Sewing updates soon

 I've been doing stuff at my machine... I just haven't taken photos.  So let me tell you about how happy I am with the new place of honor my monthly wall hanging quilts will be in this new house.  I really think it makes the quilt look bigger to have their own wall.  Even if its a partial wall.  

 Doesn't this 'lemons and limes' quilt look happy there?  Gee I love this quilt.  And it makes me happy. It looks happy and looking at it makes me happy. Happy. Happy painted walls, happy things are hung up finally, happy. hmmmm I hope the hubs takes care of those pesky cords soon behind the ladder shelf..... they make me less happy.

I'm also joyful that my giant star quilt has been quilted.  I think I'll take proper photos tomorrow and share soon :)  

Mishaps and Moving Forward

The past week has been full of setbacks and frustration(and I had a cold).  But I got through.

I said bad words

 This is by far my biggest free motion frustration.  I do this on almost every quilt I free motion quilt.  It is ugly.  This happened last week on my Pop Rock Stars quilt.  I finally freed my quilt and quilted on. 

 Only to get two bobbins in and decide I hated it.  It wasn't horrible, I just decided it wasn't what I wanted for the star quilt.  So I picked out 6 stars of quilting.  It took me two days, thank goodness the Olympics are on and I had something to watch while I mindlessly picked out all of those stitches.  I managed to get it re-quilted though, and I am completely happy with it now.

 I hosted sewing night last night.  Kristen came over and was ready to try dropping her feed dogs.  She did really well with her stitches and tension.  I think she was a little frustrated that her curves weren't as smooth as she is used to seeing in my quilting, so I pulled out the still unfinished quilt I used to practice my meandering. I think she was reassured that it really is just practice that gets those smooth movements.   She and my hubs were laughing and pointing at all of my horrible areas.  It was really kind of them (that was sarcasm.)  But I'm willing to humble myself to encourage my quilt friend.  However I shall never share Annie's Snicker-doodle bunnies ever again!  Next sewing night I host it will be boring fruit and water.

I worked on my fun bright big 'ol quilt last night, which needs a name since I cant keep calling it that.  I have my final quadrant set out and I have started sewing it.  I love this quilt.  I want to lay it under the tree in the backyard and read a Kristen Hannah book all afternoon.  

sewing night

 My local sewing group has changed recently.  Sometimes I cannot believe my life, like when I have to explain that my son was born in Japan, or list off the 4 bases we have lived in the past 10 years.  And  when I say things like, "My good friend just moved to Italy" I whimper.  Sometimes its really tough to live this way.  Usually I make friends that are a little easier to say goodbye to because I keep myself very guarded( I hate change), but my hubs was gone for six months as was her husband.  We got through it together, with our little boys. So this departure was a lot harder on me.

So my weekly sewing group has changed(I hate change) But Kristen keeps supplying root beer floats, which helps alot.  We miss Bri, and we keep in contact daily with her while she has been house hunting for a romantically Italian home, and get used to the new stuff in her foreign land.  And here on the prairie we push on with our star quilts.  It helps to stay busy.  And these quilts are dang exciting.

Kristen demonstrating how to smooth the quilt sandwich 

We are working a little ahead of the quilt along so I can get tutorials put together for the group.  Last night we sandwiched our quilts.  Kristen demonstrated while I snapped pics, it worked out.  And she looks really tan in the photos....

My top basted,  this one is a beaut

Kristen's stars... Love how organized her top was laid out.  That's why we are friends

Newish to the group Danielle has been making progress on her project!

action shots of quilting.

I'm dealing with the change.(with the aid of floats)

Flimsy

 My star quilt top is finished.  My sister in law said it reminded her of pop rocks... so its called Pop Rockstars.  That gray star on the top left isn't that washed out in real life.  

 This quilt along has been so much fun!

I'm declaring my first attempt at a piano key border a success.  It changed the whole quilt and I am in love with it!  Hoping to find backing and binding today :)

yoohoo...Im still alive

I'm still alive over here.  Just trying to unpack, keep up with the quilt along I'm hosting on FB, and making dinners since the hub is home now... all the craziness is good.  

We had been living in an old on-base townhouse for the past year and a half and decided we hated it.(NO front windows! AT ALL!)  They were making the old townhouses 'off-base' anyways, so we thought if we were living off-base we might as well live someplace we like.  We bought a house in Rapid City (actually in Rapid Valley)  and we LOVE it.  Even if the hubs is often doing things like this...

Our little house deserves some new paint and a few new faucets.... then she will be much purdier.  I'll blog soon about the Jukis' new accommodation. 

I have been sewing a little here and there on my stars then saving the pressing for sewing night with my friends.  I ended up after a few little spurts with a pile of these...

The other morning I had one finished star from my tutorial making in June.... withing an hour or so I had.... 

 Finished stars!  They came together so quickly!  

Yesterday I sent the monster to nap, the puppy was snoozing and I managed to get my top done!  Then I went outside to take photos in a thunderstorm.  -see that stone facade?  It delayed closing on this house by a ding dang week!

I ended up making a star of each fabric... just to remind me of this quilt along and all of the women sewing along with me.  It been a lot of fun! 

stalled

These eleven blocks had me a little hung up the past few days.  I pushed on a prevailed!  Random is not my strong suit.  

I just have the fifteen -four rectangle blocks left to assemble and they are way faster. It took me 15 minutes to sew six of them together.  Thanks goodness!  

I'm still loving this project!!!  

Portable Ironing Board Tutorial

Little FeFe and the board I made her.

 Several months ago I bought a portable ironing board and a mini iron to take with me to sewing night with my friends.  The ironing board was 30 bucks and thankfully I had a 40% off coupon.  Still, it's plain and it's a little bulky.  But I love taking my little mini iron and my board to sewing night so I'm self sufficient.  I decided I wanted to give one away during the online quilt along I'm hosting, but the 30 dollar store bought version was out of my budget. I decided to make one.  A cute one.  There are a ton of tutorials.  This is just how I did mine.  I recently saw a tutorial for a TV tray turned mini pressing table.  GENIUS.  I might make me one of those too.  Hehe.  

This was a cutting board I picked up at the W-mart.  It was 7 dollars.  From now on I will keep an eye out for wood cutting boards on clearance or at garage sales.  I also picked up a cute cut of fabric.  I bought 1/2 yard, but I had plenty to make FeFe a little cover too.  I used a hunk of Insul-Bright and a hunk of regular cotton batting, some grip liner and the Hubs' staple gun.  

 I trimmed the batting to a couple inches around the board, the Insul-Bright I trimmed real close to the board since I didn't want to waste any.  

 This photo is blurry, but you get it.  I pulled the long edges over first and stapled tight.  I needed a little hammer to get the staples down tight.

Looking good.

 For the corners I just tried to taper them in a little before I folded it down.

 I dont think this looks terrible, but I wanted it to look a little neater.

I took section of extra fabric, pressed the rough edges under and stapled it on the back so all of the rough edges were covered.

I used a hot glue gun to put the grip liner on.  Which burned the heck out of my finger, but it was worth it.  No Pain No Gain!  RIGHT?! 

 Easy right?

 And darn cute too!