Lunch totes

I used  Ayumi's (from Pink Penguin ) Lunch Tote tutorial to make a lunch bag for my granddaughter's birthday. She is going to be 10---going on 30.  I first made the cute one with bugs, but then thinking of her age, thought she would prefer one a little bit older looking, but still looking like it is for a kid.  I found this cute peace sign material and think maybe she will like it better.  I think they are both adorable.

I tweaked the tutorial a little bit.  I added a pocket to the front of the bag.  I also used Insul-Brite and fusible fleece.  The tutorial is very well written.  I had to tweak the sizes of the lining because of the extra insulation I added. 

Mug Rugs

I needed to make some more adjustments on my new Featherweight before I could really use it.  I had trouble with the belt slipping and then my needle started to hit the needle plate.  After I made these adjustments, I wanted to see how it sewed.  It is a peppy little machine.  Peppier, I think, than my others.  I made these two little mug rugs with it.  I work remotely so have little contact with the other people in my department.  I decided to make some of them mug rugs.  They aren't quilters, so I am sure I will have some explaining to do when they receive them.  The women in my little quilt club hadn't heard of mug rugs either.  I spend too much time reading blogs!







Spent the rest of the weekend watching two of my grand kids while their parents went to a marriage retreat through their church.  It was tiring, and I am glad I don't have to do it all the time, but I miss them tonight!

Elijah had soccer practice-he is really enjoying himself.  Madison played with other little girls while their siblings practiced.

Two Terrain quilts

I have been wanting to make a quilt for two girls I work with to raffle for their teams to raise money for cancer.  Both are cancer survivors.  I work remotely and haven't been able to contribute anything to them, and thought this may be a fun project for all of us.

A friend asked me to make a quilt for her team to raffle for cancer.  I actually made this one first.  I wanted to use bright colors to represent all the cancers.  This one is Cross Terrain from the Moda Bake Shop.  I added another border just to make it a little bit larger.  Both quilts have mostly Terrain in them.  I bought the Terrain for myself for a Christmas present.  I saved a little of it to make myself a quilt.  I really love that fabric!

Two more finishes for this year.  I am pretty pleased with my progress.

Valentine's Day Early

My husband and I don't fuss too much with holiday presents.  We usually like to spend time together by going out to eat, watching a movie, walking around a flea market, etc.  He really surprised me by buying me a nice little camera for Christmas.  I love that.  Then he surprised me by buying this little beauty for me:

I have a few black ones, but none of this Celery/Cream colored one.  It was frozen up and I thought it probably had a thread caught in the bobbin race area.  I took that all apart and it was clean as a whistle.  There was no thread or lint in this machine.  I am pretty sure it was used because the bobbins were in various states of fullness for thread and there was some thread on the spool spindle.
I oiled and greased her to no avail.  My husband helped me force the bobbin race and hand wheel to move, but the machine still wouldn't work under its own power.  I oiled and greased her some more, and with sore hands from all this, I decided to let the oil soak in and try again in the morning.  I was going to bring the big guns down  (hair dryer) if I needed to.
After a little more oiling, the machine was loosened up.  I was now having trouble with tension, skipped stitches, and huge bobbin loops under the fabric.  I had the needle in backwards, which is easy to do with Featherweights!  That helped with the skipped stitches.  More adjustments to the tension and that seems to be straightened out.  They are not quite as perfect as I would like to see, but we are getting there.
I think since I took the bobbin race out, I don't have that lined up as perfectly as it should be.
Part of the deal with DH buying this Celery Featherweight was I would sell one of my black ones to help pay for this.  I just can't do it!  I told him I would sell my Pfaff.  I am going to get that and clean it up and get it ready to sell.

This is a Pfaff Synchromatic 1215 that I never really bonded with.  I think it is a pretty desirable machine, and I have seen it recommended for sail making.  Not sure what it is worth, but I think it will cover the cost of my pretty little Featherweight and make my DH happy.

Success!!

Don't you just love it when you go shopping for fabric for a specific project and find it?  I needed fabric for the backing and binding of a charity quilt I am making and found something I love for that.  I was also looking for fabric for a wedding quilt I am making for my friend to give to her daughter.  She loves country colors and I found fabric for her quilt too!  A definite success!!

 I went to PA Outlet in Lemoyne, PA.  It is a neat old warehouse where they have tons of fabrics for all purposes.  They have buttons, zippers, pelts, etc.  Their selection of cottons has been increased and they had quite a bit of really nice fabric.

Here are the fabrics I bought.  On the left is the backing and binding for the charity quilt which is peaking through on top.  To the right are the mostly Thimbleberry fabrics for the country wedding quilt.  Those colors aren't very true on my computer and they aren't exactly what I wanted to get-not a lot of difference in scale, but I think they will still work.

And I have one more thing to add-another finish for January.  I made a bag for a birthday present.  January has been a pretty productive month.  Two quilt finishes (one was started in December) and a bag.

Resolved to sew 2012

Very Berry Handmade is having a giveaway.  Part of the giveaway is to blog about what you have resolved to sew in 2012.  This is actually difficult for me.  There are so many things I would like to resolve to sew, but I don't want to be beating myself up if  I fail.  I am thinking mostly about finishing up my WIP's.  I have one quilt that was supposed to be a Christmas present for the past two years that is nothing more than cut out fabric.  It is a black, red and white version of this quilt.

Then I have this Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt that I took apart and have yet put it back together again.

And there is the current Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt,  a patriotic quilt,  one with Robyn Pandolph's fabric,  and many miscellaneous quilts.

I don't need to take on any new projects this year, but of course I will.  I have a wedding quilt and a birthday quilt that are already in the planning stages.

So I would like to make a resolution to sew in 2012, but I won't.  I want to just enjoy what sewing I do.

What a difference....!

Here is my Prince Charming quilt.  See previous post about it.  I loved how it turned out and have people waiting on the sidelines for it.  I think I may give it to my "Prince Charming" for his birthday.  The pictures I had just didn't do this fabric justice.  My DH got me a nice little camera for Christmas and what a difference it makes.  It has a setting for vibrant colors that did a great job catching the vibrant colors in these quilts.

 Here is a picture of the quilt with the old camera.  It was just drab.  I admit that I took a picture of it with the new camera without that vibrant setting and it looked about the same.  I love this camera!!!

Here is another bright quilt that the pictures caught the brilliance of the fabric.  This fabric is full of bugs, snakes and lizards.  The pattern is Disappearing 9 Patch.  I love this pattern for quick quilts.  This is for grandson Braydon's 3rd birthday the end of January.   He likes bugs and things, but the backing fabric has cars, trucks and trains, which I think he loves even more.  I showed him a sneak peak while it was on the quilting frame and it made him smile.  It is a very happy quilt!