crazy good stuff

My #2 daughter entered her first tennis tournament this weekend and won the whole thing! It was so much fun to go back to tennis tournaments again. I used to spend every weekend with my older daughter, driving for hours to take her to tournaments and for the past year while she has been in college, my weekends have been free. While I enjoyed the free time and the cleaner house, I did miss the competition and getting to watch my child play a sport she loves.

It was really fun watching this first tournament and watching my daughter do so well. She has been playing tennis and taking lessons for only a few months. She took lessons when she was younger, but never really played like her older sister, so this was a really big win for her. I was so proud!

On the quilting front, I have been working as well. I have a lot of finished quilts to show, but that will be a later post.

These are the quilts I have quilted. These were done at the quilt day two weeks ago.

And look how cute this backing fabric is. All three of these quilts have this backing fabric. I got it several years ago for $1 a yard at WalMart on clearance. I couldn't figure out how to use it and am glad I had saved it.

You would think that as I work thorough these quilts and use up about 1 1/2 yards of backing fabric for each one, the pile of fabric would be going down, but I can't see a dent just yet.

heating up

Summer is finally here and the temps are getting over 100 every day now. At least for the last 2 days. What better thing to do than stay inside and quilt?

Here's what I've been up to.

My friend Carla is coming over tomorrow to drop off 28 quilt tops from last week's quilt day and to pick up all of the quilts I have quilted to take to her sister to bind. She is going camping for a while and I will have some time to play catch up with these quilt tops while she is gone

Then, in a couple of weeks, we will trade again.

I have been working like crazy these couple of days trying to get as many quilts done as I can for her to take. I have about 4 quilts left that have backs picked out and about 10 quilts that need backings picked. I will have to take some time tomorrow when the other quilts get here to sort through and match backings. That makes the whole quilting go faster, when I don't have to think :)

I also discovered a new love today. Coats and Clark 70 wt bobbin thread. It is 100% polyester thread and I did a whole quilt with just one bobbin. It normally takes me 2 1/2 bobbins to do a quilt and not having to change bobbins saves me about 10 minutes per quilt. So, now I can do a quilt in under 20 minutes. I only bought one spool of black so tomorrow I will go back to JoAnn's and buy some more. They only had black and white thread so I will have to see what is available online to buy.

I wasn't too sure if the polyester bobbin thread would be ok with the cotton top thread so I called my local quilt shop that does machine quilting and the lady says she uses that combination all of the time. She said the only thing to worry about is getting the tension right since the weights of the thread are so different. The top thread is 40 weight and the bobbin thread is 70 weight. Big difference and that is why you can get so much more thread on a bobbin. But, I didn't have any tension problems. In fact, my tension was actually better with the two quilts I did with this thread. So, now I have a faster way of getting quilts done that will be better in the long run.

The thread is normally $7.99 a spool for 1800 yards, but with the 50% coupons that JoAnn's is always having I figure $4 for a spool of thread that will make my life easier, I can't go wrong. Too bad it doesn't come in other colors :)

day 40

Yes, it has been 40 days of my vacation so far. I have 32 days left before having to go back to work. The rest of the summer is going to go fast. I have a mini vacation planned for 3 weeks from tomorrow to take my daughter back to school and to visit my parents. Every day counts when you have a huge goal of 150 quilts to get finished up. I am not good at keeping track of numbers so I'm glad I have this blog to do that for me. I love being able to look back at the pictures and see just how far I've come with my quilting skills too.

Here are three quilts I did yesterday and one so far from today. I say so far, because I really need to get a bunch of quilts done before Saturday when my friend Carla is going to take all of the quilts I have quilted to her sister to bind for me. Hooray! I now have a binding buddy to finish up these quilts so I can focus on the quilting. This will make the quilting go so much faster.

This quilt today really gave me troubles. The thread broke about 20 times. At first, I thought it was the thread. I started using YLI, which I have used before, but not recently. I really love Signature thread. It comes on cones and is very inexpensive. As I am quilting this summer, I am making a list of all of the colors I would have liked to have for each of the quilts. I have quite the list going so for Christmas I can order lots more colors. Because I don't have every color there is, I go with what I do have and the quilts look just fine. I find the color I use the most is called Baguette. It is an off white/tan color and I plan to order a couple of those next year.

Back to this quilt. So, I noticed that every time I went over the thin stripe, the thread would break. The thin stripes have some gold in them, but it isn't glittery so I wasn't sure if that was it the fabric or the thread. So, I switched thread back to the Signature. The thread kept breaking every time it went over the thin strips. So, I switched needles and the thread stopped breaking.

