Yes, We Have No Quilting Today!

It's been a couple of very busy days here. I have had to actually do my job and cut several orders. So I have not even touched a needle or machine for almost five days.

I am in quilting hell!  LOL! No quilting, no sewing, no applique! Oh my!

Tomorrow is my last day of cutting, I have finally caught up.

We are awaiting a snow storm and a cold front in our area. It won't be as bad as in the east but it's the kind of weather when a home made pot of soup is great! My husband was kind enough to oblige in the soup department while I cut the orders and brought in enough logs for the stove to last for two days. So we are prepared to sit out the storm.

So hand quilting here I come! YAY!!

Making Progress. . . Again!!

This is my progress so far since I rerolled the quilt sandwich.

Where the masking tape strip is located is the current row that I am working on. Lower, toward the bottom of the picture is two more rows that are faintly visible.

I am surprised that I am this far in just a couple of days.  Several other things interrupt the progress of the quilting but I try to devote at least an hour a day to this project because my deadline is in March.

Maybe it's my imagination but now that I rerolled the quilt sandwich, it seems to be easier to quilt it and it seems to be going quicker than before when it was crooked.

Strange what the power of suggestion does to the mind! LOL!  Even though it was a difficult decision, I am glad that I decided to take it apart and start again and it hasn't taken long to catch up to the point I was at before.

Beginning again

I realized after quilting two rows across the width and two cross wise small sections that my quilt was askew. No amount of tugging and fudging was going to straighten it.

So, I made the dreaded decision to rip out and start over again!!! Oh my!!

I took all my supplies and my quilt into our nearest town of Mora, to the conference room at "Tapetes de Lana", a local rug weaving enterprise.  They have several rectangular tables for use and as long as they are not booked they do not charge to use for private purposes such as mine.

I gathered the tables together in the center of the room in the shape of a large rectangle.

Then I started laying out my quilt, First the backing, which I taped to the tables. Then I layed the batting on top of that.  After I got the batting nice and smooth, I layed the quilt top.

After I got the whole thing nice and straight, I pinned the leader cloth to the edges, inserted the bars and with my husband's help rolled the whole thing onto the bars. This whole process took about three hours because I was doing most of it by myself while my husband did some errands in town.

When we finished rolling we went home and mounted the bars onto the frame.

NOW I am ready to hand quilt it. It is nice and straight and I have learned never to rush when you are mounting a quilt sandwich onto the bars.

Progress Being Made

I have not hand quilted in months. Since we can not be outside because of the cold,wind and snow, I am glad I have the basket weave quilt on the frame to work on. I realised too late that this quilt is going to be difficult to hand quilt because of all the small seams. Yesterday I only got one and half rows done and today the same.

Besides there being plenty of seams to quilt through, my fingers are painful today from the cold affecting my blossoming arthritis. I say blossoming because it is getting steadily worse each year.  But, they say exercise is good for arthritis so I keep hand quilting!

Very little progress today,but progress nevertheless.

Finally starting to Quilt!

I finally got my quilt onto the frame. My husband bought some new wood bars from our local lumber yard.

Once we got the quilt rolled onto the bars, I piled up some plastic boxes and one case of soda (LOL it's the only thing that would fit!) in the middle for support.  I didn't want to take any chances of these bars breaking. I had already wasted $30 on buying "new extension kit bars" that broke.

Even though these were a solid piece of wood eight feet long, they were 1 1/2" by 1" thick.

I was holding my breath while we were attaching the rolled quilt to the frame.  Thank goodness it held and didn't crack!  I am a happy quilter again!

Happy New Year's Eve Eve!

Today is New Year's Eve Eve and we are going to a party at the local senior citizens center!

Lunch and a dance! Am I really old enough to go there?? But I thought I just turned thirty on my last birthday! LOL!

Tomorrow we are going to the local VFW hall for a proper New Year's Eve dinner and dance. . . Not just for seniors!

Wherever you are, whatever age you are have a wonderful, peaceful and Happy New Year with family or friends!

Oh no! Not again!

I was so excited when I got my replacement bars for my quilt frame. I had to wait until after Christmas but I was happy that I had them.

When we got back from my daughter's house, I started by connecting the replacement bars to the quilt frame and using the metal bars that came with the installation kit. Small problem, they didn't send enough screws for all four plates.

It took me about an hour to locate screws that fit the bracing plates

The plates were on the bars and I started loading the backing, then the batting and finally the quilt top.

