Days 13, 14 and 15 and it is finally done!

The quilt is finished.  It took me three sessions to hand stitch the back of the edging.  I tried to do as tiny stitches as possible.

Not sure what my next project will be but for sure I am out of the funk!    

Days 11 and 12 working on the quilt. Why the heck can't I machine stitch in a straight line?????

Yesterday I worked on the quilt.  I had to do the quilting stitching over the centre motif square.  I had tried it last time and failed miserably and had to undo it.  Yesterday, I tacked a centre line as a guide but I still got it wrong and had to undo it.  Third attempt was successful......thank goodness!

I realised that the centre motif wasn't totally symmetric after I got the quilting stitching right but it was way past the stage of re-doing.  Besides, my MIL had made the motif and I wanted to incorporate it into the quilt as she was the new grandbaby's great Grandma. So, it is sentimental.

I am really happy with how the quilting looks on the back.  I did get a little pucker in it but it isn't really noticeable so not redoing it.

Last night I sat and tried to attach the edging by tacking it.  It didn't look like it was going to work so I undid it and decided to sleep on it.  I thought I might try using the edging differently.  I had previously cut it out, joined it and ironed it in half to use double.  When I tacked it on it didn't look like it would cover the backing fabric which was slightly short on one edge. (see previous posts about this).  I thought maybe I would use it singly which would make the edging wider.

Today I went up to my sewing/knitting room with this plan in mind.  I stitched all around the edge of the quilt as per the instructions.  (I had previously missed doing this).  Then I trimmed it again then played around with the edging.  I thought it may be more difficult to do it singly so I reverted back to the original plan and tacked the edging on using it doubled.  When I checked it was going to cover the backing fabric OK so then I machine stitched it in place.

So tonight I will remove the tacking stitches then turn the edge and tack it down ready to hand stitch it down.

Finally, I can see an end in sight.  I thought this would be an easy and quick project but not so.  I will be so much better prepared if I make another one though.

Addendum:

Tacked the edging in place ready to sew.  After seeing the photo I made a mental note to pull the edging over the stitches showing on the back when I stitch it.  Did it tonight while watching TV in semi darkness! That is my excuse anyway.  It just goes to prove though the old adage that the camera never lies!

Somehow during the hospital visits and bad weather I got some more work done on the baby quilt (Day 10)

This past week has been very busy and stressful.  The weather has been nasty.  Overall, this winter has been very cold but we hadn't had much snow and ice.  That changed this past week and we have had snow, ice and freezing rain. I don't like driving in it.  We saw a lot of people in ditches and wrecks.  Thankfully, we got all our hospital visits in safely and we don't have to go anywhere for a few days, at least. We have been having freezing rain all morning so probably we couldn't walk outside anyway.

On one of the days we were home this past week I got some work done on the quilt.  I did the quilting stitching.  I am really happy how it turned out.  I did make a couple of mistakes when quilting through the centre motif.  I didn't have a seam to follow so my stitching went a bit wonky!

I unpicked it and will redo it when I get back upstairs to sew. I will tack a line as a guide and stitch either side of it.  The back also looks great.  I really like how doing the quilting stitching makes the front and back look.

Next will be the edging.  Still pondering on that because the backing fabric wasn't quite as big as the top.  I cut the edging quite wide so I am not sure whether to overlap the edging more than normal so it covers the smaller back also or trim the top to match the back.  

I will wait on making a decision, I am sure the best way will reveal itself as I work on it.

New look on the blog

We have been so busy the past week with traveling back and forth to the hospital 150 miles away. We are home today, waiting for a package to arrive from England so I thought I would chill out as little and try a new look on my blog.  Back to the hospital again tomorrow though.

Going to go and sew a little now.

Tried the walking foot

I set aside some time to try the walking foot today.  I wanted to try it on some scrap rather then jump right in on the quilt.  I joined together some strips I found in my MIL's stash and along with some scrap fabric and batting I made the proverbial quilt sandwich.

It wasn't perfect by any means but it wasn't difficult to do.  I used contrasting thread so I could see it better.  The back puckered a little  in a couple of places but on the actual quilt I will be colour matching the thread for the back so any similar puckering shouldn't be noticeable.  Not sure what colour thread to use on the front yet.  I am juggling between white or red.  The front didn't pucker at all so it is just a matter of choice.  Think I am erring on the side of red though as there will be stitching on the border and I just think red on red on the border would look better.

