Club Sew, Fabric Postcard, LED Light

Club Sew in Lincoln was fun to go to yesterday. I had planned on attending the 1:30 pm session but since I was wide awake at 5:30 am I decided to just get ready and attend the 9:30 am one instead. It is almost a 2 hour drive to Lincoln from my house so had to be on the road by 7:30 am to be on time.

The gals presenting were from a small group that got together after Ricki Timms presentation last August in Omaha. They all did Convergence quilts and now are all working on quilts with a Coneflower theme. They all told how they accomplished the different things on each quilt and how they each attacked the project from a little different way. Learned how to put a facing on a quilt and may try that some time on one of my miniatures. The quilts were all beautiful.

I did purchase some more bobbins and the Free Motion Couching foot (no. 43) and a couple of spools of Bottom Line thread. Am anxious to try the couching foot as the yarn or cord comes through the hole as it is stitched so it can be all attached with a straight stitch. Looked pretty cool on the Bernina web video http://tiny.cc/Berninafoot43 so decided that could be something I might use. The magnifier lenses I want to get had not arrived at the store yet so will have to wait a bit for them.

I pulled one of the post cards I had made some time ago and finished it to give to my mother instead of a regular birthday card. She had admired it once when I was showing her some of the ones I had made so decided she should get it. I have learned after putting the backs on some right after I made them I had more trouble personalizing them. I like to print some poem or message onto cardstock using pretty fonts, etc. This saves me from mispelling a word or messing up the back somehow. Now I just do the front of the card then wait until I know who I am going to give it to before I finish the back. Since I am going to hand deliver this to her with her gift I printed the words out centered on card stock that are appropriate to her and maybe the card too. I attached it to the back of the card with fusible then trimmed it square and zig-zagged around the edge to finish it. Will give her a small easel to stand it up on a shelf or on her desk.

The tree is free hand embroidered in brown thread and the fabrics are fused down on the Timtex, then the postcard was machine quilted.

Thought I would show you a light I purchased recently that sticks onto the side of my machine. It is from http://bendablebrightlight.com/ and I got it from my friend that owns a quilt shop. It is wonderful!!! The two photos below show what a difference it makes - one photo is of it turned on and the other with it turned off. Both photos are with the sewing machine turned on so the regular light is on. You might not see as much difference as you would in true life as the flash on my camera is probably distorting it some. The light has a very flexible arm and it plugs in so you don't have to be putting batteries in it all the time. Also comes with little cord holders that I stuck in a few places on the back of my machine to keep the cord out of the way when I stitch.

This photo is with the light off.

This photo is when the light is turned on.

Light showers this morning which is welcome as things are getting a little dry. We actually would love an inch of this slow rain then the irrigation wells could be turned off for a little while. There is a chance of more rain tonight so maybe I will get my wish anyway.

Lynn

Marked borders - Miniature Quilt Photos

I got the entire outside border on that mystery quilt marked yesterday afternoon. It wasn't hard just time consuming. I used my light box set up and away I went. This is the first time I used the Fons and Porter mechanical marking pencil. I used the dark lead and it sure marked nice. The pencil has an eraser on the end and it seems to take the marks off ok, at least my test on a scrap of fabric came off. Even with that I tried to mark with a light hand. Will let you know later if the marks came off easy or not.

Today I have not done any quilting as the sweet corn was ready to be picked and prepared for the freezer. John helped me pick and shuck it but it was my job to get it all blanched, cooled, cut off the cob, and bagged. I finished about 5:00 pm and am pooped! I sure am glad to have it all in the freezer now - all 49 bags. I don't have my kitchen cleaned up yet but needed a break from standing. I do lay a couple of layers newsprint on the floor and counter to catch most of the errant kernels and mess. I get end rolls from the newspaper office - they give it away. Do need to pick it all up and get my dirty pans, etc. in the dishwasher yet too.

Since I didn't do anything new to show I photographed a couple of miniature quilts I made a few years ago. These hang on walls in my home. This first one is called "Not Quite a Charm" and is hand pieced in the English Paper Piecing method over papers. The small leaf border is machine appliqued with the invisible thread. The quilt is hand quilted. Have included a close up of one corner with a ruler in the photo to help with the dimensions - it is 10"x 11".

This next quilt is 18" square and is all machine pieced, machine appliqued and hand quilted. I call it "Nebraska Quasars". I quilted using dark thread on the light fabrics and light thread on the dark fabrics.

I go to Lincoln tomorrow for the first Club Sew meeting at my Bernina Dealer's store - was given a yr. free with the purchase of my 730 so want to take advantage of it and attend as many as I can. Think there is a discount the day of the Club Sew and I want to get some more bobbins, the magnifier lenses and maybe some thread. Don't know the rules yet on the discount so time will tell what I actually purchase.

