September Stitching Goals: FrankenBerries, Setting Quandaries + Seven Sisters

Stuffed berry production is happening!  Preparing all 96 of the remaining stuffed berries needed for my FrankenWhiggish Rose quilt is my September stitching goal (and if I get any of them stitched onto the blocks as well, that will be "gravy"!).  

Tip: Pencil Eraser Holds Perfect Circle Template for Tracing

I'm using my Karen Kay Buckley Perfect Circles templates to make my berries (this post contains affiliate links) along with leftover Quilters Dream Poly Select quilt batting and Wonder Under fusible web (using up an old package I had on hand).  I discovered that I can prevent the Perfect Circle template from slipping if I hold it in place with a pencil eraser in my left hand while tracing around the template with a mechanical pencil held in my right hand; that photo above is to remind Future Rebecca of these neat trick the next time I am tracing around small template shapes.

I traced all 96 berry circles onto the paper side of my Wonder Under paper backed fusible web, fused the marked Wonder Under to my batting scraps, then rough cut around groups of 12 (12 berries per block) just to help me keep track of how many were needed and how many were finished.  I experimented with three different pairs of scissors before deciding that I like my ApliQuick 4" microserrated scissors best for cutting out these tight circles (that I probably shouldn't have crammed so close together when I was tracing them).

And So It Begins: Cutting Out Fused Batting Circles for Berry Stuffing

Appliqué prep work does seem to go faster for me when I do it assembly line style, so I'm going to cut out all of my berries before I proceed to the next step of fussy-cutting my larger fabric circles.

Meanwhile, I've been walking past these nine blocks on my design wall every day, marveling about how those broderie perse rosebuds didn't take me nearly as long as I thought they would, and realizing that I am going to have all of my blocks completely finished and ready to set if I just keep working on it a little bit every day.  That makes me want to revisit, reevaluate, and overcomplicate my plans for setting the blocks and finishing this quilt!

I could add one inch diamond sashing, a wide neutral border for a quilted formal feather design, and an outer one inch diamond border, as visualized in this EQ8 software rendering below:

66 x 66 FrankenWhiggish Setting with Diamond Sashing

Goal Posts for November: The IntelliQuilter is Coming!!

Good morning!  It's Election Day in the United States, but we've already voted early so there's nothing to do about that except wait and see what happens...  With civic duties already completed and no further power to affect the election outcome, I may as well shift my focus to what I CAN control: Quilting goals for the week and for the fresh, crisp month of November!

This Week's Goals:

Letter Home Monogram Baby Quilt Nearly Quilted

1. I'm still working on finishing up the last of my October goals, my Letter Home Monogram baby quilt.  I've finished quilting another row since the photo above; just didn't get a picture when I left the machine for the night.  This would have been finished yesterday, had I not spent THREE HOURS on the phone with Apple Tech Support yesterday afternoon, attempting to resolve the Mystery of Why My iPad Can't Install an iOS Update Without a Factory Reset...  Anyway, with just a couple more hours of quilting today, then trimming, labeling, and binding, this little quilt will be ready to ship off to the one-month-old baby for whom it's intended.  

Look What's Coming TOMORROW!!!!!!!!!!

2. OH MY GOSH, you guys -- today is Quilter's Christmas Eve at my house, because FINALLY after waiting for over two months since I placed the order, I have a tracking number for my IntelliQuilter computer robotics system that has been put on a truck in Ohio and is cruising down the highway, headed straight to ME!  According to the tracking number, it should arrive by noon tomorrow.  We'll be self-installing the system, so that's my second goal for this week: Installing, adjusting, fine-tuning and testing the new computer robotics system for my APQS Millennium machine.

One Monthly Goal for November

Getting comfortable with the new iQ system is my OMG for November.  I've already gone through all six hours of training videos that my dealer provided, but once I have my system installed I'll want to go back through those lessons hands-on and work through the exercises with my machine.  I'll be quilting up some practice e2e/computerized pantograph designs and playing with the density and scale as well as experimenting with some computerized custom quilting.  Woo-hoo!  

