Quilting – Page 6 – TooBusyForWork

Huntington Beach via Bolsa Chica State Beach

When I was still working, I did a lot of work for Boeing in Huntington Beach. Kevin hasn’t spent much time around Pacific beaches, so we decided to spend a few days at Bolsa Chica State Beach, 3 miles or so north of Huntington Beach. We arrived in early afternoon on Saturday after a long hassle driving in a crowded city. Ugh.

The sites at Bolsa Chica are very narrow and the road between the two rows is also very narrow so it was a challenge getting in. After we got set up I discovered I had not measured the spot for the slide correctly and we were 2 inches short! We just kept the slide almost all the way out since it was way too much work to move it over those two inches. The campground sits between Pacific Coast Highway and the beach. We had a site on the highway side and it was very noisy, but then again, it was at a beach so we just dealt with it. We wore foam ear plugs the first few nights, but it was better by Sunday night. Since we arrived on Martin Luther King holiday, the park was packed. We still managed to do a lot of sitting and looking at the surf, a lovely thing.

DF985F6E-B484-455F-A5F3-37AE446FF82E — Surfers were always present

0AD5CA6A-C54F-4B24-B386-C8D8B970C68C — The first few days had low surf

5CF6C033-2C76-4C81-8D26-56EF89D8CE1B — The last two days had high surf warnings

We had two problems. One, my back is killing me when I walk for more than 40-50 feet. That put a damper on wandering around much. We did get to have lunch at Duke’s on the beach, and I found a wild Hawaiian shirt at a store downtown. We even found a new hat for me at the HB REI store! The second problem is more of an issue with my back; Kevin forgot the chargers for our electric bikes! I can bike quite a way even with a sore back, but the bikes have a range of about 20 miles and we intend on being out of town for 5 weeks. We are looking for a way to get someone at home mail them to us, but we may have to drive back to pick them up. We can’t get any new ones mailed to us in time.

I am also trying a new hobby – English paper piecing. I am hoping it is something I can do in short amounts of time when I don’t want to pull out my sewing machine. 140323DE-9EBB-4E7A-B173-F7055E4336FE

We left California today to head to Quartzsite, AZ for a RVForum.com rally. Quite a difference from the ocean. More on that in the next post.

Back home with good stuff and bad stuff

The first day back in the sticks and bricks house I basically just slept! It took us a couple of days to move the things back to the house – clothes, food in the refrigerator, etc.

We are catching up on medical appointments, so I had a small cyst removed from my face. I was lucky enough to,score a quick appointment due to someone else canceling. It left me with a couple of stitches right under my eye, a real bother. It is hard to keep a bandage on it, yet the dermatologist says I have to do so to minimize scarring. Ugh. I get the stitches out in a couple of days thank goodness. Everything should be fine by Christmas pictures at least.

The really bad stuff if that we finally had to have one of our cats, Minou, euthanized. I cried and cried. She was 15 years old, and we knew she was basically on hospice care, but that doesn’t mean I was ready for it. I became aware how few pictures I had of her. She was all black and hard to get a photograph, but that isn’t much of an excuse. She looked like an Egyptian cat goddess.

6CE84FA6-0A58-4162-94EE-A25A8CE6F781

5911773B-B1DB-4D47-9790-13153CD7571F — She loved sleeping on her back.

i also have been doing some cooking and sewing. The cooking was mostly in the Instant Pot. I made red curry with a bottle of curry sauce, some chicken thighs, rice, and miscellaneous vegetables – peppers, mushrooms, sugar snap peas. I used the pot in pot method, and it worked wonderfully. I also made beef stroganoff again, though I used more seasoning this time plus a bunch more mushrooms. Delicious.

The sewing was slow. I just haven’t been able to get in the mood, but I finally got motivated to complete a Quilts for Kids project. Super simple, and I got to enjoy the quilting process. I ended up using an all over leaf meander since the focus fabric had trees on it.

A02F8861-DB08-4B4A-848F-1A1F9611111F CA05A78E-6099-4480-B7D3-6B099B0243BE 48BA69B2-43BA-493A-B842-4B972F31939D

BTW, this comes as a precut kit so I take no responsibility for the poor cutting!

i have never had a bad kit from Quilts for Kids before, but I rejected the second kit I was given. The pattern was designed for strip piecing, but they gave me random lengths of fabric of all different lengths plus some smaller pieces that were cut to 7” instead of the needed 6 1/2”. My time is worth too much to mess with randomness, so I am giving it back with a complaint. This is from the relatively new local group,so I think it is probably just growing pains.

Now to catch up on all the not so fun things

We had a week and a half between coming back from our Midwest trip and heading to Death Valley. Lots of things needed to be done.