Now I started rolling and smoothing, rolling and smoothing.  Almost done!  Just have to load the opposite bar and then tighten the quilt and start quilting.

That's when the new bar cracked! Again!

Now I am stuck with no frame, again!

Gluten Free Biscochitos

Biscochitos are the state cookie of New Mexico. They are usually made for Christmas, New Years and major celebrations. They are very similar to sugar cookies but much richer.

Since my daughter has Celiac it was very hard for me to make them and she wouldn't be able to eat them. So between the two of us we came up with a gluten free recipe!  It still needs a little tweaking but it's very close. They taste great!

Merry Christmas Eve!

We are on the way to Albuquerque to spend Christmas Eve and day with my youngest daughter's family and my youngest son.

We are just north of Santa Fe. Aren't the mountains beautiful?

Anxiously waiting for the UPS truck!

Here I am waiting for the UPS truck! Why? Because my new extension bars come today!!  YAY!!

I have been working on my hexie quilt handwork. You know making individual hexies and then sewing them together to make the individual flowers.  I have already made about 15 flowers.  But I need about 40 more.  No problem! I have been working on this particular quilt on and off for about 2 years. I also need to make about 200 white individual hexies.  The white ones are going to be the path between the flowers. This quilt is for me so I can take my time with it. Right now my priority is my oldest daughters quilt, which I need to finish in time for her birthday!

I have also started sewing the blocks for another string basket weave quilt. This one will be for my youngest daughter.  I figure if I sew the blocks for the youngest in between hand quilting the one for the oldest, I should have the second quilt ready for the quilt frame as soon as I get the first one off the frame. . . maybe even before.  Then. . . I still have to make one for my oldest son!  My youngest son already has his quilt. 

So you see, waiting for the UPS truck is really holding up the parade!!  Plus, I will not be able to work on the quilt today because we are making chile rellenos (New Mexico Style) or Chile bullets as my daughter in law calls them. We cooked the meat and green New Mexico chile yesterday. Today we will form the "bullets" and fry them. YUM YUM!

We wish everyone a wonderful Christmas and Happy New Year! Have a great time with family and friends!

OH NO! NO! NO!

I was ready to put the scrappy basket weave quilt on the quilt frame so I could start hand quilting.  YAY!

I got it onto one of the cross bars and started rolling the sandwich.  When I finished with the top bar, I inserted the bottom bar into the leader cloth and started rolling it back so it would be even.

Just as I was about to lodge it into the holding brackets, I heard a crack!!!  OH NO! What was that sound?  I looked at the top bar and it had rolled off the frame. When it fell, the middle bar cracked in half!

Oh my goodness what a setback!  I was so disheartened.  I almost screamed, cried and jumped up and down!

Now I had to undo all the rolling from the top bar. I rolled the quilt onto the bottom bar, took it off the top bar and left it on the table.  I immediately went to my cabin and called the company that makes my quilting frame.  I had bought this quilting frame used from a private party and had only used it once for the pink baby quilt that I wrote about on this blog.

Well as I scrolled through the company's website I found a manual for my frame model and found out that it didn't have the middle extension steel brackets to give the bars more stability when a large quilt is on the frame. That's why the bar had cracked. Not enough support!

Well needless to say, I ordered the extension kit (new bars) and the installation kit for the extension kit.  It includes the steel brackets.

So now I am waiting for this order to arrive sometime next week.  Can't start hand quilting the basket weave quilt until that order gets here.  I hope that I will still make my deadline for my daughter's birthday . . . 3 months!

Curtain Valances

 It seems it's been awhile since I have posted an entry into my blog. The year just seems to get busier and busier as it ends.

Well I have been busy! I feel very accomplished for this year. 

Projects I have finished:

The pink baby quilt for my neighbors grand daughter;

The cross stitch xmas stocking for my grand daughter;

The string scrappy basket weave quilt top;

and last but not least the following project . . . 

 When we were going to the flea market in Las Vegas, New Mexico, I found 2 matching curtain valances. They had a beautiful floral pattern that was partly hand embroidered with the leaves painted on. It also had a curved edging with tatting all around.  It was a real bargain because besides the beautiful handwork, the fabric was very sturdy and thick. The only decoration was the floral embroidery.

 
 I decided to sew them together on the ends that usually would go on the curtain rods.  I removed the sewing that made the casing at the top of each and sewed together at that side.

