OMG for September 2016

This is a whirlwind week with so much going on!  So I'm just quickly going to announce my OMG project for September:  Completing the quilting on my Blooming Nine Patch.

This was supposed to be my OMG for June, but you can read in THIS POST some of the reasons why it did not get done.  Usually, I choose my guild's UFO number for the month to link up with this group, but I've already quilted the project that I had on the list for the number called for this month.  So it's a free month to choose whatever I like, and the B9P is one that I really, really want to finish!!!

That's it!  I gotta run!  Two all-day classes the next two days!!!  And with none other than the amazing Jane Sassaman!!!!  Don't hate me just 'cuz I'm lucky like that LOL!!!  I promise to come back and share with you ♥♥♥

Please join in the UFO busin' fun - go to Red Letter Quilts HERE and see all the wonderful UFO's that have an excellent chance to graduate to finished quilts by the end of September!!!!

Hugs & Blessings!

Teresa

=^..^=

August Hopes and Dreams .....

Since life has been so busy lately, I'm leaning toward calling my plans for August more like hopes and dreams LOL!  We have a trip to Carolina planned this month for our niece's wedding and a nice visit with the kids and grandkids (and my sweet Mom!), which will carve out a good chunk of the month.

I did manage to finish up my July OMG - "Moon Over Meowmi" - but failed to find the time to write up a blog post so I could join the linky party :(  Oh well, I guess I would rather have the finish than the blog post, right?  Always look on the positive!!!

Of course, "finished" is a relative term, since this is only to the flimsy stage, which is all the farther I was prepared to take it for now.  There are already several quilting projects in process, and they have to be cleared before I can do this one.  As I said HERE when I posted the project as my July OMG, this project was begun way back in 2013, almost to the day, so to have it this far after sitting for 3 years is a WIN in my book!

I got down to business with this project at a quilt retreat last week.  The background fabric is a hand-dye by Colorways by Vicki Welsh.  I purchased both the pattern and that piece of fabric from Vicki.  The next piece that I thought would be critical to the success of Meowmi was the black.  Did I want a solid, flat black, or maybe a fun and funky print?  I never dreamed I would end up going with a slinky, shiny, glossy black that is anything but cotton!  Can you see the shiny black pattern fabric in this picture below?  It is a glorious fabric!!!  I have absolutely no idea what kind of material it is.

I came across it in my Miscellaneous Fabrics drawer while looking for the iridescent gauze remnant I had picked up several years ago and put back for the moon.  I keep things like Minkee and rayons, etc, in that drawer, fabrics I don't ever look for but sometimes happen upon in a remnant sale or at Goodwill - like a magpie, if it shines and glitters I'm hooked LOL!  I ended up falling hard for the black for my cats.  I even love that it frays a little on the edges making it look more like fur!

I really wanted a piece of white fake fur for the bellies, but didn't have time to shop before going off to retreat.  I was lamenting about this when Carole pops up and says did you say white fake fur?  I don't have fake fur, but I do have a nice while fluffy fabric with lots of texture - would that work?  Would it ever!

This white is just fluffy enough against the slick black - it's perfect!  We were all pretty amazed that someone "happened" to have the exact fabric I needed for my project - and enough of it that she could share with me :)  That was fun!!!

The iridescent gauze I had saved ended up working well for the moon, but I had to add a shiny silver behind it to make it show up enough.  It still needs a good trim, but I want to quilt it first.  See how sparkly and moon-like it is?

I also found this AMAZING piece of blue-green slinky fabric that I had picked up thinking I might make an infinity scarf out of it.  It worked perfectly for the bowl the cats are sitting on....  and who needs a silly old scarf when you can create an amazing bowl for cats to sit on?  Am I right?

I had a terrible time deciding what to use for the rim of the bowl.  I originally had a sparkly brick red piece, but I melted it on the iron - the retreat's iron!  Thankfully it came off okay :*)  I finally went with a wonderful blue grunge that looks a little like pottery. Everyone says the swirls in the bowl fabric look like fish figures :*)

As for the leaves, I decided to go with a variety of green cotton prints and batiks to change up the texture.  The tree is a gorgeous brown/black batik, so I think it all works well together.  The leaves will be 3D and will branch out beyond the binding when the quilt is done.

For someone who is not an art quilter, this quilt was a fun challenge for me!

This was my first retreat away from home since Rocky came to live with us, and I was a little worried about how he would handle it.  He's used to me being in and out all day, and tagging along at my heels wherever I am in the house.  As luck would have it, My Guy also had business meetings several nights that week, so Rocky spent two days alone from 6am to about 10pm.  My Guy said he almost attacked him when he walked in the door in the evenings LOL!!!  Here he is begging him not to leave him again ....

I was curious to see how he would treat me when I came home.  Gypsy used to very pointedly ignore me for a day or two just to make sure I knew how displeased she was with my deplorable behavior.  But Rocky's sweet nature doesn't seem to have space for such airs and punishments... he was delighted to see me!  For the next two days, he barely let me out of his sight....

