Monday Morning Sewing - and Unsewing

Since this week includes visits to the dentist and doctor to interrupt my days, I figured I'd better get something accomplished early.

I finished piecing the blocks on Emily's quilt, and it's time to sew the rows together.  I laid them on the living room floor and tried to notice if likes were together and if the reds were distributed okay, but I finally decided that since it's a scrappy quilt, it really doesn't matter. 

Well, I may go back and separate some of those darker reds!

The pattern I used was from this book.  The dark colors are darker and the light main color lighter in the sample, but these are the fabrics Emily picked out and loved, the Sierra collection by Anna Griffin (from Windham Fabrics, of course), and they included some pale turquoises and some beige with just a little pattern.  Just not much contrast.

After I sewed the bottom row together, I can see more of the pattern, and after it's pressed, I think it will be just fine.  In fact, I know it will be fine.  She's already needing an extra quilt for the cold Washington summer and the fall and winter to come.  I'm so jealous of their rainy coolness.  And they're jealous of our sunshine.  Wish we could share.

I'm just excited to see the blocks matching up and corners touching!

Yesterday on a whim, I decided to do some baby-to-be sewing.  And today I'm taking all that sewing out.

I checked this book out of the library a few weeks ago ( and rechecked it for 3 more weeks).  There was not much there that I wanted to make.  Some things are practical to sew yourself (saving money and being creative) and some you can just buy with a lot less trouble and expense.

But I did see this hooded towel that was simple-enough looking, and I had bought some pretty towels from the clearance section at Bed, Bath and Beyond.

I guess if I had looked closer, I would have seen that the binding is just a little too wide for my taste, and, as I found out, that wideness made it a pain to go smoothly around the hood.  The directions said to cut the binding 3-1/2 inches, and my usual for quilting is 2-1/2 inches or less, but I just blindly went on and followed the instructions. 

Except I did round the corner that the hood was on, not that the corners were giving me a problem to miter, but I just thought it would be cuter!  Big mistake.

That wide binding even after the second attempt just bunched and gathered and was not attractive.  I thought about leaving it because it would be fine to wrap a wriggling baby in, but I just kept wanting to do it over.  So that's what I'm going to attempt today - cutting off at least a half inch from the binding, maybe even more, and doing it again.

For lack of a baby to model it, I tried the Bright Star giraffe, and again it looks -- ok.  I'll come back tomorrow and see if it's better with the narrower binding. 

These next creatures are what Mike calls my "paint-by-number" sewing.  It's counted crossstitch and my fall-back for when I want something foolproof and mindless to do.  Like while watching the Olympics lately.  It will end up being a birth announcement, and I just love every one of these little faces.  Petter Rabbit, Jemima Puddle-Duck, Tom Kitten, Benjamin Bunny, Squrirrel Nutkin.  As each one of their little faces emerge from the fabric, they just develop their own personalities and make me happy. 

 Lots of different colors to make up this "painting."

I don't know.  That squirrel's eyes look a little suspicious.  I might have to take my unsewing scrissors to that right one.

I love days like today when I can get a few things accomplished before I start to work and maybe even have a storm to look forward to later.



Loving the Rain



I love a nice storm coming - and this looks like it's going to be a good one. 

I love them until they get here, and then I get scared and wonder why I wished for them. 

Mike got the grass cut between rains.  He edged this morning and then just came in from mowing.  He's managing to make the back yard pretty after years of neglect - from me and the former owners.

No sewing today - just errands and makeup work from earlier in the week when I had whatever it was that descended over all 3 of us. 

Mama loves to go in Wal-Mart after her beauty shop appointment and wander around, but today was Back-to-School tax-free madness, and she was glad to get out, muttering about why every child in Montgomery had to be running and playing in the aisles.  I don't think anyone in the house was awake in the early afternoon on Forest Edge Lane!

Hopefully, the lightning won't be bad and I can get my work over with early enough to enjoy a little free time tonight. 

Rare Blog Appearance

I'm going to do better.  I promised myself I would start in August and try to make some sense of my days and try to get some pictures of what I've been doing.  So now it's the first of August and actually raining a tiny bit.  That always puts me in a good mood, and I can't use my earphones to work because of the lightning, so coming here seemed like a good idea.

Someone REALLY hates thunder.

 Since I can't work, I'm doing a little mega chain piecing for Emily's quilt.  I have more stuff on the floor than I do on the table. 

 These are the first of the squares of the quilt.  I now have about half of the quilt done, and this long string is the other half.  At first I did them 4 blocks at a time, so I could admire them and see what I was doing wrong, but now it's time to move on.

Because....

