Odds & Ends

I haven't been sewing as much in the last week or two. I have done some art, like this collection of heart-shaped balloons. 

I painted the background on this rock that I painted a heart on more than a year ago. 

I took a walk by the pond and saw these turtles stacked up in the sunshine.

And I bought a box of So Fine thread from Superior threads to replace colors I had used up. What have you been up to?

Pieces of Love: (Un-)Quilting

I picked this beautiful color thread to quilt my Pieces of Love quilt.

I loaded it up and ready to quilt.

I quilted two rows of this delightful all-over feather. And hated every stitch. It was too dense. It didn't come close to what I imagined this would look like stitched out on this quilt. 

Then, over the course of the week, I spent over four hours ripping out those two rows of quilting. It was back breaking, exhausting, and sad. 

It made quite a mess. And I ripped more than a couple holes in the backing fabric. Thank goodness I bought the wide backing. 

After all that ripping, I spent more time cleaning up the threads and pressing the quilt top, with starch, to get it smoothed out enough to quilt again. My Pieces of Love quilt will get quilted. Just not with these fancy feathers.

My favorite tools and supplies (affiliate links):

Creative Grids 6.5" x 24.5" Rectangle 

Creative Grids 4.5" x 12.5" Rectangle Quilting Ruler

Creative Grids Quilt Ruler 6-1/2" Square

Fiskars Rotary Cutter

Fiskars Rotary Cutter replacement blades
Fiskars Self Healing Rotary Cutting Mat
BLACK+DECKER Classic Steam Iron
Fiskars 8-inch scissors

Juki TL-2010Q

Grabbit Magnetic Pin Cushion

Dritz Craft Pins, 1-3/4-Inch (250-Count)

Electric Quilt

Project box: IRIS 12" x 12" Portable Plastic Storage Cases with Built-in Handle, Clear (storage)

Letter Openers

Fiskars Rotating Cutting Mat 14 inch x 14 inch

Creative Grids Stripology XL Ruler

Getting Hexie With It

I have been working, on and off, on these hexie flowers for close to ten years. It is a great travel project, or something I can do while watching television but I just haven't been working on it all that diligently. Want to see where I was in 2014? Check out this post. 

I was recently in a teleconference and grabbed my bag and got stitching. 

I managed to finish four of them last week. Slow progress, but not ten years of slow progress. 

Tools and supplies (affiliate links):

Fiskars Rotary Cutter

Fiskars Rotary Cutter replacement blades
Fiskars Self Healing Rotary Cutting Mat
BLACK+DECKER Classic Steam Iron
Grabbit Magnetic Pin Cushion

Fiskars Micro-Tip Scissors, 5 Inch

Fiskars X-Large Squeeze Punch, Hexagon

Flexible Rubber Thimbles

Hexagon Junk

What to do with that junk mail printed on light cardstock? Make it into hexie papers for English Paper Piecing. 

This Fiskars extra large hexagon squeeze punch (Fiskars X-Large Squeeze Punch, Hexagon affiliate link) makes quick work of the light cardstock some junk mail is printed on. 

This means I can get a pretty good crop of hexagons out of that one piece of junk.

A little bit of time basting (I thread baste but I don't stitch through the hexagon paper) and you are ready to hand sew those little hexagons together. There are loads of videos on YouTube to help you learn how to baste and stitch. It is a great carry-along project for traveling short or long distances. 

Then you are one little hexagon flower closer to a quilt. I've been working on this project for years. I had to search the blog and I'm pretty sure I started it in 2014. I'm still making these little flowers. I likely will keep making them for years to come. I'm sure someday I will have a quilt.  

Tools and supplies (affiliate links):

Fiskars Rotary Cutter

Fiskars Rotary Cutter replacement blades
Fiskars Self Healing Rotary Cutting Mat
BLACK+DECKER Classic Steam Iron
Grabbit Magnetic Pin Cushion

Fiskars Micro-Tip Scissors, 5 Inch

Retractable Badge Holder

Fiskars X-Large Squeeze Punch, Hexagon

Flexible Rubber Thimbles

Quilt Show: Southern Comforters Quilt Guild

Since discovering the Southern Comforters Quilt Guild, and their annual show, I try to get to it every year. It's only a short drive (about two miles) from my house to the show. Here is a summary of last year. This year was another great year.

