Sat Oct 24, 2015

 Another week has gone by. I was busy continually, but did not seem to accomplish all that much. I did a lot of cleaning and working in the yard. Doing stuff that really needs to be done.

I am currently working on a twin size quilt for a client and fellow quilt guild member. She provided her own batting. I think it is bamboo. I really don't like it. It is to sticky. I think it would be great if you were hand quilting. I have only used it twice and have not had that great of luck either time. It is expensive and touted as being a green product. Bamboo might be renewable and quickly renewable, but I don't think the process it takes to take the pieces of bamboo and make it into batting is that great. I have not only read a small bit about the process, have done no research on it myself. What I have heard might not be correct. If I choose to purchase that type of batting, I would do some research on how it is produced before the fibers get to the place that makes them into batting. Besides....it is expensive and I don't like the way the batting sticks to the fabric. It is to easy to get folds in the batting.

This past week I filled an order for "It's Sew Moab" quilt shop for 20 of my Red Cactus patterns. That was my first wall hanging pattern and has sold the best. Eye lash yarn is used to make the spines on the cactus. I include 8 yards of the yarn in each pattern. Debra sells a lot of my patterns. Currently I don't have them in any other stores and I haven't set up a on-line store either. If I do that I will need to have the patterns printed at a print shop. I guess I should expand. I just don't enjoy that part of the business. I like coming up with ideas and getting them market ready. After I get them that far, I am ready to move on to the next project. The older I get the less time I have to devote to anything else and I spend lots of time just thinking.

I need to get an art quilt finished, photo it and get it ready to enter into the SAQA contest for our region. The theme is "Above and Beyond".  I though and though about what to do and decided I would do a piece showing that talked about my friends. It is painted on white muslin. It depicts a Raven and some Bluebirds. The Raven is attaching one of the Bluebirds. The other six blue birds are coming to the one's rescue.  I though I  would title it "Friend's go Above and Beyond". I need to get it bound and get a photo taken of it. I am not a big contest enterer. But I  would really like to get my art work out in the world and sell some of it. I know If I want anyone to look at it, I have to show it.  I will post a photo of it next week. I though I had a photo of how it looked as I started it, but I can't find it on this computer.

It is close to 11 a.m. I guess I ought to get myself ready for my day. I am very slow starting today. I worked in the yard yesterday and am kind of sore.

Until next week I wish you Happy Quilting!

Jackie B's and Kaye R's quilts

Yesterday was a very busy day! I had a hard time shutting down when I finally stopped at a little after 12. I slept really well though and feel fine today. I haven't kept up on this blog very well. I had plans to make sure I posted something once a week.  I though I would bring it up to date. 

I received an order from Debra S., owner of "It's sew Moab" quilt shop for 20 of my Red Cactus Wall hanging pattern. I did not have any printed and had about 1/2 enough of the eyelash yarn I include in the pattern cut and carded. I got the patterns printed and folded, got the yarn cut and carded and got them packaged and ready to take to the post office. I got them shipped out in the afternoon. I decided to print more of this pattern. It was the very first pattern I made and it sells way better than all the others. It is not my favorite. But I think customers like the eyelash yarn I used to give the impressions of spines.  I know I could sell more in other stores, but I just haven't taken time to get them into shops. If I did I would have to have them printed at a printers.  I would still have to fold and stuff them, but printing takes a lot of time and ink. My Epson Artisan 837 does a wonderful job though. I have a couple packages of the heavy glossy paper I used for the pattern covers, so I will probably be printing them for a while myself.

I loved Kaye's choice of fabric.  She wanted this to be a Christmas quilt. I quilted poinsettias on it, making the centers start in the center of the spirals of the blocks. We were both very happy with the outcome. I did have issues with the metallic thread this time though. I was using Superior Thread's variegated silver. I purchased the huge cone a very long time ago. I used the metallic in the top and Superior's bottom line in the bobbin. I have used the thread off this cone many times with out any problem at all. The top thread kept catching and looping on the back every couple of inches. It took some doing and Dave actually loosened the belt that goes around the bobbin/hook assemble in my Innova. He replaced a broken, shredded belt in July for me. I ended up putting oil between the tension disks and that helped. It probably would have been a good idea to put thread treatment (silicone) on the cone. But I did not think of that until I was finished with the quilt.  This quilt should have taken me about 8 hours or less. I ended up spending 3 days on it. I hate when that happens!  We used Dream Quilter's wool and Hobbs 80/20. That combination did gave us just the right amount of loft.

Jackie made this memory quilt for a friend who's husband has passed away. She wanted something done in the background that brought all the sashing together.  I did a heart background fill and I think it worked very well. She hasn't picked it up yet, but I know she will be very pleased with the outcome.
I did minimal quilting in the photos, only doing enough to hold the batting in place. We used Hobbs 80/20. The batting is very thin, but looks ok.  We used a  Super Thread's  Magnifico on the top and a
egg shell color Sew Fine.

 I next quilted a piece I am thinking about entering in SAQA's show for our area. I quilted heavily on it and had no problem at all what so ever. I won't post of photo of it until I enter it.

I am having computer issues this morning. More server issues than computer I guess. It took me forever to get onto Bountiful Basket's site to order our basket for Saturday. I finally got on though. I had hoped to be able get the Honey Crisp apples they were hoping to get. They were not listed as available when I finally got on. Maybe next week....... I can only hope.

We have had a lot of rain here over the past few days. We need the moisture, but I wish it would be a nice gentle rain, the kind of rain that soaks in. We have had major down pours. I have pumped out our rain barrels (50 gallon) and the pond twice. The last one washed dirt down from my planting area. It sure makes a mess. This house has way to much cement around it. The water puddles and takes a while to evaporate. There are a lot of little ponds in our water feature that I don't use. They are all full and will be yucky before to long, they will just have to be icky. I will not be cleaning them out any time soon.  I went to open the back gate (it is attached to the house with bolts) and  opened it. The gate fell off. Dave and I got it put back up. Hopefully our fix will work. If it does not we will have to have someone come and repair it. We need to get the deck repaired very badly too. Dave was going to do it a year ago last october. I have a feeling we are going to have to hire someone to repair it too. I just am not physically able to do that kind of work anymore. Dave really isn't either and he has never liked doing it even when he was in perfect health. Anyway......... life goes on.

Until next time I wish you Happy Quilting!