Life is good!

I learned to sew on the same sewing machine I still use today - an Elna air electronic SU.  This is a workhorse little machine.  The thing weighs a ton, does a great straight stitch, and is as reliable as can be.  You will have to pry this machine out of my cold, dead hands.  It is, however, having one issue, which I'm told may be its death knell.  Yes, I nearly cried when I found that out.  The presser foot is air controlled, and apparently after they reach a certain age there is an internal gasket that can no longer be replaced.  So I've been saving up for a new machine.  My Elna still works, and is great for apparel, so I wanted to get something new for the quilting.  My Elna has a small throat space, and isn't really designed for quilting, especially FMQ.  I also didn't want to spend a fortune (very easy to do on a high-end sewing machine, I'm discovering!) so I finally settled on this: It's a Brother 1500.  All mechan...

I feel like I've sort of lost my quilting mojo lately.  With my summer schedule at work, I don't get to work out over lunch, and so it's much more difficult to follow my "no exercise, no craft room rule".  So when I do follow it, I just don't get much sewing done.  I finally did work on some quilt blocks this morning.  Just a couple of half-square triangles I needed to finish up the blocks for Lucky Pezzy, but it felt so good to at least sew a few!  And to be honest, I have had some clothes finishes, so it's really all just perspective, right?  And yes, I'm rambling. I had a fabulous weekend with my sisters.  I took Isadora, and Collette took Fiona, and we headed into Chicago for a girl's weekend.  Our big excursion was to the American Girl store. Isadora and cousin Sofi on the train - just a bit of excitement there! After much deliberation, Isadora chose the Kit doll.  She looks just like her! We didn't get to do the meal a...

Making Progress... Recent Completions: Heart of Mine 2 Pick and Mix Simply Woven Comma Squares WIPs: Farmer's Wife (LONG term project! - 20 blocks completed) Craftsy QAYG quilt (three of twelve completed) Lucky Pezzy Vintage Modern Scrappy Avalon BOM (seven of 12 blocks completed) Fabulous Flowers At the quilter: High Fashion Charmed Starts Vintage Modern BOM Top Completed, waiting for quilting: Swoon Ruby, Pearl and Opal Toes in the sand Mosaic Impromptu Planning: Secret Garden (layer cake quilt) Kelley's Chevrons Madonna and Child Scrappy Chevrons Park Bench

This one is all boy, and what a sweet boy he is.     We had the opportunity to spend some quality one-on-one time recently, while Isadora went to Chicago, and it was a blast.    A fearless monkey - climbing to the top of the crow's nest, repeatedly, on his own.  He's a jumper, is this one.   The sheer amount of entertainment hours provided by the green wagon is pretty remarkable.     And when the wagon alone is not enough fun, hook it onto the stroller and pull both of them around.  I've gotten more hours of play out of that $10 umbrella stroller than out of 98% of the toys we own.   Keeping him off the bridge without supervision is a full time job.  He's, of course, fascinated by all the creepy crawlies he can find.  Just wait till there are fish in there!  "Momma, I tired.  I just going to lay down for a few minutes, okay?"  Faster, mommy, faster!  ...

It seems like I spent a fair amount of time in my sewing room over the weekend.  The biggest completed project was a top for me.  I like how it turned out, although if I do it again I'll lengthen the bodice by an inch or so.  It's a cute eyelet top, should be a good summer shirt. I also made some progress on Lucky Pezzy, finally.  I've had the half square triangles sewn for quite some time, but needed to cut them in half and trim them down.  I used the "quilt-in-a-day" ruler to trim the 5 inch charms to 4.5 inch HST's, and that's definitely the way to go!  If I try to cut the 4 7/8" square, then square them up, they're always more wonky than I'd like.  This way was both much quicker and more accurate. I'm using a Pezzy layer cake - I think the end product is going to be quite fun! I got a start on sewing the squares together last night.  Had to rip four of the five squares.  I'm obviously going to have to be very careful about ...