This year they had a fun vendor hop that seemed like a great idea to me. I try to stop in at each of the vendors to see what they've brought. Working a show is so much work. I decided to join in and visit the different shops. I met some great vendors. 

What did I get for playing along? Why, a goody bag with a few fun things inside. Candies, thread, thread spool hugger, a craft clip, some fabric (even though I was so good and didn't buy any fabric), a marking pen, and a coupon for a local quilt shop. Some of these tools I already have and use, others (like the marking pen) are new to me. I'll let you know how they work out.

I hope this fun vendor hop helped get people to the vendor booths and made it a success for the vendors. Sometimes quilt shows are the only time I see some of the vendors because they're too far for me to travel, or their schedules and mine just never meet up.

Tools and supplies (affiliate links):
thread spool hugger
craft clips
marking pen

Not all Sewing is Glamorous

I know many a maker that will deny they mend or hem pants. I won't say that. What I will say is that I only mend for two people. The two people who live in my house. If you don't live here, don't even ask.

I'm sharing this project more to give you a quick review of the Juki TL-2010Q which I used for this project. Anyone that has tried to hem jeans on a cheap, plastic, domestic machine can tell you it is no simple task.

I only needed to shorten my jeans by about 1.5". First, I trimmed off the existing hem with my Fiskars 8-inch scissors. These are the titanium coated scissors and they are great. 

I didn't want to muck about with fraying of the bottom edge, so I took a couple minutes to clean up the edge with the serger. 

I pressed a double hem and threaded the machine with some blue thread. I used Superior Threads Omni for the top thread. 

Here is a close-up of the top stitching. The Juki TL-2010Q didn't even hesitate going over the bulky side seams. With any cheap, plastic, domestic sewing machine you might have to slow down over those areas to make sure you didn't break a needle, or bog down the motor. The Juki didn't miss a beat. Great job!

Start to finish: 30 minutes. Worth my time to keep from walking on the hem of my pants.

Tools (affiliate links):
BLACK+DECKER Vitessa Advanced Steam Iron
Fiskars 8-inch scissors
Juki TL-2010Q

The Random Update

It seems I haven't managed to finish much in the last few weeks, so this post is just a mash up of a bunch of stuff I have been working on.

I received my order of goodies from Strapworks.com. I made a small error when placing my order, so now I have 1/2" strapping and 3/4" hardware. It won't slow me down one bit, but it did teach me something about checking the cart twice before checking out.

My Rise of Tribes (Amazon affiliate link) game from Breaking Games came in. It is a fun little game. It is a quick play, too.

I caked up some yarn I dyed. I think this is going to become a crescent shawl. I have to settle on a pattern. But I am eyeing up Stephen West's Knit and Slide. Maybe with a different knit border. I'm still thinking about it.

I started another Dotted Rays shawl by Stephen West. This time I'm using a trick I learned making the Marled Magic Shawl to blend some fingering weight together into fun new shades. We'll have to see how that works out. The best part is I'm finally using this yarn for something I like knitting.

New thread came from Superior Threads. Thread colors are like Pokemon, gotta catch 'em all!

I finished a Tensfield hat designed by Martina Behm. This is a great one-skein project.

I listened to an episode of The Moth Radio Hour and remembered how good it is.

I continued working on my pink crochet shawl.

I guess I have done many things in the last week or so. I just haven't finished a thing. What have you been up to?

All the Thread

A couple weeks ago I told you about my thread problem. I've been working on getting my upgraded thread rack built and installed in my thread closet (yes, I need a closet to hold it all, I'm not even sure all of it is in there).

Here is a look at what my thread storage looked like before I started.

