What a difference batting can make!!!!!

Ick - I hate down days. After a visit to my doctor - I am going to live. She suggests I need to take more pain killers so I can sleep then I won't be so tired during the day. And physio for the knee. And at least six months for the knee to heal. And menopause - deal with it!!!!   Just what I need!


Move over lady - I have a message for my MOM!!!!   Mom - it's ME!!!   I am MUCH CUTER than the other dog you saw in France. MUCH cuter!!!!!

See CUTE as a button!!!!

And I am a silly dog too!!!!

See - CUTE CUTE CUTE!!!!!!

Silly and CUTE!!!!!   Don't get mixed up again!!!!!

Well as you can see Kaylee was a bit upset that her Mom said they found her sister in France. No one compares to Kaylee. She is just a silly dog and has so much fun chasing rabbits!!!   TWO this morning. Not quick enough (or smart enough) to catch them!!!   Aren't you happy Mom and Dad?????


Well in light of all this crap (fatigue and allergies and what not) I decided it was time to try this Nasal wash I bought a while ago. I tried it last night. OK - so it is gross, but you know what - my nose is great this AM. I guess I am going to try it on a regular basis!!!   I hate having those crappy days!!!!


Alright - let's get on with the quilting side of this blog!!!!


I did manage to finish that quilt of mine that I was experimenting on with the heavier threads.

My quilt!!!!

My quilt

 This was an exchange of BRIGHT 9-patches and 6 1/2" squares. Happened a number of years ago. Then assembled it earlier this year and it is now quilted!!!!!!

Close up of quilting

Used Sulky Blendable 12 Weight on top

I used Sulky Blendable 12 Weight on top and 30 weight in the bobbin. I had trouble with breaking thread and had to move from a 4.0 to 4.5 needle. That stopped most of the breaking. I don't think the thicker thread was worth the hassle. I will probably NEVER use 12 weight on top again, but I will have to figure out how to use all the 30 weight of this colour on top. Hopefully the different needle will make the difference or I will just have to use it all in the bobbin for bright backed quilts!!!!.

But besides having to use a larger needle for this thread, I had to go slow and steady. No accidental speeding up as the thread would break. And then at one point the thread started to break again. After looking at the threading - I had to move the spool from here

Vertical spool position

To this ....

spool in the horizontal position

When the spool was almost empty, the thread did not come off smoothly in the vertical position and had to be moved to the horizontal position. Yikes - that is pretty finicky. But the bottom line - I was happy that I was able to get the thread to work. It took almost one whole spool on the top and one on the bottom to quilt this quilt. Hmmmm - good thing that was MY quilt as that can quickly add to the cost of the quilting!!!!

Now the other thing I did with this quilt - well - let's just say I did NOTHING right with this one. Again - I like to experiment with MY stuff to better quilt customer quilts. So with this one, I joined three pieces of batting - one was a bleached cotton, one was bamboo and one was 80 poly/20 cotton. I know - probably not the best thing, but again MY quilt and I can do what I want.

Have a look at the back of the quilt

Bleached cotton - that is NOT a tension problem you see, but rather the batting got punched through the backing!!!!

Bamboo - the tension and the stitching PERFECT. The batting did NOT migrate at all

80/20 - batting did migrate a bit, but tension and stitching were perfect

So while the stitching and tension were PERFECT throughout the quilt - the bleached cotton batting was punched through the backing. Probably because of the large needle and cotton being a bit LOOSE. I was surprised about the bamboo and would have thought it would perform similarly to the cotton, but it was perfect. the 80/20 also surprised me that some of it migrated through. I wonder what will happen when I wash the quilt?????   Hmmmmm - have to get the binding stitched on first. 

The other thing about this quilt (thank god it was mine!!!) - well it was almost square and when I loaded it, I goofed and rotated the backing 90 degrees. Know what that means - yep - I ran out of backing. I had to take it off the machine and fix that when it was almost done. It was a bit of a challenge to get it back in place and finish the last two rows. 

See how that backing was just a smidgen short. Short enough to cause problems.

Oh yes - I also had to bypass all the threading on the pretension on the machine. Normally I run it through at least two of those holes. With the thicker thread - I eliminated all that!!!!

Well that is a lesson in what NOT to do when quilting. However I am happy to report that if I did NOT tell you about these woes - you could not tell by looking at the end result. And I think I am a better quilter because I have been able to fix these problems. This is definitely called QUILTING ON THE EDGE!!! - What can go wrong next??????

Today I have a customer quilt to do and there will be no issues. It's a straight forward quilt - no weird thread - no mixed batting!!!!!

Last night I finally got myself back in the groove of my normal routine. How long have I been back from vacation????  

Well I managed to get some stitching done while listening to a new audio book (which is WEIRD - one entire CD to introduce us to all the characters!!!)

These are the blocks from the Christmas Heart Light project. Since I used two greens with NO contrast, I now have to  stitch around the holy leaf to get some contrast. Using a stem stitch - I am getting pretty good at it!!!!

And my classes are starting up again and I have to get all my homework done. I spent the morning working on Welcome to the North Pole.

Welcome to the North Pole

Of course - I can't show you what I did - well I can tomorrow after the class.


And in the midst of all this and trying to get my article to the magazine before the deadline, I lost access to the internet. ACK!!!!!   Called the service provider and no - we still have cable. I was able to get on the internet when I plugged the computer directly into the modem. DRAT - that means the router must be shot. Off to Best-Buy to get a new one. A fancy one with power boost and blah blah blah. I don't care as long as it works.

My new router (which means guests at my house can get logged on!!!) - that's a long story!!!

Doesn't this thing look like a stealth fighter jet????   And that is a brief glimpse into my electrical room which is on my list of rooms to get organized. Hopefully after a couple more quilts - I can get in there with a hammer and a screwdriver and make some changes!!!!!   Yes - there will be no stone unturned in our house when I am done!!!!!  


On that note - I see it is almost nine AM and time to get myself in gear. Quilts to quilt - errands to run.


Have a great day!!!!


Ciao!!!!!