Goodies and giveaway

It's been very windy lately. I had my sewing room window open, and somehow my iron blew over and all the water fell out and was sewing my sewing table. Talk about a heart attack moment! Thankfully, I have proof below that my machine still works just fine. ;)

The butterfly block is for my quilt guild's blotto. Maybe I'll win! I'll find out tomorrow.


A couple weeks ago I won $100 from the Superior Threads blog. Yeah! That place with lots and lots of cool thread. :)

Admittedly... $100 doesn't go very far. The two big cones of thread were $25 each. Then the 5 King Tut spools on the left was another $25. Just a few clicks, I had already spent $75! I think the best investment is the black cone stand. It has great heft to it and will last me probably the rest of my life.


I also order several L size bobbins... uh oh.

The top is my normal Bernina bobbin, the bottom is one of their SuperBobs. I don't think it's gonna fit. Does this mean I have M style bobbins? I'm really confused now.


Last week I was asking for some help in finding some more Sweet by Urban Chicks fabric - with decent shipping to boot. Bingo Bonnie pointed me to an esty member, and it was pretty much what I had in mind! They even threw in an extra fat quarter for free and my whole total was less than $11.

The FQ is a Mary Engelbreit fabric by Moda... and frankly, I don't like it. :P It's too red for me. So! If you want it, just leave a comment and I'll draw a name on Thursday or so.

Good luck!
Leah

Fabric source?

Wow, it's been an overwhelming week. Thankfully things are back on an upward swing and calming down.


Today was my quilting get together, and I figured I'd start cutting into this Honey Bun that I won from Shadywood Quilts several weeks ago. I'm going to do a Chinese Coin, with the off-white fabric for the plain rows.

I managed to cut up all the fabric while at my friend's house. On the way home I decided to swing by a quilt shop to pick up another yard of Moda's "Sweet" from Urban Chicks for the binding. I was in for a bit of surprise! The shop had seriously downsized, and largely carried Thimbleberries. Ok, off to the other quilt shop in my little town. Much bigger place, should have better luck, right? Nope! They didn't carry "Sweet" either.

And I'm really, really, really sure Walmart wouldn't have it either. ;) Now I'm out of quilt shops to check - the next closest one is about 80 miles away - it'd be $20 in gas for one yard! Which would make it like $30/yard. Yeouch!

So, can somebody direct me to an online shop with the cheapest shipping for 1 yard of fabric? Fat Quarter Shop wants $5 for shipping... is there anything cheaper out there? I would really think that one could ship a yard of fabric for less than $2 First Class.

Now I just have to find my sewing machine before I can start piecing. I did say something about the past week being overwhelming, right? :P

Leah

Ruthless

Not much quilting going on recently. Instead, I've started the packing process.

All the fabric on the wire shelves are crammed into rubbermaid bins. I'm pretty sure I won't find time to use it all up before May. :) There's another bin waiting for the hand dyes to fill it up.

I'm also being pretty ruthless in my non-quilty packing, in small bites. I think I've gotten rid of as much stuff as I've packed. A towering pile of stuff to the thrift store, several bags trashed and gone.

And surprisingly, I've let go a lot of books recently. Enough to earn me over $90 in store credit at the local entertainment store. The rest went off to my library's bookstore.

Still have lots to go, but I've got a very happy husband cheering me on. :)

Leah

Slogging through

I've seem to hit a bit of a hump in my quilting these days. Don't know why, usually the fix is quite simple. Like a new rotary blade or such. Oh yeah, there's some work being done on our internet and that's kept me offline quite a bit! Don't like it... but the kitchen is sure clean. ;)


Bear's Paw for Judy's Quilt Along. Yes, I'm being a tease and not showing the other paw colors.

I did have a last minute change on my pink pair. I felt that I selected too dark of a pink/red and found some replacements to help it blend better with the rest of the quilt.


In other news, my mom finally got my parents plumbing company set up!

It's a pretty big deal because they've registered the domain over 5 years ago, site address is plastered onto their trucks, but they never created anything until now.

Good job Mom! It's better than anything I churned up for my HTML class back in my college days. :)

Leah

Apartment hunting

After feeling discouraged about my husband's school problems, I lost the desire to work on finding us a cheaper place for a few weeks. But this week I found a renewed kick, and stopped by 10 apartments asking for their rates and floor plans.

