No quilting, but....

Here's a pic of my oldest doing color guard duty for CAP.



Note the military face. Something else I noted - he looks a lot like my lovely assistant in this photo. I've never really thought they looked alike, but she can make this face really well, too. Interesting!


And these little lovelies are tie-dyed eggs. Literally dyed with ties! Via Martha Stewart, you take men's silk ties, cut them apart so that you just have the silk, wrap it tightly around the egg, wrap tightly again with some other fabric, cover with water and about a quarter cup vinegar, boil for 20 min and voila! How cool is that??? No dye mess. Way cool results. See how clearly the print from the tie came out in some places? It was way too much fun. We blew these eggs out before we dyed them. I won't do that again next year. Gave me a headache. At least now I can say I've done it. This is definately how we'll dye eggs from now on.

And of course, a lovely assistant shot. Here she is disguised as an eggplant, sharing a sucker with her baby.

Managed to get a quilt loaded into the frame over the last few days and started quilting it this evening. Had to stop cuz I couldn't see what I was doing. Getting dark outside and lighting in my living room is just plain bad. Gonna have to do some looking around for inexpensive and easy lighting options for my frame. I just don't have enough daylight hours to work with.

Also got the binding stitched onto the back of the fan quilt, now need to stitch the front down. That's on my list of things to get around to this week. Must also clean up my sewing dungeon. Rain comes in the spring and if it comes hard and fast my room leaks! Must get everything up and out of harms way before a big storm hits. Not to mention, the basement is our tornado shelter. It would be really sad if we all died in the tornado because we couldn't get into the basement because all my fun stuff is everywhere!

Auction quilts

I finished quilting 2 auction quilts for our elementary school auction this weekend!

This one features artwork by 2nd graders in a rainforest theme.  The artwork showing just happens to be by my 2nd grader!  Please note the jungle leaves quilting done freehand by yours truly!  I thought it came out really nice - I'm very proud! 

This quilt features traced and decorated hands by Kindergardeners.  I quilted this one in a loopdiloop variation that I wanted to practice.  It was OK.  It looks nice, I just didn't enjoy doing it so much.  The quilt is really cute!

Got the rainforest one bound today, hopefully will finish the binding on the other one tonight so I can take them to school tomorrow for the kids to see.  The auction is adults only and I'd like for the kids to see the quilts before they are sold.

The quilting machine is working well!  Replaced some parts, fiddled with the timing and the tension, think I have it adjusted the way that it likes to be.  The bottom tension seems a little loose to me.  It's not pulling up to the top, just seems loose on the back.  Might try tightening it a bit on the bobbin case and see if that makes a difference.  Wondering if there is some other adjustment that affects bottom thread tension?

Spent a week in Branson for spring break.  Soooo nice!  A few pics:

Me and my lovely assistant enjoying the fountain show on the landing.  Those torches are 'hot'!!!  You can feel the heat from a long way away!

Lovely assistand and big brother 'cool' looking at trout at the fish hatchery.

A post! Woohoo!

This is a conglomeration of pics and thoughts and happenings.  First:

My lovely assistant 'working' on the laptop.  She's so efficient!

The fan quilt is done!  Well, it's quilted anyway.  Have to do the binding.  Can't decide what to do.  I don't think there's any way I can match the pink or the green, might try to get close to some of those fabs in the fans?  There's a black check in there, that might be the easiest thing to find.

And here is The Machine with a brand new tension assembly!  The little screw that holds it all together was broken.  Got it put in, haven't had time to quilt with it yet.  

And see what my bad, bad kitty did?  She's actually a very good kitty and she was only doing what kitties do.  This project is loaded up in the frame and is being worked on.  I broke a needle while testing the tension which threw the timing off, sooooooo - I retimed the needle, retimed the hook, retimed the needle again, and again, and again, and again.... finally got it right!!!!  Then the tension assembly fell out.  Again.  That's when I quit and went to the parts place and got a new one pictured above.  Since then, this has just been sitting and waiting for me.  You know how kitties are - they have to sit on everything to see if it makes a good lounging spot.  Well, she discovered that this did 'not' make a good lounging spot!  I heard this ripping sound and looked up to see a very surprised kitty sinking into the frame!  She jumped down quick, but not before half the quilt ripped off the leader.  The backing is pretty thin.  Fortunately, I have made one pass across the quilt, so I can repin it through all layers and continue on.  No real damage!

And one more picture of my lovely assistant.  She wears gloves like socks and wears them around the house.  How fun is that?  And I know you're thinking, "Does that baby always run around in just a diaper?" And the answer is, yes!  Unless we have to go someplace or it's really cold.  Don't ask what I run around in unless it's really cold or we have to go someplace.

The saga continues....

