Progress times 2!

Last weekend I worked hard cutting up some of my stash, inspired by a leader ender method that is promoted by Bonnie Hunter.  You can read all about this adventure here.   This morning while thinking about it, I can actually know the exact amount of seams I have sewn this week.  Here is my stack of tumblers.  The cows on the top have been in my stash since I made my grandmother a Cow broom in 1993.  This is too long to be carrying around fabric baggage of cow kind.

Drum roll please…….I have sewn 57 seams in the postage stamp sheet quilt.  This is just one side of the inner squares border.

Some of the fabrics in the pile of tumblers below I acquired last month.  By the looks of them they are probably from the 70s when rust and orange was trending.

The idea of my leader ender is to contrast with every other one, dark and light.  Sometimes with the right darkness I can use a dark neutral for the light.

Sew, how many seams have you sewn this week?

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Stumbling…er tumbling? along

I am still fumbling, stumbling along with the postage stamp sheet quilt.

It now has 3 sides and the fourth one is in progress.  I have not sewn much lately because I have not been feeling up to it.  The Texas heat with all the rain and humidity has made deplorable conditions for my hobby.  It is in the hot corner of the house.  And so, sewing is limited to the cooler hours of the morning.

During our power outage today I wanted to work something so I decided to gather some of my stash and cut it up.  After being inspired by Bonnie Hunters method of her scrap users system, I decided to take my left over charm squares, all the 6 inch squares I recently acquired, as well as some fat quarters and left over layer cake and cut them into a leader ender to sit beside my sewing machine.  I did not count how much yardage I actually cut, but I utilized the power outage to do something that did not require any kind of electronics or power other than that of my own.

These blocks will sit beside my machine and get stitched one at a time as I progress with whatever project is currently under the needle and foot.

I have no plan for this other than to use up my stash and free up real estate in drawers to make way for new?  NO….to just minimize what I have using every last scrap of fabric.  Who knows, I may stitch my scrap strings together and then cut them down tumbler size as well.  That would make an interesting quilt.  In the meantime though…….I am stumbling with one project tumbling into another.

Atlast! Forming of a Postage Stamp Quilt

It has been a couple of months since I ran my machine for anything.  And this weekend, it happened.  I started playing with fabric and it got me in the mood.  Screw my tiredness and not feeling well.  It felt good to have cloth running through my fingers and under the foot.  I got two sides sewn onto the postage quilt top made from vintage sheets.  The squares are on point and are really making their statement.  I thought the mitering of the corners would be hard, but it wasn’t as the interfacing grid I am using already has the line drawn out for you all you do is cut and then sew.  I hope I can do this again real soon as it will not take me more than an hour to get yet another side attached and ready for view.

After completeing one border of pink and then trimmed with squares, my plan is to go around again in pink and again in just one column of squares, perhaps cornering around just 2 corners or 4.   The jury is still out.

Prepping for the Ugly Fabric Swap

If any of you have been in any kind of internet swap, they are amazing.  You have access to fabrics that may have been retired or lingering in a stash for a long time that you have never seen before.  Usually fabric swaps have a theme.  I have participated in a polka dot swap, where all fabrics were polka dots.  That made an amazing quilt.  I had two difference pieces of polka dot yardage, trimmed it down to 10 inch squares, swapped with 35 people and ended up with 68 different 10 inch squares.

Another successful swap I was in was with fat quarters and vintage sheets.  See those results here.

The most recent swap I was in was called a summertime swap.  In this swap we each swapped 10 inch squares in the theme of reds, oranges, and yellows.  You can see the results of that swap here.  One day this will be a fun quilt to make, I just have not planned that one out yet.

And here I am starching, pressing, and cutting fabrics ready for the Ugly Fabric Swap.  Yes that is right, there ARE ugly fabrics out there.  Some of these fabrics I am working this weekend were given to me.  They were good quality quilters cottons, so I hung on to them.

During the making of En Provence with the quilt along Bonnie hunter had, I used oodles of the ugly in that quilt.  The quilt turned out pretty good considering it was of fabrics I did not care for.  Go figure

My plan with the ugly fabrics I receive in the swap this time around will make another tumbler quilt.  I have received one envelope of someone else’s uglies and I must say, I thought mine were ugly.  They are but not to that degree.

For those of you have a couple of fabrics in your stash that have been lingering a little too long, maybe it is time to swap them for something,,,er,,,,better?  Our group is currently closed, but that doesn’t mean we won’t have another one some day.  Learn how to join here.

And after much research, I decided to go out into the wild blue yonder called the internet and figure out what foot pedal I needed for my Bailey’s Home Quilter Pro15.

Those foot pedals cost between $79 and $100.  My research paid off as I found a generic cord on amazon for only $26 and some change.  After studying this machine closely and knowing my mechanical knowledge I think I am just going to order the part for the sewing machine and fix it myself.  All I need is an alan wrench and a screw driver.

I am actually feeling good enough today to sew!  After touching and feeling all that fabric it has gotten me all worked up, with romantic quilting thoughts.  So my love affair will continue, hopefully hot and heavy today!!!!

A Drum Roll Please! Introducing……

A week ago, I received a shipment that contained my longarm quilting machine.  I bought this machine used and in unguaranteed condition.  I purchased this as a risk, gambling on the odds of it working for me.

This machine does not have a power cord, so I will be hunting one of those up.  After doing much research on the matter, I can either find an old machine with this foot pedal, or go purchase a new one directly from the man who manufactures the machine.

Unfortunately, during the shipment/packaging process the bobbin housing was broken.  Cheap pot metal was used.  And it laying face down in bubble wrap cause the case to be pressed upon easily breaking the most integral part of the machine.

You see the bobbin, race, hook, and cap are part of the timing.  I called for an estimate on that and for the part would be around $100.  Can I fix this myself?  Hmmmm….that is to be determined.  The odds are in my favor.  Remember I have fixed my big screen tv and helped fix the car.  I will be ordering the part and finding out if I can fix the machine.  If I cannot, I reckon any sewing repair shop should be able to help me if I pay them enough.

So, even though I am now an owner of a longarm, I cannot use it until the kinks are worked out.  I have quilt tops waiting patiently.   My Memory Craft 9000 does an awesome job, but it is quite a workout with the larger quilts since the throat space is only 6 inches.  I will now have a large 15 inches which will definitely get the job done.

I will also have to fabricate a piece of plexiglass to use as a platform for quilting until I can get a table that I want.  I am still debating on a used ping pong table with a modification to the right corner to drop the machine into.  And when I am done for the day I can just fold it up.  This machine is considered portable weighing less than 30 lbs.  Or I could buy one of the manufacturer tables for $600.  As simple as the footprint is of this machine, a piece of plexiglass for any table I find should be easy enough to cut, hinge, and use.  I will have to have plexiglass for the front portion anyway because it has the singer class 15 bobbin case and bobbin which is awkwardly at the front.

As crude as this machine is, there are online videos showing you how to fix and maintain your machine.  This was a selling point to me because I would not be out an expense of cleaning and maintenance.  Once a year the Janome has to go into the shop for this purpose and that cost $150.  So it is another form of savings in the long run.

A drum Roll Please!  Introducing the Bailey Home Quilter Pro15

Crude looking machine, but all mechanical.  If you start at the bottom of the barrel there is only one direction you can go….up!