Good Morning Afternoon, Quilters!
Everyone knows The Golden Rule of Quilting:
Never let your sewing machine know you’re in a hurry!!!
I have been working away on an exciting joint project with Kimberly Einmo for the May edition of American Quilter Magazine. (Don’t miss it! Subscribe HERE GREAT DEAL LIMITED TIME!!!)
The Deadline was in December, but my generous editor gave me a little extra time.
The problem is…not only did my sewing machine find out I was running late, so did my scissors, my glasses, my dogs….
Normally when things go awry I go for a walk…but it’s January and I live in Minnesota (that’s all I’ll say)
What about YOU?
Any deadline quilts?
Is YOUR sewing machine behaving?
Does anyone know Jason Bourne’s phone number?
We’d LOVE to hear!
Signed,
YOUR-way-behind-favorite?-blogger,
Lori-come-lately
#nextweekblogwillbebetter
You can find me here: PS…If you like these motifs and tips, be sure to check out my book, Free Motion Machine Quilting 1-2-3 or any of my Craftsy Videos!
PS…All tutorials, images and information are the property of Lori Kennedy at The Inbox Jaunt and are intended for personal use only. Feel free to re-blog, pin or share with attribution to The Inbox Jaunt. For all other purposes, please contact me at lckennedy@hotmail.com. Thanks!
55 comments
Marta
I hope to eventually catch up with 3 months of posts in my email.. This was a good read today.. Enjoyed the adventures.. as I have them too.. I have been looking for 12 blocks of Sunbonnet Sue’s for 2 years that were about to be sewn into a quilt for my daughter. How can they be gone? I never took them out of the house. LOL. Now every time something is missing, my SpouseMan says it ran away with the Sue’s ! I hope to finish a quilt for my nephew who is being sent overseas in May..I don’t even know if he is allowed space or weight to take it with him…so the sooner the better. I started it a year ago with my own design before I knew he would be sent afar. Should have known an inpromto design would take me longer. LOL..I could wish to live and learn.
Arvilla Trag
Early last year I started a quilt for me, a jewel-tone wall hanging. No deadline. I cut several strips too wide, and decided to put it up for a few weeks while I worked on something else that had a deadline. NOW I CANNOT FIND IT. We are talking about >$100 worth of brilliantly colored fabric, in a 10 x 10 sewing room, that has just plain vanished. I have looked in bins, boxes, bags. I have looked in the guest room. I have looked everywhere. This is a pretty good sized grouping of fabric, so where could it go? I am guessing years from now, when I my eyesight is so bad I can no longer quilt, I will find this fabric. I never have cared for delayed gratification.
HollyAnnW
Hanging inside a bag in a closet? Or in a box under a bed? Or in an ottoman with a storage compartment? Those are all the hide-n-seek places my projects choose to disappear into.
Arvilla Trag
I think the quilting gods took it to Quilthala and are waiting for ransome money. (I watch too much Vikings).
Suzanne G.
Gr-r-r-r-r! That is so frustrating! You know it’s there somewhere but it eludes you. I am always losing something and it usually turns up when I’m looking for something else that I’ve lost. Good luck, I hope this happens for you too.
Mary Rose
Sorry your machine is being temperamental especially these last few weeks in MN! Indoor projects are the only thing suited for our weather right now, well at least in my mind. I’m sure my 2 dogs have cabin fever! But only in the northern states can the 25 degrees that will hopefully be here tomorrow seem like a heat wave!
Betty Jo Tatum
Yesterday was one of those days…the thread broke and I didn’t figure out it needed a new needle until I had rethreaded four or five time, The bobbin ran out just an inch before the end of that color, and I figured out I had a wiggle between my border that I was about to quilt and my central theme (which I had finished quilting) and spent three hours fixing it! I can’t even remember all the silly things that happened…they were more annoying than disastrous. I am trying to finish a quilt for MAQF (deadline the 23rd) and then move on and make a mini for MQX (deadline 1 February). I think I’m crazy…maybe I should make a crazy patch quilt. LOL Today seems better, knock on wood. Cheers.
Arvilla Trag
I am working on an 84” x 84” quilt for my DH’s birthday, which is a week from today. It is half quilted, and the biggest quilt I have done free motion on so far. (I have a Brother VQ2400.) This quilt is putting the labor into “labor of love”.
A colleague is having his first child, due April 21, and I am making a quilt for him. It will be a boy, so I decided to make the Fancy Foxes quilt with blue batiks, in a throw size. It is cute enough for a baby, but if the kid wants to take it to his college dorm, he won’t be embarrassed because it is also amusing. I have made 20 of 42 blocks so far.
And I have one to start with a due date of 03 April for my boss’s birthday, a throw size. I so far have the fabrics. The pattern came in the mail, but now I can’t find it.
While I am doing all that, I am also traveling for work, and believe me, a VQ2400 is not a portable machine.
Once those are done I really, really want to make a “just because” quilt for a friend, and then maybe even one for me. I presently have the specific fabrics for 10 patterns, bagged up together so I don’t accidentally use a dedicated fabric; of those, 3 are supposed to stay in my home. But I doubt it….
