Test blocks

I have some finishes despite being MIA for a bit. I was so intent on finishing my Superman tumbling blocks mini before working on anything else that it led me to avoid my sewing area for 2 weeks. I seem to have a mental block when it comes to the quilting aspect. I'm stitching in the ditch .. so it's not complicated, I think it's an issue with my wanting to be able to do much more than my skills allow and getting frustrated. I know Practice, Practice, Practice is the only way to get through this mental stumbling block.

Shopping at Walmart for extra bobbins last week some fat quarters of Flutterby caught my eye. I loved the bright summery colours and thought it would be great for making mug rugs to practice on. I came across this tutorial last week Easy-Peasy-Binding-Tutorial and figured working out the kinks of my binding and working on my control while quilting is technically going to benefit this quilt ... right!?! Once I had the rotary cutter in my hand, typical me - my plan changed. Instead of mug rugs I decided to make a sample block of the carpenters star (modified) for my oldest daughters quilt.

I had to scale it down to work with the jelly roll and 10' charm pack I will be using for her actual quilt so some math was needed to figure out the best way to go. I figured out all my measurements as I went, used chain piecing for the first (but definitely not the last) time and here we are. It's bright and fun - points aren't perfect but I like it (for the record that upper star point on the right has the same pink on the end - really I didn't mangle it that badly) It will finish to an 11.5' block. I've decided that instead of adding it to my orphan blocks it would make a really nice throw pillow. Added some of the green as trim to make it 16' finished, a bit of minky on the back, gave it a quick wash and tossed in some stuffing and she's good to go.

On a roll I made another block to turn into a throw pillow for my youngest. This months fabric of the month was Northcott's Stonehenge Kids - Undersea Adventure (see full line HERE). It came in over the weekend and it was at the top of the pile. I was originally just going to go with it but seeing she's 16 I thought it would be best to let her pick the fabric. The minute she saw it she had to have it. To make sure I wasn't influencing her or she was picking out the first thing she saw, I pointed out other fabric she has drooled over in the past but she stayed firm. This time I made the Crazy Quilt block from Quilter's Cache that I've been wanting to try for awhile. It's the first time I've ever done piecing and I have to say Wow I loved how quick this block went together. I didn't have any muslin so used plain white cotton and chalked the block pattern on and went to work. I added the border to make it bigger and used black minky on the back. It only took a few hours from starting it to going into the washer. Record time for me!! I ran out of fill half way stuffed so its not fully finished yet but I'm really happy with this.

Next up is a block from the pattern she originally chose for her quilt Buzzsaw block. This one is paper piecing. Originally I was going to fudge it and create templates but now .. I'm going to attempt using the method from the site. I'm hoping to get started on it tonight.

I also need to make a pillow for my son by Sunday. It isn't fair the girls get pillows especially when it's his 21st birthday this coming weekend.

I still haven't tried out those instructions on binding but will get to them eventually.

Picker's delight!

We've added another old singer to our collection and she is a beaut! Long story short - One of Chris co-workers was admiring the pictures of our latest acquisition and came up to Chris later in the day and said he spied a bentwood case at the curb for garbage pick up many years ago and was curious so he put it in the back of his truck. He was surprised to find what was under the cover.
He thought it was from the 1930's and he'd rather it go to someone who would use it/love it then for it to continue to sit in his basement so if we wanted it, we could have it. Chris was off shift yesterday he went to pick it up - it's a 15-30 1921 Tiffany and has the original foot pedal. Chris gave her a quick clean/oil and put her in one of the desks. She still needs some TLC but we couldn't resist giving her a run. She absolutely purrrs. Quietest machine so far (the treadle needs a new belt before we can test her out).

Last night Chris decided my sewing room space was too cramped with all these machines/desks. He felt I needed to claim more of the sitting area (which is only used by me & Chris). I didn't think to take before pictures but here is a panorama of my area re-arranged with all the machines displayed (with exception of Chris's Elna) that we've acquired in the past few months. We still have a small sitting area which isn't shown but it is cozy. The number of machines looks bad but honestly all of these combined including the tables we've still spent less than what we paid for my Brother last year - lots of garage sale/thrift shop finds and a few freebies. He loves working on these old machines and I enjoy testing them all out.