I finally have permission to say what has been occupying my time this summer:  Sewing for a little one.  Emily and Ryan are expecting our first grandbaby in February.  It's been so hard to keep the secret.  I think that's one reason I didn't write anything in June and July.  I've been busy sewing cute little things, so I need to get the big-girl quilts finished so I can concentrate on bibs and embroidery and stuff.

I'll take more pictures later, but here are a couple of things I've done.

 The yellow flowered bib is a "bapron," such a good idea.  I got the pattern here.  It's really easy to make, and once we know the sex of the baby, I'll probably do a bunch of them.  So much more practical than the smaller bibs.  I found the bear and trees embroidery design at Planet Applique, and it definitely makes you think of the baby's surroundings.  Emily saw a bear walking down the sidewalk on her way to work one morning.  I've about learned not to worry too much - just a little.

I love this cream and yellow blanket.  I'll write more about it later.  The quilt behind it I've had for years and will only go to a little girl.  Little boy already has a quilt in the making!

So much to catch up with, including the fact that Sherry is also going to be a grandmother in November.  We've had a lot of fun discussing those first ultrasounds and talking about sewing for the babies.

I thought it would be interesting to compare ultrasounds of both babies at 12+ weeks. 

Emily and Ryan

Najla and Ryan

They look almost identical there, but I guess they all do at that stage.  The next ones ought to be more interesting.

Quilting, Sewing and Lazy Summer Days

It's been a good 2 months since we got back from the trip.  Several nice thunderstorms and plenty of rain.  The grass is nice and green, and the flowers are blooming.  And I'm getting back into a sewing/quilting groove.  I'm not sure I would call it a groove since I'm still disorganized and distractible, but I have made some progress.

This is Elise's quilt that I've been threatening her with for 2 years. 

We're down to the setting triangles and are kind of stuck.  The picture on the directions has a medium blue, but we're not sure.  We tried a dark green, and it was awful.  We're now going to try several neutrals.  I have to catch her on a day when she's not overwhelmed with papers or classes. 

This is the way it looks with the blue.

And the green.  I don't think so!

I have to say how proud we are of her, for being determined and working hard to get her Master's degree against a lot of odds. She deserves more than the promise of a quilt. I'll finish it this summer for her.

Today's project was a new set of rice hand warmers for my father-in-law to go with his Father's Day gift. And another set for Mama. They both have trouble with their hands being cold or numb, and this seems to do the trick. Hope they'll like the colors.



I got to go to the Alabama Quilt Symposium 2012 last week with Sherry.  Out of either kindness or a desire to get rid of me for a few days, Mike set it up with Sherry on the phone and told me I was going.  For whatever reason, it was the best.  Sherry was going for a 3-day class with Elly Sienkiewicz that she had been looking forward to.  The things she teaches are wayyy beyond what I'm capable of, but I could see her excitement every day after learning these new techniques from a wonderful teacher.  Maybe I'll be there one day. 

I was mainly along for the ride (hanging out in the hotel room for 2 days and sewing without interruption), but I did take a class on Saturday from Pat Sloan. It was beginning machine applique, and it was a fun class. I learned a lot.

Here are 3 of Pat's quilts she had on display.

 My new machine made her debut and did quite well, all shiny and ready to applique. 

 This is the wallhanging we were given the pattern for and used our newly learned techniques to start.  I got to the point of tracing my designs and cutting them out of the HeatNBond.  Well I did learn which thread to use and what foot and setting on the machine and which colors I was going with.

 

These is a not-so-clear picture of Pat showing us her seasonal banners.  She's a funny lady, and I had a great time in the class. 

I thoroughly enjoyed the 3 days, and we had a lot of fun preparing our lunches and trying to eat healthy.  We had a light lunch and then went out at night and got a nice meal - steak one night and seafood the next.  Sherry taught me the ins and outs of making a grilled cheese sandwich with an iron and aluminum foil, and we enjoyed late night conversation over our low-fat pudding cups.  It wasn't the Red Rooster for sure, but then we didn't gain 45 pounds like we did up there!

Sherry has added a bunch of quilts she's quilted to her blog, beautiful work.  I'm hoping she'll send me some pictures of her applique work and other quilting to step up the quality of this blog!

These are the batiks I chose to do my wallhanging from. 

I love this one for the border.

It's slow going, but I'm gradually getting the hang of it. 

Time for a cup of coffee and 4 hours of work.  In a weak moment, I promised to work an extra 4 hours today and 4 hours tomorrow, so I'd better get started.

