Finishes in the Sun

    In order to photo the quilts, I have not been able to find a good place outside. While my husband was sanding the garage and priming it, I realized I could put some nails in the little room off the garage and use bulldog clips on the quilts and hang them on nails. It is not elegant, but neither am I. I just want good light and room to photo. I did this once, and then my husband pulled the nails out to prime it. So, I pounded in the nails again, and hung two finishes.
    The crumb attic windows quilt is all done. Love using those scraps.

      I needed to make a grandson a new truck quilt. The fleece one I made him, he refuses to give it up even on hot nights making him a sweatball. I previously posted the truck fabric I bought from fabric.com. Since we needed it in a hurry, I used two yards of one fabric on the front and two yards of a different truck fabric on the back. I wanted it wider when he goes in to a twin bed instead of the youth one he is in. I used some yellow fabric that reminds of the color of construction signs and vehicles. I quilted it on the Bailey and used a zig zag pattern from the Inbox Jaunt. It looked terrific, like tire tracks. After a striped binding, I gave it to him yesterday and hope he had a good night's sleep.

Not quite Dancing with Circles

    Way back, I started a quilt for my daughter as a present for her wedding. We picked out the fabric in July last year after the dust from her wedding settled. She chose a pattern from many I showed her and it was kind of Circle Dance. I had one photo that Wanda made and the other from the seller of the templates. I bought the large and small templates because when I made my own, they were too flimsy for cutting the curves- kind of important. The past year, I have cut all the blocks and attempted to sew them in a consistent manner. I tried glue, pins, feet, etc. Finally, I watched a youtube video where there were no pins used, but the top curved piece was held above the bottom bigger piece and fed through. I sewed them on my 301 with a regular foot and the old vintage seam guide screwed in at 1/4".  This finally got the job done.
    My daughter was on her way to drive her dissertation (praise God, finally got approval) to Rochester, NY from Meadville, PA and was stopping home in Buffalo overnight. So, in anticipation, I put all the blocks on the design wall so she could arrange them the way she wanted. It was 12 blocks wide by 14 tall, so it did not fit on my wall and I had to lay the last 2 rows on the floor. When I put them up, I did not like it at all. It was all chop suey. I sent a photo to Wanda and her expert advice had me remove the very light, and find some bigger patterns to put in. I sewed about another 25-30 blocks and added them. 
    When Ria came in, she spent a lot of time rearranging and I sewed some more. All those light blocks I will have to use in a small quilt I think. She had to leave early this morning, so she made a final arrangement. Now I have to number them all and get them down before the cat starts removing them- a job he loves.

First attempt, Yikes, going nowhere

Ria's final choice

Fabric Time!

     For our 38th anniversary, my husband and I went away for a night to Watkins Glen, NY. The State Park is beautiful and took a lot of photos of the gorge. In addition, I managed to hit three quilt stores- Golden Lake in Penn Yann, Oh Susannah in Watkins Glen, and my favorite, Quilter's Corner in Ithaca. I had also just bought some on line fabric. Sort of a fabric fiesta going on here. I also did something I swore I would never do, buy a kit. I hate kits. I don't want to make something someone else already has done. But when I saw the quilt on the wall and the unusual fabrics included, I weakened. I will try and replace some of them so it won't be exact. In Buffalo, we just don't have a variety of fabrics, especially ones I like. I hate to always order online, trying to support LQS that I know struggle to stay open. Feeling kind of fabric glutted at the moment and wondering how I will sew it all. 

From online. Just had to have vintage sewing machines.

For another one block wonder. I think this will be stunning. Repeat 24". From Penn Yann.

Super fun color. Maybe I can be Wanda for a day. From Oh Susannah's

The New American Made Fabric by Clothworks. Want to do their challenge,
but need more colors than Quilter's Corners had.

Guilty of buying a kit. Quilter's Corners.

