Sister's Choice Quilts

December, I Am Ready

Hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving, if you celebrate that holiday.  We had a simple and quiet one, which suited me just fine.  My new son in law came over with Sara and grilled a turkey on the rotisserie of the barbecue.

We had a small, just under 12 pound, turkey, which we brined ahead of time.  It was delicious!  The weather was so nice on Thursday, so we were able to sit outside while the turkey grilled and visit with each other.

The little quilt at the top of my post is one I made during Thanksgiving week.  I decided I needed a small Christmassy quilt to use at the end of my kitchen counter, where I like to stage little vignettes.  The pattern is an old one I bought at retreat when I took a class from Stacy of Buttermilk Basin.  The pattern is just called "December", and is a Grandmother's Album block.  That is what I call it anyway.  A variation of that block perhaps.

I used some Christmassy Kim Diehl fabrics.  I sure have been on a Kim Diehl kick lately.  The squares are one inch finished!  The finished quilt is only about 18 inches square, which is a good size for the area where I need to use it.

These are the squares laid out on the cutting mat.  I swear I was afraid to sneeze for fear of mixing up that layout.  I managed to reverse two blocks anyway, and had fun picking out the stitches and fixing that little boo boo.  I posted a before picture on Instagram and my son Ahren in Ireland commented that for him, that center white square just wasn't working.  So I took his advice and switched it up for a fussy cut gold square, and what do you know, it looked better I think.  He has an artist's eye for these things.

My husband hasn't started his new job yet, so we have been working on decorating the house for Christmas inside and out for the past few days.  I will post some pictures later this week.  I think things are looking really nice!  Hope to get the little quilt above quilted so I can show you what I do with it as well.

December, I am ready for you!

Happy Thanksgiving

My table is all set.  I may be getting a bit ahead of myself, I but planning the tablescape is one of the things I enjoy most about holiday meals.  Oh, I have been doing a bit of cooking as well.  I have rolls made, cranberry sauce done, and cornbread baked and drying out for stuffing.  Today is my day to make a pie and tidy the house.  

Someone pointed out that since my table is all set, there is no place for the family to eat from now until Thanksgiving.  Eat?  Eat meals?  I am expected to cook more meals this week besides Thanksgiving dinner?  Hmmm.  I guess I didn't think of that.  Oh well, that is what they invented Chinese Take Out and frozen pizza, right?

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  See you on the other side.

 

Barn Stars Blocks Done

I have been sewing up a storm these past few days!  I got my Barn Stars all finished, and will probably put that little quilt top together after the Thanksgiving holiday.  As much as I hate to drag myself away from the QE440, I do have some cooking to do for the feast day.

My holiday table is set and my flowers arranged.  I sure hope the arrangement lasts through Thursday!  I will enjoy it this week, and then bring out everything Christmassy this coming weekend.  We are a small group this year, just my daughter Sara and her husband.  We will brine the turkey and my son in law will smoke it on Thursday.  

Thanksgiving always seems like such a simple meal to me, and I always wonder why such a fuss is made over the cooking.  Roast a bird, mash some potatoes, make some stuffing and gravy, create another side dish or two, and make a pie.  I guess it is the sheer volume of dishes that throws some folks, as well as coordinating everything getting done at the same time, which is no joke.  The dishes themselves are pretty easy.  And if you are having a crowd, you can always delegate the side dishes and desserts.

Things can go wrong however.  I do remember the first time I hosted Thanksgiving, I put all the potato peelings down the garbage disposal and backed the plumbing up throughout the entire house.  Never did that again.  My husband spent the evening up on the roof with a plumber's snake trying to clear the pipes.

What Took Me So Long?

Honestly.  I wish I had purchased a Bernina 440 Quilter's Edition years ago.  This is a fabulous sewing machine.  I love my Bernina 153, and it has been a really reliable workhorse.  For 19 years.  But everything about the 440 is an upgrade.  I spent all weekend sewing on it, and I just can't tell you how amazing and awesome it is.  If you get a chance to purchase a refurbished one (they are no longer being made), I recommend you jump on it.

I quilted my little Countdown to Christmas table topper on it, and was so pleased with the results.  It just sews like a dream.  In fact, I was so excited about this little project, I made another one.

One for Sara, one for me.  This pattern is called Township and is a Miss Rosie's Quilt Co. offering, through Moda.  I am pretty sure I downloaded it from the Moda Cutting Table Blog website.  Why yes, I did: click here for the link.  Awesome little pattern.

