African Women First Off the Avante

Red Letter Day!  Remember those in your grammar school readers?  It was a day when exciting things happen.  And this is a Red Letter Day for sure.

African Women, my name for a Judy Laquidara pattern called Connect The Dots, is quilted and off the frame.  It is my first quilt on the new machine.  I used a pantograph from Urban Elementz called Feather Twirl.  It is the panto that ate my lunch!  Feather Twirl is an open half feather pattern that gave me a couple of long straight runs and three feather bumps.  Surprisingly, the long straight runs were way harder than the feather bump parts. Not perfect but the fabrics are busy enough so you don't see the shaky parts.

I took the quilt off the frame and laid  it on the floor to take the picture commemorating the event, and this is what I got.

 It took both Frank and I to get the idiots off the quilt and Chloe barked incessantly which ramped the boyz up and i got this.  See her just nonchalantly walking off?  That is what she does.  And if you look closely you can see each of the boys has the other's ear.  They do this all the time too!

Here is the back.  I bought this piece specifically for this quilt from the local  quilt shop sale when it was moving to  new location for 50% off.  I love the back!

So here it is, my first mess.

And in other news:  the main TV died two days ago and yesterday

we bought  new one.  It arrives on Wed.  But in the meantime, we are relegated to watching the little brother of the big dead Sony. As i am watching in the wee hours of the morning, changing the channel is a pain in the patooty because the screen is so small and I cant see the tiny tiny tiny channel numbers on the screen.......AND the cable box is not hooked up and I don't have the menu to see what is playing at 2:30 AM.  Grrr.
And in other, other news, here is my new mousepad!  That is my sweet hubby freezing his patooty off at the Lobster Bay Lighthouse overlooking Western Point Bay in Newfoundland.

design wall Monday 11-26-12

So I tell Frank that he has only 11 days to make sure he has an Emcee for the CAAWS party on the 13th of Dec.  He panics.  But I am wrong, he has just over 2 weeks, more like 16 days.  Not too bad.  I just wanted to let him know because when he panics the day before and wants me to do it,  I can say not enough time, dear.....sorry.  I really need to prepare anyway, I guess.

Africa or African Women

Southwest

So what I am working on is a combination of things.  I have two quilts prepared for quilting, Southwest and Judy's class she taught, I can't remember the name but I call it Africa.


And I have the Spools that I need to get together, but I can do that on Tuesday at the Red Stick.

I made two journals from the BQ Quilt blocks that were leftover from the two quilts for Dan and Amber (this is a good picture of one of the quilts) were made into journal covers.  A very very very very easy method.  More later when I have a full battery in my camera to take pictures of the process.  One block is so large that it made two books!  And I gave one to Swooze when we met.  I will have to do a post on how to do it, so simple!  Maybe an informal class at the Red Stick!

I am fighting with the tension on the longarm.  I think I got that straight and the stitch regulator is not working.  I spent 2 hours working on the tension issue and finally got that figured out, but not before I #$%@*@  up the tension so that I needed to reset it.  Aughhhh!

You want to know what the problem was?

I bought a pantograph that was 11 inches wide.  My shelf is not, it is more like 8 inches wide.  And the thread trailed along the overhang.  So now I have to cut all my panto rolls down to whatever my shelf width is.  I guess it makes sense, that added a "tension" to the thread as it rolled through the machine.  But I think it was stupid of the machine to react that way.

It could have said, hey, trim the panto and I will work for you.  Instead it threw a hissy fit and set out to give me ulcers.  Stupid machine............

Full Speed Ahead!

I have been so busy, yesterday spent at the sew day, then the dentist.  Then to Las Palmas for dinner.  Today I have another full schedule with the surgeon's appointment, grocery shopping with the only credit card I have, meeting with the social worker for the medicaid transfer for my mom.

Africa center

I did get a small amount of sewing on the paint chip challenge yesterday and three quilts squared up for the frame.  I can add them in rapid succession when I get the frame free.  I have African Women, Elephants (needs one last border put on) and my leaves from the 15 Minute Group.The Modern 8 group is whining about not wanting to sew this summer.  I wonder why all my groups lose momentum at some point?  I say that and I realize I have no pictures of the completed quilt tops.  Here is the African center and the border fabric is to the right.  And there are some of the leaves I taught for my month.   The whole top went together at the retreat last year.

african women border

And Amber's quilt on the frame right now and Dan's quilt ready to go on right behind it.  So that gives me five ready and my Paint Chip Challenge needs to be completed and quilted.

some leaves

I am still working to take out the stitching from Dan's quilt, but I think one more night of "unsewing" will get me a quilt top free and clear again.  I really do not like that polyester batting.....have I said that enough?

I am so busy, I am treating myself to a chocolate scone this morning and I guess I will buy another gift card.

glen