Labels, labels, labels

I've never been a big laber on my quilts. I think that my reasons for not labeling is that I'm not a big hand sewer, yet I love hand embroidery, go figure? I've never had much luck writing on fabric with those fabric pens & I guess the top reason is I just didn't want to do it. By the time I have the binding done I'm ready to move  on to the next quilt.

My mom had some of her mothers quilts appraised a while back & was told how important to have labels on your quilts. So for my birthday this year she gave me an incredible gift. She found a local design/t-shirt shop that would make my labels & print them on to fabric! She will write the name of the quilt & the date on for me & the biggest part is that she will hand sew them on the back! Talk about incredible, right?!

We were able to get 4 pages done yesterday but the process took a little longer than we expected. We found out that if we provided the fabric & had it cut to the size they needed our price would be much less. So off we were to find the local Jo-Anns. We found it & got our cream Kona solid. Only the problem was that Jo-Anns wouldn't allow us to cut the fabric there. We understood but then we were off to find the local quilt store to see if they would allow us to cut the fabric there. They did! WooHoo!

We took the four pieces of fabric back to the printer & had lunch at Red Robin while they did the printing. It was a fantastic long day.

My mom likes to visit quilt shops when they are on vacations. While on the west coast mom stopped in a shop in California & they had a fantastic scrap bin! She texted & asked it I'd like a bag, ummm YES PLEASE! I think that she did very well. All of this for $3!!!

Well I should probably sort this & put it away in their proper places & get to sewing on my 2 current projects. Shhh don't tell him that I've got 2 going at once :)  I hope that y'all are having a great day. It's beautiful here in the middle of the US. I'tll be time to do chores soon & there are more blackberries to be picked. Yum! More later on,

Vicky

Mother nature & a healthy slice of humble pie

Mother Nature can be very fickle. She can change her mind whenever she chooses. I think that meteorologists need to have the same disclaimer as doctors " that they are practicing".  They tell you in the evening that its supposed to be clear & hot the next day & you wake up to storms. In the past 18 years this is the latest we have ever been in the hayfield. I thought that last year was bad on how long it took but this year has it beat by a long shot. We're not done with our place & we have 3 more fields after we get our place done. We also have the issue of storage. Where do we put it all? The complaints and the benefits change as the weather does in farming. I'm hoping that what was mowed yesterday will be ready to bale tomorrow & there will be no storms until tomorrow night. I can always hope.

I had a very large piece of humble pie today. My longarm quilter texted that my Chess Board quilt was finished. I was excited. Well that excitement went down the drain when I saw my quilt. She had done a fantastic job quilting it but I did not do a fantastic job in piecing it. I'm not entirely sure on what went wrong. Maybe I didn't cut accurately or piece with at a scant 1/4" seam. In any case the probelm was that the body of my quilt was not square & she had to do some fudging to get it quilted.

Is it a huge flaw, nope. Does it prevent the quilt form being used, nope.  Did it wound my pride, you betcha. I also need to remember what was going on in my life during the construction of this quilt & give myself a little bit of grace. What this quilt taught me though is priceless. I poured my life, the good & the bad, from the past 5 months into this quilt. There are spectacular spots of piecing & there are horrific spots as well. I guess I should rename this quilt "Humble Pie". I wouldn't trade it nor will I shy from showing it. I think that sometimes we only want to show our best & never our flaws.

Here are the quilty things that I learned:

#1 Stay on the same cutting mat & ruler that you started with. All mats & rulers are not created equal.

#2 Stay on the same machine if you are not going to test seam allowances on any different machines that you piece the same project on.

#3 When you are piecing the quilt body do your best to be accurate. This quilt is square but the quilt body is not. When I put my borders on I measured down the center of the quilt for the length & width of my borders therefore making the quilt square.

#4 Don't get into such a rush. I get so excited to be finishing such a huge project & I need to keep the same level of accuracy in the end as I do in the begining.

I hope that y'all are doing well & that you have a great night. It's time to finish supper, my fellas are starting to come inside. More later on,

Vicky

p.s.  I think that I have figured out/solved hopefully the tension issue on my Singer 301. I'm thinking that somehow the tension knobs or discs got bumped when I was taking it to Sew night with friends. I fiddled with it for quite a while & it's finally sewing ok but I have my tension knob set at 6 & that just seems high to me. I'll keep sewing with it & if it acts up again she might have to go to the shop. I'm definitely learning that whenever I want to sew away from my house to take the featherwieght. She's in a protective box.

