Hot Time in the Summer!

Who would have thunk that studio time would be most productive in the summertime? I guess the heat outside keeps me indoors in the air conditioned house like the cold keeps northerners inside where it is warm in winter!

I gave my new little Featherweight a grand workout. I had done a few minutes of sewing with it a month ago, after a major cleaning and it did fine. How would it work to do over an hour of sewing?

 She did just fine! I made a whole quilt top with her. There wasn't a single issue with dropped stitches, loopy stitches, winding bobbins, and with sewing a true straight stitch!

 I am using a dog themed fabric I was given for the front and back of this quilt. I think it will turn out just fine. I have a denim colored fabric for the binding. There was just enough of all these fabrics, that I was given, to turn into a pretty decent little quilt! I am sure some dog lover will love getting this quilt when it is done!

I am not using the Featherweight to sew clothing. I will use the Juki as I am more familiar with it. I have always had issues with making clothes. I was determined to make this experience different! I used a dress that I love, to help in making the right fit from the start. I am so tickled to have my new dress-form to help too! Here I have the neck and arm facing pinned to the form to check on the fit:

 Here I have laid out the pattern pieces before altering the pattern and cutting the fabric:

 Some of my body parts are a size 14.5 and some are size 18! No wonder I have had issues in the past with fitting clothes I make!  Thanks to a British show I recently viewed on the computer, I was inspired to try this again and empowered with tips to make things FIT! The show is called "The Great British Sewing Bee" and I think you can find free viewing of full episodes on YouTube.

At night, while watching TV, I work on hand sewing projects. The latest block number four of the Jingle Belle quilt is almost done being appliqued in place:

Just because it turned out SO good, here is a made-from-scratch blueberry pie I made on Tuesday:

Behind it are banana nut muffins. They turned out great too!

So this is the latest from here! Today I hope to put the pockets on that sundress and go for a swim later. It is supposed to be in the 100's today. Hot, hot, hot...like me. :D

Happy Sewing!

My First "Off the Wall Friday" posting

I always mean to post but taking photos, resizing them, tweaking them, takes me an awful long time, so then I don't post a dang thing! Since I have had a very productive week though, I thought I should participate just once this year for the Off the Wall Friday theme that Nina hosts.

In no particular order I have finished the last block for My Tweets...a 2011 block of the month from Erin Russek's blog, One Piece at a Time:

 

Now I have to make a gazillion leaves and a few more birds and flowers for the appliqued border. Here are just some of the templates, ready to cut out:

 Here is the block on the design wall along with some of the border fabric strips and another block done in a different colorway:

 I need to figure out how I am going to do the colors for the two styles of birds that I did for this project. Do I put one teal bird with one purple bird or do I put two pairs of teal birds on the sides and the other two pairs of purple birds on the top and bottom of the borders? Decisions, decisions!!!

I signed up for the Skill Builder BOM but after seeing that one of the blocks is a hexagon block, I am having second thoughts! I mean, I DO have enough projects on my plate as it is. If I don't get to the first blocks by the time the second ones come out, I might scrap that idea. (hehehe, I said scrap...that is a pun! hehehe)

Something else that is eating up some time is my new Featherweight! She needs a lot of cleaning and a few parts but I already am hoping she will be a useful part of the 'family' here. As of now she is not named though.

Last but not least is a shot of the mess on my table. There are bits and pieces of both the My Tweets border as well as the 2013 BOM called Jingle Belle. In fact, just today the first block is up on Erin's web site. It is a free BOM. There is a center medallion called Miss Kringle that you can buy from Erin for $10 to use in the quilt center, but you don't have to do that if you don't want to.

ACK! It has been two hours since I got on this computer and I have nothing to show for it except this blog posting! It is cold and damp outside so I think this will end up being a very productive day in the studio too. Heaven knows, I have lots of different projects to choose from!

Till next time...Happy Sewing!!!