Quilt Basting, Spring Activities and A Bit Of Whinging

One of the jobs that a longarm quilter will do is baste a quilt for you so you can either hand quilt or machine quilt it yourself.  I charge a flat fee of $50.  Some quilters charge by the square foot which might save you money or cost you a bit more, depending on the size of the quilt.
When I baste a quilt I use a 4" grid and, generally speaking, will use up partially filled bobbins.  I don't do anything stupid like bright red bobbins on a white quilt though.  These jobs are slipped in, between quilts that are booked on my quilt schedule, so they're usually ready for you in a week or two.

Spring Activities
Whew... all the windows are washed, with the help of my WONDERFUL Karcher Window Vacuum.  That was the best $35 I ever spent.  I wish there was some excellent tool that would help me wash the screens, too.  But no - those require a scrub brush.  My normal routine has always been to wash the windows in the fall, get the screens done, and store them in a humongous plastic bag in the fruit cellar for the winter. When the spring comes all I need to do is the window washing and pop the clean screens back on.  That didn't happen last fall for some reason so I had to do the whole shebang now.

And if you're curious, as of yesterday we still had two clumps of snow, and there was a possiblity of flurries last night.  You can use your imagination as you ponder my thoughts on that.  It's not a pretty sight.  😝

The most important spring seeds have been started, and my plan is to transplant tomatoes this afternoon.  I also need to find the plastic cloches for the garden so I can put out a couple of cabbage babies and a couple lettuce babies for early eating.

What the Hell I'm Whinging About Now...
Family, and Finances.  Not religion, and not politics.  Although honestly, these days I could rail on about politics for hours.

Dear Family:  You have taken a person who is ALWAYS so happy to be in your company (me), and you've done her wrong.  Maybe you ignored the email, or the phone call.  Maybe you never responded to the package or the card you got in the mail.  Maybe you never bothered to say "yes" or "no" to the dinner invitation.  These are all things that happen quite easily to every person on the planet.  But YOU,... you manage to accomplish these things on a regular basis. Which means they are no accident. So... ok.  Message received.  Hmmph.  In hindsight, writing this was probably a waste of my time.

Finances:  This situation has come up several times over the last few months so I guess it needs to be addressed.  I do not accept post dated cheques.  I let you know your quilt was ready.  You decided on the pickup date.  End of story.  You put me in an awkward position that is very uncomfortable.  That's like asking me if I think your butt looks fat.  Please, have some consideration!

Dresden Plate and Mother Nature and Books

Have you been around me long enough to know that I love Dresden Plate quilts?  If not, well, I do.  I also love wine and martinis, not necessarily in that order.

This is kind of a modern take on the Dresden Plate, because of the choice of modern fabrics.

The quilting shows better in pics from the back side.  The center of the plates all have a bird quilted in them, as requested by the maker.  Love.

Yes, now on to MOTHER NATURE.  I'm tempted to start referring to her as "she who must not be named".

I gave up with the pics on the 16th - it was mostly rain all day.  Today it started as a drizzle then stopped.  DH and I went to Costco this afternoon and... the SUN came out.  We got home in time for Sadie and I to take a 20 minute walk.  As I donned my sunglasses (!) I commented to DH that I had just put the kiss of death on the weather.  Sure enough, 5 minutes later the sun was gone and the wind turned bitter.  In a normal year, by now the lettuce, dill and cilantro have sprouted in the garden.  The garlic greens might be peeking up from the ground.  This year?  Um, no.  Buried under snow.

Two very good books I've read during all this shitty weather I mean the past couple weeks:

Tales from the Lancaster AQS Show

I finally have my head back above water after my not-quite-a-week away in Lancaster.
If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook you might have seen the weather we were (ahem) blessed with.  This is a nor'easter.  None of us had a winter coat.  One gal on the trip was wearing sandals. Our bus driver was such a patient man, what with the bus sliding up the hills and getting stuck in the hotel parking lot, and all.

This is 100+ yards of wide backing that was preordered and waiting for me at the hotel.  You have no idea how heavy this is.  The neutrals are mine (for you, actually, at $17/m, a selection of whites and creams, all tone-on-tone) and the batiks are Diane's.

The AQS show itself was blissfully empty on our first day there, thanks to the weather.  People just didn't attend.  We had plenty of room to roam around, see the quilts, and shop the vendors.  However, the restaurants and malls were ALSO closed because employees could not get to work.  Yeah, so it was interesting for Diane (our tour organizer) to get us fed that night.

THE CUTEST QUILT I SAW

Very timely, considering that it was one week away from Easter, don't you think?

I attended a couple of lectures.  The more interesting one was by Kathy Doughty of Material Obsessions.  This quilt of hers made me laugh - it's a portrait of her husband.

You can poke around the web to see the quilts that won awards.

Below I am showing you why I will never waste my time entering any of these shows.

This quilt is by Claudia Pfeil of Germany.  She's a very well known quilter - you can check out her facebook page.

