Not my good china plates

Another weekend has come and gone and I did nothing with the Dresden Plate blocks. Can you see me? I am hanging my head in shame. I am seriously thinking about cutting off the blanket stitching that I started and doing machine appliqué instead. Because I haven't committed to that, I have done nothing. Perhaps next weekend I will get back to it.

We've been super busy. Last weekend we went to Kansas and played music at a renaissance faire.

That's my son on the left, the Mister in the middle, and me!

We took our RV out for the second time since we bought it back in May:

We had a good time and played well.

I finished the flip flop block for the My Favorite Things August block:

I also finished block six in the Folk Art BOM quilt:

I haven't done much else. The summer is going out with a bang and I've been just a hopping to keep up with things.

I hope you are finding some sewing time too! Till next time, Happy Sewing y'all!

Plastic Plates

I recently purchased a pair of yoga pants at a local thrift shop. The previous owner was evidently a lot shorter than I am. The hem had been turned up three times and had bands of iron-on hemming tape holding the shorter hem in place.

When I took the hem down, I had to figure out how to get the residue off the pants. I tried so many different ways!!! I washed and dried them on the hottest settings. I soaked them in vinegar. I tried dipping them in ammonia. I even soaked the hems in Goo-be-gone. I tried ironing cloth to them in hopes that the residue would stick to the cloth. Nothing worked though.

Finally I decided to get some trim tape to decorate the hem and at the same time cover up the hem-tape gunk. I found a cute sparkly trim that was the perfect width. I decided to use a product called Steam-a-Seam to attach the trim to the pants before sewing it down. BIG mistake. The iron neared the trim and instantly the tape melted into a gooey plastic gloppy mess! Oh NO! Now what???

I grabbed a bunch of used dryer sheets to clean the goop off the iron. Then I used them to get some of the black off my ironing board. Finally I put one on the pants to get the goop off. Here is what the pants looked like:

Using the hottest setting I not only removed goop but the old hem tape residue came off!!!

Not perfect but nearly so!

I think the trick was that the dryer sheet was thinner than the pressing cloth I previously had tried. It got hotter and the residue could stick to it better. I am just happy I have yoga pants that don't look so tacky!

Next I want to talk about my Dresden Plate Project. I had tried the white thread for my blanket stitching. Remember what it looked like?

Well, I finally tried the black thread and I think this is the way I will be going. I was surprised that it looked as good as it did. (Remember, you can click on any photo to enlarge it for better viewing.)

I am also pushing on with the "My Favorite Things" block borders. Here are the pieces laid out to join around the cake block:

I got row three sewed together too.

I am almost done with this month's block:

I decided the two flip  flops needed jazzing up so I found the seashell material and fussy cut out a few to add to the block.

As you know, I do a lot of work by hand. This is my 'mini' studio:

The purple spiral you can see is a scarf I am crocheting. I found the wooden bowl at the thrift shop too. It makes a GREAT yarn bowl! I have pins, needles of several sizes, threads, a scissors, glue, and projects all surrounding my favorite chair in the living room. I can't just sit still and watch TV. I 'listen' to TV more than I actually watch it with my eyes.

It is super duper hot here in Arkansas. Temps have been in the high 90's with the heat indexes in the hundred teens. Thank goodness for air conditioning. Tomorrow night is my monthly guild meeting. I am looking forward to that. I always get inspired.

So, that's the latest from here! I hope you are enjoying the last weeks of summer. Till next time, happy sewing y'all!

Edge of My Plate

I don't know if I've mentioned that the designer, Cindy, of the "My Favorite Things" BOM is from Minnesota. I spent about 40-some years of my life in Minnesota. Some of the blocks she's designed are so "Minnesotan"! I think this is one of the reasons I like this BOM so much.

Here is my smaller design wall with the July block, from Cindy's pattern, in the center:

Note the two loons to the left? Minnesota state bird. The dark thing to the upper left is my Dad's winter hat...also from Minnesota. So the July block reminds me of cabins on the lakes around Minnesota.

I've also been working on the border prints for these blocks. As I laid out the border pieces, I figured out I had made a mistake on this one! It was supposed to be five inches longer!!! Now what? Ingenuity!!! I added one of those great Minnesota lakes to the bottom! hahahaha

I might add something to embellish this more. The fabric sure seems like a good match though!

Here is a shot of the big design wall today:

 The top row of this quilt is all sewn together:

 

As I mentioned in a previous posting, there are four triangle sets from each of the border blocks. This makes for a pile of half-square-triangles to press open and trim up! They almost escaped the studio this morning!

I rounded them all up though, and by the end of the day I had this mess all pressed out:

The Dresden Plate project is at a standstill right now. I tried using white floss to blanket stitch the center down. I do not like how it looks though!

I think I will try black floss next. If that doesn't work then I will just do invisible stitches by hand.

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood....if you like humidity. It is about 8am and the contractor is cutting tree branches. The ladder was really wobbly and he was up there with a running chainsaw!!!

The branch is now down. You can see we have a lot of trees in our neighborhood. 

The dump truck brought a big load of gravel for the area we are working on.

And now we have our other driveway all re-graveled and a pad is down for the RV.

This week promises to be hot and humid again. I am so glad summer is half over! I am almost giddy, thinking about autumn's arrival.

Till next week, happy sewing y'all!

