Works in Progress....

Life here continues to go on at the speed of light. It seems like there simply are not enough hours in a day to do everything. I know for sure that I’m not the only one with this problem. I have been meaning to write up a blog post since last Friday. But every time I think of it, something else comes up, and before I know it, the day is finished, so I think to myself, I’ll do it tomorrow. and of course the same thing happens. Now this past weekend, there was a good reason for it. Our little grandson Avery was here for a visit. Except that he’s not so little any more. He is full of energy, that boy. This os the only good picture of him that I managed to catch. Of all the pictures I took, although there weren’t that many since  I was too busy enjoying having him around, they were all blurry because he was moving so fast. He left to go home Sunday afternoon. I was going to do up a Sunday stash and stitching report that day, and for the life of me, I can’t remember even what I did for the rest of the day. Oh right, now I remember, I spent quite a bit of it talking to friends on Facebook chat. Monday, I spent quietly stitching and trying to get my breath back after the weekend. I’d planned on doing the stash and stitching post that day...... didn’t happen. Tuesday I spent up in the sewing room, working on one of my own projects, interspersed with emails back and forth to APQS regarding the state of my long arm machine. Preliminary diagnosis is that it needs a new motor. I haven’t heard anything since Tuesday when they were planning on putting in the motor, so I’m wondering if they’ve come across the other weird things the machine was doing before I sent it in. I think this is the fourth week without it now, which means I am four weeks behind in all the customer quilts I have waiting here. If you are one of those, I profoundly apologize, but there is nothing I can do, at the moment. When I do get it back, the focus will be on getting all those quilts done.
This is the project I was working on Tuesday. It’s one of my own designs, done up in EQ7. It’s a variation of the Sister’s Choice block. I’ve decided that I’m naming it “Sisters Across the Miles” in honour of my friend Susan in Alberta. I’m seriously contemplating publishing some patterns. I have 5 or 6 that are my own designs that I could write up. The hows and whens are details yet to be figured out. Our son is a fabulous photographer who has offered to do up pictures of the quilts and his girl friend is a web designer. I’m not sure at the moment whether I’ll add them to this blog, or actually do up a website. These are excitingly scary thoughts. At the moment, the trick is going to be finding the time to get the patterns written up.
So, this take me up to yesterday which was also partially spent sewing in the studio, working on the sampler quilt that I’ve designed as a free project for the guild’s blog. The picture here is a bit washed out.I’m trying to stay as far ahead of the publishing dates as I can. It would really be great for this to be done in time for the quilt show in October so that everyone can see what their finished quilt can look like. The instructions for it, should you be interested, can be found on the London Friendship Quilters’ Guild blog. And of course, in amongst all this has been lots and lots of visits and hugs and snuggles with our precious grand daughter Abrielle. She is 4 months old today. How that went by so fast is totally beyond me. Here they are, our daughter Becca and grand daughter Abrielle. So now, after catching up here,  I am going to link up to Lorna’s Let’s Bee Social and then go get some more work done on that blog sampler.

Sunday Stash and Stitching Report

Hmmmmm, somewhere along the way these weekly report have turned into every other week reports. Not good. I have an excuse this time........ don’t I always?? That machine I was having issues with...... the issues didn’t get fixed, so last Sunday was spent taking it off the rails of the table and packing it into a box and getting it to the UPS store. By the time all that was done, my brain was so fried, not to mention the parts of me that hurt after lifting the thing, that there was no sewing and no blogging to be done. And that then seems to have continued through the week. While the machine is in the long arm hospital, I’ve decided that it’s a good opportunity to do some cleaning and organizing, both in the studio and then downstairs in our apartment. I ask again, why does organizing create such a mess?
However, during the last couple of weeks I have had the chance to add the last border onto La Passacaglia, and get the corners of those borders mitred and sewn.So, all that’s left is to hand stitch down the white pentagons on two more corners. I just might make that finished by the end of April deadline.

There’s been some movement in the stash in both directions. A group of friends and I went to the St Mary’s quilt show yesterday, and there was some stash added during that trip. It all has specific quilt destinations, so I’m hoping it will get used up very soon.

Used last 2 weeks:                          2.3 yards
Used this year:                              20.15 yards
Added last 2 weeks:                        5.95 yards
Added this year:                            11.45 yards
Net stash busted:                              8.7 yards

We’re heading off to church in a little while. We usually go Saturday evenings, but didn’t make it yesterday due to the quilt show.  In the meantime, I’m linking up to Judy’s Stash Report, Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching and Angie’s WIPs Be Gone. Once we get home from church, there will most definitely be some Slow Sunday Stitching in the plans.

Work in Progress Wednesday.

My poor long arm continues to be in need of repair. This is how she currently looks. The tech people at
 APQS are fabulous. Amy has spent many hours in the past couple of days, via FaceTime on our phones, trying to track down the problem. So far no success. She’s sending me out a new part that might be the culprit, which will be here, according to the UPS people, on Friday. If that doesn’t work, the machine will be going for a trip to its birthplace in Iowa for further diagnostics and repair. I wish I had Geordie LaForge here to do a level four diagnostic and repair. Ah well...... In between playing with all the frighteningly small pieces in that machine, I’ve been getting some of my own projects finished.Northern Tree Line now has its blocks turned the correct way and sewn back in place. It also has a backing made and a label on said backing. I’ve pulled out a UFO, which was started way back in November of 2014. It’s a Sister’s Choice variation. I put it up on the wall to study and to figure out exactly where it was and what needed to be done. There are 18 of the main blocks done. I need 32.