It will be a week or so now before I can get back to it so who knows what my thought processes will be then!

The walking foot in place and it worked very well.  Very happy with my ebay purchase.

Days 8 and 9 working on the quilt

Yesterday, Sunday, I hand stitched the centre quilt motif to the centre square.

Today I made my quilt sandwich and pinned it together ready to start on the quilting.  Finally, it feels like a quilt and not a table cloth.  I also cut out the edging strips.

The walking foot I ordered arrived today. First though, I have to try it. I will make a 'sandwich' from leftover fabric and batting give it a go.

This coming week we will be away for three days.  My husband is having to resume plasmatheresis treatments which entails three separate days in the hospital which is 150 miles away.  Three very long days which takes a lot out of us both.

It is likely, I won't do any more than try the walking foot this week.  When the treatments are over I will have time to do it without having to rush. I have got this far and don't want to ruin it.

Day 7 working on the baby quilt.

Yesterday, Friday, I cut out the border for the quilt.  I changed my mind on how I was going to do it.  I went with all red for the main border and will make the trim edge with the blue.

I used the rotary cutter and it cut through 8 layers no problem.  I folded the fabric so it would all fit on the cutting board and I could do the cuts without having to stop and move the fabric or the cutting edge.  I am so impressed with the cutter and how straight and accurate it cuts.

(I have sometimes wandered on my cuts though when drawing it along the ruler but as I cover the piece of fabric I want to use, if the cuts go awry then it is on the waste fabric and I just re-cut against the ruler).

I attached the border to the quilt top then ironed it all. That iron hadn't better be thinking I'm it's new best friend though 'cos when this quilt is finished it's going right back into the cupboard where I found it!

Then I hit a snag.  The fabric I wanted to use for the backing isn't big enough.

I found some fabric that I do have enough of but I am not totally convinced I like it.  I really wanted the other fabric which is the brown I used for some of the squares.  So I am toying with putting a border on it to make it fit.  Not sure if that is quilting etiquette though and I don't want the Quilt Police on my back!

So still thinking on that one.  Another option is to combine it with another fabric and make 4 large squares and stitch them together. Maybe, even buy some different fabric.

I have always wanted to make a quilt, just a plain old patchwork one like they did way back when. This is my attempt at that with the idea of using what I already had.

I imagine, back then, they made quilts into patchwork to use up any scraps of fabric they had left from other projects because they didn't have a lot to spend.

Modern quilting has become so detailed and competitive and to be honest, it would cost quite a lot to make one buying everything you need from scratch, so I am trying to be like the pioneers and make do with what I have, so would prefer not to have to buy more fabric.

On the other hand, I am really happy with how it has turned out so far and want it to look really nice when it is finished.

Decisions, decisions, decisions................

Meanwhile, last night I sat and un-picked the centre motif on the mis-cut white backing square so tonight I will sew it onto the quilt top centre square.  Just have to make sure I centre it correctly!

*********

Hadn't closed this post as I wanted to add a photo of the quilt top with border. Then I looked again at the backing I really want to use.  It is just a tad smaller than the top. Two options here I think.

1. Trim the top.  Don't really want to do that though.

2. Go with it as it is and make the edging wider so it covers the edges of the backing.  It says to cut the backing a little bigger than the top in-case it puckers up a bit with the quilting so I am hoping I don't lose too much of it.

Think I'll try option 2 and hope it works...............If it loses too much I can just trim it all.

I have a roll of edging but it is like a burnt orange colour which would so go with the backing but not with the quilt top so will stay with the blue I had originally planned on.  I checked it and have enough to make the edging strips wider.

Who knew there were so many 'walking feet'?

So I spent the entire afternoon yesterday researching and looking at 'walking feet' and how to do the quilting.  Who knew there were so many different kinds for so many different sewing machines?

I couldn't find one to fit the Brother XL703, the 50+ year old machine so I searched for one for my Singer 9805.

I found which one I needed for my model then searched for where to buy one. Found a couple of different sellers on ebay had them so this morning I ordered one.

