My grandson was born!

My first grandchild was born on Dec. 6th and we can't be happier!  My daughter had a rough delivery but he eventually made it here.

Update: Dec. 15th.  My daughter had a complication from birth and we ended up in the hospital for 5 days, me being the one to take care of the baby so she could keep nursing.  She had a blood clot in her pelvic vein that turned septic.  And then on the way out of the hospital they diagnosed her with Mono!  She has really had a rough time of it.

Under my needle today

It's a beautiful fall day in North Carolina today, a perfect day for quilting.  This is the 5th of 6 quilts a customer gave me to finish for her.  I'm sewing the binding onto each one as well.

This is one from another day:

And the binding on a third quilt:

Such a beautiful tribute to a quilter!

How to avoid twisted binding when joining the edges

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!

A solution to leaking irons

I see complaints on the sewing boards about leaking irons and I thought I'd create a post about spray bottles.  Back in the day our grandmothers used a shaker bottle filled with water while she ironed.  Of course, they didn't have steam irons back then so they used what worked.



We have better choices than what our grandmothers had back in the day.  The bottle I use happens to be a spray bottle used by hairstylists.  It has a fine mist that doesn't saturate the fabric and it sprays continuously which is a great feature when you have a large area of fabric.  If you have a leaky iron try using a hairstylist spray bottle, there are even some available in quilt themes.

Just had to post this!

Tip for Longarming: Check your Wide Backing

When I load backing on the quilt frame I use the grain of the fabric, not the cut edge.  Here is an example of why it's important to check your wide backing.

This backing was wonky when it was wound on to the bolt.  I'm sure the person cutting it did cut it straight as it came off the bolt.  But as you can see, the fabric is cut way off the grain.

Be sure to check the backing and  straighten the grain if it is off.  If you don't want to straighten the grain, there is a simple solution, buy an additional 4 or 5 inches more after you've already added the 8" the longarmer needs.

Fortunately, this client sent a backing that had plenty of extra fabric so I didn't have to send it back.

Happy Sewing Machine Day

This machine is a Singer 201-3, made in the UK.  It sews beautifully.  I've made several quilts on it. I bought it via ebay and rewired it when it arrived.  The wiring was shot!  Now it's good for another 7 or 8 decades.

My travel machine is a Bernina 170, it's been a great machine!

I have another Singer machine, this one is a 15-91.  I used it to sew 1/4 inch 

leather for an upholstery project.

But my favorite machine is my Bernina 640.  It has over a million stitches on it.