Do you see the identification tag on the right?  There is NO RIBBON.  Honest to God.  How could a pipsqueek like me ever compete with a quilt like this?  Yeah - no - not happening!!

Mind you, this quilt DID win $10,000.00 at the Road 2 California show in February. It's not like she wasted her money by sending it to the States to compete.

Here's another one by Carolyn Rider of Ohio.

Hokey smokey.

Again, NO RIBBON.  Now, I understand that the caliber of quilts at these AQS shows is crazy-high and they can't all be winners.  But this is a magnificent piece of work, between the applique, the quilting, the scalloped inner border and the piped accent along both the scalloped border and the outer binding.  My gawd.  I am definitely out of the running.

You can't come back to Ontario without going through Hershey, PA.  Well, MAYBE you could, buy why would you? And what the hell, you might as well pick up a date while you're there.  (ha ha ha, note to self:  don't complain about your job - you could have his!)

Beautiful Batik Diamonds

Wow, talk about something that looks like stained glass!  I'm pretty sure I would drive myself insane if I attempted to piece this - diamonds surrounded by thin sashing.  In case you're not thinking that far ahead, this leaves bias along all the outside edges.  The quiltmaker did a great job of keeping this flat and square.

I stitched around all the sashing, then along the borders.  The diamonds were quilted with a lovely curly motif that I drafted from the curls in the border design.

It's much easier to see on the back.

While I was away on retreat with the Binbrook guild I got most of the Apple Core twosies stitched into foursies.  I had to lay out a bit of a row just to keep myself motivated - I get sick of stitching the same thing over and over again.  I still have a few more to get stitched, then they can start to become eightsies.

This weekend I've been working on the dreaded annual PAPERWORK MARATHON.  Why can't I be a smart person and keep up with this all year long?  idiot.  I must not leave it any longer because tax time is fast approaching.

Next week I'll be posting from LANCASTER PA.  I'm heading off on another bus trip with Diane's Destinations to the AQS show.  I signed up for a couple of lectures to keep myself inspired.  It should be a fun week!

A special note for Longarm Quilters in Southern Ontario - I am the invitation coordinator for SOLO (Southern Ontario Longarm Operators).  If you have not received your invitation to the spring meeting please send an email to soloquilt@gmail.com and I will get you on the list.

T-Shirt Quilt & Winterruption recap

T-shirt quilts are a great way to showcase someone's hobby, or chronicle their life.  Make sure you fuse the shirts to a lightweight interfacing otherwise when you're quilting they are going to slither and slide all over the place.  This was beautifully pieced (and fused! 😀).

There was one shirt that was being particularly uncooperative.  It wasn't normal t-shirt jersey, it was more like a thermal knit.  I subdued it with a sheet of doctor paper and painters tape.  The paper was ripped off after quilting.  Worked like a charm.

Somehow during WINTERRUPTION we neglected to take any photos.  The weekend will just have to live in our memories (which is probably a guarantee that details will be pretty distorted).
The gals arrived on Thursday.  I felt quite sorry for them because of the horrid fog they had to drive through.  For supper I fed them Teriyaki Chicken Thighs with basmati rice, salad, and Maple Spiced Poached Pears.
Friday we were joined by Judy Lyons, the quilt appraiser from Burlington.  Diane had a couple of quilts that needed appraisals, so we enticed Judy with a delicious lunch.  I love visiting with Judy - she is always full of interesting stories, and she did not disappoint.
Saturday we went on our field trip to Dundas.  Lunch at the Thirsty Cactus (I can especially recommend the Pulled Pork Fries - OMG, delicious!!!), on to the Feathering Quilt Shop, bumming around up and down King Street, then heading up to hwy. 5 and the Dutch Mill Country Market.
On Sunday the girls left a bit before lunch and had an easy drive home, with blessedly NICE weather.
I spent Sunday afternoon finishing the Singapore Batiks tablecloth quilt top that's been on my UFO list for a few years now.  I can finally move it over the the TFUQ listing.

The week was spent nose-to-the-grindstone.  The coming week I'll be celebrating my birthday, then heading off on the weekend for the Binbrook Guild retreat where I can enjoy doing some more piecing on my Apple Core quilt.  

If It's Mid-February It's Probably Time For Some Fun. Right???

DH and I have been having some fun with the new little white board in the kitchen, but today marks the BEST notations so far.
Yes!  The Beach Girls are coming for a few days!

Now...back to my vacuuming.

SUPER BOWL SUNDAY

• Looong girly bath
• take Sadie for a walk
• wash winter coat since I got coated in mud/slush spray from a transport truck while out for walk
• give Sadie a pedicure. The click, click, click on the floors is driving me nuts.  Yeah, yeah, I know...short trip.
• set up card table so I can stitch during the game.  Last year I missed several of the commercials and that will NOT happen again.  I mean, who cares about the game?  It's all about the commercials.
• cook the perogies and the onions, then throw them in a casserole to stay warm in the oven.  See above - I am NOT missing the commercials this year.

Get those helicopter wings going before she gives me a belly-wash with snow!