Quilting quilting quilting on the water. Using lots of metallic and am having a bit of a problem with it breaking if I increase my speed to high. Almost finished with it so it will be nice to go back to regular rayon threads. Happy with my progress and the results so far though so that is a relief.
Here is a picture of some of the tree quilting. Hopefully I can find a window of time to work over my next two days off. The weather is gorgeous and the color is fabulous so Bob and I may just want to take a drive to an orchard this weekend and enjoy the convertible while we can. Here is what it looks like out of the window of my spare bedroom.
Just finishing up the day at our antique shop. Then when I get home at 5 my two sons and my daughter in law, Becky along with my grandson Max will be there. I prepared lasagna and asked my husband to pop it in the oven at about quarter to 5.
They are all here to celebrate my husbands 69th birthday. I can not believe he is 69. That time
really went fast. Luckily he is doing well since his bipass surgery 5 years ago.
So it will be a fun evening playing with Max and visiting with Jason Jon and Becky. Then tomorrow we will all drive to Molly and Marks for the birthday bash. It is supposed to be beautiful again and in the high 70's so we will take the Mustang Shelby Cobra GT 500 (do you think this car has a long enough name?) Convertible up with the top down since there will not be many of these weekends left.
Here is a picture of it. We both have so much fun with it. We were at the Blue Harbor Car Show
when this picture was taken. That is my husband Bob posing with his baby. It was in the 90's that day and it was not that long ago! Now it is fall but the color is at its peak here and it is gorgeous driving through the countryside.
My new paperbark Maple just started turning red in the last few days. I am excited to see how
red it gets and hope to take some photos on Monday.
I have been learning so much about thread and needle size working on this quilt. One thing is for sure, a good quality thread makes all the difference on the quality of your free motion quilting. Now that I can be more precise with tension on this Pfaff 4.0, I have been working hard to get my stitches perfect even when going through multiple layers as well as fusible. I am getting much better although there are times when I am still not satisfied. Lots of ripping out has been going on, but hopefully this quilt will be the one that solves my tension problem (comment made by judge at Quilt Expo).
I have been taking lots of notes about each of the types of threads I am using and what tension as well as what size needle gives me the best stitches. This has been very useful when switching threads at various times when quilting.
I do think I will switch to a finer fusible in my next quilt as my needle does gum up a lot when working for longer lengths of time. So perhaps Misty Fuse will give me less of a problem with that.
I am sorry I have not been keeping up on here for a while now. I have been quilting on "Who's There?" but this quilt is much more time consuming than any of my previous quilts. I finished all the leaves going down the sides and am just about finished with the ferns at the bottom. Then I will finish the large tree and the water. The water is going to be the biggest challenge and will make or break this quilt. Not too much pressure! I am a bit stressed out about it and hope what is in my mind translate to the quilt.
This weekend is busy again, so there may not be much time for quilting. Somehow I will find some time.
My sister Bonnie came over on Tuesday morning to show me a primitive witch her best friend made for her. What a fabulous job she did. It was so good. Bonnie loves primitives so she was very happy. We then discussed some challenges I was having learning a new machine and progressing on my quilt. She wants to start her first art quilt but is busy with her job, making something for Halloween and taking care of her household. Can you identify? It was so nice to spend some time with her as lately she does not have much to spare. She is the one who keeps me going forward when I am doubting myself, which I tend to do at some point in each of my quilts. I rely on her for a lot of support and she is always there for me. I try to do the same for her and hope that we always have each other.
This past weekend my quilt "Turtle Soup" won first place at the Sheboygan County Quilters Guild's Quilt Show. I am very happy and enjoyed the show as well as listening to comments made by the spectators about my quilting. I think many of them enjoyed the back of my quilt as much as the front!
So life is good!
