Patience

I have to have patience tonight. I finished one of my "secret" projects but cannot post it yet because it is a gift and I have to wait until the recepient receives it. Then I will have a photo of it here. I finished it today and was so excited. I always get so excited when I finish a project because that means I can either move on to another UFO OR start a new one!!!!!!

More Pink Today!

I'm on a pink kick. I bought this little pink sweatshirt at a consignment shop and had it stored away to put something on it. I decided to do a black and white zebra, envisioning a cute little black pair of leggings with it (or pants) and her little black shoes. It's getting so close to spring and warm weather now that she might not be able to wear it but it's a size 4 pre-loved sweatshirt and she might be able to wear it next year when it's cold again.

Pink, Pink, Pink!!

I love pink! This was so much fun to do. These burp cloths are being sent pronto to my oldest daughter in Nashville. She needs a baby gift and I was glad to "oblige". I hope the recepients like them as much as I do. What a cute name!

My Surprise Package!

Look at what audreypawdrey sent me today! A package with 50 (!) 3 1/2 inch squares already cut (and SO precisely, I might add!) for my I Spy quilt for my granddaughter! Thank you, thank you, thank you SO much Audrey. What a great gift and generous gift of your precious time. I have looked through them over and over and my granddaughter will just love these. You must have better fabric stores in your area than we do here. There's everything from airplanes, to trains to rocketships with a little Sesame St. and the Flintstones and even Scooby Doo thrown in. I saw tennis balls, butterflies, horses, flip flops, dresses, skates, even money! You name it - it's just wonderful. I have cut around 40 and now with these 50, I should be able to start arranging in my color groups and seeing how I'm going to start sewing this together. This will be so much fun. I just can't thank you enough Audrey. You're the greatest and I hope you don't mind that I shared this with everyone. Much love to you.

Problem Hopefully Solved!

I played around with my software on my machine last night and think I have solved the monogramming density problem. There was a tab I could go to that had choices of automatic or manual on the satin stitch. It was set to manual when I saw this tab. I thought that was strange. There was also a photograph of how the zig zaggety stitches looked in a little frame to the right. When I clicked from manual to automatic, the stitches in the photo were closer together so I thought, aha! I stitched out another B and it still looked the same. I went back to the tab and it was still on manual. I clicked automatic again and noticed a tool bar-like thing at the bottom where you had to click ok and I had not done that so I clicked it, stitched another B and it looked great, SO much denser and fuller and better - not white towel showing through! So I stitched another style B and another and another and they all looked good.

I still am going to take my little sample of all these B's back to the sewing shop and show them on their computer what I did and ask if they think that's the problem just to be sure. Technology and me are getting along a little bit better :)

A Problem Solved

If you are a follower of this blog and also read this one also, you will see this photo posted yesterday, the 19th, of these towels that I monogrammed for my oldest daughter for a (late) Christmas gift. I had such a problem with these. You can't tell from the photograph but the satin stitches were not dense enough and a lot of white towel was showing through and I was not happy at all with them, especially to give to my daughter or anyone for a gift. In fact, I would not be happy with them had I done them for myself. So I slept on it and decided to call the sewing shop this morning. I still was not satisfied and decided to take the towels along with a couple of other things I'd done that I WAS happy with using this same sewing machine. Long story short, they agreed with me after seeing the towels in person and asked me to try something in my program on an old towel. If that does not work, they think it's an update that needs to be performed on my software on the machine and they will do it at no charge.

In the meantime, they suggested that I take a Sharpie black marker and just fill in the white tiny towel marks showing through, saying it will look like stitching, is permanent and will not fade when the towels are washed because it's a permanent marker. So I did that tonight and it was very easy to do and it looks good. Now I will mail them to my daughter for her Christmas gift, bless her heart. She's been patiently waiting. And I will explain what I've done and what has happened. (She can just read about it here!) Then when she washes the towels, if they do fade or not look good for any reason to her, I will do them again for her. But I plan to have my machine updated so it performs as it should in the future. Sometimes technology is so frustrating.

