It's about ... time

I finally decided to quilt this top that has been sitting around for the last, oh, 4.5 years! This was the very first quilt top that I decided to tackle way back at the beginning of my quilting career. Back when I was too naive to know I knew nothing about quilting! I knew absolutely nothing about bias, seam allowance, sewing a consistent 1/4" seam, pressing, or even cutting. Back when all I had was a $50 Kenmore sewing machine that would take off at the slightest tap of the pedal.





Well it sat in a "completed sate" for a while because I didn't feel confident enough to quilt it myself. Then it sat some more because I soon realized all of the many mistakes that this quilt top showcased. A couple of months ago I pulled it out and repaired it. Yes, I had to make repairs! There were some seams that in places had no seam allowance. Talk about embarrassing! This quilt top is of course completely wonky and not square because most of pieces have some bias involved. Oh, and I have no idea what I was thinking with the piping on this quilt. I won't even point out that I didn't even know how to attach piping properly.

While I would love to just trash this top, I can't. This is my husband's quilt. When he was 19 he served a two year church mission to Nagoya Japan. The fabrics in this quilt are from the Japanese futon sheets he used while on his mission. I know that he will love it with all of it's wonderful imperfections.

Ok, back to quilting. Hopefully all f the imperfections won't drive me bonkers while I'm quilting.  Luckily all of us quilters know that it will all quilt out right? :) ha!

~ Norma

I'd love to hear all about the perfectness of your first quilt top!

and in case you are wondering the pattern is Spinky's from Quilter's Cache

I feel dumb...

grrr! I  just spent more than 1hr trying to reassemble the tension assembly on my brother 1300. I thought I would be really good and clean it out because my thread would stick in there sometimes. 

I took it apart cleaned it, oiled it, and put it back together. I was pretty sure I had it right the first time but it wasn't working! I would manually run the thread through and tighten up the tension as tight as it would go but the thread would just slip through so easily.

I fiddled with it for a looong time. I took that thing apart and reassembled it like 50 times! I was racking my brain trying to figure out what exactly I was doing wrong. I mean there were only 6 pieces and most of them where pretty obvious about where they belong. I was so sure I had it right, but it still wouldn't work :(

I finally let go of my pride and called the hubby down to help. He took it apart twice and then he noticed this little tiny pin that was keeping the 2 tension discs apart. I hadn't noticed said pin. He then proceeded to figure out that I didn't have the foot down. {like that should have anything to do with the tension assembly} Well that little tiny pin wasn't allowing the tension to engage and as soon as he lowered the foot the tiny little pin moved on out of the way and the tension engaged and all was well. 

except for my pride :(

grr... men

 :) On the up side I did assemble it correctly! 

So if you decide to clean your tension assembly make sure your foot is down before you reassemble the dang thing.

(ok Mr PD just walked in and said "what are you doing now? blogging about your genius husband who can fix anything in mere minutes?") He's lucky I'm too tired to clobber him.

THE END

 ~Norma

Super Secret Project

Many of you have noticed my long gaps between posts and I have a really good excuse. I just can't tell you about it, yet. I'm working on a super top secret project that is taking up a lot of time and a lot of energy. The deadline for said project was moved up by a whole month! This caught me by surprise but I've come to terms with it. I still have almost 6 months til the deadline but loosing 30 days has changed my priorities and focus. I know, it's so mean of me leave you hanging but I promise I will let you know more soon :)  {maybe we can play the hot cold game and I'll let you know when you are getting hotter}

Here some stuff I can share:

A few days ago I got my new quilting frame. After I set it up I was no longer "feeling" my creative mojo. The sewing room felt cramped and messy, it got to the point that I didn't even want to come in here. *gasp* So I decided to do something about that which resulted in an even bigger mess, lots of furniture moving and rearranging. I finally arrived at this layout and it feels so much more open.







I now have two separate work spaces. One for sewing and pressing, and one for cutting and general crafting (brown desk.)





I did have to perform minor surgery on my polka dot ironing board to have it fit the other table. I still have a few more things to put away (pile of stuff on the brown desk) and some minor changes to make like moving the design wall over by the brown desk. I'm loving the space so much more now. I only wish it were warmer. As you can see I have to make do with the little heater on the ironing board {it's usually pointed right at me! brr} but I know come summer I'm going to enjoy being in the coolest room in the house. Good thing the winters aren't long in the south.

Now for some general showing off:

The dog finally got bathed and brushed, courtesy of Pet's Mart :)





Let's just say that when he decides to go digging in the red southern dirt $21 is totally worth it. I didn't take a before picture but he ends up looking very orange. ALL OVER. The dirt just sticks to his fur like a magnet, think of a shaggy microfiber floor mop, that's what his fur does. He was pretty bad this time. His whole face was many shades of orange. The down side to him being all clean is that he's so fluffy and cute everyone calls him a girl! I can't wait for warmer weather so I can shave him down.

My new bag:




I'm not a bag type of girl. I have one cause it's handy. I'm the type of girl who buys one bag and uses it until it's falling apart and it's time to get another. I spotted this one at TJ Maxx and I just fell in love with the fabric print. That print would be right at home in my stash. Yummy! Right now it's serving as my church bag and holds my scriptures and small notebooks for Primary.

And last:





I made this cute towel earlier today for the little boy in our ward who is getting baptized this Friday night. He'd probably get mad that I called him little, but 8 is still little in my mind. CTR is an acronym we use in my church to remind the kids (and adults!) to always Choose The Right.

well that's all for now!

~Norma


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