Before making the decision to buy it I wanted to see if there was an alternate way to do quilting. Apparently, if you are super good, you can quilt using an open toe darning foot.  I actually have a closed toe darning foot for the XL703 (which seemingly could work also) but the bottom teeth won't drop on the machine. They should, but they don't.  The knob on the front that is supposed to take them down so you can darn doesn't work.  I have tried to get it to function but I can't and it isn't worth the time, effort and cost to take it to get repaired.  Buying a new machine would be more cost effective (but I've yet to convince my husband of that. grrr)!

So, a walking foot for the Singer was really the only sensible option as all the quilting sites say, that using this foot, is the best way for beginners to go.  I could have bought an open toe foot for the Singer which was cheaper than the walking foot but from what I read only experienced quilters can make it work.  I can darn on the Singer it seems because it has a cover that go over the teeth so you can move the fabric around.  As I have never tried to darn on it trying to quilt would be be a little above my pay grade.

This is the walking foot that fits my Singer 9805 that I have ordered

I am not planning on taking up quilting full time or becoming an expert quilter.  I will make the queen sized quilt I talked of in a previous post using the ready quilted squares I have and after that just baby quilts if any more new babies come along.

I have knitting projects I want to do, a baby jacket to make for the grand baby due in May and a sweater for myself.  To date, the only thing I have knitted myself is a hat since I re-embarked on the knitting machine train mid 2011.

The interesting thing of the day is that my husband knew I would need this foot to do the quilting.  I guess he used to pay attention when his Mum used to sew.  He knew it went up and down.  I didn't!

So that leads me to wonder where the heck is the one she had??????  I have searched and searched and not been able to find it!

And the faux pas for day 6 working on the quilt was............

I managed to grab an hour or so yesterday to work on the quilt.  It was time to sew all the strips together but first I had to insert the centre large square.  It needed to be cut to size and I calculated what size it needed to be so that the surrounding squares would all line up.

I got the correct size but I didn't cut it out correctly so the motive was not in the centre of the square. AARRGGHH!!!!!

This is where panic set in.  How can I fix it?  Well I couldn't fix the square so I had to replace it.  I really like the centre piece because it ties in the border colours I have chosen (plain red and plain blue) so I wanted to incorporate it somehow. The solution, it turned out, isn't that difficult.  I cut a plain white square and I will unpick the motif from the square I cut incorrectly and sew it onto the new white square.

I sewed all the strips together and ironed it and I am happy with how it turned out. Almost all the seam joins line up.  My ironing all the seams the same way didn't quite work out I discovered when I sewed it all together.  Also, a couple of the seams have a twist but overall I am happy, it looks great on the right side.

Next I have to cut out the borders.

Also, I have been researching the actual quilt sewing process once the three layers are in place and ready to be quilted.

I do not have a 'walking foot' for any of my machines.  I couldn't find one specifically for the Brother old machine I am using so I will check if there is one available for the Singer.  I was surprised I didn't find one in my MIL's stuff but I didn't so I have to keep on researching until I can find one I can buy that will work on one of my machines.

Not sure if I'll get any time today on it but it's still afternoon so I might be able to grab an hour somewhere.  Have to find a 'walking foot' first or a way to sew it without one.

Days 4 and 5 of working on the baby quilt

Saturday I sat and hand sewed the centre large square.  The quilted piece had been pinned to the white backing when I found it so all I had to do was to sew it in place.  Little tiny stitches were required.

I started on it and thought that it would be much easier to sew if it were in an embroidery ring.

Yep, back to the workshop I went because I know I had seen some of those in my Mum in law's stuff.

I found them along with a lot of embroidery stencils.  I also found some quilting stencils for when you stitch the three layers together.  I need to google how to use them sometime.  For this quilt I am doing straight lines as stated in the Fiskar intructions I am following.

Quilt making for beginners

I also found a 24" x 6" quilting grid ruler which will be a big help cutting out the border and many packs of cardboard shapes cut out with instructions.  They are different designs for quilt squares using various shapes.  They must be what my MIL used to make all those different quilt square treasures I found which I posted about.

Sunday was a total chill day for me.  Don't get many of those so it was nice.  First of all I worked on this blog, updating the pages which are photos only. Then I watched the hype of the Superbowl and then I watched the game.  I really enjoyed it all.  I did get off my butt to make meals and such so I wasn't totally lazy.

