Sep 19, 2013

A little this and that

DJ called me into the living room with a "get your camera"  Skyler was trying to hide behind the lumbar pillow that he uses in his recliner and sometimes on the kitchen chair against his back.

He tries valiantly to keep the cat hair off of it but that is a little difficult when it either sits upright on the recliner or the love seat when not in use.  Both of those spots are Skyler's preferred night time sleep spots.  Or they will be till the weather turns cold and he bunks with one or the other of us.  I think that one shot  made it look like he was a baseball umpire.  I may have baseball on the brain though since they are down to like 10 games to go and the Cardinals are 2 up in the National League Central.

I can finally share a picture of something that I made for my pal Norma recently---right after I made my hexie hop version I made this one for her along with the accessory pieces.  I mailed it off to her in late August and it arrived yesterday to her home in BC, finally!!!!  She asked for lime green and I accommodated that but used some accent colors to go with it and striped fabric instead of piecing the detachable pin cushion..  The pattern is from Curry Bungalow  I just made the contrast cuff a bit longer and used wider boning.

The rotary cutter hold is something that she didn't know was coming and patterned after one I had received from our guild president at Christmas last year.  The thread holder was just something I was goofing around with.  It is a hexie on the ends so that made sewing it on a little harder than if I had used yo-yo's like the one I have.  LOL  In the end I got the flap just hair too long but I was NOT starting over.  Nor did I want to put it in the blog hop, as I would have ruined another surprise for her!  I hope it will live happily in her home.


I was not going to sign up for the upcoming "WICKED" hop mostly as I had hoped to get caught up with some other projects.  Also I will be going "home" soon to visit with my family in early October.   However, Mdm. Samm announced that there were still a few openings.  I think it will jump start a Halloween quilt idea that Norma and I collaborated on last year. Wendy, the head cheerleader, approved me so I am IN!

Since that time I have been thinking about and looking at all manner of Halloween elements in my computer files and notebooks.   This picture just happens to be part of it.   I have tweaked my design, have a rough print out of what I am doing and have begun cutting.   I am afraid that there will be another spell of blogging without many pictures of what I am up to. Well, so be it -- participating in the hops is so much fun!  I missed the pin cushion hop and elected not to do the batik one though I am anxious to see how the theme was interpreted.  Soon I will be able to cross something else off my list which is okay with me.  If I have time, there is one other craft type item that I may try but it will depend on what day I am assigned and how quickly my other plan comes together.

On a personal note:
I received a call from my sister in IL this afternoon.  Diane and Rick will be passing through Alabama on their way down to Destin, FL on Saturday morning.  She has never been to my home though my sister Janet and her daughters have.   It should time out that we will join them for lunch and then they will complete the 5 plus hour drive to their destination from here.  It is a little bit out of their way but as Diane says, 40 minutes away and not stopping to see us is not an option!   Had we not made connections, then I will be seeing her in a couple of weeks but it is not quite the same thing.  Woohoo!

And sew it goes---------

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Sep 15, 2013

Sunday, It's a fun day...........

old radio commercial from Illinois and my salad days---the rest is "at beautiful US 30 drag strip", not that I ever went there but things get stuck in your head.



I was working on the serger cover for my friend the lefthanded quilter when Skyler decided to inspect the inside of mine.  I didn't realize that it had hit the floor and there he was!  That is the only picture I can or want to share right now till I know she has received her package.   The project is finished up, the box packed and I will take it to the post office tomorrow.  I finished up a little too late on Friday to make it in there before the 4 p.m. closing time on Friday.

Yesterday was guild day.  I was home by 1:30 or so but basically just blog hopped.  I was tired and was going to take a break from sewing anyway.   Skyler had an incident during the night and woke me up at about 0445, long before I was ready to get up but there was no going back to sleep after that.  Actually by 0530 I just bailed and powered up the computer and typed up minutes from the last executive board meeting ahead of the guild meeting.  One of the fellow officers had asked about them last week but I was too busy being creative to want to do that stuff at that time.

I had initially thought I might try to do that little purse that I wrote about in my last post-----here is Donna's version again.  It might still be a good idea to do it because Shelia's program was about binding and she had a little trick for doing the binding join that I thought I might try.  It would be too hard for me to explain verbally what she did.



