Don't Be Like Tish

Oh the joys of sit-down quilting.  It is my favorite type of quilting.  It's how I learned to quilt.  I was hoping to share with you today my finished Meadow Mystery quilt, but instead I'm sharing this cute little flowerish shape and a public service announcement.

Public Service Announcement:  When quilting at a sit down machine setting, make sure the surface you are quilting on is CLEAR of ALL unnecessary items.

When I started quilting Monday evening, I was doing nice therapeutic stippling in the background area of the quilt.  When I placed my hand on the quilt I distinctly remember thinking, "that feels really puffy?"  Yet I continued stitching.  I stopped to reposition the quilt a bit, put my hand on the quilt and thought, "why does it feel so thick right in that spot?"  You would have thought at this point I would have looked under the quilt, right?  Wrong.  I stitched a bit longer, letting the puffy question bounce around in my head.  Finally, I flipped it over...

Are you KIDDING ME?  I keep a small quilt sandwich at my HQ Sweet Sixteen so that I can check my tension every time I change my bobbin.  I completely forgot it was sitting on the table and when I spread the quilt out to start quilting, it wound up under it...or rather stitched to it.

So with lot's of other distractions this week...it is still waiting for me to fix it.  Think I can convince Dave the Quilt Engineer he is still in quilt training and he has to do it?

This evening was the Evening of the Arts at my daughter's high school.  It's an evening of music, theater and art.  This year my daughter is taking a stain glass class, a class I also had in high school.  I'm so stinking proud of her.

This is a candle holder that she made and had on display tonight (I think I can see a quilt top).  She also had another surprise in store for me.  About six years ago when we were moving, I discovered a 3D mirror I made in stain glass class had somehow broke.

Two of the gray pieces of glass had came off and the wire vine was mushed flat.  Disappointed, I started to throw it away, when my cousin, Doug, came to its rescue, insisting on taking it home with him, saying he could fix it somehow.  So years pass and I completely forgot about it.

When he found out Jen was taking stain glass he ask her if she would like to fix it as a surprise for me.  So behind the scenes whenever time permitted,  Jen and her teacher worked to restore my little mirror and it was on display this evening, along with this little sign...

Twenty years...seriously??  It seems like yesterday.

Fixing it came with its own little challenges, and well, they ended up having to substitute a blue piece of glass for one of the gray ones,  but I love it!  Now it is something that she and I share.  She told me she hopes it doesn't break again, but I told her it's okay if it does, one of her future kids can fix it again :)

Today I'm linking up with Finished or Not Friday and Can I Get a Whoop! Whoop!

Best Family Ever--Or the Cat's Out of the Bag-- Or If I'm Dreaming Don't Wake Me!!!!

Fair warning...this will be a long post covering a few things.  New fabric, BOM progress and the secret news I was hinting at last week.  I'm not sure I'll have much writing time this week and I wanted to cover a little bit of everything.  This weekend, I was able to work on a few of the QAL's I'm following.

First up, pictured above, is the 2017 Aurifil Thread Designer BOM.  This year each designer is working with a color on the color wheel.  February's designer is Maureen Cracknell and she gave us the block Dutch Treat in blue-purple.  You can read Pat Sloan's interview with Maureen and download the free block here.  Since I know the next two months will bring me blocks in purple and red-purple, I picked up a few FQ's at a LQS this weekend.  My stash of purples is quite lacking.

Let's keep talking fabric additions...during the LQS visit, while petting all the pretty bolts of fabric, I discovered they still had two bolts of Moda's Flirt by Sandy Gervais.  I still have a UFO made in these fabrics I would like to put borders on, so why not, I picked up a couple yards of these two prints.

And for my last fabric score...on Tuesday I received an email from Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilts letting me know that I had won a copy of her Teenie Weenie Bikini Quilt Pattern and...

Get your copy of Teenie Weenie Bikini at Lorna's Etsy Shop

a 10" stacker from Fat Quarter Shop of Into the Garden by Riley Blake Designs.

A big thank you to Lorna and Fat Quarter shop for all the lovelies.  I just can't stop looking at these pretty prints.

And the last quilt along item for this post is the literal quilting of Living Water Quilter's block and quilt along she has going on right now.  Last Monday, Geraldine posted the first post breaking down the quilting of the HST blocks.  (You can find the post here)  She has two different videos breaking the process down and a pdf file for more information.

