Ok, so I do make rookie mistakes, but that's ok right?

When I saw this pattern, all kitted up and ready, with a life sized example in the store to drool over, I HAD TO HAVE it.  So home it came, and I've been waiting for other projects to fall off the radar before opening it because I knew that when I started, I'd have to keep at it until I had it done.

I thought I had it all under control.

I spent nearly a day just cutting fabric.

I couldn't wait to start making those pieces dance.

The first 8 blocks came together rather nicely.   

They measure 12.5 " square

 The second 7 blocks came together well too.  

 

So, by the time I moved on to the pieced sashing blocks, I guess I was getting a bit overconfident.  Remember the first two blocks were 12.5" square?  

Well, these sashing blocks are supposed to be 12.5" long. 

Unfortunately, mine weren't.

 Not even close.

They were 13.5" long, and nearly .5" too wide.

I didn't notice until I tried to attach the flying geese units to each end.  They weren't wide enough.

That's when I realized that all 28 of the units I had made so far were not right.

Needless to say, "I was not amused."

I admit, I lost sleep over this one.  I contemplated adding a small border to put between the blocks since they obviously wouldn't be matching up now.

I tried coming up with anything that would "fix" the problem.

I even called the quilt store to see if they had some of the fabric so I could just recut the pieces and start over - they didn't.

So, as much as I hated to admit it.  I'd have to pick all 28 of them apart and resew them.

Yes, I had skipped the basic part about CHECKING THE SIZE after making the first block to be sure I HAD IT RIGHT.  Yes, I'm yelling, but that's what I do when I make a mistake that I know I should have not made.  But, I am human.  Sigh.

You see, when I'm making half square triangles by the method of sewing across the squares twice and then cutting them in half along the line, I have to have the needle set at "7" to get the right space between the pencil line and the stitching to get them to come out the right size.

BUT

When I return to sewing that scant 1/4" straight seam, I have to have the needle set at "6".

I didn't.

So, to put this in perspective, look at this picture.  The space between these lines of stitching is the difference between the setting of "7" and "6".

Barely the width of a pin.

Unfortunately, when it adds up over this many seams, it adds up.

And it makes a big difference.

So, even when all the points match up perfectly, it can still be wrong.

Dang. (The family friendly edition of what I really said.) 

So far, I've spent two days picking and resewing, and I have half of them fixed.

And I'm feeling better about it now because I know it was the right decision.

I'm just really, really glad that I starched the heck out of the fabric before cutting it or those bias edges would have been so fragile.  If anything, I've learned that:

1. Measure twice, cut once

2. Read the pattern, especially when it says "proof to .... size"

3. Making a practise block is NEVER a waste of time.

4. Starch is my friend

5. Humble pie is a great learning tool.

I love this pattern.  I love the fabric.  I am going to love the finish.

And all that picking will be totally worth it.

Embroidery Birds

This winter has been really goofy so far.  I usually have mood problems when the season turns gray, but this year has been awful.  Dreary wet days with no snow on the ground and just cold mud are not my favorite.  I don't mind if it's cold, but I love the snow.  It brightens up the world.
On that note, my quilting passion is on a slow note right now, so I've turned to some embroidery to feed my craft hunger.
I'm not a fan of redwork, and cross-stitch I wasn't in the mood for, so I picked up some crewel work.  I just copied photos from the internet, enlarged them on the printer, outlined the main parts with a sharpie and then traced them onto cotton chambray.  The soft blue fabric makes an excellent background as it can be sky or water.
Once the patterns was traced, I fused a light weight interfacing to the back of the fabric.  This not only gives the fabric more substance, but helps to hide the threads from the back of the design.
Once the embroidery was done and pressed, I made the backing from fabric fused with heavy interfacing and used scraps of quilt batting in between.  Then I bound the edges just like a quilt and added a hanging sleeve.  They brighten my day!

My mom is celebrating her 77th birthday tomorrow and she's a bird lover too.  Maybe I'll just wrap them up!
So, what have you been working on?

