Picky, Picky, Picky

My seam ripper and I have once again become rather closely acquainted. We go through spurts where she seams to be an extension of my right hand and other times I have no idea where she (Picky) is. Then when I need Picky I'm turning the sewing room upside down looking for her so that she can become an extension to my right hand again.

The jobs this time: picking out stitches on two long standing projects has been the goal. Picky and I finished one project yesterday, taking out the appliqué stitches on Emmie's quilt. I started Emmie's quilt about 2 months after she arrived home from the hospital. Her mom, my sister, chose the pattern from an American Patchwork & Quilting magazine that I had with me. The pattern uses the "Whig Rose" and is a lot of appliqué. I got started and set it aside because something just wasn't right. You know that feeling, finishing a quilt becomes a chore even though you really, really want to get this done! On one of my trips to Maine this summer I fell in love with the Essence fabric line from Blank Quilting. Oh, this is luscious to say the least. I sent my sister a link to the fabric, daffodil, and she loves it too. I'm so happy. This color just screams out "Emmie". Bright, vibrant and complex. I pick up a bolt of fabric on the 19th and will get started with this just after. I realized yesterday that there is a lot I can do in the mean time to make my life easier.

The second job that Picky and I have been working on is picking out the quilting on a piece inspired by Jinny Beyer. At the time I really didn't have the skills to finish it well. In a sense it was a learning piece and still is. I'm learning that it's okay to either not finish a piece and just be done with it or to pick out what I don't like and re do the whole thing. I'm picking out the quilting. I looked at it one day last week and realized I really like this quilt and I want to be able to use it. So I decided to pick out all of the quilting, use a different batt and different color of thread and have at the quilting once again, so that I'm happy with the quilt. It's taking longer to pick out all of the stitches than I anticipated, however I think that the end result, a finished quilt, will be worth the effort, at least to me.


Veterans Quilts!

One of my guilds is making quilts for a local home for veterans that is either just opened or opening soon. I wasn't at the meeting where they discussed this so I don't quite know all of the details. I have a lot going on right now so while the project really speaks to me (my dad was a veteran, his sister is a veteran and I have cousins and a sister in the military now) I hesitated to get involved. When my quilt show co-chair and I were at a quilt show scouting out and learning details for our own quilt show we decided to make a quilt together. She would make the quilt top and I would quilt it. She stayed up 'til 2 AM one morning finishing this and we made plans for me to pick it up this past Friday. I did and took another one home as we're on a time line and thought, I could just do this.

So Friday afternoon I get home and I don't have to make dinner so I can work straight through until dh gets home. I started working on the quilt. Called a friend and kept working on the quilt. Ordered pizza, ate pizza with family and then went back to working on the quilt. I set it aside when the bobbin thread ran out around 9 PM. By noon on Saturday the quilt was finished. Not just quilted but bound. Funny thing is I talked with my co-chair, she asked if I finished the quilt. I just giggled. I want to surprise her on Tuesday. Yippee! I'm going to see if I can get the other one done this afternoon. The quilting will be a lot less complicated so I think it's possible.

Happy Quilting!

Teri