A Quilting We Will Go

Heigh Ho the Derry-O! A Quilting We Will Go!

Okay, now you can officially worry about my mental stability since I've quoted children's rhymes in my posts for the last three days. I suppose there are worse things. Elections always cause me to regress, but that's a story for another day.

So today Eliza and I spent some quality time together. I had to remind myself how to wind a bobbin and how to thread the machine. Actually, I did pretty good with the machine...there was just one over and under I had to look up. I'm starting with the Gardener's Journal quilt and with the house motif right in the middle.

After experimenting with the tension and practicing a little bit, I went to work. I quilted some branches into the trees and smoke coming from the chimney.

Also some board siding onto the house.

Bricks in the walkway.

And then some of these little wing-ding-thingies. (That's the name I just made up for those.) I wish I was better at hitting my mark, but there you go. Practice makes perfect, and I'm going to get a lot of practice on this quilt.

I quilted a flower into this one little patch. You can see that my stitches got a little big in spots. That's because I was moving too slow. No biggy. The thing about quilting, I've figured out, is that on a large quilt, these little bobbles get lost in the whole. I suppose if someone looking at this quilt wanted to get really picayune and start looking at ever little stitch, they'd probably see all the problems I'm going to have with it. But then...I wouldn't show that person any more of my quilts. The problem of the picayune person is a problem easily solved.

I just stippled in some of the other areas, and in the flowered fabric around the embroidered block. 

So here's what I have so far:

About this time, I started feeling like I needed to rest my hands and wrists, and so I'm stopping for a little while. I plan to return a little later.

Now I want to show you an earth-shattering little tip I figured out today...for me, earth-shattering. Some of the rest of you may have already figured this out, and you can file it away in the box marked "Well, duh!" Anyway...here goes. These epiphanies don't come around every day for someone who's prone to singing nursery rhymes, so take it or leave it. Your choice.

Tails. Burying tails is not so difficult. I learned this method from Leah Day.

So, you can use one of these "cheater" easy-threading needles. They're easy to thread with the tails left when you cut thread while quilting.

The problem I've had with this method is that when I try to pop the threads through that little slot, it sometimes cuts the thread...which sort of defeats the purpose. This happens especially when I'm using a new needle, as I was today. 

Well, enter that fabulous substance known as "Mom Spit". Everyone knows that Mom Spit can clean, scour, and generally take care of any mess, especially the ones that occur on one's own child's face. This is true even when your child is my Matthew who was about four when I did that to him, and he said, "Moooommmm...that's so gross!" Anyway...just lick your fingers, and come away with that valuable commodity, Mom Spit. Next, run your fingers over your thread. It provides just enough lubricant that the thread slips through the slot in the top of the needle with NO BREAKAGE! YAHOO!

Then, just run your needle through the hole

and pull it out around an inch or so away from where you started.

Clip those thread ends, and

Voila! No more tails.

Mom Spit. It should be bottled and sold, don't you think?

Okay, so now I'm off to do some less fun things, but I'll be back quilting a little later on today. Mike and I are seeing a movie tonight, although we are still undecided between Interstellar and Nightcrawler. What I really want to see is Birdman, but it isn't in our theater yet. That's okay. I'll ride this wave of going out for dinner and then to a movie until it shows up here. For now, all I have to do is suggest going to a movie, and Mike takes care of the rest, no matter what's showing. This year, we both became eligible for senior discounts, and so we feel pretty smug showing up at the window all *old* and everything.