Put A Bird On It

Lessons......

....if you don't clean your sewing machine, it will break when you are on deadline with a project and you will have to run and buy a new machine*.

*(which isn't always such a bad thing;)

End of lesson.

Project Quilting - Challenge 6 - Flower Power Dolly Blanket

This weeks challenge for Project Quilting was to find inspiration in an office supply store. I could come up with nothing until Kim told me to go to the store and wander around. Which I did and inspiration struck. We were to use 3 supplies for inspiration. Here's what I came up with. (Scary dolly for display purpose only)

The inspiration for my dolly blanket was all the bright colors of the new school supplies, a folder (pictured below), white poster board, and a quilted backpack.

I started with 2 pieces of cotton fabric I had gotten a while back at Walmart. They are supposed to be big dish towels, but I loved the texture and knew I could do something with them someday. They came in a big package of 5. After ironing them out, they looked and were about the size of white poster board.

I cut one piece in half, sandwiched it with some batting and quilted it. I quilted in a diagonal manner like the way the backpack I saw was quilted. I really like how it looks as I usually stipple everything.

I then heat bonded a bunch of solid colored fabrics, traced out my flowers, cut them out and ironed them onto my quilted surface. The butterfly wasn't on the inspiration folder, but I thought it would blend in nicely. I then free-handed the remaining flowers that were going to be just stitched.

After adhering all the flowers I matched thread and sewed over the flowers. I stitched several times around not going over the same line of stitching as I wanted it to look like doodling.

As I was finishing all the doodling, my machine decided she had had enough and I spent about an hour trying to figure out what was wrong. Which was aproximatly 57 minutes to many. So, before taking a sledge hammer to her or putting my head thru the nearest wall, I got out my baby Janome (which is like a kids sewing machine) and sewed on the ribbon border. I wanted it to be nicely couched onto the quilt but my janome only does a simple zig-zag. Whatever.

This piece measures 22 x 16 and was fitfully made in water-logged Elgin, IL.

Head over to Flicker to check out the other pieces....especially Aunt Kathleen's. I'm thinking she will be the judges winner this week!

Well, crap.....UPDATE

....whatever I ironed last left some grunge on my iron
 which I was fully unaware of....until I started ironing this pristine dolly blanket. I then became quite aware and I may said some swear words. Hopefully it will come out with a heavy dose of 'spray and wash'. Stay tuned.

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Thank goodness...it came out in the wash! Thanks for all your suggestions and comments....I especially liked the banana leaf idea...thanks, Aida! That was a new one to me....now where the heck would I find a banana leaf? Maybe I could try a banana peel? Hmmmm...

My Nemesis....

...I WILL CONQUER YOU!

Quilting Frame thingy...part 3

Well, its 3p on Friday afternoon and I've spent all my quilting hours this week working with this thing. The same baby-sized quilt is still on the frame and its still not done. Every time I think I have the hang of it, something gets effed up. It's not so much the frame, but the sewing machine too. The thread breaks or gets jammed in the tension or the bobbin is dinked up or I'm sewing too fast or I'm sewing too slow. Each time I have to stop, assess, fix and restart. Frankly, I'm surprised I lasted this long. I definitely have the frame thingy down...how it goes together and what-not and I do think it is a cool tool to have.....I just need a break from the whole thing. I'm going to work on my scrappy quilt now and this weekend.......and I think I'll send it to auntie to quilt when its done. Auntie, lemme tell ya, your a really, really good stippler....and I ain't just sayin' that to be nice!

John Flynn Quilting Frame thingy....part 2

(Part 1 posted yesterday) Okay...more thoughts and ramblings about this thing. I think (especially since its morning time as I blog this) I can grow to love this frame...someday. I just need to be patient and work out the kinks. I need to have a dedicated space for this frame so that I don't put it in the closet to collect dust. Also, I need a table and possibly another machine just for quilting projects. I'm thinking about buying an inexpensive machine...I'm going to watch for some that might be on sale. I've seen bare bones straight stitch machines for around $50. Altho, I would need the feed dogs to drop and that doesn't usually happen on inexpensive (read cheap) machines. And a cheap machine might just give me more headaches. Hey...maybe I should just upgrade the machine I have now!! Look at me everyone.....all of a sudden I'm a Rockefeller!! (deep breath)I'm going to work with Henry this morning so I'll be taking a break from it...which is probably a good thing. Have a great day! Karen

