Quilted and Bound.

I didn't do a huge amount of anything over the weekend. Chooky called a meeting of the Chookshed Stitchers on Zoom, which I attended late as I had been out very late the night before, (celebrating not only my own birthday, but three others also. It was a big night). I didn't do any sewing, just chatted with everyone until it was time for work. Then when I got home, another session was in progress, so I joined in to chat again.

On Friday I had made time to pop in to town to look for a binding fabric for Edyta's Garden and found a lovely red check that seemed to be just right. I cut my strips and joined them on Sunday morning before Tony took me out for lunch. Once home, I set about closing it.

It was very frustrating to get about eighty percent of it done before I had to head off to work again. I was itching to get home and finish it, which I did, just in time for bed.

A very quick photo shoot before curling up under my blankets.

It's not beautiful, but it will keep some one warm. 

There has been lots of very cold, sleety rain yesterday and today, so I didn't think I would get an outdoor photo shoot done, but there was a brief window of sunshine and I ran out quickly.

First stop, my old rocking chair as I knew it would be dry, tucked in to it's corner.

Then I ventured up on to the front lawn where I was surprised to find that old man tree felt quite dry.

I quickly popped the quilt on to one of his branches and snapped some more pictures.

As you can see the clouds were gathering ready for the next wintery assault, so I quickly ran back in doors. Today is really not a good day for getting artistic out of doors. LOL  There is no more rain yet, but it is very overcast and I'm sure it will come.

After getting a quick picture of the binding, sorry I forgot to snap one before I cut it in to strips and sewed it on, I made myself a cuppa and sat down to write.

Now I'll need to have a look through my box and decide what to quilt next. I think they are mostly smaller pieces, and of course the Fairies, (Scroll down) but I'm still waiting for the light bulb moment on them. 

 

An Early Birthday Gift.

Tony has commented more than once that I am working in my own shadow when I am at my cutting table, no matter if I have the ceiling light on or if I'm relying on daylight. There really isn't a better way to arrange my room to allow more light on to the table so I have just muddled along. Recently he bought himself a great light for his own work table in his play room and he thought it would work out just fine on my cutting table, so he purchased a second and gave it to me as an early birthday gift. (It's my birthday tomorrow on the fifth), but he gave me the lamp last week.

I have to say it is pretty good. It really doesn't take up much space.

It all works with the tap of a finger tip, I can dim or brighten it as desired, I can even set it on auto and it will decide how bright it needs to be!

You can see the difference it makes here as I prepare to construct some more Churn Dash blocks. I have such a lovely thoughtful husband. 

I have only made two blocks so far this month, hopefully I can get more done over the weekend I have all of the pieces cut, I just need to find time to put them together.

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The fabric I ordered to bind Edyta's Garden is way too bright, so I'll have to go on a wee shopping spree and see if I can find something else. Maybe tomorrow, I'm off out for a birthday lunch with some colleagues, I'm sure they will indulge me and let me shop too. LOL

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That's all my news. Have a happy weekend. 

The weekend that was.

I left you on Friday, with this image.

I was full of optimism that I would have plenty of time to play over the weekend and that I would get the quilting completed on this project quite quickly. 

Boy was I wrong!

I had plenty of time and was busily quilting away and having fun. I stopped to have a chat with Chooky, because I can't quilt and chat at the same time, once the chat was over, I emptied another bobbin and then things went down hill fast.

No fair.

My top thread kept snapping every 2-3 inches of quilting. I was stopping and starting, burying threads and changing bobbins and re threading the top thread over and over and nothing seemed to help. I kept telling myself, one more try then walk away, but had a lot more tries. LOL

Tony appeared wondering what was going on, all the stopping and starting couldn't be a good thing.

He prescribed open heart surgery and took the machine off the frame.

There was some fluff in the bottom, but not lots.

There was some more fluff caught in the greasy underparts too.

Blogger, why did you turn my photo upside down?

After a good clean with a soft brush and the vacuum cleaner,

everything was reassembled and I tried again, within seconds the thread snapped.

AAARRGH!

But I persevered, and rethreaded again and again.

Eventually after open heart surgery and three hours of frustration all came good.

I don't know how or why, I certainly didn't change anything that I was doing, but the machine stopped snapping my thread and I was able to carry on quilting.

But it was now pretty late in the day and time to get ready to go and meet friends for dinner. 

I continued to quilt on Sunday morning without problems.

Until the bobbins ran out!

What a frustrating place for the bobbin to run out. LOL

I quickly wound just a small amount of thread on to another bobbin and finished that last little bit. 

