Mad Dash

 I've already had two of the grandkids for a couple days, and I'll have them for another week. I did a mad dash last weekend, and got a few things further along so I'll be at a good starting place when life calms down again. 

I got the binding sewn on this quilt, which had been quilted for a week or two.

I busted two different fabrics on the backing, I made it into an offset four patch to add interest. This way it looks like a design choice instead of, "I didn't have enough of either of these fabrics to make the backing". That's the truth, but why advertise it?

I got the quilt top done for DD#2's Steampunk Christmas quilt that is actually her birthday present. DH took the grands to the park today, and I used the time to finish quilting this, and the plan is to get the binding on this weekend and I'll actually make the deadline. 

Since I had run out of basted quilts, I opted to spend last weekend basting, and besides the Steampunk Christmas quilt, I basted three UFO's. My Steampunk Christmas quilt is ready for borders, but that will have to wait until the grandkids are back at home. Any sewing time I've had while they are here has been spent on DD#2's quilt, or piecing some blocks that were ready to sew. Easy stuff is best when I'm tired and a four and six year old can be a handful. Sure I had five kids in six years, but that was many, many years ago! 

I'm pretty happy with what I got done before the grands arrived, and very happy I'm almost done DD#2's quilt. Her birthday is next week, but I'm thinking I'll have it finished in time! 

A Little Sewing Can Go a Long Way

 I've been trying so hard to be good and take lots of sewing breaks. Today I overdid it, but so far I can still lift my arm and the rest of this week I have smaller goals, so I think I'll be OK. 

I said I was only going to work on DD#2's birthday/Christmas quilt, and although that has definitely been my main project, I have worked on a couple others. 

The thing about DD#2's quilt is it was always the plan for us to have mostly matching quilts. I was originally going to use different patterns for each quilt, but the same fabrics. When I decided to use the same block pattern for both quilts, it just made sense to make all the blocks at once. 

I have all the blocks for both quilts done, and when I went to cut sashing, well, I cut those for both quilts too. When I was assembling the quilt top on hers, it didn't seem much more work to assemble the center of mine right after, and when I just pressed the fabric for the inner border, I figured I may as well cut that for both quilts as well. 

DD#2's quilt center is done, but needs pressing. Mine is just in rows, but needs pressing. Tomorrow's goal is to get both borders on DD#2's quilt top, then I can baste it this weekend. How far I'll get on mine I don't know. The outer border on DD#2's quilt will be the larger border from the border stripe fabric in the Steampunk Christmas line. I only have enough of that to do one quilt. The border stripe fabric also has a smaller stripe I could use for mine, but I'm thinking I'd rather save it for table runners I'm making out the leftover fabrics. I had purchased some Christmas fabric last year to use for borders on some Christmas table runners that didn't get made, so I'm thinking one of those will work for borders on my quilt. The inner border is just the same as the sashing fabric on both quilts. 

Aside from these Christmas quilts, I am completely caught up on the temperature quilt, and I even assembled January-August.

I showed the photo to DH and my sister, and they were both surprised it wasn't all red in the summer months, and this summer has been brutal. I told them I didn't want a month all one color, which I why I opted to start my temps at 32 degrees F, and then go in just 4 degree increments. Since I used so many colors, over 20, my lightest green actually goes up to 72 degrees. I also added pinks between the oranges and reds, to add even more variety. I had a VERY dark red that I would have used for 113+, but thankfully, I never needed to use it. We did hit 112 though. September's column can't be added until it's done, but we're seeing fewer reds for highs and more greens on the lows now. I'm very glad I decided to point the Flying Geese unit down when we have rain or snow, because it does add interest to the design. You can tell we live in a desert though, not that many down units!

I was almost caught up on the temperature quilt last week before my arm gave out, so it didn't take much sewing to get the completed columns sewn together. 