I'm linking up today's post with:

TUESDAY

·       To-Do Tuesday at Home Sewn By Us

·       One Monthly Goal at Elm Street Quilts. 

WEDNESDAY

·       Midweek Makers at Quilt Fabrication

·       Wednesday Wait Loss at The Inquiring Quilter

THURSDAY

·       Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation  

·       Put Your Foot Down at For the Love of Geese

·       Free Motion Mavericks with Muv and Andree

OMG! I Met My Goals for August, Early! What Should I Do With Myself?

 Oh my gosh, you guys -- this is a rare surprise.  There are still 7 whole days left in the month of August, and I just realized that I have finished all of the quilting goals I'd set for this month.  Finished them EARLY.  I know, right?!  Who IS this imposter, and what has she done with the REAL Rebecca Grace?!

And it's not like I was wimpy with those goals, either.  Let's recap:

August Quilting Goals:

1. ✅ Finish cutting out the next four blocks for MMBB & move them off the cutting table.
2. ✅ Trim excess batting and backing from Spirit Song quilt
3. ✅ Make the binding for Spirit Song
4. ✅ Digitize & machine embroider a label for Spirit Song; appliqué to back of quilt
5. ✅ Machine stitch binding to the front of Spirit Song
6. ✅ Hand stitch binding to the back of Spirit Song.  Launder & photograph.
7. ✅ Decide what's getting quilted next and load it onto the long arm frame
8. ✅ Piece one or more of those MMBB blocks that are printed up, cut out, and ready to sew
9. ✅ Launch & promote Weekly Long Arm Linky party, beginning August 4th

My Spirit Song quilt, renamed Sermon Scribbles, is completely finished.  You can read more about that one here:

I finished all four of the blocks for my version of the Moda Modern Quilt Blocks that were printed up and ready to start at the beginning of the month.  Twelve blocks down, 36 more to go on that one.  To see more about that project, click here:

And my fourth Long Arm Learning link up published automatically an hour ago, just as scheduled.  If you're looking for today's LAL linky party, click here!  I've been learning so much from what other machine quilters are sharing in that space.

I also managed to finish all of the items on last week's To-Do list.

Last Week's To-Do List:

• ✅ Piece backing for tumbler outreach top pictured above (next in line for quilting!)
• ✅ Load tumbler quilt on frame
• ✅ Select pantograph and thread
• ✅ Quilt tumbler quilt

I'm not sure the pantograph I chose (Wild at Heart) was necessarily beginner friendly, but it was one that I owned, the scale was right, and it came out better than expected.  Win!  This quilt will be donated to a pediatric patient in one of our local hospitals, through the Charlotte Quilters Guild.

So, I find myself with a whole freebie week at the end of August, with everything crossed off my quilty To-Do lists early!  What should I do with it?  

I think my goal for this week should involve a project that I've been neglecting, something like this tumbler top that languished for over a year in my Purgatory closet...  This week, my goals are going to be about anti-procrastination.

This Week's Tuesday's To-Do List:

• Start piecing my Modern Baby Clam Shell Quilt (for the baby who was born in 2018, who is about to become a big sister this October!)

That's it, just the one thing.  It's enough.  It's just a 40" x 40" baby quilt, and all of the pieces are cut out, but I stalled out because I was unsure of how I wanted to construct them.  I'm still unsure, except that I know I want to actually piece them rather than doing an appliqué method.  So I need to get these out again and figure out where to start -- do I build out from the center circles, or do I start at the top and work my way down.  And I need to decide whether a 40" x 40" quilt is even big enough to be useful to a 2-year-old or if I should enlarge it somehow...  Ugh.  Dread.  See?  This was supposed to be a "quick and easy" baby gift two years ago.  I want it off my list of works in progress projects left abandoned!  One goal is enough for this week!

I'm linking up today's post with the end-of-August One Monthly Goal link up at Elm Street Quilts, and with To-Do on Tuesday at Home Sewn By Us.  