I couldn't even read without him right there demanding my complete attention!  What a little sweetheart he is :*)

So that was it for July - wow did it ever go by at the speed of light, right?  As for August, my Guild UFO number this month is #3, and that means that my August OMG project will be my Patchwork Snowman Table Runner kit by Shabby Fabrics. 

I love that this is a new project - not even pulled out of the bag yet!  I realize that some don't consider an unstarted project a UFO, but for me if it has been sitting on my shelf kitted up (by me or someone else), then it is a UFO and needs to get DONE!

I love the colors in this kit and look forward to having a Christmas finish this early in the year :*)

There's also a bonus project I'd like to finish - it's one of those that I mentioned clogging up the quilting queue ....

This is my August Calendar Quilt - it's only been in the works for a couple of years LOL!  I got it appliqued and fused down last July, and had every hope of getting it quilted this July but that obviously didn't happen.  This is as far as I've gotten...

These quilts designed by Kim Schaefer have the cutest little details!  This little bee will have to be quilted in a light color so his head will show up :*)

I'd love to finish it this week if possible so I can enjoy it on the wall for a while this year.  And since the September quilt hasn't even been started, it might get to stay on the wall until October :*)  After this one, the Blooming Nine Patch (BNP) is next in the queue for quilting.  I want to finish that one SO badly!!!!

I'm linking up with Quilting is More Fun than Housework for this week's Oh Scrap! party!

Julie over at The Crafty Quilter also has a fun UFO linkup party ....

And I'm also going on over to Red Letter Quilts to join the linky fun there!

Hugs & Blessings!

Teresa

=^..^=

OMG! Project for July

I'm just sliding in under the wire here!  I haven't gotten my OMG! projects posted the past few months, and I really want to be sure to do that the rest of this year if I can.  It's a FUN party to join - with prizes!!! - hosted by Heidi at Red Letter Quilts.  There's always something fun going on over there!  So if you haven't been playing along, I'd love to encourage you to quickly post your own July project :*)

I always like to partner this party with my Guild's monthly UFO Challenge, and this month the number called was #5 - for me, this means finishing up this little wall-hanging .....

I'm calling this one Moon Over Meowmi - isn't that just the cutest name???  Yep, I think so too!  And of course you know I love anything to do with cats, especially in my quilts =^..^=

This UFO was started waaaaaaayyyyyyy back in October of 2013.  In checking back over my posts, I found that I listed it as my NewFO project for July of that year.  So, this project is now officially 3 years old and still hasn't budged an inch toward completion since that last post!  *shaking head in shame!*  (And by the way, if you're wondering what a "NewFO" is, it was a monthly challenge that used to be offered by my friend Barbara over at her most excellent blog, Cat Patches.  I do miss that party, but my UFO shelves are simply groaning at the weight of all the projects I started while playing along!)

And when I say started, I mean just that - started!  I traced off the pattern pieces onto fusible ... and that was that.  Nada.  Nothing else.  It's still sitting awaiting further orders from me!  I'm really glad I put this cute wall-hanging on my UFO list because I really love it and will enjoy having it done.  What will you try to finish up this month?

Linking up with Heidi at Red Letter Quilts for OMG! July :*)

Hugs & Blessings!

Teresa

=^..^=

June UFO Busting

My Guild UFO Challenge for June is to quilt my Blooming Nine Patch (B9P).

Looking back through my posts about this quilt (you can also see them if you click on the quilt name above), I recalled that I began work on it during a class taught by a good friend and guild member, Pam Thorne, in late July 2014 ....

Fabrics in the quilt with the exception of the second one from the left
Although you might think "batiks" when you see this quilt, only 3 fabrics are batik

Getting a good start!

I finished piecing the top in late October of that same year.  Two years since I started it - yep, it's time to get this puppy quilted and done!

My first thought was to simply do a nice flowing panto on it .... something that could be done in a day on the longarm.  The busy pattern would probably not show the quilting stitches very well, so no need to get fancy with it, right?  Buuuuut .... this diva quilt top kept asking for free-motion feathers!  Seriously?  Yikes!  The longer I thought about it though, the more excited I got about doing some lovely free-motion on this favorite quilt top.  It had been ages since I had done any serious free-motion quilting even though it is something I really enjoy.

I knew there would need to be quite a bit of practice on muslin sandwiches first of course!

It was actually 2008 when I had last quilted free-motion feathers on a large quilt, but I remembered that it was great fun, very rewarding, and I loved the way the quilting turned out.  I wasn't sure how long it would take for me to begin producing decent looking feathers on the sample swatches, but happily in only a few hours they were coming along nicely.... not perfect, mind you, but I knew better than to hope for that!

