Wow, it has been 5 years since my last post. Time does fly by even when it crawls along by the day.
I left off when I had just gotten a full time job and was attempting to juggle many balls. Sadly, the balls didn't stay up in the air. Then, I lost my job to a Corporate buy out and I thought life might go back to the way it was before! Ha.
I got a pup, which took most of my days for a few months. And I was getting caught up and reacquainted with my routine.
Then we had a couple deaths in the family, and of course we had COVID lock down. It was at this point that I got injured badly with a dog accident and I needed to do PT a couple times a week and get back on my feet. It was a frozen shoulder type of injury, so I couldn't do anything, let alone quilt or walk. It seems the shoulder muscle is attached to all the muscles in the arm, back and ribs. Anyway, I spent 1.5 years in therapy to get back to 95%. I'm still working on sore muscles in the arms where they must have torn.
Early on, soon after I went back to work, I sold my APQS George sit down quilting machine. I figured the next many years I would not have time to use it much and it was too much money to sit on the table waiting for me. I did find that after using George, I found the Long Arm quilting machines through the quilt store much easier than learning to glide the quilt around on the table rather than move the machine across the quilt. It is a totally different method. I also felt like learning to quilt was a totally separate hobby from piecing! There is so much to learn on both sides. At least that is what I have decided after looking way back.
I left off with Project 1 Vol. 2 where I did finish the quilting on my George, but it didn't get binding or finishing. This project shouldn't take too much time to finish up. I don't know that I posted the picture after I got the new border on. If you have followed along, the first outside border just didn't fit color wise. So, this is the new one.
The next project I had in the can was the Vol 2 project 3 Small log cabin on diagonal. I had finished the top, basted it to the back and was ready to quilt.
And, according to my post earlier with my sister's wedding, I was working on Proj.2 a lattice piecing. I have no idea where that is hidden!
I have only completed 147 flowers for my Grandmother's Flower Garden Full size quilt. These are a separate project from the Quilter's Academy projects, and is intended for the guest bedroom. I had wanted something that I could do when my husband was home and we were sitting together in the family room. It was also using my favorite 1930's fabrics. They are just so Happy and make me smile.
I had a Queen quilt kit I bought back when I first started quilting, thinking it would be a great project for our Master Bed. I had only 1.5 squares done and felt like I was not capable of finishing. My mother came to visit a couple months ago, and I had the bright idea to let her have the project! I had cut out every piece and had instructions and pieces in ziplock baggies for 20 years! It took her only 2 months to get all the squares done! This is the picture she sent me.
It is a 'bird house' theme and mom thought it was pretty easy since the hardest part was done, the cutting! She did notice that the colors are very boring to her, but I remember asking my husband if those colors would be something he could handle for a Master Bed quilt. He didn't think it would be too feminine. Popular colors definitely change over the years. Now, she will pass it back to me at Christmas time and I will need to put the sashing and edges on and get this quilted.
Looks like I have a lot of quilting projects and no piecing project started. Except for the flowers. It's a good recap of where the sewing room got left off and now that I have dusted it and cleared away the things that have gathered over the last 5 years, I will have to assess what I can do!
I wonder what is the best way to get the quilts quilted? I am not so eager to use my sewing machine since that's why I bought George. And I know I would have to retake the longarm classes in order to certify to use the quilt store machines. Is that worth it? Hmm. I can't imagine finding a cheap small longarm machine used, but maybe someone was like me and found they weren't using it and saw a while before they would be back to it.
I am not sure I will be diving back into the Quilt Academy projects too soon, but I thought I would update on what has been going on. The Hargraves have retired now and the Forum is dead for questions. There were a few blogs I was following back in the day and I was disappointed to find that they just quit their blog, and I had no idea whether they had quit quilting or if they just got tired of recording it. I imagine it could have been exactly like what happened to me, a different season with different activities. I have been using this blog as a diary of sorts to remind me of the process and mistakes so that I can go back and find out how to progress, but I know there are others that have been working through the QA books and want encouragement. So, I am here and think about the quilting I left behind. Even though I have not been quilting, it isn't a dead hobby yet. :) The season has just not been right.
No comments:
Post a Comment