Double Nine Patches

I never figured that longarm quilting could be so difficult. Olivia has been performing beautifully. It's the operator that seems to be have the problems. Things have gotten better as the day has gone by. I had this quilt on the frame before 10:00 this morning.

I have worked on it all afternoon--welllllll, maybe not alllll afternoon. I did take a 2 hour nap---I am on vacation, after all.
Back to the quilt story: I have made 3 passes over this top and that is across the short side of the quilt. This is a totally new 'thing' for me, working with these templates. The glare on the templates has been so bad at times that I would cut off the overhead lighting in the studio.
One good thing though is that I have only had to take out 3 lines of stitching. On the first row there are some wiggles in the stitching lines. I will decide later if I want to take these out or leave as 'human error'. Hope these pictures show some of the quilting. I really love the way the quilting is affecting the surface of the quilt. The Baptist Fan pattern really works with this pattern. I am using 80-20 batting and Permacore thread. The backing is a white on cream wideback. One stitch at the time and I will be finished before you know it.

I got my delivery of hardware for my slat wall so will be reorganizing my thread later tonight. I will have to unplug Olivia due to severe weather in the area. Tornado watches are on for tonight.
Isn't it interesting how you can watch the weather radar and see the edge of the incoming weather front? I think it's cool---and can really be kind of scary  too.

Stay safe and keep your head down. More tomorrow.

Sick day and Double Nine Patches

Spent most of Saturday under a quilt in my chair with terrible head cold. I seem better this morning so I am in the studio. No, that's not a cigarette in the smilies mouth (I quit 3 1/2 years ago). It is suppose to be a thermometer. I seemed to run fever for the day. Was not flu, but, sure wasn't fun. Still need boxes of tissue close by.

All of the components of the Double Nine Patch are together. Today I will spend my time putting all of the components together. Sometime this evening I will have this top together. I did not think that I would EVER finish the 3 inch nine patches. This just goes to show that little snippets of time can work well on a large project like this.

My Circle Templates arrived yesterday so I will be ready to quilt this top in 'Baptist Fan'. I plan to practice using these on some muslin before I begin with the actual top. I'll let you know how things go.

QUESTION:  Should I start at the top of the quilt and work down? Should I fully stabilize the quilt and work from the bottom up? What would you do?

OK, back to the machine.

End of the Weekend

OK, I have been working on the Double nine patch this afternoon. I was finally able to clear my sewing area which allowed me to do that.

Can you believe that my desk is clear? Neither can I. I did manage to do that and I will work very hard to keep it clear.

Sometime in the next few weeks I have to go through the file cabinet and clear out some stuff. The 'Herby Kirby' was full for this weekend, so will have to work on that a little at the time.



Enjoy this coming week. Remember that no matter how bad we think things are, we still have so much to be thankful for.

Organization, what a Pain

Why is it that in order to clean up and organize you have to make a monster mess?

I put in a new file cabinet today so lots of 'stuff' had to be relocated for a short period of time.

I sure hope that I can soon have my desk cleaned off and everything in its proper place.

Right now I can't even use my sewing machine!!

Mr. OLT also hung a piece of 'slat' wall for me so that I can reorganize my thread. Man!! was this stuff heavy!! Now all I have to do is pick up the hardware for the wall and 're-hang' my thread. Can't get the hardware until the end of next week so the thread will have to stay all bagged up until then.

Hopefully I can get everything cleaned up tomorrow and then get back to my Double Nine Patch project.

The quilt that Olivia is holding is one I have done for Christmas. I finished quilting it yesterday. I had a good 18" of batting and backing at the bottom. Due to that, I have stitched a length of muslin over the end and will use it over the next week for some freemotion practice. I sectioned off the length so that I would have some defined area to work in. I will put the Pajama Quilter in the DVD player and stitch along with her.

I attended a terrific football game today. My Grandson Austin played in his first game and did a great job. I hope he had as much fun playing as I did watching. Good Job Austin!!!!

Time to start thawing out the Turkey.

Have a good weekend.

More Double Nine Patches

OK. this is where I am going to stop for tonight. Not even close to half way. Still have at least 2 full days of piecing before I can start to stitch rows. And so it goes.

Double Nine Patches

This is one of my projects for the next few weeks.
1 1/2" strips to make 3 1/2" blocks.

 The 3 1/2" blocks will combine to make 9" double nine patch blocks. These will combine to make this:

I am using this pattern as a reference. The quilt needs to finish as a double so I have to increase the size of this top. I just keep cranking out little nine patches so that I will have lots and lots.                       

I am at the point now that I can start piecing some large blocks so I need to cut some plain squares. I am using 30's reproductions and my favorite Kona. I love quilts make out of Kona they end up really snuggly. This quilt has been commissioned for a Christmas gift so it is important that I really work quickly on it. I'll let you know how it goes.

I also have backing and top on the frame. Maybe Olivia and I can get some quilting done on that this week too. I sure hope so.

Have a great week. ( I hate standard time--I want daylight savings time back!!)

Thank you Cheryl and Friends

So sad. Tomorrow is the last day the 'Quilted Pearl' Quilt Shop will be open. We have been very blessed for the last 5 years to have access to a wonderful shop of fabrics and great people. Cheryl and her sidekicks have really allowed quilting to grow in the community and for that reason they will really be missed. Many of us will not know what to do without our many monthly meetings at 'The Pearl'. Best of luck to Cheryl in her future endeavors and Thanks for the Memories.

Drum Roll Please !!!!

I would like to present OLIVIA!!!!

Yes, I have finally named my girl. Believe it or not, I have had her now for a year. Now she has a name. She has the same name as one of my favorite patients. Such a smart young lady.

So now I can feel better about talking with and about my Olivia.

I have had a very busy weekend and I will post more about that later. I will tell you that it has been two busy Fabric Allocation Road Trip(s).