After the disappointing news that Innova no longer has any technicians in the state of Florida, my husband took a look at my machine and was able to get it up and running.
I noticed two places where the quilting skipped stitches so some more tinkering is ahead. My friend recommended changing the needle (just in case the new one I put in as a burr on it) and that there is not lint under the anti-backlash spring in the bobbin case.
I’m grateful for her support and suggestions of new things to try. Most of all, I appreciate that she listens to me vent without a fuss. Everyone needs a friend like that! While I’ll miss her when she moves, our text communication will keep us connected, and I truly understand her positive reasons for relocating and I wish nothing but the best for her. ♥
This is the 4th patriotic quilt (so far) that I’m making to be presented to a veteran by our local community center on July 4th.
It measures 52″ x 70″.
And, here are the three previous patriotic quilt.
I’m preparing scrap fabric kits for a guild workshop I’m scheduled to help implement of string/scrap quilting so it’s going to be a busy two weeks ahead! I have another top to quilt and bind so keeping my fingers crossed I can fit it in. &&
My Innova long arm is giving me problems this week.
I’ve tried everything I could think of and, that Google and Chat GPT suggested but nothing has worked. So, now it’s a waiting game until I can get a tech here to check it out.
At least I managed to finish this quilt before the problem began.
I’m donating a patriotic quilt to the Greenacres Community Center for presentation to a veteran at their annual 4th of July celebration. It measures 48″ x 68″.
Our guild is wrapping up a two-year project to finish over 400 quilt tops that were in storage. There wasn’t enough time, quilt tops, or fabric for our guild to make and donate patriotic quilts again this year, so I’m working hard to create as many as I can.
The machine problems may have the quilting part out of commission for a bit but, I can plan, cut out, and sew a couple more tops while I wait. So, I may be down (temporarily) but I’m not out! Not yet anyway.
My goal is to work on a bucket list quilt, a simple pattern, and then a scrap/string top.
This week is the simple pattern. So simple in fact that no pattern was necessary, just a photo found on Pinterest for inspiration.
The finished quilt measures 48″ x 72″. Close enough to my 50″ x 70″ goal.
Our guild donated several quilts last year for the community center to present to veterans at their 4th of July “Ignite the Night” celebration.
We no longer have any tops in storage but we also no longer have the expense of maintaining the unit and that’s a good thing. Since we’ve been focused on finishing the 400+ quilt tops that were there, we haven’t had time to plan quilts for this year’s celebration. I’m making as many as I can to reach our goal of 12 quilts, the same as last year. I think I can do it!
This week I ordered two bolts (30 yards) of patriotic fabric from Marshalls Dry Goods to use for backing. That should back about 10 quilts. It’s 45″ wide so if I seam it horizontally, I’ll have about 18″ cutoff to use in other other tops.
So many of the patriotic fabric choices are out of stock at Marshalls but, they have a few available here and here. That’s not a white streak on the bottom of the first photo. It’s just a reflection of the plastic wrapper.
I finished quilting a scrap patriotic top yesterday and cut another top out today. Hopefully I’ll be able to machine bind it tomorrow after I get home from my monthly guild meeting and begin piecing the next one. I love a good challenge! 🙂
I completed hand stitching the binding on my project while driving to our family reunion on Saturday. We had a wonderful time, but I was exhausted after the 10-hour round trip, so I was glad that I was able to get if finished during the drive.
Luckily, I was able to take it outside for a photo today just before the rain came through just a couple of hours later.
I used dense quilting and chose a lighter textured grey backing, matching the binding to the border so the emphasize would stay on the quilt’s center.
It finished at about 61″ square.
This is the second Cindi McCracken pattern I’ve made that begins with a Dream Big panel. I made this one a few years ago.
I was surprised when I looked at the picture and noticed I used the same quilting design. It’s probably the only other time I’ve used it.
Because I’m trying to rotate between a bucket list quilt, a simple pattern, then a string or scrap one, the next up is a very simple patriotic quilt. If I don’t force myself to rotate, the quilts on my bucket list will never get made!
If you’ve never considered blogging before I’d like to suggest trying it! Even if you’re the only person who ever looks back and reads the posts – it will be worth it. I looked back through some of my old posts hoping to find some words of inspiration to encourage someone else to take that first step or, if you’ve blogged in the past, to think about trying it again.
This was my very first post. I started blogging to have a place to not only journal but, share what’s keeping me busy these days with people who have the same interests in common. There’s also this post about why quilters share photos of their work, including projects that didn’t go as planned. We often share details about our lives beyond quilting and it’s those details that often connect with quilters worldwide on a more personal level. Whether you’ve read either of those two posts or not, I hope you will now. And, that something there may inspire you to consider blogging too.
Since I don’t have any new quilt finishes to post this week, I thought I’d play around and see if I could figure out how to share the daily video my Cloud back-up sends me every morning.
I figured it out! Yay! I only have the Word Press upgrade to avoid ads but not the higher level to posts videos. I did find a way around it though.. I saved it to YouTube and then embedded the link here. Sure makes me sound a lot smarter than I am. (◔_◔) And yes, if you’re wondering, I did look up how to add a rolling eyes emoji.
If I were really all that smart, I’d find a simple way to locate all them photos of quilts that aren’t on my Finished Quilts page and add them. But, if you read that first post I linked to above, you’ll know that it’s simply impossible for me to make time.
( – ᴗ •́ )
Yesterday, I worked on a quilting a top I finished piecing this week. It was from fabrics I had purchased several years ago for a specific pattern and then promptly put it all away and never looked back.
I faced some issues when I was about 3/4 done quilting it. I had no choice but to spend several hours taking it off the frame, fixing the problem and then reloading it and hoping like heck I’d be able line up the quilting design.
I was beyond frustrated but, maybe even more disappointed about not being able to finish it by the weekend for my blog. It was the commitment to blogging once a week that motivated me to stay up late and keep at it until I either fixed the problems or figure out a way to rescue it so it wouldn’t be a complete loss. No small feat considering how much I wanted to just trash the whole thing and forget about it. Although it won’t be done before I leave for the family reunion on Saturday, it only needs the binding now. The reason it’s not in the trash is because of this blog!
Time to Quilt 