What I ended up doing instead is trying to track down the information she had shared in an online tutorial or video or something so I could post it on the guild website  (I'm one of the co-webmistresses).  There was no handout and I knew that people would probably need something to refer to when they were ready to try what she had suggested.   I found about 6 links that might be helpful.  The one I liked best and that could be printed off as a pdf file was http://piraterodgers.com/tutorials/ending-double-fold-binding/index.htm though ti was not exactly what Shelia shared with us.  If you just want the links over to the post, let me know in comments.

I had written two posts in two days there.  I had said I would share the links for the my Mock Trip Around the World that I was finally able to show my mandatory donation quilt for guild.  (I won the 1st time participants door prize by default, LOL)    The girls seemed interested in what sizes to cut the strips and I had mentioned the many ways the basic block could be laid out along with three that I came up with.  The basic site is this  http://www.quiltingassistant.com/mocktrip.html.

Today was the grocery errands, tomorrow will be other errands and laundry.  I would like to get started on Kristine and Andy's tree skirt soon but maybe that purse thing first as I DO have to bind it before folding it into the shape required.  Kill two new tricks with one stone??  I had pulled some fabrics that I could use for it that were not promised to another project, after all..

The Pin-it Blog Hop starts up again for 3 more days.  I got caught up on days 4 and 5 this afternoon so I'll be ready!   There has been some amazing pin cushions but I think my favorite one yet has to be one from Linda W at Buzzing and Bumbling.  You owe it to yourself to go look!!  Amazing.

And sew it goes----or in my case, with a weekend off, doesn't go.  Think I'll go read a bit.




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Sep 10, 2013

A whirlwind

I tell you, the last two days have gone by so quickly it has almost been a blur!  Yesterday I did some of the errands that I had originally planned to do today after the quilt group met and frankly, now I am happy that I did!

I had gotten an order of batting in from Nu Style Quilting for  our donation quilts.  They pull 66 yards of 48 yard batting off and cram into a box that measures 17 x 17 x 32 inches.  One of the girls had volunteered to help me roll it off on the cardboard tubing we have at the meeting place.  Knowing that, I had removed the cardboard boxing from around the large bag to get it to relax a bit.  Oh, it relaxed all right but I could barely see out the rear view window!  The cardboard part?  Pretty much filled up my trunk with all the other stuff in there including the used serger I had boxed up to UPS on to my pal in Tennessee.  First stop, the recycle bin at McClellan.  I have been so glad to know that there is one over on the former base as I have been wearing a path to that spot with the big purge and clean deal recently.

I also knew that I needed to take our wet-dry canister vacuum from home as we had unfortunately seen some evidence of rodents in our storage closet.  BIG GIANT UGH there.  I found just how bad it was today.  The cleaning lady and apparently the exterminator never do go in that closet and in our space.  Really the cleaning person should not have to, that is our job really.   We don't keep any food there to speak of but they were having a field day with anything paper, it looks like.  Anyway, DJ loaded up the vacuum on the front passenger seat strapping it in to keep that round thing from dumping--it is top heavy.  See above---no back seat, no trunk.

First stop was the church meeting spot to drop that stuff off for today.  2nd stop, mail the serger.  3rd, out to Hobby Lobby.  Nope they did not have that fabric that I had hoped to find but they did have McCalls patterns on sale for 99 cents.  I pulled some home dec ones and a couple of zippers and zoom, I was gone.  Then off to get some deli meat for our lunch and a quick swing by the library to drop off a book.  All done including drive time( 20 mins approximately one way)  in slightly less that 90 minutes.

So today was our meeting.  Bev and I made short work of rolling up the batting.  Then I started emptying out the closet.  THX to Judy J and Pat for helping me out, washing up the cups, the shelves, inspecting the bins, loading and unloading the room.  Nasty job but it is done.  I talked to the church secretary giving her heads up so she knows some more attention will be needed in that area.

Donna was showing a few of the girls how to make these cute little purses.    She made a braided cord for the handle and embellished it with a cute kanzashi flower.

