Busy.... Not busy...

I haven't blogged in a couple months.  I've been busy..... and not busy...

Ya... how do I explain that?

I LOVE to start. It's usually a new (to me) piecing technique that I have to try out. 

..... Or a pattern that has caught my eye and I am sure I can use what's in my stash. 

..... Or a new time saving tool, except if it's taking me away from my current project is it really time saving?

..... Or a new needle and thread craft (the newest is Romanian Point Lace, I'll talk about that later!)

.... Or I get stuck on current project and can't make up my mind on the next step and purposely look for distraction... The solution usually comes when I stop overthinking the problem. .. this helps but only if I return to previous current project (this statement makes sense in my head.)

Oh, so many things that lure me to START something new!!

Like my son convincing me to commission a Star Wars quilt.  (Not a true commission, I was given free rein of design with only two requirements.) I resisted hard! Because I was currently working on two quilts that have intended recipients (but no deadline)

Meadow's Butterflies

Zebra

I was determined to get these finished and in the mail.  I was using blogging as a means to bribe myself, "when I finished either of these quilts I'll blog about it!"

..... 😼 *Sigh* ... Neither is completed yet... 🤦

 Meadow's Butterflies is very close to done. It's all quilted and bound. I still have to bury threads and add some pictures to the back. It's the pictures that have halted progress. I have to learn how to print them out which means getting on my daughter's computer... (A whole story on its own, I won't go into details..) maybe now that I've told you about it gives me incentive to make it happen!

On the Zebra quilt, I need to applique the legs on then I can move to quilting.... I don't know what's stopping me here. The legs are ready and I plan a zebra stripes design for quilting... Again, here's hoping that by mentioning it here will be incentive to continue.

And so it happened. My distraction. I went looking for Star Wars fabric... Not intentionally! I was at Walmart for garden supplies and some how ended up in the sewing section 😁!

I texted pictures of the few fabrics Walmart has to my son. When he saw this one he said he had to have it to make something. 

It was $2.50/yd clearance so I got him some yardage even though he didn't have a project in mind.

Later he found a simple skirt on Pinterest made out of two squares with a circle cut out of the center for the waist.

Yes. Simple until we realized the print is directional. And instead of cutting one square, we had to make a pattern to cut four corners. And we couldn't resist adding pink tulle.

I'm very proud of my son. As much as I quilt and sew, I hadn't realized this was his FIRST sewing project.  We've worked together making bowties before but I was the one at the sewing machine.  This time, with only a bit direction from me, he cut every piece and sewed every stitch. (And I'm proud of me, because I allowed him to use the new sewing machine I won from Pigeon Forge this year 😌!) 

And aren't these baby girls adorable?!!

These photos make me smile.

Every time I look at them I feel a joyful giggle starting to bubble inside.

That was in May. Now in July late June (!! I got ahead of myself there!!) my son had the opportunity to go visit his friends in Indiana. Since there was left over fabric I made little girl purses to match the skirts. (Here's the Pinterest pin: http://pin.it/YfmdA1m that takes you to Just Another Hangup blog.  Where I got the link to Ruby's Party Bag!)

I couldn't send empty purses. These two comfort dolls have been waiting for a while for finishing touches. They called out to me claiming that they are ready for little people lovin' on them.

I've tried to find an original source for this knitted doll. It's used for many charities. I don't know that any one can claim the pattern as their own. You can search "knitted pocket doll" in Pinterest to find several different versions with instructions for free. 

A short while ago I told my Heart, "I want to learn something NEW with needle and thread!"

He calmly and sympathetically tells me, "I'm sorry hon, your options are pretty thin in that area!" Hahah, isn't that sweet of him!!

Lucky for me... There's Pinterest!! (Yes, by now you know, I spend a lot of time there 😜, but it's limitless and makes ME feel limitless too!) There are so many different types of lace besides crocheted or knitted. And not many books out. Many of the old lace is taught from generation to generation and sadly not much has been put into print.

But thankfully there are bloggers willing to write up what they know and give tutorials freely. I just need to put a little time and research in to find the information. 

This time my searching led me to Thread Head's blog Romanian Point Lace ornament tutorial.

Here's my results.

#1 is on the right. Both the cord and filling stitches are made with crochet cotton, (feels like a #10 but it's an older brand and size is not marked on the label, only "mercerized crochet cotton, color fast - will boil." Lol, what?!)

#2 is on the left. Cord is made with the same #10 crochet cotton & #6 hook and the filling is stitched with size 20 Lizbeth tatting thread.

