Triangle Star top

I took my longarm machine to the shop for servicing and it's going to be 3 weeks before they can get to it. To stave off the withdrawal I'm busy sewing some of my many UFOs.  Today, I finished the main part of my Triangle Star quilt top!  It has 560 HSTs and made with scraps along with a background fabric.  All it needs now is to add the borders, and then the longarming!

Ode to Sewing Machines #44

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 #44!

                   Rusty and missing a bobbin slide plate.  You need a tetanus shot to use it!

Not a San Francisco Golden Gate Badge!  It's a Centennial and even then it's not worth $350.

                 A lovely 201 in a sought-after cabinet. In this guys area, $180 on a good day.

                                                This is worth maybe $15 if you sell it for scrap.

Latest QOV is on the frame

 Here's the latest Quilt of Valor I'm working on today!  National Sewing Day is this Saturday and I have 4 QOV tops to longarm so I can turn them in on Saturday.

Diagonal Seam Tape

I wouldn't sew a HST without Diagonal Seam Tape!  It's  a perfect solution for sewing straight diagonal seams without having to mark any lines! The special washi tape is strong, thin, and removes cleanly after sewing projects. I keep mine on for months at a time and it always removes cleanly.

Simply place the tape in front of the feed dogs with the red line in front of the needle as the stitch line. If you're making a single HST line up your square with the red line.

 The black lines on either side of the center line represent a perfect 1/4" seam allowance and you'll line up the corner of your block with the black line if you're making 2 HSTs out of your squares.

Buy it here!!

Triangle Star

 

My latest quilt is called Triangle Stars.  It has 560 HSTs.  In August, my husband and I spent a week in Williamsburg, Virginia at a resort.  He spent some of his time riding his bike on the bike trails and I spent my time sewing the HSTs.  I put the HSTs together last month and now I'm making the applique blocks. There are appliques that go in each corner and then I can assemble the blocks!

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.