Wednesday before Thanksgiving

Here's a picture of the fabrics I've decided to use on the upcoming mystery quilt from Quiltville.com. It's called 'Carolina Christmas Mystery'. Instructions say you can use scrappy reds, greens, golds and neutrals. I chose to not go the scrappy route this time. I wanted something soft and old fashioned looking. The instructions for the mystery start on Friday, but I won't be able to begin it until Saturday or Sunday, since we will not be home Friday. Quiltville is the site that the mystery top 'Double Delight' came from. That's the top I'm quilting right now. Almost done with it, too! That will be quite an accomplishment, as I have been using the 1927 Singer.

Really looking forward to going to Mom's for Thanksgiving. We have the food all planned out and we have our Friday shopping all planned out too! I've got a list of things I want to get from the stores that are having the mega sales. Probably get most of the kids' stuff done. Darling Hubby is done. Also have to think about the kids' birthdays, which are one right after another within days of Christmas. Why did I do that????? ha ha.

Sunday is the day Darling Daughter is moving out. Sigh. Some of the deals I want to capitalize on Friday are for stuff she can use at the house. Most of Darling Son's gifts will be electronic or music related.

Soup's On!

I've got two pots of soup cooking tonight. I have a pot of vegetable beef cooking on the stove and a pot of vegetable in the crock pot for Darling Son the vegetarian. The house smells pretty good.

I am getting real close to having the double delight top completely quilted. I'm not sure if it will be completely quilted by the time we leave on Thursday. Probably not, but that depends on what I get done tomorrow. I will go up in the morning before work and get a little bit done then. That 15 or 20 minutes in the morning actually helps with the progress. Once I have the grid finished, I have an idea for what to do in the quarter square triangles - I want to put radiating lines from the point of the triangle out to the borders. In the small border I'll just stitch in the ditch. The outer border is about 5" wide and I'm not quite sure what to do in it.

Gotta love Mondays...

Darling Daughter just called me at work. She hasn't really been doing much sewing, but she wants some pillows for the house her and her boyfriend are moving into. So she rummaged through my stash and found some material and was sewing along when she ran out of bobbin thread. She had never filled or changed a bobbin and called to ask me how to do it. I walked her through it, and she finished her pillow slips. It made me feel so good to be able to explain something like that to her. She actually values my opinion on this one thing, something that is rare between a 19 year old and her mother. Maybe it just feels rare to me, I don't know. At any rate, I'm glad she has a little interest in sewing. I think I'll get her a machine for Christmas or for her birthday in January. I was thinking of giving her one of the old machines I've picked up at yard sales, but if I want her to keep interested in sewing I don't want her to have to fight with it. Maybe, just maybe, someday she will get into quilting...

After Church on Sunday

This has been a stressful morning. I've been up since about 5:30 a.m. because Darling Hubby got sick and we had to deal with that. Then I was too wired to go back to sleep, of course, but didn't trust myself to do any machine quilting right afterwards. (I was a bit shaky...)

I finally did go do some machine quilting on the Double Delight top that I have had done for ages and ages (and promised Mom I'd have it finished by Christmas for her to give to a friend!). I thought I could get a few rows quilted before church. Well, I did, but not without glitches. Of course.

I had put a card table behind the old Singer to support the weight of the quilt. The card table is one I have been using to cut fabrics and has had a rotary cutting accident or two. I repaired these little imperfections with duct tape. Can you tell where this is going yet?

As I'm quilting along, I check the back of the quilt every so often to make sure there are no puckers. I flipped it over and what do I see? A two inch square of duct tape neatly quilted to the back of the quilt! Agh. I did some unsewing and removed the tape, then requilted the area. The problem is that there is some residue and it has stained the back. I think I'm going to continue quilting it then when it's finished I'll throw it in the washer with some spot remover and hope for the best.

In addition to wanting to get it done for Mom, I want to have it done before starting Bonnie's next mystery at the end of this week. We won't be home on the day it starts, because we will be out of town for the Thanksgiving holiday, but we'll be home the next day. I'm chomping at the bit to get into another mystery! I really enjoyed doing them last holiday season. Bonnie's was the most challenging, I have to say. It was also the most rewarding.

So the quilt is about halfway quilted now and I'm hoping to get back to it later today and get the bulk of it done. Maybe, just maybe, I can get it done before we go visit Mom on Thursday...no promises, though! There's always the USPS!

Darling Hubby and I are going down to St. Louis to Gram's house today. We need to pick a few things up from there to take to her, since she's living at Mom's now. We are stopping at JoAnn's to get some muslin for a friend of mine, but I don't think I'll do any shopping for me. Believe it or not, I'm just not in the mood right now. Got my mind on other things that I want to get finished. We also are going to lunch at Red Lobster, one of my favorite places. I have gift certificates left from my birthday and they will be enough for DH and I to have a really nice lunch.

Darling Son played in a band last night at a tavern in town. Now, I don't particularly care for my 18 year old hanging out in bars, but this is a pretty tame one, and his daddy was there to keep an eye on him, not that DS needed it or anything.

Darling Daughter is probably moving out in a few weeks. Her BF closed on his house a couple weeks ago and they have slowly been moving furniture and stuff into it. I'll miss her lots.

Wall Hanging Completed

Woo Hoo! A finish! Hee hee. I finished the wall hanging for Mom last night. Here's a picture of the quilting in the green areas. If you scroll down you can see the whole piece. I'm mailing it to her today. She knows it is close to being done, but doesn't know it will be on it's way. I named it 'Sunshine for Mom'. I put a label on the back, with that on it, but it was a little messy. I still need to perfect my label making!

The old Singer and I got along pretty good on that piece. The sticking point was that darn rayon thread. I told the old girl I would try to avoid using that thread in her again...My son think's I'm nuts talking to a sewing machine. ha ha.

I sent away for a kit from Downy for the Quilts for Kids project. I would like to whip that together then machine quilt it and send it off before starting to machine quilt the double delight top. I did cut some muslin for the back of double delight and throw it in the washer this morning before work. If it's nice tomorrow, since I have the day off for Veteran's Day, I am thinking of pin basting the quilt outside on the new tables I bought.

This weekend my friend and I are going to Arthur and Tuscola. We are going Friday night and spending the night in Mattoon. Arthur has the Amish settlement and Tuscola has the outlet mall. We are going to do some Christmas shopping. I'm looking forward to getting away for a short time.

Sunday Stitches

Yesterday Mom came down and we went to Gram's house. We did a lot of sorting through things, tossing a lot of stuff out, and generally getting things in some kind of order. There is still a LOT of work to do.

I worked on the wall hanging today after Mom left. In the green spaces I am making trailing lines with clover shapes on them. Still having some difficulty with the rayon thread, but will manage to finish the piece and then be done with it. I may even give the thread away once I'm done, just because of the difficulty I had using it.

While at Gram's we stopped at Joann Fabrics. I had purchased several things at a different store last week, one of them was a package of 60mm rotary cutting blades. When I got home, I found that they did not fit in the cutter I have. So, I wanted to return them because they were a bit pricey. I got that all taken care of. I guess I will need to order the blades my cutter uses from the internet. I love the cutter. It's a Martelli. I think I've talked about it before on the blog. It's ergonomically correct and very easy to use.