WIP Thursday

My quilt group met on Tuesday and I was able to spread out my recently completed Cheese and Cracker flimsy and get a better picture of it. Well, better is debatable. I had to stand up on one of the chairs and I still managed to nip off a corner of it.

It was fun to see that two other pals were working with 30's repros as well---or about to. Nancy had a pattern called "Blooming Bowties" designed by Sherri K. Falls from This and That Patterns that is scrappy bowties with some fun applique applied on completion. It is one purported to work well with layer cake cuts and fat quarters for the fabric collectors out there. Linda C was working on Oopsie Daisy designed by Darlene Zimmerman. I believe an order has been placed for more of those Mama Cottons 2 from Connecting Threads--or about to be. You think it might be the pastel, fun colors that is appealing to us since spring is coming?

Linda C came back to my house after the meeting so I could help her with bias strips for the stems and showed her how to use templar for prepping the leaves she will need for "Oopsie Daisy". I have extra supplies here to share especially since her sewing room is all packed up and in storage while the repairs to her flooded house continue for who knows how long. It is fun for me to mentor our "newer to quilting" members and show them the shortcuts or help them interpret a pattern. While I encouraged to "go for it" when she found a Lady of the Lake pattern similar to the one in the link, I also said "Thangles or Triangles on a Roll if you are going to do that many half square triangles!" and let her have enough of them from my stash for the top she was making. The pattern was found in 101 Fabulous Rotary-Cut Quilts. Our Theramae had this book in her home library and when she passed away, her family donated her quilts book to the quilt group. Actually Theramae lent this book out---a lot!-- so it makes me smile to know that another one of the girls is enjoying the patterns and quilts in it too. We recently had a library cart donated to the group as well so I imagine it will be in and out of circulation along with other stuff we have on it.

I had taken my machine with me and gotten another wedge applied to my stack of Twisted Sister blocks at the Tuesday meeting. Yesterday I added the 4th one. All that remains is the last completing seam. See the stack next to the sewing machine. It represents two piles ready to chain into the machine. Clipped to the shelving unit is the next "Be Attitudes" base and rough cut for the applique that I prepped on Monday. Yeah, same old "Convergence" is still up there needing a border.

Hey, maybe that should be my "Move it Forward" Fab challenge?? LOL, too many choices to make for that one but I'll get it narrowed down by the 21st, when we plan to convene for our next online sewing session. We have found that this makes us a little more accountable and adds that little extra push towards a finish. It helps to have our own cheering section too. I am leaning towards either an old Stack and Whack or my 4 patch posie that has antiqued for about an year and a half. That narrow sashing about did me in on that one!

We had a potluck lunch and about 11 of us at the meeting. Lots of gabbing, laughing and joking around. I think a total of 7 quilts were pinned? Lois had her Twisted Sister top done from an earlier class. I had two small tops that Marilyn had asked me to do for pay that I wanted to get pinned. (Fun 30's 4 patches) Nancy was "cracking the whip" and pushing the girls to take care of 4 tops I had left in the closet some time back. Good to have them taken care but I don't think she realized that made more work for me, LOL. Hanging, they were out of sight and out of mind. Now, not so much! I had two more donation quilts pinned and in my closet so all the sudden I have a stack again and a total of 8 to tend to. Guess I better get those Twisted Sister blocks dealt with, swap out machines and get busy!

So far it has been a pretty lazy morning. The temperatures are down to a more seasonable expected high in the low 50's but rain is on its way in. It was in the low 80's on Tuesday and that was too hot, too soon for me though we could shut the furnace off for about 4-5 days recently and air the house out. Many of the Bradford Pears are in bloom. Our camellia has some blooms in spite of itself. It is always trying to come out too early and then the buds get zapped by frost but some late comers have made it to flower now. DJ dug up some ground so I could toss in some zinnia seeds from my dad. He always has a bumper crop in the summer time and tons of seeds to spare. Who knows if this is the time of year to plant them here in the South? Got to dig when that old red dirt is a little softer was DJ's theory.

Pictured is Skyler on the hunt for another puff ball. I have not gone on puff patrol for a few days having just bought another bag in his preferred size. Batt them wherever you want, little boy! He hops on the desk and sits right on the mouse waiting for that container to pop open. If he had opposable thumbs, no way would he need me, LOL. At the moment he is napping dead center on DJ's bed . Must be all worn out from chasing balls and monitoring bird activity in the neighborhood.

