Long Weekend

Well, made it through another busy week at work! I was so spoiled by the holidays when things were slow plus being off sick several days I forgot how busy things can be. It was a frustrating week too because our folks in San Antonio just can't get their stuff together. Hopefully, a nice long weekend is just what I need. Dave and I have decided to swap rooms. I am moving my craft room out to the big room and Dave is moving in here. I just don't have room to contain all of my stuff in here any more! LOL I don't think we are actually moving until Sunday - Monday. Tomorrow Clarinda and I are going to Cincinnati to visit some quilt shops. Dave is going to the junkyard. I've been working on the wedding quilt. All of the blocks are done and I am now making the sashing rows that go in between. I am liking how it is turning our. I showed the pictures to the mother of the bride today and she likes it so that is good. I told her I may not have it done before the wedding and she said that was okay. Here are some pictures of the progress

Here is one set of blocks in progress.

Here are all the completed blocks.

The next step is making the sashing rows. The sashing rows are made up of rectangles and squares. There are 71 rectangles and 336 squares. A square will go in each corner and will be folded in half to create a triangle in each corner.

Here is the process for attaching the squares to the rectangles. Each square needs to have a line drawn from one corner to another.

I use my acrylic binding tool to draw the line with a white marking pencil.

Here is the square with the line.

Each square is then pinned to a corner of the rectangle. They are placed on opposite corners and the other corners will be done once the first two are ironed and the seam allowance is trimmed.

Sewing the square to the rectangle.

Sewn square.

Fold square in half. Press with iron. Trim the seam to 1/4" you know have a new color in the corner of your rectangle.

I decided to mock up one of the rows last night because I couldn't wait to see how it was going to look. This is a block row with a sashing unit in between. There will be another sashing row above and under each block row.

This is the table runner that I made for Sherri, my reflexologist. She decided to hang it on the back of the door in her office area, the door is usually closed so the hanging adds a nice touch of color to the area. I am really happy how this turned out and was really happy to see it hanging there. All right, I need to get to work on these sashing rows, they aren't going to make themselves!

Mark and Jaclyn

Mark and Jaclyn finally opened there box so now I can post the pictures of what I made them!

Here is the bag laid out and ready to be made into the bag shape by sewing the two sides together.

This is the bag after the two sides have been sewn.

The pattern did not call for a closure but I thought it was kind floppy and things might fall out so I added this frog closure that is Asian inspired.

This is the completed bag. It is called a Hobo Bag because I guess it looks like what hobos used to carry on a stick. You can really put a lot of stuff into it.

This is Jaclyn with her bag. She looks happy so I think she likes it, hopefully she will put it to good use!

This is what I made Mark. This quilt starts back to when Rachel came out to visit, we went to Amish country and found this warehouse with fabrics, as we were going along I saw this Dragon Ball Z material and I got so excited because it looks like material that Mark used to have in sheets and pillows when he was a young boy (actually he probably still has them) so I just had to get it! I had actually bought the entire bolt of material, it was prequilted and I thought I would cut it into sections and make a quilt out of just that material. When I actually rolled the bolt out I found that the inner sections were damaged so I ended up taking these six panels and buying a bolt of fleece to use as the strips in between and the backing. I was so excited for him to get it and I think he really liked it.

This is the first quilt I have done on the long arm. This is a close up of the control monitor of the Tiara and you can see the quilt on the table being quilted. I am wearing special gloves that help to grip the quilt and move it through the machine more easily.

Here is a distance shot of the quilt on the table.

Close up shot of the quilt going through the machine and my gloves. This machine is not like a regular sewing machine, it does not have the feed dogs that moves material through you have to move the material yourself, this allows you to make curves and do more designs. It is also more difficult because it takes a lot of practice to get the stitches just right.

Here is a picture of the completed blanket with the binding. I figured I would use polk-a-dots since it was Dragon Ball Z, couldn't find the actual Dragon Balls but thought this would be a good interpretation.

Here is my baby boy Mark all wrapped up in his new blanket! He looks very happy doesn't he! Mom really surprised him! LOL That's all for now, I will get some pictures of my progress on the wedding quilt this weekend. Take Care!