If you ever wanted to try ruler work, now's the time.  Even if you don't have a ruler foot and rulers, mark that quilt up with your favorite marking utensil and break out that walking foot.  Basically, join us!  :)

Now to my news...

Dreams can come true!  There is a stand-up computerized long arm for me to learn to use.  Let's take a minute to let that sink in, because I'm still trying to wrap my head around it, myself.  My family has always been very supportive of this kind of crazy quilting dream I have.  Even going to quilt shows with me.

Doug's hat is behind David's head.

This is a picture of David and my cousin (more like brother), Doug, playing with the Gammill long arms at a quilt show a few years ago.  When we returned from the show, my uncle, Doug's father, was at Doug's house and we all set around and talked about long arm machines.  We talked about how awesome they are and expensive.  My uncle has always had an interest in quilting, having lots of loving memories of quilting with his grandmother as a child.  So anytime we get together, he always asks what I'm up to.

A few weeks ago, Doug started asking me all kinds of random questions about long arm machines.  Completely out of the blue.  As I rattled off answers I kind of stopped and said, wait, why are you asking me this???  Turns out, in his dad's ventures he ran into someone with a friend who had a long arm they wanted to sell and he wanted to know if it was a good deal.  After sending me pictures, we were able to determine it was a Husqvarna Megaquilter 1200.  Basically, it was a 10ft frame with a sewing machine mounted to a rolling platform.  The next question was could I use it?

I did feel as an investment, just because of the asking price, they could probably make money off of it.  The current owner has a HQ Sweet 16 and had purchased it at an estate sale in a lot and just wanted rid of it, because of the space the table took up.  Could I use it?  I was honest and told them that I appreciated what they were trying to do, but because of the limited throat space, I thought my Sweet 16 would be better for me.  I told them the table would be worth keeping if you could find say, the Husqvarna 18" by 8" Megaquilter to go on it, but that I didn't even know if it would fit the table.  At this point, I kind of figured the conversation was over.  Nope.

To my surprise the next question was, can we get one?  So I humored them and called the dealer in a town about 20 minutes away to see if 1) the bigger Megaquilter would work with the table and 2) how much they were.  After a few minutes I learned that in theory that machine should work on the table.  Then there was a pause, followed by, "I think I have one in the back."  Wait, what??  Turns out, she had one in her inventory, brand new in the box, that she had for several years.  Her store carries a wonderful variety of embroidery and domestic machines (all 3 of my domestic machines have come from her store).  Long arms are not in high demand where we are, it's just a fact.  So when the person she ordered it for decided not to purchase it, she just kind of put it in the back and forgot about it.  Let's just say she worked out an amazing deal with my uncle and he decided to purchase it.  My family is insane!  But I'm 100% glad they are.  I think my uncle and cousin are as excited to use it as I am.  

So Saturday, David and I skipped our guild's work day to head with Doug to picked up the machine.  Hopefully, they will forgive me, but hey, I can hopefully volunteer quilting services as soon as we figure it out.

Here is the frame with the Megaquilter 1200 on it.

The boys putting the rollers on the frame.  I was holding down a bean bag chair.

Then last night, I received the following pictures from Doug's wife, my BFF, Stacie.

Ta da!!  We now have a machine on a frame with a computer hooked up to it.

She mostly is all ready to go, we just have to figure out how in the heck she works.  Thank God for YouTube, right?

So that is the news, I have been hush hush about.  Mainly, because I wasn't sure if it was really happening or not.  This is also why, I've not been stressing about quilting on my 1st goal list.  We are gonna need all those unfinished tops to practice on!

So that is my crush for this Monday.  A huge machine we do not know how to use yet, but by goodness...we will figure it out between all four of us!  

Today I'm linking up with Main Crush Monday and Sunday Stash.

Bookshelf Quilt--Finished

I started to fear that I wasn't going to hit my deadline on this project.  I cut it a bit too close for my comfort.  But this little elf pulled it off anyway.  My cousin approached me via email several months ago about making a bookshelf quilt for her mother in law for Christmas.  Secretly, I've always wanted to make this quilt, ever since I found it on Moda Bake Shop.  The pattern is called Read With Me Quilt and is by Melissa Corry.  I absolutely LOVE the way it is quilted.

