Circle of Life- Fabric Edition

The above fabric and selvage demonstrates one of the reasons I love quilting! There always seems to be so much connectivity through quilts. I have spent whatever spare time I've had this week cutting out quilts for my grandsons. I plan on using their quilts as leader/enders for the wedding quilt I just started. I am making a fishbowl quilt for my oldest grandson, Zak. I had originally chosen a black for the shelves the fishbowl will sit on, but I didn't have quite enough. I found this gray, and it has a wood grain look to it, and I had just the right amount of it.

When I pressed the fabric, I realized this piece was from DH's grandmother's stash. She passed away a couple years ago, and my MIL brought me most of her remaining stash. I've used her fabrics in multiple quilts already, and I think she'd be pleased they are being used. I thought for her fabric to end up in Zak's quilt was especially fitting, since he is her great, great grandson.

When I cut off the selvage, I noticed the date of manufacture. 1988, the year DD#1, Zak's mother, was born. So, Zak will have a fabric purchased by his great, great, grandmother, transported by his great grandmother, to his grandmother (me), which was manufactured in the year his mother was born,  sewn into a quilt for him! Yes, indeed, I love things like this!

I haven't sewn since I finished the blocks for DS the Elder's quilt. I'm just cutting right now, so I have several projects ready to go.

Oh, DD#1 is expecting again, and if it's a girl, she'd like a coral/teal color scheme. My stash is low on those colors, but guess whose stash wasn't? Granny may be helping me with fabrics again ;-)

This weekend promises to be busy, with plans to go to the county fair on Saturday, and then all the Easter festivities on Sunday. I'm happy to be reminded all Jesus sacrificed for me.

My First Finish of 2014

I got the binding on the this quilt Saturday morning. I machine apply bindings using a serpentine stitch on my Bernina. I used to used clips to hold the binding in place, but I've figured out how to do it without the clips. I can bind almost any size quilt in less than two hours, usually much less. My bindings won't win any awards, but it gets my quilts finished and they won't come loose. I never enter my quilts in contests anyway, I make quilts to be used. In case anyone is wondering, this quilt is made with the Smith Mountain Morning pattern found in Bonnie K. Hunter's book Scraps and Shirttails 2.

 

I'm not sure if you can tell the quilting thread is variegated in this pic or not. It is King Tut thread, I think the color is Bulrushes. I bought the big cone, and it's pretty much gone, just a little left, maybe enough for a baby quilt.

 

 

I had to laugh when I changed thread to sew on the binding. This was all that was left on my quilting bobbin. I'm so glad I had just a few inches left instead of running out with just a couple inches to go which seems to happen so often. I used two 1000m spools of Aurifil in the bobbins, this quilt used a LOT of thread.

After I finished DS the Younger's wedding quilt, I finished the last of the Aussie blocks which will be a quilt for DS the Elder.

 

 

This photo is a little blurry, but I laid out four blocks so you could see the secondary pattern that emerges. This block is called Garden Path, and I found it free online. I plan to make one of my grandsons a quilt out of this same pattern, using car fabrics and black for the paths so he can drive his Matchbox cars on it.



 

It feels amazing to have had such a productive weekend. It seemed like pure luxury to have so much quilting time. I should have a few hours during the next week, and I plan on cutting out a couple quilts. I gathered fabric today, and went through my precuts for things I could use. I also ran the numbers to figure out yardage requirements and how many of each piece I need. I hope to get quilts cut out for each of my grandsons. My plan is to use my grandsons quilts as leaders/enders for the other wedding quilts I need to make.

Done the Quilting!

Here is the back of DS the Younger's wedding quilt. It took over 2 miles of thread just to quilt this monster, no wonder it took longer than I anticipated! Well, not to mention I've had next to no time to sew. I hope to get the binding on tomorrow, then I'll take a good pic of the front.

Let's see, it's been a couple weeks since I posted. DH and celebrated our 30th anniversary. We hoped to catch a flight to South Dakota, but that didn't work out, so we ended up going to California for the weekend. It was great and we had a hotel right on the beach. The only downside was that we had packed for South Dakota and not the beach! We even got to feel an earthquake and made our anniversary even more memorable.