Apparently someone at quilt guild had shared how to do this at a previous meeting.  You start with a square about 18 x 18 so two fat quarters will do it for the body of the piece.  You do bind that square first.  Oh, I need to ask her if there is batting in it.   From what I could see you turn it diagonally and the tips overlap and then you stitch it down in a diamond manner to form inner pockets.  Then the top corner makes the flap area.

I asked if they knew the pattern source but no one seemed to know if that woman had come up with it herself or whether is was one of those things that makes the rounds or shows up on pinterest etc.


Valera thought there might have been a pattern from Viking that was similar.  I tried to get a picture of the bag interior so you can see the pocket areas.  I AM going to try this though and probably soon before I forget how they did it.  Maybe a tutorial at that point would be good??  Some of the girls were going to try this for granddaughters and others for the guild bazaar at some upcoming quilt shows.  Lick Skillet Guild in Oxford is having their first ever quilt show ,not sure of the dates as I am not a member but Bev is. )  She said they were being asked to make 5 items each for that purpose for fund raising.  This may be one of her items in addition to those sewing rolls we had made a few months back.

I love the fabrics that Donna chose for this project.  Love stripes anyway but it looks so sweet with the print she chose.

When it came time for lunch, consensus was that we go to Olive Garden.  I was not at all sure about that since I had worn my grubby clothes and was really hot and sweaty from the closet cleaning.  I really just wanted to go home and get back in the shower.  Really this morning, I thought it was pretty ridiculous of me to take a shower BEFORE I went to the meeting---shower to go clean a closet?????   Sit me down wind of y'all if I go.   But I have to say, that I was happy that the girls talked me into it.    With me being so occupied with the labors I would not have had a chance to visit with them much today.  We were thrilled that one of our gals that has not been able to come for some time was with us today.  A few others were gone on vacation right now, a couple others must have had other plans and another is rehabbing after a recent fall.

Plans were made for the fall sew-in where we will try that 4 patch stack and whack.  Some of the girls had fabric selections  with them today and those choices should make some really cool quilts!   4th Tuesday in October from 9-5 if anyone in the area wants to come join us.

 Then once I got home, put the back up roll of batting in our shed, drug the vacuum stuff back in the house..........it is quilt show time in Gadsden later this month.  Jane needed entries.  At first I had not planned on entering especially since my PopStix binding has not been touched since the LAST meeting.  I do not feel like entering it and then making myself spend 3 days stitching on it.  I have other things on my list that need attention first.  BUT I forgot that I had not entered my Christmas Patience Corner anywhere yet.  Jane gave me an entry form before we left the meeting spot.

I am entering basically three of my blog hop pieces and this big old bed quilt.   When I pulled it off the quilt rack and was measuring it for the dimension info for the entry form (83 x 95, LOL) you can see who was making himself right at home!  Let me tell you, he was also a little miffed with me when I made him get OFF it.   The quilts are all in their labeled individual pillowcases and Jane will pick them up tomorrow.  They like to pin the longer bed quilts up ahead of time to save time on set up day.  The Patience Corner will need it!

This was the view yesterday.   Before I had left on my big errand, I had thrown the towels in the wash.  Actually since I was gone so long, DJ switched them over and they came out as we were having lunch.  He quickly folded up my towels, leaving them on the coffee table. Skyler climbed on.  Warm towels!!  Actually when I left the kitchen he was facing the other direction and sitting up looking at me, like a little prince on his thrown.  Prince and the Pea???  By the time I got the camera he changed directions.  He was on that stack for hours too!

I have the giftie serger cover cut out but I am in no mood to sew at this point.  I am changing things up a bit as I said I would do.  I want some of this to be a surprise for my friend so I may not share this till I know she has received it.  I'll be happy to sew tomorrow, maybe try that little sweet purse first, but not today.  I am heading for the shower, now that I finally cooled from unloading the car in the hot blazing afternoon sun and am sucking down a big cold glass of fresh brewed iced tea.  Thank heavens for leftover spaghetti and meatballs, although I am thinking my meatballs might end up as a sandwich.  A couple of the girls ordered that for lunch and it looked good, LOL.

