St. Anthony's Quilt - Star Block 81 of 128 Done

I'm so pleased that I now have 81 star blocks done out of the 128 that I need for the St. Anthony's raffle quilt that we will put in in October.   I'm in a big rush to get the top done because it will be on display at the church on September 25th.  I'm hoping it will attract a few new hand quilters to our group.   When I did my test block last week, I thought I had the math all wrong.  It turns out my math was correct, but my measuring was wrong...oh, well, it was very confusing to me... but when I re-measured, they were right.

We will be going to the cottage this week end, just for a day, and I don't plan on doing any sewing... But I do plan to take my 81 stars and square them up.  I find squaring up, the least favorite part of making the quilt.  How about you?

And for when we get home from the cottage, I have flying geese parts to make almost the rest that are needed.  Will I make my goal of having the 128 blocks done by Sunday...

Even, I don't know that..but come back on Sunday and I'll post where I am with my project.

Breakfast at McDonalds

Hurricane Irene took our power out today.  So, we started out our odd no-power day with Breakfast at McDonalds.    We hoped that by the time we got home, that our power would be on.  

Nope, when we got home, it wasn't on..... So, we read Disney's Beauty and the Beast.... TEN times.  

Then we had a little lunch snack and read Beauty and the Beast 5 more times.    Then we had a rest, a sleep actually.   We hoped the power would be on by the time we woke up.

Nope, so we read Beauty and the Beast 3 more times.  Then for a change, Aurora recited Beauty and the Beast to me... 

A little later, while Grampie was hooking up the noisy generator to keep the fridge and freezer cold, Aurora and I went to the school park and stayed for an hour.   We were hoping that the power would be back on when we got back... But it wasn't.  And neither was the generator.  Grampie had problems with it.  It had been a long time since we used it.

But then at 6pm, after lots of tries and tweeking, Grampie got the generator going.  Yippee... We had extension cords winding up and down stairs out the back window to get the power...  Yippee   We had power in our fridge and our freezer....  We were all excited!  Even Aurora was caught up in all the excitement.....

Then at 6:05pm, the power came back on.....      Yippee...

It got a new eReader Tablet

With everyone I know getting Kobo's for reading ebooks, I've been wanting a color eReader. I read more magazines than I do books, so I've been waiting to get something more suited to what I would use it for.  

I saw a color Nook at Barns and Noble when I was there last month.  It was smaller than an Ipad, and it could do email along with many other applications.   

While this isn't a Nook, it is something very similar.    I haven't done much with it yet, but 3.5 year old Aurora is learning how to play Gems on it.  So far, she has the high score...  I'll fix that when she goes home in a couple of days :).. 

Passport holder for Two

Yes, I was distracted again today.   I think I'm noticing a pattern in the way I work.. especially on big projects.  I've set myself a goal, and as long as I get my quota done, I let myself do some other small projects.   I would probably be a lot further on the church quilt, if I could just stick with it....

Well, I did get about two hours sewing/piecing blocks done on the church quilt so this afternoon I worked on a super small and simple project.. 

The other day,  Natalia had listed some free tutorials for things to make for travelling.  Well, with our Alaska trip coming right up, I couldn't help myself.  Following this tutorial, I just had to make this double passport holder.

I used my Canadian Themed fabric..and whipped this up pretty quick.  I really like how the passport pockets are deep.  I'm not sure what to put in the little lower pocket, but I'm sure I'll think of something.

Making Juicebag Totebags

I'm making good headway with my church quilt.  I let myself get distracted a bit this afternoon.  I decided I wanted to make a couple of juicebags for a non-sewing friend who has two young children, 3 and 5.  

I only needed these for next Wednesday, so I thought to myself, I'll take the supplies and make them this weekend at the cottage. 

When I looked in my box of juicebag supplies, to my surprise, I had a few small juicebags almost all done.  All I had to do was add the black binding around the edges, and the handle.  

So with my excitement I took out two and finished them in less than an hour this afternoon. 

If you want to make your own, click on the tutorial on my sidebar.

Now I'm back working at the church quilt.

St. Anthony's Quilt - Star Block 1 of 128 Done

I had mentioned in a previous post that I'll be making a Star quilt for the St. Anthony's Raffle Quilt.  I have a deadline of Sept 23rd to finish the quilt. 
My plan is to have all 128 stars done by Sept 4th.  That's less than two weeks away.   I have been working all week on the planning the size,  pulling/auditioning fabrics, cutting star parts.  

I started making some geese blocks on Monday and I've trimmed up some of them.  Today, I have lots of star parts cut and ready to assemble an actual star.

Just before supper, I finished block ONE!     Now I have 127 to go.    I did a measurement to see if my quilt math is spot on, and guess what.  The block is 5.75 inches, not 6 inches. 

That's why I much prefer to work with a commercial pattern..... uggg......I'm continuing anyway... I'll adjust the size of my borders...

And so, how's your quilt math been lately?

It's Pickle Day

Another year has gone by.  Today we found ourselves spending this rainy day hand chopping veggies for our pickles.  We only make two kinds now.  Bread and Butters, and mustard pickles.    The bread and butters are done and sealed.  This is the easiest recipe ever!!!  I shared it here on a post a couple of years ago.    Tomorrow, we finish the mustard pickles.  I love making pickles, do you? 

