Stories from the Sewing Room

Why is it that the more I try to simplify my life and commitments, the busier I seem to be? 

We are now officially done with robotics forever. The tournament we hosted went pretty well and people seemed to have fun. Two teams didn't show up. On our own team, we were already down one kid (vacationing out of the country) and another fell ill the day of. That left us with two kids, the ones who typically showed up and did all the work, which seems a fitting way to end our coaching career. Our very last match ever was kind of a train wreck, but the boys had fun and laughed through it, so I will call it a success. They even managed to win one of the individual event trophies. 

Robotics typically takes up 6 - 8 months of each year and has for 12+ years. What will we do with all our free time? My husband wants to volunteer with Habitat. I think that's great, but like I said above, the more things we edit out, the busier our schedules seem to be. We still need to address the porch, the landscaping, finish the barn, get rid of things we're done with, and so on.

We did start setting up the second longarm. We moved the lights my husband made me from my existing machine over to the new/used machine because the lighting isn't as good in that area. This frame is 10 feet, so the lights overlap a bit since they were fabricated for a 12-foot frame. My husband installed his fabric advance bypass system. He 3D-printed me a bracket to hold the laser. The laser cable for Lucey 2 is really long compared to my original and would be in the way. Luckily we found a reasonably priced, shorter version online. We also had to order a Tripp Lite since that didn't come with the used iQ, and also a UPS. I suspect we might be buying an additional surge protector as well. I will need to sew in channels and dividers to hold my beloved SewTites Magnums, which means removing the leaders. That part won't be fun. Hopefully I'll have this thing up and running by next week. I'm looking forward to it.

My to-do list feels somewhat insurmountable right now. It looks something like this:

• make 15 guild items (secret)
• bind one client quilt
• keep up with quilting workload
• figure out what to do with sloper for class/attend live class later today
• tighten elastic in tiered gingham skirt & hand sew shut the weird waistband gaps
• make progress on Forever Neverland quilt
• table runner?
• figure out fair entries (I have two weeks.)
• make progress on race car quilt (I have like 12 days to get this done before I need to do the OMG link up post.)
• mend shorts
• find & apply correct fertilizer in vegetable garden
• weed all three flower gardens--my foot and the rainy weather are slowing me down
• figure out how and where to transplant things I want to keep from the upper garden to prepare for porch repair
• continue to work on business website issues
• make muslin of shorts pattern to see if they fit/if so, make some shorts (Why are all the shorts I see this year so short--like 3" inseams? I'm too old for that.)
• continue working on things needed to set up second longarm & iQ

Besides doing all the tournament prep and resting my foot as much as possible, I made a small amount of progress on my Forever Neverland quilt kit. As you can see, I have three blocks totally sewn. I have the HST sewn for the rest, but still need to cut and trim them prior to assembling the blocks. The prints for these blocks are mostly directional, so I've been trying to make sure to orient things correctly.

I added a few more rows to the knit blanket I shared last week. No picture because it looks just about the same. I now have 5/12 rows done.

I quilted Tina's quilt with Paw Prints. I fully bound this one.

I quilted Kristie's quilt with Boho Boxes.

I quilted Sherri's quilt with small-scale Ginger Snap and will be making and applying bias binding to this quilt.

My hummingbirds are finally starting to come in to the feeder. So is this woodpecker. LOL

May was a challenging month. I didn't think I'd have any progress to share for this month's PHD update, but I pulled off a finish at the last minute.

Linking with Ms. P Designs PHD

I added one project, a Forever Neverland panel quilt. 

I have made no progress on items 4, 6, 7, 8, and 10. 

I added two sets of borders to project 11, the race car quilt. It still needs two more sets of plain borders and a pieced block outer border. 

I did finish item 9, one clothing item. I made the Caprice Skirt from Love Notions. This pattern has lot of options. I made view D, the tiered skirt (center skirt in bottom row).

My fabric ended up being more challenging to work with than I'd anticipated--it is a poly/cotton poplin blend. I keep thinking of Maria making the kids clothes from the curtains in The Sound of Music. 😆 Part way through construction, I actually thought that the skirt wouldn't fit at all and I was not feeling happy about it. My measurements easily fit in the size I made and the finished measurements were adequate, but it looked small. To be sure, I basted the sides and tried it on and it fit. So I continued. 

This skirt has pockets. I found the pocket position and the finished area a bit weird. Love Notions patterns are tested pretty extensively, so maybe I misunderstood or missed something? I don't know. Something isn't right.

There is a gap in the waistband above the pocket on each side. You can stick your finger in there. I'll need to hand-sew these openings shut.

I also added a partial slip using rayon challis and Sew Mary Mac's instructions. I found the challis hard to cut out. It's pretty stretchy. It held a press really well though. 

