Friday Night Sew-In: I Sewed!

It seems that for months it has just been impossible to join the Friday Night Sew-In.

Then I realized that last night was the night and that instead of staying in and sewing, I was at a friend's house basting a quilt.  Then I realized that since we sew-basted it, that does count!

 These are wonderful, warm gold through deep brown fabrics that Shelli purchased in a Bali-Pop.
When her husband saw the piecing in progress, he said, "That's *my* quilt."
Unfortunately, the exposure on my six-year-old camera just wasn't accurate enough to catch the
 warmth of these colors.

 When I saw this quilt top about a month or so ago, I said, "I want to quilt that quilt!"  Shelli said, "You can do that!"

 Shelli grew up in a family of quiltmakers who also did other needlecrafts.  She had many quilts and other treasures, including a huge can of tatted lace that had been taken off garments that had worn out.  In 2004, their house burned to the ground, and they lost everything it contained (except their memories).

Shelli has recently returned to quiltmaking--and she remembers some very helpful things she learned as a child, but the world of quiltmaking is very different today.  Shelli and I handbasted this quilt, and I brought it home with me--and I'm eager to try the ideas I have for quilting it.

I do pin-baste often, but this is a large quilt, so working together we could hand baste it and be done in much less time than if we were to pin baste and close hundreds of pins.

I'm still working on the borders of Blanche's Robin's Song quilt, and I'm not sure I'll be able to finish it tonight.

I also haven't yet decided which treadle I'll use for this Golden Autumn quilt (my title; I don't know if Shelli has given it a name yet), and I'm thinking I may just do some on both since they both use class 15 bobbins.

You may want to check on the Friday Night Sew In projects of a few other people at this link:


Happy quiltmaking....

Robin's Song Blocks Complete

Advisory:  Another Picture-Bounteous Post

I am happy to report that the Robin's Song block quilting is complete--although I will still check for missed spots.

At least temporarily, the best part of all this quilty goodness is that I will now be able to begin on the quilty-wonderful borders!
I'm quilting this on a Necchi BU from the late 1940's in a 1919 Singer treadle stand.  The variegated thread is from Thread Art, but the other quilting threads are Fil-Tec Glide available from www.bobbincentral.com ...And, if I'd realized I'd end up using mostly the pearl colored Glide in the bobbin, I would have ordered a bunch of their Magna-Glide bobbins.  I realize many people may look at those little bobbins with nothing but a round magnet at their core and think they wouldn't work in our vintage class 15 bobbin cases.  However, they are absolutely a delight to use!

I'm thinking this means I can actually link to some of those linky parties in my left sidebar!

Happy quiltmaking......

Outside and Robin's Song Update

Advisory:  Picture-Heavy Post

 Although three of the five pansy plants I've had in this planter have died and one is barely hanging on, this one is doing great--and despite June heat has not yet gotten leggy.  (That will probably happen this week.)

I've told them not to do it:

 In fact, I've told them over and over.  [Yes, we leave our Christmas icicle lights up year round--they make for great outdoor lighting on the occasions when we are outside.]

 

 For years I've knocked down the beginnings of the nest of this pair of barn swallows.  My thinking was they would eventually get the idea and build elsewhere.  This year I decided to just let them learn from the experience.
When I'm sitting outside they keep swooping around our house, clearly agitated.  Well, I'm sorry.  This is our only door, and if they have babies there anyway, I'm just praying we won't terrify them (and create generations of uptight barn swallows).
They did stop swooping and sit on a light cord up there and watch me knitting.  (That was my attempt at my own personal "Knitting in Public" Day.  Yes, I know.  Only sort of public.)
And Sweet Teen reminded me that I used to let her learn from the consequences of her poor judgment too.  (Shhhhh---I'm still letting her do that, something which is probably harder on me than it is on her! Fortunately, she exercises much less poor judgement now.)

It continues to be very dry here--despite several rain storms (one including quite a bit of hail) earlier this week.  Of course, we love every drop!

We do still have quite a bit of smoke in the air from the Whitewater-Baldy Fire.  All those firefighters can certainly use our prayers.  The daughter of one of my friends is one of those firefighters.  I can't imagine being brave enough to want to do that, but Jessica just thrives on the fact that all the workers go in there and are totally united in their fight and not one of them is a slacker.  (Can't be said about a lot of other workplaces.)

The bluebells are one of my favorite late spring-early summer sights. We might have had a few more, but Sweet Teen didn't recognize them the last time she used the weed eater. This has been a very good year for bluebells, although, despite our mild winter, I haven't seen many along the roads. Once they go to seed, the seeds really need to be harvested and the stalks cut back or else they don't do as well the next year.

And, ta-dah!, I'm making some limited progress on the Robin's Nest quilt.  (It's actually just as rewarding to listen to the real robins sing outside.  They are a lot more calm around us than the barn swallows are.)

I'm telling myself to just enjoy the journey, because it's taking a while!
I'm going to join some linky parties.  Please stop by, visit a few blogs, and make a few new friends:

I'm also linking up with Elizabeth at Pieceful Life.

Do visit and leave comments.  I do try to answer all the comments that are left at my blog posts.

.

Happy quiltmaking......and knitting, too.....

Robin's Song Quilting - Evolving

This is not what I had planned to do.  I had planned some more or less all-over feathery stuff.

 As soon as the bobbins were loaded and the quilt was on the sewing machine, I changed the plan.

 I decided that each block should be different so that it will be a compendium of quilting ideas.

 I know doing it this way is going to slow down the quilting process.

 However, since it sat here a while waiting for me to come up with the idea of writing positive attributes in each block,..

 and then it sat waiting for me to piece a backing,..

 and then sat longer waiting to be layered, I'm thinking it doesn't matter if it takes longer to be quilted.

 Of course, I wonder how long it will take her to discover the little happy face in the Optimistic block!

 So far it's a lovely day except for the smoke hanging in the air from the huge forest fire in the Gila, but the smoke is not as bad as what we experienced last year, so that's one more little blessing to be appreciated.

I've already been to Albuquerque and back to pick up Sweet Teen from a sleepover, I've done some laundry, and will do a few other jobs, but I'm looking forward to a big block of quilting time on my treadles.

Happy quiltmaking.....

Linking up with....

Karen at Sew Many Ways for Find a Friend Friday

Sarah's Whoop Whoop 

Amy's Show and Tell Friday

Lots of great blogs for you to visit or re-visit...lots of wonderful quiltmakers, crafters, and other bloggers.