Friday, February 16, 2018

purple, tension and Tula Pink

It's Friday night and chores have been done, dinner has been eaten and the hubby is out to a movie with a niece.  Blogging and quilting, here I come!

First, I'd like to thank so many of you for your kind words regarding my new machine and its tension problems.  I was confident I could fix it, I just had to talk myself into trying.  Last Saturday, after much procrastination, I ran out of other things to do, so forced myself to take apart the bobbin mechanism and see what I could do.


This is the bobbin case.  It's supposed to come out.  But that green gunk on the screw?  Tells me I wasn't supposed to move that screw.  You know what that screw does?  Changes the bobbin tension.  And when your top tension is maxed out and you can feel the drag on your bobbin thread when you pull it out with your hand, you KNOW your bobbin tension needs to be loosened.  Oh yeah, and when you can see the top thread poking through on the back side.  That too is an indication.

So with a little elbow grease and a few tries, I had it not only moved, but sewing beautifully.  Top and bottom tension are now matched and I loosened the bobbin tension a little more than necessary so the top tension wasn't maxed out.  But had I not learned about adjusting tension from my longarm - a machine intended to have both top and bottom tensions adjusted - I probably never would have even had a clue where to start.  Guess all the struggles learning the longarm have paid off more than I imagined?!

With that out of the way, I was free to sew!  And my mojo came back.  You know how when things don't work right, you don't want to deal with them?  Well that's where my mojo went!

Onward to the remaining Rainbow Scrap Challenge purple blocks!

#16 city hall:


Templates.  Bleh.  But it came out okay.

#17 laundromat:


53 pieces.  And I've decided that those purple squares in the centers are because a man is doing this laundry and failed to properly sort lights from darks.  (Sorry guys, but I've met too many of you prone to this problem...)

#18 do not enter:


Last one for this month!  More templates.  Ack.  But it came out okay.

Wanna see all the purple stuff together?

Of course you do!


The tiny stars were leader-enders again.  I'm gonna get those 1080 blocks.  It might take 100 years, but I'm gonna get there!

Now I can move on to my UFO for the month - a pattern called The Benefit that has large pieces and is perfect for my Tula Pink Tabby Road fabrics.


But have you ever had fabric so pretty you didn't want to cut into it?  I just want to keep these awesome spotted and stripey kitties and pet them forever.  Yet, if I make them into a quilt, I can snuggle under them AND pet them!  While snuggling and petting real kitties.  Okay, I talked myself into it...time to cut!


Carefully trimmed selvages.  I'm not a selvage girl, but I gotta keep these and make something.  (Maybe I'll enlist my mom - she loves the things?)


I cut and cut and cut what felt like a million pieces, but it took a while to get fabric pairs matched up nicely, so I think that's what made it seem like it took FOR. EVER.  You see, the blocks are all pluses.  In three sizes and they all nest into each other.  Well, sort of.  There was also fussy cutting (trying not to lop any kitties heads off while still getting the pieces I needed out of fat quarters)...

By bedtime Wednesday, I had the above blocks sewn, but needed the design floor for the remaining layout.  Tonight, I removed the extra insulation via vacuum, wrangled actual cats and have this:


(Sorry now actual cat butts.  By this time, they'd lost interest.  It took a while.)

See what I mean about blocks nesting into each other?  This was tricky to pick up at this point, but with the photo and a few numbers pinned to stacks, I think I can do this without having it all laying there for me.  Which is a good thing because the hubby does not favor the middle of the living room floor being for quilting.  Who knows why?

I'm pretty excited, though.  It's just the middle of the month and I've gotten this far on a whole-quilt UFO!  But to be fair, this one wasn't all that hard.

Last night, because of the furry nature of my design floor and my lack of desire to remedy the situation, I decided to work a bit on Philip's blocks.  It didn't feel like I made a dent in the pile, but here's the before and after of the bin where block pieces are stored:



I've only made 15 blocks, but the whole quilt is only 56, so I'm about a quarter done.

Wanna see a few?


Whee!

Now to decide what to do with my remaining time.  There's always quilting, but with the hubby gone for at least 2 more hours, maybe it's time for a movie?  One where I don't have to listen to mumbling about stupid girly movies that have an actual plot and no bloody violence?  Hmmm...  I'm sure the fur babies would approve...

Happy quilting,
Katie

14 comments:

Carol R. said...

You're so much braver than I am.... normally, I can't bring myself to mix that many prints together.

Frédérique - Quilting Patchwork Appliqué said...

You did a lot for a small month! Love your Plus quilt, and Purple blocks of course (beautiful little stars, but really, 1080??)

LIttle Penguin Quilts said...

You've got lots of fun projects going on there! And good work figuring out your bobbin tension issues - that is a scary thing to do!

Katie Z. said...

Way to go! Your blocks are all great, and the plus quilt is really fabulous.

Edith said...

So many thing son the go, I like the look of your purple projects.

PaulaB quilts said...

Congrats on the bobbin. I knew about the bobbin tension but thankfully have never had to touch it. If I ever buy that Tula fabric I will have to enshrine it. You used it very well. That Plus layout is so complex and you did it! Hope you took plenty of photos to track your progress. Keep up the good work!

A Left-Handed Quilter said...

You're moving right along!! Progress on so many projects - and solving your tension problems - good for you!! - ;))

Ivani said...

great you solve the tension issue and had fun sewing so many purples.

The Joyful Quilter said...

Hooray! for saving yourself a service call or a machine exchange. I'm SEW glad to hear that you mojo has returned, too!!

Ruth said...

You made great progress on the first 2 quilts and a good start on the third. Can't wait to see that one. I'm getting to the stage of having some basting to do. Ugh! Oh well, I guess it's not that bad.

canuckquilter said...

I love the variety of RSC blocks you're making this year, but I particularly like those tiny stars. They will eventually make a splendid quilt! Love the Tula quilt too. Phillip's blocks will wirk up to a great quilt too.

JanineMarie said...

What a fabulous riot of color! I had not heard of the Patchwork City quilt before, so of course I had to look it up. What a neat pattern for your RSC blocks.

Angie in SoCal said...

Congrats on solving your tension problem. You have some nice projects going on there. What movie did you watch?

a good yarn said...

So I'm catching up on posts and am delighted to see that you resolved your tension issue. Wow, did you sew up a storm after that! I really like your purple blocks (all in this series actually); they are all modern art and angles. You Plus Kitties blocks look terrific! Great colours too. Nice work on Phillip's blocks. They come together quickly and it's super fabric.