Take 5 Goes Crazy

2nd of the commissioned quilts finished.

Pattern is Take 5 Goes Crazy by Teachers Pet

Backing is pieced, customer found the Badger print but there wasnt enough for the back, so pieced the red and black in between the Badger print.  I like this pieced backing. 

This pattern is done the same way as Buggy Barns, stack, slice and shuffle.  Used various Bucky Badger print fabrics and a mixture of black prints, this is one beautiful quilt.

The quilt is a present for customer's grandson and a Hugh fan of Wisconsin Football Team. Actually the entire family are fans.

As this is for a young man, no frills and flowers for stitching, so I just did the long wiggle lines as opposed to the usual meandering.

Wiggles lines can be used in so many ways, especially if you want it gender friendly.

Yesterday I dropped off "Six Flags" and the patterns to Loose Threads quilt shop.  She is going to display in her booth at the Quilt Expo next week.  With hopes of selling patterns and gaining interest in workshops for this fall.

I also managed to finish the piece sewing of "Diamonds Forever" my newest pattern.  If all goes well I will quilt it either this afternoon or tomorrow at the latest.

Then bind, get a decent picture and send off to pattern producer to get this pattern into print. Finally.

It seems I have been working on this forever.  But, I had other projects with higher priority, including helping Ky.  At long last I found enough time to work on DF and it looks terrific.

Funny, I have been so busy with many things, and now when I finish a project, I get a little down.  But that wont last long, as I can always find something to work on, including more patterns running around in my head.

Now if I could just get a few more customers to help pay for my addiction.

Ky's 9 Patch Finished Sewing

As you know yesterday we had a very productive non sewing day.

After all of our Susie homemaker duties were done we played a few board games and she re-taught me how to play chess, which by the way she won.

I haven't played chess since I was in high school, and I wasn't very good then either.

She has the neatest chess set love it:

This morning was a sew morning, and yes she finished her 9 patch quilt top:

Ready to purchase the batting and backing and grandma will get it quilted.  There is a sale on fabrics and batting next weekend at Joann's,  which means wont be doing the quilting until next week.

FYI, Wayne has been extremely busy last week +, he is refinishing an older truck and Britt's boyfriend DJ bought the truck from him.  Today he is painting it, with DJ's help.




 

Actually not much DJ can do as Wayne has to do the paint, so he is gopher for Wayne.

The old man hasn't painted a vehicle in appx 40 years, and hasn't lost his touch. Its looking really good.

OK so I discovered one thing, once you post pictures to your blog dont delete them in you pc and it also creates a big black pic on the blog.  I deleted pics of chess set, Wayne and DJ working on the truck and all are gone. But I managed to recover Kys quilts

Ky and I Weekend

Ky and I are having a very productive weekend.

She came Friday (like always) afternoon and we spent our time working on (of course) quilts.  She is almost finished and time ran out as her dad came to pick her up for the night.  She only needs to put on her top and bottom outer border and it will be finished and ready for me to quilt.

Today, she is here for the day and staying with us overnight.  I had our day planned and she was up for all of it.

Started the day baking a rhubarb cake:

After baking, she vac sealed the remaining rhubarb and we froze 3 packages.

Now its off to the garden to see what needs to be done.  Picked the rest of the beets and all of the carrots:  She saw one of the bunnies hopping around, but she didnt freak out this time.

Washed and cut off tops, and bagged (2) gallon Ziploc bags of carrots.

Belle loves carrots and we give them to her as a treat rather than doggy biscuits.  Vet said they are better for her. So here she is with Ky waiting for her carrot.

OK time for lunch, when her dad dropped her off, left us with the makings for fajitas which Ky and I had for our lunch, gpa not a fav of this type food, so we gave him a sandwich. 

After the fajitas, it was time for a piece of cake.  MMMMMMMMMM Gooooooood.

Now wash and cook beets, cool peel and put into canning jars.  Ky made the pickling syrup and cooked it for me.  Helped pack the jars and she got to add the syrup:

Finished beets.   We were going to go back into the garden and pick green beans, but you know what? 

We are both just a little tired and taking a break, maybe for the rest of the day.

Family Fish Boil 2011

Saturday Dee Dee and Dick hosted the annual fish boil. I have been trying to upload pictures from face book to this, but so far cant figure out how to do it.  I did not take the pictures, so cant just load to my computer and upload to blog as I normally would.  I will say it was a great time, and wonderful delicious food, as usual.  We look forward to this each and every year.  I a big thank you to Dick and Dee Dee for doing this for the family.

Now I have locked up part of my computer programs trying to upload to this blog.  That's what I get for thinking I know so much about computers. Ha.