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You are busy!! All sound like fun projects!
Denise S
Deadlines make me so tense. Something always go wrong. Thanks for sharing your upbeat sense of humor. Stay warm.
QuiltShopGal
What a fun post. I’m so excited to learn you are working on a joint project with Kimberly Einmo. You are both so gosh darn talented and wonderful people too! I don’t have Jason Bourne’s phone number, but as I’ve spent the day cleaning and organizing my sewing room I’m pretty convinced he must have met a bad guy and had a fight in my sewing room. I can’t explain it any other way. Lastly, I think everyone in the business, as well as all of your followers, all have experienced some form or another of commitment deadlines that they struggled with to meet. Keep on stitching, as it will get done to the timeline that it is meant to happen. And, the sun will come up tomorrow.
QuiltShopGal
http://www.quiltshopgal.com
vivianbring
Love your post!
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Thank you!!! Sorry to hear about the pugilistic sin your arena! I know the feeling!!
Bette
Lori, you should have asked Santa for another sewing machine so you always have a backup if one of them gets into a “bad mood.” Maybe put it on your birthday list? Good luck on your project with Kimberly Einmo. Looking forward to seeing it.
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News on that front!!!
Penny
In the January “organizing frenzy” in my sewing room I keep finding more UFOs to add to the unmentionable number I knew about. Add to that the heavy snow that took down the tree that took down our power line, which took out my Baby Lock!! Yes it was plugged into a surge protector, it didn’t help. And sure, I have four back up machines, but they aren’t my Baby. It also took out all power to my husbands shop and we were without power for three days right before Christmas, but that is small potatoes to loosing my Baby Lock. Deep breaths, deep breaths.
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Oh no!!! So sorry!
Karie Czapanskiy
Gahhhh! I have the same juju! Quilt show coming up in March and I was “rushing” to finish up some UFO’s, when BAM! I hit the frame somehow with my needle mechanism while FMQ. Now my machine is in the shop. 🙁
Ellen Oppenheimer
The conspiracy is not just in your sewing room! But thanks for the good laugh and thanks also for prompting me to go to the AQS website and join and sign up for the Daytona Quilt Week because I live in Coral Gables! I have never gone before and look forward to learning lots. I also plan to go to the one in Grand Rapids because I was planning to go spend time with a friend anyway! I have your book and one of my resolutions is to work on mastering free motion quilting using it! Thanks for all your inspirations!
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Busy year for you!!
Michele Leonard
I can’t send a picture of this quilt , but the border is a series of colored squares set on point with setting triangles .
Michele Leonard
Holy Moly Crowly! I said I was going to miss working on this quilt. But after today I may want to rethink those words !!!! LOL ???????????? I finished putting together the third and fourth border this afternoon . If there was something I could do wrong , I Did It! Yep! I did it ! Color sequences, messed them up. Sewing the setting triangles on facing the wrong way? Yep! Forgetting to start the row with the special smaller triangles , of course! Don’t want to not use my seam ripper! Its an important tool for a sewer???? . Spilled a glass of tea across the sewing table , missing my pieces set across the table by an inch. I needed to get up anyway! It tested my patience today but I managed to end the day on a high note,, and I must say in a good mood ????????????????The borders are done and fit , YAY !!! They are now sitting in position waiting for me until tomorrow to sew on . ????????????????????
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Way to persevere!!!
Rebecca Clee
I have a quilt under my needle that I am quilting by machine
A hunting theme crib quilt ( go figure)
A t-shirt quilt that I’m at a standstill with because I cant get out to find more cars and guitars t-shirts.
A queen size Cherub quilt that I am still figuring out
And the ones floating around in my brain. Stressed? uh uh not me. psst liar
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Lol!!
Cheryl Parker
I just pulled a foot long piece of thread from behind the bobbin case on my Featherweight. I’m hoping that it will stitch now. Yes, my machines know (and I have way more machines than you do). They seem to act up in tandem.
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A foot long thread will do it!!
Amy Roth
Always have deadlines! Which doesn’t always pair well with my procrastinating tendencies! 🙂 The longer the deadline, the more I procrastinate! 😉 I did finish a simple strip quilt for my nephew for Christmas. And a small gift for an exchange. I did not get my son’s quilt completely done. But I’m one border away from having the top finished. Plan to have that done this weekend. Then I need to get it loaded on my longarm and quilted and bound! And work on a couple blocks for our raffle quilt so that my quilter/partner in crime can get that top finished. And I have a couple t-shirt quilts that need to be pieced, quilted, and bound by May. -ish. 😉 While the projects can start to freak me out, they also motivate me to keep moving! It’s too easy for me to snuggle up with a good book and a cup of tea this time of year. I can’t wait to see what you and Kimberly are cooking up!
Maureen B. in B.C.
I think there’s a LAN in our homes, and all the appliances converse … and conspire. It couldn’t possibly be human error all the time. Do I sound paranoid? Hmmm ???? Hopefully you won in the end?