A bit of saturday fun

I can usually fix small problems on a basic sewing machine.  Several times I've rescued a machine destined for the garbage just by giving it some loving care - cleaning , oiling, tension adjustment etc..
This one I picked up on Freecycle was beyond my ability. It was a cheap, off brand plastic "special" so I had nothing invested in  it.  It ran, but wouldn't stitch so I think the timing was fubar"ed".   I started just taking it apart for fun.  My son, seeing this, asked if he could do it.  Sure!!
So after loosening a bowlful of screws, taking umpteen greasy gears apart and destroying just a couple of plastic parts to get the switches out, we had this:

When all was said and done, we tossed a bag full of gears and all the screws in a bag, and kept the motor.  That will come in handy for a future science project, yet to be named.  The motor works, has 2 speeds, and a light on a separate switch.  Science will never be so much fun, :)

January 2013 FNSI

Yay!!  FNSI is back.  This week I was working on a client's quilt - trying to get t finished for Saturday delivery.  I've been waiting all week for the local sewing store to get the right color (#155) of Superior's Masterpiece thread.  I really like this thread for piecing as it's strong yet thin.  The gray color of #155 is a chameleon.  It blends in and disappears on many, many fabrics.  It's also the perfect bobbin thread.  Of course I ran out with about 3 bobbins to go :(.  Finally I called around and found a spool at a LQS about 30 miles away.  Of course today, the first store called that their order had come in.  No problem, there was only one available at the other shop, so, I've reserved 2 for me to pick up on Monday.  Did I say I like this thread??

Anyway, this quilt was a beautiful dark batik, with a pieced star appliqued as a center medallion.  The border was made of alternating tall tumbler shapes of the batik and the star fabric.
To accentuate the star, I used embroidery thread for the quiilting.  I took 3 shades of the green and ran them all through the machine together and through the needle.  That made for a nice thick thread that really showed up nicely.  The three colors made it shimmer and brought it to life.  I also added the star detailing to the corners.  The main part of the quilt was done in a swirl and spikes pattern.  I delivered it this afternoon and the customer is very happy.  That makes me happy. :)

Hello and Happy New Year

I've missed you!  Sorry about the silence lately.  Between the hustle and bustle of Christmas preparation and battling the flu - first my son and then me, and dealing with the ailments of ageing parents, the time has flown by.
I hope you had a Happy and Blessed Christmas.
Now that the New Year is upon us, I pray for health, wisdom and patience.  Yes, patience.
As my son enters his "tween" years, the hormones are starting.  Ahhhhhhhhhhhh.  This will be fun.
As he is not an eager student, the homework battles continue, and I've received some good coaching on strategies to ease that struggle.  Wish me luck with that!

On the quilty/crafty front, I've been keeping busy.  I made 6 more sock monkeys to sell at RedBird Designs. I've continued to develop my hand quilting.  I'm working on my second baby quilt - from a "cheater" panel, so I can stitch it up and not worry about the investment.  I made a couple of table toppers for gifts.

I made another box full of doll clothes for the great nieces, which was delightfully received :)
 My niece had said that the dolly diapers I made last year were a great hit and could I make more.  So, I did.  Did you know you can make 2 dozen dolly diapers from 1/2 meter of flannel?  I found that out AFTER I cut up 48 diapers.  Let's just say I goofed on the math and leave it at that.  So I wrapped a dozen into the gift and put the rest in a large envelop to give to my niece.  That way she can replace them as they get lost/ripped/given away or whatever.  5 minutes after opening the box, the littlest great niece - age 3 - was diapering her cousin's truck. :)

Oh, I almost forgot.  I got a most wonderful gift from my son.  A new iron.  It's the Black and Decker "Chrome" continuous steam iron.  I'm in iron heaven.  I guess that makes me domesticated eh?  Don't tell my mother.

Today, being New Year's Eve, I'm playing it low key.  I took the van in this morning for a brake job, picked up a friend of my son's on the way home to surprise him with a playdate, and I'm doing some stitching with my trusty puppy at my side.  Life is good.

I hope you have a happy and prosperous - and quilty - New Year!

FNSI - Monkey business

Last night was FNSI.  This amazing sewing evening hosted by Heidi and her sis.  So without further ado, Here's my story in photos.

Plus

Equals

A bundle of monkeys!

Learning hand quilting

This past week, I thought I'd give hand quilting a try.  Since I'm a total newbie (or noob as my son would say) I concentrated more on gettting my stitches even and less on making them smaller.  Once I did my full motif, I thought it would look better with an echo line of quilting, so added that.  This whole piece is about 24" square.  The photos that are close up show better color than the full on shot.  I'm not sure why it came out so pink.  I guess I'll have to upgrade my photography skills next. :)

FNSI results.