So We Took a Little Trip

This was a trip that we thought about doing and then dismissed as foolish (along with everyone else).  Then we put it on the back burner for a few months and kept thinking about it.  The trip consisted of a drive from Montgomery, Alabama, to Snoqualmie, Washington.  According to Google Maps, it is 2633 miles, but that's the straightest route.  Through states we had already seen and ones that didn't include the Grand Canyon, Nevada, California and the Pacific Coast in Oregon.  One that didn't include a total of 18 states round trip.

We did it, and it's only a memory now.  It's as close to perfect a trip as you could imagine, but we have around 2000 pictures, and it's overwhelming to think about talking about all we did and all we saw, so I just keep putting it off.  Besides the first 800 pictures are on Mike's laptop, and we keep forgetting to transfer them to my computer for some reason. Maybe we don't know how.

My pictures start after we arrived in Snoqualmie and Emily and Ryan's home.

Hello!  Welcome to Washington

Hopefully though the next months, I can recap some of the trip.  But I've wasted so much time trying to figure out how to bring my pictures to my picture file that it's time to leave for church. 

Just one more picture.  This is the first picture in my album, and I have no idea where it is, but it's just one example of the beautiful things we saw.  Mike thinks Northern California in the rain - but we're not sure. 

Some Things That Make Me Happy

Darby on lizard patrol.  She is obsessed, and her goal is to make our yard lizard-free.  Which is fine with me.

Mama's bird area outside her window.  She and the cat spend hours watching the birds eat and bathe. 

 A cool front porch.  My front porch is not complete without ferns.  I hope I allow them to live this year.

 The pet path in the back yard always makes us smile.

Mother's Day gifts from Harry and David.   They were for Mama and me, and we divided them up and then shared a little with Mike.  Very little. 

 A new set of office furniture.

For what?



The thing that REALLY makes me happy.

 I've threatened to buy a new sewing machine for months now, maybe years, but could never make a decision or else something came up to steal away my savings.

I had read everything I could find about different brands and people's reviews and what problems they might have and how much they liked certain brands, and I had thought all along I would like a Baby-Lock.  In fact, the Symphony sounded like it was made for me, but I needed to see it.

We were in Columbus a couple of weeks ago, and I called Barbara and asked her if she would like to go with me to look at them.  She has one herself and was my sounding board to pick up any clue this was not a good as it sounded.

I loved what I saw but fretted a little (a lot) about the price because I had seen them cheaper, so I just made a proposal to the dealers about what I felt I could afford, and they came down to meet my budget better. 

I'm very happy with it so far.  I spent 3 hours in the shop learning all about it and have experimented a little.  My favorite things?  Automatic needle threader.  Automatic needle cutter.  Push button presser foot lifter.  (Love this).  Push button sewing but option for using the foot.  Knee lift for the presser foot.  Lots of light and a big work area.  Extra big quilting table.  Lots of extra feet and hundreds of decorative stitches - most of which I will never use - but still good to have just in case.  It's quiet and easy to thread, bobbin too.  I can find no fault with it yet, how that I've gotten the stitch more even (changed the needle!). 

I hate fighting with pictures, so I'm not going to try to change them around but take them as they come.

My poor little Viking is lonely.  There is absolutely nothing wrong with this machine, and I'm happy to have a backup that is so dependable.  I got this in Meridian in 2001 or so, and it has been wonderful.  You can see how small it is though, not much work space at all and very little light.  I still love it though and won't let it get too lonely.

 I'm trying to organize everything to be within reach, and I'm sure this will change over time.

My new tables.  We still have a cord problem with the area being so open, but we'll solve that later.  Or not.  If it doesn't bother me.  I love the tables.  We went into Office Depot expecting to buy a sturdy table and came out with this L-shaped group.  Mike was NOT happy putting them together though.

 I already had a glass table in the sun room, so on that is my embroidery machine.  It's also been neglected lately, but now that it's so handy, I'm sure I'll use it more. 

 My favorite part of the office furniture.  I just had to have this little rolling table.  It's perfect for my pressing.  All I have to do is swivel my chair around and press a seam and swivel back to the machine.

 The whole work space with the ironing pad and iron.  And new comfortable chair that doesn't hurt my shoulders.

 Big plus for this machine - a huge work space included.  Next best thing to having it in a cabinet.

 My old rolling case was too small for it, and I knew I had to get something to carry to Birmingham to the quilt symposium in June.  I was not looking forward to spending a fortune on another one but had resigned myself to do it.  Then when I went into Joann Fabrics this morning, this was sitting there on the shelf with a $35.00 price tag.  I'm very quickly learning to love that paisley print. 

So now I'm all set to meet Sherry in Birmingham for another qulting adventure.  She's taking several classes, but I've signed up for only one.  The rest of the time I'll stay in the hotel room and - what else - sew!

Now that I'm so organized, my next post should be pictures of what I've accomplished.