White Elephant

Wow, I am doing pretty good today, this is my second post!

One of the main reasons I'm posting again, is I am hosting a white elephant swap, and I'm really excited about it, I just created a group!

      
Click to join White-elephant-swap
 

More about it later,

Emily

organizing the stash and other events

Hi!

Well, it's been a week and one day, since I last posted, and I still haven't taken a picture of my family quilts.

For most of the week(up until Wednesday) I was organizing my stash. I gave away 3 kitchen sack bags of blend fabric, or stuff I knew I was never going to use.

The first picture was taken about 6 months ago, when I changed my sewing room to my bedroom, and vice versa. It looked that good for a week and then my mom had to put her desk in there, thus it became a lot more crowded.

Now, 4 treadles reside in there, along with 2 machine heads and my fabric stash. The second picture is a little messy, sorry! I'm in the middle of making a quilt for my dad, whose birthday is on the 18th of Oct, so I really have to get it done quick! I'm using 8 blocks from a swap, and some flying geese I was given, I'm just piecing the top, didn't make any of the blocks.

Then, the bottom picture is the king size quilt I'm making for my mom out of blue fabric. I'm still collecting blues!

Have a great sunday,

Emily

Update

Wow, it's been a while since I've posted. I've decided to start posting again, maybe updating once a week, or whenever I have something to say.

I now have 4 treadles.

I'm working on a paper pieced pineapple, that is taking a long time, I made a jacobs ladder quilt, am almost done with a twin + pinwheel quilt(I have about 3 blocks left to quilt)

and a few other things.

One of these days, I plan to take pictures of, and post them of my family quilts, as I need to do that! Here is a little taste, probaly the best quilt we have, maybe pre civil war, in perfect condition, and the stitches are really tiny!

It is covering my parents king size bed, that is how big it is.

I am also making potholders, and starting to make mini quilts, to sell. I have one potholder almost bound, 2 others I have quilted, and I am going to try to make more today. How many potholders should I make, do you think?

My family is doing a farmer's market, on the 26th, because since we are part of the local FOL, we help them a lot, and one of those was sitting at a farmers market table for a day. I asked the president and she said it was fine for me to have some of my things for sale.

I'm saving money for the TOGA(Treadle On Gathering Academy) and a fabric sale that is the exact same day!

More later,

Emily

Right now I am listening to "the master quilter" and hand quilting. Very good fiction book, in the elm creek quilts series.
Not that much else new, I am working also on my jacobs ladder blocks and am not sure if I am going to have alternating blocks like a snowball or something that adds to the blocks make them look better. they are huge, 12 inches and I love them. When I get to it I will post pictures. Having fun with my "new" treadle I almost like it better then my other one. It is different in good ways. I don't know if I've typed about it much, but it is a White FR(family rotary) patented 1913. Typical look, with attachments(most of them are there. There are only about 3 that I don't believe I have in my knowledge which isn't a lot)
It has a lot of decal damage, and you can see the metal underneath the black paint on a few spots. Otherwise it looks very nice and it is prettier then my other one. I sort of care, sort of don't. It works and thats good enough for me. I would love a old old one though sometime because I am and am not a collecter.
It runs very smoothly and producing a fair stitch. I put the belt on myself, which was not easy, I've never done that! Well, now I know, for the next time I bring home another treadle.......
E

Well, I keep forgetting to write.. I got another sewing machine, for 30$ and it is a treadle with a lot of the attachments. Not quite sure what all of the feet are, but still. It was in fairly good condition, I just cleaned and oiled everything, and put a new belt on and wow! Almost better then my other treadle(yes this is number two)

Grandmothers flower garden

Well, I am having "Issues" with the grandmothers flower garden. I was given 30 quilt blocks of grandmothers flower garden, with a print for a center. It is actual 30s fabric and I am getting really annoyed with it. Aside from my hand quilting, which you can see progress almost immediately, I do not like handwork. Because of how much I dislike it, during a power outage, I turned the hand wheel of my machine to get it to sew. I now have a treadle, so I don't have to do that. And man, did my hands hurt. . .
I can do it, but you see, I was afraid of the machine about 7 years, didn't want my finger to be sewed. I just did handwork. And now, well I'm sort of sick of it.
Anyway. Back to GMFG. I was then because I brought it to my group, given a quilt top by Lois, a really nice person in my group. And, it was GMFG... I decided I was going to, have my blocks be a border to that quilt, and I am now appliquéing them onto white squares... So, hopefully this saga will come to an end soon, in about a year. Then I have to go all around the hexagons with hand quilted. Oh well, it'll be great progress!
Emily

Busy

Right now I am really busy with sewing. I have two charity blankets in progress, I need to put the binding on those tonight. Then, I have to make my two dolls for the doll swap. I am also going to offer to make a baby blanket for another friend. So, if she agrees, that will be 4 baby blankets I've made THIS year!!!
Somehow, I'm sort of getting tired of baby blankets.....
I've been hand quilting my quilt for a while now, and while there is progress and it looks good, I have time to reflect on the flaws. I am not the most accurate quilter, and my quilts show that. Okay, the baby blankets/quilts don't. But those were just simple pieced tops. I mean, 12 10 inch squares? 1 top and 1 bottom piece, with a quilt block in the middle? Yes, easy. I had fun quilting the one quilt, that had double knit inside. I figured, why not use it up? Really fun to quilt. Now, the not so fun part. Binding!!
At least I know how to bind, thanks to my quilting group. A lady told me that they were going to work me hard on thursday. Well, I hope they do, because I love doing that kind of stuff!
Emily