So I'm quilting along, having a great time, really wanting to 'finally' finish this quilt and this happens:


The tension assembly just plain falls out. Fell right out! Sheesh! No wonder I can't get the tension right! Took it and the screw that I thought was holding it in to the OSMPG (that's Old Sewing Machine Parts Guy, meaning he has parts for old sewing machines, not necessarily that he's an old guy, although this particular guy is no spring chicken, but I digress....), and he said my problem was with another part. See the roundy thing where the tension came off? That's the bad part. That part comes out of the machine and has a screw in it that holds the tension assembly together and then all of it goes back into the machine. So I trotted back home, took out that part, put the whole thing together, tightened the tiny screw, put it back in the machine, reset the spring 'again', tightened the bigger screw - and now we'll see what happens. Tomorrow. I'm done sewin' today.

And just for fun, we watched Better Off Dead tonight. Remember that movie? John Cusack is in it back when he was much younger. It's a classic 80's teenager comedy. Love it!!! "Go that way really fast and if something gets in your way - turn."

And here's what happens when you give the baby the empty popcorn bowl:

Just so you know.

Fan quilt and a bowl story

Still working on the fan quilt. Have gotten near the end, but the machine started throwing fits again - breaking thread, skipping stitches (new!!!) and making a terrible clacking sound. So, I figure it'll cost me about $90 to take it in and have it fixed as it is, or I can try to fix it myself and if I can't, it'll still cost me $90 to take it in and have it fixed. So I fixed it myself. And it works!!!!! I retimed the needle and the hook. Can you believe that??? Now I just need some more hours in the day so that I can finish this quilt.


I'm liking how this is turning out! The zigzaggy part needs help, the stuff in the middle of the fan is kinds wonky, but I like the big loops in the fan and I am really liking my loopies on the sides of the fan.


And a non quilty note. A very long time ago I had a favorite blue bowl that I used for everything - grating cheese, grapes, mixing anything and everything - it was terrific! Then one day one of my helpers left it too close to the griddle and melted a hole in it. It was terrible! I told my precious helper that it was OK, it was only a bowl and I have more bowls, which I do. But not like my favorite bowl! That's been at least a year and I have missed that bowl every time I grate cheese or mix up anything at all. None of my other bowls measure up.

This past weekend we did some estate saling and guess what I found! A new favorite bowl! Just like the old one! AND - it came with three little friends nested inside. The pic only shows one little friend, we have already put the other 2 to use. I saw it on Sat but waited till Sunday (cuz things are 1/2 price on Sundays) and got the bowl and it's three little friends for $1.50! How cool is that????

A little quilting

Look! A real quilt on the frame!! This is a vintage quilt that was given to me. It has big empty spaces that I thought would make good practice spots. I love the colors and the pattern, but it is sun bleached in spots and stained. See those black spots? It's like it was folded up and the black checks bled all over it. I haven't washed it, so don't know if it will come out. Anyway, it's a good practice top! Note the repurposed mattress pad batting and the cotton sheet backing. Quilt green, blah, blah, blah...

See my quilting there at the bottom? I only had time to load this quilt (takes me about an hour and then there's the bobbin winding.... hopefully I'll get better at all that with time) and make this one pass. Not too great. The machine is stitching really fast!

OH! Forgot. I replaced all the wheels and it's moving much more smoothly now. AND - when I turned the machine over to take off the wheels I found a chunk of batting all rolled up around the rod underneath. Took that off and now it's really going fast! A friend on an email list mentioned installing a dimmer switch for speed control and I think I'm gonna do that.

Here's a closeup of one block. Aren't they cute? It's too bad this quilt is in such bad shape. But, it will be fun to practice on and we will use it and enjoy it anyway.

And a shot of my lovely assistant. She loves to get 'in' things. Any box or basket we have around, she tries to get in it. This is the basket we keep diapers and wipees in. She dumps them out and gets in. She thought the flash on the camera was hilarious! I couldn't get a shot of her laughing, though.

More frame quilting practice

I finished a big practice piece today. I layed the piece out on the floor to take pics and look what happened:

My lovely assistant showed up to help. "Hmmmm..... I think this one works, mom!" And where there's one.....

There's more. Just like cats. Put something on the floor and they all show up to roll around on it. Actually, the cat ignores my quilting stuff. Maybe she's ignoring us? The kids have her job covered, so maybe she's decided to retire from doing the cat thing.

Here's a shot that you can see some of the quilting in.
And another. When I'm doing it on the frame I always feel like it doesn't look so great. Then when I take it off, I like it better. Something else I've learned - my machine works side to side. I really can't stitch top to bottom, so whatever I am 'drawing' with my machine I have to do it sideways - make sense? I can't really do hearts top to bottom, I have to do them side to side. So I've been practicing 'drawing' with a pen and paper side to side. Still having some problems with the machine 'sticking'. Not sure if it's a wheel problem, a track problem, a user problem, or just the way it is. Soon as I have some extra $$$ I'm gonna try replacing the wheels and see if that helps. It's also 'very' hard work! The machine is really heavy.

I think I'm not going to be one of those quilters who can do really cool feathers and really close work. At least not anytime soon and not with this machine. It's really difficult to do anything that requires meeting or tracing a line because I can't see through my foot. I may try to find some kind of see through hopping foot and then work more on that kind of thing. I am also finding that I really like loopdiloops and other things are coming along nicely, too.

And one last shot of 3 smiling faces that just can't resist a quilt on the floor.