I wanted to get all the veterans quilts quilted before sewing weekend with the quilt club and I did it! Someone asked earlier this week where these quilts go. We've been making them for the local VA hospital (used to be called McGuire before we went radical PC this year). I don't know what it's called now but it's in Richmond VA. We are currently giving them to the Interventional Radiography department. They do lots of procedures there but one of them is inserting ports for chemo patients. The doctors and nurses there absolutely love having the quilts. Newly diagnosed cancer patients are usually in shock and many are angry. Sometimes they can't get the patients past the anger long enough to work productively with them. So they stop and give them a quilt and chat about our group and why we make them. We are told that these quilts make a world of difference for the patients and for the staff. You know it's important when the doctors take time out of their schedules to specifically come talk to you and than you for making them. We get such great feedback that we are all really dedicated to making them. 

I think that both of these are from Betsy. They certainly look like "Betsy quilts". With these 2 I will have personally quilted 39 for members and made 15 of my own. Other quilters in the group have done lots of them too. I will not be doing any more until Christmas gifts are made and postcards are done and in the mail.

I quilted both of these from the front of the machine. I was just tired of the pantographs. This one also had a little fullness in the border. It wasn't a problem at all but by quilting it from the front I could make sure that I didn't quilt in any pleats. 

I am 100% certain that this is a Betsy quilt. Isn't it lovely? I quilted this one with free motion lines. It's a fast method of quilting and I didn't want the quilting to take away from the bold geometry of the circles. Both of these got a light tan backing.

Today I'm off to sew with my friends and it's going to be a great day!

and it's still raining! I apologize to all residents of central Virginia. I knew it was bad luck to wash 2 cars on the same day and here's my punishment. Before I explain this photo know that our house is perched , basically, on a cliff so that grassy edge you see there is actually a drop and I'm taking this photo from the second story. So there's absolutely no chance of water getting anywhere near our house. The black line should be the edge of our property but you can see here why we call that area the flood plain.

Here's one edge of the property. Both side property lines are basically drainage ditches that are often dry. Not today! We actually have a waterfall.

I actually hate drenching steady rainstorms like this. It reminds me too much of the rain that we got in 1972 from Hurricane Agnes when our neighborhood was flooded. It rained heavy and for hours. There were fears of the dam breaking so they had to open the flood gates and it surely flooded. We got 2 - 3 feet of water in our basement and an entire beach full of sand dumped in our backyard. What was a little 15 foot wide creek behind our house turned into a river about 200 yards wide. It was miserable and I have hated steady heavy rainfall ever since. I can't sleep through it, I have to wear earplugs. It's the reason that I always will try to live on a hill. Give me a thunderstorm any day. I sleep like a baby during thunderstorms.

Plus we have satellite internet and TV and it's been hit and miss for 2 days. I was finally able to get in to do this post. The weather should be clearing up later today. Virginia is definitely not in a drought this year. Chris, my personal climatologist, says that we have received about 160% of our annual average rainfall this year. I believe it because the yard has been a mud pit all year. I'm glad my hobbies are mostly inside!

Yesterday was dyeing day so I didn't get a ton of time at my hobbies but now that the quilt is done I'm back to the crochet. Let me just say again that I LOVE this Lion Brand Mandala Ombre yard. I'm almost at the end of the first of 4 balls. I'll be able to put a border on this one.

Here's my first Spirograph design on the floor cloths. I've done more but it was raining too hard to go out and get photos. More to come on this project.

My main goal today is to get the last 2 veterans quilts quilted. We have quilt club sewing days tomorrow and Saturday so I'll take the finished veteran quilts to the owners for binding. Most of them will be at sewing tomorrow or the meeting Tuesday.

You all went crazy over the last batch of Shibori. It all sold out in 2 days! I jsut had to get back in the dye studio and make more. This week I have another Stash Pack and 3 half-yard pieces. The Stash Pack has a variety of blues and greens in fat eighths. There's lots of great water and grass elements in this one. The Stash Pack has 8 fat eights of fabric.
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Here are a few pieces, using Shibori, made by my wonderful customers.

I wanted to pick a Fabric of the Week this week that will keep with the Shibori Stash Pack green and blue theme. I selected one of your favorites, Frolic. Through Sunday it's 20% off. 

I hope the weather where you live was as spectacular as it was here this weekend. It was lovely to have the windows open. I took full advantage and stacked all the wood that Chris chopped a week ago. There was a lot more there than I thought and my sore arms prove it. I also started blowing leaves. I have an electric blower which isn't terribly practical for our large yard but I'm happy to do in in 30 minute sessions and get a little done each day. I'll continue that this upcoming week.