One of the reasons I hadn't posted, is my laptop was dying, and I just bought a new one to replace it. My old one had Windows Vista, obviously old, and this new one has Windows 8 and I'm still trying to figure out how to use it! So far I can't even find the calculator. I had wanted to wait until May to buy a new laptop, as there are usually great sales around graduation time, but I was afraid my old one would die completely before I had a chance to get the photos and quilts I've designed off it. I've only had this new computer a couple of days, and I did manage to get EQ7 loaded onto it, but I have yet to try transferring data from my old laptop to my new one. If I don't get around to doing it before Easter, I could probably get my computer savvy son-in-law to do it, but I'd like to try doing it myself first. I love what technology can do, but I hate changing systems, and struggling to reload information.

Things have been crazy around here. All of the remodeling is done for now, two weddings are done, and life should be settling down a bit. I know financially we could surely use things to calm down. That didn't happen this week though. I bought a new laptop, our car battery died and we needed to replace it, Miss S's bed broke, but thankfully, DH was able to repair it. The next thing on our list is to replace the ceiling fan in our bedroom, since the switch broke, and with summer pretty much here in Southern Arizona, we need a working ceiling fan in the bedroom. Things tend to come in groups, and I'm hoping we're about at the end of all of this, and can maybe look forward to an uneventful summer? We're already looking at several big things happening in the fall, so an uneventful summer sounds perfect!

Finally Back in the Sewing Room

Now that the wedding is over, and my house is put back to normal, I have had a chance to get back in the sewing room and I'm quilting the wedding quilt, which, obviously, is late! I'm hoping to have it finished within a month of the wedding at the latest. I plan to have it half quilted by Sunday evening. I'm at not quite a quarter done now, and I've come down with a cold, so I'm not at my most productive right now. I stayed healthy through the wedding though, so I'll deal with the cold now without too much complaining.

I'm quilting spirals with 40 wt King Tut thread on top, and 40 wt Aurifil in the bobbin. I only had one 1000m spool of the Aurifil, and I am sure it won't be enough. Now I'm stuck deciding if I am willing to switch to a different color in the bobbin, or a different weight. I have the same color in 50 wt thread, or I could use another green in 40 wt (backing is green). Of course, I could just buy another spool of 40 wt in the same color, but I've been trying to cut down on purchases for quilting. I can't use same thread top and bottom, because then I'll run short of the top thread, and King Tut is pricy. Decisions, decisions...

I'm also trying to do some spring cleaning, or more like spring flinging. I'm trying to cut our CD collection in half, and as soon as I'm done with that, it's onto the DVD's. I don't plan on cutting our DVD collection by as much, but I do plan on purging some of them. Our DVD cabinet is falling apart, and I'm determined to not replace it. Our two CD cabinets are in good shape, so I figure if I cut the CD collection by half, move the DVD's to slimline CD cases, then I can store both collections in the space of one. I got the idea when DS the Elder moved and threw away all his DVD cases. He had two trashbags full of DVD cases, but all the corresponding DVD's fit into one large CD binder. I don't want to use a CD binder, as I'm pretty particular about keeping movies in alphabetical order, so to add a new one in a binder I'd have to move a bunch of them. Using slimline cases gives me more freedom to alphabetize to my heart's content, but will still take less space. I'll be recycling all of my DVD cases, but I can use the space I'll create by getting rid of the DVD cabinet entirely. I'm ready to simplify my life a bit, and this may be minor, but it's a start.

So that's it around here, trying to get back to normal after months of remodeling and wedding planning. Next big event is DD#3's college graduation in May.

Backyard Wedding

DS the Younger, who was born at home, then schooled at home, has now been married at home!

 

^DD#3 made this awesome metal sign for the new couple.

^Prepping the ceremony area.

^Working on the reception space.

^Everyone was lending a land getting things ready.

^Green tablecloths got matching green centerpieces, blue tablecloths got blue.

^The sweet tea and lemonade eventually were put out on the bar. Board games were available for anyone who didn't want to dance.

^The groom sticking the cake topper on the cake.

^In lieu of a guest book, guests were invited to "leaf them a tweet".

^Photo timelines were hung along the walls.

^The groom all spruced up!

^The best man literally has the groom's back ;-)

^My four stateside kids. DS the Elder, DD#3, DS the Younger, and DD#2

^The Bride making her way down the stairs.

^ Saying their vows with horrible gusts of wind. Note the maid of honor and the best man holding the arch in place. The veil kept blowing around so much, the bride finally took it off and the maid of honor is holding it.

^Sealed with a kiss, the deed is done! The newest Mr. and Mrs. Rains!

^Their first dance as man and wife. It was sprinkling a little, but I told my new daughter to get used to it, she was a Rains now.

^The twins liked the dancing best of all.

^Weather cleared up before the couple left for their one night honeymoon.

A happy couple on their way!