Hope you all had a great weekend!  Mine was pretty perfect.  I spent Saturday morning playing games and doing art projects with Eva and the rest of the time sewing on the QE440.  I recently "retired" from working, so I plan to have a lot more time pursuing both of those activities!  

Update on the currently missing in action Bernina 740:  it made it to the Illinois Bernina USA headquarters and is being looked after by the extremely knowledgeable Bernina repair technicians.  Everything is under warranty and most likely the lower electronics brains will be replaced.  Still no idea just when I might be seeing it again.  But, I am so pleasantly distracted with my new toy, I am not missing it at all right now!

Guess What Came Home With Me?

Can I hear a loud "Woooo Hoooo!"?  Look what my sweet husband bought for me!

I am so excited to add this Bernina Quilter's Edition 440 to my sewing table.   I have two slots for sewing machines, one being designated for the currently missing in action Bernina 740, and the other for my backup machine.  Meet my new back up!  It is a refurbished model, which someone turned in to the dealer when they upgraded to a newer machine.  It has a great reputation and I am so thrilled to have one.

It cost more than I expected, but it did come with a BSR, which stands for "stitch regulator", a great boon to anyone doing free motion machine quilting.  I have always been all thumbs when it comes to free motion quilting, so I am looking forward to seeing what this does for me.

Guess what I will be playing with all weekend long?  

Have a good one everyone!

More Barn Stars

Lazy day around the house yesterday.  I finished a few more Barn Stars.  Eight done, eight more to go.   These little blocks are so cute and fun to make.  That tiny darker square in the center of each block is a one inch square sewn diagonally on the corner of a 1 1/2" square.  Tiny!  

In spite of the small size of the pieces, my little Singer Featherweight continues to provide accurate and hassle proof stitching.  I regret leaving it in the cupboard for so long!  If I had only known all it wanted was the correct needle.

My husband and I are off on an adventure today.  We are going to go take a look at a refurbished Bernina Quilter's Edition 440.  I am quite excited about picking one up as a second machine to the Bernina 740.  Which at this point, I have no idea when I will see again.  If you haven't been following along with my saga, it is en route to Peoria, Illinois for repairs to it's electronic system.

The other thing we might do, and this makes me ridiculously happy, is have lunch at Panera.  Do you ever eat at Panera?  They are known for their good soups and salads, and never disappoint.  It is the perfect place to have lunch, and the amount of the servings is just right for a light lunch, and never spoils one's dinner.  We have nothing like it in our area, out here in the boonies, but when we venture out into civilization and see a Panera, we always try to stop.

Hope you are all having a good week!

Barn Stars

I started a new project yesterday, called Barn Stars.  These little blocks are the cutest things ever.  They are only 4 1/2 inches!  It is a Simple What Nots kit I never got around to finishing, and now that I have time on my hands, I can finally get to it.

I am simply loving making these smaller projects.  I have to share something though.  Those darn Simple What Nots kits cost quite a bit of money (for my budget anyway), so I dropped out of the club after two years.  Seems to me the cost per kit was somewhere between $40-45.  It wasn't every month, they came out with six a year, but you could only get the kits if you were in the club.  Whenever I made up one of the kits, I always had a ton of fabric left over, which I didn't mind too much until I started thinking if they put less fabric in the kits they could lower the price and I could keep on buying them instead of dropping out.

So, for this kit, I cut out my fabric and this is how much I needed per block.  One 3 1/2" strip.  All the rest is leftover.  I could make four of these quilts!  Or add the leftover fabric to my ever expanding stash of Kim Diehl fabrics.  The cut they give you is something they call a "chubby sixteenth".  Is that some kind of minimum cut do you think?  

Still, I'd rather have less fabric and pay only $25 for the kit.  The kits, fabrics and patterns are adorable, and I surely would have stayed in the club if the price had been a bit more affordable. Anyone else belong to the Simple What Nots Club and have similar thoughts?  Or am I missing the point?  Just curious.

Speaking of spending $25, that is about what this minuscule rectangle of plastic cost me.  It seems pricey, but  it was worth every penny!  It is the 1 x 2 inch Bloc Loc flying geese trim tool.  I have used it so much since I got it.  The Moda Blockheads blocks call for flying geese that size, and I have used it in several of these small projects I have been favoring lately, including Barn Stars.  Perfect geese, and at that tiny size, you have to be precise.

Oh, and I got some good news today.  The bad news last week was that my husband got laid off.  The good news this week is that he found a new job already.  Whew.