Sewing awaits then. The past couple days I have been enjoying some audio books while I work downloaded free from Overdrive. DJ found the link in either the AARP magazine or bulletin or the paper's "Parade" section. Turned out our county library was one listed as a participant--woohoo! The link will take you to a page to see who might be participating in your state/area. Plug in your library card number, download the software and you are good to go! Some books can be burned to CD and/or transferred to your personal media player increasing their portability. Others are limited to your installed media player. I prefer music when I am walking to keep my pace up but it is a thought for a change of pace.

Guess that's it for now! Hope you have a good day in whatever you chose to do and thanks for stopping by!

let the dancing begin

Today's goal was to get the top and bottom pieced borders on Cheese and Crackers. Just finished though the whole thing could use a good press.

I found that I had to trim a 1/2 inch off the inner border all around as my pieced side bands measured a full inch differently on the quilt. Once I did that, I was able to get the side bands done and applied yesterday



Time to vacuum up my mess-----

Tuesday rolls around again

My latest finish is shown at left. After taking time out for the TwSis class on Saturday and finishing up all the needed wedge and additional strip cutting on Sunday, I got back to the machine applique I had left to do.

I tried a different colored thread this time for the button hole work--"milk chocolate" Essentials cotton. I really like the color for the body of the work since the fabric has a greenish-brownish undertone. Not so sure about using it on the letters since it is a much darker fabric involved there. It looks almost gray there but the shade may be more ""forgiving" than the black? Less contrast for an errant stitch to show up around those letters perhaps. I might try matching the color on next month's mini-quilt.

Some hand work was needed to embroider the ant's legs but it did not take long to get the machine quilting done. After piddling around the better part of the afternoon yesterday doing everything BUT being creative, I did the binding hand finish while watching TV last night. Woohoo! A finish. I am having such fun with these quilts!

While I had the camera out, I had DJ hold up this sweet quilt that Pat turned in at the meeting last week. Love the colors and I am sure that a little girl will enjoy this s well.

So what is next? What is on tap for today's sewing, you ask? Back to my Cheese and Crackers, last worked on a week ago with plain inner border application. I had other fish to fry and put mine on the back burner.

Pam has taken to calling this "Cheese Spread" but I don't think she has publicly posted her top yet. Pat has gone a step further naming her version Blueberry Cheese Spread. I know in a later post she was working on her pieced border. Norma had her flimsy completed as of Sunday evening. She seems to be alternating in using the real name and the new Pam applied nickname but her daughter seems to have christened it "bug-eyed bunny" or the "Easter" quilt. Hey, it is a finished top and she can call it anything she wants!! I've just been abbreviating it "CNC" when writing about it. The Brother is set up for some "pedal to the metal" action so you what I'll be doing in my attempt to bring up the rear, LOL. If it is done in time for next week's meeting I will have the perfect spot to spread it out for it's closeup. How about that for a goal?

For those of you wondering, our little snow on Sunday did not last. The sun finally came out for the first time in what seemed like days and melted most of it off by mid afternoon. They started school about two hours late yesterday as a cautionary measure for possible road icing but it was in session. Sorry, kiddos! Of course the local paper was full of snow pictures from the newspaper staff and those sent in from the citizenry---just as DJ predicted. How much fell? Well, the airport which is the official measuring location for weather related things around here is not set up to measure snowfall, just rain totals. My guess would be about half an inch since that is what I had to scrape off my car windows yesterday when I headed out for grocery acquistion. It had crusted there in the changeover from rain to snow. From what I could tell other spots in the state got far more and then it moved on to Georgia, the Carolinas and up the Eastern seaboard to do its thing.

Looks like the UPS truck just pulled up. That means that our little phone router replacement arrived and I will be crawling under the desk hooking up the ethernet cords in a few minutes. It had crashed on Friday. At first I thought I had lost my high speed internet connection but we had TV service. It was storming and I was busy in the kitchen so I let it ride till after lunch. A call to Cableone got me back online but Vonage had to send out the equipment leaving us with cell phone only for a few days. I'll hit ""Publish" and get right on it!

all in a day's "work"

The FABs virtual sew-in started around 10 CST at my house with time out for meals, meal prep and gabbing with whoever was in IM a the time. What fun!

I am done sewing for the day and my back, shoulders and knees will thank me to get my butt out of this chair! The pieced border/inner border is planned for tomorrow and Monday but I am getting closer to a flimsy. The lighting is not the best but look who had to test it out with some rolling around and marking it, kitty style.

Hot Iron Cover Tutorial

For several months now a couple of the Belles have been coveting the hot iron covers that we have on the irons at our meeting place. The ones we have and that I have at home were made by June Tailor products and called “Iron Cozy”. I know I purchased all of these at Hancock’s several years ago. We keep looking online and in the fabric stores but to no avail.

