Tablerunner Weekend!

This weekend was the Spring Sewing Party for the CG&GQC and I spent quite a bit of time on Saturday sewing with the girls. I was up early and started this tablerunner before work. It's the Club Sandwiches tablerunner from the Let's Do Lunch book by Atkinson Designs. It's a class I'll be teaching at TSC in March. The fabric is from the Wildflowers Line by Atkinson Designs. I finished it up after work.

Here's a close up of the center. The center squares were fussy cut.

Since I want to quilt the Club Sandwiches tablerunner after I've practiced on my new machine a bit, I set out to make another tablerunner. I pulled out the Objects of Desire leftovers and made this tablerunner Sat. night. I'll use it as practice for quilting. It's the 2nd one out of that line.

Today Paul had to do some work at FC, so I went along and cut out 4 tablerunners from the Essence line. All the tablerunners are out of the Anka's Treasures book On the Run. I hope to get them made later this week. I was shocked that it took me 3 hours to cut out the tablerunners, but they were all from a honeybun, layer cake, and dessert roll, so just needed to get them cut out and then I can quickly sew them up. I'm teaching the Sweet Escape tablerunner in April, so that one will get done first.
When we got home, I used more of the object of desire fabrics to make another tablerunner. This one is the most plain of the 3, but I'm sure someone will love it. After a bit of practice on my muslin, I had the tension set on my machine. I decided to practice a bit on this tablerunner. I want to do daisies, so I practiced. They aren't perfect, but I'm pleased that I'm stepping outside the box. I even got the binding on tonight, so I can finish it up tomorrow at work.

Here's a close up of one of my daisies.

And another daisy!

This is the back... if you didn't know, you'd think it's the front. The tension is awesome on this machine!

The three tablerunners I got made this weekend!

Spring Sewing Party

I'm participating in the Spring Sewing Party hosted by The Charming Guys & Girls Quilt Club. Look for updates on Saturday February 27th.
I'll be working on the Club Sandwiches tablerunner pattern by Atkinson Designs from the Let's Do Lunch book. I'm using the Wildflowers fabric line by Heather Mulder Peterson for this tablerunner. I have it all cut out and ready to sew as soon as I get off work on Saturday.


Friday 11PM: My first set of blocks are laying on my ironing board, ready to get started in the morning. It's gonna be a fun sewing party!

Update 8:30AM

This morning I was up bright and early at 6:30 AM to begin sewing. My hubby left to go Ice Fishing and since I have to work, I didn't go along. I was able to get the first three main blocks done and the first part of the 4 mini corners done. Here's a picture of the left main and center main blocks and the mini corners.

Here are two of the three main blocks. I fussy cut the center squares on all three.

These mini corners will next get a row of green added to them. I should be able to finish the top tonight at this rate! I had no idea I could get so much done in a morning. Off to work at 9 and I'll be back later this afternoon. Happy Sewing!

Update 7PM - After work this afternoon I was able to finish up the tablerunner top. I'm pleased with how it turned out, but the brown does make it a bit dark. I hope the quilting and binding will lighten it up. I'll probably end up quilting it later as I want to play with my quilting machine a bit more before I do it on this sample.

Here's a close up of the tablerunner. It was a quick and easy pattern and I really enjoyed how it made the fussy cut squares look.

Update 11 PM - Since I was finished my tablerunner top and didn't want to quilt it tonight, I pulled out another project. I had enough scraps of the Objects of Desire line left to make 2 more tablerunners. I also have enough backing and binding, so they were all together to make the tablerunners. They were even cut out and sorted! Using the Fast Food pattern from the Let's Do Lunch book by Atkinson Designs, I made this tablerunner. It took less than an hour to make the entire top.

Here's the other one all ready to be sewn together tomorrow. They aren't going to be my favorites, but they will make nice gifts and use up this fabric. I've really stretched it far. I've made two purses and three tablerunners out of 2 charm packs, 2 fat quarters, and 2 yards of fabric. I have this one laying on the muslin/batting/muslin sandwich I have on the frame. I think I finally got my tension good, so now I'm going to put matching thread on and give it a whirl tomorrow. I'll used these Objects of Desire tablerunners for practice. I'd like to learn how to do a daisy, so I could quilt them on the Wildflowers tablerunner.

