Monday, Monday....on my longarm instead of Design Wall

This weekend we had a little get away.  The whole family went to my dad's in Iowa and we went to the Iowa State Fair.

Couldn't loose our guys with the bright colored shirts!

(Left to right:  my husband, Rod; my son, Aaron; my step-mother, Pat; my dad, Joel.)

 

As we entered the Fairgrounds, the Big Green Egg welcomed us.  Our neighbors have served us many great meals from their Big Green Egg smoker.

 

Of course, the guys wanted to check out the horse power.

 

Photo Opportunity!!

 

Yes, I felt like Edith Ann in this big chair.

 

I got home yesterday afternoon and rested a while.  Then headed to the basement to load and quilt this black and white quilt.  I completed 2 of the 7.5 rows before going to bed.  Started on it again this morning and finished it about 10am. 

 

Today I am linking up with Judy at Patchwork Times.

 

Yours in quilting,

Terry

 

 

 

 

Work in Progress Wednesday

Today I got up and went straight to work quilting on the swimming trunk or boxer quilt.

It is now fully quilted.  Full view will be shown on Friday Finishes.

 

I met with the kitchen planner yesterday afternoon and we have our kitchen planned.  I came home and went over the planning with Rod and we are in agreement.  That's a good feeling. 

 

Tonight I get some free time to attend the Gems of the Prairie meeting in Peoria. 

 

I am leaving my son home to do laundry. Hahaha!

 

Yours in quilting,

Terry

Block of the Month Links

Many of my quilting friends are following along with me on several Block of the Month quilts.

 

Quilt Doodle Designs 2014 BOM:  This month's blocks look like peppermint hard candies.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-UGYD12TSr-WWF5am5wTzhVQTg/edit?usp=sharing

 

Country Threads 2014 BOM (scrappy): This month's block makes a chevron row.

http://www.countrythreads.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/August-BOM2.pdf

 

The third Block of the Month is with Quilter's Garden Quilt Shop in Princeton, IL.  It is a Barn Quilt that they have designed.  I have my July blocks finished and will be getting August's pattern next week.  If you are interested in their barn quilt you may contact them thru their website at www.quiltersgardenonline.com.

 

Late this morning I did some cooking for the week.  I baked bacon for Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato sandwiches tomorrow night.  Tonight we had BBQ chicken on the grill.  Sorry it disappeared before I could take a picture.  The menu is planned for the rest of the week.  I have to work a few nights at my mall job so I am preparing meals the family can heat-n-eat without me.

 

I also had a large zucchini given to me.  The blog, Chef-in-Training, had posted 50 recipes to use with zucchini.  I made Zucchini Cookies.  Melt in your mouth good and super moist. You are suppose to frost them but they are so good they never got frosted.

 

All in all it was a productive day.  Today I have linked with Connie at Freemotion on the River.

 

Yours in quilting,

Terry

 

Friday Finishes - 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 is started!

Woo Boy, this has been quite a week.  I have been little quiet in the blogging area.  I have been busy at finishing my Sales Lead Team training at my mall job.  For the next five months I will a SLT, or similar to an assistant to the managers.  I am happy to say I have completed 50 hours of training.  Next the on-the-job training that comes along with doing all the daily activities.  So that is finish #1.

 

Finish #2 is Kansas Troubles quilt.

I used Magnifico thread for the quilting and the quilting pattern is falling leaves b2b.

 

#3 is cool winter scene and I used Off White Magnifico thread and snowflake e2e.

 

 

 

Finish #4 is this beautiful teal, brown and cream butterfly quilt.

I used Coffee Glide thread and the flutterby pattern by Handi Quilter.  This one I delivered in person as my friend, Stephanie, had her right knee replaced last week.  I sewed the binding on at her house and she is finishing the hand work on the binding while recuperating.

 

Last, but not the least, #5 the biggest quilt of the week is still on the machine.

I am quilting waves over all these very cool swim trunks or boxers.