Kevin discovered the shackles and bushings on an axle we’re broken, so he did get that fixed the day before we left again. State Trailer Supply in Salt Lake City did a fine job. They replaced all the shackles and bushings on both axles, fixed some marker lights we didn’t know we had broken, and adjusted the brakes. It was something we would have had checked before the big trip to Alaska next year, but I am glad Kevin found the problem before heading up and down the mountains like we have been doing.

We also ordered a cover to put over the bicycles on the trailer back. It also arrived just in time and covers both of them. Sadly it also covers part of the tail light and the license plate! Kevin tried to move the lights, but couldn’t figure out where to run the wires. This task will take a bit more thought. We still used the cover and hope we don’t get caught.

For my stuff, I got all the pieces cut out for the king sized quilt I am making for our bed. I even started the piecing. I brought the fabric and my sewing machine with me, but I haven’t pulled them out yet. There were just too many nice things to do in Death Valley!

One other thing in DV was that Kevin discovered one of the tires was completely bald on the inside edge. These are relatively new tires, and we were worried about brakes or alignment problems. He changed it at the campground just before we left. Just as we pulled out of the campground he realized it was almost certainly caused by the shackles issue putting a twist on the axle. Thank goodness! Oh, and we discovered our 3 year old batteries weren’t charging fully. Further checking identified that one cell was really bad, so we are going to replace them when we get home. Since we are staying in campgrounds with electricity the rest of this trip we don’t need to rush. We are pretty sure the damage was done by the OEM cheap power converter that Kevin replaced last year. They just don’t charge well, and that puts stress on the batter. Batteries plus a new tire plus a new tire and wheel (an extra spare for the Alaska trip) will put some pain in the budget.

Luckily all of these things are not frequent costs. For us the trailer means we travel pretty much any time we want and where we want. Still worth it.

Quilts for “Quilts for Kids”

I had started these two little quilts in South Dakota, but I finished the piecing while we were in GTNP. My granddaughter Ava decided the block arrangement. QFK provided the kits, so I will restate that these were not my fabric choices (especially the pink/turquoise one). They came out cute though. I quilted and bound them when we got home.

This one hurt my eyes. Those borders! If you read an earlier post, the turquoise is actually the back side of a printed fabric. I just couldn’t handle that much wildness. The fabrics screamed to me for a flower motif in the quilting, so that is what the main body has. For the outside border I just followed some of the big swirls. The top thread is a light peach SoFine and the bobbin thread is a light tan SuperBob. I used extra backing for the binding and used a feather stitch to finish the binding.

This one is full of small animal/bug prints. I like it a lot more! It was so busy I just did an all-over meander in the body of the quilt. I used my rulers on the borders. It is quilted in a YLI multi-colored brown/green/gold thread with the same tan SuperBob the first one used. The binding is a wood grain print I had laying around. I used a 3 stitch zig zag to apply the binding.

A little old lady bear print was the backing on the brown/green one.

All I need to do to finish these is stitch on the Quilts for Kids label and deliver them. The quilting was done on my Sweet 16.

I really prefer a feather stitch to finish machine bindings, but my machine is having troubles with stitching to the left. There is a definite “click” when it goes far left, so I am taking it in to the repair guy. It either needs timing or a new hook, and maybe both. It gets a lot of use, and it is time to get it some maintenance.

Next up is quilting my big Carpenter’s Square quilt that goes on the queen bed in one of my guest bedrooms. I have two weeks until we take off again, so I have to get going. I hope to have the quilting done, just waiting on the binding until I get my sewing machine back.

I’ve got goodies

I had a fun two days. First I had a friend with a long arm quilting machine baste my Carpenter’s Square queen sized quilt. It is wonderful! See how even the backing lies? No puckers, no wrinkles even with the fluffy wool batting.

Any little wrinkles that show on the picture are because I had it partially draped on my ironing board. She used water soluble thread, a basting stitch about 1/2″ long, and programmed 5″ squares. She said she cussed at the thread for a little while until she got it working, but she is more than willing to do this on additional quilts for me or others.

While we were chatting, she mentioned she has a company that makes assorted quilting “stuff.” In particular, she has a new model of bobbin wonder that is programmable for up to two different bobbin types. I just hate my old-style Handiquilter bobbin winder so I was intrigued. She and her husband showed me how it worked, and I was hooked; I bought one right there on the spot. I have since tried it at home on my Handiquilter and my Happy multineedle embroidery machine. It winds both types of bobbins (Class M and Class L) perfectly. She has also wound Featherweight bobbins on it. My FW bobbin winder is getting difficult to use; after all it is made out of rubber and is over 60 years old (1952 model).

