That Ugly Place

Last weekend I went to Chicago. Went to the Brookfield zoo and it was wonderful! The animals were great and some of them were actually awake and active... but today I went to an ugly place. I was sewing some samples for a class I'll be teaching and nothing was going right... the bobbin was lumping, needles were breaking... I just didn't understand! I took the needle plate cover off to disengage some bobbin thread that was tangled and saw some fuzz and lint... so I grabbed my tweezers and took it out... on a whim, I took out that black thing... you know.. the thing the bobbin sits in... the thing that nevers goes back in as easily as it comes out.... the black thing that covers the ugly place...... oh my stars!!!! There was a lump of **stuff** under there the size of texas!! it was grey and ugly and had things in it... it had sparkles in it from some felt I had sewn a few weeks ago... surely it hadn't been that long since I'd been there.... I clean and oil every month and swap out the 2 combo machines every six months. Either I've been doing excessive amounts of sewing... or I mentally block that black thing. It comes out soooooooooooooo easily and goes back in soooooooooooo hard! No matter how I line it up... no matter how careful I am... I have to stand on my head with my tongue out and do the black thingy dance to make it go back in..... I took of picture of it...... it's incredible!!! All of that crud came from under the black thingy in the ugly place........ I gotta start paying more attention!

After I got the crud out and the black thingy back in ... I resumed todays projects. I needed to make 3 fabric bowls ... 2 are samples for a class I'll be teaching and one will have a matching table runner and be a thank you gift. Each bowl is a bit different even though they all started from the same square. The apple bowl is much deeper because I cut the darts wider.... and the thank you gift bowl has the points cut off the corners.... each of the three bowls is reversible too.

I also finished up a table runner for a button quilting class. It's called Square Peg in a Round Hole ... it's made from homespuns so it gets that frayed edge look and it's quilted with buttons... its a great project to show off antique or unusual buttons. I just have to hand stitch the binding and it's finished.... I also have to hand stitch some binding on a wallet I'm trying out... it has a small change pocket... a couple of credit card slots and a bill section.... it's lightly quilted and sort of squarish.

I spent most of the week writing up the instructions for a Cotton Theory Quilting class I'm doing on Saturday.... I also needed to get all the samples done for my classes....plus the supply lists. There's a meet the teacher thing at the quilt shop and we need to have us and our samples there so people can ask us questions and hopefully sign up for our classes. It's something new we're trying so we'll see how it goes..... I'm doing fabric bowls, magic pillow cases, Portables, the Button Quilting thing and a class on designing your own fabric bowls... it's an artsy fartsy type class ...and I was asked to do it.... I don't do artsy fartsy.......but I think this will be fun....

Tonite I'll work on my bindings while I watch some TV. The rest of this week will be doing 2 more wallets of a different style....printing up the stuff for saturdays class and going over the lesson to be sure I haven't forgotton anything...and the table runner that's part of the thank you gift.... if there's still time (yeah right) I might do a block or two on the Underground Railroad Wall Hanging...

Oh.... and in case you are wondering.........you only have 16 weekends left til christmas!! so ya better get moving on those gifts!

Til next week

Lish

Chocoblue Set and LazyGirl Stuff

Yep... I know it's Monday.... and I usually do this on Sunday... but I had a very good reason..... see Lazy Girl Designs is coming out with a brand new bag in October... and it's official unveiling was today...BUT... us lazies got to view it on Friday.... but we had to promise to keep our lazy yaps shut... and if I would have updated yesterday... I don't know that I could have kept that promise... so I waited til today...

The new Miranda bag is outstanding!! check out http://www.lazygirldesigns.com/blog. I have my pattern preordered and my fabric picked out and ordered too.... now.... is it october yet???

I finished up the tote bag and zipper pouch that goes with the chocoblue set I've been working on.... it's really called MetroBlue but I like chocoblue much better. There are pics in the folder on the photo site.

Now that I've done something for me... it's back to working on the christmas box... there's 17 more weekends til christmas!!! For those of you playing along.... you should have 8 presents minimum in the box.......or at least something close to that number... and for those of you who choose to help the economy by shopping... you have 121 days left.