John Flynn Quilting Frame thingy

Well, my Quilting frame arrived on Monday afternoon. I spent Monday evening ,Tuesday morning and Tuesday afternoon (I went to the gym and took a nap in between on Tues) putting it together and trying to figure it out. I got it going last night and .....well, the jury is still out. Not sure if I love it or hate it. I can only sew about 4.5 inches across before I have to unpin, unwind the side thingies, roll the quilt 4 inches, repin, put the side thingies back on, tighten everything up and sew another 4 inches and then start the whole process over again. Not to mention there's a HUGE learning curve in driving this thing and making a nice quilt pattern. I've quilted about 8 inches so far and it looks like crap. But that's okay, I'm starting to get the hang of it. Oh and another thing. it's a pain when your bobbin runs out or your thread breaks. I'm going to work on it a little more this morning but plan to stop if my frustration level starts to rise again. BTW...this was why I was irritable on FB yesterday;) Oh wait, there's more. If I do decide I love...or just like it...I need to set up a dedicated space for it and maybe a dedicated sewing machine. I've already knocked over a cup of coffee fiddling with the thing...aaarrgghhh. I do think once I get the hang of it, tho, I'll like it. BUT until then......sorry auntie....your not off the quilting hook.

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3pm Update:Things are going a little smoother this afternoon with the frame. Stay tuned.

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346pm: I spoke too soon...aaaarrrgggghhhh. Pulling stiches out. Oh, and btw, I can only sew 3 inches across before I have to rework everything.

My latest project.

I started quilting just over a year ago and have amassed 3 big plastic pretzel jars full of scraps from all the projects I've worked on (some finished and a lot not finished!). I had the brilliant (insert lightbulb) idea to sew them all together into a scrappy quilt, calling it Scraps, 2009. I showed it to MSA* yesterday, and she turned up her perky little O'neill nose and said, "that's ugly" or maybe she said, "I don't like it". Oh, what does she know. Grace liked it. I thought this quilt would be a great reminder of my first year as a quilter.

Update: Also included in this quilt will be some leftover blocks I made but never got sewn into any quilts...good eye, auntie....and ur right...what do the A's know....obviously nothing!

*MSA: my sister amy

Hey, cute bag....

.....too bad I didn't notice I was sewing the back on upside down. AAARRRRGGGG!!!

Oh, Well......

The CQ4S9P* Quilt

*The Crookedly Quilted 4-Square 9-Patch Quilt.

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I can't sew straight...hence the name. This is a carseat baby blanket or a play mat or a kitty bed.

Sunbonnet Sue....I mean holly Hobby.....the fix.

So I found this adorable hand quilted pic of good ole Sue at the Savation Army thrift store a few weeks ago.....

.....but everytime I look at it, her hand jumps out at me....it kinda weirds me out. I love everything about the pic, but I just can't get past the arthritic-looking, knarly hand. I'm wondering if I could cover it up somehow.....maybe try and find a matching scrap of fabric and make it look like her hand is in her pocket.

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Update: I've been schooled by an anonymous commenter:

Anonymous said...
This is Holly Hobby, not a Sunbonnet Sue. It's from the 1970s I think.

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This will have to do for now.

Wonky Town

Well, I started building Wonky Town back in February but then housing starts were way down and it languished in a corner hoping to be built upon soon. Here is is July and the town is finished! I've already started moving into the blue house on top altho my roof is a little crooked...just like me! As a matter of fact, all the roofs look a little crooked and the cats' behinds are cut off and some of the houses seem to be tilted sideways. I like it anyway. I like the trees and the tiny details in the windows.

How to make a quilting table or ................BillyBob makes a quilt table.

At times, I overwhelm myself with genius;)

The Walking Quilt

Hmmmm....this can't be good.....

Little peek.....

....of my latest Wip. I haven't started anything new in the last month. I'm continuing to work on projects I started months ago. I'm thinking I'll continue to work on Wips until I go to Michigan the first week in June. I have a few things picked out that I want to get started on while I'm there. I put aside the Florida quilt to work on this little project. I'm going to try and finish it today....maybe. As you can see from the above pic, I sewed the little mouse to close to the edge so I'll have to add on another border before I add the binding. I continue to think that I'm a master quilter (lol and rotfl) and don't need patterns.....hence I continue to make a lot of errors. Oh well, I'm learning as I go.

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Last week I went to the Prarie Shop Quilts store in Batavia to join a few ladies who get together every Wednesday to quilt and fellowship. Oh boy, was I out of my league! These gals sure can quilt! Looking forward to joing them again this week.

When quilting goes bad......

Well I made a few rather large mistakes on the Florida quilt. 1) I cut the blue border too thin. This is what happens when one does not follow a pattern and one thinks she is so clever but really is a quilting newbie (not that there is anything wrong with that). The border for the inner part of the quilt should have been 3.5 inches wide but instead I cut it 3.0 inches wide.....duh. Then 2) I sewed it on and ironed the seams so very nicely. I then laid it out to admire my handy work and.................oh crap.

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RRRRIIIIIPPPPP!!!!!