King Quilter II Elite Longarm

 

Blessings this Thanksgiving

I'm thankful for many things this Thanksgiving! Friends, Family and good health especially. And for 2 wonderful grandsons! Thank you, Lord, for the ability to work from home. In my quilting studio, on the hangers, you can see the quilts lined up, waiting for longarming.

My 3 yr old grandson is so proud. He put his coat on all by himself!

Enjoying my new sewing machine!

 I finally have a few days free due to the Thanksgiving Holiday and I plan to use it sewing my next show quilt.  It calls for 580 half square triangles!  I especially love my new machine as I sew mainly in the evenings.  Notice the pull out light above the needle area?  Wow, this is a fabulous feature.  There is plenty of light to see what I'm doing. My machine is the Elna Excellence 780+.  I highly recommend this machine for quilting!

What machine are you sewing with?  

There are some other features on this machine I have to tell you about!  You can adjust the automatic settings to any stitch!  I like to stitch with a 2.8 stitch length so I change the length and now the automatic setting is what I want it to be when I select a stitch.  So handy not to adjust this every time I turn the machine on!

The machine has an early warning for when the bobbin is getting low.  And you can adjust this as well! They thought of most anything a quilter might want when they built this machine.

Sugar & Spice quilt pattern

 My next quilt project is starting this week.  I found the very last fat quarter pack of the fabric collection Promenade by Moda.  This collection is sold out everywhere but I found one website that still had the fat quarter pack!  

The pattern calls for the use of 2 rulers made by Studio 180 and I have those rulers.  One is the Tucker Trimmer I and the other is the Rapid Fire Lemoyne Star ruler.

How to avoid twisted binding

This video has a very good tip for joining the binding.  She folds the binding over at one point and this tip has certainly helped me.   I used to end up with twisted binding about 50% of the time, but with this folding idea, no more twisted binding!

Ode to Sewing Machines #43

Many of you follow my "Ode to the Sewing Machine" posts.  We've all seen the ads on craigslist, ebay and elsewhere.  The clueless sellers give those of us who sew a belly laugh, or two!  Here's installment #43!

There's a sewing machine in there somewhere!  This was the only photo.

Pocket Prayer Quilts

I made a few pocket prayer quilts this afternoon and thought I'd share the video tutorial I used to make them.  I hope you enjoy watching this tutorial and I hope you make a few for your friends!

I bought the cross charms and pins at Etsy online.  I used leftover charm squares to make the quilts.  I printed out the card on my computer!

Click here to download the prayer print out!

Here are 4 of the 12 I've made so far, they are easy to sew!

Cottage Stars table runner

The Durham Orange Quilters' Guild has a challenge that will be held at our guild meeting Monday evening.  The challenge was given in March and the topic was to be on houses.  We could make any type, color and size quilt with the theme of houses or neighborhoods.  This is my entry!  

Ode to Sewing Machines #42

 Many of you follow my "Ode to the Sewing Machine" posts.  We've all seen the ads on craigslist, ebay and elsewhere.  The clueless sellers give those of us who sew a belly laugh, or two!  Here's installment #42!

Quilt of Valor

 I made this quilt a few months ago, longarmed it and finally finished the binding this afternoon. It’s being donated to the QOV sewing group I’m in. 

Winnie the Pooh quilt

 I've longarmed 15 quilts since my last post and I thought I'd better get another post up since it's been so long!  This is a customer's adorable Winnie the Pooh quilt.  It's a queen size and it's looking great!

The Christmas rush has begun!  I've got 14 more quilts here, waiting to be longarmed.  4 of those are charity quilts, all for the Quilt of Valor sewing group I'm in.

Latest quilt on the frame

 

After having my machine down for a couple weeks, I'm happy to say I have fixed the robotics.  I'm busy stitching on this king size quilt.  The X-axis gear was out of whack on the robotics, and as soon as I fixed that, then the Y-axis gear went out of whack.  LOL!  At least now I know how to fix them if the problem ever happens again.

You can see the quilts lined up in the background that are waiting to be finished!  I'm way behind, so I'll be busy, busy the next few days.

Take A Stand tote

 Next on the agenda is the Take A Stand tote byAnnie.com.  This tote will carry my mini-iron and other things when I travel with my sewing machine.  This tote is made to coordinate with Running With Scissors.  Notice in the photo it shows the RWS tote on top of the TAS tote.  This will be handy sitting next to my machine when I'm sewing.

Update: August 28th ~  I finished the Take a Stand tote and it holds a lot of supplies!  I used it while on vacation to Williamsburg.  The last photo is the Running With Scissors tool case sitting on top of the Take a Stand tote.

Running with Scissors tool case

 My longarm robotics is down at the moment so I'm using the time to sew an organizing tote to hold my sewing things when I travel.  This tote is called Running with Scissors and the pattern is from ByAnnie.com.  I've made several of the bags and totes from this website and they come together nicely.  I found the fabrics for my tote while I was on a quilting retreat in Virginia!  