This woodworking project took two people and more hours than I cared to count. We cut a bucket-full of pegs. Mostly because my planning was more than a little off. Not that that work will be wasted.

We drilled hundreds of holes. I was overly proud of this jig to help me evenly space the holes.

We constructed the frame. The staple gun paid its rent on that day.

And I glued hundreds of pegs into those holes. 

In the end, I had a new thread rack, with the capacity to hold about 280 spools of thread.

I grabbed my bin full of thread and started sorting. 

I don't know that this is the final layout, but it is a start. I didn't realize how many cones of tan-to-brown thread I had compared to the other colors. Not nearly enough blue and purple in my opinion. Good selection of grays, though. All the cones on the far right are King Tut and Fantastico, for those times you need a variegated thread. The others are my very favorite long arm quilting thread So Fine#50 from Superior Threads.

This doesn't include the threads I still have on small spools. I'll need to build another rack for those. Thank goodness I still have some materials left over.

Tools (affiliate links)

• Hitachi staple gun, air hose, and air compressor
• Black & Decker Jigsaw, and cordless drill
• Titebond Premium Wood Glue
• Simple hand tools one might need (such as needle-nose pliers to pull out poorly aimed staples, a hammer to pound in pegs that don't want to fit, a Sharpie for marking, a carpenter's square for marking and cutting straight).

Monday Blog Oops!

It seems I wrote a bunch of blog posts on Sunday and didn't bother to post a single one for today. Here is my oops post with some random stuff so you know I am still madly making.

I went a little crazy making things with vinyl. Hand sanitizer holders were a big part of my week.

I'm nearing the end of this crochet project made with Red Heart It's a Wrap.

I'm still working on my upgraded thread rack. I don't expect this one to be a quick finish.

I cleaned off my cutting table and it will likely be clean just long enough for me to decide what mess to make next.

Thread Problem

If you follow me on Instagram or read my blog regularly you know I have a subscription to Superior Threads thread of the month club. I belong to the So Fine #50 club and I love getting thread every month. This also means I have a thread problem. Or, maybe just a thread storage problem.

I have several June Tailor Cone Thread Racks that I have picked up over the years. I even used one to have a local carpenter make me a rack to fit this space. Sadly, he thought he was doing me a favor by placing the pegs closer together. That means the cones bump into each other and I can't use some of the pegs at all. We decided to make a replacement ourselves. We picked up all of the lumber I estimate we need. We even picked up a brand new Rockwell BladeRunner Portable Tabletop Saw so we could make the hundreds of cuts we would need to make my bigger and better thread rack. This is the kind of tool we will use again and again.

We did all the cutting on Sunday morning, before we decided it was just too miserable to be outside in the humidity. This is what approximately 428 pegs (each is 3" long) looks like. If it works out, that's how many cones of thread my new thread rack will hold. Next, we need a drill press to drill the 428 holes those pegs fit into. According to Superior Threads' website, So Fine #50 comes in 143 colors. I should be good to go.

In the Mail Monday

I received some great new colors of Superior Threads' So Fine #50. I love this thread and I use it for almost all my quilting as a top thread. I'm not as picky about the bottom thread as long as it doesn't create a bunch of lint in the bobbin area.

I ordered the Wrights 9.25" by 13" Easy Star and Geese Ruler. I wanted a ruler bigger than the one I already own. I haven't given it a try, yet. I have used the Companion Angle (1" to 10") and it changed my thinking on flying geese and hourglass units. I did come across a project that called for cutting a piece just outside the ability of that ruler so I wanted a larger ruler.

I also picked up the Creative Grids 6.5" Square Ruler. I have the Tucker Trimmer I and I love it for squaring up half-square triangle blocks. I wanted to give this a try. I am still trying to get to know this ruler. It isn't as quick to find my desired size as the Tucker Trimmer I. It definitely is more versatile. I found it very helpful for trimming up string-pieced blocks. (For big blocks, the Tucker Trimmer III is great, too.)

I love rulers! Do you have a favorite ruler in your collection of tools?