After explaining what a jelly roll was to my non quilty cousin, I told her to pick out a jelly roll, mail it to me and I would get started.  Several weeks later, this little 1930's reproduction jelly roll arrived in my mail box.  I grabbed a pretty white on white fabric for the background and promptly but it on a shelf..fitting right?

When I finally cracked this bad boy open I discovered instead of being your typical 42 strips it was only 20.  Huston, we have a problem.  Luckly, I have a huge stash of 1930's reproduction fabric that I've never touched (that good ol' good intentions thing).

 I asked if it would be okay to incorporate some of those and got a green light.  I'm actually glad this happened.  That jelly roll was a whole lot of orange, brown, green and blue.  My stash addition added a bit more color.

Now it was time to read the directions and start chopping.  

As I cut my different length strips I sorted them into bags according to their size.  This made things so much easier when I had to sort my strips for the four different types of blocks that make up the quilt.

Since it was mostly strip piecing it went together in no time.

The little blue squares at the top are part of the MOD Bear Paw you will be seeing soon

This led to a little Crafted Applique fun.

Let's not forget quality control testing.

And boom!  A finished quilt top.  This is where the pictures stopped.  I knew I was quickly approaching the deadline and focused more on the quilt and less on the blogging aspect.  Sorry.  I was DYING to quilt this one based off the original quilt design, but knowing that my cousin wanted it for Christmas 2016 and not Christmas however long it takes, I went with the more practical all over loops design using Aurifil #2021 Natural White.  So after a quick quilting and a tumble in the washer and dryer, I was able to get this in the mail and delivered safe and sound on time.

I did snap a few pictures before it went out.  A huge thanks to my mom/next door neighbor for letting me take a few pictures in her house.  The weather has been quite bleak, with no good lighting.

My cousin and her mother in law was nice enough to share a few pictures with me and allow me to share them with you.

The picture is a little blurry, but I think the happiness shines through!

And a very sweet picture of my cousin and her mother in law.

I'm very glad that I was able to help my cousin with her gift and lets to a little happy dance for me, because I was able to cross a bucket list item off and another item off my 4th quarter list!!  Of course, now I want to make one for me too, because I must have all the quilts :)

Today I'm linking up with Let's Bee Social.

Scrap Squares--A Gift of Friendship

You may recall way back in the spring I made several table runners to sell at our guild's boutique.

One of which was this mini quilt from the book 101 Fabulous small quilts called Scrap Squares.  I have a ridiculous amount of pre-cuts in Moda's Papillon by 3 Sisters.  (Seriously, I still have an untouched Fat Eighth Bundle)

One of my nearest and dearest friends, from all the way back in middle school, fell in love with this mini and wanted to buy it.  Since I had already promised it to the guild, I told her that I would make her one of her very own, but this one had to go to the festival boutique.  She was heart broken to find out that the mini had already sold by the time she was able to get to the boutique's table.

So over the summer, true to my word, I began piecing Lori a Scrap Squares quilt of her very own in Papillon.  As I laid the fabrics out on the floor, I decided to increase the size of this quilt, from mini (3 by 4 squares) to smaller wall hanging size (5 by 6 squares).

I would also quilt this one differently from the smaller version's straight line quilting in variegated thread.

 This time around I chose to do ribbon candy in the sashing in Aurifil 2021 Natural White and continuous curves in all the squares in Aurifil 2405 Oyster.

The binding would be a flanged binding using a soft off white and gray print for the flange and a lovely blue print from the Papillon line of fabric for the main binding.

When I contacted Lori earlier in the week, she was completely surprised to learn that I had made her, her very own Scrap Squares quilt.  I know that this quilt will be well loved and that makes me very happy.  I have a dream and a wish for this quilt, but that will have to remain between two very good friends.

But for everyone else, how about a few more pictures...

The backing is made from this beautiful blue floral Timeless Treasures print.

And on another happy note for me, the completion of Scrap Squares is the third finish from my 4th quarter list...Woot!!!

Today I'm linking up with Can I Get a Whoop! Whoop, TGIFF, Let's Bee Social and Midweek Makers.

