Customer Quilt ~~ finish

I've been so involved with trying to get my website up and running--correctly, thank goodness--that I really haven't been blogging anywhere. Here or on Blogger. In fact, I've pretty much abandoned Blogger for good. If you go there, you'll find my last post is really just the instructions and links to get here. Thank you for coming! Hang out while, won't you?

In the meantime, I had a customer quilt to work on. It was actually a duvet that she purchased and wanted me to turn into a quilt. My original idea was that I'd stuff the batting in, smooth it out, then load it and quilt away. Nope. That duvet had other ideas. Richard watched me (lets say he tried to help) struggle until I was mad, winded and sweaty. You know how I hate to be sweaty, right? It was getting pretty rough inside that duvet. Yes, at one point I actually climbed in. 

He had a suggestion. I tried it. He helped, for real, this time. That duvet was having none of it. We struggled and fought and I decided that the end was happening. But first I'd rip it apart. Yes, that's exactly what I did. Rip it apart. Load it up like a real quilt using the top and bottom pieces and adding the batting like a regular quilt. Then came the cranky part.

Can you see the shredded piece of thread? It would eventually break, but sometimes I caught it early enough to cut it and save time rethreading the machine beginning at the tension all the way to through the needle.

A pile of wasted thread from the shredding and breakage. Frustrating when it happens a time or two. This many times? Wow. Just wow.

That duvet simply wanted to be a duvet. But, hey, I'm a persistent chick. The thread problems were unreal. The screen-print had some sort of ink that simply hates needles and thread. Can you believe this? I regularly had to cut the thread, pull the shredded part through the machine, and rethread the needle. And the ink just ate at the needles. They would get dull and then chop through the knit-like fabric. It took days. And patience. Yes, lots of patience. Then I had to add a binding because the edges were raw, but the binding was the easiest part of all. How about that for those of you who hate binding?

 In the end, we parted company, except it left in a whole new form. And Crystal was happy with her quilt, which was to be a birthday gift for her little boy. Plus, I learned a valuable lesson: stick to my cottons!

I hope you're having a fabulous week! Our niece is getting married on Saturday and we're excited to be able to attend her wedding. That will be a fun little getaway that I'm especially looking forward to. 

This World So Fierce (more updates)

 That's right! The ebook for This World So Fierce will be available for immediate download on Monday. Exciting, right? So how do you get it? Easy-peasy. Go to Amazon.com and do a book search for This World So Fierce Mary Marcotte. I know, it's kind of long so copy and paste that bugger. Here's the thing: adding my name brings it to the top of the menu--no additional searching. 

You can, absolutely, purchase the book and download it immediately to your computer, tablet, or phone. (This is starting to sound like a commercial. :)

This World So Fierce (all the updates)

 News and updates about my recently published book is right here.

© 2020. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.

Names: Marcotte, Mary Bourque.
Title: This World So Fierce: a novel.
Description: Pennsauken, NJ : BookBaby Publishing, 2020.
Summary: A teenager is thrust into a new foster family and must learn to cope with strangers.
Identifiers: ISBN (Print Edition): 978-1-09833-262-4 | ISBN (eBook Edition): 978-1-09833-263-1 |
Subjects: Young adults. | American South Literature--fiction. | Foster family--fiction. | Louisiana--fiction. | Rape and recovery--fiction. | Surrogate family--YA--fiction.

How Do Scissors Disappear? Discovery Edition

 

I’ve been working on memory quilts for a former student who now has two sweet little boys who outgrew their baby-t0-4T tees. When she asked me to make the quilts, I almost said no. But, well, you can read that article HERE if you need to catch up. After Jude’s quilt fiasco, I wrapped it up and began work on Jett’s quilt. It’s not quite the same size but there were several small onesies, and not as many regular tees as Jude’s.

 

I fudged it a little and added more blue fabric, but it was beginning to feel like the shirts were swimming in the ocean. (Note to self: don’t watch Adrift if using lots of blue background.)

Anyway, the second quilt came along smoothly, and I finished the top in record time. Again, however, I spent extra time on the quilting. It’s just too tempting to add those little touches, a spiderweb for the Spiderman shirt, Christmas trees, pumpkins, valentines, etc. It’s my way of making the quilt extra-special and also keeps me from mindless stipples.

Don’t get me wrong, I love stippling. It’s the fastest, easiest, cheapest of all the ways one can quilt. However, it’s this mindless: I stippled my scissors into the quilt! Yes, you read right! It was all quite innocent and really could happen to anyone. But if you know me, you expect something like this. Anyway, I needed to adjust the batting as I was getting to the end of the quilting process. Scissors are like pens: I always have one in my hand. And I put them down anywhere, so I lose them often. This, of course, means that I was not at all concerned when I couldn’t find my little scissors that velcro to the machine. (Who knows where I put them down, right?)