I was at a fabric store this week, and I saw a woman trying to choose quilting thread. I was enthralled while watching her, mostly because I would never have considered any of the colors she was agonizing over. She seemed to be set on choosing a neutral color, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. She had two of her main fabrics with her, and they both had the same robin eggs blue in it, and I totally would have gone that direction. Of course, I've done weird things like quilt a quilt with orange thread that had no orange fabric in it, and all kinds of people would have questioned my taste on that one. I'm not questioning her taste or her decision making process. She should quilt with whichever thread speaks to her. I am just a rules are made to be broken kind of quilter. I love Jordan Fabrics YouTube videos, and I've made a couple of the quilts she's done tutorials on. I rarely agree with her quilting thread choice. I love listening to her reasoning, and I get that she doesn't want it to show. Sometimes I chose something calm to recede into the background too, but I often want the quilting to show, so I make a wild choice. Quilting with a really dark color on a quilt with a white background, I've done it. Quilting with a really light color on a quilt with a black background, yes, I've done that too! Sometimes some wild color choices on a solid fabric can make the fabric look printed instead of solid. I like going really unexpected sometimes. My point is, make the quilts YOU want to make. If you want to stick with neutrals, by all means, go right ahead. On the other hand, if you really want to go wild with a thread choice, that's perfectly OK too. I do both, depending on the project and my mood at the time. Sometimes I've even just decided by, hey, this a small project and I think I'll have just enough left of thread X to get the job done. Or more often, I'd like to use this color but I don't have enough to quilt a quilt this large so I'll use thread Y instead. 

Sometimes I wish I was a little more predictable of a quilter. I see people like Lori Holt and Sugaridoo, always using the same color palettes, and I think maybe if I could just choose a color palette I could greatly reduce my stash. In reality, I enjoy playing with all of it, switching up the color palette, switching between traditional quilting and modern, simple patterns and patterns with seemingly a zillion pieces, going between FMQ, walking foot quilting, and ruler quilting. I'm going to have to reduce my stash by sewing it up, the long way!

Always a Price to Pay

 I have been so swamped with deadline projects that I've been sewing long hours every day in an attempt to get it all done. I also haven't been taking a couple days off sewing completely each week, feeling like I didn't have that luxury right now. I knew better, I did, but it didn't stop me until my Repetitive Stress Injury said no more. When you can't lift your arm because that old injury is calling you an idiot, and proving it to be so, you have to stop. 

DH kept telling me I needed to slow down, and I knew he was right. My arm was giving me subtle reminders that I was overdoing it, but still I kept on. Now my arm is benching me. Honestly, the timing isn't that bad.  We pick up two of our granddaughters today, and we'll have them for three nights, during which time I wasn't going to be sewing anyway. Next week I'll have sewing time, but we'll see how my arm is doing after a few days off. Then I have two grandsons for ten days, during which I won't get any sewing done. Basically, over the next three weeks, I'll have very little sewing time, so hopefully my RSI will have time to calm down.

I've gotten of work done during my overdoing it time, though not a ton of deadline finishes. As for the next few deadlines here's where I'm at.

DD#2's birthday quilt (which is Christmas themed)- I have a lot of the blocks done, not all, but a lot of them. If I can sew next week, this will be my focus, her birthday is in October. It's only throw sized, so still a possibility.

Table runners for rally- all the blocks are done, once I cut the setting fabric I can assemble them. They need to be finished before November 11, and the hardest part is done. 

Mr. LJ's quilt- not started because we had a last minute change of subject matter. I received the panel I need to start it yesterday. His birthday is in November, so we'll see. My original plan was actually more work, and now it will be much simpler, so it's a maybe. 

I have two baby quilts to make, plus three other grandsons want new quilts too, but most of those will likely have to wait until next year. 

I had hoped to make everyone in the family new pillowcases for Christmas, but that's not likely at all now. They aren't hard to make, there's just a lot of people in the family. 

I did finish quilting a quilt this week, but haven't sewn the binding on yet. I don't have any more quilts basted, and with my arm acting up so much, I likely won't baste one until I get DD#2's quilt top done. I have lots of quilt tops that need basting, but that's hard when my arm is hurting so much, so I'll stick to basting deadline stuff for a bit. 

As far as stuff not deadline related, I'm almost caught up on the temperature quilt. I hadn't done anything with it since mid-July, but now July and August are finished, and September is started. 

