September 30, 2011 - brrrrrrr

Current conditions as of 2:54 PM CDT

Mostly Cloudy

Feels Like:

59 °F

Barometer:

30.04 in and steady

Humidity:

45 %

Visibility:

10 mi

Dewpoint:

37 °F

Wind:

NW 16 mph

UV Index:

2

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Low

Sunrise:

6:48 AM

Sunset:

6:36 PM

59°

High: 57° Low: 36°

Today	Tomorrow	Sun	Mon	Tue
Partly Cloudy	Mostly Sunny	Sunny	Sunny	Mostly Sunny
High: 57° Low: 36°	High: 56°      Low: 34°	High: 64°       Low: 42°	High: 68°        Low: 45°	High: 70°          Low: 48°

New Sites

First of all I'd like to thank Dianne for becoming a follower of this blog.  Thanks!  Hope you like it and leave comments on how to improve it or change it or just to say hi.

The second thing that I have discovered ...new embroidery design sites.  Being of the frugal (read never have enough money) variety type person that I am, I did a search for some free download design sites for my Brother embroidery machine.  I was happy to come across some but today I will talk about just two.  They both offer free downloads which fit in my hoop (I can only use 4x4)  and I need PES designs.  Best thing is.....

They change their free download every 10 minutes.  You can check back often and get a lot of designs. 

The links are:

http://embroideryfriend.com/

http://embroideryshow.com/

So far I am thinking I like embroideryshow.com a little better but then it has some flower designs which I am liking. 

More to come and perhaps a picture or two next week.  Have a great Friday everybody.

My weekend

I had a great but tiring weekend.  Isn't that normal?  So what did I do?  i traveled about 250 miles, spent money, got good deals, saw great scenery, and came back home with fabric and a used embroidery machine.

As some of you may know (what?  some of you DON'T know?) I am buying a a brother embroidery machine from a friend.  This weekend I went for a play date at her house to pick it up and get a quick tutorial.  It was great fun and I'm glad that we got to meet again.  She has a great dog who loves to be petted (but only if you want to) and as you can see when you stop petting her you get the sad eye treatment.

Here is a picture of my new machine but also some great deals on some fabric.  It is normally around $11 a pack and but I got it on sale for $3.  I also came home from Harmony's place with some home made apple butter.  Twas a delicious weekend!

While I was at Harmony's she showed me how to run the machine.  I did a simple "B" with a heart frame and didn't do too badly I think.

I made this into a mug rug which I'll take a picture of later and post it.

After I got home it was time to try out the machine on my own.  I had...ummmmm...mixed results.  This little critter might look like a shrimp or something creepy, but it actually is the bunched up thread and fabric (yes, I had a hole in my fabric).

It was a learning lesson though.  I learned how to take off the face plate (a small feat in itself) to get to this creepy bunch of thread but I did get things put back together right and managed to come out with a nice green feather (will post a picture later) and then got REALLY brave.  I figured out how to transfer some of the patterns that I had downloaded from Artistic Threadworks ($7 a month for access to their database to download what you want OR you can pay individually...no brainer..$7 it is) to the sewing machine via the PED.  I decided to pick out a pink ribbon angel for my first attempt which got me familiar with changing threads also.

Overall I think I did pretty good.

Saturday  I went for a ride into the country and just relaxed before finding all that fabric.

Didn't have my camera with me so this was taking through the window of the car.  LOL.  I ended up spending some time up in the forest of dark trees. 

But reality struck.  After spending money on fabric, gas and food, I had to head home and do laundry.  THAT wasn't exciting but still overall I had a great weekend.  How about you?

FREE Pattern from Alex Anderson

FREE Pattern from Alex Anderson

If you like or love applique you might be interested in this free pattern from Alex Anderson. It is called The Grape Life. If you need practice with circles and leaves, this is great. Check it out.

Fabric

This is quick and short since I need to close up shop and meet my brother for dinner.  Every Thursday we meet up and go grocery shopping and out to dinner.

Here is the promised picture of the quilts for kids fabric that I got.  Isn't it cute?!

I have new followers!

After a long day at the office, it was nice to see that I've picked up a few new people.  Thanks for stopping by and following!

How do you like my new picture?  I love changing pictures on my blog.  It breaks up the monotony of seeing the same thing all the time.  I have always loved that picture.  :)

I've decided on which fabric to use with the Dresden Plates.  It is totally different fabric from the three choices that I had posted.  It's a tan background.  When I finish the block I'll post a picture..

Today's mail was pretty exciting.  I received my 12.5" square up tool.  Why does acrylic square always look so much larger than the same size in fabric?  LOL.  I guess this means I now need to put together some new blocks in order to test it out.