And sew it goes---or doesn't go in this case.  THX for stopping by!
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Day 1 Pin It Blog Hop--schedule



While I am not participating this round, I can still be one heck of a cheerleader for those that are!   I hope that you will do so as well.  In getting the graphic on sew we quilt to write this post, I accidentally spotted one of the top 2 selections----someone today made a kitchen aid mixer, in tangerine!  I say accidentally because I prefer to hop first, and then see who Mdm. Samm picked.   Head cheerleader this round is Kristin of meadowbrook who is first up today.  Bird Brain Designs (oh, one of my favs!) and pbtex are sponsors this round.  See Mdm. Samm or Kristen for details there.  I'll be off to quilt group soon so may need to check in with the hoppers later.

Here is the whole schedule though

September 10 (Tuesday)


September 11(Wednesday)


September 12 (Thursday)


September 13 (Friday)


September 16 (Monday)

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Sep 8, 2013

serger cover finish

Just finished my attempt to make a serger cover......on the serger.  I still think it looks like a bread box, LOL.



If I were to make another one, I would not use the heavy duty sew in interfacing anywhere but the side pockets.  I also should have figured out how to make some flaring out in the pocket that will hold the foot pedal.  It fits in but could use a tad more room.   Maybe it does not really matter.

I was able to get the back panel placed in much better than I did the front. Even with not quite knowing if I was doing it right I got the pivot and chaining off done correctly.  2nd or front panel, the corners are a bit lumpy, bumpy looking.   Also I should not have cut one half of the top opening shorter as in the end they don't overlap as I had hoped.  They did overlap but I cut it 1 inch shorter----and should not have.  I had put a covered button and button tab to close and open it to access the recessed handle carrying area.  I like the idea but didn't calculate correctly, I guess. 

Then the binding:   SIGH  I put it on with the regular sewing machine with a walking foot but I was using the old Singer and perhaps should have changed the needle position.  My seam was wider than it normally is but thankfully I had cut the binding as I would have done for a quilt at 2 1/4 inch.   I glued the back side up and attempted to sew the binding down by machine.  Let's just say that was a little less than successful, LOL.

The little zip bag, above, is something that I made at guild as a make it-take it but I had been using it in my embroidery bag.  I borrowed it from there for the serger accessories, till I accumulate more "toys" I am thinking or make another with a fabric match.   I have ordered both a piping foot and the elastic tape foot but those won't take up much room, LOL. 

It will work and I probably should not be pointing out my short comings when I am still using how to use this thing.  I plan on making a cover for my friend, the Lefthanded quilter though she has given me the okay to do what ever my heart desires.  See, I know she happens to have the same model I do as she suggested I check it out to begin with.  Red and/0r yellow were her only request.  I rolled the main fabric deal past her since it has to live at her house when done. 

For now I am listening to the last of the Cardinal-Pirate game---looks like my Cards are going to sweep Pittsburgh and retain first place by 1.5 games but I don't want to count my chickens too soon.    The rookie reliever already blew the shut out and 2 runs have been scored by the opposition.  Cincinnati is sneaking up in the standings, no thanks to the Cards dropping three games to them recently.

And sew it goes-----



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Sep 6, 2013

check in

It has been a busy couple of days since I last posted. Wednesday I went over to the guild Sit and Sew but came back by way of Gadsden. If you are from my area of Alabama you would know just what a silly statement that was, LOL. Suffice it to say, I made a hair over a 100 mile loop crossing the very intersection that I left on earlier in the day, driving through 4 counties.  ( There was something I needed to check at the Hobby Lobby in Gadsden.  DJ was not expecting me home for awhile so I just went! I also need to check the one in Oxford, closer to home but will do that on Tuesday when the Belles meet)

I had mentioned in my last post that I was preparing to make a cover for my serger.  Tuesday I worked out the specs on that 18 x 22 quadrile graph paper though I wasted some getting the side pieces right.  I taped it all together with magic tape and when that ran out, packing tape but I know that this puppy will go together, even if it looks like a bread box at the moment.  Hey, take a trip through pinterest and search "serger covers"  some of those look like bread boxes too.  I do NOT want one that just ties on either as I have a cat that loves to go after thread.  Don't you think that a little paw would get in at the thread or even the ties???

