Design Wall Monday - 7/8

I got so much done over the weekend! I finished quilting Quilt #18.



I finished piecing the triangles for Easy Street.



I got the dog quilt cut out and began piecing.



I started the purple and gold Road to Llano quilt. Once I get these last pieces attached and the squares pressed, Step 1 will be complete!



And I set up the sewing machine station in the basement.



It was so nice that all the pups joined in the fun.

Indepence Day Clean-a-bration!

One of the things on my To Do list earlier this week was to clean and prep my new Singer 301a. I figured that since I was going to work on this one, I might as well open up the first one and make sure everything was in working order with both.

Here is the first one.



And the new one.



I cleaned the upper gears on both machines and everything was running pretty smoothly. I also cleaned up the bobbin area.

New machine -



First machine -



I went through quite a few cotton swabs and clean mascara wands and I used the lubricant to grease all the gears again.

I oiled everything well and put the first machine back in the cabinet and tested out the new machine.





She was quite dry and will take a few more oilings before I think she will run more quietly. I'm going to stick this one in the basement to use to piece on while I am quilting. Last night, I prepped the basement for a spot to set it up and later tonight, I am going to cut out fabric for another quilt to piece in between quilting passes on the Avante. Woo hoo!!

To Do post...

I have so many things to get done, but work certainly took over for the last week. We are at our year end and I worked on Saturday from about 7:30 AM until 8 PM with only a couple of hour long breaks. And I was online until 11:30 Sunday night doing the same. Thankfully, I got a huge portion of work finished and it is making this week much easier in the office!

I thought that showing the things that are in progress at home might help me start working on them.

I still have this quilt on the frame. The thread ran out but the replacement was received last week. I just need to finish the last couple of rows.



I'm still working on the Easy Street setting triangles.



I need to get this new to me machine testing and cleaned up and set up in the basement to do some piecing.



I need to cut out this quilt.



I need to bury threads on this quilt.



I need to get this quilt quilted and bound.



And I need to get this quilt started. I printed out the parts up to 9, but there are 3 more parts after that.



Thank goodness for a holiday this week! Next weekend will also be dedicated to quilting and not much else!

Some excitement!

Yesterday, I had a delivery.



Lula was very intrigued by the package. And the bubble wrap!



And here was what was inside.



Another Singer 301a with a carrying case and the cords and that is it.

I haven't tried it out yet, but the wheel moves by hand easily and everything else moves as it should. The cord is different from my first 301a - the foot pedal cord and power cord are all one piece. And  this one was born in 1953 in Anderson, SC. My old one was born in 1954.

Here she is out of the box.



After the excitement, I did a little piecing on the first 301a and the foot pedal went berserk. I had to take both foot pedals apart to figure out how to fix the broken one. Once I got it back together, I have much more control over the speed. Before I fixed it, there were 2 speeds - off and ZIPPY!

I also organized another quilt to cut out. I might get to that tonight.



My plan with this new 301a is to make up a little sewing area in the basement so that I can do a little piecing in between passes on the frame. I found that if I take little breaks here and there, it can save my back while quilting. Since there is always something to work on, I might actually make progress on some tops!

Monthly Accomplishments December 2012

Wow! I did a lot! It helps that quite a bit was under a time crunch or with a specific deadline. :)

1. Quilted purple hexie quilt for Heather 
2. Sewed up bag of dog toys
3. Quilted Ariel’s quilt  
   
4. Made take along bag, thread catcher, tool caddy, runaround bag for a giveaway
5. Kept knitting on a sock I started on Thanksgiving  
   
6. Spinnerei – made blocks, assembled, quilted and bound from my original design  
   
7. Found a pristine Featherweight!
   
8. Found an even better Singer 301A!  
9. Finished assembly on 6^th Scrap Squad and made the binding
   
10. Quilted Ohio State Buckeye Ohio start quilt for Heather  
    
11. Loaded Ellen’s quilt and got a couple of rows quilted before running out of the bobbin thread completely
    
12. Started Easy Street mystery
13. Recovered big board 
14. Threw Moon Pie on design wall

And I read! I ended the year with 67 books read. In 2011, the number was 71; in 2010, 61; and 2009 was 59. I didn't keep track before that. not too shabby for 2012!

