Halleluia!

The monster quilt is completely pieced. I finished stitching the last border early this morning. The border fabric, shown on left is a persimmon Hoffman batik in a tree pattern. I love this fabric. I didn't want to cut it, but I did.


I thought I would spread it out on the lawn and snap a quick picture. One small problem:





The heat and humidity is so intense that my camera lens fogged up, and kept fogging up.

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Time Flies

In many ways this year has been speeding, it feels like I just arrived in South Dakota and within a week I will be on my way home again.

Old Business

The winners of my giveaways:

Quiltin'LibraryLady got the pendant and Kristyn (who does not have a blog) got the free pattern by Tweeting my link.

Where in the world is Henrietta?

Lori and I took her Green Princess down to the manufacturer in Wichita last week. Kenquilt have made several improvements since we bought our machines including a re-think of the tension assembly (yippee!) to a simpler clutch mechanism and modifications to the needle bar and wheel which reduce vibration to almost zero. Think Cadillac instead of Jeep and you will get the idea, the ride is a lot smoother and less tiring, not that it was all that rough to begin with compared to other similarly sized machines I have tried.

On my design wall (which is really Lori's of course) the monster I am making for my son, the pattern is Yin Yang designed by Daniela Stout of Cozy Quilt Designs. This is the second half of it taking up the whole wall. Rows waiting to be stitched together and two rows of blocks waiting to turn into rows.


This is the completed first half draped over the long-arm because there is no more room on the design wall. I don't usually 'do' king size anything! This has truly been a labor of love but I believe the end is in sight. After finishing the body piecing I have a lot of pressing plus two borders to cut and add.


The lovely little Singer 15-91 I use at Lori's, a younger sister (1948) to my beloved Miss Lily (1934) at home. Although she is older than I am she is still faithfully producing a perfect straight stitch. This was one of Ken's farm auction sale treasures a few years ago, she came complete with bench and cabinet. If you had not already guessed, green is Lori's favorite color.



Most of the hard to find light and neutral batiks I used were a gift from Lori, Timeless Treasures Tonga Treats in the Meringue colorway, still available here. The others were from my massive collection of batiks. Can you spell A D D I C T I O N?

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4th of July

Happy Birthday America!




Click link above to view card.

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My Lucky Year

I am not one of those people who wins things all the time which makes this an amazing year. Here we are mid May and for the second time this year I won something.

In February I won an autographed copy of Scrap-Basket Sensations by Kim Brackett from a comment on Quilt Times blog. This time I won a ruler from Monique Dillard of Open Gate Quilts. You can visit her very interesting blog which is where she had a giveaway, and I got lucky!

Those readers who know me personally know that I am a shameless rulerholic. I LOVE rulers!

My new ruler is called Fit to be Quarter and it is very fancy indeed. It is a 9 1/2" x 9 1/2" square ruler made to trim quarter-square triangles, combination units and square quilt blocks.

I don't have it yet, it is on its way but it looks to have horizontal and vertical lines spaced 1/4" apart, a 45º line going one way and many more 45º lines spaced 1/4" apart on the other diagonal.

I am so looking forward to receiving and using this ruler. Thank you Monique!

Project progress report

1. French Reel, backing pieced, bias binding made, ready to quilt.
2. Blue and Yellow quilt, backing pieced, bias binding made, ready to quilt.

Goals: Finish the weird cat quilt, my desperate attempt to use up fabric Lori palmed off on me.

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Monday Musings & Giveaway

Do you think himself needs to cut the grass? Just look at how the wretched stuff is climbing the fence. That is kikuyugrass, (Pennisetum clandestinum) imported from East Africa to California in 1918 and from California to Hawaii in 1925. Kikuyugrass is on the U.S. Federal noxious weed list. It is the most prevalent forage in Hawaii and it will grow over a cement slab or work its way under the siding of your house.

The blue and yellow quilt top, which does not have a name, (more on that later) has all its borders on and is packed away ready to go to South Dakota with me. I am planning on making the bias binding today from more of the blue batik.

I got a good selection of that batik on sale for $5 a yard. It was an unfamiliar brand, Choice Fabric, but I like it. It is not flimsy, the patterns are primitive and naive and the color is indigo without the fading and running problems of true indigo fabric.