Wednesday, afternoon/evening I cut it out, electing to go with that same extra firm sew-in Pellon interfacing that I used in my recent excursion into thread catchers.  (One was a recent entry for the Hexie Queen blog hop, the other a gift for my friend Norma.  I won't post the pictures of her giftie until I know she has received it.  I already changed my mind about what to do for the front of this.)    I do want to baste the sections at least on a couple of sides just to hold the interfacing in place.  Yeah, that might seem excessive but pins and serger sewing do not mix.   I also don't want to trim off more seam allowance than I should, though Dixye suggested disengaging the knife.  Still, I don't want to mess this up and will take that extra step till I am more comfortable with the machine.  So maybe I will have another small finish soon?  I'll shoot for tomorrow.


Part of my reason for going over to Pell City on Wednesday was to pick up this serger.  Right after I got my birthday present, the guild newsletter came out.  Two of the gals from guild had either replaced their old serger with a new one or decided that they needed the room more than the machine.   Anyway, my friend Cindy who lives in TN asked me how I liked my serger.  Her granddaughters are participating in the pageant circuit and of course, those costumes can be expensive to purchase and Cindy does sew.  The girl's auntie Susan thought perhaps a serger might be in order.  I told her of the two I knew for sale if she was serious about getting one, if they were still available.  I would be the middlewoman if she wanted one, reimbursing me for the machine and mailing costs or however we worked out for pickup/exchange.

Anyway, this one is the one I picked up for her--a White Speedylock 1600.  Nice little machine.  However I could not try it out at the meeting because it was unthreaded and I had not thought to bring some with me. Also Dixye had been doing a great deal of three threads sewing on it so the left needle was not inserted.  She said to bring it back if there were any problems.  The hex wrench is missing, as it turns out, but that is not a deal breaker as I have an allen wrench thing with mm's that worked.

I am, by no means, an expert on these things but I threaded it up with color coded thread for my friend and played with it.  Ran the tension check strips as I did with my own.  DJ came by the sewing room and said "it sounds like a garment factory in here!"  Yeah straight sewing---on a super fast stitching machine.  LOL.   It operates smoothly and I believe I have a balanced stitch set for her on this thread choice anyway.  She and Susan can play with it themselves though I did send an email with video suggestions that may help and so forth. Per her request, I'll be mailing this off to her next week.  The UPS store is on the way to Hobby Lobby and all down in the area of the meeting---or at least closer than the 12 to 14 miles away that I live!!

The other thing that I did at the meeting:
Another friend had asked for some help in deciphering a Blooming Nine Patch that she had started for a family member who was still waiting 5 years later.  I've never made one but she had asked if I ever came over to the informal meetings so we could spend some time sorting this out.  Regular meetings, I have ridden or driven over with the other gals from the north end of the county and it would not be fair to ask them to wait for us.   Mostly Diane was not interested in making all those little nine patches.  I suggested that maybe she could alternate them with rail rows and she would have less to do.  She had already done the more labor intensive nine patches that go on the periphery of the quilt, where there are 56 of them!  She had strip sets made for the others which would allow the rail idea to work, perhaps just unsewing a few of them to get the right amount needed on the larger rounds.  Lastly, we clipped the bags she had set up into rounds 1 through 8 labeling what was required.  I offered to draw it up in EQ so she could see how it should lay out in the end, though not matching the bride's blendy, matchy floral colors--that would have been impossible!  With that print out, I also printed off some plain sheets for coloring if she wants.

The whole deal is on point, so when it comes to piecing I showed her how I isolate just one row by folding up the paper.   At some point we can get the whole deal laid out when she is ready and pin it to a sheet so she pick up each row or block.   You know that you feel guilty working on anything else when someone is waiting for a promised item?  That would be my friend.  That guilt can be paralyzing--stuck on that quilt plan and won't let yourself do something else.  YIKES!.   I hope we have her back on track.  I told her to concentrate for now on getting the 1st round stuff pieced and cut---that is only 8 patches and plain squares  You can do that!  Then the next round is rails now---that stuff is pieced so just cut it out.   Maybe it will be less daunting now.  Hope so.

