Some quilting and sewing therapy

Labor Day weekend always gets my hopes up for quilting. 

Friday, the Hubs had some outpatient surgery scheduled. It happened to fall on my day off. This time, I wasn’t allowed to be with him behind the big doors or help him when it was time to be discharged. That was a bit disorienting. 

Once we were home, he relaxed for a little bit and I got to sew. New great-granddaughter is coming any minute and I needed to meet my goal of one quilt for each day of the week. Mission accomplished! You’ve already seen the main baby quilt and quiltlets 1 and 2; here are 3, 4, 5 and 6. As part of his duties of holding up the quilts for photo ops, he insisted on flipping part of the back over for your viewing pleasure. Please don't mind the folds; I had already stacked them up for shipping before I remembered to take photos:

#3; I just adored this line of fabric.
This one is quilted with thin batting in the main section,
and flannel inserted into the yellow border.

Little surfer girls on the front;
adorable tiny flamingos on the border and back.

#4, it's all cats. No batting, but there is a
light amount of quilting.

Tiny cats on the borders and back;
I'm not much for cats but loved this fabric.

#5; these are fabrics that have been in my stash
for a very long time. The cupcake fabric was purchased
in 2010 for another purpose; the Hello Kitty fabric
was purchased about 4-5 years ago, also for another purpose.
No batting; light quilting.

I love these bright cupcakes on the brown background!

This one is probably my favorite; it's all words
of empowerment and love and friendship.
No quilting. It also didn't photograph well.

LOVE these fabrics.

Instant gratification projects are THE BEST. I got to the point where I didn't need to refer to the instructions after the second one. While this pattern may have been geared toward flannel, I loved using flat woven cottons. It took me getting to #6 to realize I didn't need to quilt it at all! Lesson learned. 

Honestly, these little quiltlets/receiving blankets are addictive and, moving forward, will be my go-to baby gift. 

There is another baby quilt that is in the planning stages. I have collected photos of all the family members to print onto fabric along with favorite family sayings. I’m still collecting the sayings. This will be a bigger quilt so I’m not too worried about taking a little extra time to do this one.

In other quilting and sewing stuff happenings, I have 2 quilts I want to finish soon. One was started and came completely from scraps. I’m making this for a friend who recently suffered a loss; it's Plaid-ish by Erica Jackman of Kitchen Table Quilting. I've wanted to make this quilt for a very long time, and will make another for myself. 

The second one is from the pattern A Bit Askew by Blue Underground Studios; I started it over 10 years ago and it only needs borders and quilting (no photo yet). 

Also, I have not purchased any fabric since June. That doesn’t sound like it’s all that, but considering what I did during my pandemic retail therapy period, it’s huge. 

But the biggest news for the studio is that I splurged and bought the Plus upgrade for The Beast, my Bernina 770 QEE. I picked it up Saturday and installed it as soon as I got home. She seems happy about it and I’m tickled. I took her for a spin Sunday evening and she’s purring even more than she did before, but I can’t wait to see how she handles the FMQ. She spent the summer in her storage case while I bonded with The Beaut over the summer. I think I'm ready to start sewing on one while the other is embroidering. 

And, I also bought the new attachment Quilting Delights has made for the BSR. I’m still waiting for the rulers to arrive and try it out. Cindy bought it as well and brought her rulers over for me to test. This will be very interesting and I’m so glad someone created it! For anyone reading this that doesn’t know, Quilting Delights has come up with an attachment that allows you to do ruler work with your BSR. 

Work life has ramped up again, and I made it a point to spend time in the studio almost every day. That was good for me. The best time for me to do it is before the workday begins, but I'm finding that being in there during my lunch break helps with the length of the workday. Going in before the workday starts keeps me from starting the workday any earlier like I've done for the past 18 months. 

I hope you've had a lovely Labor Day weekend--go make!