Sold My First Big Quilt

I sold my first big quilt which I had made for our first motor home 2 years ago.  Its call turning twenty.  I used over 26 different fabrics and made it for our queen size bed.  My friend Brita did the Long Arm Quilting and customized each block with something different.  It turned out beautiful. After buying our new motor home I needed a king size quilt with more browns in it.  So I made another one and put this one for sale.  My long time friend from Florida bought it for her son Michael.  I know it is going to a good home and will be loved for a very long time. Here are some pictures of the beautiful quilting.

There's Nothing Good on TV

So with all the prime time shows coming to their seasons end.....I have nothing to watch on TV at night.  I've seen the re runs of the re runs.  I have trouble seeing at night to sew and I'm sort of tired from sewing al day or cleaning.  So I go to Pinterest and look up Nail Art.  LOTS to look at.  I decided to play and try my hand (get it, hand) at it...lol...

You start with your base coat.

And end up with Water Melon Slice Nails. Not easy to do to yourself.  It will come off this weekend before we go away. 

Guess where I went today?

Ill give you two hints.  Starts with Knox and ends with ville. Yes I returned to Knoxville with my Bernina Sewing Machine.  Set it up this morning and started sewing.    Crack!!!!!!! Broken needle. Changed the needle, re threaded it and started sewing........CRACK! Another needle broke.  When I put the 3rd needle in I noticed it wasn't lining up with the hole in the throat plate. Kathy at Bernina who to me is one of the best machine experts took the machine in to the tech and for several hours they worked on my machine while Johnny and I waited.  Turns out the throat plate had to be moved forward and how and why it moved is beyond me.  So another day went by without accomplishing much. I have not tried to sew again as I was just a little too stressed and needed to just chill the rest of the day. Tomorrow morning is going to be a test. If it doesn't work I just don't know what I'm going to do.  If there are any Bernina 830 owners out there having the same trouble please let me know so I don't think I'm the only one.

The Monday Sewing Group at the Cove

Twice a month on a Monday a group of ladies meet at our Welcome Center to gather and sew.  They are a great group of quilters, some that were once members of my Guild years back and some new to the area and some from Crossville.  Now that I don't work, I decided to stop in and say hi.  Here are a few of the quilts the ladies brought in for Show and Tell.  They are all beautiful.

This quilt made by Verda is all Thimbleberries Scraps.  She collects scrap fabrics and turns them back into beautiful quilts.

 

This quilt is made from the patterns that just use 3 one yard fabrics.

 

Barbara makes these thru the window quilt wall hangings in all seasons for her family members.

 

Gathering and socializing

 

Another 3 yard quilt.

Back On the Road Again to Knoxville

I'm back from Knoxville again, picking up my big machine for the 2nd time.  I took it in for annual service and several issues and wound up leaving it there with more issues.  One week later it was ready for pick up.  Well...................when I got it home and started quilting on it.....................my BSR Foot still didn't work and I had 2 new issues.   So very frustrated I had to call back to my dealer and arrange to bring it back in. I'm told that with these new hi end machines, every time you do updates it throws other area off and they then need to be adjusted.  Now mind you, this is not a few miles away. I travel 80 miles each way.  So I dropped it off again and this time it was closer to 2 weeks. I'm now behind on my orders and its very frustrating. Although I have 2 back up machines, they don't work as fast and as well as this machine.  This morning Johnny and I got back on the road and headed back to Knoxville.  I'm home with the machine now but haven't had a chance to set it up as it started raining when we got home and I cant get it out of the car yet.   Plus we have another issue that started this morning that Johnny has been working on.

OUR TOILETS PLUGGED UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.  Yep, right when we were ready to leave.  Not one, not 2, but all 3 on the first floor and I was afraid to check the upstairs.  So when we left this morning, we headed up I40 and hit the first McDonalds we found.  Me in bathroom, Johnny on the phone trying to find our plumber.  Got breakfast to go and we proceeded to the Bernina Dealer.  This is not the first time this has happened, but it seemed to fix itself after Johnny used the snake and with a little time. 

We got the machine and headed home. But first I wanted to stop at our new Country Cupboard for lunch meat and stuff.  $52.00 later we were on our way home again.  Did I tell you Johnny didn't have the plumbers number in his phone and never got a hold of him......BUT WAIT!  we just passed his truck going the opposite way.  Johnny makes a quick u turn and we start back towards town trying to catch up with him.  We get right behind him, and call his cell number printed on the back of the truck.  Got him to pull over and talked with him a while about the problem.  Almost sounds like its the septic tank.  We've been home now a while and Johnny seems to have found the problem and with the help of our plumber on the phone it may be taken care of.  We'll know by morning if everything backs up again.

Starting to Finish UFOs

I am so proud of my BFF as she has started finishing her UFOs.  I have been on her case for a while because most of her UFOs just needed borders or just putting the blocks together.  So as of yesterday I think she has brought to Loretta for quilting 4 or 5 quilts.  Way to go Angie.

So because my BFF is showing me up I decided, while getting organized I would take my UFOs, put them all in bags, and store them in the empty dresser in my spare room in the order I want to finish them.  Here is one I took out and saw the sections of most of the blocks were ready for assembly. I ironed them, laid them out, and started putting them on my design board.  I will complete the blocks and see what I have.

This was a class we had in our guild quite a few years ago.  I'm anxious to see how it turns out.

Trying to Get a Little Organization

This weekend I decided that Saturday and Sundays I will not sew.  Instead I plan to dust, and clean up my sewing room and reorganize.  Due to the fact my storage cabinets are on hold, I packed up my other crafts back into tote boxes and moved them back to the attic.  I now have more room there since I cleaned a lot out last fall.  I also started putting some of my fabric of more than 2 yards on bolts.  This way I can see it and maybe start using it.  I took my Bernina 440QE which I use for mostly Embroidery and gave it its own table for now.  Leaving my 2 long 6 foot tables for laying out projects and classes.   Now after blogging a little I plan to dust and wipe the floors and get ready for Part 3 of my Beginning Quilting Class tomorrow.