Another thing that I received in the mail today was my Quilts for Kids packet.  Talk about cute fabric!  I'll try and take a picture of it at work tomorrow and post it.  It's better lighting there.

Two more days and then I go see Harmony and get my Embroidery machine.  That should be a fun trip.  Must remember to bring a salad with me.

Booo!

This weekend I practiced on my sewing machine.  Managed to learn how to do buttonhole stitch on it and also a small satin stitch (or close enough to it).  The piece I was practicing on is small so I decided to be brave and actually do some FMQ!  Can't believe I did it.  I'm not good at it so it is a good thing this was done with black thread on black fabric.  LOL.

My ghost decided to dress up so no plain sheets for her.  :)

I also managed to get two elf envelopes off in the mail and will send one to Canada when I get paid again.  Elf Envelopes are my own campaign to send people something nice.  I am doing this in a quilting group that I am in.  They have posted information about themselves for things like secret santas/sisters and I use that to figure out what to send.  It's not much.  It might be half a yard of a fabric or two, perhaps a pattern, perhaps candy or even this Boo hanging.  I don't tell them, it just arrives.  The card says "Smile....Somebody thought of you today - Elfkins". 

That's it for now.  About time to close up shop and head home.  First thing to do is practice FMQ for about 20 minutes.  I am using the scraps that I cut off from my other projects so nothing special.  It's to get me to get more used to moving the fabric around on my own without the machine helping me.  I forget to do that.  LOL.  I also can't seem to make designs yet but I've heard of people who print their designs and then put it on (like with freezer paper or something) and then stitch over it. 

Anybody have any suggestions?

Friendship Star almost finished

I have almost finished doing the friendship star wall hanging for Lindyline.  I friend of mine is going to do free motion quilting on the border and then back to me for the binding. 

Here is a close up of the center.  That is also the fabric that I used on the back.

This is a closeup of the quilting in the center of it.

Joy Banner

My friend Shelley Gardner has recently started a business doing long arm quilting.  I had sent her an applique banner that I had done and she has now finished it and quilted it.  You can see close up pictures of it on her blog site at:

http://rockymtquilts.blogspot.com/2011/09/too-early-for-christmas.html

Drop by and tell her what you think of her quilting.  Her rates are very reasonable.

Notice that she wrote sayings and words in the white area and did trapunto on the letters.

Well done Shelley.  Thanks!

Youtube UK Festival of Quilts 2011

Here are a couple of Youtube links for the UK Festival of Quilts 2011.  Isn't the internet great for taking us to the shows that we can't get to ourselves?  I can't say I like them all but it IS interesting to see what is out there and especially in other countries.

Part One

http://youtu.be/gZ1BmBheiDM


Part two

http://youtu.be/ErbjYbT_iOg

I also want to say hello to my new follower.  I'm glad that you decided to follow the meanderings of my life here.  Hope you won't get bored.

New Dresden

Ok.  Here is my attempt at a Dresden Kaleidoscope.  I'm not sure which fabric I will use for the backing on it.  What do you think?  Of course don't look at the non ironed fabric.  We have three choices.

a)  Mauve background
b) violet background
c) Waterlilly background (which is actually more yellow if you saw it in person.)

I think I know which one I'm going to use but am interested in your opinion.

Go and answer on the poll off to the right hand side.

A.      

B.        

C.               

 

 

 

 

 

Yahoo Group

Ok.  Another thing I've been meaning to do lately but always forget is to mention one of the best quilting yahoo groups around.  That would be:CyberQuilters and their sister group CyberQuilters4-C-Bees.

These are great groups.  I've learned a lot by joining them and made lots of new friends.  You've heard me mention the Bucket List before and it is the CyberQuilters4-C-Bees that does that.  It's a good way to take the plunge into learning something new.  Both of them offer great support as well as you get to see a bunch of great quilting projects when completed. 

The group has quilters of all levels on it and if you can't find a pattern, don't understand directions, or are just curious about anything, you'll find an answer there.  I will warn you though.....lots of them have their own blogs and you might find yourself becoming a follower of theirs and find yourself on new journeys.  I'm glad that I joined and would encourage everybody else to check it out. 

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CyberQuilters/

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CyberQuilters4-C-Bees/

Civil War Blog

I'm going to try and mention some of the interesting blogs that I have run across periodically.  Today I thought I'd send the link for the Civil War Blog.

Whether or not you are a quilter, this blog offers a bit of history as well.  You might want to check it out.

http://civilwarquilts.blogspot.com/

Quilting in the New Year Swap

Just promoting the Quilting in the New Year Swap that is run through QuiltingBoard.  It's a great swap and even though it is entitled the September swap, the deadline to mail isn't until the end of October.  We do it to give people the max time they can to finish their projects.  If interested, you can read about it at:



http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-152028-1.htm

iTunes link

For those of you who have iTunes and quilt, did you know they have a couple of quilting shows on there?  I looked at Let's Quilt and am downloading some of them.  I liked the one I saw and hopefully will like the others.

