Whoops

Just for fun I'm starting a "whoops" label on the blog.

Let's face it, we all make mistakes.

It's good to laugh and learn from them.

So for the inaugural post I'm sharing this whoops.

Now at first you may be wondering what's wrong...other than the lighting of the photo.

I spent an afternoon laying out 42 black and white blocks.

I went to move one of them and discovered the mistake.

All four corners of each block should match.

I accidentally sewed wrong halves together.

Whoops.

Thankfully the white fabrics are busy enough it's hard to spot.

It drove me crazy at first and I thought about fixing it.

However, the idea of ripping out seams changed my mind.

It's not as if a quarter of the block was turned. That would be a different story.

So I chose to leave it.

You have to look hard to find it.

It's not a glaring mistake.

It's more of a hidden treasure.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

:)

There are stories in the quilting world about the Amish adding a mistake on purpose.

I have never researched that but it is an interesting thought.

Quilt Quack 13

It's time for a Quilt Quack Chronicle!

This is the back of my hand sewn hexie table runner.

You see the circle in the middle?

It's a template made out of freezer paper.

The little hole is to help make it easier to remove the papers.

I'm glad I read that tip just as I started this project.

Sorry about the bad photo.. but you can see how I removed my papers.

I poked each paper with an orange peeler.

It worked really well.

The pile of papers that were removed from the perimeter.

I had already removed the middle ones before I started attaching the border.

Now my hexie table runner top is done.

Woohoo!!!

It took me roughly two years to hand sew this.

I should say I started it two years ago.
It took so long because I didn't work on it all the time.

A little here and little there.

I really enjoyed this project.

I find it relaxing. I love that it's portable too.

I intend on starting another hand project just as soon as I pick a new one!

For now this project is going in the "to be quilted" pile.
I've got another project that's in line to be quilted first.

:)

__________________________________________________________

On to the ducks... actually it's more about the chickens this time.

I did throw in a couple of duck pictures because it is a "Quilt Quack" post after all.

We finally got around to adding a second run to our yard.

We needed a second one for several reasons.

One of them was being able to confine the chickens in their own pen when needed.

The two runs are next to each other along the north side of our property.

We're excited to have more options for our animals.

I'm mostly excited that I can keep them off my porch!

I despise the chicken bombs. 

They have a bigger pen than the ducks.

We may switch them someday in the future.

The chickens aren't too happy about the new arrangement.

They pace the fence and run to the gate if someone shows up.

The white one will try to run past you to get free.

I did't have the gate secured enough the first day and five of them got out.

It's been fixed and they haven't been out since.

Eventually they will get over it.

I'm also hoping the egg production will increase.

We seem to have several free-loaders!

This is a rare find in the duck coop.

They are very consistent in laying by 8 AM.

Like clockwork. That's why we don't let them out until after 8.

However, they are not so consistent in a nice neat nest. That's a chicken thing.

Ducks are very messy.

We get about 8 duck eggs a day.

We have 11 hens but not all of them lay every day.

This is how we typically find duck eggs.

Usually only part of an egg is showing and you have to dig to get the eggs.

Sometimes you can't even see the eggs at all until you start digging.

They are almost always buried. At least they put their eggs in the corners of the coop!

Then there's the occasional "oops" egg laid somewhere in the yard.

It's like an egg hunt every day.

I'm not so sure what is so good that they all forage in the same spot.

They have been doing this frequently in various areas of the yard.

I'll look out and they're doing this.

Usually they're scattered while they forage.

Finished!

I can finally post my latest quilt finish.
Woo hoo!

The purpose of this quilt was the weight.

So I opted for simple with no fancy piecing.

The front is Cars fabric and the back is mustaches.

Both loved by the recipient.
I also added a fun striped binding.

You can clearly see the grid of pockets that holds the pellets.
For more information about how I did it, see this post.

Typically I like to drape a quilt over the fence.

This quilt is much too heavy for that!

I used the porch railing instead.

Quilt inspector Pepper.

Another appearance by the quilt inspector.

She must have had a lot of inspecting to do.

Apparently the quilt is OK.

I personally love a striped binding.

This is the second time I've used it.

This quilt was made special for a special young man.

Thus the name, "Just for Josh".

I like taking photos of the quilt in the grass too.

I had to go to a chicken and duck free yard...

Thankfully my in-laws live just down the road.

:)

It's also my tradition to walk down and show my in-laws the latest quilt finish.

I didn't walk it down, I drove the 500 feet.
The quilt weighs 15.2 pounds and my back was telling me
that carrying it that far was a bad idea.

The back.

