Boy, I sure hope so! I've been still dealing with mom issues so have not had much time in the sewing room.

Mom was back in the hospital most of this week. The good news is they released her yesterday and she agreed to come to a rehab facility in Orlando! She seemed pretty content when they got her settled in last night. It will be good to not have an hour drive to see her.

Anyway, I'm working on blocks for a swap so would like to get those finished this weekend.

Donna

I doubt that I will be quilting this weekend. 70 degrees tomorrow, before the 40's and even a 38 deg hit next week. I hope to garden all day Saturday.

I hope so. I have a birthday block to make before Thanksgiving . And I need to put the binding on a quilt for my daughter. If I get to my sewing room I may not come out. Darlene

I hope to get the wedding autograph quilt closer to done. It came off the frame today but needs borders - which I quilt on my table top - and the carpenter's star in the middle quilted. I'll be glad when this one is done.

I also have a craft project I must finish for a guild exchange next week. If it works, I'll post a picture.

I spent my morning working at my church's clothes closet and then the afternoon in town with M-I-L, so got very little housework done today. I have about 47 more rows left on my son's crochet Ripple afgan which I want to give him for Christmas so that is getting priority this weekend and next week. I got my fabric cut for my November Lotto block, but not sure if I am going to have time to sew it this month with all the family Christmas gifts that I will be making, so at the rate this month is progressing and as busy as December will be it may be 2013 before I complete my Lotto Depression blocks. I have not had time to do any sewing this week. When I have time I try to trace and cut out fabric pieces for blocks and then put 1 block's fabric in a ziplock bag and store it for later. Hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving!

Best to you and yours,
quiltingfox

In holiday denial here, my only concession being gifts to an orphan we need to get wrapped and sent early. The free motion quilting foot I ordered online arrived this morning, so of course that meant it went directly to the sewing room to give it a trial run. It was a blessing in disguise when I immediately began spewing out bird's nest knots and jamming. My new machine has a hair-trigger bobbin and it's been a practise in patience to use it as it throws tantrums. No way do I want a quilt under the presser foot and do that dance. I finally figured what that particlar problem is, when the machine started coming apart in sections so I could watch the mechanism do its dance. The upper thread wasn't always clearing the bobbin case (the same reason I replaced the original machine). It's a production problem to that model, I suspect, and was easily remedied by just the thinnest of spacers under the bobbins when I put them in. I used to work in manufacturing engineering, and QC and it made me sigh because something so simple as that has stopped this from being a good machine. The company certainly must be aware of it. Next problem to tackle is what is making the thread get gobbled up by the tension in the feed, hung and causing the thread to break. I did some samples, see what you gals have been talking about concerning steady speed, and think I can and will enjoy using that technique.

I have 15 yards of 90 wide muslin washed and ready to load on the frame. Hope I get to do some chain-quilting for Sandy relief.

These 14 hour work days gotta go.

beverly

I hope to complete the final touches on the quilt top I assembled at the retreat...but I think that was last weeks goal as well...really...I'm gonna get er done :-)
It's a three day weekend for me, and my last chance to just sit and sew without interruption...so sew I will go. Of course, the grocery shopping, pick up the dry cleaning, laundry all have to fit in there somewhere as well...

Calliope...it sounds like a real mechanical challenge you have going on with your machine...what brand/model do you have?

V.

Not exactly quilting.
When I bought my Designer 1 (used), the seller included about 30 embroidery programs, some on 3 1/2 floppy, but mostly on CD. Since the machine takes the floppy, I have FINALLY figured out how to transfer from CD to floppy. So I will be spending part of today doing that.
As well, I have washed up a "truckload" of batiks for the next wedding quilt and they are in the dryer right now and then will be ironed.
So not quilting but dreaming of quilting.
Theresa

We have gorgeous weather and I need to clean my patio AGAIN!

I finished the Susies on the IC and hopefully can start on the binding this weekend, I want to give it to her Thanksgiving.

I put the applique aside and started hand embroidering snowmen for a Christmas quilt.

Looking forward to the pics!!!!!
Rosa

Rosa, our weather is gorgeous,too! I hope it lasts a while.

Donna

Well, I went shopping yesterday and picked up a few gifts for Christmas. The light on my quilting machine was burned out so I bought a bulb at Joann's. It was the wrong size so I had to go to the dealer to get the right size today. While in that town, I went to a new quilt shop. It is a small shop but has very nice fabrics. DH was waiting in the car so I didn't take as long as I wanted.
I loaded a quilt on the frame this afternoon. I may quilt tonight if I have enough energy.
Linda OH

Trying to get organized for my guild retreat Nov 20-22 and a craft sale I have a table at on the 24th. I have a few crib quilt panels to spray baste so I can just do some simple machine quilting. It is supposed to be a nice day tomorrow...65-70F so hopefully I can do them outside on a picnic table. I also have to make 5 postcards for an online exchange. Hopefully I can get myself organized so I can accomplish lots at retreat. So, more organizing to quilt and sew than actual sewing in the next few days I fear!