Now there was embroidery work on each side of the valance.  I wanted to make a table topper with it for my circular table.  It looked pretty good.  The only problem is that the seam in the middle was very bare and you could see the 4 seams where the casing used to be.  I washed them but the sewing marks did not come out.  So I decided to embroider a grid down the middle.  The grid would hide the seam and the sewing lines from the casing.

Here is a close up of the grid work that I put in.

 

 This is how the whole thing looks now.  Even though I couldn't get the whole thing into the picture, you can get a pretty good idea from this picture.

What do you think? Does it look like a trellis between the florals?

Do You Remember?

I have not posted for awhile because I have been feeling a little ill. I went to the doctor and she gave me some medication and now I am starting to feel much better, thank you! She did a step test so that wasn't it.

Anyway, moving on.  I spent the whole day today catching up on my cross stitch project for my granddaughter. I haven't done any handwork for over a week. Now I am almost finished, which is good because I need to finish it before Thanksgiving. That way she can hang it "by the chimmney with care"!

While I was working away, I used my little scissors to snip my threads many times.

  

While using these wonderful little scissors, I notice that the hanger that I fashioned out of bias tape was getting pretty grimy again.  So I removed the bias tape and went to the bathroom sink to wash it. WASH IT??  You are probably thinking, just throw it away and make a new one . . .it's just a scrap of bias tape!  

But, in the back of my mind my frugal ancestors, grandmothers and mother are saying . . . no! no! no! Go wash it!  And wash it I did! LOL!  

While washing it, I was remembering my shoes when I was a little girl. I grew up wearing "Buster Brown" white, lace up, leather, high top shoes. Most of the kids wore them when I was little.  One of my chores every week was to wash my white shoelaces.  Every time my parents would buy me a new pair, I would also get 2  pkgs. of white shoe laces. That would give me 5 pair shoelaces. 2 in each pkg. and the pair that came with the shoes.

My job was to keep my shoes clean and change my shoelaces every night. So before I went to bed I had to wipe my shoes with a damp cloth. That would keep them clean for another day. On Wednesday night I was to polish them with the white shoe polish, after wiping them with a damp washcloth of course.  The damp washcloth would get rid of the dirt and grime from the day's use. That would keep the shoe polish applicator more clean. The dirty shoe laces went into the old shoe box to keep them from getting lost.

Wednesday night, after wiping and polshing my shoes, I would collect my shoe laces from the old shoe box and wash them in the bathroom sink.  After washing and rinsing several times until they were white as sheets, I would scrape them with the dull edge of an old butter knife that was in the old shoe box for that purpose. This would squeeze almost all the water out of the shoelaces so much that they felt almost dry.  This guaranteed that they would be dry the next morning and ready to be used.  Of course, the last step was the final inspection . . .by my mother! If they passed I was done, if not, back to the sink!

Now days, I think kids only use the "shoestrings" until they rot and then they throw them away and buy new ones.  Of course by that time the shoes are usually worn out too!  They are not leather!  

I remember those buster browns lasted so long that we could hand them down to someone that was smaller than me and didn't have the money to buy them.  Of course those shoes must have been handed down several times. You know how fast little kids grow out of their clothes and shoes.

I remember my "Mary Janes" were especially new because I only used those for Sundays or parties. So I probably used them 4 or 5 times and they wouldn't fit me anymore.

Remember "Mary Janes"?? Of course that name doesn't mean the same nowadays as it did when I was little. I used to love them in black or white patent leather.  One year I got a pair of pink ones. . . I was in love!!!!

Oh to be little and have those pink patent leather "Mary Janes" again!

Meanwhile . . . keep on quilting!

Aveli

Just Scrappin Around!

I am working on my scrappy string basket weave quilt.  As "feeder" blocks or strips, I use my crumbs from the strings sewn onto strips cut from used printer paper. I have a plan for these. I am also making square in a square that finish at 2" for the cornerstones of my crumb strips. These are not my original ideas. I am borrowing from Bonnie Hunter's last quilt cam broadcast.

Here are my cute little square in a square 2 " blocks . . .

 

 and all my crumb triangles. . . Can you see some of the fabrics repeated in each patch?

and my crumb strips. . .

Notice the printed paper? That is actually a health manual that I get every year from my insurance company.  It is about 2 inches thick. You know me, I hate to throw paper away! I cut it down to use for my crumb strips.  I even use letters that come in the mail. They are usually 8 1/2 x 11 paper.  After I finish the project and am stripping the paper away, I save them to use as "kindling" for my wood burning heat stove.

