The Sewing Room Re-Design

Stay away from Kijji.  Never look up sewing machines for sale.  Too late for this warning to do any good for me!  Last week I ended up purchasing an Elna Grasshopper.  But I'm really happy with it.  It is such a sweet machine!

The Elna Grasshopper's case turns into the table that the machine fits into.  Threading is so easy.  Drop in bobbin.  No need to loosen the flywheel when winding a bobbin.  Pop the bobbin on the bobbin winder and the flywheel disengages automatically.  The stitch is perfect!  Other than a good clean and oiling, all that needed to be done to the machine, was to change the protective pads at the bottom of both the carrying case and the machine.  Time had damaged the original rubber feet.

My friend Joan picked Mom up and the two of them came over to play with the Grasshopper.   It got rave reviews from both.  I had to watch carefully to make sure the machine didn't leave with them!

But Mom did mention that it would be a good idea if I could figure out a way to have more of my machines set up in my sewing room.  Now that's a great challenge for a rainy day.  And today it's raining.

First I had to put the sewing room contents  temporarily into the living room.  That "temporary" word always worries DH as he knows it can quickly become a permanent resident.  And I had what to move:

Back in the sewing room, no matter what I did with the sewing tables I ran out of walls to put them against.  So my solution was to move the sewing tables into the middle of the room.  Time will tell how well this will work out.  Most likely everything will be pushed against walls again the first time I stub my toe on a furniture leg.  Here's my "sewing island". 

The ironing/cutting table stayed where it was (I did move it to clear out all the threads, bits of fabric and pins that had fallen.  The book shelf that supports the thread/ruler stand stayed in place as well.

The living room is now back together, ready for company.  All the boxes and bins of quilting supplies are stashed under the sewing tables and in the closet.

And I have over 10,000 steps on my FitBit just by walking from one room to another all day.  Think this would be considered exercise by anyone else?

Gadgets and the "Sewing Buggy"

You never know when you will have that "I didn't know that" moment.  It's like making a wonderful discovery, but then you feel silly that you didn't know about it before.

I was watching a free Craftsy video the other day with my friend Joan.  We both had that moment.  The instructor was using a machine needle thread-er to remove the sewing machine needle.  We did a double take!  Why didn't we notice the little hole in the handle. There is always the worry that the needle may fall into the sewing machine when loosening the needle bar screw. 

Then we were totally blown away when we watched the instructor use that same needle threader to insert a new needle and hold it in place while tightening the needle bar screw.

Note the small hole at the end of the needle threader.  Pause the video, check the tool boxes for each of my machines.  And sure enough.  There is the hole for inserting the needle.  On one of my threaders there is a flat side so you can control the direction of the needle so it goes in correctly.  Beats using your fingers to hold it in place.

When checking my threaders for hand sewing needles we found that this little gadget has another use.  In the handle is a thread cutter.  I've had these threaders for years and never noticed.

The moral of this story is....check your gadgets.  You never know what else they can be used for.

Now on to the Sewing Buggy.  A while back my DH purchased a Feather Weight sewing machine for me.  It's small and light for taking to volunteer sewing.  But it's still too heavy to carry all that way.  Being the intelligent man he is, DH purchased a used jogging stroller for my new to me machine.

Well I'm not one to just walk the 18 blocks to my local quilt shop pushing a plain stroller.  Not when I can have some fun.  There was weeks where I could have worked on the cover.  But naturally I waited until the day before I was going to use the "Sewing Buggy"  But even with the time crunch I think it turned out quite well.  And it's so easy to go up and down curbs.  The timing won't be out on the machine because of a rough ride!

Off to check some more gadgets to see what else they can be used for!

I got to test another pattern!

Eileen Hoheisel, Pine Rose Designs (Quilter In The Pines) asked for volunteers to test one of her new patterns.  Since I really enjoy Eileen's designs and instructions I was one of the first to raise a virtual hand.

As expected the only problem with this quilt top was sewer's error.  I put an entire block in going the wrong direction.  Eileen caught the error and let me know where I went wrong.  And the result is here:

I have yet to quilt this top.  I may just add a few more borders to increase the size.  We are needing quilts to go out to Fort McMurray and I think this quilt will be heading there once residents are allowed back home.

Speaking of Fort McMurray....Sew Divine (my favourite LQS) is collecting quilts to be sent to the evacuee centres.  I have a few friends that pop over to play with fabric  Between us we had 3 quilts to drop off at Sew Divine.  These quilts were utility quilts, made for rough use and to be passed on for the dog's bed. 

We're now working on quilts to welcome residents back home (like the one above).  Our way of giving hugs.  And a reminder that they are in our thoughts.

The fun and the not so much fun

First the not fun.  The fire in Fort McMurray.  Praying for everyone's safety.  And praise for how well this emergency is being handled.  From first responders to those who are helping in so many ways.  People at their best!

