It Ain't Finished Yet (but it is getting close!)

This past weekend was a great one.  I'll give you some details which does include some quilting fun.  Friday night as I posted I got quite a bit of work done on the girl's quilts.  Saturday morning I woke up before everyone else, I started writing the blog post.  The kids start waking up, so the blog post gets shortened a bit.  I make a quick breakfast and discuss plans for the day.  Amazing to me J. agrees to go to Greenfield and have lunch at the Bread Ladies.  This is a bit of a drive for lunch.  I'm also hoping we can go for a short walk on the Pennsy Trail.  The kids are in really bad moods at this point, really it is just the girls.  They were crying about nearly everything, fought me over what shoes to wear and we left the house without girl 1 brushing/combing her hair.  It was just a battle I didn't feel was worth fighting.  I did let the kids use the camera for a bit so here is a picture each one of them took.

First one the little man (age 3) took.

 

Next is the picture girl 2 (age 4) took.

And finally the picture girl 1 (age 5)took.

While the fun and fighting were going on J. calls his parents and they agree to join us for lunch.  We drive down to their house and find out J's aunt will join us as well.  This is turning out to be one pretty big outing, so I'm really hoping the kids behave well.  Guess what the kids mood did improve.  Lunch went really well.  After a nice walk around Greenfield we went for ice cream and then headed home.  All 3 of the kids took short naps on the drive home.  After dinner we watch a movie, the kids went to bed, I finished a book and then I went to bed.  What started as day I felt we could get nothing done without a fight turned out to be one very pleasant day.  

Sunday morning we had a lazy start.  We all slept in a bit.  I made some pancakes, drank some tea and just took my time.  Around 10:00 or so I went outside, pulled some weeds from the flower bed and started mowing the grass. I let J. take over mowing once I get the front yard done.  I took a nap while watching Quilting Celebrations by Patrick Lose.  I really want to make the table runner he made, so I did love the show.  I'm not completely sure why but every quilting show I watch seems to put me to sleep.  Some reasons could include I usually watch these while the kids are napping so the house is quiet and as it turns out it is nap time.  I wake up just before girl 1 comes downstairs.  Once she gets down here I start thinking I should be working on the Christmas quilt.  I go up to the sewing room and get to work.  I get three more rows completed and then we go to the library.  Once dinner is over I head back to the sewing room.  I get the rest of the rows completed fairly quickly.  I think to myself I have some time, I should be able to get this top completed tonight.  With the quilt girl 1 is making we are working on sewing long strips of fabric.  I find sewing these long bits of fabric difficult  so I know it must be hard for her as well.  I try pinning them for her but she doesn't like having the pins.  They rub against her legs and make her nervous.  While reading some blogs I find many people don't seem to like sewing long seams.  One lady responds that she finds it much easier to use her walking foot.  Why not give it a try I think, but I should try it myself before I have girl 1 try it.  Now is the perfect time.  I put on the walking foot and start getting the top finished.  The first row I don't pin.  The corners match pretty well, some are a bit off but nothing too bad.  The next set I pin.  I guess I must have sewed quicker or something.  This one was much worse that the first.  This is just a quilt to use around the house so I don't worry about everything not being perfect.  One difference I noticed about piecing with the walking foot is the top fabric is pulled quicker than my bottom fabric.  I start pinning the ends to try and make sure the edges of the quilt all line up.  Overall I do think using the walking foot helps but it is still not perfectly easy.  I guess with some practice my skills will improve but for now these long strips cause me some stress.  

Here's a look at the completed top.

 

I hope in the next few days to get the borders on the girls quilt - more long strips to sew!  I might as well keep the walking foot on because after those borders go on it's on to machine quilting!  I hope everyone else had a nice weekend as well.  If you have any tips on piecing long strips or machine quilting I would certainly benefit.