RED AND WHITE QUILT - 4

I now have all of the darling little 316 flying geese made.  What a job, I could not see straight any more.  I have them all pressed and ready to be sewn. 

 I did go ahead and finish one of the twenty-eight quilt blocks. After sewing it and pressing it, I noticed that I have two corners that are not quite matching perfectly.  Hmmm, now as I have said I am a perfectionist, should I rip them apart and fix it or can I just let it go.  Well, I stopped sewing and decided to see if I was going to be able to live with it and it has been on my mind for two days now.  Some times you just have to walk away and calm down.  It makes me mad when I have tried to be so precise and this happens.  So, I have decided that I can't live with it and I am going to have to rip it apart and see if I can fix it.  Even if no one would ever be able to pick it out of the quilt, I will know it is there.  Is there anyone out there that is like me, or am I the only crazy person who would do this?  Here is the finished block and then I will show you what I don't like.

Here is the first corner that I am not happy with ---

Now the opposite corner is the same and I see another problem.  I have my flying geese fabric matching the half-square triangle.  I don't like that either, so that will have to be changed also.

Well at least this is my first square and I know now what I will have to watch for when I sew the other 27 squares.  It took me a couple of hours to do the first one so I hope I will be able to move along a little faster for the rest.  Oh my, now that I am taking a closer look, I see that I have three flying geese matching the half square triangles in the block.  Now I have to fix them all.  Do you think I will be able to make it through the entire quilt and be able to keep this from happening???  It would look better if I could.  I know how most people sew these scrappy quilts and just pull the next sewing piece out of a paper bag and sew it where it lands, but  I am not sure I can do this.  

I took my mom to the hairdresser a couple of weeks ago and as I was waiting on her I noticed there was a clock hanging on the wall and it was crooked.  Of course, my eyes keep darting to that clock and oh how I wanted to go over and straighten it out but I didn't.  Then when my mother was finished and we were back in the car she said to me, "Did you see that crooked clock on the wall?"  I said "yes," and she says, "Oh how I wanted to straighten that out."  My mom is 93 and I am 67.  I never knew this about her!  I must get it honestly.

RED AND WHITE QUILT - 3

Well, I worked on this while watching the Cleveland Browns football game on Sunday.  What a mistake, my husband was yelling during the whole game.  They were making some pretty bad mistakes and he gets so upset.  I keep telling him he is going to have a heart attack over a stupid football game.  He just won't listen to me.  He just says, Oh just let me yell it out!!

Anyway, I had to take these little 1 7/8 inch squares and draw a diagonal line through them and then line them up on my little flying geese. All 158 of them.  I think next time I decide to make a quilt, I will pay more attention to how many tiny pieces there really are.   Now, after I attach them to the flying geese, I have to sew 1/4 inch down each side of the diagonal line and cut them in half.  Then I realized I will have to attach these now 316 pieces to something else. I am getting worried because I even have pieces smaller than this.  What have I gotten myself into!!!! 

RED AND WHITE QUILT - 2

I am moving a little slow on this quilt.  I only am sewing about an hour a day so it is going to be a slow process.  I am ready for my next step and here is what I have finished.

I think I have one more round to go of flying geese.  There sure are a lot of small pieces.  They go a lot smaller than what is showing and they all look the same so I have to be very careful that everything is marked correctly!

Before I continue, I am going to clean out my bobbin area and add a little drop of oil to the wick.  This is a very good practice to keep everything in good running condition. You would be surprised how much lint was already in this area.  I made 28 squares and my bobbin case was full of red lint.

I also take a Q-tip and put some oil on it and I run it up and down on the needle bar.  You have to keep moving it to different positions to get a little oil on all of it.  You will be surprised how much better and smoother it runs.  Happy Sewing!!

FEATHERWEIGHT SEWING MACHINE

I got a Featherweight sewing machine last year for Christmas and I just love the darn little thing.  I have bought some extra attachments for it since then but I was shocked when I walked into the Miller

Sewing Shop in Charm, Ohio and saw this!

This extension table is made by Sew Steady and it is just the cutest thing you ever saw.  It has the gold trim to match the sewing machine and just looks like a matched set.  I just could not leave without it!  Good thing I had a little money saved away for a rainy day!!  It was $139.00, but I have looked it up since then on the internet and saw it for $109.00.  Oh well, it would be to far for me to return and repurchase.  I would use that much in gas.

