New Toy!

I got a new (to me) toy for my sewing room.  Here it is in pieces on the (messy) sewing room floor:

You can just see the machine in the upper left corner of the tarp.  Here's the picture from the craigslist ad:

It's a vintage Singer 31-15 industrial machine.  I haven't pulled the serial number yet, but I suspect it's about 1930's or 40's vintage.  It looks like it has a new(er) motor assembly.  It was owned by the seller's mother and used for all her daily sewing.  I think she's in ill health now and has had to move, so the seller just wanted it out of his basement.  So my husband and I went down to take a look.  It's in beautifully maintained condition and sews like a champ (once I rethreaded it).  It's a bit grungy on the outside (mostly dust) and will need a good wipedown.  My husband broke it down (love you honey!), we put everything in the back of the car, bungeed the trunk shut and took it home.   Quite an adventure.

I really wanted it for free motion quilting.  It goes full speed at about 1700-2200 stitches per minute.  And it has a huge 11" throat space.  And it's within my budget.  Table and machine ran me $200.  Since the whole setup weighs about 200 lbs (machine alone is 60 and the motor is about the same), it's about $1/lb.  Cheaper than grapes at any rate.

This machine also takes standard long shank feet, making a darning foot for FMQ easy to find.  It was also produced in such quantities that parts are easy to buy.  It also uses a standard class 15 bobbin.  So a very easy industrial to maintain.

I'm very excited to get it up and running soon.  This is definitely my Whoop Whoop! for the week.

Christmas Preparation

Not a quilt, but something quilty nonetheless.  I bought this tote pattern from CityHouseStudio.  I'm going to be giving several of them for Christmas presents this year.

I'm very pleased with how everything came out except the lining.  I think I'll cut the lining down by 1/4" next time to make it fit a little nicer.   See how it's a bit bunchy?  I'd like to have a nice, smooth lining.  I'll probably keep this one and make some more for gifts in custom color schemes, etc.

WIP Tote

These are eventually going to be the front and back of a totebag that will end up being a Christmas present for my mother-in-law.  (Sorry for the bad pics.  You can really see the Moire pattern on them.)

The letters were an experiment in paper piecing (which I had never done before) and the spools were from Jacquie over at Tallgrass Prairie Studio's tutorial.

Linking up over at Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesdays.

Another Finished Baby Quilt

There seems to be a slew of babies being born right now.  So this is another baby quilt I just finished that's going to go to its new owner.  I made this one using a fat quarter pack and the tutorial found over here at Two Little Banshees.  It worked out great, and I was able to use some of the scraps for binding.

I used a scrap of high-loft 100% poly batting I had from old projects.  I'm reminded why I vastly prefer a blend or 100% cotton.  the quilt didn't "crinkle" at all in the wash, and I love the crinkle and drape of a quilt w/ a good batting that's washed.

I quilted it with large circles to offset the square nature of the piecing.  I think in this one, I used salad plates and cereal bowls as the templates.  I do like the effect and the quickness of this quilting motif.

For the backing I used a brown piece that mimicked the circles in the quilting.  I pieced the binding out of 2" scraps I had leftover.   I prefer working with 2.5" binding, but hey, "waste not, want not."

So overall, two thumbs up on the pattern and design and a big "meh" on the finished product.

WIP Wednesday

The nasturtium quilt is coming along.  I have a large pile of finished blocks and a potential layout.  I tried out lots of other layouts, but I think this one is the winner.  This is the BQ3 pattern from Maple Island Quilts.  It's a great pattern because it's so fast to put together but still flexible in the final layout and design.

Linking up at Freshly Pieced for WiP Wednesdays.  Even on the 4th of July!

An Experiment Gone Right!

I love it when I try something new and it turns out well.  I recently saw this video from the Missouri Quilt Co. on how to make a "self binding" baby blanket and immediately wanted to try it.  I actually already had two pieces of flannel washed and ready to go after scoring them cheaply at a Memorial Day sale.  It turned out wonderfully.

This picture shows the center fabric as well as the backing/binding.  I started with squares that were a different size than the ones in the tutorial, so my finished blanket has slightly different proportions.

And this picture shows a close-up of the two fabrics.  The mom-to-be has a thing for turtles, so this fabric was perfect for her.

True Love

My husband has been into Freecycle lately.  He's been dumping some of our old junk and keeping an eye on it for bargains.  A few weeks ago he scored a non-working ride-on toddler train for free.  He had it working in under 2 hours.

Yesterday, he scored a box of free "quilting fabric."  Apparently, a lady had gone to an estate sale, bought the box, took what she wanted, and was dumping the rest via Freecycle.  I was skeptical, because a lot of things are labeled "quilting fabric" when they're most definitely not.  But, hey, the price was right.  And worst case scenario, we'd have to make a trip to Goodwill to drop off the fabric.

Well, he brought back a copy paper box full of honest to goodness quilting cottons.  I started going through it and realized there was a lot of good stuff in there!  Some yardage and A LOT of fat quarters.  In fact, there were two washing machine loads worth of fabric.  I didn't even keep it all.  I got rid of a lot of the 80's-esque floral prints in coral, blue, and brown.

Here's my haul (sorry for the poor pictures.  I was rushing to take pictures before the baby woke up):

There were 5 Kaffe Fasset shot cotton fat quarters:

And 8 batik fat quarters:

And 17 homespun fat quarters plus a yardage cut:

And 27 miscellaneous fat quarters:

Then there were these 11 textured fat quarters.  They're obviously from the same line and look like they have a spray paint texture on them. 

