Time To Get Back To Work

Well the Thanksgiving holidays are over and it was great. I think I spent more time in the kitchen than anything else. Now mind you there was not just the "big" dinner but then there was all the cleanup afterwards. Leftovers to put away and then trying to come up with things to do with those leftovers. I spent half a day just making turkey soup. It sure was good though and there is still some in the freezer for lunches.

Kind of reminds me of quiltmaking. You make the quilt and then have to clean up afterwards. Then there are all the scraps to deal with. I don't know about you but I save anything big enough to make a triangle that will make a half square triangle that will be 1" finished size in a block................that is pretty small. Then you have to spend the time to use those scraps as well.

Now that all that feasting and cooking are over it is time to get back to quilting. I did a UFO yesterday. Yep I actually put one of my own tops on the longarm. It was a mystery quilt that I did a couple of years ago. I was not crazy about it so it has been languishing on my pile of tops. Well I just acquired the Koko panot by Jodi Bemish and decided to try it on this top and give it to my mom for Christmas. The quilt is much improved with the little Kokopelli's dancing all over the surface of it now.

While I am waiting for the next Christmas quilt to arrive I will be working on the binding of my mom's quilt. Hopefully that top will arrive in today's mail as I need to get to it ASAP
when it does so I dare not load anything else as all the quilts left here at this point are custom with no deadlines and they will each take some time to quilt. My extra leaders are already on a custom job which requires different thread than my usual so I have to play with tension..............ok so I am not gonna quilt today.

Last Weeks Work

I know this is not the best photo but you can see the interlocking swirls of my new Quilt EZ spiral template. Now do not be fooled as it only looks quick. See that interlocking part........well there is a trick to that and it means stop and start, stop and start and then at the end there are thread tails to tie and bury. I calculated that there were over 1000 thread tails in the queen sized quilt! This design is well worth doing for the beauty but be prepared to spend the time to deal with the stops and starts. There are many other things that can be done with the template and hopefully I will get to play with it again soon. This quilt and the two others are now on their way back home to their owner in a pretty big box. Considering that I also did one other quilt last week that is not bad for getting alot accomplished!

This week it is back to that custom heirloom. I made some good progress on it again yesterday and hope someday soon it will come off the frame finished. It is satisfying to see the beautiful design from the quilting evolve and emerge. I am doing alot of small McTavish and some pebble fill as well in the 13 blocks. The setting triangles are all finished as well as the sashing. I have a couple more blocks for the fill and then I can go back and do larger details in the blocks like little feathers, straight lines and such. Then the border and it will be done.

I cannot believe Thanksgiving is almost here. This week I am making a menu of dishes and getting all the recipes lined up. Then to make a shopping list to ensure I have everything I need. Then I always make a schedule of what to do when so all the dishes are done at the same time with the exception of the pie which goes in the oven as the food goes on the table. Another thing I do the night before is lay out all the utensils, bowls etc each dish needs in its own counter space along with all the non perishable ingredients I will be needing. Then I have the perishable items all organized in the fridge so I know where each is. The worst part of the entire feast is the realization that I spend all day in the kitchen preparing and then it is all eaten in about an hour with about half and hour after for dessert.........................then there is the cleanup! This year my daughters will each be in charge of at least one dish so they will make a contribution and hopefully will have some fun as well.

My New Favorite Toy

I like to do a variety of things on my longarm so when a customer has a request for something I need a new tool or panto for and I like that tool I will get it for their quilt. Ths is how I recentley aquired the Baptist fan templates from the Quilt EZ company. Kinda pricey but I wanted them and figured I would be able to pay for them with a few quilts. Yep they are now paid for as of this week.

Well someone had a beautiful batik quilt and wanted to know what I thought would be a good design so I did my usual research which consists of looking at photos of quilts on the web. I found a really cool swirl and the more I looked the more different things I saw that could be done with that swirl. Quilt EZ made a template for that so I got it. Well I am using it on that batik quilt today and it is my new favorite toy. Boy does this tool make an awesome design. Well the problem is now I will need to make quilt just so I can use this tool for myself. I will post some photos of this quilt and a few others when I get a chance. Likely next week or if I am lucky over the weekend.

Boy do I love my job. How many people can work at home in their jammies (well I am not wearing my jammies today but some days I do) doing something they love. For me quilting is what I love!

Dancing With My Longarm

I am usually a partime Longarm quilter but this last couple of weeks I have gone fulltime! Whoo Hoo the holiday rush has finally arrived for me. I could not be happier at all the business this last couple of weeks! This week I am trying to get 3 large quitls finished and I have done 2 of them already and one charity quilt as well (had to practice that new panto before I tried it for the first time on a customer quilt). I have the 3rd quilt loaded and ready to go tommorow. It is a Quilt EZ swirl and it will be my first try at this pattern...............I jsut love the design and am excited to try this one.

Hopefully next week I will have some photos of the new quilts to share.