Quilters Madder SAL

Fun fact.... one of the red dyes decided to "catch" in a few of the white shirting fabrics.  I always find this interesting when this happens to some whites but not others.  I did not have any pink background fabrics in my quilt, but now I do... I'm ok with that.



I arranged some quilts in my hallway.  I have been really lazy lately in hanging anything new, and have had bare walls for a few years.  The blue star quilt was going to be for the doll quilt exchange, but I changed my mind and went with something else.  I blogged about it last year (you can find the post in my 2015 finishes tab).  The black and red quilt was from an ebay auction of 1880's blocks.  I finished it up years ago.  It's wavy, and I love it.  The painting was from my grandma, it was a house that she grew up in at Wagner Mill Pond in Monroe, WA.





the other wall (we need to remove that old thermostat, but haven't gotten around to it yet).  The first quilt was one I received from the 2015 doll quilt exchange.  I love it.  It says Friends are the sunshine of my life in embroidery.  Next is a fall harvest panel that I cut up and spaced in an attic windows view.  And the last was a doll quilt exchange quilt I received this year.  It is looking very fall-ish in my hallway right now.  I need to get working on some Christmas and winter quilts next!

Linking up here:  http://humblequilts.blogspot.com/2016/11/quilters-madder-linky-party-add-yours.html

New Stitch Along and Tool

Did you see Lisa Bongean's post The Magic of Christmas Stitch Along?  As if I needed to add another project, but hey... I've added another project!  Instead of the colors Lisa is suggesting, I am going with my yellow and using some fabrics from her Snowman Gatherings line.  We'll see how this one ends up!


On the secret facebook page for the Clara's Stars and Among Friends Summer Block of the Week there was discussion about getting seams flat (mostly for the Among Friends people since the pieces are so tiny).  A member mentioned she tried out her tailor's clapper and it got the seams just right.  I had to look it up, but when I saw the prices of a block of wood... I just couldn't do it.

After some research, I came across a couple of DIY's along with discussion about the type of wood to use.  I asked Kevin if he thought he could do this for me, along with wondering if we could use the kids building blocks that are unused.  I am pretty sure those are hardwood and not pine.  Instead of that, Kevin decided to try out oak tongue/groove flooring that's been in the garage for probably 40+ years (it's been here since my grandparents lived here, who knows when they bought it... we've lived here for 19yrs).  He glued to pieces together and then did a length and width that I wanted.  The best thing... we have a ton of flooring left, so if I want a longer or wider one it would be simple to construct.  $19-29 saved (depending on where you buy).

Top with sanded/rounded edges:


Bottom:


The magic of the hardwood is that it pulls out the moisture from a steamed press and it leaves it crisp and flattened.  Softer wood or wood that isn't older may pull out any pitch or oils and discolor or fabric (so I've read).

I gave it a try with my latest block for Lisa Bongean's new QAL, and it really does help the seams flatten even more.  I can't imagine doing this for every quilt piece and block, but this will definitely be handy for smaller quilts especially.  I used it to flatten the star centers for my Clara's Stars that I have together, and they do look good.  I can't seem to figure out which way to twirl them... before I sew the halves together, they look good.  After?  That's a different story :)

2014 Primitive Gatherings SAL Progress

I just about had February get away from me before making a blog post.  I just haven't felt much like blogging and really all I have been doing is making churn dash blocks for the final round on this SAL (40!!).  I did make one more grandmother's flower garden flower while I was in California during the last week in January, but I am not too impressed that was all I got done (I only need to make 13 more for the quilt!).  We drove down, and I didn't feel like doing any sewing at all.  That was a good 12hrs each way that could have been sewing (ok, I did drive part of the time), but I like watching things go by.  We don't go places far away very often so I enjoy the travel part.

Approximately 36.5" square at this point:

My SAL is not very square, but I think I will be able to quilt it into submission when it is time.  I may end up doing a strip border at the end so I can square up to try and at least not have wavy edges.  I can't square at the churn dash round without losing points.  I'm not sure what happened with it going not-square on me, but I have a feeling that it happened around the time I got my featherweight (square in a square round).  That was my trial with learning the machine and I have found that the fabric against the feed dogs gets fed pretty liberally and not as even on top.  This is good to know for the future, but it made things interesting at this point.

I still have applique to do on the red strip round, and I have eight corner flowers to do for two of the rounds as well.  I hadn't been feeling much like applique lately--especially after getting the featherweight, but I guess it's time to get busy with it.

Updates! A Featherweight and Progress on 2014 SAL

Two weeks ago I purchased a 1947 Featherweight 221 from a friend on the Washington State Quilters list.  I just started looking, put out feelers in case anyone knew of one local that I could purchase, browsed ebay, shopGoodwill (like ebay) and craigslist and was pretty much put off by how much they were being bid up.  I knew eventually I would own one, and decided to be patient.  Well... then came the first of the month when one regional facebook group allows for sale postings.  And Mary W still had her featherweight for sale.

It took me this long to finally sit down with it since I'd been sick and had no attention span to really play.  Today I did, and I think I am in love.  More than I thought I would be!

