Please Help Me With Blushing Bride

I have finished binding the Blushing Bride quilt.  Normally, at this point, I would present the finished quilt - Ta Da, and move on to the next one.

But I am not sure I am quite finished with this one.  Here's what it looks like right now.  Choice A is to leave it as is and call it done.

As you may recall, my feed dogs on my sewing machine fell asleep, so I needed to manually move the quilt while quilting it.  Some of the quilting stitches have bad tension which is obvious on the back. It is minor though so it really wouldn't cause difficulty to leave it as it is.   Also when I was hand stitching the binding, a couple of the stitches showed up on the front. Yes, I could have fixed those, but I decided that since I was going to quilt by hand anyway, I may as well leave them in.  Plus, I am not sure if those big white spaces are okay as they are.  (It is a small quilt so big is a relative term). I thought of some ideas to fill up the spaces. I am planning to do whatever I do by hand.

Choice B: I could add hearts or roses  in the empty spaces. I've roughly drawn this out in Paint to see what that would look like. Hopefully the finished product will be a bit neater, although with the whimsical butterflies, I am not aiming for perfection.

Choice C: Another option is to add some straight quilting lines in different colors.  I could add zig zags to add interest or simply make straight quilting lines. I'm not sure I know how to handle the horizontal borders in this scenario.

Choice D: I could add some more words and butterflies to fill up the space and quilt them.

What do you think? What would be the best way to quilt and finish this quilt?

In case you were wondering about the bulletin board, here is what it looks like today. Blushing Bride needs to blush because she is the biggest quilt on the wall and is covering up a whole quilt as well as parts of several quilts because of that.

We're Buying a New House!

Before I get to the big news, I want to let you know that my sewing machine is now working again.  I opened the machine from the bottom (the part you aren't supposed to touch if you don't want to lose your warranty) and used a toothbrush to clean out the lint turned the wheel back and forth and whatever was jamming it up is now unjammed.  I was able to sew the binding on my Bridal Wishes quilt, and am now sewing down the other side by hand.  If you recall, I embroidered words on it like "love", "friend", and "joy".  Well I just noticed that "ecstasy" is right in the middle of the quilt.  I apparently was right to use Blushing Bride as name for it then!

On to the big news, my sister has a neighbor who wants to sell her house, and was selling it for a very low price.  She wanted to make sure the house was properly fixed up so the value of her own house doesn't go down.  I have always wanted to buy houses to sell or rent, but didn't think that I would be able to make much money on it since I don't have the manpower or skills to do much of the work. The timing isn't good for me, but I thought that if it was that good a deal, I could make it work.   I would have preferred to take my time to see other houses in the market to find current market values and make sure that this house is appropriately priced for the condition it is in, etc., but my sister already signed the contract!  We are now trying to work out a partnership agreement.   It is going to be a wild ride investing with her and I am sure I am going to learn a lot along the way.

New Year's Quilting

When I posted my end of the year post, I thought I should try to sneak in another finish, like I've done in other years, but I didn't think I would have time.  I decided to go ahead and work on finishing anyway, since it could be a nice early finish to begin the new year with.

I brought down my quilt that was closest to completion, my wedding wishes - I called it Blushing Bride according to the labels.  If you recall, it was supposed to be a simple pink and white modern quilt, but I got carried away and added words to it.  Then I added butterflies in the sashing.  I had planned on adding some roses between the butterflies, but when I looked at it again, it doesn't seem to need anything else.  I decided to go ahead and finish it off, and if I wanted to add the roses later, I could always quilt them in after it was bound.

The batting had been added when I did the embroidery, but not the back (to keep me from having to worry about keeping the embroidery neat in the back).  I added a back, and started to quilt it in the ditch.  Just a few seams should hold it just fine.  The feed dogs moved up and down but did not move the fabric forward.  I managed to pull the quilt through - free motion in the ditch using a walking foot maneuver.  Then I trimmed the quilt down and cut out the binding fabric. One of my favorite parts of quilting is trimming away the excess batting and backing to see what the quilt really looks like.

I tried to clean the machine, hoping that would do the trick.  I can push the feed dogs back and forth, but they won't go on their own.  Getting it fixed would be $79, and my machine cost $200 to buy it 24 years ago, so I am not sure that it would be worth it.  So for now, I am going to take the machine apart and try to fix it myself, and look for a new machine. Does you know how to fix this?

 Until then, I will probably try to keep some forward momentum going on quilting by doing some handwork - applique on the Moondance quilt and/or applique and embroidery on the African crazy quilt.  Hopefully I will have some progress to show you soon.

