Love/Hate

I am absolutely in love with my newest project.  

It is the shield  portion of the logo for our motorcycle club.  I have been planning this for about 2 years, with the outline taped behind my sewing machine for over a year. 

The scale on this is pretty small so the boar was pretty fussy to stitch.  And since it blended into the background, I also had to add a row of dark grey embroidery to make it pop.  The other tusk, mouth, cheek and ear will be quilted following the pencil lines there.  

I have absolutely loved this part of the project. 

So now I am moving on to the hate part of the post.   Because I am putting this on a black background, I am not going to be able to do my usual back basting technique.  I've tried dozens of marking pens and pencils on black and have not found one yet that holds up for the job.  

So I am doing freezer paper w/ starch method.  Which I find extremely tedious and time consuming. 

Oh well.  I have time.  Since the club requires American Made motorcycles, I thought it was the perfect excuse to try the new American Made Fabric line.  Unfortunately, it's not carried by any of my LQS, so it's on order from The Fat Quarter Shop. 

Half

I can't seem to finish anything lately. Here is 1/2 finished center of my newest applique project.

And half of the September Benjamin Biggs block.

Plus this scrap quilt that is nearly half quilted.

On the bright side, my "Nadine" quilt has a new owner.  "Papa Stumpy" just had heart bypass surgery and I thought he needed a constant hug.  The challenge is convincing him it's a quilt to use, not one just for looks.

This weekend is supposed to be cool and 50% chance of rain.

 Looks like quilting season kick-off weekend for me. 

Saddle Bags

And now for something entirely different....

Hubby and I bought new baggers last week.  I spent much of the 940 mile break in rides designing custom inserts in my head for the hard saddle bags.  The Road King came with an open-topped bag that fits into the hard bags.  The concept being that you can pull the bag out and carry it into a hotel when you do an over-nighter.

Can you look at those Victory bags and not think of the Jetson's cartoons from the '60s?

 
I started my morning templating the inside of the bag with cardstock.  As you can see, there were several challenges including a 1.5 inch difference from the bottom of the bag to the area flush with the lid, some weird angles, and a 2"x 3" block for some type of equipment that sticks up in the bottom corner of the bag.

After a couple hours and too much coffee, I have a paper mock-up of what will become the rear bag on the left side.  It will hold the things I always keep in the bag like sun screen, first aid supplies, etc.  The front half bag with be the over-nighter hotel bag.

Having done this part, I am now completely re-thinking how I am going to divide this bag up.

I better go take a ride and give it more thought.