In The Machine

Let the quilting begin!

I'm so excited to get this one quilted - and it was a perfect day for some time in the studio to load it all up.

Housekeeper Susan was next door at the inn, excited about the ew vacuum we replaced the old one with.  It was time.  The beater bar on the old one was worn out and there were no replacement parts available.  New vacuum it is. )Hooray for the small improvements!)

Son Jeff was on hand working in the yard - I turned on some music to energize my morning and got down to the nitty gritty of  loading everything up.

I've had folks ask me before what I did to measure out my batting.

I take the easy route.  Once the backing and top are on their respective rollers and athe backing is attacked to the take up roller I just plop the whole roll of patting on top of the rollers and roll it out.

I leave myself about 3'' margin on either side and just cut it off where I need to. 

No measuring tapes, no rolling out on the floor - I find this to be the easiest way possible.

From here I set my channel lock and run a line of basting across the batting and backing so I know where to align the top to. It's 3 to 5'' down from where the backing is pinned to the leader to avoid the machine's needle plate from catching on pins.

I baste the top of the top with the top aligned to the line and I'm ready to start quilting.

I still can't remember what this is called! But I'll get it.

The baby pink thread is blending through everything just fine.

I love how all of these scraps are playing together.

Some really old ones - with some new-to-me new ones gifted by friends!

And I even like how the backing is looking as it rolls up on the take up roller bar. I haven't figured yet how many yards of scraps I've used up in this quilt - smaller pieces like this mean a lot more seam allowances  - so I'm guessing there is likely 8 to 9 yards of fabric in the front, Maybe 8 in the back (bigger pieces, fewer seams) so all in all, a good amount of scrap reduction in this one!

I tried to ask my assistant but she was caught snoozing on the job.

Oh, Hazel - you crazy floof!

We had a little "NO!" moment yesterday when she got on the string bins beneath the machine and was playing with the batting as it was hanging over the roller toward the floor. 

She thought it was a game.  I had to swat her to get her to stop, and she didn't like that - but she stayed further away while I was quilting from that point on.

However - not sure what she would do in the studio overnight I did what I have done for other quilting studio cats in the past - I unrolled the pokey-backed clear rug runner upside down on top of the quilt in the machine to deter her from turning the whole thing into a hammock overnight.

I'm hoping this does the trick.  It has in the past for other cats.

But who knows? Maybe she'll like it?

At any rate - I made it about half-way and I should be able to finish today. Let's hope so.

And I have to apologize about my unclear wording of yesterday's post stating that Jeff and Ashlyn had gone to her sister's house to see their new baby.  It's the sister's baby! Not Jeff & Ashly's.

Casden with his wee little cousin.

He is enamored with him!

Cousin relationships are so important.  Welcome, little one!

Also today - Debbie's Bitter Bees arrive this afternoon.  We will be having a Scrappy Mountain Majesties workshop. Pattern from the Free Patterns tab.

If you've started one (and not finished) or would like to start one - maybe this week/weekend is a good time to dig in! I'll be sharing photos of what's going on in our workshop over the next several days.  Join on in!

Quiltville Quote of the Day -

I will never confirm nor deny the implications of this statement!

Have a wonderful Wednesday, everyone -