My Spring Sewing Party has come to an end and I've really enjoyed making some new tablerunners. Thanks for all the comments and I look forward to seeing what everyone got accomplished.

A Mile A Minute

I finally got a chance to play with my new machine tonight and it goes a mile a minute! It's so fast compared to my 6600, that it's going to take some getting used to. I was trying to get the tension set correctly and I still need to do a bit more adjusting, but so far no bobbin thread on top, so I'm doing good. I've struggled with hearts, so I practiced some hearts and stars.

I also tried some small stippling which I've never done. This is pretty tiny stippling compared to the normal large meader I do. I think my three favorite features of this machine so far are the extra big harp, speed, and speed control. The speed control that came with the frame works, but doesn't have the thread cutter button, so I ordered a new one.

I also tried some spirals. I have plain muslin and scraps of batting which I'm using for practice. I still have lots of practicing to do before I quilt my projects, but I feel great about how much practice I got in tonight. The pictures are so dark because I had terrible shadows as it was after 10 tonight when I took the pictures.

Siggy Quilt Tops Finished

February is quickly coming to a close, so I've been focusing hard on accomplishing my goals. One of my big goals was to finish my signature quilt top. Last night I worked on it for several hours until I was able to get the math to come out right. I'm happy with how it turned out, though it's a lot bigger than I anticipated. It came out at 48" square. I plan to hang it in my sewing studio where there is a big open wall. It will remind me of my quilt retreat friends. I also prepped the  backing fabric. I was going to use the emblem fabric, but didn't have enough, so this one will have the white that is on the front.



After I finished the first top, I still had the other panel left and wasn't sure what I was going to do with it. I was inspired by the modern siggy swap going on, so I made the same blocks and outlined the panel. It didn't come out perfect, but I'm happy with it. I decided to add the triangles in the two corners to make it look like the ribbons are going out. What do you think? Does it make the quilt? What would you do?  I plan to quilt this as soon as I play with my new machine a bit and get comfy with it. I'm so excited that I got two siggy quilt tops out of the fabric I bought on retreat. I plan to have my quilty friends here sign this one when it's all done. I will use the Keep On Quilting emblem fabric for the back of this one.

Snowball 9 Patch Quilt Along

Last night I did the hand sewing on a quilt binding and finished up the binding while I was watching TV. It's amazing how much I can get done while The Bachelor is on. After it was over I headed to the studio to work on my quilt along blocks. I made 6 9 patch blocks and they turned out pretty cool. I'm doing an ISPY quilt using the snowballs and 9 patches. So far I haven't repeated any of the fabrics, so we'll see how far I get doing it this way.

Here are the 9 patch blocks with the first set of snowballs.

I bought this book and am looking forward to trying to sew a few doll clothes. I have a porcelin doll my grandma made and the only clothes I have for it are two very fancy dresses. When I saw this book I decided I would try to make some clothes for it. Has anyone made doll clothes before? Are there any tricks I should know? I've made clothes for myself, so I don't think it will be too hard.

My NEW Quilting Machine!

This weekend I accomplished squat in the sewing/quilting department. I had really good intentions to get lots done, but that just didn't happen. Saturday I worked at TSC and it was a busy day, so when I got home I was exhausted. We went to church and when we got home I wanted to quilt, but I needed my other speed control. I knew it was in the closet, I just wasn't sure where. I reorganized my sewing closet and cleared out 3 big totes of wedding stuff and condensed it down to 1 tote of stuff I want to keep. It's such a good feeling to have that done, but I realized I really need to put a scrap book together now. I'm just not a scrapbooker though, so this will be an interesting new adventure.
The reason I needed my other speed control is because I brought this new beauty home on Sat. It's a Janome 1600P quilting machine. It's strickly a straight stitch machine and goes 1600 spm compared to the 1000 spm my 6600P can do. I'll use it mostly on my frame to do machine quilting, but I did do some straight stitching to practice and it works awesome. It's an industrial machine, so it will sew through lots of thicknesses! This machine uses regular machine needles, so I'm good to use all the ones I have, but it takes different bobbins, so I had to get new ones. I picked up the FMQ foot yesterday, so hopefully some time this week I'll get to practice free motion quilting on the frame.
Sunday I went ice fishing with Paul at Sheridan Lake. It was a bit cold when we started, but not bad in the ice house. I listened to a book on my MP3 player and relaxed while he caught fish. We headed home about 12:30 and I took a nap. I haven't had a nap in quite a while, so it felt really good. I woke up just in time to watch the end of the race. Paul was not to excited about his driver getting second by just seconds. I cut out a tablerunner, but that's as far as I got Sunday night.