No progress on my Superman mini and we'll have a houseful of people tonight, hopefully I can get it done over the weekend.

A mini quilt & a Treadle

Superman Mini Tumbling blocks

My week vacation is a thing of the past. Busy week at work last week and if today was any indication it won't be letting up any time soon. I did get some sewing time in the last few days of my vacation. I made this mini tumbling blocks quilt for a rocking chair Chris had as a toddler that now sits in a corner in our living room. Top completed and basted in under 2 days and it's been waiting for me to quilt and bind since.  I made some mistakes and to go back I would made the medium value a solid but I do like it and even more importantly Chris really likes it. I finally got back to it this past Sunday afternoon. I stitched in the ditch (or in some places near the ditch...) I'm about half done - then I got sidetracked and so it sits some more. I really want to finish it up this week. (picture is cropped so you don't see the back and batting hanging over and the black is even all over)

We had a garage sale on Saturday and while chatting with the neighbours I pulled out my Puppy love and the half done mini quilt. My next door neighbour's son will be 3 at the end of July. He loved Puppy love and kept saying it was his. If it wasn't my very first quilt I would have given it to him. I will have to find something fun and bright for him and see if I can get it done in time for his birthday. Apparently I'm a glutten for over extending myself. I can't seem to resist taking on new projects when I already have a plateful waiting for me to start!

So what did we do with some of the cash from the garage sale? We bought a 1892 Singer 27 treadle we've been eyeing for a while. The pictures posted in the ad were a bit deceiving - it looked a bit dull but otherwise near mint. Since taking my own pictures for this blog - it really does photograph better than it looks especially if you play with the picture a bit (top is raw photo, lower is tweaked with an editor). What we bought is a bit worse for wear, had been passed down the generations in the same family and has been an ornamental piece for many years. All the working parts of the machine were free moving so I'm thinking of it as a diamond in the rough .. On our way home we discussed its shape and thought we'd do some light work to clean it up and keep it original. After further inspection in the bright lights of the sewing room which is a far cry from the soft lighting where we saw it and with all the time in the world to really look at everything (she was on her way out to meet friends), the top is a mess.

It's cracked/splintered  with lots of sharp bits and the rest has that ripple/bubble going on which indicates water damage, deep circle stains (I'm thinking it's from potted plants), the knobs on the doors are not original and the coffin cover is cracked and nailed on at the top. So in harsh light of reality, Chris is going to refinish the entire top so its smooth and catch free, try to find knobs more in line with what was there originally and clean & shine her up to look like a brand new penny. Not sure what he'll do with the coffin cover (top picture) if anything, I know he's disappointed how much work is required to make it usable but I have no worries that when he's done his magic this will be the star of my sewing room.

So the plan this week is to finish up Superman mini quilt and start working on Dick and Jane quilt. Oh and clean up my sewing room, finish organizing my stash, blog more often, ... LOL if I get one of those off my list I'll be happy.

Puppy Love DONE!!

No that isn't your eyes playing tricks on you, you read that post title right! Puppy Love is quilted, bound, washed and ready for use. I'm really happy with the way it turned out. I can't believe it took me a year to get that done after the quilt top and back had been finished. Binding was going great until I got to the join. I ended up hand sewing it after many attempts to machine stitch. No matter how pinned it was (tried with lots of pins. less pins, no pins) I just couldn't get it together. I realized I forgot to label my quilt. LOL. I'll try to remember on the next one.

Front

Murphy's Law came into play. After a few beautiful sunny days, it came out of the dryer after the sun had started going down and the weather forecast for the next few days is rain. I quickly ran out and pinned it to the clothes line and took some pictures.

I think the back looks interesting, but I'm not sure if I would go to all that trouble for a back again. I was pretty worried it wouldn't line up or would be off center.

Back

We are actually happy about the rain that's coming our way. We put down top soil down on our front yard on Monday to level it along with a ton of grass seed. Also we got the side garden built and planted. Previously, the space between the house and the walk was filled with river rock. I think Chris did a fabulous job relaying the walk and building the gardens using all materials we had in the garage.

Now on to my one of my mom's quilts. Not sure which I want to start on first. Hopefully it won't take a year to finish!!

One last look

Backyard haven

I didn't think to take a a before picture but let me tell you, just a few touches and some flowers and our backyard went from tired and worn out to feeling like a shiny new penny.

