A bag....finally

I finally made a bag. I've had bag pattern issues. Everytime I read one, my head goes dizzy and I feel ill. We had craft day with my friends and, with direction, I made a bag....wanna see it? Do ya really?.....OK....
It's not perfect. It's my first, but I'm tickled to death about it. I am planning others now. I'm not even intimidated by a new pattern at this point. We'll see how long that lasts....ahahahhahahaa
I fell in love with the last mystery quilt Bonnie did at Quiltville.com. Double Delight. I even love the name. I said I wasn't going to do this one, since I have a lot of UFO's laying around right now. You know, I am running out of places to hide the UFO's. Hmmmmm....I'll have to look around for more empty space....giggle!
Any who....back to the DD mystery. I had to do it after I had a look at it. It's a boatload of Square in a square blocks, which I had never made before, but I've conquered that now. So...here it is so far.....
I've only got these four blocks completed, but I had to see how they would look together. It's a lot of square in a square blocks and nine patches that all finish at 3.5". It took a long time for me to make them all, but I think it will be worth it. I just love this design. And now....it's time to move to the sewing room. Yippeeee.....
Later.......

Cold Day in......

Michigan? Yep! It's just too cold for man and beast. My dogs don't even want to go outside. I don't blame them. We are up to a balmy 5 degrees above 0 now! Woohooo! I may drag out some puppy pads I have somewhere around here for the dogs just so they won't have to go outside. The hard part is breaking them from it when the weather changes. I'll have to give that one some thought before I do it. This cold weather is very good for my business though, so I'm trying not to complain too much. I do hate that Garry has to go out in it, but he doesn't seem to mind a bit. He just loves to be busy.

I've been getting a bit of sewing time in these past few days. I, finally, gave in and decided to start the latest Quiltville mystery that Bonnie did for New Years Eve. It's wonderful. I knew I was going to have to do it when I saw hers. I tried to resist, but failed in the end. I'm still on Clue 1, but it's moving along now that I read the instructions more carefully. I do have 10 clue 1's that are the wrong size. I'm glad I made 10 test blocks before I went nuts with them. I'd have been upset if I had made all 120 of them wrong. So....here's the pic of them so far. About half way done with clue 1. They are only 3.5" blocks, so it takes a while!

Doesn't look like much so far, but I hadn't done these Square in a Square blocks before and it took a bit of trial and error for me. I'm pretty happy with them now. Mine isn't going to be scrappy this time. I bought fabric just for this design and I'm excited to get it to the point of seeing what the blocks will look like next to each other, but I've got a long way to go before I get to that point. I'll head back to more of this....... Oh....and the new sewing table is working out great! I'm so happy with Garry right now! Yay for "The Handy Hubby"!

Oh yeah! Garry is da MAN!

It's perfect! I've sewed a bit now with my custom flush sewing machine cabinet cover on and I can't believe how well this went. Who ever said "Two heads are better than one"....was right. My hubby is in current genius mode. I may have to do something nice for him. Hmmmmmm.....perhaps the past 30 years of being a sweet, loving, caring, non complaining ... of forget that!....ahahahhahahaaa Sometimes I really say the funniest things to myself. Isn't it wonderful though!

Garry is in there with some very fine sand paper, sanding all the edges smooooooth right now. Oh...and he just finished waxing the whole top for me so my fabric would slide smoothly along. He rounded all the corners off so nothing will catch on them and counter sunk all the screws, too. He may be a keeper after all!

And now onto to one more thing. I really really really wanted to do the new Quiltville mystery, but just didn't have any time lately. Garry and I went to town this afternoon for him to get stuff to finish the "project" at Home Depot and wouldn't ya know it, Joann's is just across the street. He dropped me there. I had a gift card. I got fabrics for the mystery quilt! I have already seen how it turns out, so now it's no mystery to me, but seeing the finished top, just made me want to make it all the more. Hit that link and go look at it, unless you want to keep it a mystery to you! Here are the fabrics I chose to do it.
I suppose that's all my news for now. I'm sort of glad business is slowing down a bit the last few days. No posts for weeks and then a bunch in a row. Oh well...such is life!
Later!

It's looking like the "Thrill of Victory" (flush sewing surface saga, cont.)

Here ya go....a picture is worth a thousand words. Not finished as of yet, but it's looking good.



The protective paper is off the top of the material, but is still on the bottom. It will be clear when finished. He's currently putting on the last side bar to keep it from shifting when in place. I'll post again when he's done and the paper is off the back side. I'm excited! Can you tell?
Later.....