Check out the photo site for some applique towels too... this is a club project. I just love the ghost and the snowman!

I do believe thats it for this week.....

Have a safe labor day holiday....

Lish

The 3 Hour Lazy WorkOut

What a great way to spend an afternoon! I took 3 fat quarters... they were coordinates of a sea side line. One was a blue that could be sky or waves......one was a lake with a lite house and boats and beach houses and the last was a boardwalk stripe.

From these three fats I made 3 LazyGirl projects.... A runaround bag... a wallet and a checkbook cover. I even had some scraps left.

Check the photosite for pictures of these three projects.

I also got a few hats done this week for my student worker.... I live in a black and gold world in Indiana.... northwest of the Crimson and Cream world. My student worker requested a hat.... it's on the photosite too.... for those of you in northern Indiana...you'll understand... for those of you in southern Indiana.... well... you'll undertand too! lol

He is also getting a Google King hat.... this boy is quite inquisitive...and when he doesn't understand something or know something... it's off to google he goes.... we're rewarding him with a hat... he really likes hats lol

It was quite a busy week at school.... the freshman came in last week and the rest of the little darlings came this week... monday is the first day of class... the next two weeks will be non stop and I doubt I'll get a whole lot done when I get home at nite....but we'll see.

The finger booboo is still a bit sore....but it's getting better ( still can't believe I did that_

Oh... I almost forgot..... I made up a wonderwide!!! I widened the wonder wallet.... just too see how it would work out.... I split the front pocket by attaching it to the middle pocket before I put them together.....It's now 7" wide.... holds a couple of cards.... paper money and the middle pocket can be used for change, coupons or receipts.... it's on the photosite also.

Guess that's it for this week

Lish

Lazy Hazy Crazy Dayz of Summer

With the emphasis on Lazy... ok...so you all know that I love Lazy Girl Patterns..... Today was HOT! I don't mean sexymakemedrool hot... I mean 98 degrees in the shade hot....so I decided it was a perfect day to be Lazy!

Earlier this week ...Wedensday I think it was...I grabbed a bundle of 8 fat quarters and decided I needed a new Purse and stuff... stuff being wonder wallets, zippered pouch and check book cover.... I cut the lining and pockets and did those on wednesday nite... thursday I quilted the front and back cover and did the handles.... Friday I went to the State Fair..... today I put the purse together.......made two wonder wallets, a small zippered pouch and a check book cover which also doubles as a datebook/calendar cover. I spent about 5 hours today total finishing up everything.... it normally takes me about 3 hours to make a Towne Purse..... the other stuff takes no time at all. It did some careful cutting to get everything out of those 8 fat quarters....but I did it! It's on the photo site now and it's also been posted at the Lazy Girl Yahoo Group.... if you haven't been there.... you really need to join....there is soooooooooo much lazy there you can't imagine!! and it's quality lazy too!! You can join the yahoo group here http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lazygirldesigns. You can find LazyGirl Patterns here http://www.lazygirldesigns.com/ be careful..... don't forget to put the word designs in there lol.... and you can visit the Lazy Blog at www.lazygirldesigns.com/blog ...lots of fun info and more Lazy there. Ok... I'm not affiliated with LazyGirl Designs... I'm just one heck of a satisified happy lil Lazy sewist! lol

Ok.... my other feat for the week.... Monday I had a vacation day... so I decided to finish up my ornament table runner... it's made from a charm pack by Moda called Holly Jolly....well I was doing the freemotion quilting...and singing a christmas tune and just having a grand old time when somewhere between Fa La and La the finger that was swooping the fabric in and out of the needle swooped in and didn't swoop out in time.... the needle went in next to my nail.... thru the finger...came back up with the bobbin thread hit my nail and broke.... OUCH!!! Fortunately I'm a slow bleeder so I didn't get any blood on the runner... but wow o wee it hurt!!. I'm normally a klutz so I had bandaids and antibiotic ointment close by...and I had a tetnus booster in february so I figured I was good to go. Then the throbbing began.... oh my!! That kinda put a bit of a halt to my sewing for the day........but the runner is finished....and bound and there's a picture of the finger booboo and the runner on the photosite......