This little machine I wanted to put in our fifth wheel rv for when we travel.  This extension table will make it really nice to sew with.  I like to keep a small quilt or project available for rainy days when we decide to just stay in the rv.  I like to sew when it is peaceful and I don't have to stop and think, oh I should be doing this and that.  I have nothing else to do when I am in the rv besides watch tv.  So, this is perfect.  Well, I just thought I would post this for all you quilters who might not of seen it.  I don't know if this just came out and I haven't seen it or if its been around for a while.  All I know is I sure love it!!

QUILT SQUARE QUESTION?

I am changing the quilt a little bit from the pattern.  I like scrappy quilts, so I am rearranging the squares a little different than the pattern says.  I need to add the half-square triangles and can't decide if I want them all the same color around the square, making each one a different color or last choice to do them in two different colors.  I really think I like the last choice of the two different colors.  What do you think?  Do you like one better over the others?

SNUGGLE BUNNY

I wanted to make a little something for a friend's daughter.  She has had a very hard life.  She has cancer and she and her husband have tried for years to have a baby to no avail.   Well, they now have a precious little girl.  I have never met her but just wanted to make a little something cute for the new baby.  

I saw these little snuggles and thought it would be perfect.  I could whip that up in a half  an hour!  WRONG!!!!  Try two days!!  This always happens to me.  It is very simple and came in a little kit.  I didn't really need the kit, but I wanted to see the pattern.  I think it was $12.00 and I didn't think it was really that bad.

I started out by trimming the four corners with an old clear CD that I have used for years.  I just decide how I want it rounded and then just put a piece of painters tape on the edges to make my markings.  This way it will be the same on all four corners.  The first picture is a minky dot fabric and the second picture shows the top fabric which is also minky.   I never embroidered on minky and I don't think I would do it again.  It sewed out fine, but the fabric around the name kind of has a mind of its own now instead of following the grain of the fabric.

Next, I washed the stabilizer out of the embroidered name and had to let it set to dry.  This took several hours.  Now, I was ready to sew the ribbon around the edge.  I wanted to sew it very close to the edge to hold it in place before I sewed the two pieces of material together.  I thought I could sew this on while the material was still damp and I had to go very slow and use my stiletto because this ribbon is pleated and I had to hold each little pleat in place to get it sewed on correctly.  Then I thought I would throw the blanket in the dryer for a few minutes to finish the drying.   

Well when I took it out of the dryer, all of the ribbon shrank!  I was like "What The Heck??"  Why on earth do they do that? Now I had a real mess.  As long as it took me to sew that trim on, I certainly didn't want to do it again.  I guess it was better that it happened to me because I certainly would not want that to happen to a gift that I give someone and the first time they wash it, they have to throw it away because the trim shrunk!  I mean this was a real mess!!  I will never make this mistake again!    Something I won't forget about!

Then off came the trim and then I had to resew it back on.  I stood back then looking at the bunny fabric and I thought it looked kind of thin and cheap like it needed something.  So I decided to add a  thin layer of batting and I sewed it on diagonally with a zigzag stitch.  This looked so much better.  Finally, I sewed the two pieces together with a 1/4th seam allowance and left about a four inch opening at the bottom to turn the fabric with.  After turning I sewed a straight stitch about 1 inch from the edge and I was very happy with it.  It actually is cuter than the pictures and I love the diagonal stitch in the minky, it really adds an extra touch!  The sides look crooked but there not because it scrunches up to be so soft and cuddly. 

RED & WHITE QUILT - 1

Well, I started on the quilt and  I needed to make 28 blocks. 

This is as far as I got but I needed to stop and trim these blocks down to 4 3/4" squares.  I couldn't figure out how to trim them down and get all four sides even.  I didn't want to just cut them on two sides because one side would turn out smaller than the other.

I taped the back of my ruler with painters tape at the 4 and 3/4" mark and then I put a small mark of painters tape directly in the center of where my square should be.  When I placed this on my material, I could see how much needed to be cut off.  It was about 1/4 inch on two sides.  I just kind of eyeballed and scooted the ruler over to half of the material that needed cut off, which would be about 1/8" on the first two sides.  Then I trimmed the first two sides. I made two turns with the material which brought me to the other two sides of my square which needed trimmed and now I centered my square of material at the 4 3/4" marks by the tape exactly and trimmed off the other two sides, which equaled the other 1/8" that the square needed to be trirmmed.  I made sure that the diagonal line on the ruler was exactly at the point of the edge of the material square and the blue dot painters tape in the center was lined up correctly.  I looked at my pattern and these really do not have to match up with anything perfectly so I knew it didn't have to be exact, but I am sure they would be very close.  I really don't know how you could trim these and get them perfect unless you would have a ruler that was exactly 4 3/4" square.  Anyone have any tips?

Now I have all of the squares started to the first step and all the squares have been trimmed to 4 3/4".