Set Your Plate Down

They say you need to do something for several weeks to form a habit. For the third weekend in a row, I am spending serious studio time! I am LIKING this habit that has been forming over the past few weeks.
I have made it a habit to post on Sundays too. That has kept me on track for the Dresden Plate Project. I like having the 'push' to do a little bit, each weekend. By December, I might even have a quilt top done!

At one point, this weekend, my table had exploded in fabric bits:

I had finished block four of the Folk Art Quilt on Friday night:

Part of that fabric explosion was getting block five ready to go:

I also got the July block rough cut for the My Favorite Things BOM:

I started sewing together my Dresden Plates:

Memories of Grandmother's Fan quilts came to mind as I started. I recalled why I don't do this block more often. It is a challenge to make them come out right! 

I need to be even more careful when I cut out the blades. Accuracy in cutting will make for a nicer looking plate. I did manage to get two done though:

The blue and white square fabrics are the sashing/border pieces for the My Favorite Things BOM.

We had a nice 4th of July weekend. It was just family, good food, and sewing! hahahaha I hope you enjoyed your weekend too. Till next time, Happy Sewing Y'all!

Please Pass The Plates

I can't tell you how much fun it has been for me to spend so much time in my studio these past few weeks. Almost every weekend I've been getting a major sewing fix in! During the week I have been making lots of progress too.

Three more flowers are on the My Tweets quilt:

Only six more to go!

I made some progress on the Folk Art Quilt BOM, finishing block three:

And starting on block four:

I finally got back to finishing the sewing machine block on the My Favorite Things BOM:

This is what it looked like before I added the embroidery work and the presser lift bar:

Another block from the My Favorite Things BOM was this one:

I did the embroidery work to finish it up right:

As the week went on, I have the 'tale of two bobbins' to tell you about. I have been doing lots of work on quilting donation quilts for my quilt guild. With all these quilts to work on, I wanted to wind up all my bobbins so I wouldn't have to stop as often and could quilt more.

I hadn't even finished unpacking all the extras that came with my Sweet 16 quilting machine. I had purchased extra bobbins with the machine. I found the bobbins and went to wind them full of thread. When I opened the package with the extra bobbins, I found that they were missing the slots to thread the thread through!

The first thing I did was to go on eBay and order ten bobbins with slots. The next thing I did was to contact the place where I had purchased my Sweet 16 and asked them why my bobbins didn't have slots in them. They said it was a mistake and they would send out two new ones WITH holes to replace the two I had without.

Fast forward a day or three and the eBay order comes in with the ten bobbins. Yeah! I could wind up a huge bunch of bobbins now.  Only... I couldn't! Half of the bobbins had burrs inside where the slots had been cut. I gave them to The Mister and asked him if he could file the burrs out and he said he thought so. Of course it was put on the "Honey Do List" and I didn't know when it would get done.

I contacted the seller on eBay and said they needed to check their vendor who is supplying them with defective bobbins. Since the total cost was less than $4 WITH shipping, I didn't think anything else would come of it. I was very surprised to get an email from the seller that said they would send out a new batch and a return label for me to send the defective ones back to them! Wow! I thought that was huge for a seller. There is no way to have made any money on our transaction. You CAN bet though, that if I need something they sell, I will check them out first.

Another day and the two replacement bobbins came in from the place I bought the Sweet 16. I opened the package and.............two bobbins................with NO slots! I called them and said "Um, the invoice SAYS slotted but these replacement bobbins do not have slots!" They apologized profusely and said they would send out two MORE bobbins. I was to keep all four bobbins that do not have slots. I was fine with that and in a few days two bobbins arrived and they DID have slots! lol

Phew! Are you still reading this? I am rather long winded tonight. Coming into this weekend I prepared the next step for the Folk Art Quilt BOM:

My design wall looked like this when I left my studio tonight:

I managed to cut a few more blades out for the Dresden Plate Project blocks. I hope to start sewing them together soon.

It's been a very productive week with loads of fabric therapy. I feel good. I think I am ready to teach my yoga class tomorrow morning too. I feel very zen like tonight. I hope you are making a Dresden Plate block too. You only have to make one before December 10th! Post a picture on the Flickr Group page too. The link is in the side bar.

And there you have it! Until next time, Happy Sewing Y'all!

Clean your plate

On the design wall at the beginning of this week, we see the auditioning of background fabric for my holiday Dresden Plate Project block. There is also a completed My Favorite Things block for May. It is the one with the little bee. I still haven't finished the sewing machine block for the same quilt.

My sewing machine block is backwards from the way it is supposed to be. Most of my blocks are that way. You have to be careful when doing applique work! Here is a closeup of the May 'Bee' block:

 I finished a donation quilt. This is Sherbet:

 I love how bright it is. I hope it brings joy to someone.

Winding down the week and I find myself very busy in the studio. I am almost finished quilting another donation quilt on Sweetie:

I cut up more fabric for the My Favorite Things quilt blocks. I need to cut up hundreds of 3" squares for the sashing blocks. I have about three hundred cut so far:

I started cutting out more fabric for the blades of my Dresden Plate block:

And now at the end of my day I can share what my design wall looks like tonight:

I think the Dresden Plate will turn out alright, using these fabrics.

I used PhotoShop to make a mock up of what the blocks will look like when they are all put together. I am not sure this will be the actual final layout, but it gives me an idea of what it could look like!

That's it for today. How are you doing on your Dresden Plate blocks? Till next time, happy sewing y'all!