Good morning, my friends. Well, my dreaded task of sandwiching quilts is one-third complete. This morning I was thinking it feels a lot like when I bring home tomato tonnage. When one has 60 lbs. of tomatoes sitting in one's laundry room, one has no choice but to get to work with the blanching, peeling, coring, cooking, ladling, and processing. There's no time for thinking. There is only doing. Saying that, it isn't quite the days-long effort of pasta sauce and salsa, but the keep-going-until-it's-finished feeling is there nonetheless. Partly, I suppose, it's because I don't have the tables set up all the time. When I do, it's an event, meaning the garage has to be vacated by cars, and then swept out and cleaned up. Like so many infrequent cleaning jobs, it's a good excuse to put forth the effort.
My morning was spent procrastinating until I'd reached the limit of delay. I gave myself extra stitching time on the covered bridge piece, finishing off the bottom section.
That allowed me to move my hoop up to encompass the last of it. I don't expect to finish this today, but maybe by tomorrow. There's a whole lotta stitching in this piece. I'll be happy to move along to something else.
After I got dressed and went out to the garage, I found Mike already had the garage cleaned up and the tables set up. When I talk about tables, I'm referring to two sheets of plywood...
Supported by four sawhorses. It gives me a nice big flat surface to work from.
I like to clamp things down with bicycle clamps. Generally, a quilt doesn't extend the entire length or width of my "table," and so I use painter's tape to hold the loose edges fast.
And then...no more excuses. It was time to get to work. I started with the largest quilt first, and worked my way down in size. The largest happens to be Jericho Walls.
Next was My Whimsical Quilt Garden.
Then, the Painted Ladies.
And finally, Calendula Patterdrip's Cottage. You might remember
the problems I had with the embroidery at the top of this quilt. There was some tracing to be done, and I could barely see through the fabric. I ended up winging it, and not at all sure I'd been successful with my fakery. When I looked at it yesterday, it looked just fine. (I love how forgiving things can be.)
At day's end, I had a stack of four with eight to go.
After a full day of running up and down stairs, pressing, piecing together sheets of batting, spreading, smoothing, spraying, and more smoothing, Smitty was channeling the way my body felt.
So, I'll be at this again today and tomorrow until all 12 are sandwiched. Sadie wonders if we really have to.
It's a cloudy day today. We've had weeks of uninterrupted sunshine, and so the cloudy day is a welcome sight. It'll keep things cooler in the garage too. I'll spend a little time on my slow-stitching this morning, and then I'll get back to sandwiching the quilts. Our traditional Sunday morning blueberry oatmeal pancakes should give me fuel to last at least part of the day. Time to get to it.
Before writing this post, I wrote my reveal post for the "Vintage" quilt.
I'll bet you guys forgot all about it, didn't you? I'll post the reveal on Thursday, August 1st, and high time. I've been dying to show it to you. I'm glad the time will arrive soon.
11 comments:
A cloudy day is no match for a sunny disposition. ~ William Arthur Ward
I processed a bunch of tomatoes this week and zucchini too into zucchini salsa. Then yesterday my hairdresser asked for tomatoes, so I gave her all I had picked so far. I have a couple of days reprieve before I make the next thing. Great going on getting the quilts basted.
That’s a lot of quilt basting! Are you quilting them on your DSM? Great table for basting!
If imitation is considered the sincerest form of flattery, consider yourself flattered! I recently discovered a storage bin with nine, count 'em nine, completed quilt tops. Most had backs ready to go, also. As of yesterday, three are layered with six to go. I might just go ahead and quilt these three to get them out of the way before starting the next batch. h, and I also found three quilts that had been returned from the long armer that needed binding. That's done and so are they!
I love seeing all of your beautiful quilts laid out on the tables. You will feel so good when you have them all ready to be quilted. I enjoy doing the tops but the finishing tends to be put off until guilt sets in. Your blog is such an enjoyable part of my day.
Ouch - just the mere thought of bending over those tables sandwiching quilts makes my back sore. I do NOT envy you that job!!
I have not forgotten about the challenge quilt. I'm still on pins and needles waiting for it's reveal. I know I won't be disappointed. Yours always amaze me.
Dorothy in W WA
Magpie says she doesn't envy the backbreaking work. Me too. I don't care about inhaling the spray..but way better than the pins we used. Whew!
Sadie...You have to be patient. Your Mom is making more quilts for you to snuggle. Lucky dog..er, um, cat.
You'll be so glad when you have all those ready to quilt and sitting in the sewing room. Hope day two went as well, but with less effort as you are working on smaller projects as you go.
Without a doubt, the best thing about a longarm is that you don't have to sandwich! I do sometimes lay stuff out on the (clean) floor, but, usually, I can put the top down (right side UP, just in case clean wasn't clean enough), then put enough scraps together to cover plus 4" all around. Pick up the back, load it, roll out some batting and I'm almost done! That's the best thing, second only to the fact that I don't have to push the darned thing through the throat! Good thing you've got kitties to help!! Please don't try to quilt 'em all one after the other, your back will never forgive you! I was afraid I had missed your reveal...so much so that I searched several older posts a couple of weeks ago, right after the first of July came and went. I'm looking forward to it!
Basting quilts is not my favorite task, so your set up is a good one, getting so many done at once. My challenge quilt is done, but the photos and posts aren't. That's on my task for tomorrow!
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