Quilting & Bowling!

Today was a really busy day! The day started with me getting up early.

After spending about an hour on the computer, I decided to go downstairs and work on the Butterfly quilt downstairs. I went down and started the stove, so it would be warm by the time I got down there.

I started out taking photos of what was done, so I could get an idea of what I was ale to finish today before lunch time.

Then I turned the TV on, and got to work on the center piece of the quilt. I'm not happy with the way it was put together, but I'm thankful to have the quilt. This quilt was a gift to me for putting in two years a President of the quilt guild here in town. That was in 2002. So, that tells you how long it's taking me to finish this quilt.

The cross hatching in one of the borders that is the center piece is going really fast, and is really fun to do. The problem I'm having is in the flower. As you can see, I'm left handed. I love the "tailor" thimble for when I'm having to quilt upward. It comes in handy pushing the needle. I've mastered it pretty good. As you can see, I also have several needles going at once. I find it easier to have more than one needle going. I can keep the needle in the area that I'm working in, and move to another area without having to cut the thread.

I've been "outlining" the flower petals, but not outlining the light purple area. I want to make it look more like a flower than it does. But I can't think of how I'm going to do that yet. I really need to get this done, and I'm finding it a lot harder to come up with a way to do that. Since it's paper pieced, there are a LOT of small pieces that are sewn together. It makes it that much harder to quilt through.

So, while I think about that part of the center, I moved over to the flower in the corner. That on is "dirty" and I can see the blue marking pen that was used. I'm afraid I might have ironed this top before I set it up for quilting - which might have set the marker. Not thrilled about that. There are even more small pieces in this flower! So, I'm trying to make it look like a flower with the quilting. Quilting stitches get bigger because of the seams underneath. It's becoming a big challenge for me to get this center pieced. I haven't even decided how I'm going to quilt the "background" of the center piece. May just leave it alone.

If you look at the first photo, that area is easy and quick to quilt. I do like quilting in those areas, because I'm meandering with my quilting. I did get a lot done, and hope to get over to the side of the center piece to work on the butterflies again.

This afternoon, I had to go to the bowling alley for a tournament. I was bowling for singles and doubles. I did come in 4th place with the singles. We didn't get doubles because my partner (as well as myself) didn't do that great. After six games, I had to wait about two hours before we started bowling in our league. So, while I waited, I pulled out the Carolina Lily block to work on the leaves and berries.

My needle isn't sharp - and it really needs to be - that the berries are not as full as I would like. This quilt block hides the berries as well as the stem, so I really don't think it's going to matter to much. I will pay better attention to the one I do for my quilt.

I'm happy to say, two of the corners are done, and I was able to get the other two leaves done on the other corners. My next move is to do the berries on the corners, and then this block is finished. My block will be next.

I then bowled another three games. When we bowled doubles, I did bowl a 228, so it wasn't all that bad. When we bowled in our league, I bowled a 179, 194, 191, so I guess nine games didn't kill me after all. It's been  long time since I bowled nine or twelve games.

I'm now ready to call it a day, and happy to say I was able to get some quilting in. I've been doing pretty good staying Happy Quilting.