Grrr. Now, why didn't I just change the needle in the first place? I hope I remember this the next time I have thread breaking troubles. And I'm going to try the YLI again, just to see if it works this time because I have two giant spools of that thread too.

Hoping to get one more quilt quilted tonight to add to the stack of quilts :)

Oh, and I bought a sewing machine today for $30. It is an older model Kenmore that the owner kept clean as a whistle. It sews so nicely and so quietly. I have it set up in the kitchen so that I can get my kids started sewing quilt tops together for me too. I tried it out today on some flannel strips that I had and put together two quilt tops with no tension troubles or skipped stitches.

John 14:6: Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

want to see the quilts?

Of course you do!

I have 14 of them here with me. The others are still with Carla and her sister, who took some home after everyone left to finish binding them.

These quilts were made by Carla

Blue coins

No, you aren't seeing double, there are two idential quilts, both made with the easy quilt pattern to the left side bar here on the blog. I love the colors on these quilts.

red coins

9 fat quarters

This is a stack and whack quilt

brown coins

this one is double sided and you get two quilts in one!

3 1/2 inch scrappy strips

And here are the finishes for me:

2 of the 63 squares quilts, which when I counted again, one turns out to be 70 squares. Good thing I'm not a math teacher :)

Bento Blocks

Purple bows stripie

Pink Barbie love

quilt day

Wow, quilt day was so much fun. I told my pastor's wife that I think that must be what heaven is like. Sitting around with a whole house full of very fun women, laughing and sewing and eating. What could be better? She sent me a picture of the view from her daughter's house window. It looks out over the ocean. She was away this weekend, visiting with her daughters and working at a homeless mission in Los Angeles. We had a little discussion about how heaven could be different for each of us.

There were 27 women at quilt day and we got a lot done.

Here's part of the note from Carla after the day.

What did we accomplish?

A great time, a great deed, and a great deal!

27 people came to help

20 quilts completed

13 quilt tops completed

4 tops quilted

yards and yards....and yards... of strips ready for quilt tops and bindings

Carla had everything organized. One lady was cutting fabric and many women were sewing. Carla has a mangle (giant rolling ironing thingy) and Carla's mom was in charge of that. She would sit and iron the strips and then send them back to the sew-ers who would then sew them again. Some were sewing binding strips, which then got sewn onto the quilts I brought. Carla also had some quilts ready to be bound.

There were ladies trimming the quilts. These ladies were hiding out on the stairs because the house was so full...and Carla has a huge house!

There were ladies working on the quilting machine and laughing as they worked. They had so much fun trying to follow the pantograph and running out of bobbin thread and not realizing it until the end of the row.

And finally, here is the quilt I did yesterday. I tried a new pattern on the quilting. It was going along great, until I realized that the back fabric had folded over on me and I had to rip out three rows of quilting along the side edge. FRUSTRATING. But, once I got that fixed, the quilting was super easy and quick. Now, I have another quilting pattern under my belt that looks good. Another quilt added to the pile for next time. Speaking of next time...

August 16

10am-5pm

Let me know if you want to come

Vacaville, Ca

You will have a lot of fun!

That is my 2nd to the last day before I have to go back to work :( so it will be a great day to catch up if I am behind on my goal for the summer. Today is day 39 of vacation...more than half way done :( :(

Big Day Today

Today my friend Carla is having a quilt day for the orphanage in Kazakhstan. She has invited everyone she knows and 25 people have said they are coming to help make quilts. I'm going after church to help out and see what she needs me to do. Yesterday I took over all of the quilts that needed trimming and binding and she said that the ladies would be happy to put the bindings on for me today. She has jobs for people who sew, who can cut fabric, who can iron and even those who have two left hands! I took my bobbin winder over and my new rotary blade sharpener, which actually works. I was surprised. I got it at JoAnn's with my 40% coupon and it works on the 45mm blades. You just put the blade in, give it a couple of twists in the little contraption and the blade is as good as new. Not bad for about $8.

I'm not quite sure what to expect from the day today. I took over about 25 quilts that needed bindings and I know Carla had about 10 that I saw and stacks of fabric waiting to be cut. I also took a bunch of fabric I picked up at a garage sale and a bunch of quilt kits I had cut earlier.

I just couldn't imagine having 25 ladies over to my house to sew. Where would I put them all?

I will post pictures later today or tomorrow if I'm too tired.

Lest you think I've been sitting around doing nothing these past two days...here's proof I've been busy as usual. Friday I had to drive my daughter to a retreat for a scholarship she was awarded last year. Every other year, the whole group of scholars goes away somewhere on a retreat. Social networking or something like that. They are up in Squaw Valley, Ca having the best time. I texted her saying I was having McDonald's for dinner, what are you having? Her answer...sirloin! Of course. She worked very hard to earn that scholarship. The sad thing is the scholarship runs out in 2015 and none of my other children will have a chance to apply for it. Oh, well, maybe something better will come along for them.