It has 5 bobbins, bobbin case, 7 feet, brush, screw drivers, manual, needles, keys (2), lubricant, oil... All in great condition. The light also works, but I have since ordered an LED bulb along with more bobbins. Also... an invoice from when it was serviced:

If you look at this at flickr at a greater resolution, you'll see the service date and the price for a cleaning and oil for $5.50, in 1953.


A question for those in the know... is the power cord suppose to be white like this? It seems like it has a powdery substance on it. Should I be concerned?


It sews a great stitch!



I love the original owner's identification still on it.


Such a pretty faceplate!

I oiled it (with the oil I currently have, not sure if the oil in the can is still ok, will have to read on that), and lubed the motor, and tried it out while working on part 4 of Primitive Gatherings' 2014 SAL.


Just two more rounds to go and the top will be finished. Hopefully I will be done before 2015's SAL is announced :)

One funny thing, while working on the top I decided I am going to use up the threads that are on the 5 bobbins before winding with what I have.  I ran out--or I thought I ran out--of the first bobbin, but when I pulled it out I found that it had a different color thread underneath what I had been sewing with :) Making do!  The featherweight also came with a 500yd spool of cotton thread, with a price of just .39!  I don't know if I'll use that or just keep it in the case.  Mary originally purchased the FW on craigslist, I'm not sure how it made its way from Colorado to Portland, Oregon, but I am thrilled to have it now.  I am thinking about naming it Miss Lee which is mine and my mom's middle name.  Seems appropriate.  Or, maybe Josephine? :)

And then I looked across my sewing room and found the kitten found a box (which currently has printer ink stored) to nap in. I'm surprised it didn't fall off the spot it was resting on.

Oh Loki....

Edit: I think I may have found Josephine by the power of the internet.  If it is the same person (and I don't want to renew my ancestry account right now to dig deeper), she lived from 1914 until 2008, age 93, and died in Englewood Colorado (which isn't far from Lafayette).  Still no clear connection as to how the featherweight made it to Oregon.

Two Finishes

I finished up the repair quilt tonight, including a soak in Quilt Wash.  I don't really think it helped get a stain out though.  I am going to leave the rest up to the owner, I am really not sure what else you'd attempt to get out a yellowed stain.

Before:


After:


Binding:

In the end I decided to cut away the old binding and attach the new in a French fold binding.  I am happy with how it came out, and the corners came out very nice.  I attempted to practice the other method on a small practice square and it turned out pretty terrible.


And finally part three is finished with my stitch along.  The reds made my camera go crazy!  I had to redo two sides and when I reattached it, I realized that the flying geese weren't going around in the same direction. Sigh.  I'm not ripping and redoing again.  I have part four ready to go, maybe I will get to it next week.

Part 2 Stitch Along

Yesterday was a good mail day.  I received Week 7 for the SBOW (which means I am 5 weeks behind! yikes!) and the fabric pack for the summer Stitch Along for part 2.  I am guessing that the rest of the parts to this will be in rounds vs blocks.



After sewing the HST's together onto the center, I looked at the instructions again and found that half of the triangle rows were suppose to be turned in the other direction.  Oh well.  I am really hoping that it won't matter because taking apart 1" HST's is not something I will be doing.  I would end up having to redo too many seams.

I used the triangle paper that came with this fabric pack, and though it did make perfect triangles, the seam is very small (1/8" vs 1/4").  This quilt will be a wall quilt, but if it wasn't then it would be a likely guarantee that seams would be coming apart all over the place.  I don't know why their papers use such a small diagonal seam.

Again, here is Part 2 if interested in this free SAL.  Part one is still up as well.

SAL Block 1 Finished

Reading the information, I should be making about two blocks a month... so block 1 is now complete, and I wait for block 2 to post. I guess I could go back to quilting on the kaleidoscope quilt now.

What I'm Working On

I actually have a few projects underway, but now that summer has hit, I tend to like to have some sort of hand project in the works.  I suppose I could have pulled out my grandmother's flower garden blocks, but where's the fun in that? I need another UFO, right?  Primitive Gatherings has its 10 Anniversary Stitch Along (SAL) open, and I decided to jump in.  I'm not quite sure how the SAL works, how many blocks will be in this quilt and when the new blocks will post, but I am now mostly done with the first block:


I still have the leaves to attach and stitch the last 6 flower centers. Link to Lisa Bongean's blog, the SAL link with pattern is in a button on the top right side of the page.

I had a little confusion about another quilt that she recently also posted about.  I thought the one I'm working on above was it, but when she posted a picture of the final quilt, I found that this block was not in it.  So guess who decided to purchase that Sunflower Block of the Week (SBOW) project too?  Here is a link to that post: http://lisabongean.com/2014/06/19/the-wool-sbow-finishedsummer-gatherings/  I dare you not to fall in love with that one!

I wasn't sure if I would purchase any other wool projects because of having the dye leave many of the wools in my Folk Art Album quilt, but I decided to go ahead and do both projects knowing full well that washing won't be in either quilts futures--plus I will add that to the labels.

Unwashed top:


So that's my update.  I still need to quilt on the kaleidoscope quilt, I am about a third of the way done.  My plan of doing a row a day hasn't been working out so well.  This is typical of summer for me.  It gets very warm in my quilt room, and sitting at the machine doesn't sound very inviting.  However, I found a small table top fan that I've seen others use at various quilt retreats, and in using it, quilting is much more enjoyable in that warm room.