Quilt finish #24

70 1/2" x 82 1/2"

15.2 pounds

machine quilted

Twenty Four

This is our favorite photo from our wedding.

The funny thing is that this was not taken by the photographer!

I have no idea who took it but I'm glad we've got it.

Dwayne took the day off and we ended up at Bailey's in North Judson.

We love browsing there... the boys aren't as fond of it as we are.

We had strombolis for lunch at Pizza King. (We each brought home a half.)

Followed by blizzards a few hours later.

We ate entirely too much!

After we picked up the boys from school we took our anniversary picture.

This photo is from last year. Look at how much the boys have grown!

We were laughing at Pepper because she picked up her ball and

ran by thinking we were going to play with her.

Silly mutt.

The Filling

I have been lacking terribly in the blog post department.

I was lazy have a good excuse.

I have been diligently working on a project.

I'm happy to say I have finished my first weighted quilt!

I had a goal of getting it done in two weeks.

I'm laughing too.

It took four weeks to get it done. Not bad considering I had never done this.

Making a weighted quilt is not hard but it is challenging.

The quilt gets heavier and heavier as you go.

Let's just say I had quite a workout toward the end!

Every quilt I've worked on seems to have its own story.
It's true that a part of the maker goes into each quilt they make.
I'll miss this one but I know it's going to a good home.
This post is about the process. I'm making another post dedicated to it's finish.

The basic rundown of this quilt goes something like this:

Make two quilts, sandwich them together, add weights, sew closed.

Simple process.

I pieced together the backings for the two quilts from large pieces I found at the thrift store.

The two quilts are placed back to back so nobody will see the back of each quilt.

This photo is the back of one of the quilts.

This is the first time I have free motion quilted (FMQ) anything of this size.

I practiced a lot!

The quilting shows up really well on the back.

I purposefully chose thread that would blend in on the front.

Even though I practiced a bunch there are plenty of mistakes.

I decided not to take pictures of the mishaps.

Trust me, they're there.

I'd rather celebrate accomplishments. :)

See how the black thread disappears?

You can't see my mistakes. ;)

Free motion quilting is done with a darning foot.

I move the fabric around while the machine makes stitches.

I learned really quickly that I needed to mark a box to sew in (the faint yellow lines).

That kept me from sewing over my previous areas...which happened several times.

The yellow pencil marks disappear when washed.

I only had about an 8" x 18" area left to quilt on the second quilt

when I found a teeny tiny screw on my black fabric.

I looked and looked for something that was missing a screw.

Nothing seemed amiss so I kept on sewing.

Then my needle fell out.

That little screw turned out to be the set screw for the needle clamp assembly.

Kind of important.

I'm amazed I found it and thankful it didn't get lost!

After calling Singer and consulting Google...

and applying some I-want-to-get-this-done-and-not-order-a-part-right-now ingenuity

I was back in business.

The rubber band didn't last long but the tape still did its job.

After both quilts were quilted they got trimmed to the same size.

Then I basted them together and sewed along three sides, leaving the top open.

Next I marked a grid and sewed long columns.

Then I measured the poly pellets.

I put 1 ounce (about 28 grams) of pellets in each pocket.

It just so happened that a large cookie scoop held exactly 1 ounce.

It made measuring go a lot faster!

After the first two rows I came up with this system to fill each pocket.

There were twelve rows with ten columns.

So that's 120 poly pellet filled pockets!

Sorry for the bad picture.

This is what I used to fill the pockets.

Two vacuum cleaner hose extensions taped to a wrapping paper tube.

I also taped a funnel at one end.

And yes, I Clorox wiped the inside of the vacuum hoses!

Because I'm short, I spread the quilt over the couch.
Then I could run my funnel contraption to the bottom of each column.

Each column was filled with one pile of pellets.

I pinned each row closed just below my sewing line.
Then I carefully lifted the quilt to the sewing machine.

Even though I pinned each row closed I still had some wayward pellets.

I was very careful to not sew over any of them.

That would definitely break a needle!

Row by row the quilt was filled with pellets.

Connor helped fill a few pockets.

My MIL helped one afternoon as well.

It was much easier with two people handling the quilt once it got heavier.

How heavy is it?

15.2 pounds!




I have finished this quilt and given it to the family.
However, they have not given it to their son yet so I won't post final pictures until they do.
I really don't want to spoil the surprise!

I enjoyed working on this project even though it became a challenge as the quilt got heavier.
I learned a lot with this quilt. I have a little more confidence in my ability to FMQ.
It's not quite as scary anymore.
And now I know how to work with poly pellets!