Wednesday, October 16, 2013

WIP



This week I really have to many mommy things going on to sew very much, but when I get a few minutes the machine is chucking along!  


Hailey wants to be Belle for Halloween.  This is really fun for me, because most 11 year olds want nothing to do with being a "Princess".  Keeping her little for another year is just what I need (though she's over 5' already).  I was thinking the other day how almost 2/3 or 66% of her time at home while I'm raising her is over.  Time passes so quickly!

Now I just need to make the top and the poofy slip!


I'm working on sashing this MSHBQAL.  This week is suppose to be the quilting week, but let's just say I'm a little behind.

I do have 20 of my 24 blocks made.


Now off I go to get ready for teaching our rotating preschool in a few hours.  Tomorrow is my Princess #4's birthday do I'll be showing of the cake and fun birthday party tomorrow!

I'm linking up to Freshly Pieced, (her links on my sidebar).


I also just recently finished my 3 year olds new blankie.  Thankfully she loves this!

I just used my walking foot for quilting this with straight lines.

This is the quilt I made for my neice Ashlee and is my FMQ!

Here you can see its swirls.


I really love the choice of fabrics on the back.



Friday, October 11, 2013

Ashlee's quilt

For the past few months I have slowly  working (along with my 9 year old) on a quilt for my neice Ashlee.  My 9 year old made all the 16 square blocks, while I did the rest.  
I haven't had a lot of time to work on this quilt lately, but I've been slowly trucking along the last two weeks with quilting.  This is my first MQ so I started out very slowly.  My machine had a few problems, as I posted before, but it was taken care of.  Last night I finished the last 2/3 of the quilt quite easily.  But, there's always a BUT there, the first section I did had horrible tension.  I figured the problem out and corrected the tension yet I had to rip the seams on one section.  Thankfully when the tension is off, seams rip easily.


I ripped and requilted that this morning.  If I wasn't at the Opthamologist right now, I would be sewing the binding on now.

Later:
 
Time to finish this off and sew 1/8" seam all around the quilt.

Cutting off the excess batting and fabric:


And the last step here in my basement is sewing on the binding which we preening on a large spool of thread: 


I am using 2 1/4" binding folded in half.



Wednesday, October 9, 2013

WIP

Last week, sewing projects started to fall apart.  I was doing really good in that I finished my 3 yer olds new blankie and I was really doing great on my first ever free arm quilted quilt.  Until Thursday!  I accidentally got my finger to close (to that unprotected darning foot) and had the needle go through the side of my pointer finger.  It was just a small wound, we'll actually two, where the needle went in and out.  It was a new needle and I had had a tetanus shot 5 years ago so I opted not to have it looked at by a Dr.  It looks good now and hasn't had any signs of infection.  
After this I stopped for the day, Thursday was out.  So Friday, I started chucking along on the machine quilting, when my machine just stopped!  I couldn't get the needle to move!  After a few nudges I finally got it up so I could remove the quilt and figure out the problem.  I cleaned the machine, but still nothing. 
My husband and my father each love to fix things so I thought to myself I can fix  this.  And I took the machine apart, all 13 screws.  This is what I found

Wow!!!

I recleaned the machine and it would move but not smoothly.  I figured it was the needle casing from the tension it was getting so I oiled it and now, its working great!  My manual said not to oil your machine, it won't need it.  I think I use my machine a little more than normal the average person with this costco machine.  Someday I'll get me a new one, now it's just a dream.  
So here's my progress and what I'll be working on today:

Wish me luck!

I'll link this into freshly pieced 

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

No time to POST!

It seems that time is literally flying by.  There is not enough time for cleaning (up after 4 keiki's), not enough to accomplish all I want to with my 3 year old, little time for scrapbooking and little time for quilting.  Where does it all go?  That's a question I wish I could answer.

Today I have finished quilting my first machine quilting quilt.  This one is only stripes done with a walking foot.  The next quilt I'll try something more fun, but this one I needed simple.  I also got the bindin sewn on but not without a fun mistake.  

Notice anything funny about the binding I'm sewing on in the picture?

We'll, the quilt is pink/white/green and the binding is BLUE.  The colors go great together, but they just don't match this quilt.  So after some seem ripping, here is what I put away when I am going to bed... And started blogging.
 
I am hand stitching the binding on and so while watching NCIS tonight I was able to get 3 of the 4 sides seen on.  Tomorrow night I'm really hoping this WIP becomes a finished project!