A Quick Angel

You may have seen on my WIP post this week that I was asked to come up with an angel gown on a quick time line this week. Well, mission accomplished.

The fabric was chosen for me for the project so I will not take the credit for it looking somewhat like tin foil wrapped left overs...

My daughter graciously volunteered to model it for me and struck her best angel pose.

Be sure to click the botton to see other whoop worthy efforts!

spring cleaning?

I am sure you have all seen this, the new Denyse Schmidt collection at Joann Fabrics. This was my first cut at the collection, I have since purchased some more... as recently as today...; got to love the 50% off coupons.

To make room I did some cleaning of my stash and came up with this stack ... over 2 feet high... and that is after I culled out the 10 fabrics that I used for the Vintage Juki Spring quilt. Some is over 10 years old, fabrics that I had when we moved to Texas, and some are more recent that I know I will never use because they are, uhm, ugly.

Then, since I had some extra room... I picked up these today... Love those bunnies... but the best part about this stack is that it averaged $3.30 a yard for the 16 yards. The top one is Michael Miller Crib Print, I got 5.5 yards and I think it will be great for a quilt back.... more to come on that over the weekend!

WIP 4/20

(click to see other WIP projects)

I got something done this week! Yea! I also made some good progress on other projects....

Completed:

I got my first A&M quilt done this week... I still have another one to go but I want to get a few other projects done before I start.





New Projects:

Well, I had thought that I was going to get through a week without starting a new project... until I got a phone call about 9 pm last night... a desperate plea for an angel costume for the Easter play for Children's Ministry at church.... in 5 min I had a knock at the door and 4 yards of a slinky silver material for said costume.... I found this PJ pattern that I think will work well as just a tunic and I will add a sash... instant angel!

Progress:

A couple more grocery bags... I had these cut out and set aside... I hoped to have them done by now... they are not done but I made some progress. I am giving these to friends as my Facebook Pay-it-Forward challenge.

I got 1/4 of my Vintage Juki Spring quilt done and am working on another section. This will have to be set aside until the angel is done...

Sitting:
American Jane quilt is waiting for me to find Kona Snow... the rest are just waiting...Hour Glass Pot holders : Pinwheel Quilt Along : Hope Valley QAL : Stamp QAL :Chubby Stars QAL : Snippet Pinwheels : Leaves D9P : Mandy's fence : HST: New Wave

Stats for week: New Projects - 1 : Completed - 1 : WIP - 14

Spring in Jukiland

Ok, so Juki Spring may be the dorkiest quilt name I have ever come up with, but... I was sorting my fabrics, needing to clear out room for the stack of the new DS Quilt line I bought an Joann, and I had this nice stack of old prints (vintage? I think I re-bought this but I made a sundress out of that print on the bottom right when I was in high school, I think a sophomore, making it over 30 years ago) that I decided to cut for my fist project on the Juki. A Spring Queen size (90x90) that I would not have been able to get through the Bernina regardless of pulling and tugging.

I wanted a simple pattern so that I could concentrate on the sewing and learning the machine rather than on the block so this combo of 5" and 9.5" squares was my solution. I am making it in 4 sections that measure 45" square and section one was Sundays project du jour.

Machine sews like a dream. I had heard that it was loud... I did find that at all in fact my husband walked in and commented on how smooth it sounded. I had a little shock when I uncrated and saw the label panel... I had ordered a TL98Q so what the heck was this.... I got online and found this was the 'new' release and was the same with a couple upgrades like a LED light and a heel press for cutting rather than a toe press. It does come without the zipper foot but I figure I will be using the bernina for anything with a zipper anyhow.

I am linking to Modern Monday. Although these are old fabrics the pattern is clean and modern so I figure I qualify.

A&M quilt - done

I got this completed and all washed up and crinkly ... its for a fund raiser at school. We are hoping that Alumni as well as those with kids headed to A&M will bid up the price. It was done on a short timeline so I made BIG blocks... 12 x 15.

The back in flannel with a strip of the main print fabric running across it.

I still have another of these to make for a friend that has a daughter that is attending A&M in the fall. I am thinking that the solid grey will be replaced with a smaller grey and a solid maroon.... but that will depend on how long I wait before I get started.

I am linking to the whoopy party! Check out what else we are whoopy about.

I love the UPS man

Look what he brought me today.... more to come....

WIP 4/13

(click to see other WIP projects)

I got back into a sewing groove this week! I am excited about the things I have planned to work on this comming week so I hope I will have something to report as Completed!

Completed: Nothing

New Projects:

Last Thursday I got started on this quilt and now it is pinned and ready for final binding run. This is where most of my time was spent this week.

While sorthing through my older fabrics figuring out what to purge to make room for some new I plan to get I came up with a nice stack of pastel mini prints that are all at least 15 years old. I cut them into 9.5 & 5 inch squares to make a quick spring quilt for our bed ... but somewhere I got confused and instead of cutting 100 total, I cut 100 of each size. Ugh... I see some baby quilts in my future for donation.....

Progress:

I did get a couple more Bottled Rainbow blocks in progress. My 16 year old daughter has already claimed this as hers.... she keeps telling me "I am not kidding, I want that quilt when it is done".... we'll see

Sitting:

I realized I never claimed these two projects that are cut and sitting so I am adding them to the list.