New Pond and gone

    One of my art teacher friends had a birthday. Terri is one of the most generous people, so I wanted to do something special for her. She loves my fabric collages, so at the last minute, I decided to put one together. I worked from one of my photos, sketch, and used an 8 x 8 piece of batting and Timtex. I layered the batiks on and press them down using spray starch. Then I put a piece of water soluble interfacing over it, a few pins and FMQ all over it with YLI invisible thread to secure everything. Since I was pressed for time, I also went over it with black glide and golden brown glide to accent portions. Usually I melt the watersoluble first, then add the color thread. I soaked the piece, let it dry, and painted an 8 x 8 canvas with greens in streaks (no photo, I was in a rush). I glued the fabric piece to the canvas and added a few silk waterlilies that I glued on. After hammering a sawtooth hanger on, I just had time to wrap it. When I gave it to her yesterday, she really loved it. Now I need to make some bigger ones when I am not so pressed for time.

I took the photo outside and the bottom sky reflection came out lighter than it is. Size is 8" x 8"

Watercolors and Wind

    On Sunday, I showed my watercolors at the one and only outdoor art show I attend, the Riverwalk. It is a very nice show in a great spot along the Niagara River in the City of Tonawanda. It is only one day and it is an easy distance set up. It is also cheap so I don't worry about having to sell anything to recoup major cost. Everything set up nicely and was ready to go. It was a little breezy, but ok. As the day progressed, big gusts came down the river and blew everything all over. It pulled the screws out holding the wires on the frames, knocked over my easels, wrecked frames, and while I was trying to catch a painting, it came apart and all I caught was the glass. Yes, a big cut. When my husband arrived near the end, I was very frazzled explaining the situation to him. Right then, the biggest gust, picked up my big wooden easel straight in the air, turned it sideways and hit me like an arrow in the side, knocking me to the ground. I told my husband, "I'm done". He didn't say anything, but helped me load the work in very gusty conditions. I threw it all in the basement when I got home and have not had the guts to do a post mortem on the paintings.

Easels before launching

The Honda Odyssey in the back is mine. See how close I can get to unload?

The view of the river and Grand Island is exquisite.
The bike path/walking trail goes all along the river here.

Three more to clean

    Another woman from my guild asked if I would clean and service three of her machines. One, a Kenmore, was her first machine. One White was her mom's and another, her sister's. Elizabeth gave me a thread guide and screw so that I could fix the Kenmore, so hopefully it only needs cleaning which I started. It is a pretty black with red pinstriping. The two Whites are that kind of crinkle finish so it will be a challenge cleaning them. I started on the older White with a tooth brush and Greased Lightning. Lo and behold, the machine is green, not gray. If you look carefully at the top in the middle, you can see the color change. Lots of scrubbing needed. This White has a needle centering problem. If I can't figure it out, then there is no point on going further. Good thing she is not in a rush.

The oldest and green paint showing around the middle spool pin

This is where I don't know how to adjust the needle bar to center.
It seems all closed in, unlike a Singer

Inching along progress quilt-wise

   With a lot of quilts going, and on a variety of machines, I am progressing, but slowly.  The Circle Dance quilt for my daughter as a wedding present (last May), has tested my curved piecing and I have tried a variety of methods: pinning (they slip), gluing the beginning and ends (time consuming and still not accurate), the CurveMaster foot (drags on the 301 fooling with the tension), and the regular foot with the old style original equipment screw down guide (done with holding the fabric like with the CurveMaster). I have all the large blocks done and over all the quarter size ones sewn and pressed. I find that Best Press did the best job in ironing. Wish it wasn't so expensive. My goal is to get them all sewn by the end of the week so I can schedule time with my daughter to arrange them the way she wants.

A pile to iron

The large size blocks

The small blocks

    Also, I have sewn a veteran's quilt for my guild that was kitted up. I need a border, so I have to find some patriotic fabric. It was a very easy pattern to sew, but I do not like the shape of the pinwheels. For some reason, I do not like this quilt, but I will do a nice border and quilting.

   My grandson won't stop sleeping with the fleece truck quilt I made him even though he is sweating to death, so I bought some truck fabric, two kinds, front and back and am making a whole cloth quilt with extra light batting. I started to do the FMQ, but marked all the lines so it stays even. Normally, I never mark as I follow the blocks for inspiration, but this is just one piece of fabric.

   In addition, but no photos, I spend hours with other guild members cutting pieces for our raffle quilt which will be paper pieced. We still have cutting to go and bagging up fabric and patterns for each block (100 Blocks). 
   And, I keep organizing fabric and cutting squares.