Yesterday, I had to move some stuff around.  I had been keeping all my quilting stuff in one tote but with the new found items I needed another container.  So now all my fabric is in one tote and all the books, magazines, stencils, patterns etc. are in another.

Then I sat down and sewed.  I finally plucked up the courage to start sewing things together.  I sewed together the squares into strips.  Leastwise, I did the bottom two rows and the top two and the two half rows that go either side of the centre square.

I used a fabric guide on my sewing which helped a lot.  I also realised how much better it was to sew using the squares that I had cut out using the rotary cutter.  So nice and straight and hardly any fraying.  (The next quilt will be easier because of the cutter......woah! did I just say 'next one'?  Only the other day I was saying 'never again'.  I do have all those beautiful quilt squares my MIL made so I suppose there will be at least one more.  Of course, if any more babies come along, I might have to make another.  Then who knows, I might be hooked........)

The next tricky bit will be getting the centre square sized correctly.  Then, when that is done, sewing it all together and getting the squares lined up.

Will have today to think about it as we are going out shopping today before the possible snow tomorrow.

Some things I missed blogging about before or didn't post pictures of.....cos I thought I didn't take any....duh!

Here are some pictures of things I did blog about and thought I didn't have pictures of and some things I made that I didn't blog about in the first place.

Have spent the morning updating the 'photo only' pages on the blog and found these I had missed one way or the other.

Key fob for a very dear friend

Christmas bags for grandkids who live a long way away so when we order online and have them sent direct they have something to put them in

Belt for my stepson, blogged about it but forgot I had taken these photos.

Iron the squares! what the heck!!! now where did I put that darn iron? Day 3 of working on the quilt. And by the way, the rotary cutter is amazing.

My time to work on my crafts is limited so I have to grab an hour here and an hour there when I can. So today I wanted to cut out the other set of squares using the rotary cutter we picked up on our shopping excursion on Wednesday.

The cutter is amazing.  It cuts so nice and straight and doesn't seem to leave the fabric with any frayed edges.  Wish I had had it from the start but not going back and starting again, that's for sure.

So now I had another six brown squares to utilise so I thought I would re-design my patterning.  I drew up another grid and I played around with ideas using the squares.

This was my first try.

I decided to still use some of the little flowers on white squares as I could keep them away from the red hearts on white now I was using less of them and had added another set of different squares.  I wasn't too sure of the design though, I think I needed to spread the colours out a bit more, so I came up with this instead.

I realised I could have played around with more ideas and come up with different designs all day but I decided to go with this.

Now came the question of which sewing machine to use.  My Singer sews pretty nice and straight but the 'Brother inherited from mum in law' has a bigger sewing base.  I tried them both and decided on the Brother.  I swear my mum in law has put the mockers on it though as when I first tried it, it wouldn't sew properly.  Somehow I had mis-threaded it but I found the error and it corrected it and it was fine.  It has a guide attachment which I am using.  (I have been using sewing machines for 60 years so to not thread it properly was a bit weird, hence the mum in law 'mockers' theory).

I couldn't set it correctly to sew just 1/4" though because of the feeder teeth so my seams will be just over 1/4". I figure that if they are all the same it won't matter.  I will increase the border to compensate so the overall quilt size will be the same.  I am not cutting the border out until I have the main body all sewn up and know the exact size I need.

So somewhere I read that I had to iron my squares.  Now, I gave up ironing years ago!  Yes, I do have one and I even have an ironing board.  I knew where the board was but I had to hunt down the iron.  Stashed away in a cupboard so as to not gather dust!

So I dutifully ironed all my squares being careful to keep them in their rows and corrrect positions.

Then I bagged them up in rows in ziploc bags, marked them and put them away until next week sometime.

I bought down the centre square to work on over the weekend as I will hand sew the red and blue piece onto the white backing.  I can do that while watching TV in the evenings.

Now it's time to stop and make dinner, so that's it for today.  Have a great weekend and hope you enjoy the Superbowl on Sunday.

Quilting is easy.......not!

So I made a couple of mistakes today.  The first was to mis-cut two of the blue squares with flowers which meant I had to change my pattern.  I didn't have enough blue fabric to cut another two squares. So now I only had six of those and I had planned for eight. So, I cut an extra two of on of the other fabrics I am using.