Hour Glass Pot holders : Pinwheel Quilt Along : Hope Valley QAL : Stamp QAL :Chubby Stars QAL : Snippet Pinwheels : Leaves D9P : Mandy's fence : HST: American Jane : Grocery Bags : New Wave

Stats for week: New Projects - 2 : Completed - 0 : WIP - 16

Help Please!!!

I got this sewing machine at the thrift store last August. Its in great shape and looked like it had just been serviced, you know, with the little piece of fabric testing stitches still sitting on it, so I took it home rather than to the sewing machine man. In November I tried to sew on it and it just made a big thread knot and I was knee deep in Christmas projects so I just popped it back down in the table and said I would get back to it when I had time.

Today I decided I wanted to sew together some squares and my Bernina was all threaded up to bind my current project... I don't know why but threading a machine is my least favorite thing to do, so rather then pull that thread off and re-thread I decided to get out the Singer. I took the plate off, oiled it, pulled all the little nasty threads out of it, got the manual out (yes, there was a manual, feet and button hole attachment that came with) loaded the bobbin and threaded it up, only to get this....

You may not be able to tell, but this is the bobbin side, I flipped the block over.

Ack! Its a loopy mess! I tried it several times, reloaded the bobbin, re-threaded the machine, everything I can think of.... so HELP! Where do I start to correct this?

Update: I rethreaded (again), put a felt under the bobbin, tried some more... messing with the stich length and tension and go it to work! Thanks for all the hints and helps!

A&M quilts

A friend asked me to make her daughter a Texas A&M quilt, inspired by the Raiders quilt I made for my husband.

I was able to find some nice fabric and was even able to get it 40% at hobby lobby. Although the second print has grey in it I was asked to not use any other grey, just Maroon and White, but not a lot of white because the daughter is somewhat messy. ... hmmm... I still have to get the Kona Burgundy (don't tell because A&M fans are touchy about it beeing maroon) and there is a reverse print of the top available as well.

For the Raiders quilt I used 5 different solids between black, white and grey so I am going to have to use a different layout and plan for this quilt, which is fine becuase I don't like making a quilt over again, I always want to make something a little different.

This is a mock up of one idea, what do you think? Too much white? The good news is I get to make two of them since I volunteered to make one for the Band Golf Tournament auction... so I will come up with two different designs and my frined can pick her favorite. Please let me know if you have any ideas for a design using these fabrics... quick and easy please!

WIP 4/6

(click to see other WIP projects)

Not much sewing went on this week, but I sure did swap a lot of fabric. I sent out 6 packages yesterday...you can check out what I have to swap here.

Completed: Nothing

New Projects:

I fell victim to peer presure and started my own Bottled Rainbow quilt this week. These are a fun project and a wonderful way to use up those pretty scraps.

Progress:

I got a few more of my American Jane squares done. Lots of squares in mid progress, with 7 of 43 done. Righ now I am out of Snow Kona which seems like a sign to stop and get started on another project I commited myself to this week... a quilt for a school fundraiser.... more to come.

Sitting:

Hour Glass Pot holders : Pinwheel Quilt Along : Hope Valley QAL : Stamp QAL :Chubby Stars QAL : Snippet Pinwheels : Leaves D9P : Mandy's fence : HST

Stats for week: New Projects - 1 : Completed - 0 : WIP - 11

Paint by number deer

Last week I mentioned that I has started trading fabric on one of the flicker groups... I was able to quickly complete my County Fair collection and fill in gaps of Katie Jump Rope.

I started looking around for some other fabrics to trade for and one of the lines that I developed an interest in getting is Moda Lush by Erin Michael... I know...Those of you familiar with the fabric are laughing...

anyhow, I am doing pretty good, but thinking I am NEVER going to get the paint by number deer and all of a sudden I have this memory that pops into my head... my husband pointing out the fabric to me and my poo-pooing him and saying yep that's nice... but that must be me making up the incident in my head, surly if I had seen this fabric I would have bought it!

So, I show him a picture of the fabric and ask if he has ever seen it and he respond oh yeah, I remember that... at which point I start yelling WHERE!!!

He has no idea since I drag my family to fabric stores whenever we are on vacation so it could be anywhere in a 5 state radius.

I keep closing my eyes trying to visualize where I was and what it looked like around me thinking I can recall where we were and call them and of course they still have it for me to buy, at retail.... but I keep coming up blank.... I would think I made it up if not for the fact that he remembers it too.

So, that is my paint by number deer story... I may remember where it was and get in my car and start to drive at any time....

Bottled Rainbows

Are you working on Bottling a Rainbow?

I recently took a bloggy break and when I returned I saw these blocks everywhere! I am not much of a band wagon quilter. I have avoided hexi's, I have very little FMF and I would rather poke out my eyes than do a cathedral block.

But on Wednesday WIP posts there were so many wonderful blocks I had to go check it out and see how these were coming together. Rachel at Stitched in Color has done a wonderful job putting together this tutorial. She has great tips and ideas and has set up a flicker that is fully populated with blocks that have been completed.

This was my first block, pumpkin. I had lots of scraps to chose from for this block.

Mustard is next. I love how it is coming together.

Surprisingly the eggplant and ocean blue are two colors that I am having issues collecting scraps for. Guess I am going to have to make a new quilt using these colors so I have more scraps.

I am linking to Sarah's Friday Whoop.