Left, digging my scissors from under the batting. Right, the escapee is recovered.

I was zipping along and discovered a bulge in the batting, which I thought was really the batting. That is, until nothing would budge or give way to the quilting. As soon as I began an investigation, I discovered that missing pair of scissors. Luckily, I also have a seam ripper velcroed to the machine. I’m still laughing at myself.

Tagged memory quiltsquiltingquiltsscissorstee-shirt quilts

Come on over!

Fleur de Lis Quilts is now marymarcotte.com! I will continue Sunday Quilt Inspiration and Pin It Weekly.  

Come over to see what's happening, buy a copy of my new novel, This World So Fierce, and check out my quilt portfolio. 

The new website is a work-in-progress, but I have lots of new blog content. You can go straight there by clicking here.

Y'all join me!

Of grandsons and jeans and hurricanes

Just dumped on the table, there doesn't seem to be much sewing, but he had five pairs!

 

Our grandson Lane, came for a visit last Friday. You know what they say, "They only come when they want something"? Well, it's sort of true. He gave me a hug, after informing me that he needed some jeans hemmed. Sure. Not a problem.

Let's see, clean and thread the machine, put in a new, extra-heavy duty universal needle (twice), replace the rotary cutter blade or at the very least sharpen it, spend 45 minutes cutting and sewing new jeans. He's a working man now, so he needs to dress a little better than he did for hanging around the house. Every change seems to affect me somehow.

I'm kidding, of course. Having them over is a joy. Not that I spent much time with him or Adam or Rory. They were all outside helping Richard set up the greenhouse. A project started out for me, but Richard can't do anything in a normal fashion. We need, at most, a 10 X 10 space. The old greenhouse has an 18' width, so okay 10 X 18. Of course, my country boy is making it 18' X 20'. Almost four times larger than my original request. I'll let him figure out the heat/water and whatever else it may need.

Why a greenhouse? Mornings are dipping to 45 degrees. Afternoons can be a warm as 80 degrees. I learned last year that succulents and other pretty plants can't take extreme changes in temperature. And those babies were expensive. All I had to do was put the idea of a hothouse in hubby's head. Don't you know he ran with it. I love that man!

In other news, we had a little, tiny catastrophe here. A tree fell during one of the hurricanes. (There have been so many, but I think it was Delta.) That it fell was not a problem. No, the real problem was that it fell on top of several of my favorite pots! The plants survived. The pots did not. So I have no choice but to replant them in a container of some fashion. Then off they will go to the new/old greenhouse. New because it was just put up. Old because the metal ribs are about the only thing left from when we owned the nursery. The country boy saved the metal ribs, so here we are with a fancy greenhouse, lots of plants, and no pots.

Works in Progress...

 Hi everyone! I am extremely excited. There are so many new things happening all at once that I'm not sure which way to turn. But in a good way, you know? 

For one, there's my booth at Griffin's Antiques and Main St. Market. It's sort of an antiques store, flea market, artist market and cafe all rolled into one huge building. There are almost 70 booths, and the items range into just about anything. One booth is called SWAG. Two young girls who make and sell swags. That's it. Swag decorations of all shapes and sizes and fabrics. It's crazy. And that's only one example. 

My booth has my quilted art, some door hangers, and some painted sky pieces with Biblical quotes on them. As soon as there's room, I'll add charcuterie boards and one-of-a-kind, handmade Christmas ornaments. 

Back to my overly busy life: my un-, This World So Fierce, 6 available in ebook format at Amazon beginning tomorrow. You can find it easily if you search amazon.com for "this world so fierce marcotte." Adding my name to the end really helps to bring it to the top. Otherwise, every book with world or fierce in the title will be above your search.

And then there's this website that I've been trying to build. I'm not certain about whether I can do it myself, but I have to try. If you feel like visiting and letting me know what you think, I'd love your input. You can find it at http://www.marymarcotte.com. Really, I need all the help and suggestions I can get.

Days seem to be a hot commodity. Appointments, family, and commitments seem to be vying for full days. I mean, sure, I can give a few hours, but the entire day? I do not like scheduling something for a whole day. It's like blocking out the sun. I wake up from the fog and it's night. The day is gone. 

Anyway, here we are. I was supposed to be explaining something about this blog and the new website. Since the website is taking so long to put together, I think I'll continue to blog here once or twice a week, skipping the Pinterest posts. Let's face it, I can't visit Pinterest. Those rabbit holes are deep and wide. Falling in may mean not waking up from the fog.

So until the next time...