I hope to start on a bigger piece soon. Thread Head had a RPLAL that looks like it might be my next step.

Well, I had plenty to blog about. I haven't even mentioned that I did start the Star Wars quilt. And quilted it. All it needs now is a binding, and I'm still debating how I'm going to do it just yet. My son says his friend loves it. I'm so pleased with it I asked her if I could enter it in the Old Man River quilt show in Aug. She was ok with that!!

Well that is most of my busy parts. I guess the not so busy parts would be time spent on Pinterest. I still include that time as part of my daily quilting/crafting hours. And even though I haven't finished what I intended to finish, I got plenty done! And now that I've updated this blog I am feeling a sense of accomplishment. 🤗

Bye for now, I'll see you soon!!

Good enough for me?

Lol. I don't understand how someone I just met labels me a perfectionist.
I am diligent, particular,  purposeful, assiduous, attention to detail,,,. I have my own method,,, whatever!
But as a person, I am much too imperfect to be a perfectionist! And certainly my stitches aren't always as precise as they could be.  However, I make them good enough for me.... Kind of...

This about stops me in my tracks. 

(Not the blue line that will disappear with a little water. It's those glaring white stitches on the black fabric!!)

An applique stitch is supposed to be invisible. By using the same color thread, a stitcher can get away with slightly off stitches. Also, a better quality thread will "sink" into the fabric and practically disappear.

I'm stitching on a black and white 7/8" stripe. I was trying to get away with using one thread to stitch both the black and the white...

That area on the ear is making me nuts!! That's how it sticks out to me in the picture above... MAGNIFIED!!

This is how most eyes will see it. A tiny bit noticeable but the eye doesn't rest on that particular spot! (It wouldn't have if I hadn't pointed it out to you!)

I am this close (**thumb and pointer finger held a fraction of an inch apart**) to taking the stitches out and redoing... 

I'm also this close to having all the applique done and moving onto the next part of this quilt. (And I'm really ready to start another project..)

So.... I think I'll just touch a fine tip Sharpie to those 4 or 5 stitches and that is going to have to be good enough for me!!

The inspiration for this quilt came from Keepsake Quilting the Zoe Zebra quilt kit.
I've waited for the kit to be restocked but haven't seen it in and it's very likely never gonna be.
So, I am making my own pattern of it...
Lol, stems and leaves were easy-peasy.  Getting the zebra the right size took two days before I went ahead and cut it out of fabric... I'm still not 100% pleased, but I gotta move on! (No perfectionist tendencies there, right!?! 😄)
I've been struggling with the flowers for this quilt too.  It's definitely a size thing going on.
Looking at the flower with the yellow center, I think I've finally got them pretty good now. I have to undo the other two, cut them down and resew.

Keepsake Zoe Zebra

My version of the Keepsake Zoe Zebra quilt.

I suppose there's a certain level of perfection, even if it's not exactly perfect...
This little quilt is turning out so cute... 😄
 that's definitely good enough for me!!

Not bad for a week.

Just a quick documenting of this quilt. I needed a smaller version of the queen size black and white quilt to practice a stitching design. So I pulled fabrics from my stash and put together this very pink 40" x 50" top.

The Disappearing 9-patch method i used for the black and white felt like to much room for cutting errors on such a big block. So this time I cut each piece out separately.

Also made it easier to lay out, arrange and rearrange.

In the meantime... I received a sewing machine in the mail that I had won from Mountain Quiltfest.  It seems that my name was entered into a drawing each time I signed up for a class and my name was picked!!!

It arrived at my door step on Tuesday. I had just finished the top and backing and sandwiched it. I was sewed out for the day.

Wednesday was science fair day in Jackson with my daughter. She won first prize in her category! I'm so proud of her. 

It was an all day trip. To top the day off, the official acceptance letter into the residential school MSMS was in the mail box when we got home... (I will have a whole lot more quilting time come August..) 

...so Wednesday was a long, happy, emotional day and no sewing.

But I was ready by Thursday! And I set up the new machine which fit nicely in the drop in table...

Placed my roughly drawn quilting pattern next to the machine..

And stitched all day..

I attempted a border design I thought would be cute. But it looked messy to me so I spent an hour or two taking all those stitches out.

I also found one tangled mess on the backside caused by not bringing the bobbin thread up to the topside. 

I used a 500 yard spool of thread. Most of the quilting was done by Friday night.  I ran out of thread with just the corner border left to do.

I went with squiggly quilting in the sashing. 🤣 And it's intended to look messy! 😋

I started piecing the top on Sunday and finished the quilting on Saturday! Not too bad for a week!