 

Playing catch up

I humbly apologize for being so neglectful in my blogging. Summer always seems to be such a busy time. You'd think that I'd have lots of time for sewing & blogging since we haven't been in the fields making hay because of rain. This funny meme pretty much sums it up here.

 

The amount of rain that we have recieved this year is amazing. Just 3 years ago we were in a severe drought &  there wasn't much hay to make. I guess it's encouraging that if you just wait a bit your circumstances just might change.

I am the VP at my local guild (aka; program chair) & we had our first workshop with me as VP two weeks ago. We had a good time & the instructor, Jenifer Dick of 42quilts.com was wonderful. The quilt we were working on was called "Exploding Nine Patch". I was all excited thinking that I could make it scrapppy & use what I had. This was my first block that I tried

It's a pretty block but it didn't have the 3D effect that the pattern showed. AHHHHHH! I was frustrated. Yes I could have continued but it wasn't what I wanted or expected so I had to shop for yardage. Yup the Scrappy Farmer bought yardage, mercy that was rough. I was seriously out of my element but I needed fabric that would work so that I could make some of the project in class. This is what I came up with. 

I was able to use the same black from the first block & just find 3 more fabrics. Now I was cookin' with gas. I was getting that 3D look. Also I should mention that the blocks in the pattern are 20", mine are 10". I just couldn't go that big, small is what I like. I was able to finish this block in class & that made me feel a little better. Last Friday I was sewing with some friends & decided to work on this project .My new 301A started skipping stitches & making lots of loops on the back, the frustration started to build. So the solution is use one of the floor models ( my sewing group meets at the local quilt shop). Nope that wasn't going to work either that machine was jinxed as well. I knew when to call it quits & go home.  I haven't fiddled with the 301A since then but I"m hoping that whatever ails her it'll be an easy fix.

So last Saturday was my birthday & I wanted to sew but I didn't want to work on the yardage project, I wanted scraps! I got out my new Winding Ways die & started cranking fabric through & sat down at my treadle. It had been a while since I've sat down at that machine.  It didn't take long before I was in my element. I've made a little progress so far. I'm really enjoying making these blocks & will definetly make them again in another color way.

I guess I'd better quit yackin' and get some sewing in while I have a chance. Husband has a 3am wake up call for work tomorrow, man that's early. I hope that y'all are doing well.  More later on,

Vicky

It's Monday again, what am I working on? An unexpected cleaning job

Today I am on the hunt for some important papers that have been missplaced. With all of the activity/business since my father in law has passed I can not remember where I put those papers. I have looked & looked. Currenty I am working/looking in my sewing room. When I cleaned up all of my sewing stuff from next door I think that I put those papers in with the sewing stuff. Well, while I've been looking I've also been cleaning & reorganizing. So far I have sorted through one large tote of scraps & all of the piles that you can see around the tote have been put away!

 I aslo found an antique quilt that I bought off of craigslist a few months ago. It just hurts my heart that people would think to cut these old quilts up. So I had to resuce this one

It does have its fair share of rough patches but for $30 I just couldn't pass it up. When my husband saw it he thought it was nice but he did want to know where I was going to put it. I reassured him that I would find a place. Maybe someday when we get a bigger home I can display some of my antique quilts.

I am also trying to work hard on this Chess Board quilt. It's coming along but not as fast as I want it to. I decided this am that I had enough strip sets made I was going to start slicing them up into 1.5" strips

Now I have a giagantic pile of these little pieces that I am matching up into pairs & then into 16 patches.

I'd better cut this off. I need to stay on the hunt for those papers & finish my cleaning in my sewing room. With all of this cleaning it makes me want to sew! I hope that y'all are doing well. It's beautiful & sticky here in the middle of the USA. Unfortunately not hay making weather, too much rain in forecast for the rest of the week. More later on, 

Vicky

p.s. Check out what other quilters are up to  at patchworktimes.com

One thing leads to another

It's been a busy day with lots of irons in the fire. I've been playing catch up from being in the hay field during this past weekend & the begining of this week. I think that all of the laundry & the basic household chores are all caught up, YEAH!!! I even made the time today to make my husband his lemon cake. It's become a yearly tradition at Fathers Day & his birthday (they are only a month apart).

