Machine quilting and finishing some projects has carried me through the past couple weeks!  That is all good for sure!!  Last week, I finished my youngest grandson's "big bed" quilt -- major goal reached!! 

 I made this quilt during the #littlemisssawtoothquiltqal led by Melanie at @southerncharmquilts via Instagram.  I used a layer cake I had stashed with 1 1/2 yards of background fabric for the blocks.  I moved through this project pretty quickly, starting the blocks last September and finishing the quilting this week -- not even a year!?!

So this week, I've been working on a small charity quilt. Remember this "sashed 9-patch" block I shared with you in March?  (Here's the original post with my directions for piecing these scrappy little blocks -- it's at the end of that post.)

I pieced twelve of them and set them together with sashing to make a wheelchair laprobe and my charity quilting crew layered it at our July gathering (outside on the front porch, of course).

My current strategy is to alternate quilting one of my own pieces and then a quilt to donate.  The idea has worked well for me because the charity quilts are generally small and by keeping the quilting simple I've been moving through them quickly but this time, after ditch-stitching the sashing, I froze.

My quandary was how to keep the quilting simple while enhancing the piecing.  None of my straight line ideas were inspiring me to continue.  While I don't consciously assign design tasks to my subconscious, I'm glad it goes to work on my creative blocks anyway.   Between looking at the quilt everyday laying on the machine table and some Instagram scrolling, I was inspired to adapt a four-point star motif someone shared so it fit my blocks.  As I worked with chalk sketching the idea, I enhanced it with a pumpkin seed flower to fill up the central space of the block.  Thank you subconscious for the inspiration!!

Here is my chalk sketching of my idea.  I've understood that I'm a visual person for a long time and sketching on the real thing helps me make decisions more easily.  I use "chalk wheel" devices that lay a line of chalk which I can brush off if I don't like my lines.  My original idea was to bisect the center square with straight lines that connected to the inner V's of the star but when I couldn't figure out how to stitch that without back stitching previous lines or extras stop/starts, I experimented with the pumpkin seed flower which could be easily worked into the design with no back stitching and no extra stop/starts.  

So let me walk you through it!

I used minimal marking for each block -- these are the center lines to guide me from point to point.

I start at the upper left corner of the block, aligning my straight guide tool with the corner of the block and the first centering mark.

Once I reach the centering mark, I reposition my guide and stitch out to the lower left corner of the block.  The foot on my machine is a ruler foot designed for APQS machines to use with plexiglass guides.

I continue in that way until I reach this final centering line and am in position to begin the pumpkin seed flower which is a series of free motion arcs.  My goal for each line is to reach the center X in a smooth arc.

Here I am with just two more arcs to stitch and I'll be back at the starting point of the flower at which point I'll use the guide ruler to return to the corner where I started.  One continuous line!!

Finished!!  In about four minutes (which includes marking and tying off the thread ends) I'm ready to move to the next block.  With just twelve blocks in the quilt, I can get half the blocks quilted in under 30 minutes which tends to be my session limit at the quilting machine.  When I stick to my 30 minute work limit, I find it easier to avoid a cranky neck and shoulders!

Here's the progress so far -- I have six blocks left to quilt and then maybe a straight line down the middle of all the sashing and something in the border.  I could have this piece ready to bind by Monday!

Then I can layer up and work next week on a laprobe that I've selected from the "ready-to-quilt" shelf for a housewarming gift!

It's been a pleasant week -- my goal to get back into a regular walking routine is progressing.

I enjoyed two all day babysitting sessions with the triplets!  BLISS!!

I enjoyed a couple small social gatherings (with masks).

Perhaps most important, I decided to embrace a couple perks of the current isolation.

I'm noticing my almost-empty schedule has led me to pay more attention to details and have more patience when needed.  

For example, I've started putting things away when I'm done using them because I don't have to rushing on to something else so the house is tidier and I (almost) always know where stuff is?!?

That's all good!!

  I'm doing more advanced knitting projects but I'm making lots of mistakes in my projects (argghhh - lack of experience).  I still get in a snit but they are usually short and I can back-up, undo, and fix the mistake -- like the sock that I knit twice before I got it the right size.  It was worth it!!

So I hope that I can take these habits forward with me.

It might mean I won't be as "useful" to other people but they are just going to have to get their own act together, aren't they?

Mary, the efficient dependable multi-tasker has retired!!

(All of you who've had your "slow living" act together for a while are smiling.)

So let's go have a good week and if you've had a "light bulb" moment as a result of isolation, share it with us!!

Mary

Working at home?

When my son informed me three weeks ago he'd be working from home temporarily, I jokingly quipped "me, too!"  Little did I suspect that situation wasn't going to change for weeks.

My children's librarian daughter is working from home -- hard to be a public librarian without a public -- and learning how to connect via the web in more ways.

So the challenge all around is to stay well and stay busy and stay cheerful.

Very challenging goals!!

In this part of the world, it helps that spring continues to progress and thus far it's been quite pleasant.  The spring bulbs are blooming in the typical progression, I'm trying to convince a pair of robins NOT to nest on top of the power line into my home again, and the neighborhood pair of crows are establishing their homestead in a large tree 120 feet south of my backdoor.

And there are little surprises, too which always brighten the day.  The red osier twigs I cut for my "Monty Don" style cloche are sprouting leaves?!?  I wonder if they will sprout roots down below, too? 

I've been sticking to my commitment to quilt some every day!

#aprilquiltingmarathon

This is the view across my kaleidoscope quilt at one of the section joins -- see the batting seam on the left, the center seam of the quilt top sections, and to the right is the backing seam.

If you missed that post, it's right HERE.

Look how flat that quilted up!!!

