To Do Tuesday #145

Oops! Has it been two weeks? Sorry about that. I got wrapped up with guests again. This time it was my brother Scott in from Brooklyn, New York. He stayed with me a few days before heading down to Corvallis to see his grandkids. It was awesome seeing him. It has been a year. The most exciting thing we did was do a hike at

It was a beautiful day for a hike – sunny & 70F. Only issue I had was that it said it was 2 miles but it was really 3 miles 🥾🤪. I survived. This hike is not an easy hike. There is a lot of elevation. I opted to go UP the steepest part and come down the sloping hillside. As always, coming down is harder than going up. Great hike though! Great company.

On to quilty things. I plan to link up with Carol over at Quilt Schmilt for To Do Tuesday. Come check it out.

(Two) Weekly Progress

I mostly worked on finishing all 12 blocks for Month 7. I finished ALL of the Snail Trail, Economy and Courthouse twelve inch blocks. Unfortunately, I was talking too much during Quilt Zoom day and my ruler got wonky and I cut off part of my block for one of my Economy block. I decided not to start over but improvised a fix by adding more of the triangle fabric. My point is not so pretty but it sure beats redoing the block again. #satisfied. It felt good to finish Month 7. Month 8 will be making a bunch of random filler blocks for the quilt and Month 9 will be assembling the quilt top. Getting close to be done!

The other projects I worked on was:

• my EPP project Ruby’s Garden: I almost have the base block done. Just need to finish the tips then add the sashing.
• Since I have been working with FPP, I pulled out more Miss Rosie Cake mix papers to pin up 3 more sets. Finished sewing, cutting, trimming, and laying out one of them.
• I spent the 30 minutes in the studio like I wanted emptying boxes and organizing things. Progress 😎

While I may not have worked that many projects, I still feel good about where I am at. I need to change my needle after working with so many paper projects before resuming my normal piecing. It really helps having two quilt zoom days per month. I really got off track and having one got me back on track. Thanks quilty buddies.

Weekly To Do List

Wish I had one. LOL! But let’s take a look at my wish list for this next week:

• Finish sewing final rail fence strip set and subcutting into 4 – 10 inch blocks
• Assemble the side of Are You Game small mystery quilt. Maybe even assemble the next couple of units.
• Finish assembling the Rosie’s Peacock blocks laid out
• Sew the two more Rosie’s Peacock papers, cut & trim
• Change my needle after working with papers
• Change my rotary blade as well
• Another 30 minutes unpacking the studio
• Setup ironing station
• Setup cutting station
• Finish the patriotic table runner
• Work on the patriotic project bag
• Sketch out the sewing studio floor plan
• Finish the Ruby’s Garden block 25

Musings

Things are starting to ramp up with my long arm. With the move, I treated myself to a retrofit to a fully computerized long arm (versus a tablet) which in the long run will allow me to do customized quilt tops (not yet).

I paid for the upgrade and am axiously awaiting the arrival of the tech so he can assemble my poor long arm which is in pieces on the studio floor as well as adding all my new goodies. With that in mind, Gammill has started sending me education emails to get ready for the arrival. I started the online course yesterday and today attended the Zoom Q&A which is once a month. They went over all the resources available to us.

Today’s subject was Squaring up your BACKING. A lot of discussion was flying around in cyber space. I honestly never thought about it. I do not recall ever having an issue with the backing. They were talking about how you get pleats in the backing when you don’t square up or running out of backing. Very interesting discussion. Take aways, most people include 6 inches all around (or 12 inches added to both the quilt length and width); Squaring up might be a good idea especially when quilting large queen or king size quilts. I may not have run into a problem because I have only quilted one bedsize quilt. Everything else have been lapsize with 108 backing. Things to think about (or not overthink!).

Thanks for stopping by. Have a great week and good luck on all of your projects.

Peggy Stockwell in Vancouver, Washington