I spent all day Friday working on the quilt for the lady at the sewing center. This quilt held several firsts for me. First time to try free hand spirals - love them!!! Boy can they use up a lot of thread! Also tried echo quilting for the first time. The main body of the quilt was made up of blocks that had chenille shapes in the middle of them - hearts, daisies, stars, and spirals. I echo quilted around each of the shapes. I had to call Nina for some encouragement that I wasn't going to ruin this quilt! The alternate blocks were just a solid fabric - blue with little red stars. So in those blocks I did little loopy loops with some free hand stars thrown in. About a quarter of the way into quilting this, I realized that running out of thread might be a possibility. I hadn't counted on those spirals using up so much thread. The spool on the machine was brand new - about 1100 yards. The one I was winding bobbins off of had been used a little bit for something. I figured that as long as I had thread on the bobbin spool I was ok. Eventually I used the whole bobbin spool and another yellow that had maybe three bobbins worth of thread on it. Used all those bobbins. I was down to the last bobbin of thread. I think there was maybe one bobbins' worth of thread on the spool on the machine. That last hour of quilting yesterday morning I kept saying "Please, please,please - don't let me run out of thread!!" I had half a bobbin left when I finished! Way too close for comfort! I did a big happy dance! Got it off of the machine and delivered it. They LOVED it! I was so relieved. She even gave me a good sized tip on top of the price of the quilting! Here is a picture of some of the free hand spirals.
Yesterday afternoon I got the sewing room cleaned up - especially my sewing table. It was about a foot deep in stuff. Had to have it cleaned off so that I can sew the binding on Nina's quilt. I even found the binding strips that I had already cut!
Got a pile of bills paid and reloaded the dishwasher. Put a load of laundry into wash. I may eventually get everything ready to go.
Oh - one more question for you. A week from Thursday is my mom's birthday - the big 60. Me and my sister can't think of what to get her as a present. Anyone have any great ideas? Thanks for your help!
Have a great Sunday!
Well, one thing is for sure: If I ever get to finish the project that is currently just a dream - a queensize quilt for my bed - you'll be the one quilting it!
ReplyDeleteWe gave The Husband's dad exercise clothes for his 60th. Not sentimental, but practical (Husband and dad have started playing racquetball once a week together, so it was a fitting gift).
That is some beautiful stitching. Spirals are definitely going to show up in some of my quilts. I'm glad you didn't run out of thread. Worrying about running out does add some stress to the fun of quilting.
ReplyDeleteFor the birthday, I would do something personal. Either feed some interest she has, or else a family photograph beautifully framed. Maybe you could write up a list of memories, illustrated with drawings by the grandchildren.
Love your spirals! Hope you're getting everything ready for the trip!
ReplyDeleteCan't think of anything for your mom's birthday. Mine is this week and I couldn't even think of anything I wanted!
Those spirals are fantastic! Great job with the quilting.
ReplyDeleteMy mom gave me a great gift this year for my 35th -- it came in a powder blue box with a T&Co. ribbon on it. I was almost as excited to see that box (I know, shallow of me) as I was to get the gift inside it. If your mom likes sterling silver, there are even lots of things that are within the realm of affordable. (Let me also say here and now, my gift WAS sterling -- and that's great because I love silver and the gift)
The spiral quilting looks great. I haven't done any freehand spirals for a while but looking at your quilting makes me do some. Maybe I'll play on one of the HeartStrings Chinese Coins tops I've been working on.
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