Once again I received a happy layer cake from a blog reader. It called for a bit of magic. I went back to Magic Stars for inspiration and had a happy cutting and piecing time. What a delightful quilt this is to sew.
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| Laid out at retreat |
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| Sewn up at retreat |
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| Border on at home to make it big enough |
Finally, after years, I quilted the One block wonder sunflowers quilt. It was a lot of fun to do. This was before the tension woes. Thank you to everyone who left helpful comments including ones that were anonymous ones.
I don't mean global or economic tensions, but longarm tension issues. For the past month I have been plagued by tension issues on my longarm. I have tried everthing I could think of, but the thread keeps shredding making progress slow and painful. I have had Pixel Chain on the machine for over a month and it is not done. The tension seems inconsistent and wandering. I have tried new needles, pre wound bobbins, self wound bobbins, Glide, Masterquilter top threads, PremoSoft, Glide 60, Decobob in the bobbin. Clean, polish and clean some more. I may have to ante up and have my dealer come in from a distance to give some assistance. I love to quilt, but it is not going well. It is very wearying.
I have gone back and forth with emails from my dealer and the last suggestions from her greatly minimized the shredding (using the same thread top and bottom and changing the tension setting on the bobbin case to 225- Towa Gauge), but I got the quilt off the longarm. I loaded another on and will start over again hoping that it is resolved.
I did finish the 3 Dudes quilt with a border. Rosie is inspecting and wrecking the design wall, multi tasking. I think it came out great, thanks Julie for curating and cutting all that fabric.
I adore Christmas cactus plants especially the blooms. This year, I got an extra special plant from a man in my cardiac rehab who moved from our area to Madison, Wisconsin. He had to give away all his plants as he moved in this weather. I got two of the plants, but I am showing the prize one in this post. Oh my, it is a star show.
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| The start |
One of the quilts I worked on the retreat was one from QuiltDiva Julie. She gave me two that used the same rail fence type pattern. I did make the first one according to plan, but when I started sewing the second one, I got fidgety. I looked and thought and rembered the 3 Dudes quilt from MSQC I made long ago. It would lend itself perfectly with no waste.
I started with the same rail fence blocks, Light Dark Light Dark Light and Dark Light Dark Light Dark, but then I placed them right sides together and sewed all around them. Then I cut them diagonally from corner to corner twice.
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| Sewn quilt, it did get a border to make it wider (shown another day)- no fabric wasted from what Julie sent me! |
I have no idea why I cannot keep up here. Why is it so hard to post on a regular basis? I take the photos and get them off the camera into folders and then I cannot sit and write the posts. It is frustrating. I read everyone else's everyday, but not write my own. I lost a whole month.
At the beginning of November, my quilt guild had its fall retreat. It was bigger than the six it had dwindled down due to covid fears. We were up to 14! It was a great time of sharing and working with others, seeing how others do things and asking each other for suggestions/critiques. Just wonderful. As we work, we put the done work on the railing into the room down the ramp. It gets exciting seeing the work build up. We have the retreat at Stella Niagara, which is a facility that used to be headquarters for a certain group of nuns and a school. There still is a little school there. It sits on a perch above the Niagara River just north of Lewiston, NY (Artpark) and south of Youngstown, NY (Fort Niagara and Lake Ontario). Gorgeous walks when you need a break.
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| Made from old tie pieces left over from a larger quilt |
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| Finished from a UFO left at the guild sharing table |
