5/18/17

Moving On

Mike's final day at the track was yesterday. He drove the cars...got the t-shirt. He's a graduate now.


Here's a close-up of the certificate so you can see what it says. He's a happy guy.


He even got a sticker for his Corvette back home. Whoa.


For his final day on the track, I spent the day sewing. I decided to set things up a little differently. It worked better for the foot pedal and the cords, and it was easier to access my cutting mat this way. The table is sturdy enough, but not particularly stable, and so I use a non-skid sheet under the sewing machine to keep it from bouncing around too much.


The newest Solstice Challenge block was out, and so I pulled out the kit of fabrics I'd brought along for. The Corvette fabric has been in my stash for years, and I've never done anything with it. This seemed like a perfect opportunity. Since I didn't know what the block would look like, or indeed, even how large it was, I brought lots of choices.


The block is called "Weather Vane" and, for once, it was appropriate for my fabric. It took most of the day to make the block because of some cutting errors. At one point, I feared I'd mis-cut myself into not having enough fabric, but I worked it out. The block ends up at 24 inches, so it's fairly large. This is my block to commemorate Mike's time at the track this week.


After that, I got to work sandwiching my quilt for the quilt-along and setting up the machine to do the stabilizing quilting. If, like me, you've never done "stabilizer quilting," you can read what this step entails here at The Inbox Jaunt. I'm using this "Pretty in Pink" colored thread from Isacord. I'm not sure how I ended up with several spools of Isacord, but I'm experimenting to see if the expense of these threads is worth it. This is a good color for my quilt.


I brought a piece of scrap batting that turned out to be just a little bit shy. I'll just cut my top and bottom borders to make it work after I have the quilting finished. The only thing I did today was to stitch in the ditch on the horizontal seams and the vertical seams. Lori Kennedy was advising a walking foot for this, but Pfelicity has a dual feed, and so I just used a quarter-inch foot. It worked fine.


Here's how it looks from the back. 


From here, she suggested doing Cindy Needham's method of ESS (Every Stinking Seam) and then proceeded to do it on her blog. To do that, I would need to set up the machine for free motion quilting, and I was kind of tired of sewing for the day. I quit where I was. I still might go back and do ESS. We'll see. 

From here, we're heading to the Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada. Whether I can blog from there is anybody's guess. It always depends on whether I can get internet access. If you don't hear from me for a few days, you'll know the internet failed me.

16 comments:

Darlene S said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
QuiltShopGal said...

The racing clinic sounds like great fun. Sure glad to hear Mike passed and received such a beautiful diploma. And it looks like you had a great day quilting. I'm looking forward to seeing progress on your quilt-along with Lori. Happy Adventures!

QuiltShopGal
www.quiltshopgal.com

liniecat said...

Well done Mike and am sure you've had a great time flying round the track, what a superb bucket list tick for you!
Will you buying one of t hose wizzy watnot cars then I wonder?

By the way, did Smitty go for a spin too?

: )

Sandra W said...

Great photo of Mike with his certificate and T-shirt. Great to follow along on his/your adventures.

Janarama said...

What a great way to kick off Mike's retirement. How exciting it must have been to zoom around the track, for both of you. I like how you're coordinating your fabrics for the Solstice Challenge to things happening during the months you make the blocks. I love that Corvette fabric ... time to make Mike a quilt using the rest of it. Thank you for sharing all of your adventures with your readers.

Vroomans' Quilts said...

And where is the pic of you in the car? Oh, I looked forward to that one. Congrats to Mike - what an awesome adventure!!

Vroomans' Quilts said...

And where is the pic of you in the car? Oh, I looked forward to that one. Congrats to Mike - what an awesome adventure!!

crazy quilter said...

Congrats to Mike on his graduation! How exciting... I love your set up for sewing looks like you both had some fun. Safe travels . Hope the batteries are all ready to go.

Dana Gaffney said...

Congrats Mike! I hope he can slow himself down to drive that truck, make sure he's not wearing those shoes.

piecefulwendy said...

Congrats to Mike! How cool that you had that Corvette fabric in your stash. You are really doing well with the Solstice blocks. I just saw another blogger lay out her blocks, and that quilt is going to be big! I don't know if I'll go back and catch up or not; I'm still making copies of the patterns, so maybe. Looking forward to pictures from your next stop!

Ioleen said...

Congrats Mike!! Thank you for allowing me to follow along on this wonderful adventure. I enjoy reading each and every post.

heartsease54 said...

Big Congratulations to Mike. Aren't you glad he got the chance to do this? And your Solstice block is terrific, your plan really worked out on the fabrics. Have fun for the rest of the trip!

Beth said...

Congrats to Mike on completing the course! You both made the most of your time there, it seems. I love that you chose to sleep in the RV with the cats rather than in the condo. That's how we roll here, too. We give up some "luxuries" for the pleasure of feline and canine company.

As always, I'm enjoying this trip right along with you.

Brown Family said...

The Solstice Challenge block is a perfect way to celebrate Mikes graduation. The fabrics and colors worked out well!

I like Isacord thread. I buy it at my Bernina store when they put it on 20% off.

Hope you are having a great time, even with out internet. I have finished Hildegard . I have had a bad cough and sitting still on the couch gave me plenty of time to finish. Now I need to soak my hand because it is sore!

Kate said...

Perfect block to remember Mike's class. He looks like a pretty happy guy. Enjoy the rest of your trip. Hopefully you'll have Internet at some point.

quiltzyx said...

Congrats to the graduate! Good job Mike!!

The Corvette Solstice block looks wonderful - very nice job. I know you'll do a great job on quilting the little quilt too.