American Beauty - BOM

The local quilt shop in town ran a "block-of-the-month" in 2010 called American Beauty. I bought the blocks every month & the finishing kit in December - but I didn't make ANY of the blocks. Not in 2010.

My friend, Donna, has made one - but I can't find it on her blog.

anyway......all the blocks are made with templates. TEMPLATES! Ugh! Do you know how long it's been since I used templates? ACtually, I can't remember that I ever did - but it's possible. Let's just say, I KNOW I have not made a quilt with templates in OVER 13 years. Yes, 13.

QB1 & I needed a project to "do" on our Thursday night get-to-sew-play-date. And since SHE bought the BOM too - I figured it would be a good choice.

So today, Sunday, QB1 sends me a text & asks if I want to sew? SURE ! (course I was still in the bed when she sent the text...bless her!) So I brought my American Beauty blocks & my pineapple to sew the binding on. I suggested we use the A/B BOM to sew on Thursday's & we got busy.

Below you will see the 2 blocks that I finished today. It took us 5 hours to do 2 blocks. Can you imagine??? 5 hours???? It took longer to cut out the pieces than it did to sew. Black & white instructions are not as helpful as they could be. It would have been MUCH MORE helpful to have them in color. But we did it.

Let me tell you. My blocks ARE every bit as wonky as they appear. I'm hoping they'll lay more flat when they're set in sashing. Maybe? If they don't, well.........I know this long arm quilter that will use some really dense pattern to "quilt-it-out" !! Tee-Hee, it's ME !!!




The BOM had the option of using a dark finishing kit or a light finishing kit. QB1 is doing hers in the light. I am doing both. BOTH ? Well yeah. I'm not doing just ONE you know! Not me! I'm doing 2!!! Don't ask me why.......I thought I could make one for each of my daughters, or one for each of my sisters. But in the end, I just don't know. We'll have to see how the quilts speak to me. Either way (dark or light) they are pretty girlly. Very girlly. Even Prince Charming mentioned so.

I don't think Donna had nice things to say about making hers with templates either.

Oh! I need to tell you about the 2011 BOM! It's called "Baltimore Christmas" by P3 Designs. 100% applique.

I think I bit off more than I can EVER chew. I am totally intimidated.The appique pieces are teeny tiny. And there are miniature buttons & mini rick-rac...I think I need to give up leaving work during lunch & just sit at the conference table & applique. Oh! ALSO....I have agreed to "do" a Dear Jane quilt too. (I need to tell Chernal yes that me & QB1 will participate...) I just love being busy. I do! Keeps me lively.

Sam

More Ocean Waves Sewing & My Math Sucks

My whole family knows that my math sucks. Don't ever ask me to add 2 & 2 together. Idon't come up with 4. I just don't. So with that being said. I have got 2 of the pinwheel borders on my Ocean Waves Quilt. I still lack getting them onto to the "top" & the "bottom". Then there is suppossed to be a 6" outer blue border all the way around. In order to keep it less wide, I am thinking of making it only 4". We'll see.

The "TOP" & the "BOTTOM" are relative, as I think the quilt will only be 6 inches longer than it is wide. But again, my math pretty much sucks. So it will be what it IS when it's done. I just do not want it to be 108 inches wide or wider because all I have for backing is printed 108" wide!! I got ahead of myself & decided to put the pinwheel border on one side with the inner blue border first. Instead of putting the inner blue border on & THEN putting the pinwheel border on....That didn't work out so well, as the pinwheel border is not long enough to go to the edges of the pinwheel borders on the top/bottom. So I had to add pinwheels. I was too lazy to frog stitch it. THEN...I count out how many pinwheels I need for the opposite side...I came up 2 pinwheels short AFTER I was pinning the pinwheels to the body of the quilt. Which means the inner blue border is pieced instead of one continuous piece. I know it's pieced. I just don't LIKE it being pieced. Maybe I just need to take a break, but I'll tell you.........I am so CLOSE to getting it done!

I nned to spend some time frog-stitching on the pineapple down in the long arm room, Maybe THAT will put me int he mood for counting HST's. What do you think??? I don't think so........but I WILL frog-stitch some - just not all. And I WILL finish piecing this Ocean Waves Quilt before my birthday this month.

As you can see. It's pretty large as it is! And that's the grandbaby on there. He's getting so big! Yammers on & on all the time.

Oh - y'all see the blue painters tape on each side of the quilt , towards the bottom of the picture? Well, the grandbaby is all over that quilt becasue he can't SEE the line. The quilt is covering it up.

See? The baby is blue line trained. I put that tape on the floor & he doesn't cross it. Not any more. Took 3 days of convincing him not to cross it, but he doens't cross it. So once it was covered up? He thought it was his okay to play on it. No line right?...Kids are so funny & definately predictable.

