Campin' Badge

I am working on a badge for a group of ladies who camp.  Here is the original sketch.

Hand colored, cropped and color reduced in IrfanView.

Cleaned up in PaintShop.

And the first draft stitch out.  I've got to clean it up a bit and make some color changes, but all in all not too bad. 

Little Quilt: Sew, Vote Swap.

This group on Flickr is a LOT of fun.  You make your wee quilt.  It gets posted anonymously and then everyone votes.  I'm not really sure how it all works, but some how by the end, you send your quilt off to some one who really wanted it and you get a quilt you really wanted. 

There is still time to make and enter a quilt since they are wee small ones. 

Lotus Flower Mug Rug

 It Arrived!  Now I can post pictures of my lotus flower mug rug.  I made it for the Mug Rug Swap on craftster.org.  It is randomly pieced in various shades of green.  I used a tear away foundation and lots of zigzag stitching.

I used the pillowcase method to sandwich and turn the top and backing.  The backing is a simple turquoise print I failed to photograph.  I top-stitched it once it was turned. Since it is small, I did not do any additional quilting on it. 

The lotus flower was made from muslin.  I stitched around the edge and folded it origami style.  The individual folds are hand stitched or tacked in place.  The flower was then hand stitched to the quilt.

It measures 10 x 12 inches overall.

A Bit More...

The Post office said they tried to deliver this little quilt to its new owner.  I don't know if it has been sorted out yet but I am going to post a wee bit more of it since I don't have much of anything else I can share yet.  You'll get the description and more pics once I know it is safe and sound. 

On the Work Table

Finally something I can share.  A simple quilt to raffle at our Spring Tea.  The top is pieced.  I just need to quilt and bind.  you can also see some other projects in the corner.  The pink is the start of a bunting for the same tea.  The ninjas are new patches available at the Flying Monkey show in Huntsville tomorrow and soon to be in the shop.  The green fabric is for the bunting and the rest of the stack is for making dice bags.  And for the record, this is the neat part of the work table today.  There are scraps and threads and pins on the floor, piles of fabric everywhere, all of the embroidery threads I've used for the last week, random bobbins and scissors everywhere.  I am SO happy to be sewing again! 

Wind and Water

It was in the eighties yesterday.  It is headed to the thirties tonight.  We had torrential rain in between.  Definitely at wind and water kind of day. 

Just a Hint

And I really shouldn't show that much.  Once it arrives though.... 

Shhhhh. .. It's a Secret

Here is a picture for you to look at.  It seems like Spring might actually be here. 

I've actually had a chance to do some sewing.  I have one project almost finished and ideas for a couple more.  Unfortunately, I can't tell you or show you because what I am working on is supposed to be a secret. 

In the meantime, one of my projects has a section where I didn't sew a seam.  I mean, I completely missed it.  I could explain better if I could show you but I can't show you so you will have to try and imagine it.  It is a short little seam.  On the front.   There is no way to open it up for a re-do.  I have to come up with some other creative solution to keep the piece together without destroying the design. 

Or I could just keep it (the spuds and the dad are all in favor of that fix) and start over on plan B.

I Got Nothin'

This project has been sitting on the work table for a couple weeks now.  First I stalled out because I needed some more fabric (I knew buying 1/4 yard was crazy but I was trying to be conservative.  When I found it again it was a remnant and I ended up with another whole yard.)  Then we started in on the kitchen re-do.  I just haven't been able to get to my machine to get much of anything done beyond the essentials.  Now the projects are stacked up and I don't know where to start. 

Learning

There is always something new to learn.  Today I figured out how to capture an image from my design software.  (Of course I had to learn that because I can't get my network connection running properly to access photos on the other computer. Which is why I am showing you a picture of a badge instead of pretty spring flowers from my yard.) 

Bloglovin

I am trying to figure out how best to use Bloglovin to follow all my favorite blogs.  It seems I am missing a few. 

Hmmmm

I have an idea.  It works in theory.  Now I just need to figure out the details. 

Going to the Championship

Well that was a long three days!  I took the spud to the regional First Robotics Competition last week/weekend.  His team had an awesome robot.  They didn't fare so well in the qualifying rounds but were picked for the #6 alliance.  They went all the way to the finals.  Now they are headed to the Championships!  We are all so proud of the team.  These kids were the definition of gracious professionalism. 

The Mystery of the MIssing Stitches

I was working on an a batch of patches for a customer.  I finished the first tray.   They were beautiful.  I love her little bird design.  Then I had to shut down for a day.  I set up my machine to finish the order.  Awful.  I hadn't changed a thing on the machine, the design, the thread, the fabric, Nothing.  So out came the trouble shooting.  New needle.  Clean everything.  New bobbin case.  New design.  Re-thread.  Re-load.   Twenty, count them, TWENTY test patches later and nothing worked.  It kept dropping the same stitches.  The same stitches that came out perfectly the day before.  UGH.  I was ready to haul the machine off to the shop. 

And then I noticed something.  There were ripples in the fabric between the patches.  In the perfect batch, the ripples were vertical.  In the crazy skipping batch they were horizontal.  The fabric has a light stretch too it.  (It was the only white pair of jeans I could find.)  By rotating the design on the fabric so that the direction of the stretch was 90 degrees off it came out perfectly. 

Crazy.  But lesson learned. 

A is for April

And that is a crazy month around here.