Thought I would add some decorative stitches to my Purple Mountain quilt. So before doing that I decided to make up a sampler of what is available this morning before going to work. Here they are. I did not even touch on what is available on this machine, but found a few I think I can use.
It is good to make up a sample as they always look different from the pictures they offer in the book. Now I can begin the quilting and embellishing.
Well, Thanksgiving is over and now starts the big shopping weekend so hopefully that will bring my Antique Shoppe some well needed business. I have decorated the windows and the interior and will start the Christmas music today to motivate people.
I finished the border on the Purple Mountain quilt. I have had a change in plan and decided to do more embellishing in this one. Therefore I eliminated the hay in the foreground and may or may not add them back in depending on how the embellishing and quilting affects the piece.
Hopefully I will be able to work after the business weekend is over.
I am sure many of you are in the same boat that I am, preparing both the house and the food for guests and family to come for Thanksgiving. I worked on the border of my newest quilt for a few minutes this morning (could not help myself even though I told myself to stay out of the studio). Then I forced myself to break away and concentrate on vacuuming, dusting and organizing for making stuffing and pies tonight. It is all worthwhile though as I absolutely LOVE turkey. I love the taste, the smell when it is in the oven, and I just love how it looks all golden and juicy when you bring it out hot and steamy. Now I am at work, but it is slow which is typical on the day before Thanksgiving since most people are doing what I did this morning and will be finishing tonight. We should be very busy over the weekend though as it is one of our busiest times of the year.
I spent last night reading Quilting Arts Magazine. I was intrigued by the article on using Rit dye for dying your own fabric. I myself have not done any dying. I just do not have the space in my house for dyes and the possible damage they may do to floors, counters etc. But when reading this article it appeared that maybe I could if I used her method of dying in plastic food storage containers. Perhaps I will give it a try this summer. I would love to be able to dye fabric exactly the way I need for a quilt rather than looking forever for something and sometimes settling for close, but not perfect.
As you can see, winter has arrived in Wisconsin. It was strange how it got really dark and I was turning on lights in the house when the next thing I knew it was almost a white out outside. However, I had been cooking a pot roast as well as baking and the house was smelling of comfort food and cookies so it all tied together. Did not have any extra time to work on the new quilt. Have definitely decided to leave the trees out. May add a border and also some pieced blocks. Need to audition a few things before making up my mind. In the meantime I have decided on some of the quilting so am about ready to go on that. This quilt is fun and enjoyable for me. I have definitely decided not to enter the challenge after all. Just am not inspired by the fabric or putting that much effort and time, that is precious to me, into a contest.
Started looking at the fabric for the challenge and read the instructions. Found out that "if" you win either first or second place your must give your quilt to Keepsake Quilting as a permanent part of their collection. Not sure how I feel about that? You will win $500 or $250 but in a gift certificate to their catalog. I need to think about this a bit more. So while doing that I decided to do a smaller quilt of fields and pastures and try some different colors. I started it this morning before coming to work. Hopefully I will have some photos for you soon, but I had left my camera on my desk at the antique shop and could not take any today. The weather here is getting colder with a chance of snow this weekend! May be a good chili weekend.
I am thinking of entering Keepsake Quiltings Spring Challenge. I ordered the medley of Fabric and thought perhaps before starting out on my next quilt I will do this quickly and try to win the cash prize. I recieved the fabric yesterday. It is a very strange medley, typical of this type of thing and not my usual choice of patterns etc. But I sort of like that it forces me out of the box and "challenges" me.
I have something in mind, luckily you only need to use 4 of the 6 fabrics they send and can add 2 of your own. If I can come up with something quickly I will go ahead and do this, but if nothing comes to me, I will not use precious time on it. It has only to be 30X30 in size including borders so it should not be too difficult or time consuming.
We will see how it goes.
This weekend was spent doing what I call "ordinary work". I had to catch up on my house, so Sunday was spent cleaning and not just the quick sweep of a vacuum and grabbing the swiffer to dust. So it actually took me the entire day even with Bob helping by cleaning the workshop, laundry, and family room. Then Monday was spent painting the interior of a new patio door we had installed that has a door in the middle and then two side lights on each side. The side lights have six mullions (is that what you call them) that require tedious detail painting. Plus all the hardware was already on so that needed special care going around. The door had to be primed and then painted. I started at 9am and finished at 4:30! Needless to say there was not much time left for starting a new quilt and my creative mindset was on hold so to speak. It has gotten cold here with temperatures down in the 20's at night and maybe into the high 30's low 40's in the day.My fountain, that the birds love to bathe in the very upper level, is frozen.
Last night I was able to complete "Who's There". I am happy with the results and learned a lot not only about my new machine, but about thread and tension. I am also getting better and better at machine quilting which I had been uncomfortable doing just a few years ago. What did I learn that is most important to me? That sometimes you just need to jump in with both feet and go for it. If you go back and look at the photos of my progress on this quilt you can see that in the beginning it looked like "where is she going with this?" Yet if you do not get nervous and panic and keep the process going layering more fabric and adding details at some point you will feel it coming together. For me it also works when knowing it is finished. That you have added enough and it is time to quilt. I hope you enjoyed sharing in the making of "Who's There". Now it is on to the next quilt which is already in the designing stage both on paper and in my head.
Believe it or not, I am on to the binding! Started it this morning but then needed to get to my antique store
I am really happy with this quilt. Now I am sort of upset with myself that I worked on it while adjusting to a new machine. I can see my tension was not perfect throughout the process. I am disappointed with that although the quilt looks good from the front. It is mainly on the back that you can pick up on some stitches where the tension should have been higher or lower.
I hope to get the binding finished tonight and then the pocket and label over the weekend.
My husband is doing much better so he is not requiring as much assistance from me, opening up windows of time to work in my studio. So hopefully my final pictures of this project will be ready for you to see next week.
A new quilt shop opened nearby and my quilting sister Bonnie and I want to go check that out soon too. I love to do that even though I try to find everything I need first at my local shop, The Sewing Basket. They have been so supportive and friendly over there that it has been a big help to me in keeping a positive attitude and to feel good about my work.
In these bad economic times, try to support your local quilt shops so they all can make it through and stay open. We need them in our communities.
Got out in my garden for some inspiration for a new quilt someday and took some shots of
the dead and dying. They can be pretty interesting.
