What I worked on

I can't believe it's the start of another week! I'm not worrying about that to-do list since I will be away for the entire week. However, one more item is off the list, and I need to do some follow-up this morning. 

I still have three samples to finish making before I leave, so those will be my focus. And I've got a fourth to work on if I can! The bottom line is that I could take all of them and finish them at the show, but I prefer to work on my samples at home. 

We had UFO club in the morning, and I'm happy to report that I'm making significant progress on my two quilts. 

My job was to cut and fuse all the applique shapes to the quilt's borders or center. This one is at that stage. 

The applique shapes are fused in place

The second quilt is almost at that point. 

The second quilt

OK—so there are three more borders to deal with. The shapes are cut, and I ran out of time. OK—so a few shapes still have to be cut for one border!

A few more shapes to cut

The bottom line is that I made great progress and could have completed the remaining three borders, except I was running between the embroidery machine and the long arm. 

This is what I completed on the long arm. 

My wall hanging - done!

This is one of two identical wall hangings that I've made. This one was quilted with a pantograph. I want to custom quilt the second one, but that will have to wait until I'm back. It's about 36" square, so it's a good size to play around with. 

The second quilt that I quilted yesterday was on the embroidery machine. The embroidery went smoothly with that Size 16 needle and the 30-weight cotton thread. 

Quilted with the embroidery machine

Both are trimmed, and the bindings are made. This is one of the projects I want to take with me, so the binding will go on this one today, and the other will get binding when I'm back. 

I had loads of fun experimenting with the mySewnet embroidery software to create quilting designs for the quilt. At times, it looked like the pattern I chose would be a disaster. Do you see how that is puffing up in the center? However, this is normal. 

Puffing in the center! 

As you can see, the fullness quilted out! This is what the final quilting looks like. 

Quilted with a shape and a sewing mode stitch

Here's the pattern for the other blocks. 

A square spiral with a straight stitch

A sewing mode stitch (clamshells)

A diamond crosshatch

Diagonal to the right

A stipple

Since my software is set to metric, and I'm not that comfortable with it, and all of the designs require the spacing to be set, I need to find a small ruler (6 inches) to tape to my table to help me learn those distances. I have a tape measure that someone cut in half—perhaps I could grab part of it to understand the distances. Otherwise, I'm sure I could print something off. 

Good grief -- I just Googled that and there are oodles of things I can print. This is my new thing to learn. I need to become proficient in MM and CM. I've got a good idea, but I can't judge it well enough for my satisfaction. Most of the time, I'm guessing. I do not need advice on converting -- I do NOT want to convert; I want to learn! In the same way, I can judge a 1/4" by eye; I want to be able to do that with MM. 

OK --Here's something about that embroidery software that I LOVE. The clamshell and the loopy stitch in the green block are SEWING MACHINE stitches. Yep, the software has access to almost all of the stitches on the Husqvarna Viking and PFAFF side and some generic ones. I have no idea how many that is. But if you have that software and want to see how some of the stitches are stitched out, check the sample guides on the website. Everyone needs to download those Sample Guides and all the Reference manuals, as they are extremely useful!!!! Or you can let the software generate the pattern (seconds) and see it on the screen. 

I can't wait to return and make another sample like this one, except I'll use a different pattern for each block. There are so many choices that you could make 1,000 blocks and probably never duplicate the pattern! 

I have another small quilt to finish today. The four blocks need to be sewn together, quilted, and bound. Everything is ready—the threads, the backing, and the binding—so hopefully, it won't take too long. 

The fabrics for my pillow, the zipper, and all the interfacings I need are pulled, so that shouldn't take long, but we all know how that goes. At least if I get all the cutting and fusing done here, I only need to take the pieces, and then I could finish them at Quilt Canada. I'll see how it goes! 

After this week, I have zero in-person events until after my summer hiatus. And I think there are only nine Zoom sessions left. I'm not anxious to get them over with, but I'm eager to have a total break with no time commitments in my schedule. I'll still have loads to do, but no specific deadlines! I can hardly wait! 

There is a Virtual Retreat on June 29 and 30 and another one at the end of July, but I have nothing to prepare, so I'm good with those! 

Well, I'm off to spin class and then Monday Sewing. 

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!!