Chris and I spent the morning putting up our no dig fence to keep the dogs out of the back garden. Not much going on in there other than a small clamatis (it's second year), our dwarf cherry tree, my lillies and the hanging pots. We are slowly replacing the soil so next year can plant strawberries, raspberries, and whatever vegetables we can find in that back garden.

We put down the sod in the corners, went out and bought flowers and cleaned out and refilled all our pots with new soil and flower seeds. I tend to over fill my side garden, I just love that instant pop of color.

We still need to do something about the bbq area. Chris feels all it needs is some river rock, while I'd like a platform of some kind. We'll see. I'll take a picture again in a month or so when my Clamatis's are in full bloom. This is our little piece of  heaven.

Off to see what we can do in the front. Fingers crossed it turns out as nice. Once that's done maybe I can find some sewing time.

Not much progress

Not much to report, my quilting on my puppy love quilt continues to be a work in progress. I did get more done but still have a ways to go. I also worked on hexies for my grandmothers flower garden using Paris Flea Market while watching the season finale's of some of our favorite shows.

Chris has been on vacation for over a week & my vacation started yesterday for a week. Yesterday was our wedding anniversary, we enjoyed spending the day together doing some running around. As you can see from our wedding pictures to the left we didn't do the traditional big wedding with white dress and tuxedo's. This was a second wedding for both of us and we wanted it small and to do it our way. We got married in our house with only a few people and a bbq reception in the backyard. My girlfriend made my cake. It was a topsy turvey made to match Chris's shirt. I should have moved the flowers from behind, she had silver sprigs that you can't see coming our the top like sparklers. As beautiful as this cake looked it tasted even better. One layer banana chocolate chip, one butter-cream and the top was chocolate.

With the kids off to school, we headed out to the garden center and about 15 minutes in the rain started. Soaked to the skin we bought what we had on our cart (2 Ivy's for the front of the house) and drove to Lowe's. We did get the pieces for a fence we've been talking about for awhile for the back garden, but with the rain neither of us were really in the frame of mind to make any decisions for flowers and greenery. We did quite a bit of running around  here and there stopping for a late lunch before making our way home. It was a wonderful day despite the rainy weather.

 One of those trips was to the Fabric store. It's closing in a month for renovations so everything is 60% off. I couldn't resist and bought this minky to pair up with my denim quilt. Chris picked out and bought me the scissors. They were atrociously expensive even with the discount as an anniversary gift.

The fabric below is for Chris. He bought an Elna Supermatic for $10. a few weeks ago. After a clean, oil and some tweaking it is running like a dream. My scrap bucket has taken a beating so he decided it was time to get some fabric of his own. From his selections I'm sure you can guess who picked out the fabric on my Puppy love quilt. LOL

Lots to do this week with both of us off, not sure if I'm going to get much time in my sewing room though. Fingers crossed.

Puppy love - Some progress

I've finally spent some time working on my puppy love quilt. I'm doing large waves. Some are hits, some are misses (the really bad misses were ripped and restarted). This exercise has re-enforced that for now, I'm going to work quilt as you go style as much as possible. I start off strong but lose my rhythm trying to move the quilt up. I still have the waves to do across before I start panicking thinking about binding.

The background/backing fabric for youngest's Kansas Troubles - Token of Friendship quilt has arrived. It was like a surprise bag, I'd forgotten exactly which fabrics I'd ordered within minutes of placing the order with the exception of the beige and the darkest fabric. I'm pretty sure I had meant to remove at least one of those reds. My own bad habit coming to bite me. When shopping online I tend to add a lot to the shopping cart, compare my choices from there and just remove the ones I decide to pass on. I remember paring it down earlier in the process but waffling between those reds. I know I'd check-mark the one I decided to pass on as Remove once the decision was made. I have a sneaky suspicion that I forgot to update my shopping cart one last time before clicking checkout. I think it all looks pretty good together and wish all my oops moments turned out so well. I'm more than set for this quilt and I'm sure I will have no problem finding a use for any leftover fabric.

Mother's day this coming weekend and I haven't even started on either of her quilts. While Mom knows they won't be ready for a good while yet, I would like to at least be able to show her the beginnings of one when we go for dinner Sunday night. Time to get hustling!