Sunday, June 22, 2008

Small Accomplishments

Not a whole lot happenin' on the quilting front this week. I tried to work on a wall hanging for my show pins but the pattern I found just didn't work. Then I tried modifying the pattern and that didn't work. So I took a break from it. Next I picked up my roosting robin. I have until the end of the month to do another round on it. I've come up with a few ideas that looked good on paper but didn't translate well to actual sewing. I finally decided to do a piano key border. And that of course was not without problems - I couldn't get the seam allowance right, the machine unthreaded itself after almost every piece. I have done a couple of piano key borders and I love them. I'm not really into scrappy but this is a sort of controlled use of multiple fabrics and I love it.



I have done some other sewing. I made these sheets for Ryan.



A pillow case is in the works but not ready yet. It will (hopefully) be ready by the end of the month (for his birthday).

And of course I can't leave without posting another picture of Thunder.



Until next time, hugs and stitches. Jody

Friday, June 13, 2008

Found Treasures

I have gotten a couple of found treasures over the past few weeks. First was a sewing table I got from a freecycle group. If you've never heard of freecycle check into it. It's a great group. If you have something you want to get rid of (in good condition of course) you can list it and someone will take it off your hands. And if you need something you can post a request and many times someone comes up with something for you.

So here is the table closed up.



And here it is with the sewing machine up.




I didn't keep the sewing machine. It worked but the tension is all messed up and I do not have the patience to fool with the tension. I have a machine sitting in my shed because the tension is messed up. But the dh built me a shelf so that I can put my machine in the table and it works great.

This morning I got an older quilt at a yard sale. The folks I bought it from collect antiques but I don't know that this quilt is antique. Here's the front:




And here's the back:





It's a two sided quilt! But for some reason someone put a layer of plain fabric over the back. The lady I bought it from attempted to remove a good bit of that layer of fabric:





I'm not exactly sure what I'll do with it. Part of me wants to leave it the way it is because it's sort of interesting. And part of me wants to figure out how to completely clean up the back - but I don't think I can do that without taking out the quilting. And I won't do that.

I have a number of quilts I got at yard sales and this is probably the nicest one. There are no tears or seams coming apart and the fabric is only a bit faded and there are just a few dirty spots.

Now where should I put it? Hmmm

Until next time, hugs and stitches. Jody

Monday, June 9, 2008

Some Sewing - Finally

Well as I get used to having a job outside my home for the first time in almost ten years I'm having to learn to fit my quilting in. Consequently I go long stretches without doing anything. And then I have weekends like this past weekend. Rodger and the boys went to the annual father/son camp-out, Tasha went to a friend's house and I was home alone! So I got some sewing done.

The first thing I did was finish up the round robin swap. This is the last swap project I have left. I can't post a picture of that until it is returned to its owner - but I really think she's going to be happy.

The next thing I did was add a row to my round robin. I wanted it a little bit bigger so I added a piano key border.



And then I finished up my nine-patch top. I saw a picture of a quilt similar to this on webshots and just loved it. I do wish I would have made my blocks a little smaller - they are 8 inch blocks. But otherwise I love it.




Before I go I wanted to post another picture of Thunder. He's almost 5 months old now and I just love this picture. Tasha took it. She's becoming quite the photographer - getting plenty of practice taking pictures of Thunder.



Until next time, hugs and stitches. Jody