Plain Folk

This little quilt is a Kim Diehl design called Simple Folk.  It finishes at 18 1/2 inches and was made entirely on the Singer Featherweight.  The blocks start out with 2 1/2" pinwheel blocks, which form the center of log cabin blocks.  
The blocks finish at 6 1/2".

It has kind of a homey/folksy feel.  I love how these tiny quilts look when tucked into a basket or with a candle sitting on it.   It was fun to make, and I am all primed to make a few more small projects while I wait for a working grown up sewing machine.  Which could be weeks from now.  But that's ok.  My little Featherweight is being a champ.

I had a little stack of green and red fabrics I thought would be adorable for a Christmassy table topper.  I had just the collection of inspirational patterns to choose from, except....Except my books have gone missing.  I had Jo's Little Favorites, Jo's Little Favorites II and Simple Friendships by Kim Diehl and Jo Morton and now I can't find them anywhere.  Last time I saw them was when the housecleaners were here on November 2.  I vaguely recall putting them away so my table surfaces would be clear for dusting, and they have completely disappeared.  I swear I looked for them for an hour yesterday.  I feel like I am losing my marbles.   Arghhh.

Sewing on the Featherweight

Hope you all had a great weekend!  We launched our Christmas shopping and got a fair amount accomplished.  No waiting until the last minute this year.  

I started a new project on the Featherweight, and I have really been enjoying getting reacquainted with that little machine.  There are a few tips that I am discovering along the way that are giving my piecing much better results.

As you see in the photo above, I am holding onto the top and bobbin threads as I begin to sew.  I also will put the needle in the down position for that first stitch, and I am not getting any scrambled threads or having the needle become unthreaded as I start my stitching.  A reader mentioned a week or so ago that she learned that tip in Home Ec class ages ago, and I agree, it is a golden nugget of advice.  Hold those threads just when you start stitching.

I am making some little log cabin blocks (more on that tomorrow), and my first block came out a bit oversized.  I have a tip that I got from Kim Diehl, which is making all the difference.  Do you see in the photo above that my last pin is horizontal?  The is preventing the strip from flaring out or fishtailing.  It is holding the little strip exactly where it needs to be.  Pinning.  I love to pin.

A second thing I have been experimenting with is the seam allowance.  I was just going by the quarter inch foot on the Featherweight, and my strips were always just a skosh too short, which meant fudging with that bottom layer.  I didn't like that.  I tried making my seam allowance just a hair (and I do mean a hair) wider than the presser foot.  My goodness, once I did that consistently, each strip fit perfectly.  So check your seam allowance if your piecing isn't coming out perfectly accurate.  A tiny adjustment could make all the difference.

Here is a close up of the stitching I am getting on the Featherweight.  I think it is pretty darn good.  No skipped stitches ever since I put in a Singer brand needle.

See you tomorrow!

Bernina Update

Bad news on the Bernina front.  The repair man tells me the timing is completely out of whack on my new Bernina 740 and that the entire lower electronics are affected and he can't fix it.  He is going to ship it back to Bernina USA in Illinois and have their tech team look at it and probably replace all the lower machine electronics.  I have to pay over $100 for shipping but they should do the repairs for nothing as the machine is under the one year warranty.  Oh, and it could take eight weeks to get it back.  The guy was totally nice and supportive and says he will write a letter and make some phone calls to be sure I get taken care of properly.  Sigh.

Meanwhile, the Featherweight is plugging along as well as it can.  I made two Moda BLockHeads blocks with it yesterday.  The block above by Lisa Bongean was a complete beast to make.  Those flying geese with all the triangles?  Torture, total torture.  As it is, the block is pretty, but I barely have any seam allowance on that top side.  It is going to take some finagleing not to cut the point off the top of the flying goose.

This block by Carrie Nelson was much easier to make, and I am pleased with it as well.  Sorry the photos aren't so great.  I waited until too late in the day to take the pictures and the colors aren't showing nicely.

I guess I will have to put any applique blocks on hold until I get a machine that is capable of doing it.  The good news is, I dropped my back up Bernina 153 off for servicing and should get that back by the end of November.  Also, the dealer told us that he just got two Bernina 440 Quilter's Editions in on trade, and after he inspects and services them, he can offer the better one to me at a discounted (used) price.  I am excited about that, as the 440 has a great reputation and it would be great to have one to use as a second machine.

Hope your week is going well!  I got a fun offer this week that I will share with you tomorrow.  I am pretty thrilled about it.