In the meantime, update on KY.  She was over Friday as usual and Saturday and we worked somewhat on her quilt.  She is procrastinating now.  She likes doing the individual blocks, but no so much sewing the blocks to each other into rows and then sewing rows together.   Before she does this, however, she had to fix many blocks in her rows.  She rushed through and didn't match up seams as she should have and they looked pretty sloppy.  I told her had to fix them and that's when she started to procrastinate.  Today she came for the morning, and I worked with her to fix her big mistakes.

Partly my mistake, she was doing so well with her blocks I didn't think she needed me to watch her rows.  I was working on my own quilt and really thought she had it under control.  I should have been more aware of what she was doing before there were so many sloppy blocks.

We are both going to live and learn from that experience.

Anyway, once we started unsewing and fixing, she became more excited again, and now is looking forward to finishing.

Our hopes are to finish next weekend, including the borders.

Oh Yes Its Friday

And you know what that means. "Sewing With Kylee"

The good news:  After picking up Kylee at her home, we then picked up  my sewing machine.  Yes, its finished.  So glad he put a rush on getting mine repaired.

It was quite a sewing party going on today.  Had Kylee use my machine and I sewed with my friends.  How nice was that, we both got to sew together today.

But oh my what a mess we have, and tomorrow will be the same.  She is coming over for the day.

I am really looking forward to see how much she gets accomplished and how much I can complete.

This morning I managed to quilt another Tshirt quilt for Kelli in Ft Wayne.  Now both of hers are finished and I can mail out tomorrow.

HD Tshirt quilt

Ky's sewing station

My sewing station

more tops to be quilted

I didn't take a full picture of the tshirt quilt, as it looks so similar to one I had posted on previously.  Needless to say it is bright/bold and Kelli did a great job.  I really like the flame material she puts with these quilts.  Sorry the backing looks orange, but in real life it is a beautiful Red.

Now for a much needed feet up rest.  Packer pre season game will be starting at 7pm and I'm ready for a little r&r.

College TShirt Quilt

My friend from Ft Wayne, sent me 2 tshirt quilts to do.  One she taught a friend to make her own tshirt quilt and this is the results:

Kelli did an excellent job teaching her.  Quilt was perfectly square.  I used the long wiggle lines to quilt it.

Neat!

Lets hope she continues to make many more beautiful quilts and sends them to ME.

Finished this late morning and was going to load the other tshirt quilt from Kelli, when I discovered a long pucker tuck on the backside.  Had to rip out 8 lines from middle of quilt to end, press and re quilt.  This almost took longer to do than the entire quilting.  Never ever had this happen to me, where backing puckered and tuck, but I have heard of other quilters that this has happened to.  Not fun, but necessary to fix.  Cant send out a sloppy quilt, no matter how long it takes to fix.

Teri's Six Flags

It's so gratifying to know a pattern I designed has been used to make another beautiful quilt by Teri.

She chose cream sashing and borders, which I think looks terrific.

Here's my original quilt:

Either cream or black sashing, I like this pattern.

Yesterday major depression

My domestic sewing machine is in need of professional help.  What oh what will I do without a sewing machine.  Major withdrawal???????

Took it to the sewing repair today and it will be at least 2 weeks before I get it back.

Lucky for me Nettie is lending me hers as long as I need it.

Can you imagine what my life would be like if I didn't sew for a while.  I could clean my house regularly, weed the flowers, keep up with my laundry, maybe do some baking.  All the things I put on hold or back burner when sewing. Or just stay in bed!!!!!!!. Oh I think I would go crazy, and imagine if I told Kylee she couldn't sew on Friday's.

Put in 4 hours already today, using Nettie's. Almost finished a quilt top.  Taking a short break and then put on the final borders of top.

Tomorrow, load customer quilt on long arm. I am really excited to do this one.  She used "my" Six Flags pattern and it looks fantastic.

Thank goodness for Nettie.

Boxtrot Plus A Bonus

Finished one of the commissioned quilts yesterday.  Still needs binding before I return to customer.

Remember this the pretty fabrics I showed you a short while back.  That fabric became this:

Pattern is Boxtrot by Creative Sewlutions.  Backing is also beautiful.


Here's the bonus:

Beautiful butterfly attached itself to our patio screen door and has been there for a few hours now.  When butterflies stay in one place does that mean his/her life is almost over?  Or is it just resting? Either way it is beautiful.  I opened and closed the door several times to let dog in and out and didn't fly away.

I just checked again, and it is gone.

 

Sewing With Kylee Friday AND Saturday

Would you believe, Kylee is not only sewing on Friday with me but now again on Saturday.

