Good morning and Happy Tuesday! If you're looking for my Long Arm Linky party, that's in a separate post here, where I've written about my favorite method of joining batting scraps together. This post is my wrap-up/reckoning regarding what I accomplished last week and what I'm hoping to get done in this last full week of September.
Looking at goals from last week, I hear the band Meatloaf singing in my head: "Now don't be sad, 'cause two out of three ain't bad!"
Recap of Last Week's Goals:
- ✅ Load & Quilt pantograph on Veteran's Quilt
- ❌ Piece another block for my Moda Modern Building Blocks sampler
- ✅ Load Butterfly Clam Shell quilt
The veteran's quilt for my guild's outreach donations came out great, using a new-to-me pantograph design called Flirty Bubbles. I know, it doesn't sound like it would be appropriate for a soldier's quilt, but when I quilted this pattern onto a top full of red, white and blue patriotic fabrics, it came out looking like confetti and streamers at a military parade welcoming soldiers home. I love it! You can see that finish and read about how I use my channel locks to ensure that a fully floated quilt top comes out square here.
I didn't get around to piecing another block from my MMBB sampler, but I did get my 42" x 42" Baby Clam Shells quilt loaded on the frame, finally! I was slowed down first by my backing being too small and needing to find a coordinating fabric in my stash to splice into it, and then by my backing being too small... The motto for this week seems to have been "I Cut It Twice and It's Still Too Short!"
Meanwhile, as I was piecing my backing and my batting, and as I was lying in bed trying to fall asleep, my brain was working through how I want to quilt this one. This is a baby/toddler quilt that is destined for heavy use, and it's also EXCEPTIONALLY late (the "baby" is almost two!). So although I can see all kinds of possibilities in my mind for how I could custom quilt this, I need to keep it simple.
I really like the sweet simplicity of the Daisies Galore pantograph from Timeless Quilting, pictured above, but I cannot bring myself to just trample those broderie perse butterfly appliqués with an E2E (Edge-to-Edge). If I had computer robotics on my long arm machine, I could designate each applique as a No Sew Zone and program the computer to stitch the E2E design across the entire quilt EXCEPT for the butterflies. But I'll be doing this by hand, guiding the machine along a paper pattern from the back of the frame where I don't have good visibility of where I am on the actual quilt surface while I'm operating the machine.
Here's what I've come up with as a workaround: I'm going to get out that leftover butterfly print fabric and use my light box to trace each of my butterflies onto a piece of paper that I can cut out and use as a template. Alternatively, I could sacrifice more fabric and just cut out the actual butterflies from the fabric to use as my templates. When quilting a pantograph row that will encounter a butterfly, I'll position and tape down the butterfly on the clear plastic covering my pantograph pattern at the back of the table to mark a "manual no sew zone" for myself. Then, when I'm quilting the pantograph row, I can stop when I get close to the butterfly, move to the front of the machine to work my way around the applique, and then complete the rest of that row of quilting from the back of the machine. Wish me luck!
My Baby Clam Shell quilt was my one and only One Monthly Goal for September, and I really want to have it quilted, labeled and bound before October first rolls around. With that in mind, here's my To-Do list for the upcoming week:
This Week's Goal(s):
- Quilt Modern Baby Clam Shells
That's IT, y'all! If I get just that ONE thing done this week, I will be doing the happy dance of success! But, just for kicks, here are a few "bonus goals" to which I'll turn my attention in the even that quilting goes quickly and without incident, and I find myself able to accomplish a bit more:
- Design & embroider Baby Clam Shells label
- Trim Clam Shells, applique label, & bind
- Begin cutting and piecing the quilt for Miss Clam Shell's baby brother, whose arrival is expected on or about October 1st (fabrics for his quilt are going into the machine for prewashing as soon as I finish typing this post)
- Cut and piece one more block for Anders' Moda Modern Building Blocks sampler
MONDAY
· Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts
· Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt
TUESDAY
· To-Do Tuesday at Home Sewn By Us
WEDNESDAY
· Midweek Makers at Quilt Fabrication
· Wednesday Wait Loss at The Inquiring Quilter
11 comments:
I love the butterflies that you added!
Sometimes that one thing is the best thing to concentrate on for the week! Good luck getting the Baby Clam Shells quilted!
Great job on the veteran quilt. You came up with a great way to mark your panto for the butterfly. I will have to remember that in the event I ever do a panto again!
The veterans quilt looks lovely. I’m sure the recipient will love and care for it.
I’m looking forward to seeing the clamshell quilt work around for the butterflies. I love mechanical puzzles and this is a good one.
We have clear air for 3 days! Yay! The wind is to shift later this week and a hot spell is coming. We are hoping the smoke will be much lighter when it returns. After 30 days of hazardous air I’m ready for it to end. Even with closed doors and recirculated and filtered air, I found a thin covering of black when the floors and window sills were wiped. I’m sure my walls , furniture and everything else has that fine film. I even found a super thin layer in the refrigerator! I won’t work on walls and upholstry until it is done burning for the year. This is nuts.
Hi Rebecca! I saved your post for last so that I could check out some of your linky party friends. Thanks for the nice closeup shot of the quilting on your Veteran's quilt. I love that design and that it is an interesting pattern yet not too dense. I think that is something I could actually mimic on my DSM. I think your solution for skipping the butterflies sounds perfect. As is the Daisies Galore panto perfect for this quilt. I'm a big fan of E2E designs - I suppose mainly because I hate burying threads. Good luck, my friend. I know you'll have it all finished this week. Thanks for linking up! ~smile~ Roseanne
Your patriotic quilt is so very pretty! Yes, the quilting does look like a parade! Beautiful! Oh! And that baby quilt? It's so happy and cheerful! The butterfly in the middle is a great addition! I really liked how you reversed the clamshells. Very nice.
Cute butterflies, visiting from all the linky parties!
I had to laugh when you asked how do we keep track of our batting scraps. I am not NEARLY as adventurous as you in trying lots of new things. I bought one type of batting for the first quilt I ever made and since I liked how it turned out, have never bought anything different since! I am such a creature of habit. So no trouble sorting scraps and I do use that zig zag method to create a Frankenbat. LOVE LOVE LOVE your clam shell quilt and looking forward to seeing how you quilt it.
When I do things like that backing issue, I've decided to call them "throwdowns". I throw down my rotary cutter (closed, of course) and stomp off. Haha! Like you, though, I'd be pondering while I was sleeping (or trying to). I do like the quilting design you've chosen for the clamshell quilt. It will be a good finish!
You changed your blog's name??? I will still think of you as Cheeky Cognoscenti :-) The clamshell quilt is a beauty - insert heart eyes here. And the blue, red and white starry quilt is so handsome - insert drool emoji here. I don't know what movie you are watching but soldier and flirty are totally (absolutely, naturally, but-of-course) together. Remember Kitty and Lydia go absolutely crazy about the officers at Meryton? And then dancing with the officers at the Netherfield Ball? I just self-soothed myself with Pride and Prejudice. Hugs to you. Stay Safe and Stay Strong, Sister!!!
That veteran's quilt does look patriotic with that quilting design. Great choice! And I love your solution to the butterfly problem. Ingenious! Thanks for sharing on Wednesday Wait Loss.
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