Quilt Finish: On A Picnic

This here is the simple picnic quilt I made for my sweet friends, DnA, who got married just a little while ago. Yahoot for their beautiful matrimonial union! Let us drink to their long and blissful wedded life!!! Hugs to you both, DnA!

Previously pictured in progress here and here, this is the quilt I quilted on Betty, my old White sewing machine. It's my first attempt at free-motion quilting (FMQ) a large-ish project. And I'm pleased with it!

And, as usual, every quilt has its lesson.

What did I learn this time 'round? Well... a few things actually.

Lesson 1: I learned the value of a good marking tool. After fussing with a regular HB pencil, a so-called quilting pencil, and a new but-soon-dry-as-the-desert quilting marker, I finally settled on the wonderful chalk pencil to mark the quilt with my quilting designs. It doesn't even compare with the rest. The heavens opened up, as I recall.

Lesson 2: For my next project, I will be taking a new approach to FMQ designs.

Part A: I ended doing gobs and gobs of unpicking because my quilting lines were designed long and smooth yet SO often ended up wobbly and crooked. Given Betty's minimal throat space, it was quite tricky to maneuver the quilt along these lines. Shorter lines would be far less challenging for Betty and me.

Part B: A little more space between the quilting lines themselves would also help. Then I wouldn't have to fret so over the fabric buckling. I was constantly checking for buckling and bunching on the backside of the quilt and it had a negative impact on my flow. It seems to me that more space between quilting lines is the answer here. That's my theory anyway. Still have to test that out in my next project though.

Lesson 3: I love the modular quilting design idea. By that I mean working in a small area on a discrete motif, as opposed to an all-over quilting pattern. Being limited by my machine's tiny throat space is not necessarily a bad thing, it just means having to think differently about how to accomplish the quilting. Modular quilting designs are one solution to the space problem.

Lesson 4: This project shows me the potential of my simple old machine. So what if it's old? I am not limited by it. IT is limited by ME! I'm supposed to be the one with the brain after all.

Lesson 5: Except for batting and thread, I could probably make 20 more quilts from my scraps/stash alone. Like really, I had everything for this lap quilt in my house! This is an old, old lesson. An oldie but goodie.

Lesson 6: If you want motivation to finish a quilt, plan to give it as a gift for a big day like a wedding or a birth. There's nothing like a deadline to set one's butt astir.

Yeah... So I think that about covers it! I hope to get started on THIS colourful one soon. Poor thing's been waiting most patiently in the wings...  I think I may need to set a deadline of some sort, eh?

♥M

KITTEN UPDATE:   Thanks so much for your kind input on the kittens. Of which there are now three (I named the third "Twigs")! We've put out food and water for them. They aren't touching it from what I can tell. So the mom must still be around?...  They've begun to meow at me when I look in on them. Am I scaring them? The Humane Society said to give them a call if we decide to hand them over. Also, after last posting, Lo reminded me that Elle (my eldest) is highly allergic to cats. That fact had totally fallen out of my head, if you can imagine!!! I'm so worried about the poor little things. I just want them to be safe and alive...

Lost: A Cautionary Tale

My tale begins one sunny summer afternoon about 6 months ago, roughly 3 months into the creation of this blog. I had just completed a post. I don't recall which one exactly, but it may well have been a Feast post because that series was in full swing at the time. I was sitting at my dining room table. I had just pressed the "Publish" button. Now I don't know about you, but I always get butterflies just before I press that button. I don't know why. You'd think that after 9 months of blogging the mixed feeling of nausea, nerves and utter excitement, that "high" that occurs at publication time, would have waned a little. But it hasn't. It's still there, strong as ever. And it was there that day too.

And as always, the first thing I do once I've published, is to check that everything is good with the post. It never is. There is always some glaring error to be found when I do my check after publication. Always always.

So on that day, 6 months ago, when I went to check my post, I was a little irked when up popped a message from Blogger that said something like: "You have incorrectly entered the blog url. That blog does not exist."

Funny, I thought to myself, I didn't even "enter" my blog url, I just pressed the link that Blogger provides on the "Your-post-has-published-successfully" page. What's going on?

So I tried entering my blog url. Same message.

What followed is something that I do not wish on my worst blogging enemy. It went something like this.

1. An attempt to remain calm.
2. A stoic search for Michele Made Me in every possible way my non-technical brain knows how to search the web.
3. The realization that I had never backed up my blog.
4. A groundswell of tears.
5. A desperate search for others on the web who'd undergone this same thing. This was horrifying, as it is - from what I learned that day - relatively common for blogs to disappear into the ether never to be seen again.
6. An unstoppable flow of tears.
7. The realization that ALL that work was gone.
8. Inconsolable sobbing on the kitchen floor.
9. Desperate emails to Blogger Help to see if they could do ANYTHING followed by zero helpful replies.
10. A growing hillock of soggy tissues on the kitchen floor.
11. The realization that the universe was trying to tell me that blogging was NOT to be.
12. The realization that I wasn't good enough or smart enough to be a blogger.
13. The realization that I didn't DESERVE the happiness that blogging was bringing me.

(#11-13 are bollocks by the way. But I was in full-on self-pity mode at the time, and that is what arose in my crazed head. I was subsequently given a stern talking-to by Lo to NEVER think these things about myself. EVER! He's my man.)

And then Lo came home. I hadn't told him. He took one look at me, and instantly asked in his quiet and concerned way: "What's wrong Mich?"And I couldn't reply... I was beside myself. I just collapsed in his arms and eventually whispered: "I lost my blog".

Followed by a flood of tears. Again.

And then Lo put on his all-business technical hat and started playing around on the computer. He sat there working for quite some time. He found all the same stuff I'd found. The Blogger Help forums with stories of lost blogs. "This blog does not exist". No Michele Made Me. Nothing. I was defeated.

And then about 6 hours after it disappeared... It came back... Just like that... As if by magic... No explanations. No reasons. But there it was.

That was 6 months ago. But it is a moment that is etched in my brain forever, and leads to this little tidbit of advice from me to you:

BACKUP YOUR BLOG.

The alternative is pure, unadulterated blogger hell. And my blog was only lost for 6 hours. Imagine losing EVERYTHING FOREVER? Well... That ain't happening! I've learned my lesson. I back it up regularly.

Just google "How to back up your blog" and you're sure to find the right information for your blog!

Edited to Add:

Read the comments. You will find one by Rebecca, a blogger who recently lost her blog. And then take a few minutes to backup your blog, please.

Now go have yourself a great day!

[Featuring Scott, my In-Laws' dependable concrete pooch, and "Kept in Stitches", the scrappy kaleidoscope quilt I made 2 yrs ago for my In-Laws' 40th Wedding anniversary, machine-pieced and hand-quilted by me.]