Move Over Card Table

After I tired of walking the length of the house, from bdrm to kitchen bar to cut fabric, I brought in our ancient rickety rusty card table.  Its squareness took up a great area in the small room, and there certainly was no room to walk about, but it sure was nice to stay in the same room to begin and complete a project.


And now, Mr. T has made a special table to fit my space!  He brought it in on Christmas Eve and we set it up.  I'm a happy girl!

He'll install a shelf on the bottom, for storage.

Top covered with laminate

 Cutting mat size, with room for stuff  ;-)

Now I can just whirl around in my chair to make necessary cuts, or stand to cut fabric lengths.
And you know, I'm ALWAYS cuttin' up!

Thank you honey!

2nd FNSI

I played with some pretty pink fabric

 

and some others that will remain nameless until after the holidays.  My machine was burning the midnight oil Friday, working toward completing gifts.  Thanks to Heidi for hosting the 2nd FNSI this month; it helps push me to the finish line!

In other news, I was thrilled to realize that my cutting mat by Creative Memories (scrapbooking) would fit on my tray with triangle ruler and cutting wheel.

Now I can cut HSTs and other small shapes while sitting on the sofa.   The perfect size platform for cutting, arranging, and gluing the ticker tape blocks, while enjoying a movie with the Mister.

My First FNSI!

I've been working on mug rugs this week, and finished them up yesterday during the Friday Night Sew In, held monthly by Heidi and her sister at HandmadebyHeidi.  

I'm new to the quilting world, and haven't sewn in very many years...these are only the 3rd, 4th, and 5th ones I've made, so don't look too closely.

#3

 #3 flip side

I decided it was time to try out the features on this machine that my sister gave me awhile back.  The machine is a Vogue Stitch and quite old, but has some cogs for specialty stitches.

#4

 #4 flip side 

This blue used to be someone's shirt.

This is not your average zigzag stitch, oh no no no...but is the #10 cog from the pack.  The half circles are made with the #12 cog.  I think I'm liking it!

#5

 #5 flip side

 If you're curious, photos of my first 2 mug rugs are HERE.

 

Remembering the veterans in my family who now know eternal peace.

 

At left is my maternal grandfather, serving in WWI.

In the middle is my Daddy who served in the Korean War.

At right is my brother who served in Beirut on the USS Virginia.

My Daddy was a radar-man on the USS Des Moines.

My heartfelt thanks to all those who have served and are serving. I'm thankful for freedom every day, and on this Veteran's Day, I salute you. 

Mug Rugs

I finally jumped in and made my first mug rug, using direction from several blogs, including I'm Just A Guy Who Quilts;  Impera Magna; and a Video Tutorial for binding.  My first mug rug was an experiment in quilting:  I used a continuous quilting pattern, starting on the outer edge and working to the center.

Side A

If you click to enlarge, you can see the quilting pattern (of sorts).
Don't look TOO closely though.

 Side B

This one went to my Sis, who for years collected Cherished Teddies, and also an excellent seamstress, created specialty Teddy Bears for her loved ones.  She must have made 60 or more.  Here's mine:

( I heart you Sis)

The 2nd mug rug attempt was made in the ticker tape design, and since I love puzzles, I thought it might be an enjoyable challenge.  I made a scrappy one, using Stitched in Color's Bottled Rainbow directions as a guide.  What fun!  Since my scraps were limited, I created some from yardage and a couple of precut squares.

Front

Back

My first 2 times of actually quilting!  I know, they don't look very professional, but I had fun in the process.

A fellow vendor at the market, creates new styles from vintage clothing, and over the weekend she  gave me some of her scraps:  I see more ticker tape mug rugs in my future!

More Star Blocks Needed

A few weeks ago, I posted about John'aLee from The Scrappy Appleyard, and her need for Star Blocks for the grieving family of a soldier.  She'd like to make quilts for the family members, and for her own daughter, who was engaged to Chris, the fallen soldier.

Initially the deadline for receipt of the blocks was end of October, and the blocks have been pouring in.

 Image from http://thescrappyappleyard.blogspot.com/

Visit her BLOG to see all of the beauty and variety of star blocks. 

I have made a few and was planning to ship them tomorrow, but tonight I noticed that John'aLee has extended the deadline to the end of November.  She has blocks for 2 quilts, and needs enough for 3 more quilts. 

I'm an amateur piecer, and if you sew at all, you can do this!

Tomorrow will be a short road trip for me, to have some fun with my glassy peeps.  By Sunday, there will be time to cut pieces for a few more blocks.  I plan to send them all at once to

The Scrappy Appleyard

3218 Knobview Drive

Nashville, TN 37214

Design Board

I stole this joke from a FB friend; it's somewhat related to sewing (and a whole lot related to me):

The fattest knight at King Arthur's round table was
Sir Cumference.  

