Our air quality is terrible lately. AQI’s in the high 100’s the air is thick with tiny particles of ashes and dust. It seems like you could cut it with a knife, or rotary cutter. What it means for me is staying in and sewing. I did venture out last weekend, my DH and I went to Napa California for the Labor Day weekend. We did lots of wine tasting and gourmet food eating, no fabric or quilting related activities. I feel like I should mention that all anti-COVID related procedures were in effect and strictly followed. Although there is a winery tasting room in downtown Napa called Quilt and Co. There are no quilts, the name symbolizes the nature of estate wine making, bringing pieces (grapes?) together to make a complete project (wine?). If it sells wine, I guess its okay with me.

I’m still working on my hour-a-day sewing project, I am really going to finish a part today. Or close to it, just keep sewing. Yesterday I put the halloween panel quilt on the frame. I am trying to decide if I just want to do a panto, or free hand/ruler work. It’s not too big, maybe a hybrid is in order, do panto borders and freehand the center.

I am still having intermittent problems with my machine. It stops sewing in mid-stitch, I haven’t figured out the trigger for what causes it. It may be related to the presser foot mechanism, or the bobbin sensor. I have the bobbin sensor turned off, because it wasn’t sensing the bobbin and giving me an error screen. I was hoping that I could bring it down to the Bernina dealer in San Jose, and see if they could fix it. But they only have a certified Bernina repair tech in their Sacramento store. My dealer no longer has a certified tech, and would send it out to Chicago. As one can imagine, this would be costly for shipping and take lots of time. The drive to Sacramento is about two hours from here. I would still be without my machine for a few weeks, but I’d save on the shipping.

My hand stitching time is making a difference on the cross stitch project. I have been stitching nightly before going to bed. I’m about 75% done, starting to think about all the back stitching. I’m thinking I may go with #100 black silk instead of the DMC. The flowers are delicate and I think that they may be overwhelmed by the thicker thread. Plus I would be able to add some half stitches and slightly curved lines to it.

Off to sew, be kind.

I finished quilting the Alaska quilt yesterday. It went fairly well, and fast. I timed one row of the pantograph at 24 minutes, 9×24=216 about three and a half hours. Add about thirty minutes for a few thread breaks and other operator errors to make it four hours. Going to get the binding cut today, I haven’t decided on whether to use the backing fabric scraps or the top fabric scraps. *edit* Went with fabric from top, 410″s of machine sewn binding.

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Next I loaded the BOO! quilt, I found a “cute” spider web panto to use at Wasatch Quilting . This took a bit longer than it should have, the machine was having tension issues. I couldn’t figure out if it was the bobbin or the upper thread. I ended up adjusting both through out the quilt, I am glad it was only 37 inches square. I’m happy with the randomly placed webs, especially the “O”.

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Still working on the cross stitch project, got a few more flowers done. When I was moving rooms, I found this lap/hoop stand that I had forgotten about. It helps relieve wrist pain from holding the hoop. It is a bit awkward to flip and tie off threads though.

I have been sewing a sort of secret project for the past few months, it is due to be finished in October. I have been dedicating an hour each morning to sewing on it. It seems to be working, one bite at a time. I think now that Alaska is done, I will feel less pressured to finish some things. Christmas is coming.

Be Kind

Or this and that. I am feeling less than productive this week. Although I have a few things/projects moving along, I’m having trouble being in the sewing mode. Our guests are still here, waiting anxiously for the evacuation order to be lifted from their little slice of town. I am enjoying hanging out with my friend, reminiscing about old times, talking through new times and future plans. Due to social distancing, we hadn’t really seen each other since February. Living together is easy, we get along, we cook and clean and laugh and talk and sometimes just sit and be in the moment.

I finished the binding on the paper boat quilt, going to gift it next week. When I was quilting it, I had extra backing and batting at the end of the quilt, so I was able to add a panel on to it. I got this cute panel from Connecting Threads, Fruit box labels, with the city of San Jose on them. San Jose used to be know as the valley of hearts delight (or something like that). Back in the early 1900s it was mostly fruit orchards, plums and apricots. There was also a large canning/processing area near downtown. Can you imagine the beauty of the spring bloom of all those trees? Then the subdivisions and developments moved in during the 50s and 60s. The fruit production slowed as the orchards were replaced with lawns and back yards. There are few remnants to be seen, but you have to look hard. Anyway, a friend of our lives in SJ, and has a thriving fruit orchard in his yard. I thought these placemats would be a appropriate for him. I should finish the bindings today. Also in the “to be Bound” pile is the Promenade quilt. I cut the binding, just need to sew it on.

