Book pillow

After seeing Podunk Pretties' recent post,  I decided to make a book pillow for my youngest niece. She just had her 8th birthday and is very fond of unicorns.  This is a mix of flannel and woven cotton. I added the pink pompoms because of course! I just need to get a pillow form. Her sister,  about to have a 10th birthday,  may get a pillow too but with different fabric.

ETA: It looks so much better with the pillow form inside!  I wish I could post a pic of my niece's delighted face but my SIL has asked us not to post pics of the kids.  I've had that rule for my kids for nearly 18 years so I'm fine with that. 

 Now my next niece in line, who turns 10 in February, has asked for a pillow with lots of purple.  Here is a photo of my complete stash of purple (minus a yard of deep plum grunge):

That's it, except for a few Civil War repros.  I guess I'll be hitting Hobby Lobby or JoAnn for purple fabric and purple pompoms!

Cabinet of Curiositites

 

Stitchonomy offers a free stitchalong several times a year.  The October 2022 one was The Cabinet of Curiosities.  I didn't start stitching until much later so I am making slow process on my Cabinet.  So far I have stitched this great dragon: 

Alyssa, the designer, also encourages people to personalize their stitching so I have chosen lots of items from the facebook group that I will be stitching in my Cabinet.  (Note: after the stitchalong is complete the patterns are available on the website for purchasing.)

And I just finished my first row of the Cabinet boxes.  As you can see, I haven't finished stitching the Cabinet itself yet.  It's no brain stitching so I am saving that for when I get stuck somewhere!

the game is afoot!

 Get it? a foot?  Oh well, the O 1/4 inch foot did pretty well last night.

It is a little wider than 1/4 inch.  I asked DH to bend the metal guide a bit as it flares outwards which makes the seam more than 1/4 inch.  I prefer a scant 1/4 especially when I am sewing pieces cut with my Accuquilt dies. I'll test it again tonight but I'm feeling optimistic.  This block is made out of leftover sample pieces from my LQS Saturday Sampler.  I normally use my Accuquilt qube to cut out pieces for the samplers but I cut the chisels so they faced the wrong way. I decided to use them for this sample.

This second block is the correct pattern sample that I sewed on QBFF's machine.  It is, however, too small.  This blocks should be 6.5 inches and this is just under 4.5.  I really don't want to buy another Qube-they have gotten so expensive! So I may rotary cut my sampler blocks this year.

Friday the 13th

On Friday the 13th I was sewing on my beloved Janome (note it was the Friday of a four day weekend) when it suddenly turned itself off.  I could not get it to turn back on.  I went and fetched DH with a dire feeling on my heart.

Nothing.

I admit I was upset.  Seriously upset. He loaded up my machine for me the next morning and I took it to the LQS.  Good ol' Mark said he would take a look but it might be awhile.  There were many machines waiting ahead of mine for parts.

Basically, this ruined my holiday weekend.  This Janome was expensive and I bought it with the inheritance from my dear Gma.  When I was talking to my sister on that Sunday I told her that I felt like I was grieving (for my sewing machine or my Gma I couldn't say).  I could never justify spending that much money on myself again.  DH told me we would use our tax refund to buy me another machine. I kept saying it is so much money though.

Good ol' Mark called a few days later to announce that he thought it was the power supply but the part would be a couple of hundred dollars.  Did I want him to order it?  Did I want him to order it!!!!!!!!!!!  My machine was several thousand dollars-of course I wanted him to order it!  He said it would be a few weeks before he could get the part in and the machine worked on.

So I brought home my Janome HD-1000 home from my mum's house.  I have been having a terrible time trying to get an accurate 1/4 inch seam.  I've tried all different feet, tape etc.  My quiltyBFF even loaned me one of her Brother machines to try.  (Very frustrating experience even though it had some nice, fun and fancy features.)

So at lunch today we ran to another LQS and I dropped some cash on what they assured me is the correct 1/4 inch foot for the HD-1000.

Tune in tomorrow to see if it worked!

Making Bracelets

So I am working on the "Bracelets" border for the Chocolatier quilt.  This is a series of  6 1/2" blocks to form the border pieces.  I had already made all of the flying geese (ages ago!) so now I'm working on the wee square in a square blocks.  They are 2.5 inches square.  So far I have learned that I need to remember to move my needle over (I forgot last night) and to PIN and stitch slowly. I will need to make 15 more of these coral blocks and then 16 with the dark teal.  Lots to do!

One nice thing about making these 6 1/2" blocks is that it is good practice for the Saturday Sampler this year at my LQS.  We will be making four 6 1/2" blocks a month this year for the new sampler.

 

Goals for 2023

 I always like to set a few goals at the beginning of the year.  It gives me something to think about, even if I don't achieve all of them.

• Get better at zippers.  To this end I bought a copy of The Zipper Pouch Book.
• Finish the Chocolatier quilt to top status
• Finish one Saturday Sampler quilt to top status (it doesn't matter which one!)

This is it so far!

Needed a little something

 After packing away all of the Christmas decorations I realized I didn't have an appropriate mini quilt for the bar between  the kitchen and dining room.  I pulled out my Bear Paw's BOB die and got to work.

You can't really see the quilting but I quilted it using the quilt tools I borrowed from my Quilty BFF.  I did an okay job with the quilting-it's the first time I've tried it since I took that class at the quilt show.  I'm pleased with how this turned out but I plan to wash this block to get out the Chaco markings!

I also put out my Calamityware tea service to go with it!

a little Tapestry

Last month I decided to start working on the blocks from the finishing kit for Tapestry, a Saturday Sampler from my LQS. This was the sampler from 2020.  There were four large blocks:

And eight smaller blocks: It took forever to do these as I really prefer the points to line up.  I hand basted most of these to ensure the points were good.  It was a strain on my eyes for sure!

 

My grandmama's china

 I always like to display my Grandmama's china in January and February.  It's Nocturne and it has black roses with blush petals.  I made the runner to go with it in 2016.

And then in 2021 I made this wall hanging for the adjacent wall.

I think my Grandmama would like them both!