I guess that's it for this weeks update....

Have a safe one.... have a cooooool one

Til next week

Lish

July 29th

Dontcha just love it when you discover new things? Well I was doing some research on the Cotton Theory way of quilting for a class I'm teaching next month and I discovered a small blurb about reversible binding.... two different bindings... put on at the same time....

The cotton theory is a quilt first...assemble last way of quilting.... when you are done putting your pieces together... you are done with your quilt.... just add the binding......

I found the reversible binding on the all people quilt web site... http://www.allpeoplequilt.com./ I believe the article is apc202. It's not a difficult process...you just need to be accurate.....and I was just amazed at the way it worked out! Below is a picture of the placemat showing the reversible binding.... below that is a table runner that I just finished up for a friend at work.... it's for her mom's birthday. It just needs to have it's binding tacked down.

ONe side of the placemat is green watermelon fabric... the other side is 2 assorted watermelon prints.... the front of the mat has the green binding and the back shows the watermelon print.... just to awesome!!!

Guess that's it for this week.... I'll be gone next weekend so I'll try to update the blog before I leave on friday..... if not.... it'll be monday.

I'm working on a xmas table runner using a charm pack....so I hope to finish that this week....and I also hope to get some yoyo ornaments put together for the xmas box.

Have a great week!

Lish

July 22, 2007

What a week it's been.... I woke up last friday...a week ago.. with a headache.... I tried everything under the sun and it just hung on... It finally eased up this past thursday! Geeze....

So needless to say, by the time I got home from work, I had no energy to do any sewing. BUT....

I'm on a roll now! Lol.... While I was sitting in my chair doing nothing.... my brain was making plans... ( scary).... I knew I had two birthdays coming up this week... one tomorrow and one on Wednesday... what to do!!! Well my brain decided that I should take the Lazy Girl Wallet Pattern.....and find that fun Moda fabric I have called Latte or something like that and make WonderCuppa's! It's a LazyGirl Wonder Wallet... made from coffee bean and latte cup fabric and filled with a coffee bag, tea bag, napkin, stir stick, sugar, creamer and sugar substitute.... it's like a mini coffee emergency kit! I made three of them and they are just so darn cute! lol. Pictures are on flicker.... the link is to the left somewhere..... Snapfish is... well...that's another story but my photos won't be there...... lol

I found a bazillion buttons... but not one of them was a coffee pot or coffee cup but I found some really cute girl faces so I used those.

I also finished up the binding on the Charm Table Runner. It's made from a Thimbleberries Pack of 24 5" charm squares.... it's quite cute and went together rather quickly.

Today I made a checkbook cover. It's done in the hoop on the embroidery machine... we'll be making these in embroidery club on tuesday and I needed a sample and to refresh my memory on how they are made...... they are really quick to do... under an hour...and make fun christmas presents for that box.... remember the box?? uh huh........sure..........

One of my WonderCuppas and all 6 portables are in the box........so I'm doing just fine so far.

I also managed to get some mending done for a lady at work. I'm about halfway thru quilting a wall hanging/table topper for a girl at work.... it's patriotic and really cool.... it's a present for her mom's birthday next month...shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh it's a secret lol

I have the header ready to attach to the shower curtain so maybe this week I can get to that.... we'll see. I have to make two Cotton Theory Placemats for samples for a class I'm going to be teaching... I have the parts all cut and stacked.... now for the quilting.... that's supposed to be done and up to the shop on tuesday... but I don't think that's gonna happen lol maybe by the weekend.........

Have a great week.........

Lish

Snapfish

Ok...I think I have snapfish linked up now so you can still see the older photos... anything new I'll add to Flickr....unless I find snapfish easier to use.......

I spent the day looking for a crochet leaflet..... I found just about everything I ever lost but not that darn leaflet...... sooner or later it will show up.....and I found so much fun stuff I may never come out of the sewing pit! lol

Gotta go make yoyo's.......... maybe there will be photos soon!

Lish