Prairie Points & Mug/Rug Swap

This is another one of those quilts where I hoped the maker would not come and pick it up after quilting.  Sadly, that didn't happen and it has gone back home.  The name of the block is Granny's Stars.

Prairie Points are definitely a challenge.  Once it's loaded on the longarm, flip the points OUT, baste one inch inside the base of the points, and leave the basting in.  Don't quilt anything beyond that - the maker will be turning the backing under and needs that space to work in.

The yoyo's added another bit of a challenge.  I outlined around the applique and the yoyo's, then modified the pantograph pattern which I used in the body of the quilt, and added freemotion quilting to fill the background.

Fresh, springy, and girly.

So pretty.

At one of my guilds the December meeting included a Mug and Rug swap.  It was done on a "make one, take one" basis, so if you didn't want to participate you didn't have to.  Here's my contribution.

And here's what I brought home.

I've been on vacation (or whatever it's called when you stay home and do chores?) for two weeks.  Sadie got clipped so she looks like a dog again, instead of a Wookiee.  All the upstairs windows (23 panes) and screens (11) have been scrubbed & shined.  My workroom has been defuzzed (you'll never find someone with MORE dust than me) and several hours has been spent on bookkeeping.  The house has been vacuumed and dusted.  I finished a UFO and quilted TWO of my own quilts - one needs hand stitching on the binding, but the other one is destined for the donation pile so it got machine binding.  I'll post pics of those later, but it makes my TFUQ list and UFO list look a little better. 😁  However, unfortunately while I was cleaning and defuzzing the workroom, I found ANOTHER UFO in a bag.  The blocks are all made and squared up, since 2008.  Geez Louise.
Now, I think I need a vacation from my vacation.

How to deal with Prairie Points on the INSIDE of a Quilt, and the crossover between PERSONAL and PROFESSIONAL

This little quilt has a row of prairie points on the INSIDE of the quilt, separating the body from the border. (Sorry, the row of flying geese is visually distracting here - but I'm sure you can see which are the prairie points.)

Stitch-in-the-ditch along the prairie points to make everything stay flat.  Try to stay on the LOW side of that seam.  Why did this photo decide to load sideways?  I have no idea.  Ask the computer gods.  Grrr.

S.I.D. done.

Now, pin all those little puppies out of your way so you can quilt the border.

Rocket science here.  Quilt the border.  Um, yes.  I am being sarcastic.  As you are choosing the border design, keep in mind that part of it will be buried under those P.P.s.

Release the dragons.  I mean the P.P.s   If you want to get artsy fartsy, these p.p.s make GREAT dragon backbones.

Moving on... quilt the body of the quilt.  This quilt also had a repeat of the prairie point border at the other end, so I did the same process at the bottom of the quilt. 

• S.I.D.
• pin the points out of the way
• quilt the border.

Here we go.  All done and ready for pickup.

Now, I'm going to give you a little peek into my married life.

Floyd is my quilting machine.  He works very, very hard.  But because he's a machine, sometimes things break or wear out.  I am married to a man who can usually fix anything.  However, he is afraid of Floyd.  Don't ask me why.  He's got about 200 lbs. over Floyd. 
Floyd has needed some wiring work for AGES.  DH keeps putting me off.  I had already replaced one of those little telephone jack things, but that didn't fix the problem.  So yesterday was the day that DH had to buckle down and do his thing, because we needed to replace the same plug on the OTHER end of that cable. 

He pulled the back cover off Floyd so he could trace down the cable, which is very challenging, since wires go into a track then up through the machine housing and around several corners where you CANNOT SEE, and of course there are three identical cables.  After every electronics tool and gadget in the civilized world came out, he finally (maybe) decided which cable had the other end.  So I replaced the plug.  But first we had to have a fight over the plug replacement, AFTER I had already cut the plug off.  sigh. So, I got the new plug on eventually after much hairy eyeballing and cursing at each other, then DH put everything back together.  Ha ha ha ha ha... (hysterical laughter).  That did not fix the problem.  Everything had to come apart again. 

More hairy eyeballing and cursing at each other over pins and copper wires and clampy-thingy-tools.  Put ANOTHER new plug on.  Now the wire has no extra play in it - if this doesn't fix it what do we do???  (insert hand wringing, aargh!!)  DH reassembles everything and I give Floyd a whirl.  Can you guess?  Yes.  Not fixed.  (insert curse words).  Well, at least at this point we know (or we THINK we know) that it's not the plug.  It's the wire.  With the constant movement of the machine back & forth and up & down, one of the wee copper wires inside the cable has finally bit the dust and broken.  So, DH takes the machine apart AGAIN and runs a jumper wire from one port to the other port, bypassing the bad wire, and that seems to have the problem on the run.  By now we are speaking to each other, but just barely. 

Somewhere in this timeline, friends had stopped in with coffees and green teas so we had a nice hour long break where we were pretending to get along for the sake of company.  Yeah?  Have you done that?  I'm sure you have.  Later, we went into town for 'senior citizen supper' (anything before 5 pm, in my books) because the food trucks were at the museum.  We both simmered down after some yummy food.  I stopped muttering about him being a stupid asshat.

Anyhow.  Now I will work on one of my own quilts to make sure the jumper cord is indeed fixing the problem.  If that's the case DH will fish a new wire through, that will be identified on both ends with pink nail polish.  I will put the new plug ends on. (for some reason, DH cannot do these.  Unbelievable.  He can do anything else.) 

In all honesty, I have no idea why we can both work with a million other people and get along.  But we cannot work with each other and get along.  Weird.  Is it because he's a middle child?  Is it because I am the baby of the family?  Dunno.  Kiss kiss.  Love you, honey.