Saturday, January 19, 2013

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:)










8 comments:

Sarah Craig said...

Wow, lots of whoops for you this week! First of all for your fabulous hubby - aren't handy men wonderful? Have fun playing with that "new" table - and make lots of those scrappy trips blocks! I'm up to 8 in between other projects.... And I can't wait to see what you make with all those wonderful fabrics and threads!

Paulette said...

Whoop-whoop for your hubby for thinking up that great idea for your sewing table! You have lots of fun things going on it looks like. I always thought Bottom Line meant it went in the bobbin...silly me! Let us know what you think after you've used it.

Impera Magna said...

*whoop-whoop*

Wow... your hubby is amazing! And smart too since he realizes you need a wooden sewing table! :)

You have been very busy and getting so much accomplished! You go, girl!

Terriaw said...

How nice to have your sewing space set up just the way you want it now. Fun to see your scrappy tripalong project with those lovely colors. Lots of people working on that project these days! You sure are keeping busy with all those commissions - good for you!

Stella Nemeth said...

How great to have a handy husband you can listen and figure out what you were trying to tell him, and get it right too.

Pattilou said...

Handy husbands are the greatest. Like your scrappy strip along. Nice fabric choices.

✾Jamie Lee Cooley✾ said...

Wow, you have a lot going on! Your husband is awesome!!!

Glad you like the fabric:) I do love the book! I've looked at it so many times at Joanns (and there's a Material Obsession II too) so I'm glad I finally have a copy!

Anonymous said...

That's an awesome sewing machine setup. Your hubby did well!