A Good Reminder

I am blessed, spoiled, living with abundance, however you want to phrase that. DH and I are working on details for retirement, and my quilting budget will be reduced drastically, but I already have so much, I can quilt for at least a couple years without buying anything. Eventually I'll need batting and thread, but I could likely go several years without buying fabric. My vintage machines will likely outlive me, but my computerized machines may need replacing at some point, depending on how long I have on earth. The fact remains, I am blessed and I know it, I'm thankful for it, and I try to not take that for granted. It's one of the reasons I to to make so much for donation, as a way to give back. 

This week I've had a good reminder of how blessed I am. Since my Janome is in the shop, and I've got to finish a baby quilt within the next week, I'm quilting it on my Bernina 440. The machine I had before the Bernina 440 only had a 6" throat, and the 440 has a 7.5" throat. I was amazed at how much more space I had, and the stitch regulator really helped me out as someone who was new to FMQ at the time. I've been pretty faithful about getting my Bernina serviced, and it's a fantastic machine. It's still a fantastic machine, and although I do some piecing on it, and all general sewing on it, I haven't quilted with it for years. 

Way back in 2017, I bought a sit-down longarm. I went from 7.5" of space for the quilt to 18" of space. I had that longarm for about three years, then in 2020, I traded it in toward the Janome M7. The M7 has a 13" throat, but since it's a sewing machine and NOT a longarm, I could also use it for walking foot quilting. I've never regretted trading in the longarm. Now the Janome is the only machine I quilt on, and I can easily quilt a king on it. I've quilted a king sized quilt on the Bernina too, but it's a chore! When you take into account that I haven't quilted on the 440 for seven years, it's really no surprise I'm having a hard time adjusting, even though I've quilted dozens of quilts with it in the past. 

Can I quilt with it? Absolutely, it does a great job FMQ. I, however, have lost the habits I had to juggle the bulkiness of a quilt through a smaller harp. It's not that I can't do it, it's that I'm finding it much more difficult, and really having to spend more time planning my stitching path to best accommodate bulk...and this is just a BABY quilt!!! It does have a minky backing so that adds to the bulk a bit. I honestly didn't think it would be so hard to adjust back, so this is a really good reminder how blessed I am to have a larger machine. I should be able to finish quilting the baby quilt tomorrow, then I can sew the binding on this weekend. I finished the burp rags, so once the quilt is done, I can wrap the baby gifts. 

I think the burp rags match the quilt pretty well, which is fortuitous since I was working from stash. 

Another deadline quilt is started. I need 108 blocks pieced just like this, and I only have 30 left to piece. I had already cut out a bunch of squares from Star Wars fabrics, 10.5" squares, 8.5" squares, 6.5" squares (my favorite size for I Spy quilts) and the smaller sized pieces were cut into 2.5" squares. For one deadline quilt I needed 24- 10.5" squares, so I chose the squares I wanted and that quilt is ready for the design wall.That quilt has plain blocks but pieced sashing and cornerstones which I already pieced. For this quilt I needed 108- 8.5" squares, and I had a lot of squares to choose from. I decided to first divide the squares by fabric so I didn't end up with 6 of the same fabric but missing several fabrics. Boy, was I surprised I had 50 different Star Wars fabrics! I've been collecting Star Wars fabric for a while, and I make a lot of gifts with it. I don't even like Star Wars, I'm a Star Trek kind of girl. There are several people in the family who are Star Wars fans, and always up for a gift made from Star Wars fabric. If I see some Star Wars fabric in a remnant bin, or a sale priced Star Wars fat quarter bundle, I'm likely to buy it, and eventually, I ended up with 50 different fabrics. I had no idea I had that kind of variety. I don't buy big pieces of Star Wars fabric, so it's not like I could make Star Wars quilts for years and not run out of fabric. I might be able to make a dozen quilts though, depending on the size, pattern and how much background is used. These two quilts are definitely making a dent. 

DS the Younger surprised me with flowers for Mother's Day. I can't remember the last time I got flowers, so it was a really nice surprise! 

A Bump in the Road

 Why does it seem the tighter the deadline, the more complications arise? Maybe that's just me. I was FMQ on my Janome when all of a sudden, the presser foot pressure increased to the point I could hardly move the quilt. Confession time- I have woefully neglected this machine. I bought it in 2020 and never had it serviced, nor had I ever updated the software. I know the computerized machines should be serviced annually, but at $200 a pop, that's a lot. I do keep the machine very clean, so I'm not neglecting regular upkeep, just the servicing. The only thing I use the Janome for is the actual quilting and binding. I've never used it for piecing or any other sewing. In hours of sewing, this machine gets the least use of the three machines I always have set up. 

