Well life continues to throw “surprises” at you.   “What doesn’t kill me makes me stronger.”

I just recently had outpatient surgery so I’m restricted with my mobility for the next couple of days.  Before I went into surgery, I prepared a “sew-care” package.  My Sew-Care package contains some hand sewing that I am working on.  

During covid I started working on a design I found in American Patchwork and Quilting Magazine, Issue 164. The pattern is called Lunch Circle.  

The quilt in the magazine has about 6 rounds.  I’ve decided to go for 10 rounds.  Instead of making this a table mat, I’m going to turn it into a centerpiece for a quilt.  I’m almost there I’ve got 8 rounds done.  

I also included a little thread/needed holder.  I found a handmade thread/needle holder at an antique mall and decided to reverse engineer it to make one for my self (I hate I didn’t take pictures of it before I took it apart).  I made a paper pattern for it.

Here’s a photo of the external of the holder.  It resembles a cloth-version of a lipstick holder.  I get farther along, I’ll post photos of the internals when I get farther along with it.

Well off to my recovery sewing!

Happy Sewing ……….

Surgery recovery can be dangerous to your pocket-book!

 So I had my a2 weeks ago.  I'm glad to say that I know longer have the intense pain in my leg; however, I'm still having severe nerve pain periodically, and have a tendency to loose my balance.  The doctor the next couple of weeks will be up and down; I'll have good days and bad days.  Currently when I move I have to move "like a log"; i.e. no Bending, Lifting (anything over 5 lbs), or Twisting!  I've had moments when the pain hits, that I just want to cry, but everything will heal in God's time; not mine!

So as I continue to be incapacitated.  I've been continuing to become acquainted with my sewing/quilting software.

I'm continuing to advance my skills with EQ8 (Electric Quilt 8).  My latest thing has been designing hexagon blocks and quilts.  I discovered a "log cabin hexagon" block which I fell in love with, and a pineapple hex:

Hexagon squares

One of the quilt layouts I've done is using the Log Cabin Hex: 

I haven't decided if I'll leave it shaped as is, or make the sides more straight.

Since I did so many quilts during the Covid break (over 20 quilt tops), my husband told me I should invest in a Long Arm.  I'm not quite ready to take the plunge yet; as I am still investigating the different manufacturers and features.

So I've been looking at alternatives to sending my quilts out (The cost would come to over $4K if I sent all of them out).  I just realized I can do the quilting on my machine using my embroidery machine.  I'm trying to decide if I want to invest about $300 in a quilting addition to my current embroidery software, possibly Floriani Designer Quilt II or Perfect Embroidery Pro's My Quilt Planning.

I've been thinking now might be the time to get comfortable with free motion quilting; but large quilts are hard to manage on a domestic machine.  

I sat in on a virtual seminar yesterday with Pins and Needles, Cleveland Ohio, and DIME is offering "Weightless Quilter Frame", that is supposed to help with quilting of large quilts.

Photo from Sewing Machines Plus

This costs $299 on sale.  I was reading thru some blogs/forums, I found this in the Missouri Quilt Forum: 

Image from Missouri Quilt Forum (Alternate Setup)

Pet Grooming Arm and Harness (from Missouri Quilt forum)

Jumbo Clamp (image from Missouri Quilt forum)

This setup is a log cheaper (only $80 total) and is portable.  I can take it down when I want to use my sewing table for garment sewing.  I have a koala Treasure Chest cabinet wtih add-on shelving that is waist high and is solid and sturdy; so I won't have any problem clipping these onto my table.

Since I've had the back injury, I've been looking for ways to minimize possible injury to my back.  Since I'm working with large quilts, and want to make use of what I have for the most part, I just discovered using "pool foam noodles" to create my quilt sandwiches.  I found out about this at: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzx4dQqfkO4

I just bought some of the jumbo pool noodles and they are expected to arrive end of July; hopefully I'll be recovered enough by then that I can try everything out.

Happy Sewing Everyone!

Continuing my 2020 survival sewing . . . A Quilt Along (QAL)

I've been continuing to do my survival sewing. I was hoping my survival sewing would end with 2020; but looks like this will continue into 2021. So I'm calling this my 2020/21 Survival Sewing. I'm hoping to get back into garment sewing; but that may be a while. My company is officially switching us to a remote working environment. This is going to go on at least thru the first quarter of 2021. So I'll continue to sew to keep my sanity! 

I've been quarantingint to the max!  I've also continued to work on my quilt tops. The latest was a quilt along sponsored by Janome, Maywood fabrics, and "Love of Quilting" magazine.

Quilt photo from Quilting Daily

The quilt is a 6 part series.  The entire quilt instructions can be found at Warmth of our Stars.

It is available in its entirety till Jan  7th (along with videos).  After that it can be found monthly thru 2021 in "Love of Sewing" magazine.

Of course, being that I get impatient when it comes to finishing quilts.  I've downloaded the instructions, and completed my quilt top last week (just need to add border).

Center Star with Flying Geese

It's starting to come together

The total top, completed just need to add border.

This is the first time I've made a pieced a quilt using flannel.  I did a rag quilt a couple of years ago, which is totally different from from doing piecing with flannel.  I'm not sure if I'm a big fan of using flannel for piecing; but may give it another try later.

Some of the take aways I got from this: 

1. Pre-wash the flannel.  I wasn't sure of how much shrinkage would occur, so I prewashed it.  I'm glad I did.
2. Press your seams open.  Using flannel the fabric is bulkier, so pressing the seam allowances to one side creates too much bulk.
3. Definitely PRESS AS YOU GO!!!  Makes like so much easier.

On to the next quilt top.....

Happy Sewing Everyone!

2020 Survival Sewing: Log Cabin Block

 One day I'll get back to my garment sewing; when Covid has subsided and I can go places.  So for now I continue my sewing with my quilting.

My next design uses the log cabin block.  

As usual I scanned in my fabrics and played with quilt layout using Electric Quilt 8.  

After some playing I came up with the final layout: 

Line Drawing of the final quilt layout.

I chose to set the blocks on the diagonal. Once I had my fabrics scanned in, the final quilt design turned out to look like this: 

My original design used 3 borders of 1" in width.  I decided to switch to single border 2" wide.

Here's a preview of the design in Electic Quilt 8

Now for the final completed quilt (Sorry for the lighting, had to do my photo's inside due to the cold weather): 

The FINAL QUILT!!!!

I love me some Electric Quilt!  Before I would have done this using paper and color pencils!  

Talk about saving tress!!!

Now onto my next quilt.  I'll be making the infamous John Lewis quilt seen in this photo.  

Photo from Reddit.com

I've already drafted my pattern in Electric Quilt.  I figure this would be great for using scraps.

On to the next quitl.

Happy Sewing!!!