On the quilt front:  I have received so many e-mails and phone calls from quilters across North America wanting to know where they can send quilts.  Especially for the kids.   I know a number of the local quilt shops will be collecting the quilts.  But not yet.  Those that are in the business of helping others will let us know when.

That said, quilts do not get made in a day. (Sorry Eleanor, I had to do it).  So a lot of us are getting started.  I'll be making pocket quilts.  Little ones who lost their favourite dolls and bears will appreciate being able to stick their soft toys in the pockets each night to keep them close.  Of course there will be a few that will decide to stick Lego and toy cars into the pockets.  Rolling over on those items in the middle of the night will be a (excuse me) wake up.

Now for the fun part.  A while back DH bought a used jogging stroller to carry my Featherweight to volunteer sewing.  If I'm going to be the "crazy little old lady" that's pushing a sewing machine in a stroller, I'm going to have fun with it.  Time to turn that stroller into a sewing machine buggy.  Lots of work still to be done.  But the head lights have been found.

It's a fan that fold up into the little case shown above.  I purchased three.  One to keep in my back pack and two to use on the sewing machine buggy.  It's a start.  Hopefully I'll get motivated to work on this project now that the ideas are flowing.

The weekend goal setting produced another finished quilt.  It's amazing what I find when I clean up around my quilt frame.  This is a scrappy jelly roll.  Always fun to make.  And now it's done!

Weekend Quilting Goals

Deb on hearts2hands mentioned having a four day weekend and hopes to get some quilt time in  A few of us decided to join in the fun.

We send an email with what our day's goals are.  This is to get the goals "in writing" in the hopes that we actually keep on track.

My goals today were:
 *   Practise quilting feathers with my Bailey
 *   Add the binding on a quilt found when cleaning up around my frame
*    Load a quilt onto the frame to force myself to quilt some feathers "for real"

I'm happy to say that the practising went well, the binding on the quilt and (quilt is in the wash), and a very small quilt top is loaded on the frame ready to quilt tomorrow.

Goals achieved for the day!

365 Block of the Day Challenge - The Centre

We got the email!  The one where we are told to put the borders on the centre medallion!  Finally!

After a celebration call to Joan who is working on the BOD project along with me, I ran to the sewing room.  With great anticipation hundreds of little blocks are sewn together and then added to the centre of the quilts.  And naturally things don't go as well as expected.

The blocks are all sized correctly.  Seams meet with little to no issue.  Before I know it I am proudly looking at the first quilt centre complete with borders.  Bring out the wine to celebrate!  Oh, wait.  Something looks funky. 

I decide to bring in the experts.  My DS as well as Joan.  Yep, it's funky.  There are too many lights in one corner and none in the other three.  We need some balance here people!

Mom laughs as she asks if I'm crying.  In junior high school I would cry every time I had to rip out a seam.  With a one or two years (okay - over 20) of quilting under my seam ripper, I've stopped crying.  Practise makes perfect and I'm a master frog stitcher now.

With time and patience along with some Disney podcasts, the seams are ripped, blocks turned, and the two centres are done:

I wonder when we get to add the next 100 or so blocks.....

Photo tutorial of making the Turnstile block

The April 21 bock for the 365 Block of the Day Challenge was the Turnstile block.  As always, the instructions were there for making this block.  And as what almost always happens, the fabric I decide to use for this 3 1/2" square is not the right size.  So I improvise.

Several friends asked for some photos to explain how I made this block.  Here it is.

First 8 HSTs (half square triangles) are made.  Mine were approximately 3 1/2" square.  Don't worry if they are not perfect.  They are going to be cut down:

Cut the HSTs on the diagonal:

Make sure the lines on the ruler are on the seam.  If the HST is larger than you need, you have no need to worry about cutting exactly through the corners.  You will be fixing that when you square up the 2" blocks soon.

Next sew to a strip of fabric.  No waste as you can sew these triangles on both sides of the strip.  The photo shows the sewing on one side only, but you can see the large green space where a triangle could be sewn on the opposite side (which I did):

After cutting to separate the blocks, press open.  Then trim to 2" square.  Diagonal mark on the ruler is at the 1" mark on the seam - clear as mud?  Sorry, forgot to take a photo of the ruler on top of the block.  But you can see the seam where the two purples meet the green.  Lay the diagonal line of your ruler along that seam, with the 1" mark where the purples meet each other. 

Before trimming:

 After trimming there is one inch of purple on each side - darn 1 it would have been so much easier to just show a photo instead of explaining:

Paying close attention to the layout you will be sure to get at least one of these blocks.

And if there was no "oops" when squaring up to 2" squares, you will have four finished 3 1/2" blocks like these:

I've been asked why make four blocks.  Well I am making two quilts and there are a few of the Blocks of the day I do not like.  So when I find a block I like I make extra to take the place of the ones that will be set aside for another project.