Sam

PS: This patter is the free Ocean Waves off of Bonnie Hunter's website: www.quiltville.com . Did you know that nobidy has submitted a finished quilt from this pattern for her to add tot he bottom of her instructions? I SO want mine on there. Great instructions, but I'll tell you it is definately a labor of love. It is a stunningly beautiful quilt (in real life!) The photos just do not do it justice. The blue is gorgeous.

Craigslist Purchase

We have 3 bedrooms & DD#2 & grandson #1 are living with us. When GS#1 gets set up in his own room, we'll no longer have a "spare" room. I have been scouting CraigsList for a daybed & trundle. Will I found one. It has a pop up trundle under that daybed. The mattresses are barely used. And the bedding too.

That quilt is mine, I made it a long while ago. The daybed ensemble that it came with is RED & though RED is my favorite color, it was OVERWHELMING for this space. The lady that sold it to me was SO sweet & I am fortuneate that she workded with me for me to get it. She gave me both matresses as well as the bedding. She also gave me some baby toys & books. It was a really great experience. She said she was moving back to "the city" & was going to be downsizing.

We have this in our upstairs family room.



Oh, by-the-way, it's an exact match to the L.L. Bean iron bed I have in the masterbedroom. I had been drooling over the one that L.L. Bean has in thier catalog, but it's just not in the budget for *new*. I am very fortunate that I got what I did, from who I did!

I love CraigsList!

Sam

Handy Me

I feel handy! Normally I leave the home improvment or home repairs to Prince Charming. But since what I "fixed" is not used by him often enough for it to bother him, I figured I would do it.

The little light under the microwave that shines on the stove top has been out for a while. By "a while" I mean more than 6 months. Maybe longer....Well today I decided HOW HARD CAN IT BE ??? Probably mounting a new microwave would have been easier......

So I dig out a phillips head screw driver & remove the screw that holds the cover. Icky! No matter how clean you are, there ARE dead bugs in there. Yuck. Anyway I thought there would be a screw in bulb. Turns out there are 2 prong type halogen bulbs. They came out pretty easy. Went to Lowe's and after looking through the asortment & matching the prongs & matching the little spring in the bulb, I come home with 2 halogen bulbs. You can't TOUCH those things. So? How's THAT gonna work?

Well, let me tell you! I had to nearly lay on the stove top to stick those jobbies IN. They only go in one way. One went in with no problem. The second was more challenging. It probably took less time than I thought, but I was in a very uncomfortable position. Got them in, re-screwed the light plate in.

And? Viola! LIGHT. Under the microwave! We use it as a night light. (During the summer / warmer months you certainly can NOT cook with that light on - or you get willing protein volunteers - later to be dead bugs!) I'm glad I got it done.

On a good note, I don't know what I did right, but I finally got my longarm machine to stop breaking the thread. I took the presser foot plate off & cleaned that area. It was much more clean than I anticpated. Rethreaded again. Now I have to readjust my tension. AND......I have a whole row of quilting to frog stitch.

A. Whole. Row. It's 95 inches wide. Pretty sure it would never come apart, but I have spent way too much time on this quilt to leave that row in it, so I'll frog. Frog & frog some more. But when I get it done, it will be worth it.

That's what I keep telling myself anyway..............

Sam

Argh! Quilting Frustrations!!

I am So frustrated. You know? Somedays are good & somedays are bad. Today? It's bad. It's been a bad THREE days. I can not figure it out. I loaded my pineapple quilt & I have had problem after problem, after problem.........I'm tired of it.

My top thread keeps breaking.
My tension is good.
It's not tight, it's not loose.
I have changed my bobbin genie.
I have rethreaded the machine.
I have even changed to a NEW cone of thread.
I replaced the needle.
I raised the hopping foot.

Same. Issue. Over & over.

I can quilt about 10 inches, then the thread breaks again! ARGH!!!! I feel like kicking something. I'd probably break my foot if I kick anything in my longarm room.

I am ONE row past half way done & I just want it DONE.

Now I am angry. i don't even want to go down there becasue I KNOW the thread is gonna break.

I am NOT even going to LOOK at that room down there. Not right now.

It was a perfect day to get it done too. I had the time & everything.

I am just gonna go sew on my Ocean Waves Quilt. Period.

I don't know if (or how) it will get better but I'm not fighting it right now.

I'll let you know how it turns out.

See Ya!

Sam

Weather

Folks, I am in middle TN & it's snowed. Again. While it's nice to look at, it would have been better if it showed up on Friday night instead of Monday morning. everything is closed. Schools, stores, businesses.

I am very fortunate that I have the ability to work from home. Limited. But - none-the-less, it's effective.

If I can get any pictures, I'll post them. But I will likely stay warm/dry/inside!!

Happy Monday y'all.



Sam