Getting Back Into the Groove!

Couldn’t be happier that I have my sewing machine back. She’s certainly running like a fine tuned machine now. I will be doing some research on a larger home machine in my near future, but until then, I am enjoying getting back into the groove!

Today, I decided to start my BOM (block of the month). It’s called Mystical Prism by Wing and a Prayer Design. I purchased it through Stitchin’ Heaven. The first block is called the Glow Block. When I opened my package, I realized why I fell in love with this particular quilt pattern. It’s full of Batik’s! Yay me!

I carefully read the directions before I started cutting. They only send you enough to make the designated block each month. So I wanted to be extra cautious. I certainly don’t want make any mistakes and end up not having enough fabric to complete my two blocks for this past month. It’s technically labeled as Septembers block, but I hadn’t gotten a chance to work on it before my machine needed service.

I will admit that I took over 30 minutes to figure out the “flying geese method”. I went through the directions a few times before I realized it was on the very first page. Albeit I felt brainless when I realized my oversight, I didn’t mind since I didn’t want to make any hasty decisions and run out of fabric.

I took my time measuring, cutting and squaring up pieces as they needed. And I am extremely happy with how the first few blocks turned out. I honestly can’t wait until this months supplies arrive! I’m pretty sure they ship out at the end of the month. Lucky for me I have another project (the butterfly quilt) I am working on in tandem and will have that to keep me occupied while I wait.

 

Sew Happy!

(Warning: this will more than likely be my shortest blog ever! 😁)

Yep, I said it. Sew Happy! Got the call yesterday evening that my sewing machine was all fixed and ready to be picked up. Can you believe it? They finished her early! Picked her up this afternoon. She’s even all wrapped up, all that was missing was a big red bow! Totally great way to end my hectic, super busy work week!

Say It Isn’t Sew!

Can’t believe I’m at a stand still, I was on a roll with this quilt for raffling next year. Had to stop my progress because my sewing machine is on the fritz! Yeah…say it isn’t sew! I can’t sew!  I feel like a kid that lost his/her favorite teddy bear or Pearl without one of her blankies!

How is it on the fritz? When I use my walking foot, it will stitch for a few inches, then it “jumps”, “hops” or “skips” (however you want to phrase it) several stitches and jerks the fabric. I can’t be the only person to have had this problem/issue, can I? I have to stop, take the fabric out of the machine and then rip the extremely “long”, skipped stitch and try again…or not. I opted to stop and evaluate the situation.

I turned off my machine, and yelled some colorful language at it. Yes, I did. It was out of frustration, my sewing machine and I may need therapy. Not that it cares. (Don’t act like you’ve never done it before, we all have!) I read the trouble shooting section in my manual, no help there, so I did a quick google search (gotta love the internet). Per google, check to make sure your presser foot/walking foot is attached correctly. I check and it is. Per google, if attached correctly take in for service. Wow…so helpful!

I opted to venture on my own before going to drastic measures, like taking it in and dropping it off for service. I mean, what would my machine do without me? It needs me just as much as I need it! Regardless of the verbal abuse! I decided to try cleaning it. Which it apparently needed, there was a lot of lint under the needle plate and bobbin case…even between my feed dogs. Once I cleaned everything out, I put her (maybe if I refer to her as a being rather than an object, she will work! Positive thinking people, cut me some slack!) back together and even put on a fresh, sharp, brand new needle. Feeling optimistic, and confident that I knew what the heck I was doing, I re-threaded her and wouldn’t you know it, sew about two inches and yet again, “jump”, “hop”, “skip” as several more explicit words shot out of my mouth and I shut her down. Needless to say, I dropped of my machine at a local service repair shop on Monday.

Called the shop yesterday, they tell me I need a new walking foot.  I’m like, that’s all? Nothing else? They proceed to say she needs to be lubricated and her timing is “off” and that they will adjust/fix it. Total cost $150ish. I told them it was fine to repair, and asked when/if I could pick my machine up, tomorrow? They told me Tuesday next week! What the f***! A whole week? I am going through literal withdrawals here. What the h*** am I supposed to do?

I have been thinking about buying a larger machine (not a longarm…at least not yet!), one with a bigger throat space so I can easily quilt without wrestling my small machine to push the quilt through. Just imaging not having hand fatigue and the ease of flow makes me blissful. Now, I’m seriously contemplating biting the bullet and just doing it. After all, you can’t go wrong having a back up for when your main machine is down, right? I will be having a serious sit down with the hubby since I know it will be pricey. Only quilters will understand the expense of a good quality sewing machine. Not for justification,  but for clarification…this is not a WANT! It’s totally a NEED!