Advice needed on travelling with stitching projects!

I'm preparing for a long trip.   I'll be flying from the east coast to Vancouver in a couple of weeks to catch an Alaskan Cruise.  Then, we'll be flying from Alaska back home.  A total of 25 or 26 hours flying time both ways.    I am not worried about stitching while I'm on vacation, and I probably won't have time.   But the long flights and time spent in airports will give me some stitching time.

In my new little embroidery take-along pouch that I made last week, I'm preparing to take a couple of the small blocks from my Winter Wonderland project with me.    I know that I can't take scissors on the plane with me, so I'm taking my clover cutting disc necklace.   But what I don't know is, can I take needles?  I hope so.   I plan on taking 10 thread loaded needles in my needle case with me.  

Do you have any advice on travelling with stitching projects?

Understanding the Pfaff Bi-level (binding) foot

For those of you with Pfaff sewing machines, you might like to know about the Pfaff bi-level foot.  I refer to it as a binding foot, because I can't imagine what else I'd use it for.    But I love this foot....   For those of you who don't have one, let me show you how I use it to do the final top stitching on my binding.

I only use this foot for the top stitching part of the binding process.  So after you have sewn your 2.25" bias or straight binding strip to the back side of your quilt, fold over to cover the seam on the top side of your quilt.  I pin with pins pointing toward the presser foot.  I take them out as I come to them.

First have a look at the foot.  It's called a bi-level foot because it accommodates something that has two levels. 

The underside of the foot is deeply grooved.  This accommodates the thicker binding strip.  

After snapping on the foot, if you look closely, the foot sits crooked.  Two levels.  I guess that's why they call it the bi-level foot.

When you place your prepared piece for the final top stitching of the binding, the thick binding side is to the right side, and the inside quilt part falls under the left side.   I keep the IDT foot down (or engaged). 

Now look at the piece closely, you will see that the foot is level.    As you stitch, there is a small red mark on top of the foot.  This mark lines up with the edge of your binding.   The side of the lower level side of the foot, keeps it from shifting over.   You now move your needle over to top stitch close to the edge.  As you come to a corner, simply stop sewing with the needle in the down position, lift the presser foot, pivot the fabric, then lower the presser foot, and start sewing again.

Here is what your topstitching will look like on your binding from the right side and the last picture shows what it looks like on the underside.   

Sometimes you have to just give it a try on a small project to get the hang of it.   Let me know if you have any questions.

Presenting Twin Baby Quilts

After a days rest from Grammie Camp, I loved sitting down at the machine to stitch. 

This week, I finished two baby quilts that I had started in June.  These babies are cousins to the triplets.  The babies were born in July, and even though I had the two quilt tops done, I couldn't finish until we knew the names.  So now that we know their names and Grammie Camp is behind us, it was time to get them done.     {My arms are not that hairy....in this photo, my hubby is helping me close the safety pins. :) }

Finishing the baby quilts took longer than I thought.... Earlier this week, I was thinking that I can get them done in a day..... Well, in actuality it was 3 days.     I tend to under estimate how long things take.  Do you do that?   If it was just the sewing part, ok.... but I seem to forget the time it takes to iron, to layer, to pin (and you know I'm a avid pinner), to trim, to square up, etc. 

But they're done now and they'll be sent to newborns Sebastian and Tristan in Ontario this week.

Here you can see that I free motion stippled in the white part and echo quilted around the letters of the name.  Twice.  Once inside the edge of the blue letters, and once just on the outside.

For the argyle blocks, using my stitch in the ditch foot, and with the needle position moved over to the left a couple of notches, I simply top stitched on both sides of the light blue "X".  It was pretty continuous to sew.

I love this pattern for a baby boy.  It's by Natalia from Piece and Quilt.  You can find the free pattern here on the Moda Bake shop.   It's so modern looking.   There is a similar quilt done in girl colors.  I'm just itching for somebody to have a girl so I can make one in pink and browns.

Grammie Camp Group Photo

Grammie Camp is all done and we had a great time.  Here is our official camp photo.  We're all wearing our new Tie-Dye T-shirts.  We tried new techniques this year and the colors are richer and more vivid.   Did you see our Charlie Brown tree in the photo. It was just sweet.  We made beautiful crafty decorations to put on the tree, and  it's really gave us a Christmasy feeling all week.  

I have many great photos, and I'll sort through them to show you some of the neat crafts we made. 

We had so much fun with Minute-to-Win-it games each evening.  They were hilarious...and I think we should get the kids on the TV show.  They are so good at these games, they would certainly win a Million dollars!!

And of course I couldn't have done all this with out the amazing amount of help from my sister.    Many thanks Auntie Donna!!You will never know how much I appreciate your help.

   

Grammie Camp finishes up today

Grammie camp finishes up today.  

This is the little patch, the kids will be sewing on their blankets today.  Since the theme is Christmas at the Cottage, how fun to have a cottage mouse with a candy cane featured on a present. 

I'll be back in blog land tomorrow with a fun filled update.