Thursday 12 January 2017

Back at the machine


In my last post I said I was going back to "work" this week, and Monday morning I cleaned, and oiled Max, and pressed the switches, and off we went. I have had some allover quilting jobs to do, so decided to start there, and ease back into it.

This is the first one, which I am currently putting the binding on. I will photograph it properly later. I don't get asked to do very many bindings, but it is a good job to do, while Max has been quilting away on other quilts. I am giving the fingers a  bit of a rest at the moment, so thought I better check in with a blog post.


On Tuesday we had an "impromptu" Angels sewing day. Pat and I had planned to have a day and quilt a few of the quilts that had been made last year, before the year gets too busy. It has been awhile since Pat has used Max, so it would be a bit of a refresher for her. I had a brilliant thought, that instead of loading all the different quilts, that we could stitch the backings together first, and then would only have to load one, although a rather long one. There were 7 quilts in the queue, and 4 of them had a similar size backing, so these were sewn into one length. You can see just how "fat" the roll was as we came to the last of the quilts on the frame. We even used up pieces of wadding, and instead of sewing them together, we just butted them together under the top, and once they are quilted, it is all secure.



During the morning, another lady happened to call in with a quilt for me to quilt. So she stayed to make bindings for the quilts on the machine. And then another friend called in, so there were 4 of us, all getting the job done. And when they were finished all folded ready with the bindings, and I was going to photograph the days work, I was "nicely" told that the photograph would have me as well, and it was to go on the blog!! So here I am. 


They are now being bound by some other angels, ready for donating to recipients. And we have a head start for the year.

The following picture is of a filing cabinet that I have cleared out of my room, and had no further use for. It was posted on the local buy, sell and swap facebook page, and it was only minutes before I had a buyer! One more thing decluttered!


And I am sorry that this photo is blurry, but I was excited to make my first sale of some of that ribbon that I posted last week!


There are more quilts that have been finished, but no photographs yet. The next on the machine will be custom, so my easy week is over. Still a bit of sorting happening in between the quilts. I still need to reorganise the shelves on the wall behind Max, but will leave this until after the air conditioner has been installed. (This might happen sooner if it is delivered in time!) Then I will have no excuse for stopping work at 3pm on a hot day!

The summer temperatures have been so up and down, but I am loving the nice days when I feel so much more motivated. Early mornings I have been out watering, and pruning and tidying up the last of the spring flowers. My sweet peas got pulled out this week, after we collected lots of the seed pods.

Hope your week has been a good one, and you are staying cool, (or warm if you are in the northern world!)

Blessings, From Jude


2 comments:

Susan Smith said...

I like the way you put those quilts on together. Genius. I've put 2 small ones on together with the same backing & also did a group of table runners/mats once. Your helpers sound like a lot of those elves who came to help the shoemaker, but I can't think what the story is called!!! Hope the air con arrives soon & you've done better than me in getting motivated. Sty cool & take care.

Sue SA said...

Love your work on the charity quilts, what a great team effort! I have a feeling that the "one continuous back" idea is going to utilized again! Duh I pulled my sweet peas out and didnt think to save seed....perhaps I didnt see any :( Nice and cool here this morning, but rain just a day or two early for our liking as the harvest still not finished. Just seen the storm on the radar coming from Adelaide, nasty, all the better for staying home and sewing!