By Monday afternoon, I was ready to trim the quilt! 

The first step of the binding happened Tuesday morning and I spent the past couple evenings sitting outside on the front porch to work on the hand stitching!

This morning, the sun came out just long enough to recruit my daughter to hold it up for me and

 "ta-da", I have a finished quilt!!  I still need to wash it and next time I change the bedding, this quilt is going on the bed for a cheery spring view! 

I use to feel like my wheels were spinning when I finished a project even though there were always a few waiting in the wings for my return.  These days, I've started thinking a little ahead and decide on the next project while I'm finishing the current one.  

This traditional patchwork quilt is a retired teaching sample that I started to quilt during my charity group's gathering last month and since it just needs three or four more work sessions, I pulled it off the shelf this morning.

If you are joining me this month for the #aprilquiltingmarathon, here are a few tips that might be helpful based on my own experience with machine quilting.

I don't love the quilting phase of making a quilt and burying the threads is my least favorite part of the process.  I have discovered that it is more tolerable by employing one of two strategies.  

First, is to quilt edge-to-edge so there aren't any thread ends to bury!!

Second is to bury the thread ends as I go rather than letting them all accumulate (and overwhelm) at the end of the quilting.  I use one of those self-threading needles to "pop" the short threads easily into the eye (John James is my favorite brand).  

I've discovered through observation that when I pause and take time to pull out a loop of thread before pulling the needle through, the thread is more likely to stay on the needle and come all the way out where I want it to be.  That one little thing has made the task much less annoying.

I always keep a self-threading needle tucked into this little "cushion" within easy reach at my machine so I don't have an excuse for not burying the threads as I go!

During the winter, I misplaced one of my "quilting gloves" -- annoying but at least I didn't stitch it to the back of a quilt!?!  So to "make due" I grabbed one of my light weight outdoor gloves and wore it on one hand.  When I finished the quilting session, I noticed that the hand with the outdoor glove wasn't as achy as my other hand (arthritis you know).  

That was a lovely discovery!

So I bought a bright pair of light weight outdoor gloves and these are my quilting gloves now!

Warm hands are happy hands! 

 I have learned to start quilting even if I just have one idea for a section of a quilt.  With this quilt, all I could think of to begin was to "stitch-in-ditch" along the sashing.  

Next decision was to add the parallel lines to the outer setting triangles.

Two weeks passed and when I came back to this piece, I added the center flowers which are based on the "pumpkin seed" motif. 

Notice that the flower petals are not perfect - but it stills looks like a flower.

While I rarely unstitch and redo a motif, I do pay attention to how I stitched through a motif to learn what gives me the best results.  I know by looking at this flower that the final line (right side of upper petal) was stitched away from myself  and that is always my "weakest" movement.  

By knowing that, I can avoid it or change my stitching path.

This morning when I sat down at my machine, I knew I needed to add more quilting to the blocks but didn't have the energy to trace the outline of the patchwork.

I traced out some ideas with my finger of different ways to proceed around the blocks -- it needed to relate to what I'd already done and it needed to have a minimum of starts and stops!.

Simple diagonal squares that intersect the corners of the design repeat the quilting in the setting triangles, emphasize the central flower, and there are only 4 sets of threads to bury!

Since I use a thick plexiglass ruler and a "follower" foot when machine quilting, I only needed to mark the starting point (X) and stop lines for each corner.  If I didn't have those two tools, then I would draw lines with a chalk wheel or use masking tape to guide my stitching. 

I finished all eight blocks in the quilt -- tomorrow the borders!!

One more thing to mention -- if you are trying to build your machine quilting skills, rather than focus on making everything "perfect", focus on building a specific skill.  For example in the past, I've focused on making my free motion stitch length more consistent.  One thing I learned as a result of that was that when I get tired, my stitch length control is very poor.  Another goal has been to make my stops/starts along a line of stitching invisible so I can't tell where they occur.

One of the perks of quilting up UFO's and charity quilts has been it gives me so much practice.  My skills have improved and I'm finishing more pieces all the time.  As my skills have improved, I've become less of a quilting procrastinator -- much of that stemmed from a lack of confidence but without all the practice, I would not have built the confidence.

So come on, get out a quilt top and let's do this!!

Watch my hashtag on Instagram #aprilquiltingmarathon for more ideas and encouragment!

Let's go back outside!

  Are you contemplating some vegetable gardening this summer?  

I read this morning that an English seed company is getting 8000 orders a day compared to their typical 100?!?

Maybe we should start online seed companies?

My garden helper commandeered a couple straw bales for me last fall after some Halloween festivities and they are being prepared for this year's cucumber patch.

Straw bale gardening is a pretty simple set-up for growing veggies.  My reference for it is Straw Bale Gardening Complete by Joel Karsten -- I've borrowed it from my library and read it a couple times -- this spring I discovered it on Hoopla (a library hosted reader app).

I've planted peas in the raised trough and this morning I opened the cover up to take advantage of the rain.  It's zipped shut now that the sun is shining to absorb some rays and I'm looking for peas to be sprouting in the next few days!

Be honest, did you just skip to the end to see if there was a picture of the crew?

That's my son (Dad to them) playing goofy with them.  They are all crawling and they really are as happy as they look here (most of the time).  I'm missing them a lot but staying away is best in the long run for all of us. 

My mask making count is nearing 50 at this point.  I'm using up that stack of batiks and sharing them to friends now that I've got my family covered.

Do you think quilt fabric masks will be a fashion trend by the end of the year?

Thanks for reading today's post -- I'm feeling chatty and there's no one here to talk with me so you are it!!

Stay well, stay busy, count the daily blessings, share a blessing!

God bless you abundantly!

Mary

Linking up this week with TGIFF over HERE!