I left the snippers on it for size. The copper wire guides the thread to the tension assembly. It is so neat and clean compared to my old bobbin winder. If anyone is interested in her stuff, either quilting or quilting accessories, she can be found at www.fancyquilt.com (I wish I could make that a hot link – sorry). I highly recommend her products.

I also got a combination cup holder and mini trash can at my Bernina dealer when I was at the embroidery software class. I am always worried about spilling a cup of coffee or tea in the sewing studio, and I never have a trash can close enough. This hits two birds with one stone. I figure it will really be wonderful to take to sewing get together or classes. It screws on the edge of a table, and the cup part is HUGE, over 4″ inside diameter. It should easily hold even an insulated water bottle.

I should have more fun things tomorrow to show off after I attend the Utah Quilting and Sewing Marketplace show. I will help staff the American Sewing Guild booth in the morning, then I get to shop and look at the show quilts. So far I just have boring things to buy (needles and bobbins), but I probably will find something fun to get in addition; I usually do.

On the Instant Pot front, we had a great stuffed pepper casserole last night. The night before we made pork chops in the Anova sous vide again. We have been eating quite well.

Carpenter’s Square quilt top finished!

I finished the quilt top I am making for one of our spare bedrooms. This will be a queen sized bedspread when I finish it. The second picture is the backing I am going to use. I really wanted a blue or gray backing, but none of the extra wide backings I found were the right shade. This white and gray will work fine, and I think it will hide the tiny dots of dark colored thread better than some of the other options. I think I will be using a very light gray on the “white” sections and a much darker gray on the rest. The bobbin thread will be either the pale gray or a white. Even though I am good at adjusting my thread tension, using widely different thread colors generally results in tiny dots of color showing through. It is a dreadful picture because Kevin had trouble holding it up! The fabric are all batiks, and gorgeous in person.

This is a good way to make sure your triangles are good. I don’t like the “mark down the middle and sew on each side then cut” method. I prefer cutting the triangles and then sewing them carefully. It works for me.

I am also working on some dolls for Primary Children’s Hospital. I have made a dozen or so, and I decided to experiment with some options. The dolls themselves are super simple, but the hospital gowns that go with them are much harder. The default approach is to use bias binding, but it is the devil to put on the curves correctly. I always end up having to redo at least a few inches. Another American Sewing Guild member, Paula, said she made them by just serging the gown edges. I decided to try it and see how it works.

No question that the bound one looks better, but it takes 5-6 times as long! We have an ASG charity sew meeting on Saturday to make these, so I hope the serger version is acceptable. The hospital needs hundreds of these, and even though lots of people make them, they are always running out.

No pictures today

I really should learn to take more pictures! We have been mostly hanging around the house waiting for Kevin’s knee to heal. The arthroscopic surgery went well a week ago, and they took out a bunch of torn meniscus. We both have what my family called “itchy feet” meaning the itch to travel, so on Saturday we headed to Snowbird ski resort for sightseeing and lunch. It is the last weekend most of the resorts will be open, so it was pretty busy. We like having lunch in the lodge, sitting next to the big windows opening onto the slopes. They were having a water competition where you ski or board down a slope then try to stay on top of a big pool of water at the end. It was hilarious watching folks in costumes try it. Some actually made it! This is why I should take pictures.

Yesterday we went to Park City and Tanger Outlets to look for Kevin a new winter coat. His last one finally gave up the ghost, and he needs something good below freezing. Sadly the Columbia store only had medium sizes in the ones he liked, and he isn’t a medium. I liked some vests, but again they only had mediums left in the women sizes too.

On the home front, I think I will finish the borders on my current quilt today. I will take a picture when I do. I am having a friend with a long arm do my basting with water soluble thread, then I will do the real quilting on my Sweet 16 sit down. I have no interest basting a queen sized quilt with a wool batting! Next project is a new king sized quilt for our bed. In the next couple of weeks I will get it cut out (I have the fabric and the pattern) so I can sew blocks while traveling.

I am getting anxious about our next trip. We are planning to go to Yosemite, but the Highway 120 entrance near our reservation site is closed due to a big landslide. I look at the road status every day, and I am getting nervous. If it wasn’t for the rain they would probably have it ready by now, but there has been a LOT of rain. Our backup plan is Yellowstone, so it won’t be a bust either way, but I have never been to Yosemite and the water falls will be incredible this year. I am crossing my fingers for luck.