2012 Quilting Review

It is time for my annual year end review of my quilting accomplishments for the year.  This year, I did not blog very much.  I also did not do a lot of quilting.  I have taken care of some medical problems - nothing serious, but lots of little things that meant I got to know a lot of different doctors.  I even spent a couple of nights at a sleep clinic and now have a CPAP machine.

My project-by-project job had some extra projects this year, which was very good news.   I also spent a lot of time writing and reading hubs on HubPages.  I am still trying to have a large portfolio of articles there.  I have reduced the clutter in my house - that is going to be an ongoing project, but I have made great progress.  

Okay, enough chatter.  Let's see if I can find some quilts I have made this year! My latest finish is this coin quilt.  I belong to the Small Quilt newsgroup with Kathy Tracy, and her challenge this year was to make one small quilt each month.  She specified which quilt to make each month - sometimes she provided a pattern, and sometimes she chose one from one of her books.  This one is adapted from her Remembering Adelia book. I added the small inner border.   It is the only quilt I made all year from this challenge.

This is another small quilt I made this year.  It is adapted from a pattern in a book, Red, White and Sometimes Blue by McCalls quilting.

This is a small quilt I made as a request for a friend. It is inspired by a quilt I saw at the quilt show.

That's it - three little quilts.  I am actually proud that I did manage to get three quilts done.  I am tempted to make another small quilt to add to the list, but I think I need to keep my focus on my Hubpages goals.  We have to write 8 articles a month as a part of the Apprenticeship Program, and I have 3 more to write this month!

Besides these three quilts, I did make progress on my block of the month from last year, but that progress has been slow.  We were supposed to be using thangles to make the quilt, and I chose to use a different method.  All of the blocks are made, and I am working on the star points.  This is an old picture, and many more of the star points have been added.  I think I probably would have made more quilting progress if I hadn't been forcing myself to make more progress on this one.  I am glad I allowed myself to work on the little quilts in the meantime.

2013 Quilting Goals

I got scared when I saw that I had made 2012 quilting goals, but it looks like I was kind to myself and expected very little quilting to be done.  I think 2013 will also be a slow quilting year, but I do hope to make more progress on my current quilts.  I'd like to finish three quilts that have been in the works.  Since I have moved my studio to another room, I have been inspired to make use of all the fabric and supplies I do have and hopefully will have more than three little quilts to show for 2013.

I hope all of you had a wonderful 2012, and I wish you all the best for 2013.  Happy New Year!

Rearranging Rooms

Sorry there wasn't a quotation yesterday. I didn't realize I 'd run out already.  Not to worry.  In the past, I had a photo, and tried to find a quote that matched it.  Now I have a list of quotes, and will try to find a photo to match the quote.  This will be harder, but I think they will be better.


 From time to time, I like to evaluate whether the space in my house is arranged in a way that serves my needs the way I currently use or want to use it.  I do this every decade or two.  I have decided that even though the downstairs is properly arranged, the upstairs needs some serious rearranging. I have plenty of bedrooms, but I feel like all my belongings are being crammed into my bedroom.

In order to reduce my allergy symptoms, I have decided to move all of my fabric and sewing supplies out of my bedroom. I want to my bedroom to be a nice place to sleep, and not a storage of anything.    I would like to set up a sewing studio, so I would like to use a big bedroom to do it.  Right now, the big room is a guest room.  I have a small room that we use for an office, and have decided to turn that into the guest room.  We don't have guests that often, and they don't need a big room.  By using the small room, we will be able to keep it reserved for the guest instead of using it for storage as well.

Which means all the things in the office needs to go.  Did you get that, I need to 1. empty out the office, 2. move the guest room furniture into the office / small room, 3. finally get the stuff out of my room to the studio / guest room.  There is already an office in what used to be the dining room, and the office supplies will be moved down there.

This is a very slow process, since it takes a while to get rid of the furniture in the room as I find homes for each piece.  The junk room office is slowly getting cleaned out, and hopefully will have space for the bed soon. I haven't decided where to put what piece of furniture, but hopefully getting rid of the furniture we don't use will help make that decision process easier.

There are craft supplies in this room, and it is hard to look at fabric and craft supplies without digging in to make them, but I am working to restrain myself and just do the cleaning.  Hopefully when this is all done, I will have space and time to make stuff.  I've planned many quilts this year, but haven't made very many.

The photo is a statue from the Museum of Art in Indianapolis.  It is an amazing place and I highly recommend going.

Inspirational Quote of the Day

Inspirational Quote of the Day