Tip of one of the wings
Piecing together
Top 3rd if both wings! Slowly coming together!

Keeping Busy

My oh my how the weekend flies when you are keeping busy. I have three day weekends every week, but they sure flash before my eyes. My days stay full with laundry, litter boxes, dishes, other housework, errands and of course sewing.

Once my normal duties were completed on Friday, the rest of the day was spent cutting fabric for several blocks. I managed to get two of them sewn as well. Saturday was mostly spent running errands, however I squeezed in picking complimenting fabric and cutting for the final eight blocks..yes I said it…FINAL eight blocks. I’ve been on a roll! Pretty much every weekend I try to cut and piece a few blocks.  And today, I finished sewing the last eleven blocks that I needed to start putting the quilt top together. This butterfly quilt that I said was “much more complicated” is apparently not as complex as I initially thought, cause this girl is on fire! This is the quilt I will be raffling for Team Brianna’s-AFSP (American Foundation for Suicide Prevention) Out of the Darkness fundraising efforts next year.

I should mention that this weekend just so happens to be my first experience sewing curved edges. I was slightly intimidated, but just went for it. I found that once I pinned the center, then the ends and finally in between it wasn’t as daunting as it appeared. The most dangerous part was escaping without any pin pricks on my fingertips! No blood shed here!

It looks like I have “over” purchased fabric for this project. Darn…I am so not disappointed about this. I have a strong feeling I’m going to love how this particular quilt turns out. The pattern is just gorgeous.  I will definitely be making another one for myself. What better thing to do with extra material, right? Plus, with a second version with the same material, I can create different color combinations. If there is anything remaining after I make a second quilt top, I’ll save it for scraps for an other project!

My husband says that we won’t ever need to paint again. He thinks we will just start hanging my quilts on all the walls as decoration. Who needs new paint or wallpaper. Laugh if you want, but it may just end up being a house full of “usable” quilt art!

Unfortunately for me, it’s back to the work week tomorrow. And Monday’s are typically crazy busy. You never know what emergency will be coming through our doors. I’ll be looking forward to Thursday afternoon, the day I will be getting my quilt wall out to start piecing this butterfly quilt top together! Of course in a perfect world, I could just cut and sew everyday, but the way it is, is purrfect for me!

Staying Busy is the Key

I know it’s been almost a month since my last blog. It is not my intention to have such a long gap between my thoughts. September is a difficult month for me and my family, as my daughter passed on September 9, 2014. This year was more difficult because the American Foundation For Suicide Prevention- Out of the Darkness Walk (for our area) fell on the 9th as well. We walk in honor and memory of Brianna. Since we had the largest team, almost 60 people, we were asked to lead the walk.

I believe I mentioned previously, that I had made a butterfly quilt that we raffled to help raise monies in support of suicide prevention. With that raffle, we were able to sell 236 tickets and raised $950. The winner (Kim D.) of that quilt had never won anything before and ironically, happens to be a quilter too! We also did a paint night event and sold “Team Brianna” t-shirts this year. With all of our events, plus word of mouth fundraising our team was able to raise $4094. Myself, my husband and son are extremely grateful for all of our friends/families support. Without all of you/them, we wouldn’t be able to continue to honor Brianna and raise suicide prevention awareness. We know Brianna is proud of all of us.

As you know, Brianna is the reason I started quilting. My first endeavor was her memory quilt. Since my last blog, I finished and delivered two more of her memory quilts. One of those is in Maryland and the other is in Idaho. I also sewed another puppy made completely out of Briannas clothes, with the exception of the bow for one of my nieces. So, even though I haven’t “blogged” in a while, I have remained busy! I find staying focused on ways of honoring Brianna, keeps me from dwelling on the sadness of her loss.

I have also been diligently working on the raffle quilt for next years AFSP-OOTD walk. Today I sewed about 86 blocks, 68 of them are (2.5″ x 2.5″) half square triangles. Anyone that thinks quilting isn’t strenuous work is so wrong. Between the up and down from my chair, bending over to measure and cut, standing over the ironing board and pressing seams open, my neck and back are killing me.

On a good note, I see a massage from my hubby in my near future…thats a plus!

Decisions, Trouble & Cuddles

My last blog I talked about a quilt I made for charity. It went so well, I already picked out a pattern for next years raffle. It’s called The Butterfly Quilt by Tula Pink. For this years quilt, I tried to pick something on the relatively easy/simple side since I wasn’t sure how well the raffle would do. Because it ended up with fabulous results, I have decided to challenge myself with this quilt. And trust me, looking at it last night, I will need to take my time with this one!

