Happy New Year!!! It was 28 degrees when we got up today ….brr_r_r_r,
but we saw a sunny, beautiful, blue sky as well….so I can’t complain. Before we go any further, I just have to
insert a statistic here. In 2013, I
completed 3 quilts. They were smaller
quilts, backed with polar fleece so that I could sew WIDE apart on my sewing
machine and not have a problem (as you would with batting if you did that). I decided that I was not allowed to make any
more quilt tops until ALL of the quilt tops currently in my house were quilted. That
was a depressing decision, because picking out patterns and getting started on
a new quilt is so much fun. But I felt
that my quilt tops were not doing anyone ANY good, just sitting around undone
in my house. Fast forward to May of 2014
when I purchased my long arm…and more importantly to August of 2014 when it finally
started working fairly consistently. As
of 12-31-14, I completed 21 quilts (although 4 of those “quilts” were practice
and were turned into sets of dog beds).
I am full of enthusiasm and joy once again, because (as my friend Jan
says) “you can make all of the quilt tops you want, because now you have the
ability to quilt them!” Quilting on my
long arm is almost as fun as piecing is.
I decided to start a long arm, edge-to-edge quilting business…but I
still wanted to be sensitive to others in a similar situation to mine in 2013…lots
of quilt tops, but not a lot of money to have them quilted. So, I have structured my business to take
that into account, and I hope to do a lot more quilting in 2015. I still have at least 5 quilt tops of my own in
my house right now, but 3 of them I made in 2014…and I can’t wait to start some
new ones!
***************************
On the 7th day after Christmas (1/1) my honey let me be,
The result i-is what you now see:
I was originally supposed to quilt this quilt
top for BG. It is a very old quilt top,
made many years ago by one of her aunts.
As I was ironing it, I realized that there was no way it could be
quilted without getting pleats in it (it is VERY rippled, with excess fabric in
much of the sashing), so BG decided to tie this quilt. I took the top off of the machine, then
realized that I could at least baste it together for her, so I called her and
she agreed.
I spent the rest of the day starting a new
(simple) quilt! It was so much fun…I’m
using up beautiful tulip fabric that BG and I bought years and years ago. This is supposed to be a very beginner quilt,
but the tulip fabric has a definitely top and bottom orientation, so I have to
take that into account and be very careful with how I cut it. Michael joined me downstairs for a bit and started to lay out the tumbling blocks quilt.
This is going to take quite a bit of time...and sewing it together is going to be a nightmare and take a LONG time because I made so many different sizes of blocks...but...oh well...I always DID like a challenge :~). We had restaurant leftovers for
dinner and our movie marathon continued with CLUE. I had never seen it and it was a really
funny movie, with lots of good stars.
**********************
On the 8th day after Christmas (1/2)
my honey let me be…
The result i-is what you now see:
Beth had called before Christmas to ask to buy
some humbug bags from me. I didn't have any available, so I had to make some. I got the 3
done that she wanted, but the rest of the cut fabric was just lying
around. I decided to polish off the
other 5, and will probably donate them for the silent auction at Fort Mill
Community Playhouse at the end of the month.
Other than that, Michael made smurfy fried
potatoes to go with his pancake (and my egg) breakfast on Friday (1/2) and I spent the rest of
the day happily sewing away on the new tulip quilt :~). I got 24 blocks done (1/2 of what I need)
then I had to drop back to a 12 days after Christmas project :~). I’ve
had 2 LARGE single bed quilt tops done for about 2 years. I bought 110” wide fabric in a double length
when I finished the quilt tops….I got the backing all ironed (no small feat)
and loaded onto Miss Scarlet. Loree came
by to see how to do it, and I started to stitch a straight line on my batting….but
my side-to-side encoder decided to start acting up :~(. Over the past 2 days I’ve had lots of furry
snuggling friends keeping me company.
 |
| MOM! leave us alone.... |
At
5 PM we headed over to Evelyn & Phil’s for dinner and games. She made lovely, stuffed chicken rolls up
with veggies and herb rolls. And for
dessert was a WONDERFUL lemon-y, creamy cheesecake like pie. We got to play Mexican Train Dominos, and
Susan won 4 straight games in a row! By
the time we got home, we just had time to watch a couple of BIG BANGS before
heading to bed.
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