Back and Forth, Back and Forth......

 
 
Where did the week go again?! If I am not careful it will be Christmas before I know it!

 
Oh I know, I had to go back and forth to the sewing machine dealer...only an hour away...
If you remember I had dropped my machine off to be fixed, I picked it up Wed.

I stopped at Verna’s and picked up some more fabric for the 365 Challenge. Hopefully I only need a little more shirting for the background.

Thursday the machine started having the same symptoms. I took it back to the dealer and stated very nicely either the machine is fixed when I leave or I will be walking out with a new one.

Surprisingly all it needed was a new bobbin case! All that frustration from the time I bought it in Sept. last year until now.....

I went to a retreat this week. I had a mini retreat because it started on Tues. and is over Sun. early evening.  I got there early evening Wed. and stayed until early evening Fri.

I am on vacation this week and did not want to spend all of it at a retreat. WHAT?!?!? Did I just put that in writing: I did NOT want to spend all of it at a retreat?

I will blame that remark on my evil Gemini twin. 

 

For the meal Wed. I made a veggie pizza from scratch. Well it was supposed to be a veggie pizza because I gave up meat Wed. and Fri. for Lent but half of it got ham. Sorry no pictures, I was too hungry to take any. Keep in mind there are only 3 women at this retreat, 2 others and me. There was a little less than half left and we started with a 16” pie. I should have brought the rest home because I venture to say the left over went to the dogs...
I was a little upset that the host knows I gave up meat for Lent but insists on adding some to my meal. (Everyone must bring or make an evening meal, except for the host.) Gggrrrrr…

Thurs. evening Ellen made a Rueben casserole (9" x 13"):

 

Now on to the good stuff - what was worked on:

Mel is making Judy Neimyer’s: http://www.quiltworx.com Split Log Cabin.

 

She went into her stash and pulled out 80 different fabrics, some of the fabric is 20 years old. FINALLY she is starting to use her stash! It took her 3 days to cut all the pieces; 1,040 and it will be paper pieced at that. Why she is doing that particular pattern when she has 2 Log Cabin quilts is beyond me...

 

 Now you have to understand this is just one of her fabric collections:

left side



middle and right side


 
 
 
 And at the end of the month Ellen and her are taking a road trip down to Wytheville, Va. stopping at 13 shops planned so far.

Ellen is making what she titled ‘Red Toile’ because the book she picked up in 2008 had the quilt she wants to make on the cover in red. She is using blues with fabric she bought in 2009 for this quilt.

 

Of course she had to plan it out on paper first (as she always does).

 

Me, I started my granddaughter’s T-Shirt quilt. I have 5 blocks done so far.

 

 

(It is hard to get anything done when one has to run back and forth to the dealer for repairs…..)

I am also trimming up my cut off corners from my Snowball quilt I pieced years ago.

 

 

Mel has hers finished.

With her corners she made:

 

 

There were only 3 of us and this is the damage we did! YUMMMY!!!

 

 

The recipe for this Rueben Casserole can be found at: http://allrecipes.com

Ellen used Jamon0126's recipe. (The host added extra rye bread, put the whole jar of dressing in, and added about twice the cheese.)

I personally always ask for my dressing on the side because I dip my Rueben sandwiches in the dressing so when I make this I will not add the dressing as the recipe calls for.

 

Have a great week!

D.G. L

Envious?!?!?

*Side note - This all started before my back issues....
 
I am still taking it easy and haven't done much of anything because of my back, which is starting to get 'back' to normal. Whew.....
My:

must have thought it didn't need to do much of anything either because I had to take it in to be fixed.
It started to 'eat my fabric' again and continually had 'thread threw up'! It's been doing the same thing as when I first bought it (winding the thread around the bobbin post), very unhappy....
 
Not only that but the:

 

would just 'take off and go a zillion miles a minute without moving any fabric....which lead to even more 'threw up'!
I am wanting to sew a darker thread on the top in the colored fabric areas but the machine would not let me adjust any tension so this is what the back looks like:
 

 
It's a good thing I am not entering this quilt in any shows. I am so upset with the stitching (already 1/4 stitched out) I am tempted to rip out all the quilting.....NNNNOOOOOOO!!!!!
Maybe I should have just meandered the quilting because it started with me wanting to design my  own quilting pattern. I am not very proficient at free motion so I draw out the design and stitch over the lines. Because I needed 16 of the same design I figured I would draw it on dissolving paper. 'Wash-Away' to the rescue. I drew the 16 designs using a blue Sharpie marker so I would be able to see the lines:

 

and put them on the pile for the evening....must get up early for work....
As I was showering; it's the greatest place for me to think, I thought 'what if the Sharpie 'bleeds' onto the white fabric? I would die after all that hard work because I wouldn't know until I washed the quilt to dissolve the paper!
 
I made a test piece. The marker didn't 'bleed' onto the white BUT it did into the thread!

 

Back to the drawing board, this time using a 'Frixion' marker:

 
This worked well, I could see the design and if any paper was left on the fabric after tearing it away before washing the quilt I could just steam away the pen markings, (still afraid of colors bleeding into thread).
I pinned the papers in place and started quilting. WHAT?!?! I could hardly move the fabric for not being able to hold onto the slippery papers!!!
Back to the drawing board so to speak.
I finally cut out a stencil and put the design on the fabric the old fashioned way - chalking....
 

 
Old ways seem to be the best ways at times....
 
Speaking of entering quilt shows......
I went to my guild's quilt show. They kept advertising they were showing 200+ quilts.
I will give them that on a technicality because a quilt is a sewn sandwich.
But really?????:
 

 
 
 

 
 
 

 
 I counted 38 bed quilts. I saw mostly throws and wall hangings.

(Venting here):
Maybe I'm being biased here because  I volunteered to be the quilt show chair. I was for 3 months but the 'show board' did not want me to be chair person and made it next to impossible for me to do my job, so I resigned to the satisfaction of the guild president (at the time), treasurer, and program chair.
Four years ago when I was quilt show donation chair, the show took in just shy of 100 bed quilts, with wall hangings, throws, etc. bringing the total to well over 200+!
Me,envious?!?!?
Enough of that....
I think this was my favorite quilt of the show:

All the little pieces and it looked like they embroidered the quilt motifs. I do want to try that in my life time.



If you want a stencil in a certain position and have to mark it to make sure it is in that position, put a piece of tape on the stencil and draw on the tape. When you are finished using the stencil for that project just remove the tape and your stencil good as new!

Have a great week!
D.G. L