I really like the way the last blue border pops the color contrast in the blocks, it somehow compresses and confines the 'movement', amplifying as it frames. Here are two side by side pictures of before and after the simple final border was added. Click to enlarge images.










I am particularly happy with the blue border's effect on my "Waste not want not" pieced scrap border at the top and bottom of the quilt, detail picture below.





The quilt needs a name and I want to give something away.


The person who's quilt name sugggestion I choose will receive a cute sewing charm pendant (shown below) and satin cord necklace as a gift. I will also give away the pattern of their choice from this selection in my Bonanza.com booth to a randomly drawn reader who:

• Leaves me a comment on this post before midnight PST Sunday May 22nd with their suggestion to name this quilt, or
• follows me on Twitter and Tweets this link,http://tinyurl.com/4tmx5vh. Then leaves a comment telling me you tweeted and your twitter handle.

I will use the random-thingy to draw a pattern winner on 23rd May.

Please make sure that I can get in touch with you if you win. If you are set as a "no-reply" blogger, or if you do not have a blog, then I can't contact you.

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Hissy Fits

My everyday workhorse sewing machine at home is a 1936 Singer 15 for which I paid $20 ten years ago. My backup machine is a 1940 Model 15. I love them both because they have a perfect straight stitch and they are easy to maintain. They will both outlive me, as they have both outlived their previous owners. No worries about parts availability, nylon or plastic gears wearing out, these babies were built to last. I have an identical machine in SD as does Lori so traveling back and forth with projects is painless. Click image to enlarge.

So why the hissy fits?

Ummm, it is in my nature? :)
I had been working on the blue and yellow quilt; in an excess of thriftiness I used the off-cut triangles from the center blocks for a border on the top and bottom edges. These were pretty tiny pieces with a lot of seams and I was stitching through five and six layers of fabric. Normally for a Singer 15 this would be NBD, but, something was wrong. Stitches were being skipped and top thread was breaking.

Unfortunately the backup machine had suffered a tension assembly catastrophe a year or so ago (time flies) it literally fell off in all its pieces. As re-assembly is the fiddliest and most frustrating job on earth I had set the machine aside until the next time I went to Hilo to take in for the Old Sewing Machine Guy to enjoy. No backup.

I know how to fix this problem. There is a checklist. I can do this.

• I re-threaded the machine from scatch, problem not fixed.
• I changed the needle, being careful to insert the new needle exactly as the old one was, problem not fixed.
• I changed the bobbin, problem not fixed.
• I changed to a new spool of thread, problem not fixed.
• With a martyred sigh I took off the needle plate and brushed the feed dogs teeth, then lovingly oiled the machine, problem not fixed.
• I changed to a bigger needle and that did not solve the problem either. I was stumped.
• I left the machine to stew in its own obstinacy.
  

I woke up in the middle of the night. There was one thing I had not done.

I took out the needle and put it back in with the flat side facing left. Problem solved. The interesting thing is, I had been sewing without any problem at all for at least two months with the needle in backwards. It was not until the machine was challenged by all the thicknesses that it complained.

Today I will put on the last outer borders and make the bias binding and backing so this quilt can go with me to South Dakota to be finished there. We are going to be busy!

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Best Car Ever

The best car I ever owned was a 1960 Morris Minor 1000 Traveller. This is not my car, although it is the right color. This one above has been beautifully restored
and is a newer model than mine which had the old style trafficators, turn signals which popped out of the door frame pillar.

Winne got a little over 40 miles to the Imperial gallon which converts to about 35 miles to the US gallon. She was well used when I got her and despite being terribly neglected she ran and ran.

The Traveller had two doors in the back which closed with a single lever handle. This space was ideal for my beloved German Shepherd, or the odd sheep, and most convenient for shopping. The back seats folded down and forward making a perfect almost flat sleeping space, out of the weather, for a not very tall person, which would be me :)

Winnie and I traveled to Spain one year for a camping holiday and up to the highlands of Scotland at least twice. One memorable trip was to the Isle of Mull.

I miss that car. Larry would love it.

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