The heat is on!!

 Plans today included finishing cleaning up the sewing and quilting rooms (front living room and dining room for normal people!) but it's supposed to be 103 outside.  The buckets of fabric need to go out to the shed and my shoulder is killing me again.  It has to be from lifting and moving all the heavy buckets in the shed so I'm trying to not do as much today.  Yeah, like that's going to happen.  I hate sitting around when there are things to be done and quilts to be made!  So, I'm stacking up buckets and hoping when my son wakes up, he will take pity on me and move the buckets tonight when it gets cooler.

 I've got to take a trip to the post office as well and that will happen soon too.  I'm working through the quilts and backing quickly.  It's nice to be able to go to the stack and pull a quilt and have the backing ready to go as well.  Then, once the quilt is done, I just go to the super size 9 patches and see what else I can get done to finish off the backing fabric.  One more for this long piece of backing.  Then, I will have to start sewing some of the bigger backing pieces together for the bigger quilts.  That will slow me down a bit.  I had better hurry before my friend's mom finishes up her vacation.  Her brother is vising now and they are traveling all over California.  Once she is back to sewing, I will be buried in quilt tops again!  I can almost see the end of the pile.  Of course when I run out, Carla has a big pile at her house, so there really is no end in sight.

I have to share this verse from the Bible that has me thinking.  I'm going through something here lately and had to get this out of my head and onto 'paper'.  Not that it will change things around here, but it will make me feel better anyways :)

1 John 3:18New International Version (NIV)

18 Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.

To me, love has always been an action verb.  My family growing up never used the words, I love you, but love was always shown.  I always felt loved and knew that I was safe and loved.  Too many times people throw around the word love, but never actually know what it means.  It's important to me to actually 'do' love and not just say it, especially to my own family.  For me, quilts are a tangible way of giving love to another person.  They are a way of taking time, fabric and some effort and turning that into something another person can hold onto when they are scared or hurting.

Telling someone you care about them, but then not actually doing something for them, when you have the ability to make a difference, doesn't make sense to me.  Let me show you through my actions that I love you, rather than say it a thousand times.

a clean shed

 The job isn't quite finished yet, but it's so close I'm celebrating!  All the buckets are labeled and sorted.  There are 8 buckets of knits and 6 of flannel.  4 buckets of scraps and 2 of bigger pieces on the back and 2 of Christmas.  1 bucket of knitting needles.  Looks like I need to start teaching kids how to knit!

I found another bucket of fleece and then more buckets of big and small pieces of cotton here.  Yeah, I have fabric, but at least it is organized and ready to be used.  I have a plan now and feel more in control of what I need to do to get through all of this.  Believe it or not, I will actually work through all of this in about 2 years at the rate my group works.

The trouble is, I get about this much every two years or so.  That's why it never seems to get any less.  Can you say 'BLESSED'?  My daughter might have another word for it. :)  But I'm happy to receive fabric that others don't know what to do with and make it into quilts and give them away.  I love seeing all of the different prints and patterns and designs and get a kick out of some of them, thinking what was the designer thinking when he/she came up with that and what was the person thinking when they purchased it?

Now, to finish in the sewing and quilting rooms and get a few more buckets out in the shed.  I have one more wall that has room for more buckets and I have quite a few empty buckets ready for some more fabric.  I have some fabric in the garage that needs sorting.  It would be nice to have all of the fabric in one spot so I can go out, dig out a bucket and work through it.  Right now, it is in several locations and I have a hard time remembering where that one special piece is when I need it.

I'm so happy the weather is cooperating and it has been cool enough to get out there and get some work done this week.  It got a little hot this afternoon, but in the morning and evening the wind picks up and cools things off and I can get lots done.  During the hot part of the day, I have time for quilting.  What a perfect summer vacation.

my friend Judy

 My friend Judy came over on Wednesday I believe and helped me sort through much of the recently donated fabric I had on my kitchen table.  I like learning from veteran quilters because each one is so different.  She told me that if I had something better to do, I could go off and do it while she sorted and organized, but I wanted to learn her style so she explained how she was sorting.  She sorted by style of fabric, rather than size or color.  I've never tried it that way.

