It was a great week for sewing. I went to my guild's sewing day before the evening guild meeting on Wed. I know I can't spend a whole day out and about but I did pretty well getting to the sew in a bit before 3 and getting some string blocks started. I didn't finish them because I usually use half square triangles for the corners and the ones I brought to use were too small. Bummer. I like the fact that I always have strings and phone book papers cut to size ready to go. It didn't take me long to pack up and go. Funny that I didn't think to put that on my goals list last week. Nonetheless, it was a great sewing week.
6/17/24
✅Make 2 more placemats — done and turn into guild.
✅Quilt a bit more on the seaside picture — done, still have to tie off some threads. Wait, no, I didn't finish the whole thing I just did more quilting on it!
✅Bind string quilt — finished.
✅Lay out the blue blocks from FCQ EQuilters and sew into top — the blocks are on the design wall. More are being made before it can be sewn into a top.
✅Finish the inner and outer border on the stars quilt — done and returned to the guild.
Here are some of the blocks that FCQ Equilters sent me on my last turn. I picked out the ones that had some other colors in them and then started making some more. Does that yellow stripe one bother you? It screams at me. I probably will remove it and make something else to go there. (These are made in pairs so I'll probably take out both of them.) You'll be seeing more of these blocks in the future. I probably have enough for another fairly big quilt. I'm making this the size the guild requested for seniors -- 40" x 60".
One goal I really wanted to get done was finish the star quilt for Virginia Star Guild. You can read the background story here and here. All I had left to do was to put the borders on, one with mitered corners. Ugh. I used the 6.5" cut borders that the woman who had been making the quilt had precut. I whipped out my trusty book on making mitered corners to see how to do it. Many years ago I took a class with Susan Cleveland to learn how to do mitered corners. She had a great book, Marvelous Miters, available so I bought it for future reference. It was pretty much easy peasy using her directions.
I found it interesting that you can't see the miter because the border fabric is so busy. Luckily, I will not have to quilt this one. I can't see doing an edge to edge quilting design over those gorgeous stars. Hopefully another long armer can do a great job on it. It's good to have this done!
Here's what I hope to work on this week.
6/24/24
Finish blue blocks and sew into top
Quilt one of my quilts
Bind one of my quilts
Keep working on seaside top
Cut out a kit for July retreat
I'm glad I made it to the guild sew in last week because I always take my featherweight (FW) sewing machine since it is very portable. Although I really like my FW unfortunately it is really slow. I've compared my FW with friends who have them and, yep, it is s-l-o-w. Which got me to thinking about a very old Elna Carina I have. I stapled the receipt to the instruction book so I know it will be 40 years old on July 16th. (I paid $909.48 for it.) Within the last 10 years I had it serviced and put back into working order. Except, when I took it to a class it didn't work. I can't remember if I tried it after that day but I decided it was time to figure out what was wrong and whether hubby and I could fix it.
Surprise, surprise! It works pretty well. Except, the light didn't work. In fact, there was no bulb in the socket. Except, there was the remnant of the bulb. Took hubby quite a while to get it out. Thanks to Amazon, a new bulb arrived the next day. Light is restored and the machine works. It's a little clunky but it definitely sews faster than my FW. I plan to take both the FW and Elna to the retreat I'm going to in July. Hubby also made wooden pieces to hold up the plastic insert I had for the sewing desk. (Don't cry -- but the insert only cost $9.00.) Here's what it currently looks like.
The other bonus to this machine is it is lightweight. I think it is even lighter than the FW. I'm not sure it will last long as it really sounds like it is old when I sew. I'm happy to give it a try and hopefully it will work well for me.
Stitching Stuff --
Yea me! I again was able to stitch every day. Here are the latest numbers.
W/ending 6/23 — 175 days in to 2024.
- 15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
- 15 minute days/June = 23/23 days
- 15 minute days/2024 = 168/175 days
- Success rate = 96%
You had a very busy and productive week. The yellow stripes does stand out, but so does the yellow paisly. If you add more yellow and blue, that might not be the case. Happy stitching this week and good luck getting in your second blog post.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Kate and you that the stripe one is taking center stage. But I also feel the yellow one does too, or do you plan to add more yellow blocks? I am not that fond of my FW because it is slow and makes a bit more noise than I like so I hardly use it. Maybe your Elna just needs to be used to work the oil through it?
ReplyDeleteI was having trouble with my FW, in regards to speed. I took it to my sewing machine guy, who is very good with FWs, and he found it needed a new motor. Boy, now it is great. That is an idea. I guess sometimes it can also just be that the motor needs to be looked at, it could have grease that has hardened. There are ways to free it up.
ReplyDeleteIsn't it handy to have someone that can help us making our sewing better by building surrounds?
You did have a busy and productive week! It looks like we're all agreeing that the yellow striped block isn't working. I do like the rest of the blocks, though - that's a neat design! Your metered covers are impressive! I haven't had to do that in a long time. Good luck with your sewing machines, too!
ReplyDeleteSounds like a perfect week! I really like the star quilt-nice job! The FCQ blocks are coming along-wait and get them all done to see if you still need to remove the 'louder' blocks! lol
ReplyDeleteBoth the yellow (left) and stripe (right) stand out. Either replace them or add two or three more "loud" blocks for balance. The circle of nine setting is great for those blocks.
ReplyDeleteA good productive week. I agree about the yellow standing out from the others.
ReplyDeleteThe Elna will be a good replacement for the FW at retreats, especially since it is lightweight. I like the wooden pieces that your Hubby fashioned for the insert.
ReplyDeleteLike the layout of your star quilt.
ReplyDeleteOkay - I am a wierdo - I think the yellow blocks add character haha!! gives you an excuse to bind it in yellow haha
Don't you just love it when you have a productive week? Woo Hoo on getting so much accomplished. String blocks are one of my favorites. I miss having telephone books for piecing. Oooh the nine patches are so pretty and I agree with Alycia- I love the yellow, but then I like the unexpected. LOL. Happy quilting. Hugs.
ReplyDelete