The 9th apartment I stopped by was the one that really caught my husband's eye. I completely missed it in my weary state, but all utilities are paid! And their 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom is 100 square feet bigger than our current apartment, but would save us around $150-$200/month.

So we set up an appointment for a tour, and I'm quite pleased with the interior. Like, there's a kitchen window - I never had a kitchen window in any of my apartments.

They also offer gas stove (and water heater), which put my husband into big grins. Cooking with electric is a pain, and we go all crazy at my parents house with their 5-burner gas stove. They don't mind, it's kinda like having a chef for a few weeks. ;)


Something worth doing back flips over: a pantry!

I absolutely need a pantry. Currently I've turned our second bathroom into a storage room. It's very inefficient, but yay, don't have to clean that toilet. :P


The living room is nice and large, connects to a patio/balcony. If we were to get a 1 bedroom unit, my quilting would go into the living room.

We'd also wedge in our dining table, right about where I was standing in that picture.


And here's the really big bedroom! Full size closet (we have half size for our clothes right now), plenty of room for a bed and my husband's computer set up.

There's also a full sized bathroom and a linen closet. I don't have a linen closet right now, it just get stuffed into the bottom of our closet.

But... we're seriously considering getting a 2 bedroom apartment. Even with the extra cost, we'd still save $40-90/month to what we're currently paying. Plus, a 2 bedroom unit is more likely to become available than a 1 bedroom. And we can set the AC to any temp we want. We HAVE to do 82 here, or else our electric bill will be over $200. Oh yeah, the 2 bedroom is 300 more square feet than what we have right now.

There was some concern about the neighborhood, but after asking around a bit and talking to a few people, it sounds just as safe as where I am now. Probably helps that it's less than a mile away from the town's police station. ;)

That's what I've been up to! The move won't happen until late May or so... but the packing begins NOW! :)

Leah

It's a HST!

It's elementary, my dear Watson... it's a half-square triangle for Judy's Quilt Along project!

Uh yeah, it's also a single HST, and Judy called for 192 of them. But she said she wouldn't count them!! ;) Actually, I just can't stand the idea of slaving in front of the iron any more. It got to over 80 degrees here, and we had to throw out our filtered water pitcher because it got a crack in the bottom. So I'm hot and dehydrated, but trying to fix both by drinking icy water.


It hasn't been a great day. A couple of my husband's identity numbers have been compromised. We got introduced to the world of credit freeze and replacing driver's license. Gotta keep my husband's credit score in good shape so we can buy a house someday.

Top of it all, my husband's grandmother was found passed out and in convulsions yesterday. Given that it got to over 90 degrees in her town, I'm willing to bet she's severely dehydrated. You can't live on alcohol alone, no matter how hard she tries!!

Well, this week can only get better from here. :)

Leah

Don't try this at home!

I had a moment of insanity. I figured, since I was already planning on the sewing machine going into the shop, I could at least satisfy one curiosity I've always had.

Here's what my sewing machine looks like when I take the bobbin case out.

Usually after every bobbin of thread used, I'll dab a q-tip around to pick up any obvious lint and fluff hanging around.


Every two bobbins, I try to open up the area and give it a real good cleaning. The little tab on the left of the wide silver "U" in the above picture opens up the hook removal.

Now you can see the spot of my deep curiosity. What's beyond that silver screw in the center? I envisioned gears and springs and a whole lot of lint. And hey, if I'm gonna be taking my machine into the shop anyhow, why not take a peek?


But before I actually unscrewed it, I decided I better take pictures of my needle positions, cuz this stuff isn't covered in the owner's manual! :D

Little do I know, this picture is what saved me a lot of trouble.


Undid the screw... and hey, I was right about the gears. But no springs or other loose stuff back there.

In fact, not even a lot of lint. No pools of oil either, so I haven't been over-oiling my machine.


Here's the back of the piece I unscrewed out. Just a simple gear to match the bar of teeth above.