The skirt fits. It's not the most flattering thing. I need to make the elastic in the waistband smaller; it's way too loose right now. That might help. I think I would look better in a skirt that doesn't have a seam right at my hips. I also wonder if the challis slip is adding to the bulk in my already pudgy tummy area. Maybe it's just my body. LOL. The length feels nice--not too revealing--but I think a shorter skirt might suit my build better. I have a denim jacket and some navy shoes I could add to this outfit. I'm still dealing with the foot issues, so I can only wear my tennis shoes with a carbon fiber plate added in at the moment. 

So what else have I been up to? This arrived. 

My husband found me a used intelliQuilter at an amazing price, so once we get past our last-ever robotics event this weekend (which I think we are woefully unprepared for, particularly since our team is hosting the event), hopefully we can get the second machine and the iQ hooked up and into service. 

I'm slowly making progress on client quilts. I quilted Calder on Terry's Harmony quilt. She left it up to me and I thought the curves and angles played well with the piecing and fabric. 

I quilted Cakewalk on Marilyn's Star Pop (by Quilty Love) quilt. 

         

She picked Midsummer Dream and requested thread to match her dark green fabric on her Knitted Star quilt. Have you ever pieced one of Lo and Behold's patterns? I haven't, but I've quilted several. They look challenging!

Jae decided on In the Swirls for this bargello quilt. 

My daughter has recently picked up crochet after we bought her a Woobles kit in the Jo-Ann's clearance sale. Here is her first project.

She bought a second clearance kit and successfully finished that. 

I sent her several Amazon knock-off kits and those aren't going as well. The thread snips that were included in one of the kits look nice but don't actually cut. The instructions aren't as good as the Woobles kits. Oh well, gives her something to complain about. 

Anyway, she inspired me to get out my knitting bag and start working on this baby blanket again. We all laugh about this project any time it resurfaces because it was originally intended to be a gift for a co-worker's first child. I saw there was no way I'd get it done in time and made a quilt to gift instead. We think the child is eight or nine now! 😂

I did end up going to the orthopedic walk-in clinic to get my foot check out last week. The provider I saw thought it was a repetitive motion injury. I have to wear the carbon fiber insert I mentioned above in my tennis shoe to stabilize my foot (and wear shoes all day). They referred me to podiatry. I took the next available appointment, which is in late August. 😒 I really hope this thing heals up well before that. I'm trying to take it easy, but I am really missing my nightly walks. I walked 7.64 miles less than normal last week. It will be worse this week. 

Linking with Quiltery, My Quilt Infatuation, and Alycia Quilts. 

New month, new goal? 

New to One Monthly Goal?  Welcome!  To join, share a photo of your project plus some words about what you want to accomplish in a blog post or Instagram post and add that photo to the link up.  Return at the end of the month and share your results.  (Results link up opens for the last 7 days of the month.)

What do I want to accomplish this month? What is actually realistic? I have six projects left on my PHD list plus one new start this year that needs to be completed in 2025. I also have to make 15 of the same item for a guild program. While that task must be done soon, it's probably not the best pick for OMG since I can't share it until the end of the year. 😆

Four of my six projects are things that need to be quilted. That seems unlikely to happen this month. That leaves either the race car quilt, the alligator quilt, or the new start. Or I could go completely off the rails and choose something totally new. Hmm. It's tough to stay on task. 

I think I'll pick making any amount of progress on the race car quilt. It needs two straight borders plus a pieced, block-based border in order to finish the top. At a minimum I'd like to get the next border on and start piecing the blocks. My quilt's been measuring 1/2" smaller than the pattern pretty consistently, so I'll need to wait on the fourth border until I get the blocks pieced so that I can adjust if necessary. 

Ideally I will get my guild project done too. You'll just have to take my word on that one. 😏

Now it's your turn to link up. The link up will remain open through June 7.

The One Monthly Goal accomplishment link up will be available on June 24.  Make sure you add a link to this OMG post so others can find the OMG link up from your blog--just copy and paste this link into your post:  

Stories from the Sewing Room One Monthly Goal June Link Up

Last week certainly didn't go to plan. I'd been battling a headache for multiple days and thought I'd kicked it after large amounts of medicine and caffeine on Tuesday. Thursday I wasn't feeling great. I attributed it to the after-effects of the headache, plus we'd eaten celebratory (one night early for end of the school year) Dairy Queen the night before and I am somewhat allergic to milk. 🫣 I was struggling to figure out how to orient my next quilting job on its backing and I was sure it didn't fit, which didn't make sense because she's always meticulous and sends generously-sized backings. More on this down below. The weather was weird and I just felt off. So I decided to take a rest and work on paperwork.

After dinner we decided to try going for our evening walk. I hadn't been out to feed the chickens yet because it had been raining all afternoon and I didn't feel good. Over the weekend my husband and daughter had moved the chicken coop to the other side of the original vegetable garden and created a pass-through for the chickens to move between the coop and the enclosed garden. (Pictures at the bottom of the post.) It's much harder to see the chickens from the house/driveway now unless you walk around the trees. My husband went to give the chickens their scratch and discovered that our sweet little Beaker had died. 😭😭

I couldn't bring myself to go see her after he found her. He buried her out by the one of the pine trees and placed a big stone over it--I keep thinking it's a giant turtle. I had to call my daughter and tell her the bad news. We all were pretty bummed out and I was rather sick. Writing about it isn't making me feel so great.