Little Helen, not really a big deal monkeying with the workings of a totally electro-mechanical machine since the guts run the same now as they did a hundred years ago. The new machine will never be a joy to use because of minor issues with tolerances, in an otherwise decent design. The irony of it all is that the machine it replaced is a little cheapie I bought in a panic 26 years ago and figured I'd give to a child to use as a first machine. I ended up repairing the old one today and shall go back to using it again for basic sewing. The only thing wrong with it was a sheared set screw holding the needle assembly to the ram. I just figured it would be a good time to upgrade to one I could drop the feed dogs. I hate to dis a brand publicly and especially since even the more expensive brands now are constructed with cheaper materials and less concern for durability than we expected when I began sewing.

Donna I'm glad they moved your mother closer.... that will be much easier on you!

Calliope, I was curious about what machine you had too.... though not wanting to dis a brand publicly is a rare quality indeed!

I specifically did not sew today. I needed a break so I didn't get burned out after the last project that consumed me.... and I had to catch up on errands and house work. I cleaned up a weeks work of paper peicing scraps (had to empty the vacuum 6 times and that was after sweeping the big chunks with a broom!), ordered 20 bobbins (my machine doesn't take class 15 or 66 and I'm always out of empty bobbins and the filled ones are never the right color), and watched 3 videos about sewing/embroidery machines! So I did sewing related stuff even though I didn't quilt :o)

I went to Lowes and bought one of those small fake electric stove heater things.... felt like the right thing to do as cold as it's been lately and I can't have the real thing in an apartment. The flame looks pretty real and it will be nice to put near the machine when I'm working on a project....
The heater part isn't as good as my tower heater and it doesn't have a remote, but it's not bad for under 100 dollars. I also made a pot of chili (I haven't cooked in forever) and accidentally dumped the cranberry sauce in thinking it was tomato sauce.... remind me not to cook at 4 AM anymore please. :o)

Kate, you haven't chimed in yet, but did you get your Juki yet? Is the Elna back home safe and sound? I imagine (hope) you'll start a thread about the Juki when you begin to use it...

Have a great weekend everyone...

I had planned to do some quilting on my 3-day weekend which starts today, but I think the closest I'm going to come to that is taking my younger sister to joanns to pick out the fabrics I'll use to make a 40"-square lonestar she can either use for a lap quilt or wallhanging. Today I'm spending the day drying out my office/sewing room floor. I came home last night (late) to a leaking water pipe, and the floor was soaked. I've had to empty the office closet because that's where most of the damage was. So far I've had to throw out 2 paintings (totally ruined) and a lot of boxes from one side of the closet. I'm about to get into my crafting shelves, hoping the quilt tops therein are okay, or at least salvageable. Keep your fingers crossed for me.
Dan

Oh, Dan, I'm sorry to hear that! I hope not too many things are ruined. And that the water pipe has been fixed!

Donna

Dan, I'm so sorry about the water damage. Hope your quilt tops are OK.

I did end up sewing after all. I almost finished a quilt top for Beverly's Sandy relief project. I hope to finish it tomorrow. However, I did get some gardening done too.

My brother-in-law (he's a plumber) came over late last night and fixed the pipe, so no more leak. The closet is empty now, wet-vacced (sp?), and I've got fans going to finish drying it out. My quilt tops remained safe and dry, yahoo! I lost two paintings I'd done a few years ago and one set of shelving. The shelving can be replaced, but seeing those paintings made me heartsick. Both were landscapes, one a seaside with a cranky old beach house, and the other was a mountain meadow. I was saving both to hang when I get a larger house. ***sigh*** All of my other paintings (some about 30 years old) are okay. When I was a senior in highschool I traded paintings with my best friend, and the painting he gave me remains safe and sound. Things could've been much worse, but I'm wishing it had been blank canvases that received the water damage.

So. Onwards and upwards, right? The leak is fixed. The closet will dry out in the next couple of days. And life will go on. I think tonight I will spend some time taking apart a quilt I was making with blocks I've received from the seeds-n-stitches group over the years. I was going to put sashing in between them all, but it's just not coming out like I want. Out will come the sashing, and I think I'm going to make a sampler quilt with all the blocks next to one another with no divisions. That's how I like to think of my fellow quilters... having fun next to one another with no divisions.

Later.
Dan

Dan, so sorry about your flood! Sounds like you hold a very upbeat attitude. Bravo!

My only quilting this weekend was dragging DH to two quilt shops in Berkeley looking for the fabric I saw in a magazine. I only have about 35 pieces of fabric for a quilt for my son that only needs 15! Yup, you guessed it, still looking for just the right one.

LindaB/CA

Thanks Linda! I try, but it doesn't always work. The closet floor is finally dry, so tonight I sprayes with bleach in case any mold got in there. I don't see any, but it never hurts to be safe, right? Tomorrow I'll start putting stuff back into the closet, which means I'll be finding my sewing desk once again, wahoo!!! I'm heading to joanns with my sister in the morning to pick out fabric for her lonestar wallhanging/lapquilt, which will be a lot of fun! It snowed tonight and changed the way everything outside looks, which is okay with me. I don't have to deliver my route tomorrow, so that's a good thing! It was nice to spend about 3+ hours reading this evening, and that doesn't include the nap I took piled up with the cats...
Everyone have a good week, and remember that your mail will be late tomorrow. There's going to be a lot of it to sort before your carriers get out of the office...

Dan