently. I am completely out, and I've got multiple baby quilts to make, so it's a good time to make a batch.

I may be swamped with deadlines, but I'm staying on target so far to get them done. 

No Finishes, but Progress

 This is definitely a period of time where I have way too many projects going at once. Most of what I'm working on are either deadline quilts, or sewing WIPs or UFOs up enough to get them out of my way. 

The two quilts I had on my design wall are now sewn up into tops. Right now I'm debating on whether or not to add borders (leaning towards not) so the tops are hanging in the quilt closet. 

I finished the FMQ on the quilt I was sewing on last week, and it's trimmed and ready for binding. I had time to bind it this week, I just didn't feel like sewing binding on. 

The scooter rally quilt....I've got the center panel fused and cut to size, which allowed me to design the rest of the quilt. Until I had the center panel sorted, and knew the final dimensions of that, designing the full quilt had to wait. 

Now that my design wall is free, I can put up the rally quilt as I finish sections. I think this weekend I'll do all the sewing on this panel. It's all fused, but not stitched at all. I haven't decided if I want to keep switching thread colors and match the thread to each section, or if I want to just use a black, brown, or gray and more go for a coloring book outline look. It would be a lot faster to stick to one color, for a couple of reasons. Of course I'd save time because I wouldn't be spending time changing the thread color constantly, but also I'd save time because it would be simplify the areas I need to stitch. To sew the fabric down, I only need to stitch around the outside edges of all the fabrics, and if something is overlapped, I don't have to stitch the edge underneath. Sometimes I think it looks funny when I do change thread colors and only three sides of shape is outlined in that color. I especially find that true when I use a blanket stitch, it seems like it needs to be outlined in each color around every shape. If I opt for a single color I could use a zigzag, sew over every join and call it a day. Yeah, it's pretty obvious applique is not my thing. I do think the steampunk scooter looks pretty good.

I wanted the center panel surrounded by a dark border, but not a plain border. I had a very nice brown blender in stash that would frame the panel nicely, so I fussy cut some of my steampunk fabrics and used the brown to simultaneously frame the fussy cut fabrics and the center panel. I'm not sewing any of the blocks together until I get the center panel applique stitching done. I do like having it on the design wall, so I can see how it's coming along, and can make adjustments or move things around if needed. I've already swapped a couple of blocks since I took this photo.

There will be a row of blocks above and below this section, before borders. I needed to add height to the quilt, and two additional rows will do that. I have already cut the additional blocks and the borders! I have a lot of quilts stall because I don't cut the borders when I cut the rest of the quilt, and I don't have time for this to stall. DH needs photos of the finished quilt for promotional advertising, so it needs to be finished ASAP. All proceeds from the rally raffle go to the local food pantry, so I try to make a quilt people will want to bid on. We have other things to raffle off as well. 

I wish I had the time to set aside a week to do a basting spree. I'm currently quilting the last quilt I basted before we went to Yuma. It's just a baby quilt, and I quilted over half of it today. It will be an easy finish tomorrow. I did get another quilt basted this week, so I have one to start quilting next week, but it's a throw and won't take all week to quilt, even at my self-imposed one hour of FMQ per day. I have so many quilt tops that need quilting, and none of my deadline quilts are quilt tops yet. I really try to stick with FMQ every day, so my latest strategy on which quilt to baste next has been a weird one. I've been looking at my fabric shelves, choosing a fabric I want to bust, then looking in the quilt closet to find a quilt top it will work with. All the fabrics on my shelves are over 1 yard pieces, everything one yard and under are in drawers. I'm finding a lot of fabrics that have been languishing are not large enough to back a quilt by themselves, so I've been passing them by. I've already chosen backing fabrics for the next two quilts to baste, and that was the case with both of them. Right now I'm changing to choosing two fabrics to back a quilt, and I'll just piece the backings using two fabrics. Hey, if I can bust two fabrics instead of one it's a bonus! 

It's funny, sometimes I look at my stash, and wonder how it got so large, and think I'll never use it all. Then I'll start basting a bunch of quilts, and holes open up on the shelves really quickly and I think maybe I can. Yardage disappears quickly when you are making backings. Widebacks are great, but unless it's at least a twin sized quilt, I try to use regular yardage on the backs. 

Things are definitely progressing, and even though I don't have a finish for this week, I'm feeling pretty good about my goals. 

Inspiration Can Come from the Oddest Places

 Are you one of those quilters who takes photos of interesting tile layouts, brick patterns or wallpaper? I am, and my latest finish was a result of the bathroom wallpaper at the hotel I stayed at for three months earlier this year.

After looking at this houndstooth print wallpaper for three months, I had figured out how to make it into a quilt. Yes, I'm sure there are houndstooth quilt patterns out there, but it was easy enough to figure out how to make it, so I never looked for one. Now, making a quilt in two shades of brown held NO interest for me, and my original idea was to use warm colors with a cream background. 

I wanted to check out all the local quilt shops in Yuma while I was there, and this quilt idea gave me parameters to work with. I had some cream fabric with me, so I started buying fat quarters in warm colors. I thought I'd start making the quilt while I was in Yuma, but I stuck with 2" square busting longer than I anticipated. It ended up being fortuitous that I didn't start it there. 

When I got back home, the grandtwins let me know that new quilts were in order, their favorites were in tatters. Miss S chose a quilt top I already had basted, so hers was a quick finish. Mr. L wanted a red and orange quilt. I showed him the houndstooth quilt I had worked up on EQ with all the warm colors and a cream background. He asked if I could take out the yellow, and use a black background instead. With a few clicks I altered the EQ version, and he said he liked it, so off I went. 

I pretty much put all other projects aside, since Miss S's quilt was finished so quickly. I try to treat the grandtwins as equally as possible, so making Mr. L wait for his quilt turn in the queue wasn't working for me. I promised him his quilt would be done by the first day of school (they are starting 7th grade!) which was yesterday. The twins wanted to spend a couple nights with us before school started back up, so my actual goal was to have it finished before they spent Sunday night here. I finished the quilting and sewed the binding on Saturday, just in time!

The quilt is twin sized, so it will work on his bed. I find this color combination more interesting than the two shades of brown on the hotel wallpaper. This was finish #14 for 2023.

I took this photo while I was quilting it, and you can see the flames I was quilting with a variegated thread. 

Since I had the twins for a couple days this week, I enjoyed the Nana time, and didn't sew while they were here. I did finish cutting another quilt top this week, and I worked on organizing my fat quarters. I got the yellow ones I didn't use for the houndstooth quilt refolded and put away. I also put away several other fat quarters I've purchased here and there, and my birthday fat quarters that were still sitting out were put away as well. 

Today my goal is to continue FMQ on the next quilt in the queue, and I'd like to start sewing blocks for the baby quilt I need next. This weekend is all about doing the big applique panel for the scooter rally quilt! I finally got the design I wanted blown up to size, and I spent one day this week tracing the pieces onto fusible and figuring out how to layer them for the least amount of bulk. This weekend will be final fabric selections, and hopefully getting everything placed and fused. I can't actually finish designing the rally quilt until I have the finished size of the center panel. I've always found applique prep takes much longer than actually sewing it down, and placement for these pieces is really important. Applique isn't my favorite, which is why I usually stick to raw edge machine applique, but I don't mind doing it from time to time, and sometimes it's exactly what you need for a quilt, as with this one. The rest of the quilt will be pieced, and that's my favorite!