Update: July 30th.  I finished the tool case this afternoon!  It has my most important tools I need to carry plus plenty of room for other things.

Ode to Sewing Machines #41

Many of you follow my "Ode to the Sewing Machine" posts.  We've all seen the ads on craigslist, ebay and elsewhere.  The clueless sellers give those of us who sew a belly laugh, or two!  Here's installment #41…

Tetanus Shot needed to use it!

And this next one has so much wrong with it!  

It's not a treadle, or a Featherweight or

a Singer, nor is it in a Box.

Insulated lunchbox tote

 I decided to change from brown bagging it when I go to all day quilt classes and found this kit online.  It's called the Zippity-Do-Done insulated lunchbox tote.  Kit includes instructions, preprinted insulated batting, handle strapping, plastic interior base, and a white Zippity-Do-Done zipper.   The kits are available in different colors.  Here's the finished tote!  

I made one change to the pattern.  The white fabric you see on both sides of the zipper is not in the pattern, the zipper is rather wide and I thought I would cover the excess zipper tape with a pretty fabric.  I like how it turned out!

My latest quilt

I made this table runner over the weekend. The pattern is in a booklet called "Moda Candy Oh Sew Sweet".

Goodness and Mercy

This is a repeat of a post from 2013.  I thought it needed repeating! 

I was praying for a good friend of mine this morning.  She has lived with agonizing pain for nearly 10 years.  A nerve is being fused within a bad vertebrae in her neck.  On a scale of 1 to 10 her pain is an unbearable 10.  But the medications bring it down to 9.

She's been waiting months for nerve block surgery.  They gave her a trial surgery to make sure the electrical box they insert into her body will work.  It gave her a full week of NO PAIN whatsoever, the first time in 10 years.  She's in the military and unfortunately, she's in an area of the country where there are many delays before the doctors will do something.  If she were in the private industry this would have been taken care of years ago... but I digress. 

As I was praying the Lord brought this verse to mind...

Sometimes the 'goodness and mercy' God sends come in the form of 2 sheep dogs, nipping at our heals to get us going in the right direction.

So I prayed, asking God to send 'goodness and mercy' nipping at the heals of those making the decisions for her surgery.  And Lord, if you could sharpen their teeth before they get there?  To make 'em move a little faster?  Father, please send her the relief she needs?  You promised that if we ask anything that is within your will you would grant our request.  I ask you to let Thea get a phone call today, with the scheduled procedure she needs.  Father, you are closer to those broken in spirit and I ask you to be closer still to her today.  Thank you Father for answering my prayer and it is for your honor and glory I ask.  AMEN!

And what did she hear this afternoon?

.... Her surgery is scheduled for August 23rd.  HOW AWESOME IS OUR GOD???

Who do you need to sic the dogs on today?

Peanut Butter SAL

 

I've been sewing a quick project called the Peanut Butter quilt sew along.  I wanted an easy quilt to feed that need for piecing this time and this project fit the bill!  

The pattern is a free one, found here: 
https://mailchi.mp/thencamejune/peanut-butter-quilt-pattern

Smallest quilt I've ever made

 I wrote an earlier post about finding a book filled with 40 patterns to make mini pincushions.  I spent this gray, rainy day sewing the smallest quilt I've ever made.  It was made with 1 inch pieces and it about killed me.  LOL  For those who didn't see the earlier post, the book is called Pin Pals by Carrie Nelson.  I recommend it!  The patterns are spot on and, while it might kill you to sew 1 inch pieces, the end result is so rewarding!

This little quilt was made into the 3rd pin cushion, I'm making 7 of the patterns as decorations for my sewing room.

2023 Capital Quilters Guild Quilt Show

 

About 2 years ago I began stitching tiny 2-1/2 inch blocks for a quilt called the Circa 1880 Nine Patch.  I knew it would be a long process to make a queen size quilt out of 2-1/2 inch blocks and I needed 716 of them!  I starched the fabrics I chose before cutting into it to help stabilize the 1 inch wide strips the blocks were made of.  Finished, the blocks measure 2 inches.

I've entered the finished quilt into 2 judged shows and it has won 4 ribbons, the last one being awarded last night.  The Capital Quilters Guild Show gave me a ribbon for Viewers Choice!  The quilt was chosen out of a possible 130 quilts.

8 mini pincushions

I found a book called Pin Pals by Carrie Nelson and had to have it!  

It has patterns for 40 mini pincushions and they are adorable!  I thought I would share my progress as I make 8 as decorations for my sewing room.

        

I decided to use Civil War theme fabrics on the first one. It went together quickly and I'm happy with it!

The second one took 4 hours to sew all the tiny half square triangles.  Each was 1-1/4 inch!  

Filling for all the pincushions is crushed walnut shells.  TIP:  Buy walnut lizard or bird litter at the pet store instead of the walnut shells sold at fabric stores.  It's much cheaper that way!  This 5 lb. bag was only $8.00!