Happy Independence Day

July 4th is tomorrow and a very full day for me.  I will be giving two trunk shows on my quilts in Seward tomorrow at 11 am and 1 pm.  I have the quilts packed up and already in my car since I will need to be on the road pretty early.  The title of my program  is Small, Smaller, Smallest as I am taking wallhangings, miniatures and doll quilts.

I also have the Five Bean crock pot recipe for tomorrow night stirred up and in the refrigerator so all I will have to do is get it plugged in before I leave.  We are invited to the annual pot luck dinner at friends tomorrow night.  We will watch the town fireworks from the street outside our friends house as they are setting them off just a short distance away.  You can tell it is a really small town as we set up our lawn chairs right in the street...isn't that great.

Hope if your are an American you have a great 4th of July tomorrow and celebrate the freedom we all enjoy!

Lynn

Click on this link to find the recipe I used for the beans

Clumsiness Has Struck Me Again

I have never clamed to be graceful and I have proved it over and over again during my whole lifetime.  I won’t go into all my awkward moments where I have fallen, walked into things, or tripped up but there have been many.  This time I didn’t trip, I didn’t fall, I didn’t bang into anything.  Here is the photo of my boo boo.Now to tell you what I did.  Remember I told you I cleaned out a closet where I keep some of my sewing supplies?  Well, I had a small wooden dresser in there and was moving it around and dropped it on my bare foot.  I was surprised it hurt so bad and didn’t look at my foot right away and when I did, I knew why it hurt.  The dresser was one of those small unpainted kind that I got in college and it is pretty light weight, especially with the drawers out like they were that day.  Basically I just dropped it when I was trying to fit it into the closet space and one corner landed on the top of my bare foot so now I have puffy purple bruise.  I know….what a klutz I am.  If I would have been smart enough to wear shoes I would not have injured myself but I pretty much go without shoes all summer long and flip flops when I go out.

Maybe I will be more graceful from now on but am not counting on it as it is just probably in my nature!
Lynn

Playing With Coats and Clarks Trilobal Polyester Thread….Again

After quilting the one sample using the Coats and Clarks 100% Trilobal Polyester thread I wanted to play some more with this thread.  I divided the square into quarters on the diagonal so I would have triangles to practice on, something new for me.  My goal was to fill each triangle with some different quilting design.  Three of the triangles were just quilted free hand with no marks while the curved grid was marked on the fabric. 

This whole sample is stitched with this thread except the background quilting on the bottom triangle which is stitched with Dual Duty cotton covered polyester machine embroidery thread.  The size 12 topstitch needle slipped in and out of the fabric so smoothly.  I’ve found that the more smoothly the needle goes in and out of the fabric the more easily it is to get smooth curves.

Other info on this quilt sample – cotton batting but don’t know brand, Bottom Line thread by Superior Threads in the bobbin, 12/80 topstitch needle.  Again I will definitely use this thread again.

My sewing machine was off limits to me for a few days as our granddaughters were here and they were busy doing their 4-H sewing.  They both love to sew and chose to make flannel PJ pants.  It was so nice this year in that they finally really “get it” and could stitch on their own after checking with me to be sure they were doing it right.  The pants are finished and ready for the fair and the girls are thrilled to get to sew something they will get to wear.  They have gone home now so it is quiet here and I am back to stitching my samples and doing a little gardening.

I started cleaning out a sewing closet while the girls were here and pulled everything out and have it sorted, organized and things are put away but…….I have lots of stuff left over.  I have to sit down and decide how much I can get rid of or store in another place.  I do know it is not getting put back into that closet.

Nebraska has been experiencing a real heat wave lately.  Wednesday my oldest granddaughter S. was finishing up sewing and it was already 7 pm when she noticed the thermometer and let me know it was still 104 degrees F. We were glad we were inside and not out in that heat.  I don’t know how hot it got during the day but know it was rather miserable outside.  These hot days are hard on livestock and hard on crops as well as the people that have to be outside working.  John comes in the house just wringing wet and I try to make sure he is drinking enough water and gets to cool down.

Tomorrow is our town celebration so hope it is cooler (94 degrees F today.)  I plan to go to the garage sales in the morning, lunch served at noon at the tractor pull, barbeque in the evening followed by a parade and fireworks.  I plan to skip the 5K walk, jog, run and the tractor pull in the morning.  If it is hot I plan to come home and cool off in my house between activities.

Well – that’s it for now.
Lynn

Quilting with YLI Variations and Coats & Clark Trilobal Polyester

I decided that quilting 2 thread samples together on a longer pieces of fabric would be easier than quilting each sample on a 12” square.  I marked the center of the pieces and so it was easy to quilt each thread in it’s own section.  The edges of the quilt squares are the hardest to quilt so I eliminated two of the edges by using the longer pieces of fabric.  I did cut the sample into the two pieces after I was finished though.This first sample is stitched with YLI Variations thread.  This is a 2 ply 35 wt. 100%  polyester trilobal thread.  Trilobal thread has excellent light reflection so it is nice and shiny.  My thread was variegated in shades of browns and very lovely when stitched out.  The color changes in the thread are subtle and blend well from one to another.  I would classify this as a heaver looking thread when stitched...more on the Glide (reviewed on an earlier post) or the Coats and Clarks thread (shown below.)

My Bernina 730 loved this thread and the tension didn’t need to be adjusted.  I really liked stitching with this thread and would use it again.  I did like the cone it came on too as the bottom snapped open then closed to wrap the thread when finished, a nice feature to keep it from unraveling.  I did use Bottom Line by Superior Threads for the bobbin thread like all my other samples so far.The other half of that sample was stitched with Coats & Clarks size 40 wt. 100% Trilobal Polyester thread.  I purchased it from JoAnn Fabrics and it stitched out easily and it too had a nice shine to the stitches.  I would use this one again too.  I could not figure out how to secure the thread on the spool, the top ring moves around but doesn’t seem to work to secure it after stitching - does anyone have an idea what that ring is for?.

Again my Bernina loved stitching this with thread and I would classify it in the same category as maybe Glide.  Since it is easier for me to purchase locally it might be a better fit for when I want a thicker shiny trilobal thread.

These quilting samples are so much fun to do.  I am learning about the threads, how they behave and if I like using them and what they look like next to other threads of different types or similar types and weights.  I have used a lot of these threads before but never really analyzed them as I was stitching.  Stitching one kind/brand of thread after another also makes the differences more evident.

I am hoping to get better at machine quilting and stitching the designs I already know how to stitch and experimenting with stitching new or new to me designs.  Click on the photos to see the stitch samples in more detail.  These are just practice pieces so if I wobbled  or didn’t stitch the pattern correctly I just left my mistakes – why spend time ripping on a sample.  I am keeping it fun, fun, fun and so far it is.

Until Later,
Lynn
PS....I forgot to say I used a size 12/80 topstitch needle, my BSR (Bernina Stitch Regulator foot) and cotton batting (I don't know what brand as it was an unmarked scrap in my batting box)