I guess I wasn't thinking correctly & way over bought on the lemons. I think that I used 5 today & I still have a whole bowl full left. I'm guessing I will become creative on how to use them up.

The only down side about this little problem is that I can't have them. Lemons & me do not get along very well & it stinks because I love lemons.

On Tuseday morning I was doing my best to finish up baling the last of the hay that we had laid down. There was a major thunderstorm headed right for us & this happened

That is net wrap underneath the belts on the baler. Don't ask me how I did it I can't tell you. 

There was also net wrap coming from the back side of the baler. Yup that's my kiddo doing his best to help his momma out. Don't worry he's not in any danger. All brakes & saftey precautions were taken.

 My white knight/husband came to my rescue. He was able to get away from work and get me out of my jam & finish up with the last 3 bales right before the deluge of rain hit. I got stranded in the barn when the rain hit. I was putting up the electric fence & ran into the barn for a dry place. We got 2.5" of rain that afternoon.

I was finally able to get into my sewing room & cut up some fabric this afternoon! I'm working on my latest 10,000 piece quilt that I"m calling "The Chess Board". I'm using cream to light tans for the neutrals & Civil War Reproducitons for the darks. As I'm cutting up these scraps I've been coming up with different combinations of the 3 sizes of strips that I use (1.5",2" & 2.5" strips) for the scraps that I have. I thought that it would be a great diagram. As soon as I get it completed I'll post it here on the blog.

We have also had to do some doctoring for one of our first calf heifers. She has a sore foot. We put her in the squeeze shoot & gave her some sulfur pills. They are HUGE!

My very gentle husband giving her her meds. They both did very well.

We're supposed to have lots more rain tonight & into tomorrow so I'm hoping that will mean more sewing time! I do love rain days! I hope that y'all are doing well. More later on,

Vicky

What am I working on? A little excitement & some strip piecing

Well to start it off there was some huge excitment for me this weekend. I got the certificate showing that my name & logo are now a registered trademark!!!!! Woohoo!!!! I can not tell you how excited I am. It has been an almost year long journey.

This weekend was the very first Kansas City Regional Quilt Festival & it was a huge success. I went on Friday with my mom. Oh my goodness the quilts were phenomenal! Here are a few of the beautiful quilts that were there

This one was the best of show.

I think this one should have been the best of show in my personal opinion. All of this is hand quilted. Simply amazing!

All of this stippling is all done by hand. Amazing!

I've finished my kite quilt & will be taking it to my LAQ today. So now I am working on finishing The Chess Board quilt. It's my secong run on a 10,000 piece quilt. So far I am just ironing more piecies of fabric so that they can be cut up. I've got 7,200 piecies done just 2,800 more to go! 

I've got lots of errands to run today & hay season also started this weekend. I'm not entirely sure when I'll be able to get to sew on it. The hay comes first during hay season & my quilting comes second. I get excited for rain days during hay season. I hope that y'all have a great day. It's beautiful here but HOT! More later on,

Vicky

p.s. Check out patchworktimes.com to see what other quilters are up to

Cereal boxes & finding the new normal

First off I do aplogize for not writing in the last few weeks. Life has kinda been an upset the fruit basket. My father in law passed away about 3 weeks ago.We've been dealing with all of the arrangements & we had family in town for a week, which we enjoyed. This has been the first week of the "New Normal".

I'm sure that there are going to be some bumps along the way but we'll figure it out.

For many years I kept my strings in a Frosted Flakes box like this.

This past Thursday at guild meeting fellow guild member & friend Barb said that they don't eat Frosted Flakes but they do eat Special K & she filled up it full of strings just for me! It made my day

 This box is full & heavy.

I'm looking forward to going through it!

Last night I finally had some time to finish making the blocks for my kite quilt & lay it out. I'm really loving it!

 

I need to cut some pieces for my leader & ender project & then I'll be ready to go. I'm thinking I need to be working on my blue/white row by row project for the quilt guild. The rows are due at next months guild meeting & I've not started on it yet. Yikes! 

I hope that y'all are having a good day. It's kinda overcast & cool here in the midwest with a high chance of rain. That means that there is a high chance of quilting! More later on,

Vicky