hands 2 help - the november quilt

Back when I was keeping track of what quilt was made in what month (before the Project Quilting assignments caught me up and derailed the keeping track!), this quilt was started in November of 2019...

(There are a few more in-progress photos, but less interesting, so we'll leave it here.)

I added borders in green and never did get a photo of just the top WITH the borders.  But in my defense, it gets nasty around here about that time of year, so photo ops are reduced.

Then, a few weeks ago, I decided it was time to get these quilted.  And loaded this one!

I had decided I was going to do an overall pattern because this quilt is busy enough that it won't show much anyways.  Unless I used contrasting threads, which meant a lot of thread changes.  I opted to just to black thread (the back is dark) and let it contrast in the green, but not really anywhere else.

(This sounds like a great idea until you nearly go blind doing it.)

I tried to tweak the color here so you could see the quilting detail, but it just wasn't working as well as I wanted.  But you get the idea.  And you can see the back peeking out - this is (obviously) the wrong side, but I think this may be the only back photo I have!

I was quilting along, knowing my spool of black was getting low when I started, but also knowing I had a full one and as well as an almost full spool sitting right there.  No worries.

But, as I was quilting along, my machine was like "NOPE!" and I was like "WHY?" and then I looked up...

Oops!  Thankfully, this was an easy thing to fix.  And off I went to finish the last pass or so.

I was excited to be done.  As I mentioned, this was difficult to see where I had been, and I manged a few times to catch myself running into a motif that had been quilted earlier.  Thankfully, this design is very forgiving if I decided to change directions to avoid making the overlap worse.  And the back (peeking again here - both sides!) is also busy, so very forgiving.

Last week, we had some nice days, so I ventured out to get a photo on the clothesline!

A little dark here, but you can really see the whole quilt well.

But, as it blew out a bit more, into the sunshine, you can see the texture better here.  Also, I feel like the colors are the most true of all the photos here.

So, another quilt finished.  And blogged.

5/11/20 edit to add:
This quilt is called Garden Glory and the pattern can be found in the book "Patchwork Palette" by Donna Lynn Thomas.

Last week, I also loaded another Hands 2 Help quilt top onto the longarm and got it quilted.  The binding is waiting, but I DID finish the castle binding.  No photo of that yet...oops!  Soon, I hope!

I knew my Hunter's Star quilt back was a mish-mash and there was likely a right way and a wrong way to match it up to the non-square top.  So I decided, after running the vacuum, to lay it out on the floor.

Oh.

Oh no!

I did get it figured out, loaded and quilted.  The binding is waiting for me to hand-sew the second side, but I'm not sure if that will happen tonight or not.  I worked a 9 hour shift today and my head is throbbing.  It wasn't as busy as some days - at least not until after lunch - but it was still a long day.

Sunday evening, I got a text from my sister-in-law.  The rules for staying home are easing up a bit in our state, but masks are expected/required.  Her family has a few, but now the food pantry at their church is opening up and other things and they need a few more masks, masks that will fit her 8 and 11-year-old boys, particularly.  So I dug through my stash and picked out fabrics to make each of their family of 5 two more masks.

While digging, I found some to make me a fourth...

I wore this today.  Got a few compliments.

I ran out of interfacing for the masks, though, but my mom rescued me!  She had a whole bolt, purchased a while ago with the intention of making a t-shirt quilt (hasn't happened yet), and since she was bored, decided to drive to the halfway point between our houses - hubby's workplace - and drop it off for me.  (We had a $50 gift card to a steak house I gave her in exchange - whenever THAT can be used again! - so it seems a fair trade!)

So, while some of the masks are made, some are in process.  But this photo of the ties I made, waiting to be sewn into the first round of masks, makes me happy.

Very rainbowey.  The second set have been pressed and are ready to sew, but are not nearly as pretty.  I'll get a photo of the set of 10 when I've got them done.

But honestly, I thought most folks had figured out masks by now.  If they were going to.  But I guess some folks hunkered down more than I was allowed and are realizing they need them now, so, to help my family, I'm making them.  (And I don't want to get into an argument about whether you think they work or are needed or whatever.  I've done some reading and, as always, you can find science or statistics to prove anything you want to prove.  Make your own choice.  I'll make mine.)

I've also been working on the purple quilt.  I finished all the blocks and determined a layout late last week, but since the request for masks came, my day off yesterday was spent working on those.  And making cookies.  Because everyone at work loves cookies.  And we're all stress-eating our way through the crazy.  So who wouldn't love a homemade cookie (or six - not a joke) to help that along?!

I also cut pieces for the macaroon cookie part of the quilt that includes the cats and stand mixer from last week, but again, my sewing was derailed yesterday.  No complaints.  I'll get to them.  I have the next three days off and little on my calendar, so once I get a good sleep tonight, I'll be unstoppable!

(I should have taken some photos, but I didn't...)

Off to heat up some leftover tortellini alfredo (sauce from scratch - yummo!) and relax.  If the headache subsides, I'll work on binding or masks.  If not, I'll just give myself an early bedtime.

Happy quilting!

Wash your hands!

Katie