I laid out all the squares in the redesigned pattern but two of the fabrics didn't contrast enough and there was no way not to put them together.

So back to the workshop to dig through my other tote of fabric which I thought was mainly dressmaking fabric.  But, surprise!  There was a lot of quilting fabric in there so I found a fabric that would do to replace one of the two similar patterns.  Obviously way back when when I thought I had sorted out the fabric I hadn't done a very good job.

Will be out all day tomorrow so it will have to be Thursday before I get back to it.

Cutting squares of equal size is not that easy!  I need to get a rotary cutter my Facebook friends tell me so I will pick one up tomorrow.

I started on the quilt after having a marathon furniture moving around frenzy.

We have been busy moving furniture around and giving some away.  It all started with bringing down the rocker chair from my room to fix.

I posted about getting my room sorted out on Saturday and was eager to get up there to work but we had the chair to fix first.

Sunday, we fixed that chair for my husband to use in the front room.  That meant something had to go.  I emailed our neighbour to see if they, or their son and his family who live nearby, could use a sofa.  We had two in the living room and it really was too much.  I liked the blue sofa because the two outsides seats reclined. The other one is a green leather one which my husband didn't want to part with.

But one of them needed to go.  My husband wasn't using either, he always sits in his wheelchair which isn't very comfy after a while. He had difficulty making the recliner work and the green sofa is too low for either of us now.  (This is where I insert "It sucks to get old").

We had a matching blue recliner upstairs so if we let the blue sofa go I would still have a recliner and he would have the repaired chair.  That seemed to be the solution.

Our neighbours took the blue sofa and it was perfect for them.  They carried the blue recliner downstairs for us too.  So we had the recliner and the repaired rocker in the living room.

BUT!!! the rocker was too low and it broke again.

BUT!!! we had another solution.  We have two black leather rockers, I personally don't like them, they are too hard and I really don't like leather furniture that much to sit on.  One had been banished to his office and the other to our sunroom.  The office is next door to the living room so that was the easiest to swap over.

We struggled with that on our own, couldn't pester the neighbours again.  So you know what it's like when you start moving furniture around, there is the dreaded dust underneath everything so a mammoth cleaning session ensued.

Now we had the recliner and the rocker in the living room.  We have two identical wolf throws so I put them on them and they really looked nice. My husband could now sit in the rocker which wasn't too low.  We have a footstool for him too.

Well, that wasn't meant to be either as that leather rocker had a broken spring and a bump in the seat.

So, yesterday, Monday,  we swapped it out with the one in the sunroom and of course, I had another cleaning session in there.

In the good old days, we would have taken this all in our stride  but now it takes us a long time to do anything and we get worn out.

But, finally, yesterday afternoon, I got into my knitting/sewing room to start on the quilt.  We do not know if our new grand baby is a boy or girl so going with bright neutral colours.

It takes 36 squares of 5.5".  Easy, I think, 6 fabrics of six squares each.  Should be able to make something symmetric with those.  I like things to be organised so symmetry works for me. But I only found five fabrics I wanted to use, however, I also found a 12" x 12" half finished square (equivalent of 4 squares) that my Mum in law had started on that had the colours in I was using. So now that meant I only needed 32 squares.  32 divided by 5 doesn't go.

My fabrics are:-
Big flowers on blue
Red with little pattern
Little flowers on white
Hearts on white
Yellow gingham

I have plain red and blue fabric for the borders.

I cut six squares of small flowers.  I wanted six squares of red but only had enough for 4. So if I used two lots of 8 and one lot of 6 I would have 32.

I drew out a grid of 36 and made a design using the above number of squares and patterns.

I hope it works.

The chosen fabrics.  The table in my room is great.  Love it!!

The pattern I came up with for the squares.

Here is the room with the table set up.

I spent some time in my room yesterday tidying it up and re-arranging a bit.  It was my son's room before he grew up and moved out and is now our spare room.  Gradually over the past few years I have been converting it into my knitting/sewing room.  First the sewing table went in there from the office.  Then a desk went in there from the office for my knitting machine.  Then a bench came up out of the workshop so that I could set up another machine on the back of the desk and sit there and use it. Then the totes started filling up with yarn and fabric.  When they were all full then a brand new wheelie garbage bin found it's way in there to be filled up with more yarn. Parts were acquired for my knitting machine so they needed a home too.

