Contemporary Traditions

Dee of Thea Quilts asked what I wore to the Oscars so I wanted to post this photo…

It was just a little something that I threw together with some hand stitching at the last moment.

DH is out of the hospital but he has been moved to a rehabilitation facility. He’ll be working with the therapists there to rebuild the strength in his back. They are predicting 2 more weeks before he will be able to come home I’ll sure be glad when this is all over!!

My husband’s surgery was a complete success! All of the tumor has been removed from his spine. Immediately after the surgery the surgeon was concerned that there would be some paralysis in his right leg. But that did not happen. Ron can get up and walk fine- no paralysis! God is good!

Thank you so much for all of your thoughts and prayers. It was a comfort to hear from each one of you. Ron is still in the hospital but I’m hoping he will be home in 2 or 3 days. He has a lot of healing to do.

My DH is going into the hospital today to have a tumor removed from his spine.

So I will be taking off my quilter’s hat and putting on a nurse’s hat for a while.

Catch you later.

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!

I hope you are able to spend some time with your special someone!

My friend Jennifer has an amazing sense of color. Her quilts are always full of color.

This week I finished quilting this Kiddie Quilt for the 40 Quilt Service Project. It was pieced by Debby McCarter. Isn’t it cute? Look at all the bugs and fireworks. There are also cars, frogs and puppies.

Thanks, Debby, for putting this together for the kids.

It’s Wednesday again with a chance to look at our Work In Progress. I haven’t gotten a lot of quilting done this week. Spent some more time making adjustments to my quilting machine and table. I must say it is a delight to work on that machine.

The quilting that I did do this week is on a quilt that is to go to the Center for the Intrepid that just opened here in San Antonio. It is pieced of patriot fabrics in the Yellow Brick Road pattern and quilted with a stars and loops pantograph.

Well, the honeymoon is over with Curve Master and me. We had our first spat when I changed projects and tried some tighter curves.

What I learned was that Curve Master is not a magician and if I don’t do my part right the curves don’t come out right. It seems that it is very important to start the curved seam at the right point. It I don’t, I end up with a long tail or I run out of fabric before the end of the seam. Makes sense, huh? Also it can make a big difference if the pieces of fabric are not cut exactly right. DUH! These issues were there before, they were just magnified when I started working with smaller, tighter curves.

So it was touch and go there for a while; Curve Master almost ended up in the round file. But we worked things out and Curve Master is still attached to my DSM and we are making curves together; just a bit more slowly and carefully.

I had a lot of questions/comments about how I took the photo in yesterday’s post with both of my hands in the photo.

So I thought I’d let you in on my secret.

You see, I actually have 8 hands.

As I understand it, soon these extra hands will start leaving me, 2 at a time. So I try to make good use of them while they are still around!

My Curve Master Presser Foot came in the mail yesterday. I couldn’t wait to try it out so I went straight to the sewing room.

The foot comes with various adapters so that it will work on any sewing machine. My Husqvarna didn’t need any of the adapters; the foot snapped right on. See the little extension to the right? That is a guide for 1/4″ seams. It can be used for straight or curved seams. My main interest right now is how it works for curved seams. So I pulled out some pieces for my Love Ring quilt.

The instructions say to align the beginning edge of pieces, right sides together butting the edges against the Curve Master 1/4″ guide.

For curves, I had to lift and hold the top fabric lightly between left thumb and index finger very close to the front edge of the Curve Master. Then I gently coaxed the top fabric toward the right while my right hand pushed the bottom fabric toward the left so that their edges met at the guide. It was actually amazing how easy it was after I got the hang of it!

The best part of it is no pins and no clipping! Viola! The first block for my parents’ Love Ring quilt!