Curiosity satisfied! Now to put my machine back together. That's when I had a second of panic - how do I know which gear teeth match up?! I tried to eyeball it, but I was one gear off. Referred to the picture of the needle all the way down, and was able to get it back in place. Phew. ;)

The crazy thing? My free-motion tension is ok now. I tested it long and hard. No more tear-inducing tension problems. I'm not sure if I need to take it to the shop now. Gonna have to sew for a few days to get a better idea. Cuz I'd rather not spend that kind of money if I can help it.

Just don't hold me responsible if you try this yourself! :)

Leah

Something in the air?

I've seen a lot of irritation and sensitivity going around lately. Winter blahs? Nah, plenty of sun here. Cabin fever? Doubt it, it's been hitting high 70s. Sewing machine problems? Check!

It's probably my fault. I ran out of bobbin thread a couple nights ago and called it quits for the night. Tension was just fine. The next morning I load a new bobbin in, and the thread gets caught or jammed somehow. I strongly suspect that I pulled it the wrong way trying to unjam it, and made things even worse. I can not get a balanced tension for the life in me. It starts off ok... then wham! It's really skewed.

ARGH!!!

It's no fun. I don't know how to fix it. I know that I can't fix it, cuz it's a mirror image to the problem that I had last year. At least I've been down this road before, and I didn't let this problem drive me to tears and slamming doors trying to fix it this time.

The good news is that it seems to be able to piece just fine, and I had enough sense to buy a back up machine. Not gonna go bonkers this time. :)

Lastly, I'm so grateful that this didn't happen while I was dealing with my Christmas crunch and free-motioning my dad's and brother's quilt in the nick of time. I'll be sorry that I can't finish the charm quilt before the last cold spell... but I'm not dealing with any deadlines either.

Leah

Charming Monster

It took me a few days to gird myself up with enough courage to tackle quilting the charm squares after I pinned it. No question at all, it's the biggest quilt I've ever done.

I started off with thoroughly cleaning out my machine. Get lint out of the bobbin area, oil it, new needle, wind up 8 bobbins. Hope I have enough thread!


If I haven't free-motioned in a while, I'll go for a little test run on a quilted scrap that I've had for at least a year. Just get some fabric you don't love, slap it together with some batting and jump start your free-motioning.

The tension was spot on this time, but you can see where I had some serious fights with my tension in the past. Naughty machine! :)


Here's the plan for the quilting. Broken up into 4 sections, meandering all throughout.

At the very most, I would be cramming 49 inches of quilt into the throat space of my machine. Sounds doable!


I did mention that I have a throat space of 7.75 inches, right?

I'd say it's crammed pretty good there. The batting was so fluffy and fully of air before it was quilted. I know some people suggest using clips to help hold the roll, but I haven't had much luck with the ones I bought from JoAnn's.


Before I start quilting, I try to remember to check the backing fabric. Too many times I didn't take a few seconds to make sure it was flat, and then much later I would discover that it folded over and I would have to get real friendly with my seam ripper.

The start is looking good. I can do it, I can do it, I can do it.


I marked the center of the quilt with a pin at the intersection, so I would know how far down I needed to quilt the quadrant I was working on.

Each quadrant takes 4.5 bobbins! So I expect 18 or 19 bobbins just for the quilting. Also, each section takes three hours to quilt. I found out that my butt can only handle 1.5 hours of sitting at a time. :)


The first quarter done! I couldn't believe how the quilting squished the batting into thinness.

I was also tickled pink that I didn't get any puckers!! Doesn't matter, if there was a pucker, it'd be there to stay.

I'm really not friendly with straight pins or seam rippers! ;)

Leah

Local Quilt Show

This weekend was my quilt guild's annual quilt show. I slipped by Sunday afternoon to take pictures and greet ladies I knew.

I got roundly scolded for not having a quilt entered in the show - three times over! :)

So I promised I'd show something next year. Have no idea what it might be!

It was feeling a little sparse this year. Not as many vendors, not as many people getting in my way of the camera.

At first I was a little confused, but then I realized that not everybody could just walk in like me because my annual $15 membership covers those kind of things. I know many people are feeling the pinch in their pockets these days.

It was nice to see the quilts, but nothing strongly popped out at me. Well, except for the 9-patch quilt above. I wanna make one.

