Free Motion - Practicing with Rulers

I bought a new free-motion foot for my Juki sewing machine.  I use my Juki all the time for free motion stitching, when I'm home.  My Juki is a domestic straight stitch machine.

This new foot will let me use straight and curved rulers as a guide when free motion stitching.  I borrowed my friend Lee's new rulers for a little practice.   I think I'm going to really like this for a bit of a change.   I enjoyed the circle template more than I thought I would...actually, I loved it.    

I have some straight and curved rulers on order with Diane at Country Crafts.  I'm making a few table runners to practice on when the rulers come in.

Notice the long straight lines that form a star in my sample.  I've used the ruler as a guide and stitched free motion.  And look at the perfect circles.  All this was done with the feed dogs down. In between using rulers, I just free motioned like normal to fill in the spaces.   No changing feet.
 
I've bound my practice sample..  I'm sure some cat somewhere would love to lay on this.

One Special Cookie!

It all started out as a pretty typical sugar cookie making day.   Aurora's job was to roll the cookie dough in sugar and put them on the tray.   I would bake them, and she would ice them when they were cool.  

So, it's all normal up until now.     

Then it near sent Aurora into a crazy frenzy 

when I was going to throw out the left over purple icing.     

She decided to do what Caitlin and Grace did a few years ago...  

Pose, while squirting icing into their mouths...    

Then it got a little silly.   

I painted her new front teeth with the icing.   

She thought that was cool.   

And then came a mustache.    

The goatee

It kind of looks like henna for her face now..

The icing is starting to harden.  I tell her not to smile..

haha.. 

Well, as you can see, she's a well decorated cookie, 

with a mustache, goatee, and a beautiful heart on her forehead.

She thought all this was so fun.  

She was sick of icing by this point, 

and happily threw the rest out..

Fabulous Fabric.... if You are a Kid!!

A couple of weeks ago, I had my friend Connie bring me a half yard of this fun Shopkins fabric from her out of town shopping trip.

My granddaughter Aurora loves Shopkins... I can't tell you how many she has.   I knew she would love this fabric.

Anyway, she arrived on Sunday and will stay a week.  She was thrilled with the fabric and immediately came up with a bunch of ideas on how to use the fabric.  I said let's think about it and we'll see what's doable.  

Besides swimming, and outdoor activities, we've been busy sewing small projects such as sleep pants and doll clothes.  

With the shopkins fabric, we decided that a cute little zipped pouch would be nice.  That got finished this morning.   It's from a badge holder tutorial.    It has a vinyl pouch on the front to put her card and another slot on the back. And it has a zipped part to keep important things in.     It's darling.    I actually use one from the same pattern to carry stuff in when I walk early in the morning.  It's perfect to keep my phone, and key and it fits nicely under my sweater.

Aurora also decided she wanted a pillow for her bed.   So we made a little bolster pillow to show off a big piece of the shopkin fabric.  It's funny, she can name all the shopkins off so quick.  They are unusual names.    

So, we have one small  piece of the shopkin fabric left.   It will  probably end up as a ribbon blanket for her doll.

We are also preparing to go to Nova Scotia to visit my sister and family later this week.  We have been shopping for lunches etc.   It's so exciting since we haven't been to Nova Scotia in a few years.

Vroom Vroom - Row by Row Car Pin

For those of you who are Row by Rowing, did you see the latest little car pin that Diane has at Country Crafts and Curtains?  

The car pin has a bar on the lower part to hold charms.  For the 2016 row, it is a house charm to match the Home Sweet Home theme.   It's so darling.  I was in Diane's shop earlier this week, and Diane gave me one.  (I was in and out of the shop so quick, I'm not even sure if I said thank-you... so just in case I forgot my manners, thanks so much Diane..  I just love it)   

    

I've put the little car with the dangly charm on my travelling bag of notions along with last year's pin.    Maybe this bag will become the holder of my pin collection.                                                                                                                                           So, I wonder what next year's Row by Row charm will be.  

Planning a Raffle Quilt = A Recalculation Required

I'm doing the planning and prep work for making the annual St. Dunstan's Raffle quilt.  I plan to do this in September.    This year, I'll be making an on-pointe Ohio Star.    The ladies have requested fall colors such as browns, reds, purples, golds. I've drafted up the quilt in EQ.    I've  been calculating fabric requirements step by step with pencil and paper and calculator.  Blocks, setting triangles, border 1, border 2 and binding.   It's taken the best part of my morning.  This is a good size queen quilt, 88" x 105".   I've done a sample block out of my scrap bin and made a small modification..

  It could be me, but I think I've gone wrong somewhere.    After all is said and done, for the quilt top and binding (no backing), I've calculated that I'll need 13 yards.    Gesh, can that be right?     I think I need to recalculate..      Stay tuned.

Presenting my Classmate Bag

It's done.   It's adorable.   There are several pockets, and it's a pretty flat bag.       The next question is, what will I put in it.     I have several collections of things that I keep in Ziplock bags.     I've decided to keep my collection of quilting rubber stamps and supplies in it.   They fit perfectly.      

I liked the different techniques in this project.  How to add the pockets, how to add the d-ring, and how to ad the cute handle.  Although I would do it a bit differently next time.  

If you look closely at the bottom picture, you'll see that there are still pins holding the binding in place.   I've been stitching bits at a time on the deck.    It will be done today.

It holds pens and a pad of paper.

It folds up pretty flat.  It clips closed.
(Thanks Heather for the rescued clip!)

I've put my label on the front.