Serendipity Quilting

You would think it wouldn’t be that hard with 17 years quilting experience….. I am blaming my brain fades of the last week on the flu.  That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.  Any how… I digressed again didn’t I…. you are used to it aren’t you?!!!  A friend gave me this quilt to quilt with the hopes that I could quilt it with a rose similar to what was in the fabric.

I am told this is a Mark Lipinski fabric and that she made it in a mystery workshop that she took with him sometime in the last year.  Sounds like fun to me!  As you can tell, it’s a more modern/contemporary rose than you see in most stencils and pantographs.  Not to mention I hate doing pantographs.  She wanted an all over.  So after staring at it for longer than I am going to admit….. I woke up this morning with two brain cells to rub together.  Go me!  I took a clear acrylic board out and traced the rose and then brought it in and played on a white board.  Here they are stacked against each other.

Yup, that looks like it could go fast enough to cover a king sized quilt.  With the heat and my recovery rate…. I got through two rows this morning… not very speedy….

Hopefully next week I’ll be done.  Crossing my fingers and hoping no one else gets sick….

Jan

Yesterday morning I was so excited.  Last night’s guild project was a batik table runner.  I unearthed my Juki sewing machine and it still runs perfectly. Check!  Found all my batiks.  Check!  Abused the kitchen island. Check!  I’m not kidding… this end is the cutting end…..

This end is the pressing end…..

Love that island!!!  Then I proceeded to cut backing, batting and strips.  Isn’t it looking festive?

The dark brown backing/binding will tone it down to just right.  After I did all that, I ran to Barnsdall and helped for a couple of hours on quilts of valor.  I knew not all cylinders were firing.  I kept making silly mistakes so I came on home and ate.  Unfortunately by the time hubby made it home I was totally not functioning.  So now I have this table runner project cut out with the vague understanding that it was a foundation piecing thing which I could probably wing….. but the backing is supposed to wrap around and become the binding too…. which I have never done….. anyone want to lay odds on how long it stays packed in a bag while I pretend I don’t see it?!!

Jan

I have to say setting up a studio here has been a challenge of space. We tried to buy a bigger house, but even the larger homes did not have a room big enough for a 14 foot table. We thought about building, but that hasn’t worked out either. So we finally just decided to split the garage for the moment. Our off site storage locker runneth over and will probably have to be moved to a larger one before all is said and done. I will say working in the garage has some advantages. I know several award winning nationally known quilters do this so why not. First advantage…. when it is time to assemble table… just roll it out to the front yard….

Yes, we did get some strange looks…. same with when I had it on the driveway working on hydraulics. The neighbors are definitely wondering what is up….. The other advantage would be I can open the door, get great sunlight and watch the princess play while I quilt so I don’t have that mind numbing time of mom, watch me hula hoop for three more hours. Yes, she is cute, but if you are a parental unit, you know what I mean. It is a win win.

The down sides are I needed storage. No built in storage at all and because I am sharing the space, I needed storage for all my longarm toys that would fit under the table and not take up any more floor space. So I thought it might be helpful to someone else to see what I have done so far. First, I did scrub the heck out of the floor, but I will be getting some floor pads so just ignore the floors. Get your gasps out of the way because quilts will not be hitting that floor. Even if they did, I have scrubbed it on my hands and knees, vaporized it, and more than I care to share. You could eat off it even though it doesn’t look like it. But I probably won’t eat off of it. You get the idea. I digressed didn’t I?!

First up, I found this handy little set of deep drawers on sale.

It is wonderful for all my spare parts, my fusible rolls, my iron even fits!!

Awesome! That thing will stop falling off the closest shelf onto my toes! OK… it hasn’t hit my toes… but it has come darn close. A new home for it is a very good thing.

Next up this little ordinary rolling cart

It has my smaller threads… for the ordinary sewing machine… tape measures, marking stuff, tons of little doo dads.

Next up I hauled home the next two pieces.

Yes, it is a manly man type of tool box for the garage…. but mine holds my bobbin winder, base plate, some of my rulers etc. Too bad they don’t make these in pink….

Here’s the top part of it…. which is sitting around looking for a home at the moment. That top hinges up and holds my clamps, pins, and all the larger bulkier things. The drawers have more of my rulers, templates, marking tools, rotary cutters, batting scissors etc. It locks too to keep those pesky perps from using my sharp instruments on anything but fabric….. you can never be too careful….

Now I am off to buy a tote box of some sort for my batting and something to store my books in and my work here is done. I have found all my toys. Life is good!

Jan