Ode to sewing machines #25

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!

"No charge for the machine" and $350 for what's left!  Update: 3 months later
it's still not sold.  Imagine that?

Garden Gate Plaids quilt

I finished the quilt tonight. I made this quilt for an adolescent boy, I think it looks like a quilt a boy would like?

 I hope you'll take a look at the page I posted for Sleep in Heavenly Peace.  They are a great organization!

Sleep in Heavenly Peace

I've been sewing a quilt top for the Sleep in Heavenly Peace ministry.  They make beds for children in need.  Take a look at their ministry, it's a nationwide organization.








This quilt is a free pattern at Andover Fabrics.  It's called Garden Gate Plaids.  This picture shows what I've finished so far!

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.