My Dream Vacation--Meeting Friends

As I start writing this post, I find myself so overwhelmed with emotions that I'm not sure where to start.  My time off from work is very few and far between as far as vacation goes.  I work for a very small family owned building supply store and because our staff is so limited, it takes all of our cogs to make the clock run smooth, if you will.  I was able to work with my boss to arrange for me to take two days off (I think it has been a few years since I've taken two days in a row off during a work week) so that David and I could travel to Ohio to meet up with a few fellow quilt bloggers.  This, for me, was a dream come true.  So I will warn you ahead of time, this post will probably be a long one.

For a few weeks now, Julie at Pink Doxies with the help of Beth from Cooking Up Quilts have been working together to organize a Quilt Bloggers International Retreat.  International because our very own Canadian friend, Sandra at mmmquilts, was able to make the journey down.  So on Thursday of last week, Dave The Quilting Engineer and I started packing our car for our journey north and let's just say the quilting gear bags we packed, out numbered the one suitcase we packed.  Two of everything!

Photo courtesy of mmmquilts

Several hours later, we found ourselves pulling into the drive of Julie's home and my heart BURST with joy when I saw, in person for the first time, Julie running towards me to meet in a big ol' hug!

**I'll confess right now, I didn't take as many pictures as what you would think a quilt blogger would.  I was so wrapped up in meeting everyone and spending time with them, I just forgot to take pictures.**

After saying "hello" to Beth (Cooking Up Quilts), Jennifer (The Inquiring Quilter), and Terry (Terry Ann Hartzell-Insights), we settled in to unpacking.  They even saved a table for Sandra and I to share.  For some reason they seemed to think we would be attached at the hip :)  Dave was on his own.

Setting up my sewing space, waiting for my partner in crime to arrive.  Photo courtesy of Cooking Up Quilts 

Within probably a half hour of being there, David migrated down stairs with Julie and Terry to give fabric painting a go, while I stayed upstairs with Beth and Jennifer to chat and piece on our projects.

Photo courtesy of mmmquilts.  Okay this was after Sandra arrived, but still what the scene looked like.

The second I saw the last SUV pull in, this barley 5" tall, chubby, gal was running to meet Sandra.  Out of shape and breath (meaning me) we were finally able to hug for the first time.  I even kamikaze hugged MacGyver.  The rest of day one was filled with lots of laughs and ended with dinner at a local Mexican restaurant not to far from where all of us were staying.

Day two would bring much fabric viewing!  For transportation reasons, we split into two groups of four.  Car one held Julie, Beth, Jennifer and Terry and car two consisted of myself, David, Sandra and our wonderful chauffeur, MacGyver, himself.  Our first stop would be Somewhere Sewing in Millersburg, OH.

Upon opening the door we were greeted with rows and rows of fabric, it was a bit overwhelming.  David was a man with a plan and set off in search of fabrics to use in his Looking Glass 2.0 quilt and I wandered around aimlessly lost among all the pretties.  

David waited patiently to get his fabrics cut, while behind him, a circus of quilting mayhem ensued.

Photo courtesy of Cooking Up Quilts.  

I think someone had just cracked a joke, as I took a picture of Beth, taking a picture of everyone else.

I thought I was being quite slick about it, but Beth caught me, which made everyone laugh even harder.  Poor Sandra and David can't take us anywhere.

David, Me, Sandra, Terry, Beth, Jennifer and Julie.  Photo courtesy of mmmquilts

After a quick group picture with our loot, we were on our way to our next destination Zink's Fabric Outlet in Berlin.  If I thought I was overwhelmed by the first store, I had no idea what I was in for at the second!  It was HUGE.

Photo courtesy of mmmquilts

I'm so glad Sandra snapped this picture.  This is only one corner of the store (one corner!).  Somehow I started collecting bolts of fabric and decided to make a quilt to remember the trip.  Beth and David were helping to pick things out.  THIS WAS SO MUCH FUN!  I was running around like a small child, jumping for joy when I found something I liked.  I never made it out of this section to see the rest of the store.  So, I was super glad when everyone decided to come back after our super yummy lunch at Boyd and Wurthmann.

Our next destination would be Charm, OH to visit Miller Dry Goods.  This store is actually made up of two buildings side by side.  I fell in love with the friendly atmosphere and all the new fabric lines they carried.  I spent some more time helping David to pick out fabrics for Looking Glass (don't worry I bought stuff too).  

This picture is followed by this one, where he is saying "really, you just took a picture of me again?  I'm trying to work here."

