New to me!

Phewee it has turned into a busy Sat. for us here.  Do you ever have someone show up at your door unexpected?  What you think will be a 1/2 hr deal turns into almost 4 hrs?  Well that was our afternoon with a sales rep of all people!!  Yikes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My hubby is absolutely a true handyman let me tell ya.  Absolutely.  He is always building something.  I have had a a setup for my machine in mind for some time.  I didn't want to bug him with it since he does sooo much already,but I took a stab at it finally;)  As soon as I got what I wanted out of my mouth, the man was plotting away in his mind on how it was all going to come together.  We went to Lowes and got some nuts,bolts and washers.  He has a lot of scrap wood laying around in our garage which is perfect for these kinds of things i.e. a wife needing a little uplift for her sewing machine..you know everyday stuff like that!  To reward the hubby hehehehe I headed out to Walmart to get him some candy for his sweet tooth while he went to work with Ayden.  

This is what I returned home to.  Isn't it wonderful and the hubs too of course!!!!! 

I have had it up and running for a few weeks now and a few days ago the hubs stops in our hallway and stares at my table for a bit.  He then says, "We are going to have to get you a wood table eventually I think."  Fine by me honey;)  Fine by me:)  For now I LOVE it to pieces!!!!  Thanks honey;)

I totally had to find a project that I could quickly cut and then sew!  I had to try out my new sewing machine setup.  Now!!!!  What better sewing adventure than the Scrappy Trip Along---hellllloooooo!

As a lot of you probably already know, this is a easy peasy block and addicting at that.  I found out quickly that I needed to cut up some more FQ's for the orange and yellow strips due to a shortage of those two colors in my scrap bins.  That seems to be the case most days.   I chose a grey, small scale, floral print for the center diagonal strip.  This was to  make the center pop,grey seemed like a great choice for all the other colors in the mix and  let's face it I had a lot of it in my stash.  2 blocks down,but on hiatus. 

This is why.  Remember when I said that I had 3 commissions coming at to me real soon a month ago?  Do ya?  If not,well here it is getting all the borders added to each of 56 blocks.  The quilt is going to be 7x8 with a purple border around the outside in butterfly fabric.  I am doing the first one for the clients/friends daughter whom loves butterflies,flowers and the color purple.  There were a ton of handmade dresses,a baptism dress,Halloween costume which is what is in the pic above,  onesies with handmade lettering in the little girl's name on them and so on.  Too many gorgeous clothes in one place and it made it really super duper hard to cut them up!  The mommy had given me 8 outfits that had her daughter's 1st initial,nickname or full name on it.  So I put one of those outfits per row.  Also,after cutting out all the outfits I realized that they were all different sizes.  I measured the largest block at 10" and so added the pink butterfly border to each of the other blocks to make them a finished size at 10" as well. 

Lots of trimming and pressing yielded.......

.......a sigh of relief that it was done and ready to be sewn into rows and then the rows into a top.  I should also mention that some of the blocks needed to be zig zag stitched onto a piece of white Kona cotton to make it manageable while adding the pink sashing strips.  Each knit piece of clothing was also backed with Pellon interfacing to make it durable. 

Just need to add that purple border and then get to work on the backing.

Last week I received this in the mail.  I decided to try out some of the Bottom Line thread I hear soooooo many good things about.  A friend of mine also told me months ago that my Janome will love me for it!

I'm pretty glad I went ahead and bought the color card too.  I will be picking out a purple shade of thread from it real soon to possibly do some butterflies on this commission.  I bought the silver Bottom Line thread because several people said that it blended quite well and some topstitch needles to go with.  Anxiously awaiting to get at it!!

 I swapped that Material Obsession book with my friend, Jamie last week and lookie lookie what I GOT!! 
Modern Whimsey Rabbit Trellis by Laurie Wisbrun
Children at Play Bicycles by Sarah Jane
Kona Peacock
all 1/2 yd cuts and ALL favorites of mine:)

Lucky Stars BOM and Some Gifting Going On!

Apparently some time has slipped on by again which is partly my doing (I couldn't reveal some projects quite yet) and partly keeping myself pretty darn occupied with projects.  A creative mind never rests.

First up, I joined a FANTASTIC BOM courtesy of Elizabeth over @ Don't Call Me Betsy.  Lucky Stars BOM and the above pic is my first block or rather the practice one.  First, I had to really take a stab in the dark though and messed it up.  Really, really dumb mistake and dually noted.  Promise.

Mistake equals functional new pincushion with more Little Apples and Vintage Modern in the limelight.

And the back....Vintage Modern approved.  By me. 

Once I finished the  Jan. block, I knew I had chosen the right BOM for the year.  Paper piecing and stars are two of my favorite things.  This is my first BOM and I am enjoying the anticipation of seeing the next month's block and the next.....and so on. 

I kind of dove right in with the colors without much thought and I am pretty satisfied with the results.  All of my blocks will be @ 6" finished.

I have been wanting to take on this block for awhile now and what better time than the present and for whom....my MIL as a Christmas gift.  A late one obviously!  I started right before Christmas and it was completed right before the New Year.

My MIL received it today.  I think she likes it!!!!!!

She had told me that she would like blue,green and red.  I spotted this line at my LQS recently and knew it would make for a great cathedral window runner!!

Such a terrific fabric line--right up my alley!  I felt that the Grunge solid would suit it well as the background fabric and I was not disappointed.

For those that are interested in how I sewed  this all together,  I sewed the center as if it were a separate unit or quilt.  I used a piece of white flannel in the middle and the grunge fabric for the backing.  Then I sewed/attached each cathedral window section with a decorative stitch to each side of the center.  Originally, I had planned on hand sewing them together with a cross stitch, but that only made it difficult to keep everything lined up accordingly.

Spotted the little ice skater girl with the snowman on Flickr and I knew I had to stitch it up for this runner!!  I borrowed it from revoluzza.com.  I used perle cotton #6 and #8 along with some German made thread found here.  I love,love some good stitching patterns that stitch up fairly quickly.  Of course a great show on the T.V. does help every now and then to speed things up!

Overall, I am happy with the outcome of this table runner.  It was tedious with all those darn cathedral window blocks being so very finicky.  That's ok though.  Sometimes the process gives you struggles,but in the end it only brings smiles and fulfillment.

  As you can see I knocked out the stitching and it went a lot more swiftly than I had thought at first sight of this pattern.  All those vines and little pears seemed unforgiving.  It was a success mostly.  Mostly?  Well I had a minor set back in the beginning trying to decide how I would transfer the pattern to this toweling fabric.  I went with a piece of tracing paper pinned on the front with the letters spelled out in black and then tore it off when I was done.  I missed a few stitches here and there not lining up well which isn't a big deal just a little irritating.  The end result makes up for the little boo boos!  I placed a piece of white flannel on the back and stitched it by machine all the way around to cover all those obnoxious knots and threads.  Tidied things up a bit more I think.  Lastly, I sewed a hem around all 4 sides twice and pressed it well.

This is for my Aunt in MI whom is celebrating her 35th wedding anniversary on the 21st of this month.  I felt this table runner was perfect for her home.


It is time to skedaddle!  This quilter is exhausted.  I will share more soon!

Sara 

Material Obsession *for swap*

Material Obsession *for swap*, a photo by peachga11 on Flickr.

If anyone is in the need of a new book for the **new** year this one is up for swap on Flickr. Go see what you have in your stash to trade,email me and maybe we can do a swappie swap!

Sewingly yours,

Sara