1. Killer Heat by Linda Fairstein
2. Lethal Legacy by Linda Fairstein
3. Hell Gate by Linda Fairstein 
   
4. The Giving Quilt by Jennifer Chiaverini 
   
5. Silent Mercy by Linda Fairstein
6. Night Watch by Linda Fairstein
7. Curse of the Spellmans by Lisa Lutz

What a month!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, blog readers!!

I just spent far too long putting together collages of my finishes for 2012!



Not as many finsihes as in past years, I think. There are some BOMs where the blocks got finished and that was as good of a finish for this collage! I also found 2 pillowcases from cow fabric that I didn't add in. And the pink and green star quilt is just a quilt top.

Right now, I am feeling like I can really get a lot of piecing and assembly done in 2013. I am eager to get to stitching with the new sewing machines - Shirley the 301 and Laverne the Featherweight!

And here is the quilting that I did for my Darling Jill Quilts quilting business in 2012! They somehow seem to not be as impressive in the amount of work in this format, but I know that there was a lot of quilting that went on in the past year!



But there is room for more customer quilts in 2013 so contact me if you need help getting some finishes of your own! :)

Stash Report Week 52, 2012

I'm still in the black! I'm still in the black! I'm still in the black!!

Last night, after I picked up the new Singer 301 (Shirley, I think!)....



.... I stopped at Joann's and got border and backing fabric for the last Scrap Squad quilt.



I was hoping to come home and work on the finishing the top and making the backing, but I was too excited about the new machine! I was also straightening up the studio and when I came across the machine oil, I decided to oil Shirley. There are a lot of places to oil!! Do you see all those little arrows?



I also picked up some more heat resistant fabric to recover my big board.



And I got a couple of skeins of this ruffle yarn so of course I had to try it out. I'm still deciding whether I like it or not.



And this past week was Christmas and my wonderful BFF Regina got me a fantastic quilt kit!! Literary Lounger with the Bookish fabric line from Connecting Threads. She splurged for me and now my stash report is taking a hit! lol I love it, Regina!! Not only do I live books, but the colors of this line were made just for me!



I'm still in the black! I'm still in the black!

Fabric added this week: 14.63
Fabric added YTD: 145.40

Fabric used this week: 0.00
Fabric used YTD: 173.88

Net Fabric Used: 28.48

Lula thinks we should play with fabric today and I wholeheartedly agree!!

I need another name....

Last night, I was checking Craigslist for vintage sewing machines which has become a daily ritual over the last 2 weeks since watching Quilt Cam where Bonnie Hunter mentioned finding machines in her area on the site. If you recall, I had great success in searching for a Featherweight and she still remains nameless, although I am still leaning towards Laverne.

Anyway, last night, I expanded my search for some reason to Lima, Ohio and came across an ad for a Singer machine in a cabinet for $100. I half heartedly clicked on the link and my heart stopped. It was for a Singer 301A and the machine looked wonderful and the cabinet... *gasp*

I sent an email response asking if they still had the machine since it was listed almost 3 hours prior to my seeing the ad and who wouldn't want to already have the machine? I sent emails to Kristie and Beth and Regina and asked if I was crazy (I think Regina was the only hold out for a NO vote. lol) and I got encouragement to stalk the seller and call as well.

This morning, I got a few more pictures of the machine and accessories and made plans to drive up to get it. I was lucky enough to run into a neighbor when I got home and he carried the cabinet and machine to my second floor for me. And I had to do some finagling to make room.

Before...



And after...



I was thinking at some point this week that the room seemed a little cluttered and I think that moving the hope chest out and this smaller piece in will make a lot of difference. :)

The finish on the cabinet is almost like brand new! The finish on the front of the cabinet is not as shiny as the rest of the cabinet, but it looks great!



All of the accessories!!





And a storage stool!



I had to clean out the bobbin area a little and adjust the stitch length, but the tension is perfect! And she purrs! Absolutely PURRS!!



The cabinet has a place for the foot pedal to be a knee pedal, but it is too high for my short legs so I put it on the floor. :)



I can't get to the serial number, but the ad said she was from 1956. The way that she is connected to the cabinet, I am going to assume that the 1956 year is correct. :)





And now, I have more machines than dogs again! Lula just wants to be able to sit in the chair all the time.