I found a pattern online from from Kay's Quilts recently. Pretty cool pattern as it is given for the standard size and for a travel iron size. Might make a good secret pal gift, door prize. I thought I would make one for my Black and Decker Classic iron as it is shorter than the standard size. Mom has the pattern too so we have been comparing notes a bit the past few days.

The more I studied the pattern and with talking with Mom, the more I didn’t want to do it her way. Isn’t that always the way? Look at a pattern and immediately start thinking of ways to change it? LOL I don’t think hers was lined with fabric and Mom said that two layers of insul-bright was just too stiff. Being such a visual learner, I didn’t quite “get” what I was supposed to be doing either. All the more reason to take off with what I am seeing in my head, right?

I looked at my existing cover and see that they had seams at the iron tip and two at the base to shape it and decided to make a prototype last night. Woohoo it worked but I didnt waste the insul-bright on my muslin prototype but I knew it would fit the iron quite nicely. Today I actually made my version with the insul-bright batting. I’ll share the instructions with you.

The pieces I was instructed to cut on Kay’s pattern looked huge! I narrowed down the oval shape considerably but checked to see that it would cover the metal part of the iron plus about an inch. I ended up drawing roughly an oval shape about 15 1/2 inches long and the widest part about 11 inches. I drew it on freezer paper but mainly because it was the widest plain paper I had around here. I folded it to find the middle and cut a notch out at the tip end and two notches at the base. Your iron may be taller so adjust that measurement as needed.


Oh almost forger the fabric requirements: Fat quarters would do it for the body of the piece but you will need more yardage of one of them for bias binding or self ties. Half yard on the insul-bright. Joann’s has it I am told and so does Hobby Lobby.

To cut I pressed the freezer paper down to the top layer of cloth but I did pin it to cut the outer fabric, lining fabric and the insul-bright batting but I used only one layer of it. Wrong side up on the outer fabric, then the insul-bright with the shiny metal looking side up (the instructions on the wrapper said to have that side be near the heat source) and the lining fabric with right side up. I did pin all three layers to cut it and then used some 505 spray to hold things in place but that might have been a little “bass-ackward”.

I had bought some coordinating ribbon to use as a tie to hold the cord of the iron for transporting. Really you could use anything---make matching fabric ties or that stuff like tote bag straps (webbing?) and a bit of Velcro to secure it like the commercially made product has. I folded the pieces in half, top to bottom to roughly find the middle for the ties and stay stitched all around the outside to baste it in place. I cut off about 24 inches of ribbon and halved it. The measurement might be a bit long but I’ll live with it for a while. Can’t stick it back on if you change your mind. I piled up the loose ends in the middle just to keep it out of the way.

In this step I was matching up the notched out edges and sewing a 1/4 inch seam from the lining side of the deal. The one on the left side of the base is already sewn. I was preparing to do the one on the right side of the base. I was using the regular machine foot at this point and would go on to overcast the three seams once they were all stitched in.

This picture shows that the cover is starting to take on the shape of the iron. It will need some way to hold the elastic to gather it in and mold around the iron.

I cut bias strips of the lining fabric 2 1/2 inches but way more than I needed for this little project. (Fold a big square into a triangle and then fold it half at the fold edge and start cutting strips---no need to do the continuous tube thing on something this small) I may make another or can use it for a quilt down the line so no biggie. I needed a piece about 50 inches long in order to do the join but you may need a bit more if your iron is taller than 9.5 inches like my classic.

I put on the walking foot and sewed the binding on inside of the cover. I pressed the binding to the outside with the seam right at the edge of the cover and stitched it close to the edge leaving an opening to put the elastic through. Yeah. there are a few puckers when I sewed the binding back but it won’t make any difference in the end as the thing draws up like a shower cap.

I used 24 inches of the 1/4 inch elastic that I had on hand but could have gone a bit wider. In the picture above, I had an old hemostat stuck on one end and safety pin on the other to thread through the track. Once you have the two ends of the elastic meeting, go over to your iron and pull the elastic up evenly. Mark the spot where the seam should be. I yanked it up a bit tighter and clamped the hemostat on it till I got to the machine. Sew the elastic together, cut off the excess, stuff the ends into the track you made and then sew the opening closed.

Here is the finished product. The ties hold the coiled up cord in a decorative manner.

I will tell you though—empty the water out of the iron if you are transporting it or if the iron is a bit top heavy and might tip over before you cover it. Ask me how I know, LOL. Just to be on the safe side, let the iron cool a tad and pack up the rest of your retreat stuff before you put the cover on.