If you haven't checked it out before do so.

That's it for this blog tonight.  I want to finish up my July Baltimore Album block and think I can finish it this weekend.

Have a good weekend everybody!

If I can do it......

I know you've heard this line before "If I can do it anybody can".  I actually believe this is true but when I responded back to a friend about the Baltimore Album BOM and how it looked difficult I thought about what I responded.  I thought I'd just take a minute out to post how I responded.

**************************************************************

Besides the usual "If I can do it anybody can", I suggest it for the following reasons:

1.  It's free.  Let's admit it.  Free is good.

2.  These are 12.5" finished sized blocks but you work on 14" squares.

3.  They might look complicated but they really aren't.  You can do them at your own pace and in whichever method of applique you like.  We even have one person who is doing a wool Baltimore Album.

4.  They are all up on the site (which I'll post at the end of this). 

5. If you have EQ7, she gives both the EQ version to download as well as the normal pdf to download.

6.  TONS of support. 

Check out some of the months and where you can find the patterns at:

Forgot to put in the first link.

http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-97786-1.htm

February

http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-96076-1.htm

March
http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-105888-1.htm

April
http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-114430-1.htm

May
http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-121683-1.htm

June
http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-128939-1.htm

July
http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-135934-1.htm

August
http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-143432-1.htm

Due to weather conditions which took out her computer, September hasn't been posted yet.

Seriously, I love doing this one block at a time.  If you need help just let me know.  We have more people joining up each month and all the patterns are still available.

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I will post this on the Baltimore Album page also but if you EVER wanted to do a Baltimore.  This is a good start.  *I* never thought I could but now I know I can.  Maybe not the small intricate ones yet but there is something of an accomplishment to say that *I* made a Baltimore Album quilt.  It might not be perfect (mine never are) but *I* made it.

Like in most quilting and life...don't always look at the big picture.  Break it down into digestible pieces.  A whole quilt looks too intimidating.  One block on the other hand isn't so intimidating.  An 8" block or smaller might have too small of pieces to work with but these are 12.5" finished squares.  That can make the difference.  In this one case, you don't have to put in elements that you don't like.  For instance, I think it looks too crowded with the inner borders so I am leaving them out.  You can pick your colors.  You can change your colors and can use scraps, etc.

Did I mention it was free?  Free is good.

I'm so excited!!!!!!!

I might be getting an EMBROIDERY MACHINE!   A friend is selling hers and says I can make payments on it.  Of course now that I type this here I realize I should probably have gotten more information from her on what type is it and how old, etc.  Oh who cares!  I might be getting an Embroidery machine!


Yeah, it's exciting to me.  I've wanted one for quite a long time.  I know it is a Brother brand and I like Brothers (mine are great--grins).  She also said that it includes PED basic downloading equipment for embroidery designs.  Sure...whatever.  For $250 I figured it has to be somewhat of a good deal (nobody is suppose to burst my bubble until 24 hours have gone by).

I will be seeing this friend on the 23rd when Connie and I go have a sewing play date.  I was going to bring some Baltimore Album blocks to work on but now it might be changed to getting some lessons on how to run her....oops...my...macine.

Did I mention I might get an embroidery machine?

YIPPEE!!!!!!!!!

UPDATE: 

This link will give you an idea of what it is or a least what it was when it was new.  LOL.

http://www.brother-usa.com/homesewing/modeldetail.aspx?PRODUCTID=SE270D

Labor Day Weekend

It's been a busy weekend for me but productive.  I managed to finish up my doll quilt for the September swap and also my September block for the Rhonda's swap.  After finishing that up I now need to clean up before working on more projects.  That made three projects finished this weekend.  Two blocks (remember one was for the Baltimore so it is posted on that page) and one doll quilt.

Here are the pictures.

September 4, 2011

I've managed to finish one of my Baltimore blocks so check out that page.

I received this week my Quilting in the New Year Swap project from Islandwiz1 on the QuiltingBoard.  I was really pleased with it.  I have put it over my bed so I can look at it whenever I want. It was a special treat that she had already put it into the frame so after it came out of the envelope it was already to just hang up.

 

Not much is going on right now.  Still working on September's projects.  That would be Rhonda's block swap project - to be done in purples, blues, or earth tones; Quilting in the New Year - which will be going to Australia; multiple months of Baltimore Blocks; Bucket List - embellishments; and Doll Quilt - which is black and white with a splash of color.  Hopefully I will get one of them done before Tuesday and having to go back to work.

Wish meluck.