Inside I've been making progress on the quilt binding. I'm over halfway done now. I also got the kitchen floor cloths painted and now they are ready for drawing. I forgot to upload a photo to share today but I'll have photos Wednesday.

My primary accomplishment was to finish 4 more veterans quilts. Only 2 left to go before I take a break from those for a while! Here are the 4 news ones.

The double nine patch is made with patriotic fabric so I quilted both of these with red thread and my favorite patriotic pantograph. I've sure gotten my money's worth from this pattern!

In the second set I actually quilted the 2 quilts differently. I rarely do that but sometimes it's necessary. This barn raising HST quilt had a little fullness in the borders so I wanted to quilt it from the front to make sure I don't leave any pleats. When I have solid borders on a quilt with print fabrics I like to use a thread color that will bring some additional color into the solid. I used a pale grey with my trusty wavy cross-hatching. It didn't take 45 minutes to quilt this one once it was loaded on the machine.

This one is such a fun quilt and a great pattern for scraps. I used red thread to bring a little more color in the black spaces. Both of these quilts have a soft grey backing fabric.
I'm going to try to get the last 2 done today so I can take them to the meeting Tuesday. It would be nice to get the binding finished on the flower quilt so I can take it to show-and-tell. I've got lots of motivation!

I don't have anything new to share from the customer gallery so today I just have a brief update.

Yesterday was the follow up visit for my annual physical. I love having a doctor who will sit and talk with me for an hour. I got a good report so what did I do? Came home and ate a bunch of junk food to celebrate. I'll be back on track today, I promise.

Later in the day I finished quilting these 2 veterans quilts. I pieced the tops while I was on vacation in August They are the last 2 quilts from my marathon veterans quilt piecing this summer. The fabrics are all from the same line. After I got them quilted I had a couple of hours left before bed time so I went ahead and put on the binding. My friend, Becky, has volunteered to bind my other quilt so I'm officially done with my own veterans quilts for the year.

The backing is a pretty faded denim blue and I quilted it with one of my few go-to pantographs with stars and ribbons. I can quilt both quilts in about 2 - 3 hours.

Today my plan is to paint the base for the floor cloths and get 2 more veterans quilts loaded. I only have 6 left to quilt and I'll be totally caught up! After those I will quilt one of Mom's quilts and then load my oldest UFO to quilt. Paula Nadelstern's newest fabric line is also on the way for me to make a sample quilt and I'm close to figuring out a couple of designs for this year's Christmas postcards. It's going to be a busy weekend and a buys month!

Yesterday it was beautiful outside and was a perfect day for my shooting lesson. For those of you who know clay shooting, yesterday was a BIG day. I've finally gotten where I can do report pairs. Woohoo!

I came home and got back to my sample floor cloth. I wanted to get this one done so I can work on the real ones this weekend.

So first I added a last element. I'm not thrilled with this. It needs something else and I'd love to add some color. It needs to be be transparent color and all I have to work with is Tuskiniko Ink. It would be great if I could finally use this stuff for something!

I had to test it first to see how it would work with the polyurethane and you can see from this sample that the ink isn't going to work at all. So back to figure something else out. 

I decided to add dots! I like it. Next I will turn under the hem and glue it in place. 

It will finish off at about 24" x 36" and this cropped photo give you and idea of how it will look. Not too bad for a sample!

I also made progress on the next 2 veterans quilts and am halfway down the second side of the binding on Kim's quilt.

Yesterday was about recovering from Tuesday. I'm not reading or watching news for a few days while things related to the election settle out. I'm focusing solely on things I can control and one of those things is getting through the stack of veterans quilts to quilt. I'm also working my way through stitching the binding on the massive quilt and there's a lot of yard work that I need to do. 

​But first there was napping. I usually don't nap but I had a glorious hour long one yesterday afternoon.

These are the 2 veterans quilts that I quilted yesterday. I don't know who made the first one but it's a beautiful patriotic panel that someone will love. The second one is one of the ones that I made on vacation in August. When I was loading the quilt I was trying to remember who gave it to me. I had it almost totally basted before I remembered that it was mine!

Today will be more of the same. I have some quilt backs to iron and then I hope to get the next set loaded and quilted. I have 8 more quilts (4 sets) left to do and then I can move on to Mom's quilt later this weekend. There will be a binding session and maybe a little postcard planning. Hopefully, no naps.