11/4/14

Around and Around

Looking for the October NewFO Linky Party?
Click right here.

It was a busy day yesterday. I met Erik for breakfast, which was delightful. My kids are so busy these days, and I don't see them nearly often enough. That's not a complaint, just an acknowledgement. I well remember what it was like to be their age and working full time. Erik has rotating days off, and so it was nice to see him looking so relaxed on the third of three days off.

After that, I headed to the post office to mail off a couple of little things, and then home. I straightened the place up a little because I was expecting a visit from the "sewing lady" to give me an in-home lesson on Eliza. She showed up an hour early. I'm glad I was home! I wonder if the time change caused that or if she was just anxious to see me. In any case, the lesson was helpful. She helped me with my bobbin tension, which was a little tight, and she gave me some tips on using the stitch regulator. I've been kind of ho-hum on the stitch regulator, but after having her show me a couple of things and working with the settings, I decided I kind of liked it.


The first large quilt I'm going to quilt on it is the Gardener's Journal quilt.


I've had a lot of time to think about this quilt, and it is going to be fun to quilt it. I'm going to use some traditional quilting motifs, but I'm also going to quilt a lot of flowers and bugs and butterflies and such. It's going to mean a lot of little circles and pebbles, and so I was practicing with the "sewing lady" to get some nice round little circles with even stitching. She convinced me that the best way was to set the "cruise" option, which means I'm turning the needle on and off with the red button.


If I do that, it avoids "pulling" at the first stitch as the stitch regulator engages and the needle begins to move. It's hard to explain, and easier to demonstrate. Hopefully, what I'm saying will make sense....not that anything I ever say makes sense. Speaking nonsense all the time means you can say pretty much anything without ever offending anybody.

So that about covers the "sewing lady". Does that mean I'm the sewing lady now? Perhaps.

After she left, I did another round on my Christmas table topper. I lost count how many times I got those half square triangles going in the wrong direction. Even when I was very careful, I still sewed them together wrong. Perhaps the session with the "sewing lady" had me befuddled, but I decided one round was enough of that for one day.


The border fabric for the "Never Underestimate" stitchery came yesterday, and so I auditioned a few colors for the stop border. I'm kind of leaning toward the blue.


But I could use red.


Or green. I love the green, but I don't have enough for the binding, and I kind of wanted to do both in the same color. I could decide to use one of my multi-striped or polka dotted fabrics for the binding too.


I'm still mulling it over. What do you think?

So that brings me to the parties. It's been a while since I've linked up to BOM's Away, but after fighting with the Wind in the Whiskers pattern last week, I think I deserve a link-up, don't you? Here's my Tiny Tim block:


To link up to:

Also, I'm linking up today to:
Val's Quilting Studio

Today's topics are Irish Chain quilts and Fall quilts. I have just one Irish Chain quilt. It was this little doll quilt I made for the granddaughter of a friend. 


My friend Lisa has five granddaughters. A couple of years ago, I made a doll quilt for each of them. Each one was different and designed with the particular little girl in mind. You can see all five of the quilts right here. One of Lisa's granddaughters is named Irish, and so it seemed obvious to me that she needed an Irish Chain quilt. I was also able to find some shamrock fabric. When the quilt top was finished, I decided it needed something extra in the large white areas, and so I appliqued a shamrock into each of those. 

As for Fall quilts, I have quite a few of those. Today I'm linking to this little quilt I made for the monthly doll quilt swap.

 Doll Quilters

The theme for the month when I made this particular quilt was "Harvest Time"



It was a free pattern I found online. I used raffia at the feet, hands, and neck to give my scarecrow some straw. You can read my original post right here.

So that's it from me today. I'm heading out to the pool a little later, and then to the grocery store. Tomorrow I have a whole day at home. Yay!


16 comments:

Cathy said...

I like the blue best for the stop border. It makes the rest of the fabrics and the stitchery sing!

Dana Gaffney said...

I really like the green, it seems to brighten everything up. So glad your the sewing lady now.

Quilter Kathy said...

They all are lovely, but I like the red best :)
Aren't we helpful all choosing a different colour?!?!

Julierose said...

Well, my vote is for the blue border, too. And I L O V E your garden quilt--it is really lovely.Hugs, Julierose

Jasmine said...

I like the green. It is bright without drawing all of the attention. And your scarecrow is darling!

Kate said...

Green, with blue binding. I don't like the red...I'm not sure why though.

Julianne said...

I like the Red, it sure pops!

Val's Quilting Studio said...

I vote blue too! But after reading everyone's responses looks like you can't miss with whichever you choose! LOL!! Love how original your Irish chain is and love that scarecrow. Thanks for sharing at Tuesday Archives B. :)

Vroomans' Quilts said...

As much as I love blue, the red really pops it. And fun to look back at the doll quilt and mini.

Barb H said...

I like all the colors for the narrow border. You could use a different color on each side? And I absolutely love the border fabric! This is so cute!

Lou said...

Like all 3 borders:) haha!!! What help am I?
Where did you get that stitchery pattern again? May have to do it:) haha!!!! You keep giving me new projects!!! Thanks... I think:)

Anonymous said...

I'm right there with you on HSTs. No matter how carefully I lay them out or pin them, I end up with some reversed. I know it sometimes happens when Iwant to start a seam where there is no HST seam and flip it wrong, but that doesn't explain all my errors.

As to stop borders, I think blue looks better than red. It compliments rather than taking over. I like it better than the green too,but can't put my finger on why.

Janarama said...

I love the red for the stop border. It really makes the red stitching and the red in the scissors fabric pop.

Andee said...

Love it with the green! What a treasure!

Tami C said...

I like the blue also, but the red or green look great as well!

quiltzyx said...

How nice that the 'sewing lady' helped you so much with the new baby. Sure helps with that learning curve when the teacher is good!
You've probably already picked the stop border, but I like the red & the blue. To me, since there doesn't seem to be much green in the embroidery, it just kind of *sits* there. (I say this as I'm sitting in my bright RED chair, next to my BLUE & white print couch!)
Glad to hear you had a nice brekky with Erik too. Seems like we never have enough time with our loved ones.