A Quilt Out of The Bag

Sometimes I like to ponder "What if......." when considering ideas for quilts. Problem is that I seldom get brave enough to try anything very new. I'm hesitant on color choices and I question my design capabilities. So.........I decided to try something safe but fun. I had been getting 4" squares from Mr. B's Fabric Club (Benatrex) for awhile. They always send along ideas for a small quilt but nothing ever hit me. So the squares kept piling up. Until one day.........I decided to throw them in a bag and start pulling them out randomly and put them together. I did this off and on for awhile. But what was I going to do for a setting? Plain old 9 patch seemed too boring. Along comes a friend who is doing a scrappy 30's quilt and she shows me her setting from a magazine idea. Perfect! That's what I will use for my scrappy quilt. This project has been going on for awhile as I just work on it off and on. I did come up with a plan using my EQ6. The picture that follows is where I am so far. So..........What if I randomly select fabric squares and sew them together?:


I'm kind of liking this. It's been fun to work on and it will be a great quilt for practicing my machine quilting on.

But it's got to go on hold for now. Tomorrow I fly out to CA to visit the darling grand-daughters.

Just a note......It's going to be in the 80's today. Spring really is here. Yeah!

Sewing Machine Woes

I have two lovely Bernina Sewing Machines and both of them have been visiting the Bernina Techs lately. In fact, the newest one, the 440QE is still there. I went to my first "get-acquainted class" for the 440QE and discovered that the tension was all funky. The instructor told the Bernina sales folks that they had better take my machine and get it in working order before I take the class that teaches me about the BSR. That's not too fun since they are telling me the turn-around is possibly two weeks! I can't even sign up for my next class until the machine is back and in good running order.

Then there is the 150QE which I need to sell. But the alphabet progran was all out of whack and it needed a regular tune-up so in to a different tech it went. To the tune of $300.00, it was ready by the afternoon. I took an applique class while it was being fixed over in VA at the Quilt Patch. I sure hope I can sell it for a decent price to make up for the cost of fixing it.

The applique class was alot of fun. We practiced several techniques for doing applique. I've never been one for much hand-work. I'd like to get in to it so I have something to work on that can go along with me.

I've also been taking a color class for quilters. Haven't worked that hard in ages. We had to use zillions of little 2 inch fabric samples to make a color wheel with tints, shades, etc. Then we had to make charts of analogous, complimentary, etc. colors. Lastly, we hit the fabric department and had to pick a fabric palette that matched a picture we brought in. It was intense.

Last Friday, we had snow again. Jim and I went out that evening to see the Irish Tenors at the Music Center at Strathmore. What a lovely event that was! The acoustics in that auditorium are fantastic. We had great seats and we enjoyed the program of Irish tunes and melodies.

Project Finished!

It's been a marathon sewing day. The duvet for DGD #1 is finished! The new sewing machine was wonderful and definitely made the project easier with automatic buttonhole and putting on the buttons. Projects like this always seem to take longer than you think they will. Luckily I caught the fact that her bed was smaller than twin size before I got too far along. But of course, there was no duvet available in the right size. Solution -- make my own duvet/comforter insert. Fortunately the weather has been cold because I would not have wanted to sew with that much polyester batting in the summer. But it's done. I made it reversible so DGD can have options. Now it will be on to making the curtains to match and some pillows and pillowcases.

Tomorrow I'm off to take a class on using EQ6. I never really used my EQ5 to it's full potential. I'm hoping that with a class to inspire me, I'll really use it.