 Once she was done sorting into about 8 piles, she helped me match every quilt top I have waiting with backing fabric.  We had one quilt top that was very strange.  I've had it for a couple of years because the fabrics were 'interesting' to say the least.  I just couldn't find anything that would go with it.  We searched through all of the new fabrics and nothing matched.  We dug through all of my old fabrics and there was nothing.

I was about to give up and put it back in the 'never to be quilted' pile by itself and finally found a blue that actually matched.  That poor quilt top will actually be quilted and finished soon.

If I had to guess, I'd say there about 40 quilts that are waiting to be done.  At the rate I'm going, they will be finished by the end of the month.  That's crazy!  Of course, that doesn't count those super size 9 patches that have been waiting for about 3 years.  I sneak those in when I have extra backing fabric that needs finishing off. And speaking of extra backing fabric, I'm getting really good at adding extra backing fabric on when I run out mid quilt.  I know I should be better at measuring the backing fabric before loading the quilt top on, but because I've messed up so many times, I can now just add an extra piece on and keep on going.  Maybe I will do a tutorial on how I do it the next time I have to add a piece.  The first quilt at the top of the page needed about 18 inches added to the backing fabric and I had it added on in about 2 minutes.  No tears were shed either this time :)

Shoulder acting up again

 Not sure if it's all the crocheting I've been doing lately or the extra lifting and moving of heavy buckets and boxes, but my right shoulder has been really hurting me for a couple of weeks.  Today is especially bad.  I'm going to have to look up some exercises to strengthen it because this is just unacceptable.  I have too many things that require the use of my right arm.

 Yesterday and the day before my older son was really sick.  Not sure if it is the stomach flu or food poisoning.  No fever, but it's still hanging on, so if it's food poisoning, it's really bad.  He's even missing work today.

 I got a lot of cleaning done yesterday because his girlfriend came over to comfort him.  She's pretty brave for wanting to hang out with him when he was at his worst.

 Plans today include finishing the shed and moving the rest of the excess fabric out there.  But plans are subject to change.  Hopefully several quilts will get done and a box of quilts will get mailed to Margaret's Hope Chest.  I'd also like to make a couple of pillowcases made.  My local quilt shop is collecting them for veterans.

How to make a Pillowcase- Burrito/Sausage/Roll Up method

I do believe I will make a pillowcase or 12 to try and use up some of the excess fabric I have around here.  My daughter told me about a dream she just had.  She said that I was killed by an airplane wheel as it was landing.  She said she went to my funeral and was really sad, but then came home and was upset by all the fabric in the house.  I guess my fabric obsession has an effect on the rest of the family.



Time to make a big dent on the fabric!

That troublesome quilt

Here's the quilt that caused all the problems.  My machine just did not like the blue fabric.  The quilt guild used it for backing fabric as well.  Changing out the needle didn't solve the problem but did help a little.  What finally fixed the trouble was changing out the thread.  Don't tell the quilt police, but I found a spool of Coats and Clark hand quilting thread.  I only had the one spool and didn't really think it would work on the machine, but it did and made it almost all the way through the whole quilt.  I ran out during the last row and then the backing fabric was switched to a row of red and the machine didn't mind the other thread I had to use.  You can't tell by looking at the quilt that I switched thread either.  I'm happy to have this quilt done and will be giving it back to either Carla or Judy to return to the guild ladies.  I haven't been a member of the guild for several years.  I just can't find the time to go to the meetings.  They are on Tuesday mornings or once a month on Wednesday nights.  By the time Wednesday evening comes around I'm just too tired to go back out again.  Wednesdays are my meeting days at work after school and I get home around 4:30.  I have no idea how people with real jobs do it.

My daughter is really funny.  She started an internship this summer on Monday.  She's worked 4 whole days so far.  She has 8 more weeks to go and is already looking forward to the end of the summer.  She is working in the finance department of a credit union.  She gets done with the work for the day by about 10am.  She starts at 8:30.  She says she is getting really good at staring at her computer and counting her split ends.  She doesn't want to seem pesty and ask for more work, but she wonders if her boss thinks she is really lame or really great because she finishes her work so quickly.  I told her just to ask for more things to do when she submits her work each day.  Since her boss isn't getting the hint I've offered some suggestions on how to ask for more work without seeming like she is being too pushy.  It makes for a very long day when you just have to sit and do nothing all day waiting for someone to tell you what to do.

