This week I finished up Month 08 border blocks. It is getting exciting because I am getting very close to finishing this quilt. Month 09 will have one more set of border blocks. Then months 10-11-12 are quilting months 7-8-9, then onto connecting all the top together.
We visited one of our local nurseries where I picked up a few herbs, annuals, and seeds. My little memory garden is in a planter wagon my sweetie made for me. Prepped it for the season and added, rosemary, anise hyssop, and curry. I love herb gardens – brush the leaves and it is so soothing to me.
Planted annuals to add some interest and color to the patio area. Choose based on ”thrillers, fillers, and spillers”. Love to watch these come into season.
This week was a very productive week! There was a ton of learning, quilt piecing, quilting on the longarm, embroidering, and even a new paint job on the house.
I finished up month 4 of my digitizing master class. Our project required using our Corel Design skills, Hatch embroidery digitizing skills, to creation of our cut files and embroidery design files. We then stitched out what we created. This month we are learning all about color.
My sweetie has been busy piecing his own quilts. When he finishes his quilt tops, he passes them on to me for the longarm. This week I quilted another ’fish’ themed quilt, a ”Christmas Doxie, and also a ’Touchdown Football’ quilt. (I will post pictures later today)
I was able to longarm my ”Little Red Wagon” quilt and finish up with binding. This was also a learning opportunity. For the first time ever, my machine threw the thread off the upper tension spring (of course when I wasn’t here watching) When I discovered it happened, it had completed two rows and sewn a pleat in the back. Yes, I really did pick out all the stitching. Since there was essentially no top tension, the bobbin thread was just laying on the back. This made for quick picking. Fortunately, I was able to place my zones again and am quite happy with the result. Thank goodness it was on my own quilt, I would have been panicked if it was someone else’s project.
My other project is my “Simply Dreaming Quilt” designed by Sarah Vedeler. I started this quilt right after my Mom passed away last year. I was able to work on Month 07, one of the outer borders. It was the perfect month because it is filled with lots of beautiful flowers. Mom and I used to spend a day in May visiting our favorite nursery together. With the one year anniversary of Mom’s passing, along with Mother’s Day, these beautiful bouquets remind me of our time together.
We also had our house painted this week – by a company and not us! This was a definite first – paying someone to paint our house. The last time we rented scaffolding, replaced siding, added cedar shingles, and painted. The crew that did the house pressure washed one day and spent two really long days painting. Love our new colors – navy, cream, and light gray!
This month I was able to return to my ”Simply Dreaming” quilt designed by Sarah Vedeler. I love the colors and designs, they remind me that spring time is coming!
Taking a design from a graphic application, to embroidery digitizing software, and finally to stitch out is a lot of learning! Each time you move from one process to the next, you find areas for improvement. As I stitched my file, I discovered areas to improve my design. Places where there was duplicate stitching, not right type of satin underlay stitches, and missing candle-wicking stamps. As I stitched, I identified the opportunity for improvements to my design. I was able to revise my digitizing then send it back to my machine. I didn’t need to rehoop. I just loaded the new design on the machine, loaded my hoop with the stitching, then moved the revised design to where I was in the stitch out. My design isn’t perfect – all learning is like peeling an onion – you improve one layer, then are able to see what can be fixed next. Before I stitch this design agains, I would like to adjust my placement for the fills on the petals with stars.
My sweetie has been busily piecing quilt tops to add to his ’inventory’. When he finishes, I mount them on the longarm and quilt them. Here are a few of the most recent additions.
For month 04, we were challenged to create a design with petals that are overlapping and a center that has interlocked (woven) pieces. With the petals, we learned how to remove the overlaps, reducing bulk. For the interlocking pieces, it is identifying all the intersections, then using colors, changing to give the affect of ’over and under’ for each ring. For extra credit, we were challenged to take our design from Corel Draw into Hatch. From there we used our designed cutting files and embroidery designs to stitch out our designs. Below are my Graphic designs for the petals and center, followed by my digitized design within Hatch. Last up…..to stitch out my design today.
Found time to piece together my ”Red Wagon Quilt”. The top, backing, and binding are all ready to go. Now just need to mount and quilt on the longarm.
We managed to finish selling all of our vintage machines and cabinets we have been restoring. Now that we are down to one machine at a time, I have been able to return to my sewing studio! Yesterday I pulled out my longarm, gave it a good cleaning and oiling, and updated my software. I then loaded a quilt sandwich to test stitching. While the sandwich quilted, I also began piecing one of my Red Wagon Quilts. This was the scene in my studio yesterday!
In between insurance claims and car shopping, I worked on sewing more garments for spring and summer. Since we had temperatures well beyond 105 degrees last summer – without air conditioning at home – tank tops and shorts were on the list. I also needed some light cotton blouses to wear with my skirts and walking shorts.
meditativesewing.com 