 

I will share with you that I am not super woman and my body is paying the price for all the hours I have put in day and night for the last two weeks.  This morning I arrived at the vet with our horse at 8 a.m. 35 miles away and then took him back to the pasture as well as cleaned the barn.  This afternoon, Rascal, my Yorkie and I curled up for a long nap.  I went into work at the mall at 6:30pm.

Hopefully, I will get a good night's rest tonight and will feel a little more human tomorrow.

 

Today I am linking up with ..... Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Link a Finish Friday, Freedom Fridays, and Crazy Mom Quilts. 

 

Yours in quilting,

Terry

 

Friday Finish

Happy Friday!  I am so excited I finished the t-shirt quilt.  I originally had started out doing a meander with loops on the quilt but it just didn't trip my trigger.  I was getting a ridge between the sashings and the t-shirt blocks, so the quilting was not even enough.  So I started looking through my patterns on the computer.  I am so excited with the results.  The quilt lays really nice now.  I started chuckling at myself yesterday as I finished this quilt.  I have said many times that I do not do custom quilting, but this quilt is all custom quilted.  So lesson learned -- I do custom quilt. :)

                                         Below are a few close ups of the blocks.

 

This was the most difficult block, quilting gray on gray.

 

Double loop quilting in sashings.

While I am working this is what goes on under my sewing table.  These two grew up together and size doesn't matter.  Just a bunch of monkey business going on.

 

Have a great weekend.  I have the weekend off from the mall.  Plan to enjoy some family time and hope to get a few more quilts done.  I have a few deadlines to meet for the quilt store competition in August.

 

 

Today I am linking up with ..... Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Link a Finish Friday, Freedom Fridays, and Crazy Mom Quilts. 

 

Yours in quilting,

Terry

 

 

 

Tuesday Tip

Have you ever had trouble quilting on gray fabric with gray thread or black on black, etc?  Today I was working on a t-shirt quilt and ran into that very problem.  Each quilt I finish on the longarm teaches me something.  Mostly humility, but today I had to dig back in my memory on how to solve this issue.  I remember visiting with Jamie Wallen in his studio in Michigan City and he showed me light bars he hung on his longarm.  This allowed the light to shine sideways and you could see the texture of where you had already quilted.  It also helps sometimes to turn your overhead lighting off in the room. 

So here is what I rigged up on a moments notice.  I taped my battery operated light to the tube my batting had been wrapped on. 

 

I adjusted the angle of the light by running a piece of tape from the tube to the up take roller and pinned the tape to hold the light at the right angle to make the thread show up so I could see where I had already quilted.  Blue painter's tape is a wonderful thing.  It does not leave residue behind. 

 

Below is one view of the gray thread on gray t-shirt. 

 

This is a little lower angle, with overhead lighting off. 

 

This may also be a problem on your domestic machine when free motion quilting.  Try turning your room's overhead lighting off or down and using an Ott light at the side or back of your machine.

 

Today I am linking up with Kathe with an E, Freemotion by the River, and Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story.

 

Yours in quilting,

Terry

Design Wall Monday

Hope everyone had a great weekend!  I had to work at the mall each day but got a chance to come home and hang out with my family, also.  Saturday, we joined the neighbors for a picnic and bags games.

Even the dogs had a play date.  This is Daisy the Silky Terrier in the front and Rascal our Yorky in the back. 

 

Rascal liked hanging out with Ashley.

 

After the picnic I went home and sewed.  I had a baby shower to attend the next day.  I made this Shannon baby quilt.

Below are the expectant parents, Chance and Jade.

The cake was yummy with butter cream frosting. 

 

Chance built this marshmallow toaster.  You light the sterno cans and roast your marshmallows and they had jars of chocolate and graham crackers for making smores.  I'm not sure who was the biggest kid here?

 

This was a co-ed shower, so the guys played bags and then switched to this life-sized game of Jenga. 

It was about 5.5 feet tall before it tumbled down.  Watch your toes! 

 

It was a fun shower and they received many great gifts for the baby.

 

Today I am linking up with Judy at Patchwork Times.

 

Yours in quilting,

Terry