I am almost done cleaning out the shed and organizing the sewing room.  Hopefully if things go as planned, the shed will be done tomorrow and then I can finish up the sewing and quilting rooms over the next couple of days.

It's nice to be back to quilting again.  Only 40 days of vacation left.  It would be nice to get at least 100 more quilts done.

I found them

 See how small this box of 100 needles is?  No wonder I couldn't find them!

They were in this tray of other sewing stuff in a box of fabric, under the quilting machine.  I must have put it there temporarily when I needed the room on the quilting frame for a big quilt.  Then, the box got moved and more fabric got piled on top of the tray.  Totally logical, but oh, so frustrating.

I've changed the needle and now the quilt goes 24 inches before the thread breaks.  Progress!

This quilt is just going to take a lot of babysitting today to get done.  That's ok because I have a lot of work to get done in the quilting room.  More fabric to sort through and cut.  Sounds like the thread broke again.   I was really hoping the needle would fix the problem completely and I could get this quilt done quickly.  Oh, well.  It will look good when it does finally get done and next time I WILL change out the backing fabric for something that my machine does like better.  I know other machines are ok with that backing fabric because I was on the Facebook page of one of the local quilt shops and saw a very similar quilt on one of their machines being quilted.  They didn't complain about the quilt or having troubles.  Of course, they have a $30,000 machine too which can quilt through practically anything :)

I was just looking for those needles

And no, I didn't find them!

This morning I had plans to clean out the shed and move the buckets back in.  But I wanted to make one more attempt at looking for those sewing machine needles I bought.  They have to be here somewhere.  I thought they might be by my sewing machine.  So, I started looking on the floor, thinking that gravity might have helped to hide them.  I picked up a book and it was covered in mold.  What?  I picked up another and a magazine and a couple other things that were also covered in mold and then touched the floor back in the corner and the whole carpet was covered in mold.

A couple of weeks ago when I was in Colorado, the fridge leaked and filled the kitchen with water.  The kitchen is on the other side of the wall and I'm guessing it either leaked through the wall or around the corner.  Only this back corner was moldy and wet so I'm guessing it came through the wall or under the baseboard.

I had the great idea of adding bleach to the carpet cleaner.  I've done it before, but this time it took most of the color out of the carpet.  Oops, guess I added a bit too much.  Good thing it isn't in the middle of the room or I'd have to do it to the whole carpet and have a strange color.  Oh well, one day we will replace the carpet in the whole house.  It's getting pretty old and icky.

So, since I had to move some things around anyways, I decided it was time to change things up and move things out and really do some deep cleaning.  I moved a couple more thread racks to the wall and am thinking I need a couple more to fill in the empty space.  I have about 50 more spools of thread.  Of course, they can always stay in a box until I need them, but I do like looking at them hanging on the wall and this is empty space that isn't being used.  I moved my embroidery machine over next to my sewing machine so I can have them both going at the same time.  Before it was right next to the entry way to the room and wasn't really convenient.  My sewing room is really the dining room and there isn't a door.  It's a big open room with only two walls and a half wall so there's no closing it off and it's the first thing you see when you open the front door.  It really was way past due for a makeover, so I guess the flood and mold was a blessing in disguise.

I started sorting the buckets of fabric that were in there and got three of scraps that need more sorting and about 10 of bigger pieces that are either backing or bigger pieces for quilt tops.  I found some long lost projects that will get attention this summer including a quilt for my daughter and one for my son's girlfriend that I bought at least 3 years ago.  Bad mom.  I guess I need to pay some attention to my family.  This was a friendly little reminder they are important too.

