No sewing for me, either! Tendinitis in the right wrist, coupled with leaving for Europe on Monday for 3 weeks, having Mom and MIL here to house/dog-sit, helping DS finish staining 50 beer-flight trays he is making for a friend's wedding... and dog-sitting for our NEW granddog leaves NO time to sew!

I will be blogging our trip ... I hope! I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!
Sue

Sue...have a wonderful trip! I must say I'm a little jealous, three weeks in Europe sounds like a wonderful adventure to me. I believe Toolgranny went on a trip last year...again my gills turned green :-). Europe is on bucket list!

Yes I plan to sew! I took today off...will run some errands this morning, but intend to start a lap size quilt for my niece as well as sandwich another top. DH will be out of the house part of the time golfing. Big smile! Four days off...a little gardening and a lot of sewing...aaahhhhh!!!
Enjoy the Memorial Day holiday!
V.

Not sure what will happen this weekend sewing wise. We have a painter coming in next week to do the entire first floor so think I will be taking down pictures and collecting all the "stuff" on tables and shelves.
I hope you all have a lovely holiday weekend.
Theresa

I plan to quilt this weekend. I have my challenge quilt sandwiched and ready to quilt. I also have borders cut for a quilt that needs to go on the frame. I hope to start cutting for a couple of other quilts. I am already planning what I want to work on at retreat this year. I like to have it all cut and ready to go.

Jackie

Sue, it sounds like you're going to need that vacation! Wow! Have a wonderful trip - I can't wait to follow your adventures through your blog.

We have friends coming for dinner Sunday, so I'll be cleaning house Sun. a.m. But tomorrow and Monday I plan to sew, unless DH has other plans for me. :) I decided to put a piano key border on my contrary wife quilt so I started cutting them yesterday. I also (finally!) started cutting scraps into Bonnie Hunter's sizes so I plan to keep doing that as I'm cutting the piano keys. Anyway, hopefully I will get that top finished this weekend.

Donna

I might. I got this scrappy windmill quilt sandwiched yesterday. Now I'm trying to decide how to finish it. (Quilting). It's really big so I probably will make it simple and no FMQing.

I want to! I was home sick for 2 days and felt too terrible to even sew; that's just not fair. It will be hot in Orlando this weekend and DH Jim has to spend some time working on a work project, so I may sneak in some sewing time.

I'm cutting fabric as we speak, while waiting dinner to heat up. I'm not going to make a prediction of how many fan blocks I'll get made. I'll just surprise myself.

DD is coming into town, so we have to have some play time, too.

A picture is worth a thousand words, and a thousand little pillows to knot. Thanks to Vickie 4 x 4 years ago letting me know it can be done by machine.

I just might get in the sewing room(aka...a corner of the dining room) this PM.
I had 20 small quilt sandwiches that I used for FMQ practice. I want to join them together and make a kitty/doggie bed for the animal shelter. The FMQ isn't the best but the critters won't care about that.
Not likely to get anything else done as I am finding it difficult to concentrate.
Hope all of you enjoy and appreciate the weekend's pleasures.

~Geraldine

Today I will be making some more baby burp cloths for the double baby shower on June 8. My sister and my niece plus good friends, mother and daughter, are giving a double shower for the two young expectant moms - so I'm making about 8 burp cloths for my niece and 8 for her good friend.

I have yet to start the baby quilt for my niece's expected baby boy. But I do have the fabric and may make some blocks this long weekend.

Teresa

Teresa, What pattern do you use for the burp cloths? My 7th great-grandbaby is on the way.

I'm not doing much of anything today except heading to JoAnn's. I have a $25 gc from Christmas that I want to use. The store is close to Steak N Shake so will probably have lunch there as DH says he's been thinking about wanting to go there.

Calliope, Is this how you are tacking the quilt? I have one sandwiched that I could do this on. Think I'll give it a try.

SharonG/FL

Here is a link that might be useful: Fit to be tied

Have a good time Sue. I went again in April and the jet lag getting home was worse than last year so it might be awhile before I go again.

Well, now its making baby quilts for me. A friend is expecting twins and I made quilts for her first two ( I thought they would be the only two at the time) so I feel a bit obligated. I have a nice group of coordinated fabrics in soft peach and soft lime green and am reversing them so the same fabrics make two different quilts. It's just a simple Irish Chain.

Our Beverly's has batiks 25% off this month so I had to stock up on another quilt's worth yesterday. It's hard to resist batiks.

Lady from church called wanting me to hang a room full of my quilts for display and can I do it TODAY. She's known about it for a couple of weeks. Can you imagine! I'll do it Wednesday. I won't do it today just as a matter of principle and maybe she won't call me next time.

Just a quiet weekend at home. Really need to get out in the yard and fix a couple of sprinklers so I'll just putter about.

Have lots of safe fun on your trip, Sue...

Toolgranny, the nerve! I think you made the right decision, waiting out of principle... people take too much for granted!

Calliope, is that your puff quilt? I can't tell because the picture is dark, but it looks great! I saw the demo on HSN for that Singer Heavy Duty machine, and it looked like it can sew pretty fast...

I'm too upset to do anything as fun as sewing... the a/c blower fan in my car is blowing fuses and I've had it at the mechanic 3 times and they can't figure out what the problem is... I've gone this whole week without a/c, which would be lovely, but I live in FL and it's the summer... I'm using a place close to me because they take me back home and I don't have to sit in the waiting room for hours, but if they don't have any answers for me today, I'm going to have to make an appointment with the Honda dealer... I simply cannot keep going through this! Haven't sewn since it happened and will be too upset to do so until it gets resolved!