I spent a few hours Thursday finishing moving the rest of the sewing/craft related items for the old room to the new one. I reconfigured the closet system in the new room, more shelves, and better spacing. Now everything is in one room. The old room is almost ready for habitation, just need to get rid of a few pieces of furniture, and find a place to put a large assortment of sports trophies.

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The smoke from all the wildfires is still very prevalent in our area, which doesn’t make it pleasant for outdoor activities. I am glad the temperatures are back to normal though. My electric bill was shocking this past month, they even chastised me for going over the “normal” average usage. Maybe I should treadle, save some energy, burn some calories, but I’d probably have to turn on the AC to keep cool enough to work and that would negate any savings. Besides, sewing machines don’t really use that much energy, it’s things like washing machines, dryers and refrigerators that do.

Be kind

Although we are about 10 miles from the current wildfires (CZU Lightning complex) we are mostly safe, but ready to go if the winds change so to speak. It’s really smokey outside and sometimes there is light ash fall, time to be staying indoors. We are hosting my friend and her family, their home is directly in the line of the fires. I haven’t had much time to sew this week, but I did get my two BOMs finished and the Boat quilt is 90% done. I may finish it tomorrow, just want to outline the boats.

I have also spent a few hours knitting the peacock shawl. I have ripped it out 6 times, I think I have it right, then my stitch count is off by one. It seems like if I can get it to about 6 inches in diameter, then I’ll be able to see my previous stitches better.

I’m itching to start a new project. I have been downloading the weekly clues for The Holiday Solstice quilt. Its a mystery block of the week by Michelle Renee Hiatt at Sew On The Go . If you want to get the previous 10 weeks, you’ll have to sign up for the subscription to get all the past clues. I have missed two, so I’ll probably end up buying it. I would really like to use the rest of the scraps from the Christmas figs quilt. Michelle is using the Christmas figs II fabric line and has a solids version. I also have a few kits I could start, or a few UFO’s I could finish…

I made a bit more progress on the cross stitch project too. I am getting back into the groove of chart reading and counting. Employing a highlighter helps too.

Linking up with Judy at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts for Design Wall Monday today.

Be Kind

This weekend flew by. It’s been very hot here, add staying in and sewing is happening. Sadly, not much sleep happened these past two night. Got woken up at 3:30 am on Saturday night by a massive thunder and lightening storm. The newspaper reported there were over 2500 lightening strikes in our area. That’s a lot of booming and flashing, then worrying that nothing catches fire.

Friday I pulled out the bin of holiday fabrics and choose a bunch of halloween themed prints. Started cutting squares and rectangles for the Phat Boo pattern from Sew Fresh Quilts, I got a few weeks ago. Saturday I got half of the blocks done and Sunday finished them and put the quilt top together. Its small, 37″ square, I guess it’s a wall hanging. I’m thinking a pumpkin vine pantograph would work.

There was no long arm activity happening, that room has no AC and no windows to open for a cross breeze. I am trying to pick a panto for the Alaska quilt. It’s difficult, because there are soo many to pick from. I spent about an hour on line looking through hundreds of them. Too flowery, too square, too dense, too pointy, too loopy. I want something that will give some texture, but not take away from the piecework. Something that will hold up to wear and tear and something that will quilt out fairly quickly.

This is Chinook, its about 8 inches wide, I think I’ll bump it up to 10 though. The quilt is 102″ square, so ten rows or so.

Chinook (dog), a rare breed of sled dog. Chinook hops, a variety of hops. Chinook olives, a dish of acorns cured with urine. Chinook salmon, a species of fish.

It is also a thirty-five million dollar double rotor-ed Helicopter, a Tribal name, and it means “warm wind” in Salish. I think I’ll pass on the acorn dish though.

I put a few hours into the cross stitch project. A few more flowers and some leaves. This is my before bed project, I try to stay up until 10pm, my theory is that I will sleep later, so far this isn’t the case.

Linking up with Judy at Small quilts and Doll Quilts for Design Wall Monday today.

Be Kind