The new blocks for the murder mystery quilt came out yesterday, and this month was so easy, I got it finished today, even with an injury. 

It's kind of nice to know I won't be falling behind on that while I rest my arm. 

When I blog next will depend on when I actually get to sew next, so don't worry if I go a couple weeks without blogging. Giving my RSI the rest it needs is more important than sewing or blogging. 

Two Deadlines Met

 I finished two quilts this week, and they were both small. The thing is, they were both deadline quilts so it's two things crossed off my list!

This is a baby quilt I made from the Mod TV pattern. I used video game fabrics for the TV screens, which is appropriate because both parents ae video game designers. The backing is a minky with various game controllers on it. It's now boxed up with the burp rags and will get mailed today. 

This doll quilt will also get mailed today. It's for a friend's granddaughter, and the instructions I was given were cats and pink. There are some fun novelty cat fabrics in this, and the backing is a lovely pink minky. I snowballed all the novelty fabrics in pink as well, but I added more colors in the nine patches to up the fun factor. I strip pieced the nine patches,  so they are all identical, but I turned them in different directions to not make that so obvious. 

I love the way quilting shows up on solid minky. The minky on the baby quilt was printed, so the quilting doesn't show up as much. I actually don't like the look of quilting on the dot minky or other textures. A smooth, solid minky shows off the quilting best in my opinion. I still don't like the drag minky causes when quilting, and I REALLY hate the mess it makes. There is fluff all over my sewing and cutting rooms now. 

The next deadline projects in the queue are ten table runners for the scooter rally, and DD#2's Christmas quilt I promised for her birthday. That one may be a little late, but I'll try. I have started that quilt, and I'm almost finished the blocks for the table runners, so we'll see. 

The quilt due after that just got completely changed, so where I thought I had everything to make it, I ended up having to order a panel and border fabric which are due to arrive any day. I was going to use a pattern to make that quilt, but now I've got to design something around the panel, turning a horizontal panel into a twin sized quilt. I've designed around a panel multiple times, so not a stressful thing for me. The funny thing is, now that I have to design something, and I'll be looking to showcase the fabrics, I'll likely plan something much simpler than the pattern I was going to make, so it make take less time than I was originally thinking! 

I've only got two months to get those two quilts and all the table runners done. Given that two weeks of that time I'll have grandkids here and won't be sewing, the window shortens to six weeks. Can I get it done? Time will tell. At least this week crossed two off my list! 

Caught Up on Binding!

 I was behind on binding, but not anymore! 

This quilt got a scrappy binding. I only ended up with a join at one corner, and with scrappy binding I consider that a win! This used up all the scrappy binding I had pieced, but I have a shoebox full of binding scraps that I need to join to make more scrappy binding. Scrappy binding can be a fun finish for a scrap quilt. I made this quilt top in Yuma, so it's considered a new start on my finish list.

This baby quilt was a UFO, so now I've finally got another UFO off my list! These were finishes #17 and #18 for 2023. 

I haven't done any FMQ this week because I haven't been home. I was staying at DD#2's house helping with the grands while her house was having major repairs done and her husband was out of town. Because I knew I wouldn't be able to sew, I spent last Sunday sewing up burp rags, and I brought them to DD#2's house to clip. Now I've got 32 burp rags finished, more than enough for the two baby gifts I need, and a few to stash for future gifts. I still want to get more cut out and sewn for future baby gifts, but at least I've got the ones I need soon finished. 

These are the fabrics I used for the beach baby theme.

These are for the video game baby theme. I have multiples of all of those, and the edges aren't fluffy yet because I haven't had a chance to wash them yet. They'll fluff up nicely once they are washed. 

Video game baby is due in a month, and I'm not finished the baby quilt. I have all the blocks pieced, but I need to add some applique before I can assemble the quilt and quilt it. Now that I'm home, that is my number one priority. I'd like to get it in the mail by next weekend, and that's saying a lot since the top isn't even finished! The burp rags being done means all I have to finish is the quilt, and that's a good thing. 

I need to get going, I've got housework to catch up on, sewing to do, burp rags to wash...you know how it goes!