Luckily I won’t have to be dealing with any of those crafty appliances for a while … this is day three past hip surgery. So far so good ????
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Oh no! Get well soon!
Bridget Morton
I had one of the best days I’ve ever had sewing yesterday! I gave my 12 year old granddaughter fabric and batting for Christmas, with a note that we would make her first quilt together during her break. We used a very simple design,and I cut the fabric. She only had to make about 5 seams,and then we turned it pillow-case style. She edge-stitched it with the walking foot, and then stitched across the seams with a decorative stitch. We were able to do all of it in one day. The quilt is darling, her seams may be truer than mine, and SHE LOVED IT!! So great to keep the quilty magic happening!
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Strong work!!! Way to go!
Judy S.
I always remember an expression from a local TV weatherman that I hearad as a child: “The hurrier I go the behinder I get.”
Suzanne G.
Well, shut my mouth and call me stupid! I always thought my mother invented that phrase; she said it so much! LOL.
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Lol!!
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Amen!!
D. Joy Summers
Although I am in Miss. we have been frigid with cold for a week or more and it isn’t just yet getting to when we usually have the harshest part of winter. So no walks outdoors here either. Snuggling with the cat now and then, she’s my furry radiator. Then it is back to sewing so many things I want to work on. Enjoy your post and love to see your stitching, great way to get inspiration. Stay warm.
Terry Bridgham
I have a project I wanted to get done before Christmas, but I did not get my sewing machine back from being serviced and pressure foot lever being fixed early enough. Of course, when they serviced it, they discovered the tension is broken and cannot be adjusted. The repair man said as long as I am sure to get he thread seated correctly when threading it should work. It started out fine, but has since been acting up, and will either need to be fixed again or another one purchased. Not good with a project still not completed!!
Paula Hedges
Isn’t it nice to know not every day will be like what you are enduring today? No one will ever convince me these machines do not have an “evil” side! Maybe they don’t. When I settle down and look at what is going on in a logical and calm manner, I generally find it is operator error unless something broke. Needless to say I have to walk away and divert my mind for a bit of time before I can get to that frame of mind. It is just for today things are going sideways. To a better tomorrow!!!!
Elinor Burwash Designs
Hi Lori, when you are in a hurry challenges that you never expected arise and often the fastest thing is to step away. While a walk in extremely cold weather and icy sidewalks isn’t an option sometimes a mundane household task works or a little bit of mindless handwork/applique as it cleanses the palate so to speak and lets the mind return to calm.
Rita S
Depends on what you call a delay. I just finished a quilt that was 19 years in getting finished. But it’s done, label and everything. It was called Christmas Cube and now will be ready for Christmas this year.
Helen S
I just finished my Y2K top! 18 years! Now to get It quilted…..
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Wow!!! Congratulations on finishing!
Cindy Pilkington
While I was visiting my cousin, who has a longarm machine, I left my trusty machine at my LQS for its annual maintenance visit. Little did I know that was something I shouldn’t do before Christmas with many gifts not completed. I returned from my trip and was ready to pick up my machine and there was a hiccup! There was a pinched wire from the motor to the mother board and needed to be replaced. Imagine trying to get a replacement part during heaviest shipping period of the year! My LQS came to the rescue by loaning me a similar machine to use for the completion of most of my Christmas gifts…so my moral is never ever get your machine maintence done unless you are caught up on all your deadlines.
Betty Monroe
Having a reliable LQS repairman who knows you by name is also a big help!
Amy
So is having a back-up machine.
Shirleyann Graff
I turn 65 tomorrow and the days of satisfying deadlines are over–so relieved about that. Now, quilting is my hobby — no time constraints unless I place them there myself. Thank you for your shared creativity–your ideas and motifs are an inspiration to me in my quilted gift giving. Sew appreciated!
Kimberly Anne Brandt
I turned 65 on the 3rd of Jan……I agree with your sentiments….sew when I want with no time constraints…..heck don’t even have to get dressed to sew if I don’t want to :0). Thank Lori I too appreciate all your inspiration.
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Happy Birthday!!!
Vicki
From a way behind 16″ mid-arm quilter with a quilt that has been on the frame since 6th of August. I’m trying FM on it but lack the confidence needed. First long long pass was black, just finished it today. Time to load the blue thread. My room is very cramped and I have to reach into the closet to do the left side. Keep trying and praying, then all will get worked out.
Pay Knight
I have had that happen but I didn’t have a deadline like yours! Oh my. So what happened?
Tonia Conner
How about having a talk with your machine, leave the room allowing it to think on what you said. Then making a cup of hot chocolate or drink of your choice, settling back in a comfie chair and reading one chapter of a favorite book. Take a deeeep breath and go back and try again. Sometimes, sometimes mind you it works for me.
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Lololol!!!!
Connie
Of course my machine knows! I was working on a quilt for a silent auction, and of course, she decided to become testy. EVERYTHING I tried to do made no difference. Walking away for the project worked!
Teri
I have quilts to label for babies, full names, birthdays, and weights. I have been waiting for my embroidery unit to come back from repair since October. Even my back up machine tells me no disk inserted.
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