90%

Yes, I am almost done with the machine quilting! I have 108 blocks quilted with 12 more to go. Binding and a label and it will be done!

I did spend a bit of time last evening making from scratch a banana cake for the fellows at work. I had some bananas that were very ripe so I needed to use them up. I had some cream cheese in the fridge so that went into the icing.

It is going to be a busy weekend around here! I do want to make a few cookies and I want to get things organized for baking pies and stuff I need to take with me to the xmas eve shindig.

Have a great weekend!

75%

Between last night and this morning I managed to quilt 30 blocks so I now have 80 blocks done with 30 more to go. I was up at 4:14 am so that gave me an hour and a half this morning. I just couldn't sleep so I might as well quilt!. I am now at the point that I am rounding another corner!

For any newbies to my blog I use my home machine at Pfaff 1475CD to do my free motion quilting. I have a large flat surface to help support the quilt and I put a temporary heavy T.V. table beside me on the left to add to my surface area.

Looks like I will get this done for xmas eve!

41.6%

Between lunchtime yesterday, last evening, and this morning before work I managed to get 40 blocks quilted! That take my total up to 50 blocks done and 70 to go. It is always exciting when I get to a corner and turn the quilt which is the only time I turn the quilt when free motion quilting. Here is the first corner turned

and I am almost to turning the next corner.

I ran out of bobbins again, so I wound 10 more and killed of my first spool of thread. I do have another spool of the same color, Olive, but I am thinking the way I am going thru thread I may not have enough. I will have to look thru my thread stash and find something close to throw in the bobbin as I am not going to go buy more thread. I don't use green very often so I am glad to use some up on this project.

8.3%

I like to keep track of how much I have done on a project when I am quilting it. Why? Sometimes it is just to document how much progress I am making. For the Moda Halloween quilt it was for meeting a deadline. It is one of those things I just like to do.

I didn't have much time to quilt last evening as I had company. While I was waiting for Kris to show up and it was a beautiful warm evening (in the low 50's) for December, I decided to load the trash bin for Wednesday's pickup since it was suppose to rain on Tuesday and rake up leaves and fallout from my neighbor's 35' arborvitae.
After an hour of raking and trash pickup (stuff left from the garage project), I moved two loads of leaves, etc. to the recycle pile before Kris showed up.

She had a dress she needs me to hem. It is made from a dark purple tricot weight fabric and will take a bit a patience to sew, but it is totally doable.

She brought me a plate of Xmas cookies and I gave her a jar of my Mango Butter Goat Milk Cream and a bar of goat milk soap. The cookies are going to work - I cannot eat them! After sitting on my butt for the last two months working constantly on the Moda Halloween quilt - well, let's just say it isn't pretty!

I did manage to run thru two bobbins so I am now getting my rhythm back so machine quilting the flannel quilt should go quicker. My machine is behaving itself and the flannel is becoming easier to handle the more I work on it. I have 10 of 120 blocks quilted which is 8.3%. I will just get what I can done between work, everyday stuff I need to do, and getting in some exercise.

Productive weekend - 2nd post today

My friend Stephanie came over on Sunday to pin baste a quilt on my table. The quilt was so pretty!

I had the flannel quilt top pieced and the backing sewn together, so after we were done with Stephanie's quilt we pin basted the flannel quilt. It made quick work with both of us pinning!

So what did I put on the back? Well, I was looking thru my stash and I must of had at least five or six yards of one flannel fabric so that is what I used. I was a bit short so I added another piece of a red and white striped flannel.

A bit of an unusual choice, but this flannel had been in my stash for more than 15 years and it needed to be used. I am quilting this in Connecting Threads Olive colored thread because it was a darker color which I thought would look good on the front and I had two spools of it.

I have 9 days to get this done. I think it is doable. The quilt is approx. 88" x 75".

Instead of making pillow cases for the nieces and nephews this year I decided to get them all Sharpie markers. The markers were on sale and cost about as much as the fabric for a pillow case. Each kid will get a set of fine and ultra fine markers. I figure they could use them for school projects and who doesn't love a new set of Sharpies?

I even got them wrapped!

DP - adding other elements

I spent some time sewing some additional elements for my DP piece. This way I use up the long strips of the leftover fabric in what I think is an interesting way. I don't have the whole design planned out. I will just play around after I get a few more striped sets made and see what appeals to me.

Don't tell me how to feel!

As I was trying to find pieces that were accepted into QuiltCon, many of the owner's of the accepted quilts and commenters carried on and on how us rejected people should feel about our rejections. Big mistake! Your rambling doesn't make us feel any better. In fact it makes it worse. Who are you to say our feelings are not valid or appropriate?

Don't say "you should be proud of your rejected work". Where did I say I wasn't proud of my work?

Don't say "don't give up". Where did I say I was giving up and what exactly do you mean by giving up?

How dare you make any assumptions or judgments on how I feel. It is like going to a funeral and saying they were so sick and suffering I am sure they are in a better place. How do you know they are in a better place? Do you think that is comforting to someone who just lost a loved one? Just say you are sorry and stop.

I know there were a lot of entries, but from what I have seen if you didn't make a wall hanging with solid fabrics you had no chance at all getting in. Maybe they should change the name to WallCon. Why are you permitted to submit a piece that is 480" around, but all they are going to accept is wall hangings?

I am committed to going and I plan on having a great time exploring Austin. I will be bringing my Moda Halloween quilt, carrying it around where ever I go, and show anyone who asks to see it. Feel free to join my mobile quilt exhibit.

I did get 2/3 of my flannel quilt sewn together, but I turned one 4 block by 4 block section around. I have no idea how that happened. It is not a big deal and I wasn't going to tear it apart so it is what it is. My siblings won't care and it is not being judged by the quilt police.

I need to put a label on a baby quilt I had in my stash for a fellow who just had their third child.

Here is the quilt. It is made with prints! Oh the horror!