I would share the screen shot that I took of it ---it looks so pretty on the computer--but that is copyrighted material.  I only drew it in the first place so she could get it clear in her head what went were on her version as she works. Personal use.  Doubtful that I will ever want to make one though the results are gorgeous!

````````````````````
DJ and I were thankful that his test results came back negative.  Considering his own history and his parental history of colorectal cancer, that was a blessing.  We went in at 0730, they took him back at 940. I think we left about two hours after that and were home by 1230 once the poor starving man got something to eat.  (Chili and two jr bacon cheeseburgers and coke---best he ever tasted he said.)  Of course, neither of us got much sleep Weds. night with that prep.  He was awake and so was I.  I had such a thumping headache most of the day so I laid down but didn't sleep.  We both made up for it last night though!

So today we are more back to normal.  I'm not out running around, we both are home.  All is right in Skyler's little world because everyone is where they are supposed to be.   He was curled up in the recliner on the foot rest between DJ's legs till DJ bailed to prune one of the bushes near the driveway.   Sky's still in the same spot he was when sharing the chair.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
And what is it that I am looking for at an available Hobby Lobby store?


That would be the strip lime green and turquoise stripe. I have some but not near enough to do what I would like to do with it.  Getting to that story, LOL.   I found the floral yardage the other day.  The Belles (a few of them anyway) want to try to do a 4 patch Kaleidoscope type quilt, maybe at our sew-in in late October.   HMMM that looks like the same colors that are in a stripe I had used on the first machine cover.

The more I looked at the combo,  the more I thought that this stripe might work for a BQ idea that Norma or I spotted some time back.   I have both of the mentioned patterns but this set has always intrigued me.  I have it pinned on one of my pinterest boards here, pinterest  Or use the website August Wind Quilt Designs   and scroll down to or ctrl+ F "4 patch posie in a BQ setting"  She says in the class description "I have combined the 4-Patch Posie pattern by H.D. Designs and Debbie Bowles BQ Pattern. Stack and cut squares from your focus fabric, then use the BQ pattern for a great setting. Very easy piecing in this class for a wonderful effect."  Yes you have done just that!  I would like to try it too.

 If I haven't posted this already, there was an excellent tutorial on choosing Kaleidoscope fabric on Connecting Threads along with a link to a you tube video on how to layer cut  .  It is something that I need to pass on to the Belles for sure!  If I am repeating myself, then sorry!  The brain cells are not what they used to be, some things take longer than they used to but I get there.  

 That is the circle my little brain is whirling in today----thx for stopping by and have a good weekend.
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Sep 2, 2013

a small finish

I officially finished the cleaning/purge business yesterday afternoon with a mop of the kitchen floor. Woohoo!  Saturday, after I posted, I attacked the sewing room closet mess. One good thing there is that I found a spot for some boxes of materials and block of the months, just by shifting things around. It looks sooooo much better in there. I have a better inventory of batting on hand including what can be seamed to make something usable for another project BEFORE I order more.

I am glad that I took the time off from sewing to make all that happen.  It is nice to have a neat and tidy home even if no one else but me knows I cleaned all the dusty lint stuff off the air return.  Well, I guess you know it now too, LOL.

Today, I cut out the pillowcases that will go with the PopStix quilt using the leftover backing material.  I needed to sew a side seam in the dotty body on one to get the thing made but hey, it worked.

At the last minute I decided to go with that pink striped polished cotton (or whatever it is, LOL)  I have pink sheets so this will sort of go with those. 

The color is off. More like the picture above but with a hint of green.  You get the idea of what the deal looks like anyway.

What's next?  I suppose I could work on the quilt binding.  However since that is not my favorite thing, I don't believe I'll spend my holiday doing it.  My husband will be having a procedure on Thursday and the outpatient department has already warned us to anticipate being there for 6 hours!  Yikes.  I know I will be doing some knitting or embroidery then as I do not just sit, ever, even here at home.

Think I will get some measurements on my serger and think about that cover idea I have.  I got the fabric for it last week so that's a start!

Hope you have had a happy and safe holiday weekend---------

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