Playing I Spy

Well, I finally have some squares cut to post for the I Spy quilt. Paige chose what she wanted me to cut first but I still have quite a stack to cut. I just love this fabric. Aren't these cute little purses? Each one is different.

Of course, you know she would choose Pooh and friends! If you'll look closely, some are 6 1/2 inch rectangles in these groupings and some are 9 1/2 inch squares in order to get the entire design in the cutting. As long as it's divisible by 3, it's ok, according to the designer.

Here are just three random prints - a little dog that looks like Snoopy, Hello Kitty, and the Care Bears. I am trying not to repeat a square.

These little penguins are cute and even though I've cut more than one from the same fabric, no square (or rectangle) is exactly the same. One penguin is skiing, one is sledding, etc.

These are bright and cheery "under the sea" creatures. I think I was able to cut 3 different colorways of each one - 3 of the octopus, 3 of the fish, and 3 of the crab. This cutting is very tedious and slow because I am trying to center the design in the square. This is very different from anything I've ever done but it's fun. I'm just taking my time and having fun. Hope you enjoyed the tour so far!

When I get ready to start sewing the squares together, I will group them into lights, mediums and darks. I want to make a big square in the middle of the quilt with the lights, then use the mediums and darks for the borders.

Rotary Cutting

I hope to have pics to post tomorrow but I AM rotary cutting for the I Spy quilt. It's a
"slow go" but I'm getting those little 3 1/2 inch squares cut. They're tedious to cut because of trying to center the motif. Also, I'm slowly working on my two "secret" projects :)

A Couple of Creations!

I think I feel like I haven't been creating anything because I am working on two "secret" projects that are gifts and cannot post them until the recepients receive them. But I finally did some sewing today that I can post and they were so much fun to do. These little burp pads will be a gift, too, but the recepient does not see my blog. I love the baby blue and chocolate brown together and how the pattern shows the little dog wagging his tail. Tomorrow I will be back on my "secret" projects!

Paige-isms

Thought all you "fabricholics" would enjoy this!! Last week, Paige and I were shopping for fabric for her I Spy quilt and she saw something she really liked. Since she was in a shopping cart, she asked if she could go "pet" it! ha! I told her yes, that was what I do with my fabrics most of the time - look at them and pet them! Another lady in the same aisle overheard our conversation and I could hear her giggling. I guess we're kindred spirits!

Toys, Toys, Toys!!!

My productivity is badly suffering in the creating department. All I'm doing is dreaming, collecting, and buying, it seems. I'm getting my energy level back up from being sick with so many things for so long. I had a dental appointment today, went shopping afterwards, and just couldn't live without this book! I really have got to stop this and start creating with what I have. But aren't these the cutest little animals to crochet?!? Crocheting is so portable and these little creatures require so little yarn and should work up quickly. I have so much yarn on-hand, too. There's just nothing like starting a new project! It just thrills me to no end!

Also, I am still collecting the fabrics for the I Spy quilt. I found a little place that is going out of business and had Moda, Robert Kaufman, etc. (nice) fabrics 50% off. I get anywhere from 1/16 yd. to 1/4 yd. for this quilt, depending on the size of the design I will use and I spent $20 (including tax!) and got 20 pieces of fabric to use. I will have plenty leftover for other I Spy quilts because the designs run a 45 inch width and I am using a design only one time. Some of the fabrics have many designs I can use but they do repeat across this 45 inch width. I know, I know - I sound like I am trying so much to justify spending money in this economic crunch!
I do have a free weekend (unless something pops up) and I DO plan to get busy and go to work and hope to have some actual results to post on here!

Decision Made

Have decided to make a doll quilt so I can hopefully make it quickly and practice my machine quilting and other skills since I'm fairly new to quilting. A couple of blogging friends have offered to send conversation prints to me from their collection and I am so happy with your generosity! Thank you so much. If anyone else is interested in contributing fabric to this community doll quilt, please let me know and we can get addresses, etc. This IS going to be fun! Maybe I can start cutting tomorrow. Have been on a babysitting marathon lately because of my daughter/husband going on a cruise vacation. We had fun keeping her though. NOTE: This is the very first post that I've used my spellcheck and there were no mistakes! ha!