Since the raffle and walk we do is in honor of our daughter, Brianna, I have chosen another butterfly for next years quilt. The quilt shown on the pattern package is mostly in pinks, not Brianna’s favorite color. I will be changing that to blues and some purples. There are blocks in this quilt that I have never made before. Floating crosses, log cabins, flying geese, wheel blocks and many more. The truly difficult part of this pattern, is deciding which colors to put with each block. I started to work on this last night and will hopefully finish that today. Of course, I will add blogs with my progress on this quilt. It should take me awhile. Lucky for me I have plenty of time!

Now how does a girl get in trouble? This girl goes to the fabric store and buys material for a new quilt. I took my husband and son with me to help me decide and finalize the colors. I kept warning the them that it was going to be an expensive trip, I don’t think they really believed me. While I did manage to steer (mostly) away from the batik section, I still ended up spending a couple hundred dollars. I know it will be totally worth it in the end.

Just for giggles, this blog took me forever to write…my quilting buddy decided it was cuddle time!

To Raffle or Not

My family and I have participated with the Out of the Darkness Walk for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention for the past two years. This year, we (Team Brianna) decided to try a new way to raise funds and to help raise more awareness. I thought a good idea would be to do a quilt raffle. Of course, I wasn’t sure if would be able to sell tickets let alone how much we would raise, but decided we should go for it.

A few months ago, I made a Strip Butterflies quilt by MSQC (Missouri Star Quilt Company). I picked something that I thought would be a beautiful, but a relatively “simple” quilt. And wanted to pick something that Brianna would have liked. Since she loved butterflies, this quilt was a no brainer!

Picking material, in my opinion, is the fun part. I absolutely love color! And who doesn’t love colorful butterflies! This particular quilt design required a jelly roll for the butterflies. MSQC had the perfect roll, it was called Mariposa Meadow. I’m not sure if it is available anymore, but it contained beautiful colors, watercolor, medallion, plaid and some butterfly prints. Purrfect for this project! I used a bright yellow (my son, says it’s orange. You decide!) for the sashing and binding and a nice green batik for the border.

Since this project was for a raffle, I decided I should have it professionally long armed. Of course, I took it to my favorite quilt shop, Simply Stashing Fabrics & Quilts. When I told Deb (my quilt guru) about what the quilt was for, she donated her time and long arm expertise for free. This was her contribution to help our cause. Which was way more than we could have hoped for! She graciously quilted butterflies in rainbow thread, edge to edge on our raffle quilt. It turned out amazing!

I rarely, if at all praise myself, however I am super proud of myself and this quilt because we far surpassed my wildest dreams and were able to sell 236 tickets and raised $950! Plus, what makes it even more special is that it’s the first thing our raffle winner (Kim D.) has ever won!

If you have ever considered making a quilt to raffle for a charity, I would say do it! It is not just a great way express your talents and creativity, it’s good for the soul! And this day in age, couldn’t we all use something that just makes us feel good?

Why Not

Forgive me, as I’m still playing catch up with what I’ve done up to the start of my blog. At the beginning of this year, I found a horse applique art quilt pattern kit, called Summer Breeze by Toni Whitney. It’s something that immediately made me think of my daughter, Brianna. She loved horses. Of course, I purchased this on a whim as I’d never done applique before…it was just so beautiful, I couldn’t help myself.

Although the kit included the fabric (not pre-cut) I quickly realized I needed to buy other supplies. I had to get an applique pressing sheet (Bear Threads Designs) and steam a seam 2, a double stick fusible web. I also needed a fine point sharpie, an iron and sharp scissors. Don’t worry, I did not use my good fabric scissors!

It took a lot of time to trace, and cut from the pattern. And I found myself often re-reading the directions, specifically what order to applique each piece. It is quite intricate. I found that as I progressed, it was harder to see the exact placement for each applique piece as they began to overlap. Eventually they start to cover the outlined pattern that you put the pressing sheet over. Once I got all my supplies, it took me about 2 weeks to complete, start to finish.

I think the hardest part for me was the free motion quilting. I haven’t done much of it yet. Most of my quilts that I have made I’ve been stitching in the ditch or doing simple straight lines. Nothing to fancy to date. I was hesitant at first, but finally I bit the bullet and just went for it. I wasn’t planning on giving this away, this project was for me to keep. Besides nothing I make is perfect. You will see what I mean in the closeup photos. It’s not easy to stay just inside the edge of each individual applique piece. But I think it turned out pretty darned good for my first time.

