Sorting

How I wish sorting a house was as easy as putting on a sorting hat that tells you if you're in Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff or Slytherin. (Harry Potter reference for those scratching their heads)

A couple months ago, I went from a huge sewing room, to a tiny one, and now I'm switching to none at all. When I went from the big room to the small room, I weeded out all I wanted to pass on, and so this time, it's much harder. I had everything very organized, and one thing I've done to consolidate things is to un-organize it. For example, all of my pre-cuts are now sharing containers, where before they were sorted by size. I've got sewing things stored in every nook and cranny in the house. I should have made myself a map as I was putting things in random closets. It could be an adventure finding things I need.

Here is what will be a room for two of my grandsons. The two machine cabinet is gone, all the batting is stored elsewhere, aside from these batting scraps. The empty set of bookshelves might stay in here, I haven't decided. I have lots of misc. things to rehome, and I need to disassemble my cutting table, which I'll be storing elsewhere. I've actually moved a LOT out of here already, it's just still a disaster.

Some of my sewing supplies got moved into my bedroom. A few more things will be moved in there too, since my only space to sew is my bedroom. I'm being very particular about what stays easily accessible, and what goes into hiding. My quilting goals for the next year or so will be finishing UFO's and using pre-cuts and strings. I think the most discouraging thing about moving things into my bedroom, is knowing I'm going to have to move it all again when the addition is done. I'm thrilled about the addition, but moving my sewing room three times in one year is excessive! The addition is a master suite, but it will still be my only sewing spot for a while.

This was my original sewing room, and my big fabric cabinets are staying right where they are. Most of the boxes are things to make this room and the last one into bedrooms for DD#1's family. I know it's going to keep looking a mess for a few more days, then it should come together quickly.

As I was moving a bunch of furniture on Wednesday, I hurt my left shoulder. I hurt it bad enough that I haven't been able to lift my arm, so moving any more was out of the question.

Since the rearrange was stalled, I decided to work on the baby quilts that needed to be quilted. It still hurt my shoulder to quilt, but it was easier than moving furniture! I wouldn't have attempted quilting a big quilt with a hurt shoulder, but a baby quilt I can deal with.

I finished the baby quilt for DD#2's baby yesterday, and I finished another one today. I still have one more baby quilt to quilt, then I'll need to pin-baste the bed sized quilt for my youngest granddaughter. I haven't taken pics of the finished baby quilts yet, they are currently being washed.

Tomorrow I'll play by ear. If my shoulder is better, I'll move some of the lighter things that need to be moved. If it's not, I'll work on quilting that last baby quilt. I also need to work on DD#2's baby shower. Only 9 more days until the shower, and I've been putting things off!

Gifted

My niece's bridal shower was yesterday, and her wedding quilt was a hit!

Some of the pics I've taken of this quilt are too pink, this one is too blue. DH took this pic, and he should have had DD#3 lower her side, because she's a lot taller than me, so the quilt looks crooked. It's only crooked because she's 5 inches taller than me, with much longer arms ;-)

My niece asked for a purple and silver quilt, and she's a modern type of girl, so when I googled purple quilt images, and one similar to this came up, I decided this was the quilt for her. I'm sure there is a pattern out there somewhere, but I had no pattern name, nor anything to go by. It is all half rectangle triangles, and it wasn't hard for me to figure out how it was set. I did buy a half rectangle triangle ruler, which made it much easier to figure out how to line up the triangles. The ruler had you cut off pieces within the seam allowance that helped you keep things lined up correctly.

All of my girls loved this quilt, so I'm not sure I won't be making more in this pattern. I'm sure I'll at least be making more purple quilts.

Life is racing along. We have the funding for the house addition sorted, so we'll be getting building permits and such for that. Hopefully building will start in October.

DD#2's baby shower is October 2nd, and I've still got quite a bit of planning to do on that. I also need to finish the baby's quilt, but the quilting is half done!

DD#1 and her three kids arrive October 21st, and we bought her boys bunk beds today. Of course, we can't set up the bunk beds until I finish emptying my sewing room, which will become their room. So much to do, but lots of things are becoming realities!

I'm sure the remaining days of September will fly by for me, I'll be so busy.

Sneak Peak

My niece's wedding quilt is now finished, but I can't show it until after it's gifted on Sunday. I can, however, give you a sneak peak.

Here is a view of the quilt back, where you can see the type of quilting I did on it. This quilt was quite a change for me, but it was fun, and I'm happy with how it turned out. All the straight-line quilting I did was done with the thread I picked up at Goodwill. I'm already using that thread!