My mechanic saw my quilt cutting/pressing mat in the back seat it brought up the subject of sewing, and then machines, and now he wants me to embroider his company logo on all his employee's shirts... the problem is that I don't have any digitizing software and I do not want to turn my fun hobby into another job...

Hope everyone has a fun weekend :o)

B

This post was edited by vacuumfreak on Sat, May 24, 14 at 12:03

Sharon, here is the link to the burp cloth tutorial on Purl Bee. I try to get the thickest flannel I can find. At my local Hobby Lobby, the white flannel was not as thick as the yellow and oatmeal, so I got those two colors and used up the white I had in my stash.

I make mine 9-inches by 18-inches instead of the size in the tutorial. I use soft colors of quilting fabric from my stash to back the flannel. These are easy to make and I think the flannel is less expensive than buying a dozen cloth diapers.

Teresa

Here is a link that might be useful: Burp cloth tutorial on Purl Bee

Linda I want to see your Hungry Caterpillar quilts when you get them finished, my son loved the Hungry Caterpillar book when he was little. Sue I hope you enjoy your trip.

I am starting to hand-quilt row #4 of my parents' Card Tricks quilt this weekend. Last week I collaborated with my good friend Christy and made plastic templates for a Kaleidoscope Quit that will be scrappy quilts for her and me to work on in the future. This week we are going RVing and will be taking a few Granny Square quilt blocks to hand-piece that will be part of a baby quilt I am making for my cousin's wife who is due this fall. I have a sinus infection and have started antibiotics for that and M-I-L who lives with us is sick with really bad back pains so I am on full kitchen and laundry duty this weekend. School is out and we are getting to sleep in in the mornings, ... all in all not a bad week, and I have the motorhome almost fully loaded, the bulk of it is done anyway other than just needing to load some last minute things the morning of the trip. Hope everyone enjoys their weekend.

Best to you and yours,
Sandra

Ugh, Bobby, no car a/c in the summer!? I sure hope they get it fixed soon. We had DH's car in to have the brakes fixed this week. He knew they were getting dangerous. Turns out they were so bad pretty much everything had to be replaced! He also desperately needed new tires, so the total bill was $2400! OUCH! No trips to JoAnn's for me for a while! :(

Donna

Thank you, Teresa, I appreciate it.

SharonG/FL

Yes, Bobby, this is the puff quilt and yes, that's the Singer Heavy Duty. I picked it because I often sew denim and canvas and only need a simple stitcher. You betcha it sews fast. I've never put the throttle down yet and let it rip. I'd wear a hard hat and safety glasses if I did. LOL. Sharon, the last puff quilt I made, I used heavy cotton yarn, did it by hand over the seams between each puff. It took me forever, and it was a bugger and I ended up using a pair of pliers to pull it through. I decided to put the knot into each pillow smack dab in the middle this time and since they're small pillows at three inches, it will give it a good, firm union. I'm so thrilled at machine knotting this, and did one other quilt for my g'daughter with a button on each block by machine using that function. It certainly is quicker and with over a thousand knots, I am glad. I don't usually knot quilts, prefer quilting, but there isn't a good way to quilt the puffs, unless you SITD, and the seams on this type of quilt would make that so bulky to work with.

Donna.... wow, that is quite a bill! A/C won't be fixed until Wednesday, waiting on a part... they replaced 3 shorted wires, a bad relay, and a melted connector, but now need a resistor... ugh indeed!

Wow, Calliope, you work fast! I remember you were talking about starting a puff quilt around the time I did, and I've only gotten this much done! Got bored, but I want to finish eventually... I chain pieced and haven't gotten all the rows sewn to each other yet... are you doing a bar tack or just a small row of straight stitches every so often to quilt it?
Glad you like your power tool machine. :-) I know when I use a mechanical, I'm much less distracted by features and gadgets and really focus more on the actual project...

Nevermind, I'm such a dunce, Calliope, I just saw where you said you are knotting right in the middle of the pillows... are you just zig zagging in place?

This post was edited by vacuumfreak on Sun, May 25, 14 at 0:16

Yes, Bobby.........zig zagging in place. I understand the boredom factor on puff quilts, but I was aiming for a "mindless" quilt project and it sure got it.

You inspired me to work on mine last night at 3 AM.... thanks! I sewed all the rows together.... my Brother which has never failed to do anything I ask struggled, and my Bernina, which has at times made me invent swear words, went through 8 layers of pleats and cross seams like a hot knife through butter... score one for Nina... I want it to be larger, so gotta make more puffs.... and I totally get the mindless thing... I love doing those types of things at sit and sews.... too busy talking to do anything that requires thought!

I've made a couple of burp cloths via Teresa's way and have a couple more cut out and ready to sew. DH is heading out to help the SIL put a Jeep back together so I'll be left alone to do as I please. Maybe I'll play with my scraps and/or get the sewing area straightened up.

Have a good and safe day, everyone!

SharonG/FL

Well, I got the quilt loaded on the frame and quilted the first border, then decided I don't feel like quilting. :( I spent some time going through my books and magazines and pulled some to go to the boutique at the next quilt show. Now I don't know what I feel like doing, so here I am on the computer! Trying to resist going shopping. LOL

Donna