I’d like to say that while I did find it time consuming, I really enjoyed making it. I definitely see more applique projects in my future! And why not try something new. I know with time and practice, my free motion quilting will get much better. My advise is to not get intimidated, just go for it. You have nothing to lose, hence “Why not?”

Here you can see the pattern underneath the pressing sheet If you look closely, you can see pieces of the mane with the backing left on. That was because it wasn't fused until I put the outer pieces on.Finally done with the applique application! Tha free motion quilting in progress! Not perfect, but not to shabby for my first project like this.I used left over material from my other quilts for the backing.

Memory Quilts

In my first post I mentioned that I have been making memory quilts with pieces of my daughter, Brianna’s clothing incorporated. I feel the need to “catch up” to where I am today, this will be a quick rewind to present.

So far, I’ve made nine. Each one is different and I try to use the recipients favorite color and almost always make the backing blue, Brianna’s favorite color. In my Purrfectly Imperfect post, I shared our personal memory quilt, The orange and blue borders and binding are the only portion that is not her clothing. (I should mention, I did not design this quilt, Deb Curtis did) With each memory quilt I have made or am in the process of making, I incorporate pieces of her clothes into the pattern that I have designed with my EQ7 (Electric Quilt 7) program. I also try, if I have enough leftover material, to incorporated material from the other quilts I’ve made into another one. This gives them another connection other than Brianna’s clothing. So, some of them are doubly intertwined. I think this gives them a scrappy/patchy look to the quilts. Which in my opinion is part of the whimsy of what makes a quilt a quilt.

I have attached pictures of most of the nine quilts, with the exception of two of them. Those will have to wait until the recipients actually get them! After all, it wouldn’t be fair for everyone else to see them first.

Purrfectly Imperfect

Why purrfectly imperfect? Because I’m a relatively new quilter (3 years) and lets just face it, there’s nothing “purrfect” with my quilts. I think that’s part of the fun, beauty and quirkiness with my hobby. And, of course, I love cats! My sewing companion is my awesome sphynx cat, Pearl. She will literally sit with me for hours while I measure, cut and sew. She’s great company!

I’m new to blogging as well. Hopefully, you will find my thoughts and ongoing list of projects fun and interesting to follow and read about.

Let me start with why I began quilting in the first place. My daughter, Brianna, passed away on September 9, 2014. I wanted to be able to hold onto her clothes, but in a healthy way. I mentioned to my husband that I would like to make us a quilt made out if her clothes. He thought it was a great idea. I found places that we could ship her clothing to, but I honestly didn’t want someone we didn’t know creating something that was so personal for us. I decided that I should learn how to do it myself. I needed to find somewhere to take lessons.

On an afternoon, driving through Littlestown, Pennsylvania, my husband, Chris, says to me, “Did you see that?” I respond with, “see what?”. He said he saw a sign for a quilt shop. I told him I didn’t see it. So, he turns the car around. Low and behold, he indeed saw a quilt shop, Simply Stashing, so we stopped in. Keep in mind this is only 4-6 weeks since we lost our daughter. Once inside, we looked around and asked if they offered quilt lessons. We were told that they did do group classes. Then, I got nervous. I didn’t want to learn how to cut Brianna’s clothes and quilt them with a group of strangers. I knew it would be emotional for me and asked if they offered private lessons. That’s when we met Deb Curtis, my quilt guru. We explained what we wanted to do and she offered private lessons for us. Yes, I said us. Chris wanted to help create our memorial quilt for our daughter. My husband is the best, he did almost all off the cutting of Brianna’s clothes for our quilt, and I did all the sewing. We had Deb professionally longarm quilt it for us. We keep Briannas quilt on our bed and use it everyday.

I continue to make quilts with Brianna’s clothes for our family and friends. This way everyone that knew and loved her can have a little piece of Brianna with them. The rule is that if you receive one, you have to use it. Brianna wouldn’t want anyone to hang it for display, she’d want everyone to use them. And we hope that when anyone wraps themself in their quilt, they think of Brianna.

So far, Briannas memorial quilts span in 4 states, Maryland, Virginia, Texas and Colorado.

For inquiring minds, I design and create these quilts myself. I purchased the computer program Electric Quilt 7, from Deb at Simply Stashing. It makes it easy as pie!

That’s it. That’s how I became inspired to learn to quilt. Now, I’m hooked.

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