Friday, November 18, 2011

Fast Forward Button

"Life would be better if girls had mute buttons, boys had edit buttons, bad times had fast forward buttons and good times had pause buttons."
 ~Unknown


Now, I am not saying that I believe in the mute button, but today?  
I sure wish I had a fast forward button!

I had all my woes typed out, but realized the short of it?  80% of our household has some sort of sickness.  Button, included, with a nasty double ear infection. 


I have to give him props for going all out for his first true illness.   Not one ear...but both!!!  And on my birthday too! 
Happy Birthday to me!

Despite all the AWESOME CHANTING last week (I really could "hear" everyone cheering me on!), I didn't do as well as I would have liked.  But it is better than nothing, right?  I won't link up with WIP Wednesday because I really don't want to rewind to Wednesday, but I will share what I accomplished the past week!

Fall Throw Pillows

There was so much love for the fabric last Wednesday, that I was compelled to get them together.  They are simple, no frills.  But I love them.



The other pillows covers are the ones I made last years for the two chairs in my family room.  


It is all scrap fabric from my ottoman covers and my kitchen window treatments.  


The embroidery took me one whole day to do both.  The amount of color changes was exhausting, to say the least!  I haven't done a pattern/design with that many since.

Cuppa Joe blocks

I finished them!!!  



I really enjoyed making them! I busted into my fat quarter collection and found random fun fabrics.  I decided to stick with six fabrics and used all three cup styles.  I opted for Moda "Wildrose" by Brannock & Patek for the background fabric for all of them.  I am not sure how well I did them since I was trying to do them with a sick baby.  I also realized that I need to spend more time with my newish domestic machine.  I hadn't really machine appliqued in a while since I have been using my embroidery machine for that!  I opted for a blanket stitch.  Hopefully, they are up to par to the rest of the contributions!!
They have been sent off for the swap and now I can't wait to see what I get back.  Not sure what I will do with mine!




It's official.  All of the comments and emails made me realize that I should never have even posted the name.  As soon as it was in writing, it was all over.  The name is growing on me.  Even Button knows who I am talking about!  He likes to watch her go!


Sharon, the Handi Quilter representative, came out and gave me basic instructions yesterday.  We loaded a 36in x 36in muslin sandwich to practice on!  She was even very understanding that Button was sick and was clinging to me.  There was an elaborate checklist she had to follow...all bases were covered.



We used the thread that was given to me as my "start up" quilt.  I think I will practice at least one more time on muslin or scrap, but with a colored thread so I can see how I am doing a bit better.  I really do need to practice though!  Above is just some fun free-hand.  My looping, leaves, and flowers are not looking to shabby, but what is up with my inability to do meandering well?  Any thoughts?  I think I over-think it!

Here's to hoping my fast forward button decides to land on a day that I can think clearly, stop sniffling myself, and feel good enough to sew.  Just typing this post is a great feat!




7 comments:

  1. happy Birthday!! have a nice day!

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  2. Thanks Andrea! I should clarify! It actually was Wednesday when he started getting sick on my birthday ;)! We are just still feeling poorly!!!

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  3. Happy Belated Birthday. Practice, practice, practice is all I can say with the meandering. I like the more detailed quilting myself, I'm just not good at it so I meander a lot. Hope you feel better soon.

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  5. Happy Birthday! I enjoy reading your blog! I took a long arm quilting class last year and the instructor told me to practice drawing on a white board with a marker to get your mind used to the idea of meandering or learning any other type of pattern. I found that it really did help. Good Luck! I am patiently waiting for the time when I can get my own long arm quilting machine. Hopefully that will happen in this next year!

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  6. Happy Belated Birthday! Hope you are all feeling better - we have just had a week like that too.
    Love your cuppa Joe blocks - so colourful and fun.

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  7. I've rented a long-arm a few times, and I found it so much easier to do loopy quilting than stippling/meandering. It's the opposite on my home machine! And a woman in my MQG who recently bought a long-arm told me she has trouble with stippling, but has no problem with loops. So I wonder if it's something to do with the way you operate a long-arm that loops just come more naturally? Interesting.

    Happy birthday! Can't wait to read more about your long-arm adventures.

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I cannot wait to hear what you have to say! Seriously! It makes my day!

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