I was able to take it off the frame before lunch.

Here is a look at the quilting, front and back. 

I ended up using two different colours of thread for the back, as I am using up leftovers from other projects but that's ok. 

All of the excitement was too much for Miss Belle, she had to take a nap.

Problem with that is, she was resting on the dust cover for the machine.

It would be nice to say I'll get the binding on today, but sadly I don't have the perfect fabric in my stash. I had to go shopping.

I know, shame.

I've ordered what I hope will be perfect, it should be here in a day or two.

What will I do to keep myself busy until it gets here?

I'm sure I'll find something. I managed to keep myself busy on Sunday afternoon with cutting fabrics for the next batch of Churn dash blocks and then I prepared some more Lucy papers and even sewed another border block in to the Lucy quilt top.

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My working week is all messed up this week as I have swapped two of my shifts with a colleague. I must attend the funeral of a friends father today and then help that same friend celebrate her birthday, and my own, on Friday. And I need to get on with some study and make time to play.

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I hope your weekend was as successful as mine, without the frustration.

 

A little quilting progress.

As I mentioned last time, I have started quilting Edyta's Garden, an EPP project from last year.

I'm using a meander Edge 2 edge pattern as it is a great exercise in eye hand coordination as I follow the lines with my little red light. 

I didn't go out and buy new thread for this one, opting to use what I have here. Choosing two previously used king Tut threads, one in a rainbow colour for the front and a slightly more muted tone in the back. *

And as it is the end of the month, a reminder of how my Churn Dash blocks are looking.

It's exciting seeing these blocks pop up all over blogland, with so many different colours, sizes and styles of Churn Dash blocks appearing. 

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It's my weekend off, so hopefully I'll get plenty of time to sew or quilt.

I might give myself a head start on next months Churn Dash blocks and get them cut and ready to go.

What are your plans for the weekend?

On the frame....

Yesterday the weather was awful.

I couldn't see through the kitchen windows and it was very soggy when I stepped out to drain the water out of the coconut bird feeder and pop another fat bomb in to it for them.

The view out of my quilting room was also wet, wet, wet.

Thank goodness I didn't need to go outside, once I had fed the birdies!

I decided I was going to have a day off from my studies and play all day. 

I spent some time deciding what I was going to prepare for quilting, then after making up a pieced batting from a large off cut and an end of bolt, I dug through my pile of backing pieces, finding a very cosy flannelette sheet that is just the right size.

I pulled out the quilting design books that were gifted too me.

I settled on a design from this book.

And after I had measured the size of the top, twice, I copied and printed enough pages to work one row of my chosen design. 

Yes, I can produce a rather good freehand meander of my own, but I thought it would be good practice at following the line with my little red light. 

I stuck them all together then after aligning them correctly I stuck them down to the table with some tacky stuff.

I had pressed the back and the top and managed to get the back partially pinned to the frame before Tony came home for his lunch.

After I had fed him I continued pinning and got all the layers pinned and ready to go.

I selected thread colours and wound bobbins then set about preparing everything ready to begin quilting today.

As I threw the dust cover back over the top of the machine, my eye caught sight of the label and I remembered a brief exchange I had with Anorina after seeing her beautiful labels.

So here you go Anorina, my Loulee labels.

Cheating I know compared to some of the beautiful hand made labels that appear on some quilts, but I'm happy with them.

I opted to stop there and sit down for a while before making a start on dinner. Being a dark and wet day it was also pretty cold, so a great day for sitting under my crochet. I was able to get the final round of granny clusters completed and even made a start on the edge before it was time to cook. I completed the edging before bedtime. 

I have added 17 rounds and a border all the way around the original blanket, which adds up to an extra 8 inches per side, so it is 16 inches wider and longer than it was.

Here is another look at the shell edge I added.

The original had no such edge, I just stopped and called it done. Which as it turns out was a good thing.

This morning the weather is dry, but overcast and cold.  I decided that I could have another day off my studies but that I should spend some time doing some chores before I could play.

Once playtime began, I went straight to my frame and spent the remainder of the morning there. I have emptied three bobbins and begun a fourth. Frustratingly I get almost two rows of quilting completed before a bobbin runs out. I have been very good though picking back to a seam in the top then burying my threads into the seam I picked back to. I'm so glad I taught myself how to do that, it's a habit I want to get in to as I really do not like the task of burying threads so doing them as I go takes the pain out of that part for me. 

I did get a few pictures of the quilting design, but I'll save those for another day.

I'm off to work in an hour, so just enough time for a cuppa and read a chapter of my book. 

I hope you're having better weather than me and that you're having fun.