He acquired his size from too much pi.

ROFL!  Now Pick yourself up and check out my new addition to the sewing/guest room!  It took a little extra  time, but worth the wait.  Because Mr. T is a full time student, it was on hold a few days until projects and tests were completed.

The screw holes still need spackling, but I'll get to it later.

The pink blocks are for the Jacob's Ladder quilt of course.  On the left, I arranged the 5 inch squares (from the new stash!) for a baby quilt, hoping completion of a smaller project would spur me on to 'loftier' quilts (heh).

The design board was made with some felt yardage on sale, (it is recycled something...water bottles?) and we covered a 4ft x 8 ft sheet of 1/2 inch polystyrene sheathing (used for insulating homes...less than $10).

 

My handy hubby routed some wood to form a cleat, which holds the board in place on top and down one side.  On the left side, he used a washer and screw for support.

Below was my first design "wall", an improv using a black felt scrap I had from something I made for my son a few years ago.

 

Note the gap on bottom left...

I used a glue stick on the door to complete the blocks :-)

Taking Over

When one of our sons moved out, we had a guest bedroom for the first time.  I quickly painted it (lavender, of course) and my husband refinished a lovely desk which was his aunt's, and added it to the room.

 I moved tables in and voila!

An assembling room for my glass beads.

A few months later, our other son moved out, so now we had a place for guests!  I painted this room sea mist.  My sweet daddy made the adorable headboard long ago. 

My old school chum, Lisa, came for a visit this summer and found it comfortable enough...but now

~ enter in ~

my crazy idea to become a quilter!  

Both of my grandmothers quilted.  Check out some of Betsy's handiwork!

 (You can view more HERE )

Ok, I had said that when I'm old, I will quilt.  Hmm, didn't think I was there...I don't have grands yet.  Doesn't matter ~ I've been stung by the quilting bee and have laid claim to the guest bedroom!  (But the bed will stay)

The machine sits on an old sewing table of my husband's aunt.  There's a place to put the Vogue Stitch machine down inside, but until this old girl behaves better, topside! (She's actually at the machine doctor right now)


I took a cue from my quilting friend and mentor, Freda, placing my (mini) ironing board next to me.  Ingenious!  Press seams, sew, press seams, sew.  Seams ImPRESSive!

I borrowed the comfy office chair from my assembling room.

I purchased a "Stack o Stuff" from Sandi on Etsy, VERY reasonable!

 

Just look at all that fun in there!

Oh well, another delay on a project for my sewing room...

so come back Saturday for the reveal!
Hopefully my laptop will cooperate.

JL QAL

The Jacob's Ladder Quilt A Long that I joined has officially kicked off, thanks to Freda ~ our wonderful hostess.  I've learned so much from her in recent weeks with ample encouragement all along the way.

Today I have 2 blocks to show, and thankfully, there's only a teeny tiny minor issue with my machine...I'll figure it out eventually, but for now I'll tolerate it.

Here's how they'll look together in a quilt.  The colors didn't photograph just right, but I love any shade of pink!

We are to make 1 or 2 blocks each week, more or less if we like.  I'm told that the quilt police won't be around to count, and glad to hear it because I just cain't stop sewing toward my first quilt!

I already have 6 other blocks, some of which I posted previously, but I've decided to use them in a separate quilt because the measurements weren't working out right. The cut sizes have been adjusted, and these 2 blocks worked out much better.

You can view photos of other participants' blocks at the JL QAL on Flickr.


I plan to use plenty of these lovelies in some more blocks. 

 

My Middle Name

You know I've just begun sewing again...I tried to avoid using the machine over the years, for a few reasons, one being that I had no place to keep it available for use; it had to live in its case.  Another, because it was always a fight to make it run properly...actually, it never did.

So, finishing up some star blocks today, I decided to try servicing the machine again (myself), as it continued to be loud and wouldn't begin sewing when I said to...it would hum loudly and stall, get thread caught in the shuttle hook, knot up in the fabric, and then stop sewing.  Sound like a good time to you?

I started by cleaning the feed dogs again, oiled it (again) in all the places the manual showed with pointy arrows, and still nothing changed.  I thought --- something must need oiling that I'm not seeing.

Upon closing the manual, my eyes fell upon a few important words:

"REGULATING BELT TENSION ON MOTOR"

That's it!!!  I knew it immediatly! The belt is too tight causing the loud noise and delay in starting!  I read the instructions, and fixed 'er right up!  I also changed the location of the shuttle thread ejector; at some point, it had gotten moved too far left.

She's a smooth sewer now...I'd even say she sings!
Which should make her a singer (but no, a Vogue Stitch, she is).

I'm a happy girl!  

And yeah, my family has called me "Mrs. Fixit" for decades... it's my middle name.

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