Author: kusequilts

While on vacation last week, I went with my mom to LQS to have her machine serviced and cleaned. A tech comes in weekly and will do it while we wait.

I told myself that I didn’t need any fabric, that I was there to help Mom with machine.

We were sitting in nice chairs by the sewing machines for sale while we waited. I thought to myself, this is a really comfy chair. Way better that my cheapo office chair with foam strips I sit on for extra cushioning.

Well, you can guess what happened next. I didn’t buy any fabric, but I did buy the chair. And I love it! It’s a SewComfort chair from Koala. Nice seat cushioning, good back support, rolls really easy and it can be raised higher than my old chair. I think that will be a plus for helping my frozen shoulder. Take a short look at it here.

In other news, I’m making progress on my son’s graduation quilt from my mom. It’s about 1/3 quilted. I have about 3 weeks to finish it, so that should be doable.

After a year of making a block a week, my version of Moda’s Blockheads 2 top is done! I decided to use blues from my stash and included space and sea themed fabrics, along with a splash of purples.

The backing will be swirls of blue, green and purple. I won’t be quilting it until fall, since it’s getting to be hot in the attic now.

I couldn’t decide on one topic today so here’s a few misc. things I’ve completed recently.

First an update on my 14 tops I had ready to quilt last fall. I’m down to 3 of them! I had a couple new things to do, which I finished, so I think 3 left is pretty good.

I finished the 2 tshirt quilts that were requested. They’ll be off to their new owners next week.

I did a couple charity quilts to get the tension on my mid arm machine back to normal after quilting Spiderwoman with metallic thread.

I did this cute little frog top with fusible applique. Not sure how I’ll quilt it yet.

This gem quilt is a combo of 2 birth stones, Ruby and Alexandrite. A nice wedding gift idea.

Finally, here’s my Fabrice choices for the Pantone Color of the Year Challenge. Living Coral is the color to use and I think this will make a great looking crab on the beach block.

I just found out that my Spiderwoman quilt has been selected to display at Comicpalooza in May and at Houston Quilt Fest this fall! So excited!!! It will also travel to other shows through August 2020. It will be part of the Comic and Sci Fi quilt exhibit at shows put on by Quilts Inc.

My other quilting activities this week have included getting the 2nd t-shirt quilt quilted and bound. Just need to straight stitch quilt the sashing and add labels to both t-shirt quilts. I also have to make the last block for the Moda Blockheads 2 top I’ve been making for a year. Last week’s block is pictured below. Then I can sew all the blocks together to complete the top. It probably won’t get quilted until fall since it’s getting warm, which makes it too hot in the attic to quilt.

I will need to quilt the top that my mom is making for my son’s graduation before end of May. I hate to say this, but I hope it doesn’t get too warm until I’m done with it .

I finished one of two tshirt quilts this weekend. My midarm machine, called V’ger, kept breaking threads and had horrible tension. I finally took off the tshirt quilt and put on a charity quilt to work out the tension issues. I got that worked out and will need to cut off the bottom 8″ or so of the charity quilt because the tension is so bad, but I wasn’t worried about keeping it, so it’s ok. I ripped out one border of the tshirt quilt, but it back on the frame and requilted it. It was an easy border and the tension was good, but the thread still broke twice. I’m debating on doing the border of the 2nd tshirt quilt in a diamond pattern on my regular machine. We’ll see what the customer thinks of that idea.

I’ve been thinking about the Pantone Challenge and while perusing my pix of quilt ideas, I found this one! Perfect for this. The coral crabs, plus beach colors and New York beauty blocks. It’s a pattern from Linda Hahn. Can’t wait to start on this!! But need to finish that tshirt quilt first.