Then there was all the yardage...  These cuts ranged from 1/4 of a yd. up to about 1 1/2 yds.  A huge variety.

  

And that's how I came to love my husband's Freecycle habit.

WIP Wednesday

This is my next quilt.  I have been sitting on this focus fabric for a while, and I finally figured out how to use it.  It's going to be used in a BQ3 pattern with random greens and oranges to complement it.  So I went through my stash and pulled most of my greens and oranges and am ready to go!

Scrappy Roses

This quilt is not my style at all, but isn't it perfect for a little girl?  This quilt is going to one of my best friends from grad school who is expecting her first daughter in September.

All the fabric in this quilt except the white muslin used for the sashings and backing and the binding came from the scrap box at my local quilt shop.  They have a deal where you can stuff a bag for $5.  I hit the jackpot one day and they had a ton of coordinating scraps.  And by scraps, I mean some 1/4 yd. cuts, long strips, and a miscut panel (9 of the 12 motifs were salvageable and became the center pieces for the blocks in this quilt)!  I was sure I could do something with them, so I stuffed a bag with them and took them home.

I actually quilted this on a longarm at a local quilt shop that runs individual classes.  It's just an all-over meander. I loved getting to play on the longarm, but man...  White thread on this quilt was horribly hard to see.  Lesson 1: pick a contrasting color for easy visibility. 

I pieced the backing out of plain white muslin with a large scrap thrown in for visual appeal (plus, I didn't have quite enough muslin).  Then I bound it with some lovely white and red checks.

 Plus, my cute baby boy wanted to help model the quilt and show how a baby would enjoy the quilt.

The "Picnic Quilt"

This quilt was made for a new baby boy who was born in May.  His older brother was apparently infatuated with the quilt and christened it "the picnic quilt."  And I have to say that the name suits it.  I was also informed by the namer of the quilt that it was good to count the triangles and seeds and slices of watermelon on this quilt.  Who knew?!

It was from the May/June 2010 issue of Fons & Porter's Love of Quilting magazine.  I liked the pattern so much I was going to make a bed sized quilt out of it, but decided to make a crib size instead to see if I liked it.  And I'm glad I did.  I enjoyed making this one, but I was over it by the time it was done.

Each shoo-fly block was done out of a different fabric from my scrap bag.  I simply echo-quilted around those blocks.

The watermelon blocks are each done in a different red fabric, and the seeds are black felt.  The watermelon slices were quilted with a stipple just to differentiate them. 

 

The backing was a blueberry print that I've had in my stash for at least 10 years.  Who knows where I got it from, but blueberries seemed to fit the "summer" theme of this quilt, so I went with it.

 

Graduation Celebration

About 3 or 4 years ago, my little brother graduated from college with a Chemical Engineering degree.  This deserved some commemoration, so I promised him a quilt.  I already had most of the top done on a quilt in his school colors!

Then I started quilting it and realized I was going to ruin it.  So off to Charisma at Charisma's Corner it went.  We went back and forth debating quilting motifs.  I had decided I wanted something more modern than the traditional fans or feathers.  So I asked Charisma to "do something circular" to offset all the simple squares.  This is what she came up with:

I almost kept this one for myself, I liked it so much.  Little Brother was lucky to get his quilt (even if it was a year or so late).

It got a solid black binding.  Unfortunately, I was rushing to get it to him and didn't get a picture of the finished quilt and him.  I need to remedy that this summer.

Blast from the Past

This is a very old quilt.  Can't you tell?

I started it back in about 2000, I think.  It was my 2nd quilt.  My first quilt was a sampler quilt that I pieced as part of a "Learn to Quilt" class at Austin Community College.  Once I took the class, I thought, "Gee, I can make ANYTHING now!" and off I went to pick out a pattern and fabric.  This quilt is from a pattern called "Stars and Bricks" and it has lots of stars with flying geese units for the points.

I was a bit over ambitious, to put it mildly.  Looking back, this was a heck of a project for a beginning quilter.  Anyway, off I went.  I put almost the whole top together.  My piecing wasn't super accurate (and to be honest, it still isn't) and I had to strrretch some blocks to make the whole thing fit together.  So don't look too closely at these points, if you please.  I also realized I had made a poor fabric choice for the background of the stars.  The points blended in too much and you lost the star effect of the top.

I got kinda disgusted with the fact it wasn't perfect (this is something of a recurring theme in my life) and put it away.  The top was mostly finished, but it lacked borders.  Then I went to grad school and quilting took a back seat for a number of years.  I dug it out last year and decided to finish it.  I put the borders on and then it sat some more while I thought about how to quilt it.

I was smart enough to realize there was no way I was going to be able to quilt a queen size quilt on my vintage Viking machine.  So off it went to Charisma of Charisma's Corner for her special treatment.  And this was the final result.

I'm rather fond of it now, warts and all.  It's got some lovely bright colors, and Charisma's quilting did wonders for reinforcing the star motif that was lost in the fabric selection.  Even the back is pretty!

So that's the story of my first real quilt.   It's kind of my life in a nutshell: tackle an overly complex project that's slightly beyond my skills, take a while to get it done, but finish it based on pure stubbornness.

Well, hello there...

I'm back!  One dissertation, one new job, one new house, one house renovation, and one baby later...  And boy, do I have a lot to catch up on.