I really should call it my Friday afternoon, all day Saturday and some Sunday too results.   I've been working on the "When you see this" quilt blocks for a while now.  I spread them all out at my quilting club meeting on Monday and realized I had quite a bit of catch up to do on the star blocks.  Since I need 97 of the checkerboard and 98 of the star blocks, I dedicated this weekend to seeing stars.  The 25 pieces in each block finish at a 5" square block.  You can just imagine how small those 1 1/4" squares are to work with.  For those of you who have followed my blog, you know that I don't usually use such tiny pieces.  But this is a great scrap buster of a quilt, so I got going.  I finished 20 star blocks this weekend.  So that puts me about half way.   This may just take me a while.  I want to get it further along though before I crack open a new project that I bought a couple of weeks ago.  But oh, I so do want to get into that pretty new fabric.
Here's my show and tell for FNSI.

Just hanging out and doing a little fixin'

What have you been up to for the last week or so?  Me?, Oh, I've been dabbling in this and that.  First, I'm finally working on a quilt for a customer.  It's an older, "vintage" well loved, and threadworn quilt.  She asked if I could repair the missing patches and the binding. It took a bit to collect some fabrics that I could use to fit in with the time period.  Thank goodness for the Goodwill thrift store = we have a clearance center here in town, so after a few trips and about $5, I had a fair collection.  The patches that I need to replace are similar to the pieces in a double wedding ring pattern, but they are taller and slimmer.  So far I've hand stitched 20 into place.  I'll be shopping for some binding material next.  The quilt is a tomato-ey red, so hopefully I can find something suitable.
Then there was the laptop thing.  Against my better judgement, I've been letting my son use it when he has a buddy over so they can both have a computer to game on.  It's been getting a bit of abuse.  Then last week, I tripped over the AC cord.  I've done this before on another laptop and what happened is it broke the inside part that the plug goes into.  My IT guy said it would probably be about a $100 fix.  Since the budget is not going to let that happen soon, I did without it for the better part of the week.
Then desperation struck.  So, Sunday afternoon, I turned it over and after taking out about 15 screws, the hard drive and another panel, I got the base off.  After locating the offensive little part, I found it was not broken, but the metal leaf spring inside had been pushed in.  I got out my trusty pink screwdriver.  It has several retractable bits, and one is a small punch.  It was the perfect size to fit into a little hole and push that spring back into place.  I reassembled the thing in reverse order and felt really good about the fact that I did not have any leftover parts.  With my fingers crossed, I plugged her in.
IT WORKS !!  YAY !!  I guess I'll get to use that $100 for bills after all.

Today was our weekly sewing club with the Dorchester Seniors.  We had planned to do a Jelly roll race and today was the day.   After some good laughs, and a few threats of sabotage, the timingk"judge"  said "GO."
The race was fast and furious.  There was minimal conversation.  The competition was tough.  And 45 minutes later - I was done :)  I won first prize.  My student finished in 60 minutes and won 2nd prize.  I am so proud of her!
I won a kit to make a Christmas Santa.  I can't wait to start it - stay tuned.

Janome Jem Platinum 720

I stopped by my Janome dealership today because I saw a sign advertising Janome Quilting Machines for $200 off.  Always on the lookout for bargains, and anything quilty, I had to investigate.
I hadn't read any buzz about a new quilting machine so I was intrigued.
Enter the Janome Jem Platinum 720

At first, she looks small.  But then, that's a bonus in a take to class or on the road machine.  But she's not a lightweight.  She's got metal parts inside, and a lot of bling for your buck.

First of all there is the sleek styling that I've come to expect from Janome.  This model is computerized, has 20 stitches and several feet including the 1/4" foot, the walking foot and the open toe darning/quilting foot, among others.  The machine has a detachable bed for use freearm.  The feed dogs do go down for quilting.  It has the needle down button, as well as a start/stop button should you prefer not to use the foot control.

What caught my attention were the stitch selections for quilting.  There are two "hand quilting" stitches, short and long where the machine triple stitches one stitch, moves ahead one stitch leaving a single thread and does the triple stitch again.  The result is the look of hand stitching.  If you have matching thread to your quilt top, you won't even see the single stitch in the middle.
For the lovers of applique, there are some nice touches.  There is the blanket stitch, one in each direction - left or right, and there is a baby blanket stitch which is so tiny and cute!
It has the usual assortment of zig zag, blind hem, serger stitch etc that Janome is known for.  It also has that great speed regulator slider to keep the machine at an even speed for those of us who hit the pedal to the metal.

Oh, and the price??   It retails for $899.00 Can  but is on sale at the Sewing Superstore, London for $699.00 Can until next weekend.
If you want to see this little "Jem" (pun intended), head over and take her for a test drive.  This shop also offers layaway plans - can you say Christmas anyone?

(Note: I am not affiliated with the Janome company or the Sewing Superstore other than being a sewist who loves them. )