See previous posts for the saga of the old 32 bit computer so I could use the Knitware program so it is now entrenched in there too.

What the room was lacking was a work surface to lay out fabric and that's when I had the brainwave of the folding table.

I am very happy with my room now.  I have two sewing machines set up to use.  Only one knitting machine is set up right now, the SK700 with ribber but I could have two.  I had the SK155 set up on the back of the desk for a while but took it down when I was experimenting with the colour changer on the SK700 as I needed to have 4 cones of wool out at once and they took up a lot of space on the desk.

My cranky old computer and huge monitor are out and I have a dinosaur of a TV set up too.  My wish list now includes a flat screen monitor and a flat screen TV for the room but for now I am happy with the set up.

And I have my table top!  And I will keep it clear so I can work on it. I will, I will.  Such good intentions!

I know our stuff is very dated but it is also very functional and I am very happy with my room now.

Life is wonderful.

The table sits perfectly over the bottom of the bed.  The SK155 is sitting on the bench behind the desk.  I finally got around to patching up the damaged top cover.  It doesn't bear weight when it's lifted so I glued the cracks together with superglue and put beige coloured duck tape over them for double measure.  At least the cover is functional now and keeps the dust and sunlight off the SK155.

The yarn, fabric and notions
stash and spare sponge bars

The 8mm Knitsmart all fits into the tool box, the LC2 lace carriage sits atop it and the YC5 colour changer above that. And please don't look too closely, there is dust!  I hate dusting, it is such a thankless task.  I do it though but this room gets a bit neglected sometimes.  Now I've published to the world though,
better get up there and make it right.

The very old computer screen that takes up a quarter of the desk top
and you can just see part of the dinosaur TV on the left.

Now to get back to work...............no excuses now!

Karma or what?

My husband has a chronic autoimmune disease.  He has been having chemo treatment for 13 months now in a bid to slow it down.  All was well until about two months ago, he had been feeling a lot better but it seems the chemo has done all it can for now.  He is not feeling that great.

He is a fighter though so in a bid to get some motivation and do something within his current capabilities we dragged out a rocker chair from my knitting/sewing room that needs fixing.  We needed different screws to what we have so we went to town to pick some up.

Right by the screws section were some folding tables one of which was assembled so I could measure the distance between the legs.  Yeah, it would fit over the standard size bed in my knitting/sewing room. (see my previous post for the brainwave I had about this).  Was this karma or what?

Trouble was it was quite pricey for our budget.  We had to go to Walmart to pick up some groceries so I thought would check see if they had any folding tables.  They did!  And they were $21 cheaper so I bought one and today I am going to go and set it up and re-organise my knitting/sewing room. The chair won't go back in there, it was only there as it needed fixing so I will have some extra space for my totes of yarn and fabric.  When we fix the chair it will go back in the living room.

Pictures will be taken.  I am excited!

Look at the treasures I found!

I bought the tote containing my Mum in law's quilting stuff over from the workshop and set about going through it all.  I had looked in it briefly before but had never dug down to the bottom. I found several plastic cutting rulers of different shapes, several quilting books and magazines and lots of fabric.  Some of it is cut into different shapes.  There are squares of differing sizes and patterns, likewise triangles and rectangles.

The absolute treasure though was 36 of 12" x 12" squares all sewn up ready.  These were at the bottom of the tote and I had missed them before. What a treasure find!

This is just a fraction of the 12" squares.  No two are the same.

The problem is I am not sure what her game plan was as there aren't any two the same.  They are beautiful though, made up of all shapes and patterns.  Some are even hand sewn.

I am thinking about how to utilize them.  They are too precious just to lie unused for any more time. Goodness knows how many years old they are.  They have been in our workshop for 10 years.  She had been ill for many years prior to that so she must have made them when she was in her sixties or before so they are at least 40 years old.

What was her thinking?  I have no idea.  She was a very precise woman.  I imagine that any quilt she would have made would have been very uniform and symetric in design so not sure what she had in mind when she made these.

I think I am going to just join them all into a random patchwork quilt.  We need a new quilt for our queen size bed we use in the spring and summer downstairs in the sunroom.

