Hello Everyone – It’s been a few weeks since I’ve written anything here so it’s high time I chimed in and updated you on what’s been happening in my little corner of the world.
At the end of August I took a break, flew to Florida with my best friend and her sister, and had a lovely vacation visiting her daughter, son-in-law, and grandchildren. We were there to attend a baby shower for my friend’s soon to be born great-grandson. Saying that makes us sound so old! But really, we’re not (please stop giggling) – she’s just a super young Grandma. LOL

Anyway, when we got back I was suddenly up to my eyeballs in deadline quilts. I’m not sure how that happened, especially since I spent two weeks before my trip busting my butt to get as many tops quilted as I could.
So that’s what has been taking up most of the minutes of my days – quilting as fast as I can to meet all the deadlines for my customers. It’s been fun, but also a little stressful, especially when I pull a stupid rookie move like I did today.
“What stupid rookie move did you do today, Beth?“
Well, let me tell you. I loaded a new quilt on my longarm, and when I put the quilt top on the backing, I put it on NINETEEN inches from the top edge of the backing. Geesh! Who does that?? So you know where this is going, right? I got almost the entire top quilted, and when I got to the bottom, I was about 10″ short of backing fabric. I was short on the bottom, because I LOADED THE TOP NINETEEN INCHES BELOW THE TOP OF THE BACKING! Crap-ola!!
So then I had to call the customer and confess to my stupidity. I even, for the tiniest moment, believed the backing wasn’t 108″ wide but was, instead, about 90″. Because that would account for the 19″ I was short. Then reality hit me and I had to admit to myself that the backing was indeed the correct width and I had screwed up. Fortunately, my customer was super understanding, and the quilt is not going to be entered into a show anywhere. She was so sweet about it and I’ll be able to fix it but I still feel like such a dweeb. I know that stuff happens, but I hate when it happens because I’m not paying attention.
Other than that, things have been going well. I’ve been working on some beautiful quilts and fun, whimsical ones. It’s always a joy to walk into my studio and see what’s waiting for me on the machine. Like this fun bird quilt:

I was told to do whatever I wanted with the quilting, so I kept it lighthearted and fun, just like the quilt itself. My favorite part was the border, where I did randomly spaced straight lines and added in ghost pinwheel blocks.


The only difficult part of the quilting on this top was working around the applique. The adhesive from the Steam-A-Seam kept gunking up my needle, shredding the thread and messing with the thread tension. I found I was more successful if I avoided the applique. This meant I was breaking thread more often than I would have liked, but the end result was worth it. I’m just so pleased with the way it looks.
I am going to have to find a way to deal with the stickiness of applique though, as I have an applique/paper-pieced quilt coming to me in January. I’ll be doing a lot of research before then because I want the quilting to go as smoothly as possible. I’m excited about that quilt coming in.
Another new project I tackled has to do with cooking, but not Cooking Up Quilts. Instead, I was Cooking Up Pumpkins. Say what? You read that right. I have always wanted to break down a pumpkin and make a pumpkin pie totally from scratch but just never took the time. Somehow the last quarter of the year just seems to fly by and when I’m ready for pumpkin pie it’s just easier to buy the canned pumpkin But I got an early start this year!
I bought a couple small pie pumpkins, cut them up, removed the seeds from the inside and then roasted them in the oven. This is what that looked like when they were done cooking:

It doesn’t look much different from when it went in the oven! But the inside is fork tender, and that’s just the way you want it. I baked the pumpkin pieces at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes. Then scooped the inside away from the skin, and processed the pulp in the food processor until smooth.

Look at that! Pumpkin puree, all ready for a pie or muffins or cookies, or whatever! Since I’m not quite ready to make a pumpkin pie, I put the puree into freezer bags and popped them in the freezer.

When I’m ready to make a pumpkin pie, I’ll be all set and ready to go. I’ll have to let you know after I make my pies whether all this was worth it. Because it does take some time and it’s a bit messy. Who knows, it might be just as tasty to buy the pumpkin puree in a can. Have you ever made your own pumpkin puree? Is it something you would do again, or no?
That’s it for me today. I have a recipe for blackberry dump cake I’ll share with you later this week. And of course, many more quilting pictures. For now, it’s time for you to share what you’ve been working on. What has you excited to be in your sewing space? You can link up any blog post, Instagram or Flickr pic – here’s how:
Florida beaches are exceptionally pretty! Glad you had such a nice getaway. The bird quilt is delightful! And ugh on the 19 inches…. I’m so glad the client was understanding.
Oh my goodness, Beth — yes, when you’re behind on a bunch of deadlines, making pumpkin puree from scratch is EXACTLY what you should be doing… You are a girl after my own heart as that is exactly how I handle the stress of deadlines, too! I’m glad you were able to fix the snafu of the too-short backing fabric and I’m curious about how you fixed it, since I’m sure that I’ll make the same mistake someday. Did you have to take the partially quilted quilt off the frame, cut that 19″ off the top, stitch it to the bottom of the loose end of the backing, and then reload the quilt to finish quilting it? Or were you able to somehow add more backing fabric without taking the quilt off the frame? That birdie appliqué quilt looks AMAZING the way you quilted it. I didn’t know about fusible appliqué creating problems for quilting, either. I’m so glad you got the time off to relax with family; you deserve it!
Hi, Beth! Such a delightful post to read with my coffee this morning! So glad you had a get away! It keeps us young(er). I saw that bird quilt on IG and just loved it! Hope you figure out the best way to quilt appliqués. Fresh pumpkin! Yum! One year, in Texas, I had 5 volunteer pumpkins in June! What else do you do with pumpkins in June but process and freeze them! Hope you enjoy baking with them as much as I did! Enjoy your day!
Geez – how awful! I’ll think of you every time I load a quilt.
What a gorgeous photo of the Honeymoon Beach. Sounds like you had a fabulous time. We have all had those moments, glad your customer was super understanding. The bird quilt is so adorable, Beth! Quilting the pinwheels was a fabulous idea. Those pumpkin bakes goodies are going to be so tasty!! I can almost smell them 🙂
-Soma
I am so glad to see you back! I can’t imagine how awful you must have felt. So glad you customer was understanding. I haven’t run into the gunk-ing up of a needle yet due to the adhesive, so I’d love to know more of what you find out. I order a bunch of HeatNBond Lite and haven’t had any problem. I do know at the LQS we always recommended SteamASeam but I think I tired of it.
Hi Beth! It’s so nice to see you back in action. I’ve missed you! that pumpkin look divine and I’ll wait for the report but I suspect it will be the best darn pie you’ve ever had. YUM! Oh, I can’t imagine that feeling when you got to the bottom of that quilt and found out you didn’t have enough fabric. EEK! All that ripping out would make me sick, not to mention how long it will take. {{Hugs}} I suspect that will never happen to you again. ~smile~ Roseanne
Some days your mind just seems to take a vacation without notifying you. Hopefully you were able to get the quilting error resolved. Hopefully the rest of your deadline sewing will go much smoother.
Lovely quilting, and hopfully, the problem is solved!