Several people have asked me -- where do I get so many scraps (crumbs) from?  When I cut fabric for my customers I end up with a lot of bags full of scraps!

Here is a picture of the green scraps left from cutting fabric orders.I have several bags of these scraps sorted by color.

This is what the scraps looked like after cutting a hexagon order . . .

 

Can you see the possibilities? There are triangles on the bottom and top; diamonds in the middle and if I cut carefully, I can get a couple of strips from the fold.

Here I am just starting to cut the scraps apart. I usually do this while "listening" to tv with my husband.

One Triangle done!

Here is what I have after I am finished cutting the scrap "sheet" that was left after cutting the hexagons for a customer. Quite a bit of fabric. Isn't it? Combine these with other colors and I get a new quilt, table runner, placemat, pot holder, sewing machine cover, etc. The possibilities are endless!

Of course you have to like working with small pieces, which I do! I guess my grandmother's frugal gene is firmly planted in me.  She made her small pieced quilts out of necessity from old clothing, as did many of our grandmothers and foremothers.  But as a quilter, I couldn't see all this fabric go to waste. My string basket weave quilt, crumb strips and square in a square are all being made from these "scraps"!

If you look at a previous posting about my granddaughter's baby doll quilt, that is made from these scraps too!

Enjoy your quilting . . . scrappy or otherwise!

Aveli

No Rain!

The rain has finally ceased! Now the state of New Mexico has to pick itself up and clean up and repair before the snow starts! There is so much damage from all the flooding and mud. We were very lucky, we had no damage at all!  One place has the only entry and exit flooded. They can not go out or anyone go in.

The governor has said they will take supplies into the area, but there is no place to land the helicopters. They are going to try backpacking the supplies into the little town!!! I have one question . . . if the residents can't come out or go in, how are the backpackers with supplies going to get in????? Just Wondering!!

I just heard there is no federal help because the amount of damage does not qualify.. . there has to be more damage!  Really??

Other than the flooding, deaths from flooding and mudslides, people losing everything, there's really nothing to write about today.

My news pales in comparison to the current events in the state's news.  I don't even have any exciting news about a football game or soccer game or volleyball game or wrestling competition.

All I did today was sew! I am still sewing the ribbon strips for my daughter's cookie project.  And I also sewed on my blocks for my scrappy string basket weave quilt.  I have almost finished sewing all the blocks I need. Since I am sewing on the strip ribbons for my daughter's project, it is slowing down the finishing of the basket weave quilt.  But that's o.k. I love helping my kids.  I just wish I could sew faster!! LOL!

In the meanwhile . . .everybody keep quilting!

Aveli

Go Milikan Rams!!

Yesterday my oldest son called to say that he had sent me a link so I could read the "Press-Telegram" sports article about Milikan High School. My grandchildren attend that high school in California.

Well it seems that Milikan won the previous Friday night game. A major contributor to that win was our grandson. The opposing team fumbled and our grandson recovered the fumble.  Milikan then scored because they got the ball from that recovery.  It was a great game . . .my son said. He didn't even realize it was our grandson until they announced who recovered the fumble.  We are all excited about the whole thing.

It was a great play, one of the best plays in the game. It was so great that on Saturday, the sports writer mentioned our grandson's name in the article about the game! That is so incredible! Long Beach is a very large city, the Press Telegram is a very large newspaper,  there are tons of high schools playing on Friday night.  To get a line of mention in that paper is a big deal!

I asked my son to send us a copy of the paper so we can see the real article!  Proud grandparents! We talked to the "star" later on Saturday afternoon.  He was very excited! So are we!  He said that he just ran forward and jumped on the ball and "grabbed the ground". He also said he wished he had thought about running with it, he could have made a touchdown! We love you grandson!

Oh! By the way, I am still working on the strips for my daughter's cookie project.  So, no quilting today.  Maybe I will work on my crosstitch project later this afternoon . . .need to get it finished by October.

Well that's it for today. . .

Meanwhile, keep on quilting . . .

Aveli

Rain, Rain Go Away, Come Again Another . . . ?

New Mexico is in a drought for the past few years.  So, we pray for rain. And boy have we gotten rain!!

The governor has declared the State of New Mexico a disaster. It hasn't stopped raining for several days. Several counties have severe flooding and people's homes have been damaged.  Interstate highway 40 has been flooded so severely that there is a sink hole in the middle of the highway.