Lynn

Light Boxes and Quilting Designs

Today I have had a lot of time to myself without interruptions - John had to be gone for the day so was not popping in and out of the house all day like usual. Was nice not to have to make dinner too as I just warmed up a few leftovers and ate quickly so I could get back to work. Have spent the entire day drawing and figuring out what design I want to quilt in the borders of my mystery quilt. I have a photo of the quilt after I got the applique done on it in my July 3 post.

Thought I would tell you how I design and transfer my quilting designs. I have rigged up a light box using my Horn air lift sewing table. First I have to remove the sewing machine, then place a large piece of Plexiglas over the opening. I put a florescent light fixture on the air lift shelf (where my machine usually sits.) The light was an inexpensive one we had used one time at another house under a desk upper shelf to illuminate the desk. It turns on and off with a switch on the light. This first photo is what it looks like ready to use.

This next photo shows a hand drawn vine with leaves and berries that at one time I was going to applique throughout the pieced quilt but changed my mind and did leaves and berries in circles instead. This vine was too wide for my border as it was, so laid my border paper (just taped copy paper together) with my registration marks and traced different leaves and berries in different spots after I drew the center vine. I sometimes flipped the tracing paper design over to change the leaf to it's mirror image.

This is a view of the short side border all drawn. I draw in pencil then when I am satisfied I go over the design with a marker. I used this short side diagram to make the long side adding more leaves and berries where needed as each section was just a little longer than the sections on the short side.

Here are the two borders ready to use with the light box and transfer them to the borders of the quilt. I am going to have to make a little adjustment in the corners with one berry as it's stem is just a little long but think it will fit the quilt other wise.

All the while I was drawing these border designs I have been trying to come up with an idea for the rest of the quilt. Think I will outline the applique and add a tendril here and there but don't know what to do with the rest of the piecing in the center section and the other light border next to the center and the dark green small border. Maybe something will come to me while I am marking the borders - I hope!

I plan to use my makeshift light box on the marking of the fabric too. It really works pretty well. I used to use a large flat cardboard box that would hold my Plexiglas and put the light inside of the box. Works great if I have to take a light box to a workshop but at home don't use the box anymore as the sewing table is a better height.

At one time I didn't have the Plexiglas so took one of the storm windows out of our storm door - the kind that has the windows that can be raised and lowered to let in air. Anyway I would just take out one of the windows and clean it up each time I needed a light box. It worked great until I broke one taking it to a class I was teaching. It bumped something and broke it into millions of pieces. Think it was safety glass as there were no sharp pieces but what a mess! So glad it shattered on a hard surface floor so I could sweep up all the pieces. We had replaced the door it originally came out of so didn't have to worry about a door with out one window. I do have the other window from that same door in my closet in case I would want to use it again but think I should probably get rid of it and just use the Plexiglas.

Need to put on some perkier music as the music I have been listening to all afternoon is starting to make me sleepy - Luther Vandross, Josh Groban, Andrea Bocelli, and Nora Jones to name a few. Love listening to their CDs.

Lynn

Miniature Quilts

I have not gotten to my sewing machine since I have been home from convention and am anxious to get started on anything right now just to be able to sew. This week has been busy with other things.

Had lunch with two friends yesterday and we had a mini-show and tell which makes me want to sew even more. They showed all the things they had done recently and I didn't have much - just what I did in class in convention and the challenge quilts from NSQG and our guild.

We had our first sweet corn yesterday - YUM! It is always such a treat and I can't wait for it to be ready each year. Of course I make a pig out of myself the first few times too. I imagine I will be preparing the sweet corn for the freezer some time soon too so no sewing then either.

Decided to photograph some other miniature quilts I have made in the past. This first one I call "Island Treasure." It is paper pieced, hand quilted and finished in 2002. I included a close up shot of the quilting in the second photo. This mini won the miniature quilt category at the State Fair in 2002.

The next one is made from batik fabric with frogs - I beaded one and made it into a small wall hanging in 2005. The last quilt "Woven Gems" is one I made for a doll bed this past year. It doesn't look like it but it was one of the hardest miniatures I have ever done. Getting the 9 patches to look square then to match them to the snowball block was really difficult. Still not perfect but as good as I could do. These last two were machine quilted.

I just finished entering quilts for the Nebraska State Fair and entered "Woven Gems" in the Doll Quilt category. Don't expect to do real well this year as all three that I entered have some problem or other. The other two entered are the "Morning Star Over The Pine Ridge" and the "Three Flowers", both are posted on earlier posts.

Lynn