One (Or Two) Monthly Goals for July: Finish Quilting Spirit Song + Launch New Long Arm Learning Linky Party

Can you believe that the year 2020 is officially half over already?  My brain is still stuck back in February, before the whole world came to a screeching halt and we all woke up at the Mad Hatter's tea party with Alice in Wonderland...  

I know the whole idea of the OMG "One Monthly Goal" linky party is to focus on ONE main goal for the month, but I have two for July.  One of them is a quilting goal, and the other one is a blogging goal.  And the two goals are interrelated, with the blogging goal supporting the quilting goal and the quilting goal supporting the blogging goal, so it's kind of like my One Monthly Goal for July is a pair of conjoined twin goals!

My July Quilting Goal: Finish Custom Quilting Spirit Song

Spirit Song is still my primary focus project, and since I'm getting sick of looking at it, I'd really like to finish ALL of the quilting and get it off my frame by the end of July!  I'll bet y'all are getting tired of looking at this quilt, too, aren't you?!

I've already completed the SID (Stitch in the Ditch) as well as the ruler work and free motion designs in the pink/peach/yellow patches.  I've also finished quilting one of the longer ruler work and string of pearls borders, also quilting the ruler work and free motion designs in the little blue HSTs (half square triangles) as I work my way down the quilt.  So, breaking this big July goal down into component steps, I still need to:

1. Finish quilting borders and blue HSTs with blue thread.
2. Rethread with off white thread, either So Fine #50 weight or Bottom Line top and bottom (haven't decided yet)
3. Finalize which background fill designs I want to quilt in which areas
4. Quilt fairly dense background fills in all of the white/cream/neutral patches

I have two different diamond shaped designs going on in this quilt, and I know that I want to quilt the background fabrics differently in each of them.  I'm thinking of things like pebbles, little curlicues or swirls, matchstick quilting, small-scale stippling, etc., for the most part nothing that needs marking, except that something cute is going to have to go in the center diamond in the photo below:

Hopefully whatever I decide to quilt will go faster than all of the marked designs I've been quilting for the past couple of months, and hopefully I won't get bored from the repetition and burn out on it before I finish.

My July Blogging Goal: Launch New Long Arm Learning Linky Party

...Did YOU vote in my poll yet?  I've decided to launch a new weekly linky party with the theme Long Arm Learning!  Having made the substantial financial investment in my long arm machine just over three years ago, I have quilted exactly 3 charity quilts and 4 "real" quilts.  All of the charity quilts and one of the "real" quilts were quilted with edge to edge pantograph designs, one "real" quilt was quilted with an allover freehand loopy meander design, one was quilted completely with rulers, and one was a light custom quilt job with a mix of SID, simple ruler work and a smorgasbord of freehand fills.  But clearly, I am not going to master long arm quilting if I only quilt one or two quilts each year, right?  In my defense, I did have some mechanical issues with my machine when I first got it that really aggravated my learning curve.  As a complete newbie to long arm quilting, I struggled for a year and a half on practice samples, thinking my problems were user error, until a professional longarm quilter friend in my guild who has the same machine as me came to my house to help me and told me that my machine "wasn't supposed to do that!"  The wonderful folks at APQS helped my husband and me to go over my Millennium from top to bottom, checking absolutely EVERYTHING the same way they would do if I sent it back to the factory for "spa maintenance," and now every part that showed the slightest wear or malfunction has been replaced, every adjustment has been fine-tuned, and Thoroughly Modern Millie is purring along like a kitten.  It's time to ramp up my learning curve!

As a new long arm quilter, it is so easy to get bogged down in endless practice samples, trying to get "good enough" before you risk "ruining" a real quilt by quilting it poorly.  I love this idea that maybe no one is EVER "ready" to do anything -- and the only way to GET ready, or to get good enough to feel ready, is to just jump in and start trying!

I am really looking forward to connecting with other machine quilters in general (YES, domestic machine quilters are welcome) as well as others who are learning long arm quilting through this linky party.  The Internet is wonderful for being able to shrink the globe and create virtual communities of like-minded quilters, and I hope that hosting the linky party will also help me to be more intentional -- and more CONSISTENT -- with my long arm quilting.  I look forward to learning from others!