It is hard to talk about quilting when all these disasters are going on around me.

I just noticed that the neighbor's wood stove chimney is oozing smoke.  That is a sure sign that summer is over.  She is always the first to fire up her stove. She lives in a 2 bedroom adobe house that her husband built. In case you have never lived in, read, or heard about adobe houses, they always retain the heat/cold for 12 hours. Adobe is a great insulator against the heat/cold. It is always cool in the summer because it retains the cool from the night. And, it is always warm in the winter with minimum effort and wood because it retains the heat from the stove. I love it! I wish my cabin was adobe!

Yesterday I got my latest order of fabric. Part of the order was for my daughter. She has a small business that she is trying to get off the ground.  She sells cookie bouquets . . . Carmela's Cookies.  She wanted specific fabrics for her bouquet baskets. 

I love getting fabric delivered! It's just like Christmas!  I know the fabric is what I will be selling, but still.  I get to open the package . . .(Christmas). I get to play with the new fabric (new Christmas toy). And last but not least, I get to keep the scraps (Christmas Present).  YAY!

I have always saved all my scraps from making clothes for myself and my family andI have always used them in my quilts.  But now, I have an abundance of scraps from cutting all the different shapes for my customers.  I am in heaven!  Just thinking about the scraps puts me in a great mood and with that thought I will close for tonight.

Meanwhile . . .keep on quilting!
Aveli

Just Beautiful!

This is the view from my sewing room during a short break from the rain!  This is why I love it so much living here!

It's raining . . . I'm Quilting!

Last night, we were expecting rain because it was predicted. It rained all night and is expected to rain all day today and tomorrow!  I have no problem with it because we need the rain. New Mexico has been experiencing a severe drought and our local lake is getting mighty low.  It is kind of cool and cloudy because of the rain.  After the heat we experienced around Labor Day, this coolness is welcomed.

Since it is raining and we can't be outside, I will be quilting or sewing that is.  I am still working on my string scrap basket weave quilt.

For the most part, I have finished the top except for the borders.  Because the quilt is set on point, it has zig zagging endings on each side.  I finally, after much debating with myself, decided to square off the sides.

So, I proceeded to take the 4 1/2 inch blocks that I have been working with to make the top and cut them in half to fill in the zig zag parts.  Unfortunately, I didn't take into account the quarter inch seam allowance . . .I guess I had a senior moment.  All the blocks that I had cut in half were wasted!  I went back to the cutting board and cut a sample with the quarter inch seam allowance. Then I sewed that sample onto the quilt and it worked perfectly!  YAY!

But, since I was so ambitious cutting the blocks in half without the seam allowance, I am now short a few blocks to use in the zig zags . . .back to the sewing machine!

That is what I will be doing today! Next time, I promised myself, I will only cut a couple of blocks and test sew before I cut a bunch! You would think I wouldn't make such a "beginner's" error, but like I said I had a "Senior Moment"  LOL!!!

Now I have to figure out what to do with all those blocks that are cut in half???

In the meantime, everyone keep on quilting!

Aveli

National Quilting Month -- ooops! "National Sewing Month" and Rain!

Looks like there are more clouds and rain in our future!

 

Today starts "National Quilting (Sewing) Month"!  YAY!  Of course, being a quilter, we are always sewing . . . right?

I have been doing my part since last week when my daughter left.  I got back to sewing on my basket weave scrappy string quilt. It was originally going to be a lap quilt, but I really liked it and decided to enlarge it.  It is now up to a queen size quilt and has the overlap on the length to cover the pillows. Today I have been finishing up adding the blocks to make it queen size.  So I greeted "National Quilting (Sewing) Month" at 5 a.m. this morning with my project on the machine . . . see picture below.

Sorry about the quality, this was taken with my phone! 

That's the phone book pages you see on the back of the quilt. I used my old phone book pages for foundation piecing. Our local phone book is the size of half of an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper.  I cut the blocks to 4 1/2 inches square.  That way I can get 2 blocks out of each half sheet.  One of our phone books is enough, with some left over for the next project, to make this queen size quilt.

What are you working on during this "National Quilting (Sewing) Month"?  Is it something you have been working on for awhile or did you just start it within the past few weeks?  I would love to hear about it or see pictures of your projects!

Meanwhile . . .everyone keep on quilting!

Aveli