This is the main block. It’s using up the four patches that were left over from my Rainbow Scrap Challenge  quilt. The triangles in each block are the same fabric, but those fabrics change from block to block, in an attempt to use up 2 1/2 inch scraps.
This will be the alternate block. I’m not quite sure yet what colour those green triangles will end up. I really like the contrast the provide in the quilt, but I don’t have enough green like that in my stash, which could be good excuse for some stash enhancement.
And this is the finished layout. This whole thing was designed in Electric Quilt 7 software. It has yet to tell me whether it wants borders or not. The blocks finish at 10 inches. The quilt, as it is now, will be 70x90.
In addition to all this, all of the white pentagons, excepting the corners are stitched onto the blue borders for La Passacaglia. The corners of the blue borders have been mitred and sewn. All that is left is to sew the white pentagons to the corners of the border fabric and it is done! That will happen over the course of the next couple of Slow Stitching Sundays.
I’m linking up to Lorna’s Let’s Be Social and also to The Needle and Thread Network. After that, I’m going to go play with some Sister’s Choice blocks and do some homework for a workshop I’m taking on Friday.

Sunday Slow Stitching and Stash report.

Today on her Sunday Stitching post, Kathy talked about hand stitching as being a way to relieve stress, and that we who love it should not feel guilty for taking the time to do it. Not only that, but it’s an essential part of relieving the stress of life. She is so right! It isn’t a big thing in the overall scheme of things, but yesterday I was so stressed. It was time for some maintenance on my long arm machine. She was doing some pretty weird things with the stitch regulator. I had some new parts here, so yesterday was the day we decided to install them. APQS, the maker of my machine always sends out very detailed and easy to follow instructions on how to install new parts when necessary. We had to take it apart, and this is how the insides look..... very scary! We went step by step through the process, in this case installing new circuit boards, following the instructions exactly as written and the pictures as shown. Once we got to the part of the instructions that said to turn the machine on and test the needle up/down speed, We did that....... zero, zip, nada happened. The machine turned on but not a move did she make. Have I mentioned before that there are times, not many thankfully, that I would cheerfully throw this thing out the window, assuming that I could lift it? Well, yesterday was one of them. By the end of the day I’d calmed down. Going to church to worship helped immensely. And today, I’m doing what Kathy suggests is necessary to my sanity and my health. I’m slowly hand stitching on La Passacaglia. The third side of the border is almost done. I should be able to get the fourth border pinned in place and started today. I’ve had a very loose mental goal of getting this finished by the end of April. If it continues this way, I just might make it.
Between the fabric for these borders, and making a backing for Northern Tree Line, I’ve had some stash used progress.

Used last 2 weeks:                             7.7 yards
Used this year:                                 17.85 yards
Added last 2 weeks:                              0 yards
Added this year:                                  5.5 yards
Net stash busted:                               12.35 yards

I’m linking up with Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching, Judy’s Stash Report and Angie’s WIPs Be Gone. I think I’ll take some time for a cup of tea and a browse through some of those links, and then it will be back to more stitching.

Rippit, rippit.........

I’ve finished sewing together Northern Tree Line. I was so pleased with myself when I put it up on the wall and took a picture of it. Then I went right into cutting and piecing leftover large triangles for the backing. After supper, I sat down to start writing this blog post celebrating this top being finished and looked at the picture.......... something’s wrong........ There are not one, not two, but three blocks turned the wrong way! Grrrrr....So instead of feeling great about the finish, I went into the having to rip stuff out doldrums. Thankfully it isn’t a difficult fix. With some selective ripping they can all be removed, turned the way they should be, and put back in. In fact, two of them have been ripped out and sewn back in place. The first one took two tries. I ripped it out, sewed it back in, looked at it, and realized I’d sewn it in wrong again, only wrong in a different way......... sigh......... This is the down side to having a design where each of the blocks is turned a different way in order to get secondary effects. I’ll finish the last of it tomorrow. Tonight, my brain is fried. So, I’m going to link this up to Lorna’s Let’s Bee Social and then find something fairly mindless to do.

On my needles....

I’m continuing to work away at my Traveller’s End sweater. I’ve finished the body and am now working on the collar. After that I think I’ll do the button bands. I think it might be easier to do that part before the bulk of the sleeves are on. Less weight to heave around.
Earlier this week I found out that little Abbie was going out for the day to meet friends, so I thought is might be fun to make up a new hat to go with her Crocodile Booties. Here’s the hat, a quick crochet from a pattern called  Posey Patch Hat. And a side view. 



Here she is with her Mama, with her booties on her feet, all ready for her day out. I’m linking up to Judy’s On the Needles, a day late, but better than not at all, and then I’m going back to more knitting.

Friday finishes

I have two finishes to share today. They’ve been done for quite a while now, but the conditions for taking pictures of them weren’t suitable until last Sunday, when it was warm and sunny and not windy all on the same day.
The first finish is my Scrappy Irish Chain. According to past records on this blog, I started this as a leader/ender project in January of 2012. The piecing was finished sometime in October of 2014. And then it sat and waited for its turn to come in the quilting line up. It was quilted using a pantograph called Pinwheel Flower. That happened in January of this year, finally. I’m on an unofficial mission to finish one of my quilts each month this year.  It was bound with a diagonal striped and faux piping, making the binding 100% machine finished. The back is almost as fun as the front. I had some blocks left over and pieced them into the backing. At some point, before October’s quilt show, I’ll get the information about this quilt written into the white area of one of the blocks on the back to make a label.
February’s finish was my Great Granny Square. According to this blog it was started in August of 2012. The top was finished in November of 2013 and then went into the pile of my quilts waiting to be finished. I gave it some custom quilting,
continuous curves in the squares, squiggly lines in the sashes and straight line with loops in the middle for the plain borders.It got finished with a diagonal striped faux piped binding. Here’s a look at the back. I’m linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts Finish it up Friday and also to Angie’s WIPs Be Gone, because these WIPs are now gone for good.

the same day.