And he was quite proud of himself when he spotted the one and only Cheryl Brickey of Meadow Mist Designs out in the wild.

And how about a few more shots at the store just for fun.

Sandra and I, finally together

Julie captured this picture of Beth and I.  I love this picture.

Our last shopping destination was a very unique little antique store called Fence Row Antiques in New Bedford, OH.  When I tell you this place is off the beaten trail, believe me, I know off the beaten trail.  It contained a little bit of everything.  For me, it was like stepping back onto my grandparents farm; coal buckets, cast iron skillets, antique quilts, knick knacks and ornaments.  There were so many things too look at.  The owner was one of the sweetest people I have ever met.  She had a lovely tea set up just for us (best peanut butter cookies EVER).  One thing I noticed was, when we were checking out, she had a story or memory for every item, it just warmed my heart.

Photo courtesy of Pink Doxies

Our evening officially ended with a wonderful dinner at Raven's Glenn Winery.

MacGyver just loves that sombrero 

David accidently scored wine glasses for all of us.  When the waitress brought the bills he asked if there was anyway that we could purchase a (one, singular) wine glass to commemorate our trip.  She perked up and said that for $5 we could taste nine wines and get a glass.  He explained we didn't really want to do a tasting (it was almost 9 and we both had drank wine with our meals) could we please just purchase a glass to honor this special occasion.  She said she would see what she could do.  Five minutes later she returned with wine glasses for everyone!  A huge thank you to Raven's Glenn Winery! And David, of course.

That brings us to the bitter sweet third day, which would end with all of us going our separate ways.  After packing things up at the hotel and checking out, we all headed back to Julie's for a little bit of mid-morning sewing and shenanigans.

Photo courtesy of Pink Doxies

All of us immediately got busy with the projects we were working on.  

One of which included a group project consisting of two blocks made by each person.

Jennifer had a chance to check out Julie's zipper collection.  There is a back story here, but some of what happens at Julie's stays at Julie's.

Along with more laughs, we managed to sneak in a few animated quilting and non quilting stories.  In this picture David is clearly having a good time with what ever the subject was.

As noon started creeping up on us, we all gathered below for a wonderful lunch prepared by Julie and participated in a open floor discussion about blogging.  Our sewing stuff headed back to our car and the dreaded goodbye-for-now's had to be said.

MacGyver took one last picture before we left.  I tell you, it's amazing what that man can do with a coffee can, a little paint, paper, cardboard and duct tape, all from the trunk of his car!  Just kidding he used an iPhone, but he's still pretty dog gone handy, sombrero and all.  (He doesn't really wear a sombrero, I'm just trying to add to the mystery and myth of the man we call MacGyver)

So maybe a few thoughts or things I learned before I close (I know, I've gotten out of control here);

I think the group was horrified to find out I only change my needles when I break one.  This little confession came about, after David innocently asked, "how often should one change a sewing machine needle?"  Bad, Tish!  Bad!

Llamas rock.  Llama stories, rock even more and they do not spit.

Julie is an amazing hostess.  You cannot possibly leave her with out feeling recharged and excited.  Julie, I still have a little bit of your Julie sparkles in my fake mason jar and intend to open that jar and let just a little bit out every time I'm feeling down or lonely.

And maybe a question you might be asking...was it odd for you or anyone else to have your husband as part of the actual group?

No, not at all, at least for me (I can't speak for the group).  I love that he was able to have fun, be creative and hang out with this amazing group of artists.  Because that is what we are, a united group of artists sharing a love and passion for all things fabric and quilting related (not a group of women and a guy).  This felt like a small family.  I love that he was able to learn about fabric printing with Julie and laugh and joke and that I didn't need to be included (I was doing my own thing and having a blast).  While I was checking out the rest of Zinks with Sandra, he was able to help Beth pick out fabrics.  And for him it was an opportunity to learn from a group of some of the best quilters out there, who apparently change there machine needles more often than I do :)

So I think I will stop here.  It has taken me almost a week to write this post.  I'm not an overly emotional person, but every time I set down to write, I found myself over come with joy because the pictures remind me of all the fun (there just isn't enough words to describe it) and a bit of sadness because I miss my friends.  Thankfully, they are only a point and click away.

Today I'm linking up to Let's Bee Social and Can I Get a Whoop! Whoop!