To my reckoning I have 36 sq feet when made up which is 6' x 6'.  That isn't big enough so I will have to add some squares.  Mine will pale in comparison to hers.  I will not attempt to make them like she did, she had many, many years of practice on me in the quilt making field.  I will probably use some of the squares and rectangles and sew them together to make 12" x 12" squares.  I will add a border too.

But that is down the road a bit.  First I want to make the baby quilt I talked of in my previous post.

I looked at different tutorials online but found this to be the best suited for my immediate needs:-

Fiskars tutorial to make a baby quilt for beginners

I have everything I need I think except the fabric cutter.  I am really surprised I didn't find one in my Mum in law's things as she always had  the best of everything.  I did look for them in our local Walmart store and they sell the Fiskar's ones so I will purchase one soon.  Don't really need it right now as I have so many shapes already cut out in my treasure haul.

Finding all this stuff has made me want to re-do my sewing/knitting room.  It is really our spare bedroom so still has a bed in it.  I want to take it out and put in a big work table for projects.  Trouble is, it is our spare bedroom and may need to use it at some point so I am still pondering on that.  I use the bed now anyway to lay out projects but a table would be sooooo much better.  I thought about a sleeper bed but not really the answer due to space restrictions.  Taking the bed out and putting in a sofa wouldn't leave enough room for a nice work table.  There is a solution I know, just have to keep pondering.

Oh just had a brainwave of sorts. Blogging does so help me think things through.  Maybe I could get a folding table and place it over the bottom of the bed.  Have to go measure now and research folding tables.  That might just work. (Clapping hands in glee)

Thinking about making a baby quilt.

I have attained the age of 66 and never ever made a quilt.  Some will throw their hands up in sheer horror and be mortified and others will say "Me neither".  It matters not, I am past the point of worrying over such things.

So I have a mind to make a baby quilt.  I have looked at many articles about quilt making.  I don't want to be an expert, I just want to make a plain old patchwork quilt.  I don't have the time or the patience to make some of the absolutely fabulous quilts I have seen articles about.  Maybe if I had started in my twenties I would be at that point now, but I didn't.

So a simple patchwork quilt it will be.

I have the fabric, I even have some squares that my Mum in law had cut out at some point in her life and some fancy shaped pieces she had cut out.  I will look at them and see if I will use them.  They are stored out in the workshop.

So methinks that is going to be my next project.

My husband is researching making shoes and boots from leather so we will be working on that too.

So maybe we are over our funk!

I think a new sewing machine is out of the question, we worked on a list of things that we need and need to do yesterday and I realise a new sewing machine is not a priority.  Especially as I already have three.  (can't help smiling here).

Sometimes I am worse than a kid when I want something.  I obsess! But I think I have got over it now...................................maybe!

Trying to get out of the funk!

I decided as it is way too cold to go outside that I would try yet again to install Knitware on my Windows 64bit computer that runs Windows 7.  Well, same old, same old.  It will not install even following the instructions implicitly.  I do have it on the old Dell 32 bit I bought last year but I would really like it on my main computer which is much more accessible

So, I thought I would look at knitting blogs to try and get some inspiration.

Found this entry on a blog:-

http://machineknittingismylife.blogspot.com/2014/11/sweatermaker-easy-charting-

It is a software program called Sweater Maker that purports to run on all systems.

Has anyone tried it?

Not really happy about having to pay for a program I can't test but if other folks have tried and liked it I would splash out.

In a bit of a funk!

I am going through a post Christmas funk.  This is weird because right now I have a lot of time I could be spending knitting or sewing and I am doing, nothing, nought, nada!  It is very cold right now but the sun is shining so can't blame the lack of sunshine.  It is too cold to work in the workshop so leather work is out right now but even if it wasn't I don't feel like doing that either.

I think it is because I really don't have anything that desperately needs making.  Before Christmas I always have a load of things to make so I must burn out.  Also I have a sore foot.  Stubbed my toe a couple of weeks ago and split it quite badly and it wouldn't heal and got infected.  Finally cracked up yesterday and went to the doctors who cut away some of the dead skin and put me on antibiotics. Still sore today so keeping off it more.