Maybe it'll be my green and white one hanging in the show next year. ;)

Leah

Crack of Dawn

I woke up at 7 this morning and figured I better buck up and get that charm quilt pinned. I didn't actually start pinning until 7:30.

I figured it'd take me 1.5 hours to pin it, but it actually took two. 2 hours and 440 pins! Yes, my finger is really mad at me. :)


I wasn't fast enough to get it all pinned before my husband woke up, so I did some creative rolling so he could at least access his computer.

On the bright side, he made me breakfast of scrambled eggs and sourdough toast. Just what I needed after all that pinning!


Before I can start free-motioning, I really need to make a dent in the pile of dishes... my cook has officially gone on a strike! :P

Leah

Holding my horses

I need more floor space! I was all ready to start pinning the charm quilt together. Got the top with borders done; the batting cut out; the backing sewn together; several hundred pins at my disposal...

And I simply just don't have enough room to layout half of the quilt decently to start pinning. My husband's computer chair is in the way, and he's using it. :P And given that I've already claimed the entire second bedroom for my hobby, it's not fair to ask him to pull away from his hobby because I need 3 more feet.

I figure my two options are to either get up at the crack of dawn and get that sucker pinned, or wait until Monday. We'll see! :)

Leah

Quilt Along fabric

I've selected the fabrics I want to use for Judy's Quilt Along. Since I just finished a bear's paw that involved LOTS of lines and stripes for my dad's Christmas gift last year, I'm skipping out on the stripe fabric suggestion. Plus... I don't have any that would work, and I'm not gonna buy fabric! :)

So I rounded up a bunch of hand dyes, with black for the background. I'm started to suspect that hand dyes and black is my "trademark" of quilting. Sure, I dabble with other fabrics; but I always come back to this specific combination.


I'm aiming for my bear's paw to sorta look like something from the Creative Scraps book that I picked up last month.

I'm probably also going to ditch the last border in Judy's version of the quilt - the whole striped fabric that I don't have. Yet... I'm tempted to try a piano key border like this quilt. Will have to think about it.


Hopefully this will also kick away my interest in the bear's paw pattern for a while, because this quilt will be my third time making it! My first time was three years ago, for a charity quilt. I do adore the quilting I did one that one though. :)

Leah

It grew.

I started off this quilt with honest intentions. Just a large lap, maybe twin size quilt so I could get rid of my charm pack lust.

I was happily sewing away, not really caring where the squares went, except to make sure they didn't touch each other.


That was my one goal for the quilt, no squares must sit next to each other.

I put the whole top together, spread it out on the bed... and wow. It looked fantastic.


It was even matching the fleece sheets pretty well, and my dark green couch in the bedroom.

Country and homey feeling. I asked my husband if he liked the quilt, and he said yes. Hmm.


Why not add on two more rows and make the quilt from 16x20 to 18x20 squares? It's almost queen sized!

Toss in a 4" border, and you get a 89"x98" quilt. Perfect!


So, it grew. It grew into a monster!! :P I had delusions of hand sewing down the binding this weekend. Of washing it next Tuesday. Of sleeping under it Tuesday night. Now I hope to get it done by the end of the month.


On the bright side, 6.5 yards have been used up! Just for the squares. There's still the border, binding and backing to cover. No worries, plenty of fabric here. ;)

Leah

Half as charming

I had lust for the 5" charm packs. Big time, and badly so! I was especially drooling over the Wildflower Serenade II pack. They retail around $8 for 40 squares.

Then I began to do the math. If I want to make a quilt that's 16x20 squares, I need 320 squares in all. That's 8 charm packs. Ok, now 8x$8 is $64! Cripes. I don't think I've ever spent that much on one single quilt top's fabric.


And wait a minute, didn't I say I was gonna tackle my stash harder? Then it hit me, 4 years ago I started buying Thimbleberries fabric with no real plan for them. Why not dig those up and cut up my own charms?

It's only half as charming because I found 23 fabrics to work with, not 40. Who cares, it's my quilt! And it's gonna have lots and lots of green. :D

Most importantly, I'm no longer feeling the lust for the charm packs and it didn't cost me any more money to cut up those squares. Make do or do without certainly applies here. :)

Leah