New Project

It has been another gray day here in Ohio. We had a little sleet today, I think it might snow tonight. Not enough to get me a snow day though. We still have snow on the ground from the day after Christmas, supposed to warm up a little later this week but we will see about that. Dave had his 49th birthday on Friday. I took off early and we went to lunch and a movie. Jack came over later and brought him a milkshake and got him a gift card for Longhorn Steakhouse. I think he had a good day even though he had to cook dinner. :) I started watching what I eat at the beginning of the month. Joined Weight Watchers again and decided I was only eating out once a week for lunch and started taking my lunch in. Trying to eat more fruits and vegetables plus cut down on breads and junk food. It has been going pretty good, I lost 2 pounds last week, I need to get some exercise in too and I am sure that will help. Clarinda and I went to Waynesville today so I could get some of the coordinating material that I needed. We had a nice lunch first at the Cobblestone Cafe, I had a great portabello mushroom sandwich on Focaccia bread and some fresh fruit, it was delicious. Clarinda had a wrap with cream of cauliflower soup. She hadn't had that soup before and she liked it. I love that soup but didn't have any today. After lunch we went to Fabric Shack and we spent a long time in there today, she helped me pick out the material I needed for the wedding quilt and I helped her pick out some of the new cat material they had just got in. We then went to the big JoAnn's and picked up a few things there. Came home and Dave made me a nice steak dinner. I got tired of working on the big machine trying to quilt that purple quilt, I think I have the tension issue figured out but it has been a frustrating trying to figure it all out. I decided to work on my next project instead is is another wedding quilt. It is in purple and gray. I am getting kind of tired of purple! LOL. Anyway, here are some pictures of that new quilt project and other things going on around the Pigeon Roost.

This is the pattern that I am going to make for the new quilt. I will be making the throw size and the pillow. On the pillow I am going to embroider their first names on the two side blocks (Scott and Anne) and then I will either put their last name in the middle block or I will just put a large V. In one of the bands I will put their wedding date which is 9 Feb 2013. I don't think I mentioned that I am making this for the mother of the bride as a gift from her to them. This will be my first quilt that I will get paid for!

Here is the main materials that I am using and you can see that I have cut out and sewn a few blocks already.

These are the materials I got at Fabric Shack today. I went with solids so they wouldn't over power the prints that I already have.

This is a really cute pattern I got at JoAnn's the other day, I thought it would make a really good baby gift and is different than just making a quilt.

This was my drive in to work on Wednesday. It was really foggy out on the base almost looks like ice road trucking! LOL

This was also on Wednesday, this is actually the golf course on base, guess it is time to get out the orange golf balls! I thought it was pretty to see the snow, fog, sunrise and blue sky.

I got some more scarf yarn today at JoAnn's. They had it on clearance so thought I would stock up for next years gifts and I am also going to make me a scarf because I don't have a nice one.

I decided to take a picture of my pretty in pink quilt that I have been using for about a year now I think. It is really a nice quilt and just gives me the right amount of warmth. I am always too hot when I sleep but this is just perfect, I am glad I made it for me :) Well, Mark got the box with his and Jaclyn's surprise presents but he hasn't opened it yet because he was waiting for Jaclyn to come over and he got sick this weekend so I don't know when they will open the box, I hope soon because I want to post the pictures!! Okay, time for bed here, can't believe the weekend is over already!

Happy New Year!!!

Happy New Year Ever. yone!! I hope for a great 2013. Starting to look at jobs out west again, I found one in Arizona that I am going to put in for. I saw one in California in Monterrey but Dave says he doesn't want to live in California. I thought it would be nice because it would be half way between Oregon and halfway to Lompoc and Monterrey is super nice plus Jen and Darren live there (my niece who is in the AF). There was another one in Portland but I have to think about that one not sure I would like Portland. Well, I have been busy most of the weekend and today quilting the purple quilt. It has been a learning experience. Finally getting use to the motion and moving the fabric around but still having trouble with the tension. The stitching is looking pretty good on the front but there are some tension issues on the back. I've tried just about everything I can think of and I am beginning to think it is the material. I am going to try to change out the needle tomorrow and see if that helps. These machines are so touchy with tension and it will change every time you change a bobbin or even as the bobbin gets used you have to continually make adjustments you would think in this electronic age they would have a computer to accurately maintain the tension. Here are some pictures of my adventures in long arm quilting!

This is what the quilt looks like.

This is the stencil I am using for the pattern I want on the quilt. It is a wandering path. You overlap the beginning and end to get a continuous pattern.

This is the stencil marking spray. This one is blue. I also had some blue chalk stencil marker but I couldn't get it to work as good as the spray. I had to get some more spray today and could only get white which I thought might be a problem but I could actually see the white better than the ble.

This shows how the markings come out with the spray.

This is sewing on the long arm following the blue lines. Can you see the blue line?

This is with the white spray, see how much better you can see the lines?

Here is what the quilting looks like on the quilt. I went to Creative Fires on Saturday. Had to go solo because Clarinda had to take care of er dad and of course Melissa is gone to New Mexico. Dave drove me and drop me off and went to look around Big Lots. Creative Fires is a quilt shop but they also sell pellet stoves. I had a coupon for 20% off so I got some batik material to make another wedding quilt, this is one I have been asked to make by the mother of the bride, it will be in grays and purples. Here is a couple of pictures of Puppy. He was out in the snow for a walk and tonight he was in here laying with me on the couch, only because I had some food, normally he is out with Dave in the living room.

Well, it just turned midnight and Dave and I toasted to the New Year! Best wishes to all for 2013.