Maybe tomorrow I can get to the shed and finish vacuuming it out and put the rest of the buckets back.  I need to get the new buckets out of the house and into the shed.  I still didn't find those quilting machine needles and the new ones haven't come in the mail yet.  Good thing I have my old quilting machine still.  Hopefully I will get some quilting time in tomorrow.  I have a quilt on the robotic machine that is giving me fits.  I knew it would.  The last one like it did.  It is a Quilt of Valor from the guild and the machine does not like the backing fabric they use.  It is a dense fabric and the thread keeps breaking.  I'm hoping with a new needle, the problem will be less.  It will stitch about 6 inches and then the thread breaks.  I've tried 6 different threads and loosened up the quilt tension already.  I've loosened up the thread tension too and cleaned the machine.  I've even tried babysitting the thread to make sure it doesn't pull as it goes through the machine so I know it is that backing fabric.  I should have just pulled a different backing fabric for the quilt top.  I don't think they would have minded (or remembered).  They gave me the quilt about 3 months ago to quilt for them and have probably forgotten I still have it!  I've just been dreading quilting it for so long.  Don't ask me why I picked yesterday to start quilting it when I knew I couldn't find those needles.  Silly me!

awesome quilt day

 Today's focus was on using up the fleece I've accumulated over the last 4-5 years.

 Several students showed up and after working for about an hour, took a snack break and got right back to work.

 One was super awesome at cutting fleece rag squares with the Accuquilt Studio 8 1/2 inch Rag Die.  We had to do some alterations on the Rag Die.  The threads had gotten so jammed in there that it stopped cutting.  I had her rip out the foam from each of the fringe pieces.  Then she had to dig out all the little strings that were stuck deep in the grooves.

 It took about 2 hours of hard work to get the die working again.  I will be writing to Accuquilt to talk about the design flaw.  It just doesn't work the way it is supposed to because too many bits of fabric get stuck and it stops working after about 5 cuts.

 Most of the kids worked on big fleece blankets.  My son used the electric scissors because he's left handed (and because he's a guy and likes power tools!) to cut the fringe and then instead of tying, you cut a very small hole in the top middle of each fringe.  Then, you tuck the fringe through the tiny hole.  The two sides of the blanket hold together even through many washings.

 I think the kids got 8 or 9 blankets done in the 3 hours they worked.  The ladies also got quite a few quilt tops put together.  That's a great thing because I'm starting to run low on quilt tops.  With summer, it's nice to have a lot to choose from.

 Here's Betty holding up one of the fleece rag quilts.  What's great about these is you don't have to wash them.  They are finished and ready to go once you have sewn them together.  I would say this took her under 2 hours to complete.  What a great way to use up leftover pieces of fleece

quilt day today

 A few minutes of quite before the excitement starts to get some quilting done.  This little frog quilt has been waiting for YEARS before taking 10 minutes to quilt.  It will be an incubator quilt and will make a parent happy while waiting for their little one to get healthy enough to come home from the hospital.  It doesn't take much time or fabric to make a difference in the life of  a hurting family.  You could even quilt one of these little guys on your sit down machine.  Almost every hospital that delivers babies has a NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) and would love to have a stash of these little (about 24 inch size) baby blankets to help decorate the nursery with.  Even if you don't have a Binky Patrol chapter near you, you can still make a difference and make up some of these little cuties and drop them off with the volunteer desk at your local hospital.  If you love animals, you could make some of these little guys and drop them off at your local animal shelter.  They would be happy to have them for the cats and kittens or maybe even sell them to raise much needed funds to help feed the animals or pay the vet bills.

I LOVE the colors on this flannel quilt.  I bet they came as part of a kit because they match too perfectly.  This is one of the last flannel quilt tops.  Looks like I will have to cut up some more flannel quilt kits and pass them out at the next quilt day.  See how easy these are?  Just some strips of fabric sewn together and you are done.  Quilts don't have to be fancy to be beautiful and the kids don't complain.  These bright, beautiful quilts are loved more than the show stoppers that can't be touched.  To each his/her own, but I'd rather make 100 quilts that are loved and used than 1 quilt that hangs on the wall and never gets touched for fear of being ruined.  I know the world needs all kinds of quilters, but I'm glad God made me the way He did.  Just a bit on the crazy size.  Well, maybe a lot on the crazy side!

Off to quilt day to see what kind of trouble I can cause.  Hopefully to use up all the fleece I pulled out.  I think there are 7 bags/buckets.  I don't want to bring any home to store for another 4 years.  Get it out of here!