Home tasks

After relaxing a couple of days, I am almost finally recovered from the sinus infection from hell. Now I only cough my lungs out when I go to sleep, a big improvement over doing it pretty much constantly a week ago. We are just doing house stuff. Kevin is working on a new side table for the trailer and trying to figure out how to get 400 watts of solar set up. He also is doing some general maintenance to the trailer. Trailers get bounced and jiggled all over, and things are always coming loose. It is just one of the things that you have to do. It is a bit challenging because his knee is giving him fits. He had a MRI yesterday, and we hope to have a diagnosis soon. The he can figure out what he needs to do.

I have been sewing. I made two fitted sheets for the Pack n Play I have. I ended up taking a 34xWOF fabric with 4″ inch boxes in the corner. My Bernina serger (made by Juki) has a foot designed to apply elastic very efficiently, and it made the job much easier. I also made a fitted crib sheet for one of my daughter’s friends. It uses two yards with 9″ boxes. It is out of the cutest Harry Potter fabric. (Ignore the stray threads.) The fabric came from etsy, and I am pretty sure it is a Spoonflower fabric based on the way it was printed. I am a bit worried about all that black on a crib sheet, but it isn’t my sheet!

I have also been doing some quilting. I bought the most wonderful fabric panel when I was at the Home and Machine Quilting Show in Sandy, UT last year. I just fell in love with it. I decided to use a fusible batting so it would be stiffer and not shrink. It didn’t work perfectly, but it isn’t bad. I just outline quilted the rock art figures with MonoPoly thread from Superior Threads. It is a very fine invisible thread, and I used it because I wanted to emphasize the figures but not distract from them. I used brown SuperBob on the bottom to coordinate with the backing. The binding is just a nice black cotton. I am going to put it where it can be seen as people come in my front door.

We also spent some time today pruning the service berry and one of the roses. We filled up the trash can so we will have to finish up after trash day.

Soon to be traveling again!

Today the part for our truck’s recall notice came in, and Kevin is getting it installed now. He is also going to get an oil and fuel filter change for the truck, so it will be an expensive day. The recall issue is obviously free of charge, but oil and filters on a diesel pickup are pricey. Luckily it doesn’t have to be done often.

I am having an issue with the trailer water pump though. It sounds awful when I use it, noisy and rough. The water level is low, so I tried to fill it. I couldn’t get water to go in though! I have no idea why, so I am just going to leave it until Kevin comes back. It is well above freezing, but the wind is nasty and wet. I had forgotten how much colder a wet wind feels than the dry winds we get out West.

Ooh, but we do have good news too! We bought a foam RV mattress to replace the barely adequate coil mattress we got with the trailer. I really like foam, though this is a bit softer than I prefer. It is thicker than the old mattress, but the quilt I made still fits, so I am glad of that! Many RV mattresses are odd sized; ours is a “short queen”, six inches shorter than a regular queen. That means special mattresses, special sheets, etc. Quite a pain! I made the quilt that is on the bed now, and I love how nice it feels. It is with quality cotton fabric and a luscious wool batting so it drapes well yet is comfortable in a variety of temperatures. I like using wool batting in quilts for adults, but I use cotton batting in quilts for children or ones I know will be washed a lot. The wool can be machine washed and dried, but it does take more care than cotton.

I am spending a lot of time reading since we are stationary and it is cold. I am working my way through Kerry Greenwood’s Phryne Fisher mysteries, and having a great time. My public library has an ebook system, and I have been able to get quite a few. I am trying to read them in order, but number 5 was checked out by someone else, and I accidentally checked out number 19 (and read it). I am now on number 10, “Death Before Wicket.” I will check out a few more before we leave the campground here. My library ebook system only works on real wifi, not my phone’s hot spot making it something I have to plan for. I loved the PBS series, and it turns out to be a quite faithful adaptation. There are only a few character modifications, but the Miss Fisher in the show is the same Miss Fisher in the books.

Tonight we will have Indian food with my oldest son and his family, then we head out tomorrow. I am so in need of warmer weather! We have 3-4 weeks before we intend on being home, so we have lots of time to dawdle along the way. No specific plans, just heading in the general direction of south.

Baby presents done

I finished up my daughter’s baby quilt a couple of days ago, and I finished a car seat canopy for her today. Lots of pictures of the quilt, but I forgot to take a picture of the canopy! I mailed the package today, and it will hopefully be there for her baby shower Saturday.

Elephant was quilted with random circles.

The background was quilted using a bamboo design.

Some straight line quilting too using rulers.

Back needed to be just a little bit bigger so I added a cute stripe

We also got a Anova sous vide cooker. It is wonderful! One of my sons got one for Christmas, and he convinced us to try it. Last night was pork chops, and tonight is chicken. The meat is evenly cooked and very moist. We do have to brown it after the sous vide, but that only takes a few minutes.