some finishes...

Yesterday and today involved a lot of cursing.

Why?

Well, you see, I have these silly sticks that I wrote projects onto and thought it would be a good idea to challenge myself to finish (or at least work on) a bunch of new projects every month.  Or finish some old ones.  Whatever.

One of those sticks each month involves me longarming a quilt that was previously abandoned at the top stage.  Many of these even had good intentions and I have backs purchased and pieced for them.

This month, Swoon came up.

I made it using a really cute fat quarter bundle that had kitties and paw prints and such on it.  I found a really cute fabric for the back that also had some kitties on it.  I pieced the back (that was directional and I did not know this until I went to load it on the longarm) and then...the end!

Yesterday, after much debate, I decided how to quilt it.  I went through a dozen versions of things before I settled on something I thought I could do in a reasonable amount of time, with a reasonable amount of accuracy.  Assuming my longarm would behave.  We always must assume the longarm will behave.

And I loaded it.

Finn helped.

The first pass went fairly well.  Often in the first pass, or first bit of quilting, there are issues to work out.  Tension is off a touch, thread breaks...that sort of thing.  So I tweaked things and wasn't too annoyed.  Then I rolled it for the second pass and all heck broke loose.  Tension went to crap, thread started breaking (I ripped out the same teardrop shape four times before I gave up and went to bed)...all sorts of stuff.

I draped what was on the floor up and decided it needed a time out.  This morning, after chores, with a fresh outlook, I was going to work again.  I could figure this out.

I tweaked the tension.  Nope.  I changed the needle.  Nope.  I loosened the quilt sandwich.  Nope.  I swore a lot.  Nope.  I sat on the floor and cried.  Nope.  (It was well after lunchtime by then, so I think I was hangry to boot.)  I got out the book and debated if the needle bar needed repositioning or the whole machine needed retiming.  Those seemed extreme and I wanted a second pair of eyes (the hubby), so I decided to just power through.  Lots of ripping and burying more threads than I wanted, but I was going to get this done.  It's not going to be a showpiece, but this now will be one you will be required view while riding a horse at a gallop from 60 feet away.  But it will be done.

And then I thought of something.  OCD Katie had moved the thread guide just above the cone, on the back of the machine.  I had moved it to that odd angle because I was struggling before.  Hmmm...

One would not think this could make a bit of difference, but when I moved it back to "good," the thread breaks decreased.  I had about a dozen in three passes where before I was getting them sometimes every six inches.  (Enough that I was just ripping out all I had just done and starting again.)

So this morning I spent 3 hours doing one pass.  This afternoon, once I finally got myself straightened out, I did three passes in under 2 hours.

The quilt is off the frame, but I took no more photos.  I will have to acquire a galloping horse to get you the next photos.

Oh, wait, we have this one.  Finn helping again.

It also needs binding.  Which apparently I failed to make ahead.

But that was just the last two days.  What else have I done this week?

Well!

First up, I talked myself into finishing the last six Molehills blocks!

Gabby has been very helpful.  We have learned that if you close the door to the sewing room, locking Toby out, she will come out to visit and play and sleep in the sunshine.  So I've been sewing up there with her, with the door closed, in stretches.  (But she will also come out if you are not there, so I've been doing a bit of that, too, as I feel bad Toby tries to keep her under the chair...)

And then it was downstairs to figure out a layout.  This took a LOT of rearranging to try to keep too many of the same colors from touching each other.  In the end, I threw in the towel and called it good enough.  Anyone who wants to criticize is welcome to make their own version.

Rows were carefully labelled and picked up.  This quilt is not constructed like any other quilt I've made, so labelling was critical if I wanted to maintain this layout.

Then back up to sew a few more curves!

I worked for about two hours and then the hubby wanted to go get lunch and run some errands.  It was a good break.  This was getting tedious and, as evidenced by my episode today, sewing while hungry is a bad idea.

After lunch, I was back at it and had a top before the end of the day!

I headed out into the windy sunshine for a photo.

You can see (maybe?) that it is not square/flat at the top and bottom.  The nature of the pattern is such that it will need to be trimmed in the end, but that's okay.  It's not awful and you don't waste much.

I have the back for this (not pieced), but after today's disaster, I'm not interested in finishing this any time soon.  Good thing I have to work tomorrow - good excuse to hold off longarming anything else just in case I get the itch!

That may seem like a lot, but it really isn't.  I spent a lot of time doing stuff, though I can't account for much of it...

I DID make some cookies.  These Hot Chocolate Cookies were delicious.  I'd been looking for the mini-mini marshmallows (found with the regular marshmallows, not the hot cocoa stuff, in my grocery store) for quite a while.  I snagged them and haven't seen them since.  I guess I wasn't the only one looking for them?

I took them to work - hubby wouldn't even touch them, as he hates any marshmallows that have not been lit on fire prior to eating - and everyone was pleased.  They're not as pretty as the recipe photo, but this is reality.  I don't stage my cookie photos - sorry!  (So far, no one eating my cookies has complained.)

And then this happened:

On the wall in the break room at work, there are signs for each employee, stating their position, start date, and area(s) of expertise.  Many have things like equine or welding.  I had nothing.  (It's okay.  I'm not a farm kid.)  Until one of the boys got an idea last week.  I'm not sure who did it, but one is insisting he is innocent just a bit too much...  It's good to be appreciated, though.  And the cookies do seem to be a morale booster.

Time to go make some dinner and some binding.

Happy quilting!

Katie