Here was the 2023 list in January and I’ve removed the items I finished in Q1 and Q2 2023. As before, it’s in no order of priority but in order of when the tops were done. Ideally I’d like to get the tops quilted in the order they were finished but the bigger tops are older while the smaller tops are newer. And so I like to alternate between big and small tops.

Finished in Q3 2023:

1. 2012 SoCal Quilters Run – Area One’s mystery quilt – flimsy June 2020

2. Norene Skiles – QAYG workshop table mat

The quilt queue:

Jan Krentz – Broken Diamond Star – flimsy 4/2021

Scrappy Stars Around the Corner – finished top! 8/7/2021

Kimberly Einmo’s mystery quilt from Craftsy circa 2014-

Wendy Mathson’s Storm at Sea / Snail’s Trail – flimsy 12/5/2022

Happy quilting my friends!

Melanie

At the last retreat, I finished the inner top.

I am working on the borders now. I’ve cut the borders but they are not exactly right. I just pre-cut them so they are off the yardage but I have to press them and trim them down to the right size. But it’s almost done and I’m super excited about it.

Work is really busy right now so I’m only able to craft a little each day. It’s only a bit at a time but every little bit helps keep me sane.

Happy quilting!

Melanie

There will not be much crafting content the next month or so.

I’m waiting for the tropical storm that was Hilary to come through. I have no idea how to prepare for this. Where I live in the San Fernando Valley we get the Santa Ana winds periodically and it wreaks havoc on our smaller pots. But we manage through and nothing crazy happens. Especially after we tied down the trellis for the grape vines. We did what we could picking up smaller and lighter objects and put them in secure places so hopefully the yard is not a mess afterwards. We don’t usually get flooding in our area so I’m not expecting that at all. I know I could have done more but I’ve got too much on my plate already that I had to let it go.

The chickens are as secure as I know how to make them. I should have packed up their run and put it away but I forgot and I will have to do it in the morning probably while it’s raining.

I was exposed to Covid and so I’m walking around the house with a mask. Today will be day 5 and I’m crossing my fingers that I continue to stay negative. I don’t have symptoms but sometimes my brain worries and I start feeling things just to scare myself. I can’t get Covid right now. I have too much to do.

Friday I head off to Vegas with some friends and I have to get stuff done at work in order to clear my brain. And I have some high maintenance clients right now.

And the following week I head off to Paris with the World of Travel quilts tour group. I’m so excited but really nervous in terms of work. A lot of what I have to do now is prepare for that trip. I had to go shoe shopping because my feet are always my main concern. Travel is no fun when my feet hurt. and with 15-20,000 steps a day, it’s a challenge.

These are so cute that I had to buy them. This week I’m going to practice packing to make sure I have enough room for everything I plan on bringing. I am hoping not to bring a lot. I will be putting my outfits together and making sure these shoes work with what I am bringing. There’s no sense taking these shoes if I don’t have anything to wear with them. I know they look heavy but they are really light with memory foam inside so they are also comfortable. I never really know how shoes will fare until I’ve worn them for several hours. This is my third shoe shopping spree and I’ve not had great luck. Although Skechers usually treat me pretty well. I am bringing inserts in case these need them.

I got my hair done so that’s one thing off my list. I still need to get my eyebrows done and my nails. I was really hoping to swing by my gal in Simi Valley but with the rains tomorrow I plan to stay home. I will have to use a local shop that works fine for times when I just need it done. I will try to make it to a nail salon sometime one of these evenings. Since I want them to last through my trip to Paris (almost a month) I am going to try gel. I’ve never done it before. I used to get my nails done all the time when I was younger and then my color would last about 2 weeks with a good polish and top coat. And later when all the other ways of color came I didn’t see the need to pay extra as long as I brought my own polish and top coat. The salons tend to put acetone in the polish to help it last longer in the bottle and as such it would wear down within a week on nails. I don’t think all salons do this but you never know which do and which don’t so it was just better to bring my own. Then as costs kept rising I stopped going all together and simply did them myself. They were never as good as the salon but they were free so good enough. At least I didn’t get mad at paying $60 for crap nails.

And I still need to finalize our eating spots when we go to Vegas and my itinerary when I go to Paris.

You may remember I was just in Paris last December. I loved it so much that when this opportunity came up I could not pass it up. I will be going with a couple of quilty gal pals and I’ll post more about it soon. For now, I should really try to go back to sleep.

Sweet travels my quilty friends!

Melanie

I’ve been enamored with machine embroidery for a long time. I have the embroidery unit that came with my bernina 790 and early on tried to use it. At first I did images that was included with the machine and then later stuck with labels and then later stopped all together. It was hard. I didn’t know what to do and it became too much effort to pull it out each time. and I loved sewing/piecing so I couldn’t stop that to embroider!

Then I met my friend Robin years ago who makes amazing stuff with her embroidery machine. That inspired me and my goal was to get a second machine to piece on and then I’ll set up my 790 with the embroidery unit dedicated to machine embroidery projects. At the time this was a long term goal. Earlier this year my local sewing machine shop announced they were retiring and would be closing and were discounting their inventory. So long term plans became now and I ended up getting the special Kaffe Edition B770 QE Plus. I don’t remember if I posted about it but here is the pretty machine.

And at the Sew Awesome Gal’s quilt retreat, several of the gals brought their own machine embroidery machines to put together Kimberbell’s Candy Corn Quilt Shoppe. I had seen one of the ladies at my guild’s retreat a month before and she mentioned that they would be doing that. So I went off and bought all the stuff for that project. The shop, Between Stitches, in Temecula happened to be having a huge Independence Day sale so I snagged a lot of it then.

Well since I hadn’t embroidered for a long time all my stuff for embroidery was scattered to the winds. I honestly can’t remember where it is or even if I gave it away. It’s possible I did. So I bought new stuff to get ready but it was way too much for this newbie to get herself together in time for the Sew Awesome retreat and I ended up on the sidelines watching enviously.

So the following weekend after the retreat I sat myself down and started!

I put together the first block!

I definitely have much to learn but I love how it came out!

Happy quilting!

Melanie