Saturday, February 28, 2009
Row Robin
I signed up for this. It runs through the fall, and sounds interesting. Take a look, I think signups end today. Would love to see some of you there!
Friday, February 27, 2009
A Glimpse at the Flimsy Pile






Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Attention span of a Flea





Monday, February 23, 2009
A Weekend Finish





Friday, February 20, 2009
Friday!!
Here's a monthly update on the hand quilting of Sophie's quilt. At just about 5 weeks from starting, I am now working the quilt's borders. I am doing a somewhat wavy floral pattern in that green stripe. In retrospect, it might not have been the best choice, as because of the fabric's print, the quilting is not overly obvious. I have done 11 of the 15 sections with this quilt pattern. It takes about an hour, so I rarely do more than one section in an evening.






I was busy the latter part of this week, despite having a cold. I have another Linus top quilted, learned a ton about needles (thanks, ya'll!), and thread breakage, learned a few new dirty words too that I like to use when this happens. I pieced the top for a spring table runner for myself. It's simple, and is a good example of when perception and reality don't entirely match up. More about this at another date. I made my label for my 4SQS5 piece, and hope to mail this in the near future. I also (phew, as if that's not enough for a sickly gal) cut out the upper part of an Easter dress for Sophie, and partly pieced it together. I didn't have the zipper until today so I couldn't get too far.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
OK, another technical question
- check thread load and bobbin direction
- tried new needle (90/14)
- rethreaded (sometimes alleviates all issues)
- stuck voodoo doll a few dozen times
The frustrating thing here is that this is a thread I use regularly. I think I ditched the original needle that was replaced, and am not positive what size it was (but it worked!!!). It seems as though the thread was in fact breaking AT the needle eye. Incidently, earlier in the week I was doing a lot of string piecing and was also having some breaks (with old needle), but I disgarded it to string piecing. Yea, I know this is stupid. I string piece all the time w/o issues. I cleaned out fuzz from within machine that day, quilted another top, and assumed my problems were behind me.
My question to ALL of you. WHAT SIZE NEEDLE DO YOU USE FOR QUILTING (WITH A STANDARD WEIGHT MACHINE QUILTING THREAD)??
I plan to order some today if I get a good concensus.
many thanks on all the very helpful comments yesterday.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
HELP!!!
machine quilt thread, new bobbin, new needle, machine cleaned 5 days ago, sewed another quilt top 3 days ago without incident
30 thread breaks today!!! This is more frustrating than a 4 year old (and this is my daily relief from said 4 year old)
What's a girl to do??
...any pointers from the gallery?
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
A Valentine's Ice Sculpture & More

I have quilted and bound the "Love" quilt. It turned out well. It has just a simple large meander quilting pattern. This becomes number eight for my 2009 Project Linus donations. Not too bad...averaging right at one a week. At this pace (which will most certainly fall off soon), I'll nearly double last year's donation count.



Thursday, February 12, 2009
Won't You join me?

Here's my story (and you may have to double click on the 2nd picture for a better look)... Two years ago when I started making the Project Linus quilts, my sister-in-law donated some blue fabric with red bows to me. I told her I thought it was about the ugliest thing I had seen, but probably could use it anyways. She went on to tell me that it was bequeathed to her from her sister-in-law, some years after this woman had stopped trying to have babies. She lost a couple babies inutero on account of a birth defect, and also lost at least two babies after they were born to the same diaphraghm defect. The ugly blue fabric (as well as others she gave me then) were selected by this ever-hopeful mother when she was planning the 3rd or 4th baby's nursery. Because she had already lost two previously, she was apprehensive, and was waiting to decorate the nursery after the baby was born safely. This sadly never happened. So, you might think, this is a horrible reason to use a particular fabric. The first Linus quilt I made using it, made my sister-in-law cry. Each that I have done since, and there have been 3 or 4, have made me think how tremendously lucky I am to have wonderful living (though occasionally bratty), but loving kids. I had a few scraps of this fabric left and decided to use them as the centers of these blocks. The red bows symbolize hope, which these people desperately need now.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Out of My "Box"

Monday, February 09, 2009
A weekend finish - Number 7 for this year

Saturday, February 07, 2009
FSQS5 mono sneek peek

Friday, February 06, 2009
Peachy Sherbet

Thanks so much Michelle; it is really a nice treat.
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
Alexander Henry Fabric Update

Tuesday, February 03, 2009
Off the Wagon
Now, I don't think that I have a super killer stash like the awesome 1km Emma, but then I don't have the time to measure mine. And part of me really worries how much is here. I am in the process of another round of organizing of the scraps into bins. There are 6 more bins awaiting my attention. There's one for each color, one for strips for log cabins, etc - mostly left overs from cutting borders and bindings. The fabric cubbies need some tidying as well, removing some of the smaller pieces.





Monday, February 02, 2009
February Birthday Blocks


