A Finish for The Second Time

I finished my daughters tshirt quilt earlier this month and it went downhill from there. There were gaps in the borders that I was able to ladder stitch closed. Then we noticed there were spots on the binding where it was not sewn to the top correctly.

I removed all my hand stitches, picked out the bad spots where I had not sewn both edges of the binding to the quilt and re-sewed it. Today I finished sewing the binding back down. Here is my report for A Lovely Year of Finishes.

Happy quilting!

Swooze

Avante

Guess who came to stay!  I think I'm going to name her Trudi after the lady that sent me on the journey that led me to making this purchase.

Without further ado....here's Trudi!

Happy quilting!

Swooze

Watch This Space

Exciting things are coming my way!

Hugs!

Swooze

Elna Grasshopper

I got a new toy.  I first saw this machine on Bonnie Hunter's blog.  She loves her vintage machines!  This machine was made in Switzerland.  Did you know I spent a college semester there?  I felt a connection to this cute little machine.

I have been watching these on eBay.  This one popped up and had its little accessory box.  There are no extra feet but I can worry about that later.  Right now I need to learn to set it up and use it.

This machines case folds out into a table.  There is a part that needs to fold somehow so it lies flat.  Once I get that I will need to thread it and give her a test drive.  Except for the frayed electrical cord she's in great shape.

Here are some pics.

More later!

T-shirt Quilt Revisited

I washed and dried the quilt and threw it on my daughter, in her bed.  She pulled it up on her and snuggled in for a longer sleep.  She must have been waking up and petting her quilt because not long after I heard her stirring she called out....."Mom, there's a hole in my quilt".

I went in to see what she was talking about.  Of course my heart sank.  What I discovered was two places where I had either missed the edge of the fabric or the thread failed me or who knows that.  I had gaps in the seam.  Something more highly surmountable than a hole in my opinion.

Here is what I saw.

My immediate thought is how do I fix this without making it look like it was fixed.  Whipstitching and top stitching would only enhance the fact that I had to do something to the quilt.  Not how I wanted to start out with this quilt.

I put a call out on the yahoo group Stashbuster and the Facebook group Quilting.  I had several suggestions.  The two that caught my interest were permanent fabric glue and ladder stitching.  Assuming I had enough of an edge on the fabric the ladder stitch should work.  On closer inspection it looked like the blue section would be fine and the red section would be close.  I went for it!  I ladder stitched.  Here is the result.

I think I got a good result and I learned a lesson.  I will be inspecting my seams a little more closely before the quilting!

Super Sized Nine Patch

I made three of these little gems several years back.  A year or two ago my friend Laurie quilted them all for me.  I made binding for all of them several weeks ago and attached it to one of them.  I was experimenting with machine binding the quilt.  I made good progress but never good enough to satisfy me.  I will try again in the future but for now I hand tacked the binding to the back.  It was a nice little travelling project.  I will be binding the other two over the coming weeks between other things.

This is a McCalls pattern and the pattern can be found here.

T-shirt Quilt Finished

Here is the t-shirt quilt I made for my daughter.  The shirts were her Dads.  Newer readers may not know that he passed just a little over 4 years ago.  So this is also a memory quilt for her.  I asked my son if he wanted one too but he declined.  I think now that has seen this one he may change his mind.

Jackie at Wattafind quilted it for me.  If you look closley at the bottom of the eagle block you will see that she also embroidered it for me too.  It has his name and year of birth and death. 

This quilt is a very good representation of him.  His interests and accomplishments are all represented here.  You will see more t-shirt quilts from me in the future.

Quilt Arm

I got a call from my boyfriend, who is working on an out of town job, the other day.  He told me about a lady selling fabric for $3 a yard and then he told me about a lady selling her quilt arm (he can’t remember long arm) for $6,500.  He encouraged me to call both gals and find out what the deal was as I would be visiting him soon and in these ladies vicinity.

I called the $3 fabric gal and got her story and made arrangements to go see her wares.  I did make a buy there.  Of course after I stopped myself she told me there was more fabric in the back.  Of course I had to look and found a little piece that I liked and added that to my stack.  If she had shown me these treasures first I am sure I would have bought lots of that and less of the other.  I told her when pay day rolled around I would probably be back to see her.  We will see.

I called the long arm owner to find out what she had and what was included in her offer.  Handiquilter Avante 18.  Once I had those answers I began researching the value of her machine, etc.  My biggest concerns were first moving a 12’ table and then placing a 12’ table in my home.  I didn’t value the thought of setting up the machine on my own only to struggle with getting everything to work properly.  I marked off a tape outline of how big the footprint of the setup was in my dining room.  After my mind calmed down at the thought of this monstrosity I measured out the height of the table and then the machine on top of that.  I have even begun thinking about where else I could put this thing.  In the process of my research I had a sales rep offer me her Avante for $900 more and she would set it up in my home and train me on it.  I think my issue is size.  Too big.

Let’s assume I can put this machine in my home and get it setup and can get past its size there is the issue that I really do not free motion quilt on my little domestic machine.  I have done some.  It isn’t that I don’t want to learn it is just that I hate mushing my quilt through the little throat space.  I have thought I need to do some small art pieces to get more practice.  I just have not.  Do I want to spend this much in hopes that I might learn one day?

I subscribe to a newsletter for estate sales.  Just this morning I found an estate sale titled “A Quilters Dream”.  Of course I had to investigate.  A room dedicated to fabric.  Bins of fabrics throughout the house.  Quilts. Quilt tops. Quilt Books.  You name it, they have it.  Then I spotted a frame quilting setup.  The pictures are not good enough to tell what exactly she has but based on some of the descriptions it looks like a Janome 1600 on a Little Grace II frame with a stitch regulator.  I have an idea of the value and I am planning to go have a look when the sale first opens.  It is a smaller setup and based on a new frame I saw online it can be setup as a crib or a Queen.  In the picture it looks like  crib size but even as a Queen it isn’t quite as big as that 12’ table.  On the newer tables the frame can be folded down.  Not sure I can do that with this one but it may be an option.  My thinking is that with this setup it takes up a lot less room and the investment will be a lot smaller.   When I think about having this setup I do not think of it as a monstrosity. 

Stay tuned.  I may be a quilt arm owner tomorrow.

A Lovely Year of Finishes

I need to get my daughters quilt bound and A Lovely Year of Finishes is just the motivation I need to accomplish that.  The red binding is machined on.  Now to get the rest hand tacked down to the back.

Do you have something you would like to finish this month and possibly win prizes?  Join us at the linky party shared above!