Maintenance

I took my Bernina in yesterday for maintenance.  It needs cleaned and oiled plus the button hole feature wasn't working very well.  We'll see if it can be fixed.  My machine is between 15-20 years old.  I know they don't last forever, but I love this machine.

So, I'm using my Featherweight.  It works great for piecing but I'm not so fond of using it for quilting or attaching the binding as I like my walking foot for that.  But for piecing, I love it!

My little machine was born in 1937 according to the Singer website.  And according to this website, which has the actual date, it was on December 8. 1937.  Amazing little machines.  I learned to sew on one of these machines.  It was my mother's and my sister is now the proud owner of it.

I'm also doing some cutting of fabrics.  A few weeks ago I cleaned out my Halloween fabrics and wrapped the yardage on the comic book boards.  I took all the small pieces and leftovers from making craft items up to my sewing room to cut into strings and 5 inch squares.  I'm thinking I'm going to make a quilt using string blocks combined with the plain squares. Oh the ideas that swirl in the heads of quilters!

Tomorrow is the big reveal of the next number on Connie's Game.  Only 5 more projects.  And 3 of the ones left are biggies.

Vacation!

We've been on a vacation, that's why I haven't posted anything for a while.  What a fun trip.  We went to the North Shore of Minnesota.  First we stopped in Minneapolis to see the grandkids and to travel with them for a couple of days.

The grands and their parents went with us to Duluth.  Love the change in scenery and the cooler temps!  Spent time at Canal Park in downtown Duluth.

On our way into Duluth.

Aerial Lift Bridge

The Old Depot

Gooseberry Falls, MN

Lighthouse at Split Rock, MN.

On the way up to Minnesota I decided to do like Jo does, at Jo's Country Junction, and pin my little 9 patch blocks.  I'm thinking this will take at least an hour of my time while we're in the car.  Wrong!  I was finished pinning in about 20 minutes.  Why is it that things you think will take forever don't and things that you think will be done in 15 minutes take you an hour?

Nine patches all pinned.

 So I worked on my tree skirt.  This is one of my UFO's for Connie's Game.  Not sure when it's number will be pulled, but I needed a hand project for the car.

Wool tree skirt.

Hope you are having a wonderful summer!

Connie's Game - UFO Number Two

I have UFO number 2 done for Connie's Game.  Yea!! 

Close up of a kitty face.

Their little faces don't show up well, I'm thinking that's why this one never got finished.  I would do 2 at a time of the same fabrics, just different size shirts.  Since I wasn't fond of the way the first one came out, I didn't hurry to finish the second one.  I used a Pigma pen to do the faces.  But, at least it's done and off to Goodwill and out of my sewing room.  YES!

More Piecing

I've been doing some more piecing on my "Four Patch Plaid" quilt.  There are 22 blocks in a row as I'm working on a queen size quilt.  And trying to keep the rows and the blocks in the row straight has been tricky.  I did figure out this for tracking the rows.

I have a packet of self sticking note sheets and I cut up one of the sheets and set it on either side of the row I'm working on.  It has really helped me out.  I'm on row 7 or 8 and there are 22 rows.  I have one little project left on my list for Connie's Game.  I'm hoping next month is one of the big ones, (this one) so it's out of the way before I go back to work the end of August. 

A PhD (Project half Done) Is Finished!

My first PhD is done!  I'm so excited!  I pledged to do this at the beginning of the year and it has taken me 6.5 months to finish one.  It's a Turning Twenty quilt top I made years ago and I got it quilted this week and the binding done.

Clothes line photo.

Variegated thread. 

The quilting.

The fabrics.

More fabrics.

I'm scheduled to quilt another PhD in August.  Woo Hoo!  

A Finish

I didn't show you the finished table runner for Halloween.  This is the little table I'm going to use it on.  I have a chalk ware cat head that will be in the center of the stars.  Perfect vintage look.

Sunday, with Jeanine's help, I squared up 2 quilt backs for 2 PhD's for the Quilt Guild challenge.  I also bought the pillow form for this little pillow, the Iowa pillow.  The top is sewn together around the form, no spot for getting the form out.

Feels good to get some of these projects out of the bins and finished! 

Connie's Game

On July 1st Country Threads picked the next UFO in Connie's Game,  Number 2.  On my list is a sweatshirt from days gone by.  I had the fabric cats bonded to the sweatshirt but not sewn.  (A sample here of one I already donated.)  It was on my cutting table as I had pulled it out of the closet.

So yesterday I sat down and did the blanket stitch around all the different cats.  This morning I pulled buttons   to use for the eyes.  I can watch a movie with my husband tonight or tomorrow and sew the buttons on.

I figure someone will be happy to find an "Ugly Sweater/Sweatshirt" for a Christmas party this year.  :-)

It's Been A While

It's been a while since my last post.  So much has been going on.  First - the Retreat.  (Warning, lots of pictures.)  A group of 10 of us went to Red Barn Retreat Center in Garden City, MN.  What a beautiful  place! And the work space was amazing.

The pool table was covered with a wooden frame that made a great place to lay out a quilt, kind of a design wall if you will.  It was also a great place to use for cutting.

                                               

Notice all the lighting?  Each sewing spot had it's own task light and since there were 10 of us, we each had our own table to work at.  So nice!

The other side of the room and my spot for sewing  all weekend.

There were 10 beds which is why there were no more than 10 of us.  But that made the price perfect for the weekend!  We did cook our own meals but the kitchen was great.  Check out the link above to see all the rooms.

 One of my table buddies, Allyn.  My project was started when she was still in her mother's womb.  (It was started in July of 1993.)

Jessie, Allyn's mother, was my other table buddy.

I worked on 2 PhDs (projects half done).  First up was my golfing dogs.  

This was started in July of 1993 at Quilt Nebraska.  I took a class taught by Trudie Hughes.  The pattern is from her first book, "Template-Free Quiltmaking".  My copy of the book is autographed by Trudie and dated.  (That's how I know when I took the class.)  This week I have added  tow borders.  I now need to decide what I'm going to use for backing.  I don't have enough of the golfing dogs.

With the borders.

My book

The other PhD I worked on is called "Everything but the Kitchen Sink' designed by Rhoda Nelson.  Here is a link to a picture of what the finished quilt will look like.  I had signed up for a Stash Buster 2009 at Prairie Star Quilts but ended up not being able to go to the workshop as my mother-in-law was ill.  I was using my 1930's reproduction fabrics.  I need to make 150 of those little nine patches.  

My pile of nine patch blocks that I made.

One last picture, early morning the first day at the Retreat.  Love the big sky, how you can see forever, and the colors.

All in all, a very fun Retreat!