To be honest, it's not the money that kept me from getting it serviced. I don't like the local dealer, the only one authorized to do the repairs. I love my Bernina shop, they are awesome! But they only service Berninas. I have two different vintage guys I use and they are both great! They don't service the newer computerized machines though. Unless I want to drive at least two hours each way for drop off, and then again for pickup, I'm stuck using the dealer I don't like. I'm hoping this time they work out better than the last time I used them for servicing. They have a new technician so I'm hopeful. They said it would take at least three weeks before I get it back, but it might take until mid-JULY!!!!!

I had planned on getting all my machines serviced this year, before DH retires. I was hoping to wait until I had my deadline quilts finished. Looks like that's not going to work out. I have four quilts with firm deadlines so far this year. One is the Lego quilt I finished and the party is Saturday. One is the baby quilt and the baby shower is the 25th, and the other two are due in July. 

I just finished the baby quilt top. Now I've got to get it basted and I'll quilt it on the Bernina. I've got one of the July quilts ready to assemble, and I'll be starting to piece the other one next week. Depending on when I get the Janome back, I may have to quilt those quilts on the Bernina too. The July quilts are both twin sized, so although I'd appreciate the space the Janome gives me, I'm not worried about piecing them on the Bernina. I've quilted a king on the Bernina, so I know I can do twins, it's just a lot harder on my arm. 

The other "deadline" quilts don't have hard deadlines, they are just quilts I'd like to get within the next year or two. The thing is, those are all queen or king sized quilts, so it's a lot. Those are all gift quilts, I don't make quilts that large for donation, and I'm making them for specific people. Most of those big quilts are actually ready to assemble, just waiting for their turn on the design wall. I think two of those still have piecing left to do before assembly. 

A bit off-topic, but I'd like to talk about something that went very right. Most of you know, I have an Accuquilt Studio die cutter. I have a lot of dies for it, both Studio dies and Go dies, since you can use Go dies on the Studio cutter with an adapter plate. Every once in a while I consider selling off the Studio cutter and dies and switching to the Go electric, which wasn't out when I bought my Studio cutter. One of the things that has made me hold off on that, is that I can cut 10 layers of fabric at a time with a Studio die, but only six with a Go die. When I'm cutting hundreds or even thousands of pieces, that can make a big difference in time. Also, I've had to replace Go dies when they are used a lot, but I've never had to replace a Studio die, they are just a lot sturdier. The Studio cutter is MUCH easier to turn than a Go cutter is, but of course, the Go Electric would be easier still. This baby quilt was my first quilt where I really gave my Bullseye dies a workout. They don't make bullseye dies for the Go cutter, only for the Studio. 

The Bullseye dies have really affirmed my decision to buy the Studio cutter over the Go. I know there are equilateral triangle dies for the Go, and even some hexagon dies, but to have the versatility of the Bullseye dies, nothing for the Go compares. 

If you look at the baby quilt above, you can see I fussy cut the panel I used, to make the most of what was on the panel. I didn't take photos of that process, but I pulled out another panel to give you an idea of how that works. 

To make that baby quilt, I used 3 different Bullseye dies. The hexagon with 6" sides, the equilateral triangle with 6" sides, and the equilateral triangle with 3" sides. Since the hexagons were the largest, I chose those sections first. The hexagoon blade die is laying on the above panel. If I were cutting this panel for the same style quilt, I would center the Koalas as shown, then I would trace around the blade die with a marker. After I had chosen any hexagons I wanted, I'd move to the larger triangles, center the area I wanted, then trace around that blade die. Finally, I'd trace around the smaller triangle to get as much use of the panel as I could. Once I've used as much of the panel as I could, I simply used a pair of scissors and cut on the marker lines. When you go to cut with the Bullseye dies, you have to use foam spacers to make the die a flat surface, but since the fabric is cut in the correct shape but a little larger, it's pretty easy to line it up on the die and get perfectly fussy cut pieces. In fact, I found it easy to cut all my hexagons at once, and all the top pointing triangles at once, then all the down pointing triangles at once, and so on... The equilateral triangles all have specially shaped points that allow you to exactly line up the pieces, whether you are sewing them to another triangle or a hexagon. 

I think the trickiest thing about the Bullseye dies is storing them once they are unwrapped. You always want to store your dies vertically, like a book on a bookshelf, so the cutting blade doesn't get damaged. Since the bullseye dies fit inside each other, they don't always want to stay nice and neat when stored vertically. I solved that by using....pizza boxes! 

All of my Bullseye dies with the exception of the hexagon dies, fit in a 12" pizza box. For the odd equilateral triangles, I could fit both the foam spacers and the blade dies in the same box, but for everything else I needed one box for the foam spacers and one for the blades. I bought the 12" pizza boxes on Amazon. I need 18" pizza boxes for the hexagon dies, but since I only need two boxes, I'm going to ask around at some local pizza places and see if I can find someplace that will sell me two boxes. 