But first, I have some work to do.  These are the steps I still need to accomplish before I can cross "launch new linky party" off my July OMG list:

1. I figured out how to create a graphic for my linky party "button," but I still need to figure out the html code part of it so that the image functions as a button rather than just an image
2. Select a linking platform and create my account
3. Figure out the mechanics of actually creating a linky party and inserting the link up into my blog post so that others can join in the fun
4. I know I want a weekly link party, but I haven't picked the day of the week yet -- so let me know in the comments if you have a preference!
5. Finally, and crucially, I'll need to figure out how to spread the word about my new linky party so that those who might want to participate can find out about it.  Again, if anyone has suggestions, please share them in the comments

Of course, I am still going to participate in all of the other linky parties I've been joining up with for the last few years.  If I didn't get so much out of other people's linky parties, I would not even be considering starting one of my own.

So, I'm linking up today's post with One Monthly Goal at Elm Street Quilts.   Fingers crossed that this time, when the end of the month rolls around, I will be able to link up a post about how I accomplished both of my July goals as well!  Have a wonderful Independence Day holiday, those of you in the United States!

To-Do Tuesday: Monofilament Stitching In the Ditches With the Disco Kitties

Quilting Away on Tabby Mountain

And now it is Tuesday.  Does anyone remember Once Upon a Time, A Long, Long Time Ago, the last time I posted weekly goals for the To-Do On Tuesday linky party?  Some of you may not be old enough to remember back that far, all the way back to March 6th when I posted the following goals that I was planning and fully expecting to finish in ONE week:

1. I need to design and embroider a quilt label and decide whether it goes on the front of the quilt or on the back.
2. I need to dig around in my studio to see if I have a package of batting the right size for Tabby Mountain.  If not, I need to purchase batting.  
3. Then I need to get all the dog fur and stray threads off my quilt top and give it a final pressing.  
4. Next, my extra-wide backing fabric needs to be cut to size, pressed and squared
5. Then I can load Tabby Mountain on my quilting frame!
6. It would be nice if I could baste my horizontal seam lines and outer edges of the quilt before the end of the week... 
7. -- Oh, one more thing: Now that Tabby Mountain is out from under my Bernina, I'd like to finish that pineapple log cabin quilt block this week.

Well, darlings, I've finally crossed all of those items off my list, but it ended up taking me THREE weeks instead of just one.  As you know if you saw yesterday's post, my month-end goal for March is taking on extra-special urgency since I've also committed to hosting TGIFF, "Thank Goodness It's Finished Friday" this week, and in order to host the party, I need to have a finish to show for myself!

Look At Me, Stitching In the Ditch Like a Real Quilter!!!

I did spend a lot of time on Tabby Mountain today, but since I'm very much a beginner longarm quilter everything takes me a REALLY LONG TIME.  It took me two hours just to switch over to monofilament and figure out how to get the tension looking nice.  I used Superior MonoPoly Reduced Sheen Clear thread and went down to a smaller size 3.5 needle and changed up my thread path to put less drag and twist on the monofilament, but was able to leave the bobbin tension alone since I'm using gray Fil-Tec Magna Glide prewound bobbins.  Those little prewound bobbins are so convenient and easy to use that I have yet to even try winding my own bobbins for my longarm machine!

Monofilament Tension Sample, Top Side

Same Sample, Backing Side Showing Gray Bobbin Thread

I just love the way that monofilament thread looks like a perfect color match to whatever fabric it's on -- that's why it was worth fiddling around until I got it to play nicely.  Monofilament thread can hide a multitude of sins!  You know, my original plan was to use lots of different thread colors in this quilt, but the MonoPoly thread looks so good on every fabric that I'm tempted to just quilt the whole thing with monofilament!  

SID With My HandiQuilter Versa Tool Ruler

I started out with the standard ruler foot that came on my APQS machine, but soon switched to the high profile, open-toe clog foot instead.  I need to see where my needle is landing for SID, and the regular ruler foot blocks my view.

MUCH Better Visibility With the Ninja Foot!