Friday was my son's first day of summer vacation and my husband had taken the day off. His original plans to do some repairs for someone had fallen through, so he was working on the barn retaining wall. 

I decided to start weeding the lower garden Friday morning so that I could feel in control of something. I made my son help. He mostly took handfuls of weeds I'd pulled to the garden wagon, though he did dig out a few trees. This sweetspire is doing amazing this year. There's also a weed sticking up in it. Guess I missed that one. LOL.

I have done some work. I completed Marsali's quilt that I shared last week. I did the binding on Annie's quilt from last week.

         

I quilted Paula's quilt with Mod Dotz. This is similar to one I did last month. We agreed on adding interfacing to the central panel of fabric, which helped tremendously with the stretchiness. I got to quilt with Dream Puff batting for this version and shipped it back to her Thursday. 

I found out that our post office, which is usually only open in the morning, will be open extended hours (all day) for the next few months while they repair the tornado-damaged one. We have a kid working in ours now and I'm in there enough that he now sort of speaks to me. He had difficulties with the computer system while scanning my packages Thursday. Eh, it happens. Once when I worked there the system would not recognize a certain area in Canada. Anyway, when I checked their status Friday morning, the tracking showed that I'd created labels but hadn't dropped them off yet. Thankfully I had a receipt.

Friday afternoon I decided to take advantage of the extended hours to drop off a few orders. I was hoping the lady from the other PO would be working and could help me discover what had gone wrong. When we got to the PO, the kid was sitting out in his car and there was a sign taped to the PO door stating that the internet was down. He did go inside to scan my packages and said that the tracking wouldn't update until the PO got their internet restored. Great. I tried. Luckily most of the packages had their tracking updated Saturday morning once they were scanned in Indianapolis. 

Saturday morning I woke up with extreme pain in my foot and I couldn't bear weight on it. I'm guessing I strained it by standing on the steep incline in the garden while weeding. I took some anti-inflammatory and sat around. By Saturday afternoon I was feeling really behind at work and finally convinced my son to help me figure out how the quilt went on the backing. (I'd been asking the men for help, to no avail, for several days.) We walked downstairs, I laid it out, and he's like, what's wrong with it? I looked at it and it fit just fine. 🤦🏻‍♀️ We are wondering just how out of it I was on Thursday.

Here is Cindy's quilt, complete with a totally adequate backing, quilted with Good Vibrations. Good Vibrations is one of those patterns that seems easy and straight-forward. It isn't. It's kinda a pain in the butt. Many people can't stitch it in both directions without their thread breaking. I don't have issues with my thread breaking, but I do think that the stitching looks different enough that I generally only stitch it from left to right, one single line at a time. It takes FOREVER. But I want to return something to the client that looks nice. 

This was a pretty big quilt, so I knew it was going to be a really long stitch out time. I worked on the borders to my race car quilt in minute and a half chunks while Good Vibrations was stitching or waiting for the carriage to move back to the left side. Now I have two sets of borders on! It needs two more sets of inner borders and a border of blocks that aren't pieced yet.

I was also able to get a skirt cut out, but haven't had a chance to sew it yet. I thought the cotton/poly blend would be easy to work with, however, it wasn't. I couldn't cut on the fold because the fabric is slippery and wouldn't stay lined up. So I did every single piece individually (except the pockets, 'cause who's gonna see those?). I'm hoping to get it sewn soon. Another update in the clothing area is that my Cashmerette guide verified that I didn't need any vertical adjustments to my sloper, so I didn't have to do anything for last week's class. I'm working through the material for this week--shoulders.

I also drew up my vexing FBF block in EQ8 and tried some different color combos. I'm not sure I found the solution. I think I'm leaning toward the upper left version, or maybe the one next to it. The original color way is the lone block on the right.

Here are the blocks I've completed so far.

Returning to quilting, Cindy brought a second, coordinating quilt that she wanted Good Vibrations on. This was Tuesday's project. It is a smaller quilt than the first, so I had under a minute for each line. I stood on my still-painful foot and nursed both along.

Yesterday my son started his summer SEAP internship. It's going to be weird being by myself all summer for the first time in over 20 years. Today he's already taking a day off and going on a school trip to an amusement park--a reward for earning Panther Plus awards. These are sort of like student of the month, but only given once a trimester. He received three his freshman year, none last year, and two this year. I'm sure he'll have fun. 

Here are the pictures of the coop/old garden. My husband thought the chickens would like going up in the tanks and rooting around, but they don't. They run around on the ground a bit and try to drink from one of the overflow spigots. Chickens are weird. 

We have bluebirds in the nesting box on the end of the old garden. 

The clematis are putting on a good show right now. 

I know that was even longer than normal. If you made it down here, thanks.

Linking with Quiltery, My Quilt Infatuation, and Alycia Quilts.