Now I'm really looking forward to making more quilt with my Bullseye dies. With the circle dies I can make rings for appliqueing onto a background, and that could really be fun! My brain is swimming with ideas, too bad I have so many other projects to finish up. If I ever won the lottery (which I never buy tickets for) I'd totally buy a computerized longarm so I could have it quilt my quilts while I make all the quilt tops! I enjoy FMQ, but not nearly as much as I enjoy piecing. Do they make a longarm that has automatic advancing? That's the dream right there, just load a quilt and have the machine quilt it until it's finished. It would need a bobbin that never ran out, and of course no tension issues ever...It's just a dream, but, man, would that be awesome! 

Too Many Projects = Too Little Finished

I'm not trying to start too many projects. I'm actually trying to finish projects already started. I've had a quilt jump the queue, so now I'm having to start a project I had slated to begin in July. 

I'm showing my age here, but having a baby shower 3 months before baby is due seems super early to me. I thought I'd be able to wait until after the two quilts due in July were finished before making this baby quilt, but now I need to have it done this month. It's just a baby quilt, and I know it can get it done on time, it's just throwing me off. 

I had been working on the pieced sashing and cornerstones for one of the July quilts. 

I had been using the hashtag blocks as leaders/enders while piecing the sashing for the deadline quilt. Those extra strips alongside the purple background hashtag blocks are for the border, I've got a similar stack with the gold blocks. I have the hashtag blocks done for two throws, but I've got three more quilts worth of blocks to sew up, then I need to cut sashing and borders for all the quilts. All the hashtag quilts are for donation, so no hurry on those. 

Now that the baby quilt has jumped the queue, I started cutting it out.

I've got three 6" side big hexies, along with a bunch of 6" side equilateral triangles. 

I also cut a bunch of 3" side equilateral triangles so I could piece some of the larger triangles. I'm using one panel and six solids to make the quilt top. These are the nursery colors, so please, no comments on my color choices. I'm trying to match the parents taste, and their opinions are the only ones that matter. From what I've counted up so far, I need a few more large triangles, and I think I can cut enough from one WOF strip. I don't want any more black or gold, so I can cut the extra triangles from sage green, olive green, tan, or rust. I haven't decided which color to cut more of, opinions on that are welcome ;-)

I cut out some burp rags to get sewn up as well. Neither the burp rags nor the baby quilt should take all that long, so barring a big disruption, I should be able to get them all done before the baby shower. 

I'll definitely need to put the baby quilt up on the design wall, but right now, my design wall looks like this...

I'll be adding sashing and cornerstones to all of these blocks, but for right now I'm thinking to just sew them into columns with sashing just to get them off the design wall. I'm thinking to keep using my projects as leaders/enders for each other until I get them all into quilt tops. As long as I label my columns, I can put those back on the design wall later so I can choose which cornerstones go where. I'm not going to want identical squares touching. The sashing will all be purple so making the columns is easy. I also have all the sashing cut, but not all the cornerstones. 

As you can see, I'm piecing a bunch of projects right now. How about FMQ? Well, I've finished quilting one quilt, but it needs binding. I decided to quilt the next one with the same color thread, so instead of binding that quilt I just switched to FMQ the next. If I have enough thread left, I actually could use the same thread to FMQ another quilt that's basted and ready to go. I am getting in that hour of FMQ almost every day, but I've not finished a quilt. If I quilt all three with the same thread, I might not have a finish for a couple more weeks, but then I'll have three rapid fire finishes once they are all bound. We'll see how it works out, because once the baby quilt top is done it gets quilting priority. All of the quilts I'm quilting right now will be donation quilts, so putting off binding isn't that big of a deal. I have three deadline quilts I need to finish in the next couple months, so working on those comes first, but I'll quilt what I can in between. 

In between sewing times, I've been getting lots of pics from DD#1 and DD#2. DD#1 is a homesteader that is a certified breeder of Meishan pigs which are endangered. Their first litters were born recently, so I've been getting all kinds of cute piglet pics.

I'm not sure if any homesteaders read my blog or not, but if having pigs that look kind of like Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh interest you, you can contact my daughter through her website.

DD#2 just got a new dog, which I'll be dogsitting in a couple weeks. I keep getting anecdotes on how the new addition is fitting in with the older dog and two kids. 

The corgi is 8 years old, and the pound guessed the new dog was 11 months. The dogs sleeping this close together was a win! They were really unsure what to think of each other at first.

Overall, this week has felt like I'm running in place. I'm really busy,  but getting nothing finished. I have done a lot this week, so I know progress is being made. I'll take it!