Angela Huffman calls her clog foot  "the Ninja foot."  I have no idea why it reminds her of a ninja, but I definitely preferred it for SID!  

Exhibit A: Oopsy Wobble Away From Seamline

See how the monofilament thread blends into every color of my kitty cat's fur when my ruler slipped and I wobbled away from the seam line?  That would be so much more obvious if I was using pretty much any color of ordinary thread.

Barely Noticeable Even From Reasonably Close Up

I am happy to report that I have now completed all of the SID (Stitch In the Ditch) quilting, because it took me forever.  I did get better at it as I went along, but I still find that I need to go very slowly in order to keep those stitches right next to the seam hump where I want them to land.  As with my list of goals from three weeks ago, the SID quilting took about three times as long as I expected it to take.

So...  I'm kind of rethinking my quilting plan.  The ruler work I had initially planned to do might require marking and might end up taking a lot more time than I have available if I am going to finish this quilt in time for my self-imposed deadline.  But that's my goal, people -- there is only ONE item on my list for To-Do Tuesday this time:

1. FINISH QUILTING TABBY MOUNTAIN
2. Photograph finished quilt
3. Write blog post for TGIFF and March OMG Linkies

I said only one thing, but once I'm finished of course I'm going to want to share it with all of you!

Okay, that's enough computer time for me.  I'm headed up to my studio to start quilting!  Just as soon as I link up with Esther's WIPs On Wednesday and with To-Do Tuesday, that is...  

New Year's Eve 2017: In Which I Briefly Consider Sewing Goals and Accountability

Once again, here we are: Out with the old, and in with the new.  When I start to see those "year in review" posts cropping up all over the blogosphere, my first reaction is always a toxic mixture of panic, anxiety, and guilt.  Look at all of those beautiful quilts and garments all of those other people finished!  And here I am, with a room full of fabric and a head full of dreams, and precious little to show for myself...  Comparison is truly the thief of joy.

Going back through my posts of 2017, I realize that I finished more projects than I remembered, and I've made significant progress on other projects that are closer to completion today than they were at the end of 2016.  So, here goes not-quite-nothing:

My first finish of 2017 was the Pajama Choir Concert Dress:

Burda 6911 Modified, in Black Rayon Jersey

I really love this dress, and I need to make another one with a shorter skirt so I can wear it more often.  

I also made a baby quilt sample for a beginner quilter class that I'll be teaching at my local Bernina dealer in 2018:

 

Beginner Quilting Class Sample

I'm happy with that project, too, and looking forward to teaching new quilting students.

I also made a set of oven mitts this year, which came out cute but too small:

Ha Ha Ha, These Oven Mitts Are Too Small

In retrospect, that project was a big waste of time.  They aren't even getting used, and store bought ones are so inexpensive.  Sewing projects take so much more time than you think they will, and I should use what little time I have for sewing to make things that can't be found in stores, like that Burda pajama dress.  I could have finished one of my UFO quilt projects with the time I spent making oven mitts that no one is going to use...

I also made a Killer Rabbit costume for Halloween this year:

Behold, the Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog!

That came out pretty successfully, and it was much better than any of the costumes for sale at Party City.  However, I wore it for just that one costume party and I'll probably never wear it again.  Again, I could have used that sewing time -- and the pajama pattern I used to make the costume -- to sew something that I would get more use from, like actual pajamas.

I also finished the Burda 6911 top that I made as a test garment for my comfy choir dress, and was able to wear that for Thanksgiving.  Like the dress, it's a win -- I love the way the V-neck is snug to the body so there are zero wardrobe malfunctions when bending and reaching!  I'm definitely going to make this pattern again.

Burda 6911 Top in Green Rayon Jersey

The gathers are doing weird things in that photo because of the bra I was wearing under it.  It looks much better with different undergarments, but this is the only picture of it that I could find.  

The only other sewing project that I finished this year was the Christmas tree skirt that I made for my mom last week.  I am very happy with that one:

Mom's Christmas Tree Skirt

So that makes a total of SIX finished projects for all of 2017.  Let's reflect on that for a moment, shall we?  An average of one finished project per every two months.  Am I satisfied with that, or will I resolve to be more productive in 2018?