The truth is, I told her she could come again today if they had no other plans.  She is going to have to put more hours into sewing than just Friday afternoons, if she expects get her quilt done before the quilt show.

Lucky for me I managed to get a few hours of sewing in this morning before she came and kidnapped my sewing machine.

Sew (pun) while she sewed, I did some quilting on the long arm.

We changed up her pattern a little bit.  Those tiny 1.5 squares were a little too advanced for her.  Instead she is doing alternate black/paisley and red/paisley 9 patch.  She can whip these out like nobody's business and has completed 20 squares already today. 

While I am taking a much needed break, she is still down in the sewing room, sewing her little heart out.  I don't even have to sit with her anymore to observe her sewing.  I have taught her how to cut strips, and iron them and sub cut into the 2.5, 3 patch strips.  Sigh, she doesn't need gma.  Just kidding, we are really enjoying the time together.

She wants to name her quilt, and has suggested several options.  For me I want to call it "Precious Memories".  She isn't too keen on this name, and I'm sure she will come up with something original.

Before I sign off, just want to tell you I am literally laughing out loud.  I can hear her down there sewing away and now she is singing along with the radio.  She is so happy sewing.

Bragging Rights

Whoo hoo, I have bragging rights for one year.  My Bloomers quilt won the people choice votes.

Totally surprised me.  All the the quilts were so beautiful, never expected mine to win.  My vote was for Margie, and really, really thought she would win.

Now that got me recharged.  So what do I do, go back to Loose Threads today and spend, spend, spend.

I have patterns to put together and ready for print, in addition to the 2 commissioned quilts and must get busy and do a full size quilt of Forever Diamonds. I chose tone on tone fabrics and its going to be awesome, (hopefully).  Also picked up the borders for Stepping Stones I have been working on in between helping Ky.

Oh that reminds me tomorrow is Friday and she will be using my sewing machine, which means I can't.

Received call from Ft Wayne, will be receiving 2 quilts next week to do the long arm stitching.

Aahhh feeling good today.

And the Hibiscus are in bloom, love these

Recharged and Energized

Sometimes I feel like I am in a rut.   Working on my own designs and quilts for October Edgerton Quilt Show.

Business is slow, not many customer quilts coming in recently.  So just keeping busy with my own sewing.

Now today, I am recharged and energized because a customer commissioned me to make 2 quilts from start to finish.

Just look at this beautiful material I get to work with for one of the quilts.

I have already finished the piecing and ready to put rows together.  Using a very simple pattern (secret for now) will show you when its done. Had to take a break. Going back to sewing room shortly.

New fabrics always gets me geared up and anxious to make something pretty from them.

What gets you going and recharged????

I Hate Weeds

This morning I changed my routine.  Instead of heading to the sewing room I decided I would FINALLY weed my flower garden.

I haven't touched it since middle of July.  It was just toooooo darn hot.

Clematis are looking beautiful, and this is before I weeded.  They are even more beautiful now that I pulled the weeds away from them.

There were so many weeds, it was hard to determine which was a weed and which was a good plant.  I stuck with it and got all those devils out of there.  Now, hopefully, the flowers will start to grow and produce more colorful flowers.    I didn't want to take any pictures as the garden looks pretty sad due to my neglect.

Each spring I look forward to planting and waiting for beautiful flowers.  Wayne and I spent a small fortune this year planting perennials rather than annuals, so we don't have the expense next year.

We wanted the yard to look special for the wedding, and it did.  But since then, kept hoping for the garden fairy to show up and keep it looking beautiful.  Sad to say she never showed up.

I always have good intentions to be diligent each year, and each year other things take place and I wind up with so so looking flowers.

I wish I had the energy my daughter does, her flowers are always gorgeous because she tends them every week.

Sometimes you gotta take a break from sewing and quilting and become a Susie homemaker.  Yesterday I canned Bread and Butter Pickles, today gardening.  Yes I'm going back out there and do some more weeding.  I have a shade garden that needs attention and more weeds to be pulled around the decks and front flowers.  Lets hope I can stick to it and finish today.  If not, tomorrow morning, hit it again.

Where is Ky when I need her?  Since she started sewing she has no interest in helping grandma with the weeding.

Dang.

All The Pretty Bloomers

Bloomers Quilts were hung today for viewing and voting at Loose Threads.

I placed my vote. It was hard to chose, but finally made my decision and I decided Margie's kept drawing my eye away from the others, so I voted for hers.  She did a great job piecing and color selection.

They were all beautiful and special in their own way.

Each one was quilted differently, and I am proud to say I quilted 3 of them.