A Few New Projects

This was a very quilty birthday for me! My little bro Ed got me a Rotating Cutting mat that is 14" square, so I can square up my 12" blocks. Mom and Dad got me a pressing sheet for applique, On the Run tablerunner book, and a new iron. I also got a fun new purple MP3 player. It's already fully loaded and I've listened to several books on it.

I picked out a new pattern from the On the Run book and decided to make it with the Essence line from Sandy Gervais. I got a layer cake and some accents to go with it. I plan to make the tablerunner on the front of the book.

Then I decided to use some of the new Wildflowers fabric from Heather Mulder Peterson to make another tablerunner. I'm making the Club Sandwiches runner from "Let's Do Lunch" by Atkinson Designs. I got thread to match both of these, so I hope to get at least one of them done this weekend. I had fun buying fabric with my mom. It's something I haven't done in quite a while, but so much fun when we do have a chance.

"Baby" Chick Quilted!

Somehow it took me most of the week to quilt this small baby quilt for mom. Mom dropped it off Monday night and I planned to quilt it then, but did the zoo animals quilt instead. I taught a great beginning machine quilting class on Tues. night. Wed. night was Ash Wednesday Mass. By Thurs. night I knew I needed to get it done. I put it on the frame and an hour later it was quilted. I took it to mom and she put the binding on it last night. Today we were able to get the binding hand sewn down while we were waiting.  The fabric is by Pearl Louise Krush, a local designer.

Zoo Animals Baby Quilt

I'm finally finished with the first Zoo Animals baby quilt. This quilt has been a long time in the making. I picked up the panel back in April while at quilt retreat, then Jen sent me a fat quarter bundle to play with. I went to play with it and realized the panel was cut off. When mom and I were in Sioux Falls for Quilts and Vines, I picked up a couple more panels, another backing fabric, and decided to make 2 quilts. I cut both out in August. Then I put it away, waiting for a new baby to come along that I wanted to make it for. I finished the top last week and planned to quilt it last weekend, but it kind of got away from me. I finally quilted it Monday night and put the binding on. Tuesday and Wednesday I hand sewed the binding down and last night I put the label on it. It's now ready to be sent to the new baby of my friend Erin.

Here are a couple close ups of the quilting.


And the label I put on last night. The quilt is finally done and ready to be gifted!

My birthday balloon

Gotta love my coworkers!

My co-workers think it's hilarious that I'm finally 30, so they gave me a Over the Hill balloon, a big Over the Hill cookie, and several other "Over the Hill" items. I'm the youngest of our walking group, so I always get lots of teasing. It's been a great birthday!

Beautiful flowers from my MIL for my birthday/Valentine's Day!

Amazing husband!

My amazing husband sent me a dozen red roses for my birthday/Valentine's Day today at work! I LOVE the roses and my husband. It's the first time I've ever received a dozen red roses.

Zoo Animals Baby Quilt

The zoo animals baby quilt is now completed to the top stage. I cut it out several months ago, but just never go around to making it. I guess I need the inspiration of a new baby to make it. My friend had a baby last week, so I figured I'd better get busy. Last weekend I put on the inner border and then last night I put on the squares. Hopefully I'll get a chance to quilt it tonight and get the binding on it this weekend. This is the green one and the backing is the same green as the squares next to the corners. I also have a red one I'd like to get made up, but we'll see what other pressing things come up before it gets done.