You can't really see it here but I got Laura started quilting her quilt. She's never used the longarm before so we picked something really simple. This is what I try to teach the new longarm owners.

When you practice on muslin you have 2 things working against you. First, it's boring so it's hard to motivate yourself to quilt on something that's not going to actually be anything. Secondly, and more importantly, you can see every mistake.

When you start quilting it's important to spent time getting comfortable with the machine but you also want to quilt and you can do both!

Laura is quilting easy overlapping wavy lines. The consistent inconsistency makes patterns like this work well. But the thing that really makes it work is the blending thread color. Once this quilt is washed and on the bed you will just see the pretty softness of the colors. No one will be looking at the individual wavy lines. 

It was a great way to get her on the machine and comfortable quilting alone. This is exactly how all new owners should approach quilting. Start simple and add a skill  with each new quilt. Leave the muslin for later when you want to practice a specific motif.

In between all the other things Laura and I are doing I've been able to fire up the kiln a few times. I'm waiting on some glass for a special order so I don't have much cut glass prepared but I did have a supply of bottles getting dusty waiting for firing.

I should get another mold so that I can do 4 at a time but, for now, this is how I set them up. The white coating is a flux that keeps the glass from getting a dull finish during firing.

Here's the after. Nice and shiny! See that paper under the neck of the middle bottle? I had to use that to get the bottle to stay centered in the mold. It kept wanting to roll to one side.

All cleaned and ready for photographing and listing.....whenever that happens.

This past Friday and Saturday were sewing days with Country School quilters. I have this project packed up and only work on it there. It makes packing for the day very quick and easy. I have a dedicated sewing machine and set of notions for "travel quilting" so I can get ready in about 5 minutes. 

This is a perfect project to work on because the blocks are simple so I can talk and sew at the same time. I just love these bright colors too so I really look forward to working on it.

I had a a stack of bright fabrics and cut as many blocks as I could. I should have enough for a king and lap quilt. This pretty stack represents 180 out of 318 blocks. That doesn't include the border blocks!

​I have a tutorial for this quilt here.

First some shop news. Laura and I are going to be doing some adventures this week and I will not be dyeing and might not be able to ship ever day so I'm going to semi-close shop for this week. The schedule will be:

- Custom orders (including Shades Packs) placed October 10 - 20 will be shipped October 25
- All other orders placed October 10 - 14 will be shipped October 15

We had a nice weekend hanging around here once the torrential rains cleared up Saturday afternoon. I sewed with Country School Quilters Friday and Saturday morning then came home for football watching.

I finished the rest of the 3rd border of applique!

Here are the 3 borders together. I should have the 4th border done in 2 weeks. Then I can sew all of this together and start appliqueing the corner flowers. Then I can add the rest of the block and start planning the giant outer border.

If you read this blog for any length of time you will quickly learn that I'm not fond of pink. It's really the only color that I just don't like.

Last year when Laura was here she worked on a quilt. She finished the top and took it home to England with her. Where she never touched it again, just like a real quilter.
She brought it back with her thinking that she needed to finish the top. She didn't. It's done! So we decided that she would finish it while she was here and that meant dyeing a quilt back first.
​The batik fabric is her binding and the accent color on the front of the quilt and, if I do say so myself, I matched it perfectly.

While she was away last week I got the quilt loaded and basted and it's ready for her to start quilting.

I picked these threads for her to choose from and I hope to get her started quilting this afternoon....after I watch the Virginia Tech game.

2016 as the year to clear out some UFO projects and I've got prizes to help with your motivation! You are welcome to join in at any time. Each month we check in here with our progress and I announce the winner of the previous month's link up.

To report your progress and be entered for the drawing post a comment below with either:
- a link to your blog update
- a comment with your counts for the month in the format that I’m using below

There were 9 entries in the September post and the winner of the prize is Carole! Prizes are going to be surprises this year. Each month I'm going to try to tailor a prize to each winner.​

I didn't think I accomplished anything in September but as I looked back over my posts I did quilt 6 veteran's quilts and I have only 4 left to meet my goal for the year.

Here are my current stats:
Starting UFO 24
Finished YTD 7 (Goal 14)
Started YTD 3 (Planned 6)
Ending UFO 20 (Goal 15)
Veterans YTD 36 (Goal 40)

Next up for me is to finish my last QOV for the year. But what I need to focus on the most is making Christmas postcards. It's early October and I haven't even started!
​
Time for your update. Link your blog or give your update in the comments. To be included in the drawing you need to include your stats...

Looking for something pretty to offset the ugliness in the news these days? Well, I've got it right here thanks to a customer, Susan Turney. Susan is taking Melody Johnson's Focus on Fusing class and this is her third assignment. 

Susan purchased a variety of gradient for her projects. The gradients are wonderful for giving you a variety of colors and shades in one piece of fabric. As I look at this piece I think I see Navajo (the center of the flower), Barrier Island, and Sugar Maple.

Now, let's all agree to spend at least a few minutes today creating something ourselves.

If you live near Richmond VA and are a longarm owner or renter I have a class coming up that might be just what you need to up your quilting game. 

Ruling Rulers is an all day hands-on class that I'm teaching at The Longarm Network Saturday, October 22 (10:00 - 4:00). It's the same place where I teach the Innova New owners training. You don't have to own or use an Innova to take this class. Everything we learn will be totally transferable to your longarm or midarm machine.

This class is for the beginner or person who has been using rulers but are unhappy with your results. We'll start with ruler basics, straight lines and stitch-in-the-ditch. Then we'll get into some cross-hatching and lots of things that you can do with circles.

We'll learn to do clamshells without any special tool beyond a circle ruler template.

We'll quilt at least 6 border patterns all using circles.

We will even learn several mandala techniques and you will end the day with a sample to take home as a reference for your next ruler quilted quilt.

Sign up at The Longarm Network.

It's way to hot in the summer to run the kiln in the basement so it's been several months since I had new glass for sale. This weekend I fired the kiln twice and now have new pieces for sale. Many of these are less than $40 and are perfect for gift giving.

There are new quilt blocks,

new bubble glass,

new stenciled glass,

and new soap dishes that are perfect for gift giving.

I didn't get any work done this weekend on my placemats because we went to Chesapeake for my nephew's wedding party. They eloped (which everyone supported) and chose to have a party instead of a formal wedding. The cost of weddings had just gotten out of control (like college) and I'm happy that they are putting money into buying a home instead of a giant party with a pretty dress. She got a beautiful dress on a resale site and had a wonderful time getting married at Biltmore in Asheville. Having a party later meant that we could actually spend more time with them. 

The funny part is that she changed her name and that surprised me. Her new name, Ottaway, is my maiden name and, honestly, I couldn't wait to change it when I got married. That name get's misspelled and mispronounced on a regular basis. She said she couldn't wait to change her name because her maiden name is Fucile, pronounced Fue-sil, and she was sick of it being pronounced Fuk-sil.

​OK, I see it now.

The trip was only a day trip so I had yesterday to devote to football and blanket stitching. I'm over half way done with the 3rd border. I should get that green flower done tonight.

This is how I work on it. I pin up the border and leave exposed only where I'm working. This might prevent me from getting it too dirty. But I'm probably still destined to get chocolate on a piece at some point.

​I also ran the kiln a couple of times this weekend so today I'm photographing, amd maybe listing, some new glass pieces.