I've also been quilting away and working in the backyard. I've been moving steer manure and bark and fixing up the planting beds, trimming the iris back and putting in a soaker hose watering system to the thirsty plants. Every time I go out in the backyard they thank me with their happy flowers. The hard work is paying off. Slowly we are taking over the backyard and making it a nice place to sit in the evening or play tennis. I am getting beat by my almost 14 year old now. I used to be able to beat her easily. I guess that is a good thing because she is going to be playing on the high school tennis team starting next month.

And finally a gorgeous picture of the sunset last night. It even rained yesterday. Just a tiny sprinkle, but there was water falling from the sky in California in July. It was crazy!

Rom 5:8: But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

yesterday and today

Yesterday I got one quilt quilted and today two so far. I'm on a Baptist Fan kick and have been enjoying the quickness of this quilting pattern. Today, while waiting for my daughter at a tennis lesson, I was looking through a quilting book and came up with an idea based on the Baptist fan and tried it out on the 2nd quilt of the day.

It is sort of like a flower, but just goes across the quilt, like the Baptist fan. Not sure if you can see the stitching on the last quilt here, but it was quick and easy to do and looks nice as well.

This is the same quilt, with flash used. Shows the colors of the quilt better, but doesn't show the quilting much

I am happy with my quilting skills progress. Each quilt is getting a little better and I'm still learning something with each quilt. My great system of trimming the quilts as soon as they were quilted and then adding them to the 'needs to be bound pile' has quickly fallen by the wayside. I now have found a new place to stash the 'quilts needing to be trimmed' pile and just go along to the next quilt.

My friend Carla is having a work day this Sunday so I hope to take a bunch of quilts that need binding and get them finished up. Her last work day, she got about 50 quilts done with her family for Thanksgiving, so I have no idea how many she will get done this weekend. This woman is a crazy workhorse! And I love her for it. If anyone lives close enough to Vacaville, Ca and wants to help out, let me know and I will give you all of the information. Carla has plenty of room for more helpers and is even providing lunch!

Here is another quilt from Kathy in Florida. She sent this along to join the other quilts headed to Kazakhstan. The back has 'frog skin' and is bright green and yellow. I know a little boy will love this one. (My oldest daughter would love this quilt--she loves frogs) When she was in 7th grade, she had a frog fabric bandana that she wore to school one time. The principal told her she couldn't wear it because it was a gang symbol. Ever since then, we have teased her about being in the 'frog gang'.

the monster is finished

As I worked on the quilt for my daughter, I kept calling it the monster, because it was just so big. I had never made a quilt this big and I'm not sure I will make one this big again all by myself. It just barely fit on my quilting frame. I was worried that the end of the quilting would be all squished up, but that wasn't the trouble. The biggest trouble was getting the machine out from under the quilt to change the bobbin, which I had to do a lot! I also had troubles at the beginning and ending of the quilt because the leader fabric isn't as wide as the bars on the quilt. Why should they be, when the machine sits at the end of the bars? So, I had to add just a piece for loading the quilt and it didn't hold the quilt tight at first. With some batting shoved here and there to tighten up the quilt as I worked and my hand pushed along the quilt as I went along, things turned out very well.

The best part is it is finished and on my daughter's bed and now she can sleep warmly, for the next month, until she goes back to school. We leave in a month to drive her car across the country so she can have it at school. I'm only going half way, to Colorado, where my parents live. Her room mate will fly out to meet her there, then they will drive to Kansas to stay for a week or so and then continue on to Ohio. Road Trip! Yeah, I'm having a heart attack, but you have to let them grow up sometime I guess.

John 10:10: The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

Happy Birthday

My big guy turns 12 today. We have a mother/son birthday breakfast at IHOP planned this morning, then his friend comes over and bowling for after lunch. How can it be 12 years already?

Two quilts were bound yesterday and that brings my total to 30 for the summer. Yesterday was day 30 of vacation, so I am right on track :) Yipee.

what season is it?

I'm sitting here is a sweatshirt. Yeah, freezing to death. The outside temp is 60 degrees, with a wind of about 30 mph so it feels a lot colder. We went to a BBQ at the pastor's house today. He has a pool and the kids braved the cool temps to swim. It only got into the low 80's.

Can someone remind me which season we are in? I thought it was supposed to be summer...

I took 8 quilts to church this morning and bound 2 more. I will post pictures tomorrow. I have a tummy ache from eating too much food. It's a good thing I don't go to many parties, or I would be 100 pounds heavier.