Four Bits

I've Facebooked, Tweeted and Flickered about the August Fresh Modem Bee block for Jolene.  I guess now all that is left is to blog about it.

I hope you enjoy Jolene.

The AccuQuilt giveaway post is UP! Hurry over and enter at www.ryanwalshquilts.com

Until next time,

Speed of Life

It seems that life is coming at me like a bullet train.  I'm not used to moving at the speed of life.  I want to slow down and enjoy a few things in life, but that not going to happen.  If I did, life would pass me by.

I went out shopping yesterday at a few junk/antiques stores and saw some cool stuff, but nothing that I was looking for.  I did find a few old metal/wood card catalogs.  If I had the room in my quilting room I so would have gotten one of them.  I love all the little drawers.  What would I put in them?  My craft does not use that many small items. Then I saw this small three drawer stand that I liked too.  It has to have a purpose before it comes in my small quilt room.  Unless it's fabric.  lol!

I have been on a solid kick and have designed two quilts from solids.  One from Kona Cotton and one from Cross Weave for Moda.

I still need to work on my Fresh Modern Bee block for Jolene.  She has chosen these as her fabrics.  I love these colors.

I'm off to get some work done.

Until next time, 

Quilt Room Dillemma Two

I have been giving a lot of thought to my quilt room dilemma and I have come up with the following few ideas.  In no real order they are:

Flatware caddy to hold all of my cutters, small rulers or anything I can fit in it.  This way I can keep stuff up off the table and have more room for cutting and I can see what I have.  If I have it in a drawer then I forget that I have and will never use it.  

I got this next idea when I was looking at some books to get more idea for storage and found Organizing Your Craft Space by Jo Packham.  It showed Freddy Moran quilt studio and she had a sliding design wall.  What a great idea.  I could do this myself.  It seems easy.  Just get some closet door mounting  hardware and mount insulation board to it covered in a flannel sheet.  I would still have use of the wall behind.  

I did decide to take the door off  the closet and now can see my yard goods.  I not only have space on the shelf above, but also on either side of the shelves.  I'm going to hang fished quilts and quilt tops here.  It needs a little more cleaning out.   

I still need to do something with all the rulers I have.  They seem to multiply.  I'm thinking I would use some peg board and place it behind the dresser next to the cutting table, but I'm just not sure how much I would use it.  I do like the idea of hanging all the rulers off the cutting counter.  This way I can just grab the one I need and start cutting.  Not have to walk over to the wall then walk back.   

I would love to have these in my quilt room, but I'm not sure I will get them.   I want to store my yard goods here.  I would give my right arm for these.

After doing some thinking at Target.  I think I am going to take my big ironing board out of the room and set up a small ironing station next to the desk.   Maybe put some cubicles storage bins to store my scraps sorted by color.  

I'm going to hang some sheaves above the ironing station and the dresser to give me more space for things.

I think it all sounds like a plan.  I just need to get busy and get it done.

Until next time, 

  

Machine Fridays - Zipper Foot

The zipper foot E that comes with the Husqvarna Viking sewing machines can be snapped on the right or the left of the needle making it a breeze to sew on both sides of the zipper.  Move your needle position to the far left or right to sttich close to the zipper teeth.

Center Zipper

1. Baste the seam in which the zipper will be placed.

2. Open your zipper.

3. Place the teeth of the opened zipper (one side only) right on the seam line (wrong side of seam to right side of zipper.

4. Using a zipper foot baste this size of the zipper to the seam, stitching as close to the outer edge of the zipper tape as possible. Don't pin or otherwise secure the zipper to the garment at this stage. Just use your eyes and hands to keep the zipper teeth on the seam line.

5. Close the zipper.

6. From the right side stitch the zipper to the garment using the zipper foot. Start sewing on the side that has the basting and then sew the other side. Note that you have only had to baste one side of the zipper before you sew it to the garment.

7. Rip out basting stitches on the zipper and the seam.

8. Voila! perfectly centered. And so easy!

Until next time,

Machine Fridays - Pin Tucks

Pin tucks are small folds in the fabric with are easily made with twin needles.  The two needle threads work with the one bobbin thread which forms a a small zig-zag on the wrong side of the work.  It's the bobbin thread which actually pulls the two rows of the the needle thread together to form the tuck.  The center groove or space under the foot allows the tuck room to form and doesn't flatten it after it's formed.  Pin Tuck feet have additional groves under the foot that serves as spacing guides for stitching multiple rows of tucks. 

You only have to mark the fabric where the first pintuck needs to be stitched.  After stitching the first pintuck, you can place that pintuck under one of the spacing grooves of the foot.  Then, as you sew the next pintuck, let the spacing grove of the foot 'ride' the previous pintuck.

Finer pintucks = 7 to 9 grooves under foot use 1.6 to 2.0 twin needle.
Deeper pintucks = 2 to 5 grooves under foot use 2.5 to 3.0 twin needle.

Until next time,

Quilts, Quilts, Quilts

Another Little Quilt Swap 4 just ended and this is the quilt that I got.  How fun.  I really like the bead work on this quilt.  I think I'm going to hang it in the dining room.  As it goes with my the burnt orange walls.  This mini is entitled "Min, Min Lights" and is made by Penny of Black Valley Seasons.  The Min Min lights is the name given to an unusual light formation found in eastern Australia.  No one really knows what cause them. Be sure and check out Penny's blog and send her some love. 

This awesome table runner using batiks fabric is from my good friend Ryan of I'm Just a Guy Who Quilts  He give it to us as a house warming gift. He has done a Flicker post on this and it can be found here.  This too goes great in the dinning room and will live on the dinning room table.  Thanks Ryan.  You really are the best kind of friend that a person can have. 

Let me start of by saying that I have not really been a big fan of Amy Butler Midwest modern fabrics.  I was not feeling this quilt when I was making it.  You may remember I did a blog post on this quilt.  World War III  I find it funny to read that post now.  Yes, we did kiss and make up!  Now that the quilt is done, quilted and bound it's starting to grow on me.  This was quilted by Angela Walters and she did a Tula Pink Plume in each one of the diamonds.  The quilting just makes this quilt.  Head over to Angela's web site and check out her blog post entitled All about Amy ~ fresh off the rack.  Here you will see the awesome plume she did and the fun pieced back.  She is a lover of Amy that is for sure.  I love her work. Be sure to send her some love and let her know Charlie sent ya.  If you need some quilting done send it her way.  Name dropping just might get you something.  :-)

I do love three of the prints out of this quilt and they are they brown trailing cherry (sashing), Optic Blossom in Linen (found on the back) and Fresh Poppies in Fuchsia (outer border). 

This quilt is a going to be a going away gift for a very dear friend of ours.  She is moving to Texas at the end of this month.  Every time she cuddles under this awesome quilt I hope she thinks of us.  I wish her the best of luck. 

Quilting friends are the best because their gifts are always made with love.

Until next time,