I'm working on my grandson-on-the-way quilt now. I've decided I get to play on his quilt before he does, so instead of doing something easy or fast, I'm trying out new patterns on it. I decided to ignore the piecing all together, and divide the quilt into sections, with a different fill in each section. Baby quilts are great to play on, because you aren't committed to days of stitching a pattern you may not like doing.

Here you can see my dividing lines. I've been wanting to try a strings of pearls for a while now, and I decided to just go for it, and I went for a ribbon look too. You can see my stitches are far from perfect, but for a first attempt, I'm satisfied. I've always had trouble with backtracking, but I'm getting better. I had to slow WAY down, I was quilting too fast for my backtracking to come out well.

I've been spending all my time quilting, and really have fallen behind getting the house ready for my DD#1's family to move in. Tomorrow I hope to tackle a few areas of the house I've been avoiding dealing with.

DD#2 and DSIL bought their first house! My first kid to become a homeowner! Now when that grandson makes his appearance in a couple months, he'll have a place in their new house :-)

Not much else going on right now. Quilting and rearranging things pretty much covers it all!

Quilting Spree

It's been longer since my last post than I thought! I've since pin-basted all three baby quilts, and my niece's wedding quilt. I'm quilting on the wedding quilt now, and by the time I go to bed tonight, I'm hoping to be at the halfway point! Her bridal shower is in just over a week, so I'm cutting it close!

I've been so busy sewing, I haven't been working on the house at all.  DH is on a trip this week, so it's the perfect time for long sewing days.

Did you ever find a deal that you just couldn't pass up, because you knew you'd regret it later if you did? I had one of those come up. I was at a thrift store, looking for some linens for the extra beds we are getting. I didn't find what I was looking for, but I did find something else.

I saw bags and bags of thread cones bundled by color, for $6.99 a bag. I noticed them immediately, but wasn't that close to them, and assumed it was serger thread. After a bit of looking around, I went back and looked more closely at the thread. It wasn't serger thread after all. It was Madiera 40 wt poly on 5,500 yd cones, suitable for embroidery and quilting. Now, I always piece with cotton thread, but for quilting, I've fudged it when I had a more suitable color in poly. Those quilts have lasted just fine. I know a lot of longarm quilters prefer poly, because it has less lint, and sometimes less thread breakage. Madiera is a good German thread, and here it was, at $6.99 for a bag of cones, instead of $8-12 per cone. Would you have left it? I didn't, I bought it all!

I ended up with 84 cones of thread, some full, most at least 2/3 full, and about 5 that were under halfway full. I paid $70 total, for several hundred dollars worth of thread. I knew if I left it, I'd be kicking myself later. You know what? I'm already using some of that new thread, quilting my niece's wedding quilt. I'll be using it to quilt my granddaughter's star quilt too, because that bit of shine poly has is perfect for that quilt!

Of course, now I need to find someplace to store the thread too, my thread cabinet is full already. No regrets on buying it though, I go through miles of thread per year, and now I'm set for a long time!

Three Seams Away

I am just three seams away from having my five remaining deadline quilts for this year into quilt tops!

I finished this baby quilt top today, and I'm pretty happy with it. I think by the time I'm finished quilting it, it will look more like pumpkins.

I finished the fourth quarter of my niece's quilt top today, so once I sew the quarters into halves, then the halves together, I will have five quilt tops ready to quilt! No pics of my niece's quilt until it's gifted. Her bridal shower is on the 18th, and my goal is to have it done by then. Just over two weeks to get a 108" square quilt quilted and bound! Not to mention all the other things I have going on. Life sure is an adventure these days!

I am feeling a lot more confident that I can get these quilts done now that the tops are finished.

I have completely dropped DS the Elder's wedding quilt off this year's list. It's just not going to happen, and I know that. They do have a quilt I made on their bed, so it's all good, and their wedding quilt will be one of my first projects for 2017. With that addition to my 2017 list, I already have six quilts on my list for next year! Two of those are wedding quilts, and must be done, four of those I could skip if I don't have the time, though I would like to do at least a fast pattern and do something for the four kids of one of the couples getting married.

I'm not sure how chaotic things will be with three families here. I'm sure it won't be calm, but how wild it will seem is unknown. I tend to think that after an adjustment period, the cousins will bond and learn to get along, and so will all the adults. I need to rewatch the movie Pollyanna, because I am trying my best to play the glad game, and think of all the wonderful things the future has in store. Watching our grandkids grow, and getting a chance to bond with two we've never even seen is such a blessing! I know there are challenges ahead, but I'm believing the blessings will outweigh them.