Thrill of Victory? Agony of Defeat?

I mentioned in my last post about my new sewing cabinet Garry got me for Christmas. Problem: can't get an insert for this machine in this cabinet. Sapphire is too long according to the powers that be. Solution: Garry will build one. First, he bought a piece of lexon (sp?) . Sorta like plexiglass or kinda like what quilting rulers are made of, and a bit flexible but strong. Next, make a template:

Check all the measurements now.......


Now the next issue is cutting this lexon stuff. There is concern about it melting using a regular saw. We know lots of people who do woodworking and a guy who has a cabinet shop and cuts that corian counter top stuff. Garry is thinking this over now. I'm on the edge of my seat to see if this all works out. He bought some one by one inch strips of this stuff to make bracing bars so that when it's slid into place it won't shift. It's very interesting around here to see what hubby one and hubby two will come up with. Hubby 2 is my husband's best friend of 45 years, Pat. He's been a wonderful friend to me and it's a long standing joke that if you take one of them, you get the other since they are always together. I'm almost hopeful about this insert though!

Next funny thing? Did you notice those suction things stuck to all of my rulers? Like this?

Garry decided he was tired of me cutting my finger off. I think it's the money to have it sewed back on each time I hack my finger that he resents. Ok...could be the whining I do while it's healing. Or could be the fact that he had to wash dishes for the first time in 25 to 30 years. Could be all of the above. He found these things at a tool place, bought a bunch. He's got them stuck to every quilting ruler I have now. And...there are still a couple left in the bag. What's he trying to tell me? Now I know that if anyone out there still reads this blog, that you, too, are on the edge of your seats awaiting the results of this adventure. I'll keep you updated..... If it all works, perhaps the entire world will hear my "Yippeeee" that I'll be shouting!
Later!

This and Lots of That.....

I've been missing. I have no time lately. Business is booming, and that's a good thing. For those of you who don't know, I own a Heating and Cooling Company here in Michigan. I'm a Carrier Dealer. I actually do have lots of work stuff to do. It's getting in the way of my quilting, but I'm just trying to remember that the money from there supports my fabric addiction.

First, I really want to thank Regena for the wonderful birthday gifts she sent me a while back. I had lost my camera and just found it last night. She sent a cute fabric basket filled with goodies. She's quite a talented lady and it was just so sweet of her!

In addition to the goodies, she made me an apron, too! It's adorable and I'm one of those who actually wears aprons. I'm a very messy cook and after years of wrecking tshirts (my uniform of choice), I started wearing aprons. I love them and this one is great!
The one Regena made me is on the right, hangin' with some others. It's kind of odd to type her name, which is pronounced the same as mine, but spelled differently. Hard to type my own name with a different spelling. So....Regena....Thank you so much for the birthday gifts. I'll treasure them always and have been using my little hand sewing kit holder already! You really made my day!

I have been quilting a little. I have struggled with the whole stippling thing for a long time now. So, I made a quilt top just using 4" squares. Just some of everything. I have wanted to stipple just like AmandaJean! I'm almost there now. She has a great video of how she stipples on her blog. I sat and watched it several times. Set my machine up like she does and I was off and running. Small is the key here from my experience. And...I'm pretty much thrilled beyond belief with this one. I even tried a pieced backing on this one. I'm so tickled over it. Not a big accomplishment for a lot of you talented people out there...but a major one for me. Yippeeeeeee. Ok...to follow are just more pics of it. You can see how dense the stippling is and it sorta reminds me of popcorn it's so squishy and bumpily....like that's a real word.....hehehehee

I like it so much that I'm working on a queen size for my bed. It's scrappy, just like me and I want to make a bunch just like it. I'll get bored with it before I do, but it's in my head for now. Oh....and my husband bought me a sewing table for Christmas. I had to order the insert for my machine. Done! But the bad news just came in. The place he got it from just called and they can't get an insert for my machine. Now they want me to go to a bigger table. And.....it's almost double the cost of this one. Hmmmmmm......this doesn't sit well with me. I called Garry and he can deal with it. I like this table fine, but the whole point was to have a flush setup with the machine level with the table. I'm no better off at this point that I was before he spent what he did on it and it wasn't cheap by any stretch of the imagination. Yep, I'm a bit unhappy with this, but it will all work out, I'm sure.
Ok....that's all my news for now that I can think of. I've got company coming for dinner tonight, so I'm off to start working on that........Later!