So you know how I spent my morning! I would have done with it a little sooner but I broke one needle just as I hit the tip seam. NOTE to self: mash those down as much as you can with your finger, stiletto, whatever as you go around those thicknesses. The broken needle would not have been a big deal but when I tried to take the old one out, it feel down into the bobbin case. I got it out but it is hard to get those screws in and out of the plate on my Brother (Innovis NX-450) Third time was a charm on getting the bobbin case seated correctly too. After two failed attempts to sew, to be on the safe side I changed the needle again, changed the thread spool and bobbin since I needed thread to match the binding anyway as the top stitching would be seen.
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I am waiting for a pan of cinnamon rolls to go through their 2nd rise right now. DJ was being a smartie pants about why I had to move almost everything off the counter to prepare to roll the dough out. I have so little work space in my kitchen. What else was I supposed to do? The exchange got even worse to the point where he suggested using my sewing table! I told him that he didn’t behave he would not get any rolls. He got me back by saying he would hide the coffee (which he makes, not me) so I couldn’t have a cup to enjoy with my rolls. Point taken. Hope they turn out. I should be thinking about making something for supper as well but the oven will be tied up for a bit. Soup from the freezer and grilled cheese it is! We went out to Captain D’s for lunch so lighter would be better anyway.

Tomorrow I plan on getting back to the sewing on the Cheese and Crackers quilt top with the participating FABs. (or Cheese Spread as Pam is calling it, LOL) I should have the rolls if someone will put the pot on!

Monday---again?

Boy, the weeks seem to be flying by! Middle of February already. Hope you all had a lovely Valentine's Day.

Pictured is Skyler seeing if the "kitty eating machine" is going to stay where it belongs before venturing from the safety of the sewing room. That, and he thought we should head to the kitchen for some reason. I was getting plenty of meowing just before the vacuum came out. I had just finished cleaning off the air exchange grate with q-tips and made a mess of the carpet which DJ took care of since I had done the hard part of the job. Of course, Skyler thought q-tips were toys-- like pencils, LOL. I am sure to find one under the kitchen bookcase along with his puff balls. He loses stuff and I retrieve it--the never ending game we play.

So what have I been up to? Some of the FABs were doing the Cheese and Crackers quilt. The "plan" was to start cutting this weekend and depending on how far we got, start on the strips sets shooting for a virtual retreat on the 21st. It was kind of a last minute thing anyway. Norma, Pam and I had been talking about doing this for months. Then it was narrowed down to when Norma got back from her bus trip and finally "are you busy this weekend?"

Pat had some things to finish up first (woohoo! t-shirt quilt is done!) but she will catch up this week going with blues and creams, she thought. Cher was not that nuts about the pattern so probably would have opted out but that cast on her right arm is presently a deterrent to sewing. Every team needs a cheerleader, right? Norma planned on working with 30's repros like me while Pam was going to satisfy an item on her bucket quilting list by making something scrappy.

I pieced the base for my March "Be Attitudes" block (Be Positive) before I started working on the strip sets for Cheese and Crackers. I sewed off and on all weekend watching a couple movies on DVD plus the bonus features for one that DJ and I watched recently. The picture shows where I left off last night, ready to sub-cut today, maybe start a few blocks too.

You see, the way I have the sewing room set up means taking the board off the table to cut as the mat is underneath it. It isn't all that heavy to lug it around but I tend to do as much sewing and pressing as I can before doing that. For smaller seams I can handle the 12 x 18 June Taylor mat on the right hand side of the table along the cutting mat. The width of a fat sort of exceeded the limits of space -- you don't need a hot iron too near the mat!

Anyway, I went ahead and pieced the border units even though the body of the quilt is NOT pieced. Terry Atkinson writes thorough directions with good pictorials so it was easy to jump ahead. The stacks on the top row are for the body of the quilt and the others below are for the pieced border. There is a fair amount of white space between the blocks. The whole deal you see gets cut into 3 inch strips.

Now I happen to know that Norma as getting bogged down with cutting background bits and moved ahead to piecing blocks---like 40 of them before she quit for the night! Me, I got piles of strip sets, LOL. Pam has her blocks done and units pieced for the borders. She went more lap quilt sized and resized the blocks a bit so she could use the bricks she had cut from the scrap bag---pretty smart! I expect the pictures to go flying back and forth next weekend as we gather around the machines and work on the assembly process--turn those blocks into rows and rows into tops.

Sometime this week I need to pick out some fabrics for the Twisted Sister class and track down some Insul-bright for an hot iron cover pattern some of the Belles want to try to make. I still need to make a back for the challenge top I finished recently. Add all that to the list! You know where to find me.

Thanks for stopping by............