After practicing throughout the afternoon, I was comfortable that I could do a decent job on the quilting.  Next, I had to baste the quilt sandwich - Ugh!!!  One of the main reasons I have been grateful for friend Joanne's generosity with her longarm is not having to baste sandwiches!  I simply can't get down on the floor to do this anymore, but there was no getting around the fact that it had to be hand basted.  I had seen many other bloggers post about how they used this table-basting method and that it had worked well for them.

I like to use a combination of basting glue spray along with safety pins - the basting spray really adds that extra control to hold the layers together securely no matter how much I shove and shift them under the smaller harp of a domestic machine.  So I asked My Guy to set the table up in the garage, because after all the health struggles I've faced recently because of chemicals and toxins in my environment, the last thing I wanted to do was spray a bunch of chemicals into the air in my home!

I was pretty optimistic that it would work out well once I figured out what I was supposed to be doing - Happily, it worked like a charm!

Because I use the basting spray, there's not a need for a lot of pins, just enough here and there to keep it in place enough so there's no opportunity for the layers to pull loose from the glue basting ...

Once a section was pinned, then it was a pretty simple matter to move on to the next and clamp it in place...

I have to say I'm delighted to know there is an easier way to baste large quilts, and I won't let that keep me from getting as creative as I like with the quilting stage of my projects in the future!

When I finished basting and laid the quilt aside while setting up my machine, Mr. King of the Studio decided a little Quality Assurance testing needed to be done to test it for nap-worthiness before things could go any further.  Does this face look like he's willing to compromise on this all-important stage of the work to you? ....  Oh my gosh, he's a tough Snoopervisor!  All the workers in the studio are terrified of him and toe the line!

Even after he grumpily graciously allowed me to have the quilt back, he continued to insist on curling up and napping on it - even while I was stitching!

I finally had to put a quilt next to it on the work table for him to nap near me (or near his quilt, depending on who is telling the story LOL!)

Once I got everything (and everyone!) settled, I nervously began to stitch some feathers.

My Janome 6600 is a trusted friend!  She has been my quilting workhorse for the past 10 years, and I've pieced and quilted so many quilts on this beloved machine with nary a hiccup.  So I was quite shocked when I hit a road block almost immediately.  I had all of one feather section quilted before I started noticing that the top thread was no longer sinking into the layers and the bobbin thread was popping up on the top .... uh-oh!

You can see from the threads at the top right that it was not doing this at first, so I didn't realize there was a serious tension issue for a while.  But when I checked to see what was happening on the back, I got a very ugly surprise ....

Apparently the tension issues just didn't show up on the front at first, but it was looking pretty darn nasty on the back from the beginning!  I can't remember EVER having tension issues with this machine.  I even have a separate bobbin case with the tension set for free-motion that has never failed me.  All had gone well during the practice sampling, so I can only assume the problem lay in using a thicker top thread (King Tut #40) with a thinner bobbin thread (SoFine) for the actual quilting on the quilt.

All production stopped - with a few choice words coloring the air of the studio I must in all fairness add! - while I fiddled and fidgeted with the tension both upper and lower until it was in such a mess that I couldn't even get it back to stitching normal stitches anymore!  This happened on a Saturday afternoon so I was looking at having to take the machine in to my local shop on Monday and waiting until I could get it back.  Thankfully, My Guy sat down with me on Sunday morning and spent a couple of hours very painstakingly going through the tension settings until we had it making decent stitches again.  Seriously, he's my hero!!!

I can't say it's working perfectly - I may need to replace a bobbin case - but it's working well enough that I've been able to continue quilting the B9P.  I'm hoping it gets me through this project so I can make the July 6 deadline!

Following are a few progress photos - you can tell I get a little more comfortable and the stitching is smoother as I go along ....

Discounting the frustration of tension issues, this project has been a real joy for me!  I have to carve out time to work on it because lots of other good things are going on as well, such as these two coming for their summer visit!

Granddaughter Sara and Link on the way to our house
They look just as excited as we are about them coming!

Sara is now 18 - all grown up!  

But she's still young enough to be a delight to have around and to teach new things :*)  Do you remember her from this picture when she was learning to sew on a previous visit?

She had just finished her first ever sewing project - a pillowcase out of soft beach fabrics.  We are planning to be up to lots of different crafty things while she is here.  Like stitching up one of these .....

Needless to say, Rocky is not quite so delighted with their visit - he has taken to hiding under the bed and being very inhospitable!  Anyone would think sweet little Link was a huge devouring beast intent on tearing him from limb to limb!  It is clear we have some manners training in our future. But he did find a chance to sneak in and take a nap on the B9P for a few hours, so although he might try to tell you otherwise, all is not quite misery is his world. =^..^=

Hugs & Blessings!

Teresa

=^..^=

Linking up with the following fun parties:
Design Wall Monday
Can I Get a Whoop Whoop?
Let's Bee Social
Tuesday Linky Party