Hello and Happy Monday!!  I’m going to tell you what I’ve been working on but then at the end of the post I’m going to announce all of the winners from the giveaway we had here in conjunction with the Villa Rose Blog Hop.  The giveaways are all closed now but if you want to read the post about it, you can find that HERE.

I really had little time in the sewing room this week.  Between Izzy going to the groomers, having new foster puppies, hosting the auction here the previous weekend, and taking care of the grandkids, there was just zero time.  I’ll tell you more about the dogs in tonight’s blog post…yes, there’s a little drama.  But, onto today’s topic, what I’ve been working on.

I managed to get to the sewing room twice.  YES, only twice.

My goal for this week was to get this quilt top through the long arm.  Sadly, that didn’t happen.  I am going to celebrate the progress that I did make though.  I got it loaded and I emptied one bobbin of thread.  Oftentimes, that’s the hardest part of getting a quilt longarmed.

I debated for a bit on what to use as a quilting motif.  I ended up only picking a stipple.  There are two reasons for that.  One…I know that at this point, me finding a big chunk of time to dedicate to getting this finished isn’t in the cards.  I need a motif that I can easily pick up and go back to.  I’m guessing that I will try to put a couple of bobbins worth of thread into it every morning until I finally get time to just finish it.  That means I will be having several sessions in order to finish it.

When I’m at the longarm and I pick a quilting motif, there is a little difficulty with stopping and starting.  I’ve found that I might start out and my swirls motif is only about 2″ x 2″.  Then when I start at the next session my 2″ swirl has morphed into a 2 1/2″ swirl and by the time I am done quilting the top, the swirl has grown even larger.  Being I do all of the quilting free hand, it can easily happen.  I find it’s easier for me to regulate the stipple design.

The other reason I went with a stipple is that this quilt is so pretty.  It doesn’t have a universal block either.  I didn’t want the quilting and design to fight each other.  Sometimes if I put too fancy of quilting motifs on a quilt, I start to feel like the design and the quilting try to fight each other to be the star of the show.

I did take some time and filled bobbins too.

The other thing that was on my priority list of goals was… …

What I’m Working On…Read More »

Happy Monday….
Hope you are doing well.  Before I get to today’s post I just wanted to put a reminder out there that there is an auction going on here on the blog.  It ends tonight at 6pm central time.  If you missed that or want to check it out, you can find it HERE.

I have a few things to show you that came in my mail this week…

This issue of American Patchwork and Quilting will be hitting the newsstands soon.  This is the 30th Anniversary Edition.  They sent me an advanced copy as I was supposed to have a quilt in the magazine but, alas.  The issue was too many pages and they had to take a couple of the quilts and put them in the following month.  Mine was one that got moved.  See the note they sent.

Look closely.  See the stack of quilts on the right?  There are three quilts in the stack and MY QUILT is in the stack.  It’s the bottom one and it’s touching Kim Diehl’s quilt.  Be still my heart…I am fan girling here.  I have long loved Kim Diehl’s work…and look my quilt is touching hers.  HA!!

Being it was an anniversary edition… …

What I’m Working On…Read More »

Sadly, not a lot of sewing happened this week.  Between being at Mayo Clinic for two days, read about that HERE if you missed it, and hosting company over the weekend, there was no time to sew.

Also, I am hosting the auction here on the blog.  You can still check that out.  HERE is the post you need to go to for bidding.  There is some hot competitive bids happening for a few of the items.  Even if you aren’t bidding, it’s fun to watch the bids rise. The auction closes at 6 pm central time.  It’s important that you remember central time zone.  The last I looked there were over 130 comments with most of them being bids.  So Fun!!

I’ve also had extra work with getting things together for the Villa Rosa blog hop. You can read about it HERE if you missed out.  There are great prizes to win so you will want to go to every blog and leave a comment for your chance to win some great prizes.  When you leave your comment I just love when you say “Jo sent me” in your comments.  Here are the blogs that will be featured today.

Cheryl at https://cherylsteapots2quilting.blogspot.com
Leanne at https://www.devotedquilter.com
Quilts of Valor at https://www.qovf.org

Before I get to what I was working on, check out these.  I found the photo when I was browsing around and sadly forgot to record where I found them at.  They are sewing machine legos.  I sent a picture to my kids and grandkids and said they nee to make these for me.  So CUTE!!

I pulled this quilt top out and made a backing for it.  This is what will be loaded next on the machine.  I think this will be finished for an upcoming benefit…maybe the Fireman’s Breakfast. That’s in March so I need to keep this moving along.

In the picture above you can see… …

What I’m Working On…Read More »