Thanks given for Thanksgiving!

I do not have to work this week! School is closed for the week. I can sew and quilt until my fingers are numb and my heart is content.
I am working on Christmas presents for a lot of my clan. I have 2 train quilts ready to be quilted. They required a lot of applique. I don't even like to applique. But the boys will love them, as train crazy as they are. I have another ready to be sandwiched to be quilted. I have the fabric pulled for a soccer playing boy's quilt. I need one more boy quilt and 3 little girls' quilts. I have fabric for one. That's only the ones needed by Dec 6.
I have a third train quilt that is now being enlarged to twin-sized. His new room will have a train theme. Mom asked me to make his quilt big enough to be his bedspread. He won't get his quilt by the 6th.
I need to make quilts for mil and 2 sil, and one neice for the 25th.
In all of the quilting and piecing yesterday, I made christmas tree napkins.

Renovation of the quilter

Progress is being made on the quilter. I was mulling over the lack of ability to keep the quilt poles from moving freely on the quilter. This is a flaw in our design I discovered while working on the wonkey monkey quilt. I had to hold the finished quilt pole at times after it got heavy with quilted quilt.
I keep thinking on the way home from school about the different things I saw on line to keep the quilt tight on the various frames. Things that clicked and held, stopping the reverse movement. "Kinda like a ratchet." Click and hold, click and hold , like a ratchet... LIKE A RATCHET!!! Ratchets have a thingie on the back to switch from righty tighty to lefty loosey. That will allow one on the right end and one on the left end to click and hold in the same direction.
I came up with the idea of welding sockets to the poles. Then attaching the sockets to a ratchet on each end. The rachets will be secured to the sides of the quilter to keep them from moving. This would allow me to move the poles to advance the quilt, and prevent the poles from slipping backwards.
Master craftsman Buck agreed that the ratchets & welded sockets idea would work. He has to replace 2 poles because he can't weld the metal of the original set. Hey, I didn't know what could be welded or not. He is even donating 6 ratchets and 6 sockets to the cause.
We'll probably get the poles tomorrow afternoon, but work on the quilter Sunday. We are racing Saturday. Thank goodness we're taking the motorhome. I won't freeze.

Wonderful Weather!

We have rain! Wonderful, beautiful rain!!! It has rained for most of 2 days. I can't remember when we got so much rain! Wait, it was during Hurricane Gustav. Before that, it was a very long time since we got 2 days of slow rain. Gustav rain was hard fast flooding rain. Too much at one time! This is good rain.
I spent Veterans' Day up in the attic quilting. Actually it was appliquing. I am making 3 of Sindy's (fatcatpatterns) All Aboard train quilts for Christmas presents. I made 21 boxcars yesterday (pics to come). I have the pieces for the 3 locomotives and the 3 cabooses ready to applique. I have the backings ready to piece.
I quilted my first quilt on the quilting frame Buck made for my old Kenmore. It is basically a whole cloth quilt with a narrow border. It is about 45" square. It is a jungle animal theme using 2 matching prints. You know, prints from the same line. I have the 3rd print I bought to make Prairie Points with, but I don't think I will waste the fabric on this ugly mess. It is pathetic! It is hilariously wonky. It is too bad to post a picture of. I may have to frog some of it and redo some stitching just to be able to use it to throw on the floor for Brayden. But it was a great learning quilting experience. I learned a lot from my mistakes.
Using my quilter for the first time pointed out some mistakes with it. I adjusted some things such as taking the front connecting PVC pipes off. I adjusted the Craftsman (screwdriver) stylus. I also sewed bias binding on the leader that did not use the selvedge.
I am using up stash fabric for quilting practice. I will use the 3'x4' practice products as nap covers in my K class. Some kids don't have any cover for naptime. I gave some of them the mat they sleep on in the first place. They won't get covers from home either. I'll just have to use new batting and thread as the fabric will come from my stash. It is amazing how much fabric I can identify as being bought to make clothes for the kids (and not used).
The baby has thrush. He had lots of tests Monday to diagnose the cause of the hydronephrosis. No results yet. He is on prophaltic (sp?) antibotics which probably caused the thrush. He got the first round of shots Tuesday. Poor little thing!
I haven't seen him since Sunday morning when David picked him up. They were so exhausted Saturday night after the Pecan Festival Buck and I kept the baby overnight. Brayden didn't keep me up all night. He would grunt every 45 minutes to an hour. I'd locate his pacifier for him. He'd go back to sleep. I got up with him at about 4 because he had "muddy britches". He would have keep sleeping. Muddy britches don't bother him. But he did decide after he woke up that he hadn't seen food in forever.

No quilting today!

Today I will not quilt, piece, or do any other sewing. Today, I will be mawmaw. I will rock, change, and feed Brayden. He will be with us until about 9 this evening. We will read, rock, and visit. We will enjoy ourselves enormously.
Martha

New buzz in my head

I have an idea for a quilt I want to make buzzing around inside my head. It is inspired by the children's book Arrow to the Sun by Gerald McDermott. I read the book to my K class yesterday. I could hardly read the book for thinking "This would make a great quilt. It's even angular. Look at the colors against the black. I've got to start drawing up designs for a quilt." I have already purchased fat quarters in rainbow colors with yardage in black. I've been turning ideas around in my head for a rainbow quilt set in sashings of black. I'm still thinking of rainbow strings with black. AND this fabric I used in Brayden's Busy Boy quilt.Got to get to the fabric store to see if any is left!! I can't wait to see where this will end up.

Errands call- 1. Vote 2. cleaning supplies from Wal-Mart 3. Nora Robert'sTWO new books 3. pick up Brayden for the afternoon. Yep, save the best for last.

Martha

All Saints Day

I hope all had a happy Halloween yesterday. I spent the day today sewing. However, I have been making Vanessa a pirate costume for belated Halloween party tonight. See what we do for our kids.
Brayden slept through his first Halloween. He dozed off just as Jenn and David left home to take him on his first Trick or Treat tour of the family. He woke up just as they got back home. He stayed up most of the night.
I found a onesie for him today. It is white with red writing: Silent Night? Yeah right! It is perfect for him. He is still working nights.