In addition to the finishes, I did make progress on several other projects this year.  I made 8 more pineapple log cabin blocks for my California King bed quilt in 2017.  I still have 8 blocks to make before I can assemble the top and quilt that one:

Pineapple Log Cabin In Progress

These blocks are tedious to piece, but I absolutely love how they are coming out.  I'm still excited about this project and look forward to (maybe) finishing it in 2018.  It will be huge, but nothing my 12' long arm frame can't handle!

I also worked on my Frankenwhiggish Rose applique blocks off and on throughout 2017 (more off than on, truth be told):

Finished Applique Block 1 of 9

After finishing that first block, I pieced eight more block backgrounds and have gotten the flower centers, stacked petals, and stems stitched down on all of them.  I'm currently working on the reverse applique tulips and plan to combine the applique blocks with some pieced blocks or pieced sashings eventually.

We bought the APQS Millenium long arm quilting machine in April of 2017 and I've completed two practice quilts on it so far, although I don't count them as finished projects:

First Practice Quilt on the Long Arm Machine

Second Practice Quilt, Cheater Cloth

Although I'd hoped to have quilted several REAL quilts on my long arm machine by now, I do feel like I've learned a lot with the practice pieces.  That was time well spent for sure.  I have my first real quilt top loaded on the frame now, ready to go, as soon as I 1. decide for sure how I'm quilting it and 2. screw up the courage to JUST DO IT!

It's On My Frame, Ready for Quilting...

Most likely, this Math Quilt will get a very simple allover pantograph design.

And my Bear Paws quilt is coming along, too.  In 2017 I made the sawtooth corner stones and set the bear paw blocks with sashing, and added two of three borders.  This one is really close to being ready for quilting now.  I just need to add another outer border in solid white:

Butterfly Bear Paws Top

This one wants some custom quilting in all that solid white background fabric, don't you think?  I think it's a good candidate for experimenting with those acrylic rulers...

Of course there was more to 2017 than sewing projects.  My husband had SEVERAL unexpected, major heart surgeries.  I sang with two church choirs, a semi-professional community chamber choir called VOX, and caroled in costumed a cappella quartets with the Charlotte Holiday Singers.   I took a fascinating class on Martin Luther's legacy at the Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, attended Music Week at Lutheridge over the summer, and worked with several new interior design clients as well as hearing from a few repeat clients who were ready to refresh their interiors.  And all this while raising two hooligans rambunctious teenage boys who keep my hairdresser busy hiding my gray hairs...  I kept the fridge stocked with groceries and the bureaus stocked with clean underwear.  I paid all the bills on time, played with my dogs, and even managed to exercise fairly regularly.  I wasn't featured in any embarrassing news stories or reality TV shows, we didn't go bankrupt, no one got arrested, and no one is suing us.  Considering all of that, I'm going to call 2017 a smashing success!

For 2018, I'm hoping for another year like 2017 (except, hopefully, without all the scary medical stuff!).  I'll be focusing on personal, professional, and spiritual growth rather than perfection, prioritizing health and family above keeping up with the Joneses, and enjoying the process of my creative pursuits more than worrying about whether I'm finishing as many projects as other people are.  The only change I'm thinking about for next year is that I may want to spend less time writing about what I want to do and more time actually DOING it...

But all in all, I feel like I'm in a good place on the cusp of the New Year.  I hope you do, too.  I don't need to make a list of sewing goals to try to live up to next year.  The one and only sewing related resolution I'm going to make is to give more priority to creative time, since playing with fabric melts stress away and makes all kinds of craziness easier to deal with.  I think I'd like to make sure I get at least 2 hours of sewing time in every week.  Does that sound reasonable?

The sentiment of the above meme is appropriate to this post, although I have to say, the little dude looks like she's running for her life in a blizzard more than she's finding joy in her journey...

Happy New Year to all of my blog readers, especially to those of you who take the time to reach out to me with your comments, emails, suggestions and advice!