THIS ‘N THAT

I got sidetracked after cutting out my five skirts on Suday and didn’t actually start sewing til late this afternoon.  I’ve got three of them finished accept for elastic in the back and the hem.  Here’s a sample

    

It started snowing Sunday before church.  It would stop long enough for most of it to melt and then start again.  It’s been like that until this afternoon – snow --- melt ---- snow ---melt --- you get the idea.  Wonder what tomorrow will bring.

     

Had some fun company yesterday for awhile – sometimes sisters do play nice :)

  

All of this ‘stuff” involved a house (of cards maybe???)

  

Last  Saturday I got the #64 Bernina  presser foot.  It will make a kind of rolled hem to finish the edge of fabric.  It does an awesome job.  No more turn under, then press and turn under again for me.

 

Makes a pretty nice edge don’t you think?

SASSY SKIRTS

I found some corduroy in my stash

and found a cute skirt pattern for the girls. 

The skirt has a yoke and is supposed to be lined but I think the corduroy is heavy enough (even though it’s a pinwale) that I can skip the lining so I’m just going to cut out a second yoke with an extra quarter inch at the bottom and treat it like a facing.  It will cover the seam where the skirt attaches and I think it will work fine.

I’ve cut out all five skirts but didn’t think to cut the second yoke for each one so, I guess  I’ll get that done tomorrow afternoon and then get started on the making.  I’ll get to try out my new presser foot I bought the other day that will finish the raw edge kind of like a rolled hem. 

Last night I went to a class on free motion quilting.  Learned some tips on how to get better at that technique.  Of course the most important thing is to practice, practice practice.  So, I’m adding that to my list of things to do:) 

I visited the Quilting Squares quilt shop today and bought a jelly roll – Moda’s Glace – to add to my stash.  It has 40  2 1/2 inch strips of these fabrics.  They are so pretty and will make a really pretty log cabin quilt I think.

That was my day.  Tomorrow I’m going to see about getting the remote to my garage door checked out.  I hope it just needs a battery but it’s ten years old so who knows.  I may have to start opening the garage door using the button by the kitchen door, backing out, going back inside and closing it and leaving by the front door.  Hopefully not. 

G’night all and Happy Valentine’s day.

HOW TO MAKE A SANDWICH

You need a front,

a back,

and something soft and cozy for the middle.

Another UFO on the way to being finished.  I’m going to a class tonight on free motion quilting. I’m hoping get some ideas I can use to complete this quilt. 

Now it’s time to run to the grocery for some real sandwich food :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY STACEY

I have a pretty awesome DIL and today is her birthday.  First and foremost she is a Christian wife and mother. She stays super busy as a homeschooling stay at home mom and wife.  She takes such good care of my son and their kids.  You can see her love for them in everything she does.  I’m thankful for all those good qualities she has because they will be passed on to her children and also because she completes Billy and as his mom that means a lot to me.  So Stacey, I hope you have a wonderful birthday today and many many more to come.
( ps -- your card is in the mail :))

I’M UPGRADING …. MAYBE

I’ve been wanting to try a machine that just embroiders – not the commercial type though – so I tried out a Bernina Deco 340 and really liked it alot.  It was on sale for a good price so I got it and have been embroidering a bunch the past couple of days.   One reason I did that is because I’ve been wanting to upgrade my machine to the 820 for quilting purposes.  I’d never get an 830 because I don’t embroider enough to make the price worth it plus everytime I do embroider I can’t sew and that is what I really enjoy the most.  When the Bernina guy told me what I could get on a trade in for my 730 and that I could probably get more if I try selling it myself, I decided to go for it.  Either way I will pay a third or less of the cost of the 820.  I’m excited.  I’ve been working on how to list it.  I’m going to try Craig’s list first.  I’d rather not have to ship it somewhere if at all possible.   When I moved I brought a bunch (around 30) of kitchen towels, tea towels and bar mops that I had bought at different times when on sale to use as gifts and such so that is what I’ve been practicing on.  There are  a few differences between the Deco and the 730 when it comes to embroidering but since I already have Bernina’s embroidery software, the differences are not major.

One of the first things I did was add a little valentine love to the pillowcase dresses I made for my nashvegas girls.  Jen found the fabric in my stash and it was just enough I added the embroidery to the hem area. 

Here are a couple more things I’ve tried.   

Don’t know what I’ll do with all these towels and stuff when I’m done.  Maybe I’ll try to sell them on ebay or something.

The last of the snow is about rained away – it’s been raining since noon today.  They say is is supposed to turn to snow by tomorrow or Saturday.  Time will tell.

THEY’RE BACK . . .

Mr. Mrs. Cardinal came back during the snow this weekend and brought some of their friends with them.  One time I saw five of the red birds at one time in the tree but wasn’t quick enough to document it with the camera.  I think each male had a female companion.  Here are some pictures.  I just love red birds.

NEITHER SNOW NOR SLEET . . . . .

I was gong to take my sewing machine to the shop on Friday but since I’m not the mailman and,  when I called the Bernina store they had already sent the extra employee home and the owner’s wife was leaving because of the roads,  I decided not to go ---- even though there wasn’t a flake of snow on the ground here in Spring Hill --- about 20 minutes from the shop.  So I headed up to Jennifer’s instead.  Her house is about midway.  The closer I got the more it was starting to snow.  I didn’t stay long – maybe 30 minutes max. --for that reason.  By the time I headed back home I needed to use my windshield wipers.  When I got here, the roads were covered and my yard was blanketed in white.   Then we got a little sleet later in the day and more snow too.  So, we’ve been sort of iced in for a couple of days although not in a really major way when compared to other parts of Nashville and surrounding areas.  Tomorrow it is supposed to warm up a good bit so I think  most of it will melt away. 

Jed visited this weekend.  He and Toby seemed to enjoy the snow.  These are soon after the snow started.

These from later

While inside I worked on four of these (three pink and one blue)– I lack the eyes and for the girls, some bows.

 

And I made three of these for Valentine’s day. 

I also made these for the closet using two tab panels I already have and the same fabric I used for the window valance.

Hopefully tomorrow I’ll make it to the Bernina shop and get my embroidery problems taken care of.  I’m also considering upgrading.  More about that later.

ARRRRRRRGH!

Sometimes I hate my sewing machine!  Today I was trying to embroider a name on a simple burp cloth.  I've done it a million times.  The last embroidery I did was with Charlie Kate's quilt.  Since then I've just done straight sewing.  Anyway, The first two letters in the name sewed out perfectly.  It started a lower case "n" and then the clinking began.  Which in my case means birdnests or the top thread just bunching up underneath the fabric in the hoop.  I picked out the messed up stuff, rethreaded the top thread, took out the bobbin and looked for threads caught in that area -- nothing.  I rolled back the stitiching to  before it messed up and started restitiching.  Within 30 seconds clinking.  I did this two more times.  Then I put in a new bobbin, changed the needle, rethreaded everything and tried again --- clinking.  So, I've put it away for the night.  I don't know anything else to check and I don't know why it sews perfectly and just all of a sudden messes up.  It just seems to me it should start off messing up if something is wrong because of what they tell you to do to fix it -- like rethreading.  If it's threaded wrong it should show up right away.  Anyway, I'm frustrated and stopping for today.  I'll call the Bernina store tomorrow and see what they suggest.

G'night all,