Hoping for some inspiration soon.  We do have a new grand baby to look forward to in May so I could start on something I guess.

Maybe tomorrow..............and if not I will blame the sore toe!

Selfie's are definitely for the young and not for me anymore.

I decided not to make my green hat into just a Christmas hat so I made a pompom using the green of the hat and the colors of the hats I made for my family.  Now I can wear it all winter.

The grand daughter's sewing machine

We did not do the best job of planning for our old age so we live on a modest income.  Not a complaint, just an observation.  So when Christmas comes around we operate on a budget.  I allocate a specific amount for each child and grandchild and like to make that allocation go as far as possible.  I had talked in a previous blog about buying a sewing machine suitable for our 7 year old grand daughter.

I found a factory reconditioned Singer Pixie for $14.99.  I couldn't believe my luck.  There was enough money left in the allocation to buy sewing scissors, spools of thread, a tape measure and stitch ripper.  I had some fabric so I made a bag for her to keep the notions in and also included some fabric I had.

Hence, her gift seemed much more than the other grandchildren's but moneywise, they were all the same.

Just got some pictures in my email of my grandkids in California taken today.  My grand daughter is still wearing the jacket I knitted for her late 2011.  Wow!  A worthwhile project for sure.

Some Christmas projects

Here are some of the things I made for Christmas gifts this year that I talked about in previous posts:-

My daughter and grand kids in England wearing their hats.  It gets quite chilly in winter in England.

Xmas progress

We (my husband does the leather staining) made the grandson's belt.  It turned out great but in my haste to wrap it and mail it I forgot to take pictures. Duh!

I finished the hats and neck warmers.  Just have to sew them up.  I will try very hard top remember to take pictures of them.

I also made a bag from fabric today to put some practice fabric and sewing notions in for our grand daughter for Christmas to go with the Singer Pixma.  I used the Brother XL 703.  It sewed beautifully.

I did overlocking on the seams and turned the top with a row of scallop stitch.  It was a simple job but it was so nice to have the different stitches.  Guess what? yep, forgot to take pictures again.  Double duh!!

Coasters are done and conditioned etc and need to be wrapped but I have already taken pictures of those.

So I think that's all the making I will be doing for Christmas.  Not bad to be done by the 12th, I am usually still going in a mad panic at this time so I am happy I have been a little better organized this year.

A quick update on the Brother XL 703 and gift making

I have finished the second set of leather coasters.  I am very happy with both sets.  (Pictures after Christmas).  We still have a leather belt to make for a grandson.  That will be this week's project out in the workshop.

At the weekend I started on the hats and neck warmers for our hunting friends.  I made a very nice hunter green hat on Saturday.  My husband said it wouldn't be any good for the hunters though as by this time of year the leaves have all turned brown and that's when they hunt.  Luckily, I have some lighter brown and tan yarn so I made a hat and a neck warmer yesterday and will make the same again today.  Then I will be finished making knitted gifts. Decided to forego on the mittens as I am running out of time. (Again, pictures after Christmas.  Don't know who reads my blog so don't need them getting a sneak preview).
I do now however have a nice hunter green hat.  That will be the first thing I have knitted for myself.  I will make a green and red pom pom for it and it will be my Christmas hat.

Now, back to the Brother XL 703 sewing machine.  It has been needling me that it isn't working.   I now have the manual so really wanted to get it to work.  No matter what I was doing to it though, it kept snapping the cotton and the fabric was moving to the right and getting scrunched up.  Was the feeder thing broken maybe and that was the cause?

Yesterday, after finishing knitting, I took another look.  I un-threaded the machine and ran the fabric through it and the fabric went nice and straight so it wasn't the feeder.

After a lot of testing I isolated the cause.  It was the lever that goes up and down that the cotton goes through before it goes down to the needle.  It had been pushed against the frame and was catching the thread and not allowing it to be pulled through and was snapping the cotton where it was threaded through the needle.  I pushed the lever away from the frame and amazingly it stayed there and is now sewing well.

I didn't get chance to try everything in the manual but I did try a few of the stitches and they worked just fine.  I am so happy happy happy.  After I am done with Christmas preps I will sit down and go through the manual and try all the different processes.  That will probably be a New Year project as I still have a ton of things to do for Christmas.

The blue stitching was done
on the brother XL 703