Saturday, June 7, 2014

Hands2Help & Flamingos

flamingo 4
For those of you who are looking for For Pinks Sake, go to this link.

What a glorious day! It is the final day of the Hands2Help quilt drive. Each year Sarah (Confessions of a Fabric Addict) offers quilters a chance to make a quilt for 2 or 3 different charities. From March to June quilters can choose a charity, sign up and make a quilt.

I chose Quilty Hugs for Happy Chemo. This organization captured my heart immediately. Emily, of Em’s Scrapbag, has an ongoing project of making quilts for Happy Quilts. “This wonderful effort provides quilts and comfort for chemo patients.” (Sarah Craig)

The number one reason I chose this was because of my Mom. 42 years ago my Mom had her first surgery for cancer. She went through chemo at one point and suffered the common lot of others who have chosen this option to try to rid themselves of cancer. I wrote a post about my courageous and beloved Mom, which you can read here.

Without any more chatter, here is my Flamingo Quilt!


Flamingo 3
The Quilt with my 1940 Elna Grasshopper


flamingo 2
Don't look too closely at the p-i-n-s.


flamingo & kaiju
Kaiju, my kitty, helping with the backing


flamingo 1
In all it's glory


What are those? Let me take a closer look? Pins???? Does she plan to have someone snuggle up with a quilt with pins?

quilters pins



No she doesn’t. With school and the Log Cabin (oh boy, she’s rolling out the excuses!) I knew I’d have to make the quilt the week after school let out. Errr, the last week before the H2H deadline.

Fortunately, this was a joint effort and my Sisty Ugler had made the blocks. I started in on last Saturday and was toodling along. Then an unexpected lost day showed up.

I worked my little beehind off yesterday. I thought I could make the finish line. I started quilting at 5:00. After a half hour, which meant I only covered about 24” (2 12-inch squares), I stopped to look at the back.

thread tension


Eeeeeegads! The tension was all wrong! Loopy loo! And I had checked and adjusted the tension before I started. I stared at it in frustration and mounting apprehension. I would have to pull out all the stitching.

bad tension
I should have thought to take a picture of my own quilt back!


Four hours later, I had finished ripping it out. It was then I realized it wouldn’t get done for today.

And (get ready for another excuse, group) today is our local guild’s Quilt Show. No quilting today.

And now you know why there are pins in it!

Look for another post next week with the unpinned and completely finished quilt!

** I have to apologize for the quality of the pictures. They are blurry and the color's faded. Darn! **

12 comments:

  1. What a beautiful quilt and I know you'll get it done soon. Thanks for sharing at Linky Tuesday! Freemotion by the River

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'll be working on it today. I found this great e-book "Ten Ways to Tie a Quilt." I picked a really cool one and that is my project for today!

      Delete
  2. What a great cause to make a quilt for (my dogs often help with quilting just like your cat)!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Definitely our doggie and kittie friends love to help wherever they can! My dog never participates, except by eating bits of fabric that fall on the floor!

      Delete
  3. How frustrating to have to pick stitches, especially with a looming deadline. Eegad! One thought on the tension...don't know if this was the case for you, but I know it looks the same as what happened to me when I was learning fmq. If you thread the machine with the foot down, the thread won't be seated properly in the tension disks. Always lift the foot UP before threading the machine so the disks separate (open) and accept the thread. It's an easy thing to forget, but an important one to remember! Good luck finishing your project in time.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh wow, thanks for the tip on threading the machine! Whoda' thunk it?

      Delete
  4. That's a bummer. But it could have been worse- a stain that won't come out at all.
    Sorry about all the ripping you had to do, but I'm sure once it's all quilted and beautiful, it'll be worth all your hard work.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You're absolutely right! I'm looking forward to getting it done and on its way!

      Delete
  5. It is a bummer that you didn't finish, but I think that it just means that the person who needs it, wasn't quite ready for it. It will be a blessing to whomever receives it and they will appreciate all of your hard work.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. What a beautiful sentiment. Thank you. I will have it done and on its way in a couple of days to that person who it was meant for.

      Delete
  6. this is a beautiful quilt. I know how frustrating all of that ripping can be! Good luck with it!

    Thank you so much for sharing at Needle and Thread Thursday!

    :) Kelly @ My Quilt Infatuation

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm going to take another swing at it today. I'm hoping all will turn out well!

      Delete

I love comments. They make me smile and feel warm and fuzzy. To show you my appreciation, I try to answer everyone's comment. :)

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...