Month: January 2021

Moving right along…

The Easter Table topper.

What do I like about this table topper – I like the shape. I always like interesting/different shapes. I love my decorated eggs and my colorful peeps.

What do I not like about this table topper – The thread I chose. I love variegated thread, not on this. When I look at the light teal and dark teal (flower looking pieces), they do not line up correctly. The pattern I used looked perfect, but I futzed with it for quite some time to get it to lay right and I still don’t like it. Since this piece is for my table I will have to tolerate the things I don’t like. I would have to make another and see if it came out better before I would give this to someone. Still sort of cute.

I don’t follow directions well – I am sure I am ot the only one. I was looking for something Easter and did not find a lot of patterns. I found this on the Bernina website. It had a lot of embroidery on it which I clearly had no intention of doing. I have two machines that do it and I never do. My 1st late husband and I had a commercial embroidery business, therefore I no longer want to do it and after having commercial machines, find doing it on a one needle sewing machine annoying. So, I basically used the pattern for the shape and the eggs and then went off and did my own thing.

Bambi – Christmas quilt – Off the design wall and being pin basted. I am using a blanket I got for Christmas on the back. It is super soft and very pretty. I think it will be best used on the back of this quilt. I may quilt this on my domestic since I currently have something on my longarm, that is begging to be done. I am finally doing things quilty.

News from the world of Lori – So Doctors have finally figured out what is wrong with me, hopefully. Apparently, my neck has severe arthritis to the point that I do not have spinal fluid surrounding my spinal cord in a decent sized area. So, on February 5th, I will get it fixed. There really is no option, I could wind up paralyzed if I choose not to do it. So, do it we will. Such is life. Yes, I am totally freaked out by it.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

Baby Quilts, my favorite

For as long as I remember, I have loved making baby things. I think it may be because both my older sisters had a baby when I was about 17. I spent every moment I could with the boys and as a teenager, most of my extra money. I wanted them to have everything, especially things their parents did not want them to have. Both of these boys are getting close to 40 years old, but I still love them both dearly today. I also made them many things. My niece and nephew had some awesome Halloween costumes. One year I made my nephew a dinosaur costume. The tale was so long and big they tied a roller skate to it so he would knot drag a hole in it. I did make my own daughter costumes (as long as she let me). She was an adorable witch and a pink poodle at one point.

About the Quilt top – I was visiting my friend Lynn and she was telling/showing me that she joined one of those monthly quilt subscriptions. She showed me everything that she had received. The fabric for the holiday baby quilt was in one her boxes and she said she would not use it, so she gave it to me. Thanks Lynn. I am not sure she knows of my affinity to make baby things, but it was perfect. It was also something simple for me to actually get done. The panel came with a charm pack. I added the green and used every piece in the fat quarter pack.

Monthly Subscriptions – I have looked at many of them over time. I had a difficult time finding one that I thought was a good value and have things I could use. So, when Lynn told me about he Creative Notions one, I decided to investigate. She had been doing it for a few months and showed me what she had gotten. Fabric, patterns, notions and cute quilter stuff (which I kind of like). The cost was $45.00 including shipping. So, I figured I would give it a try. If I don’t like it, I could cancel.

I got my first one. It seems like a good value. The makers planner is awesome. It has plastic sleeves for fabric samples, places to draw, planning pages. There is an entire section on abbreviations measurements. Mostly everything you would want to know. I really like it. I am hoping that I use it. While I make my living planning and implementing large scale IT projects, I find my personal life is not that organized. Maybe this will help. The fat quarter pack is so pretty. I will certainly use it. It came with a pattern and the first directions for a quilt along they are doing. I have not read everything, but will work on that. In case anyone is interested in trying, it is from Creative Notions.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

Happy New Year – What’s going on?

I decorated Easter Eggs!

/Sounds a little weird for the beginning of January, but all the same that is what I did last night. Of course, not the traditional ones, but more of the fabric ones that I will put on my Easter table topper(Nanette should recognize some of these fabrics)

I found a shape/style that I liked and of course I am going to put my own spin on it. I could never follow the directions. It was actually a topper of the Bernina site that had a bunch of machine embroidery on it. Not my thing, so, I am going to do my own thing. Along with al my decorated eggs will be some brightly colored peeps (fabric of course).

I had a nice long break from work, where I did very little of anything, other than some cleaning and organizing, which was needed. I did sew one top, which I will get to on a later post.

Christmas was nice. My daughter got me a Baby Yoda. Yes, I am a grown woman who still loves some toys. He sits right next to my build a bear Wookie (yes, I am a sci-fi nerd). I do love The Mandalorian. Baby Yoda coos when you squeeze his hand. I am easily entertained.

What’s Coming?

So many people are working on their plans for next year. I am not good with year long plans, so I will be planning sorter spurts. I also got this cool new tool, called a Rocketbook. I plan to show you all it does, as I am finding it quite a useful tool for planning.

UFO’s – Good God – There are so many, that I don’t know where to begin. There are the tops that are completed and need quilted. Will have to count those. Then, there are the projects that are in the piecing stages. They are all in various stages. I would guess there are at least 15 of these. Can you tell I have Quilting ADD? I get bored and have to move to something else for a while. Likely why I am decorating fabric eggs instead of working on a UFO. We are not even going to discuss the quilt on the long arm that has been on the long arm for months. It glares at me when I walk by.

Then there are the things I want to do. I have finally figured out a plan for memory quilts that will include my sister clothes as well as my parents. I will need to make 5 of these ( or 6 f I do one for myself). These take a lot of prep work. Many of the clothes are not woven so they need some interfacing. I spend an evening here or there cutting the clothes into usable pieces. It is really hard to cut into the clothes knowing who they belonged to. But, I keep thinking about my niece and nephew and carry on.

I even tried to figure out what I will be making for gifts for Christmas next year. I only make a few, so not super critical, but it would be nice to get them done in advance.

In between, I work on my charity items, pillow cases and dog beds. I have about 5 dog beds filled with scraps ready, but I wanted to make Dog food Bags to put each one in (pictures later). They don’t take a lot of time, it is just a matter of doing it.

Need to update my blog in general. Have not done that in quite a while. Slacker, I am.

Hoping that I get better at blogging and reading everyone’s blogs. You would think with covid I would have all the time in the world to do it, but nope. Seem to spend a lot of time aimlessly staring into the abyss. Need to stop that.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting