Birthday Blaze

 

I've officially joined the age group where birthday cakes are fire hazards...62!...WooHoo my first social security check arrives March 26...WooHoo! Now that 16, 18, 21 and 62 has been reached there will be no more birthday woohoo's from me again...ever!!!!!!

 

 

Tonight Sweetie and I will go to Charlie's, a great Italian restaurant in Ellijay and celebrate. Dirty Martinis with Blue Cheese olives...tasty!!!

 

Then tomorrow, we will celebrate again with our card/Mexican Train friends. Two of us share a birthday.

 

And of course, Sunday will be the Superbowl Party at our house. Neither one of us has a dog in the hunt (Packers and Bears) but we'll both be rooting for Payton.



 

 

 

Variegated Thread Questions

Those of you that FMQ with variegated thread, I ask...what's with the black sections of thread? The beige and grey tones show the stitches very nicely, but the black sections just look like lines drawn on the fabric. Is this common with black thread? Thankfully, I was just doodling...I don't think I'll be using it on anything for FMQing. Even it the black stitched better, I think there's just too much contrast in the sections to look good.

 

It's just....OK...OK enough to not abandon like some other audio books. I was really disappointed the the 3rd book in the Sophie Metropolis series isn't in MP3 format...bummer.

New Audiobook For The Shop

 

 

This is book two in the series featuring Sofie Metropolis...Greek P.I....a very pleasant listen. Hopefully the same reader will also do the third book in the series.  I'm not sure if there are more in the series...our small regional library only has three available to download.

 

I sure am becoming acclimated to Georgia weather...this hearty Wisconsin girl is cold...I feel for y'all having to deal with that bitter, face numbing arctic blast...I don't miss it. 

 

We had a scare here two days ago with our furnace...we woke up in the morning to low 50's temps in the house. The water drain tube from the furnace had frozen and when enough water had accumulated, it tripped a sensor and shut the furnace off.  Sweetie had to syphon the water out quite a few time before the tube cleared out. No wonder it's so dry in the house during the winter...your furnace really does suck a lot of moisture out of the air.

 

I'm sure most houses up North have floor drains in the basement and the furnace drains into the floor drain. I don't know if it's the norm here in Georgia, but we don't have a floor drain...maybe because the garage is under the house. Ours gets routed up and across the basement ceiling and out the side of the house under our back porch. Seems kind of strange to me.

Free Magnetic Seam Gauge For Juki TL-2010Q

 

 

 

And some free advertising...although if they wanted to send me some free refills, I would greatly appreciate it!

 

I thought I would do a quick post on this because of a comment that I left on another new Juki owners blog about using this because it wasn't a computerized machine. She responded back that she thought that the thread cutter and needle up/down feature was computerized. And it may be, but I thought that if Juki was selling magnetic gauges (for apprx $10) for the TL series there must not be an issue with magnets. If you buy your machine through HSN, Juki gives you one in the package deal.

 

With the gauge snugged up like this it's a scant quarter inch and out to the next line it's a true quarter inch.  The compensating foot that came with the machine is just way too generous a quarter.

Listening In The Shop

Too bad our regional library doesn't have anymore of her audio books to borrow...very enjoyable. This time the story takes place in Savannah.

I'm on a listening roll...this was my previous finish...also enjoyable...an easy listen.

 

With the Sew In coming up, I've been spending more time in the shop getting projects ready. Today I was cutting flannel triangles and sewing some half square triangles. All from scrap dive fabric, of course.

Another Sweetie Project

We finally got feed up with the lousy builders grade dishwasher and splurged (our Christmas present to each other) on a new Maytag...does a great job on stemware and crusty dishes.

I thought this was such a cute picture of Sweetie and his shadow Bear.

My order from Superior Thread arrived today...ordered Bottom Line in #623...it really does almost disappear.

I think the Juki prefers a heavier thread for FMQing though...just a prettier stitch.

New Foot Pedal Stand For Juki TL-2010Q

It's always been a pain having the pedal skidding all over the cement floor. In the picture above it's corralled in between a big hunk of lumber and the power supply (which is butted up against a big paver block). My guilds first all day Sew In is next week and I didn't want to be constantly chasing this over the newly tiles floor at the church.

So....I grabbed the board and the pedal and headed down the path to Sweetie's shop. I handed the board and pedal to Sweetie and said I needed a rectangle made to go around the pedal. As usual, Sweetie thought my plan was flawed (he usually always does and usually concedes that my plan was pretty good after it's all said and done). However, this time I will concede...it would have been heavy and bulky.

So...I told him to get creative and make it more portable, but with the stipulation that board height was perfect for a comfortable foot angle while quilting...plus it completely took the thread cutter out of the equation while FMQing!!!

Less than 30 minutes and whaa-lah...Sweetie appears with my new pedal keeper. Now that's customer service!!!

Microfiber Design Board/Wall Creation

The guild is having an all day quilt in this month and I needed a portable design wall for some of the projects that I'm taking along.

 

I discovered some time ago that microfiber shop towels are really sticky when is come in contact with cotton fabric. First, just by washing the towels with other cotton items and having to peel them apart after drying. Then the light bulb went on when I was using the towels when I was prepping scraps from a scrap dive with sizing. I like to crisp up the scraps before I cut them to size.

 

The towels went down to keep my ironing board cover from getting any more ratty than it already is. I had some pieces of scrap placed for spraying but had to move the towel off the board to press something and saw just how well those pieces clung to the towel. You have to give that towel a vigorous shaking to get the pieces to come off (if they do at all).

 

 Just walking by a design wall using flannel, felt, or batting can create enough breeze to send your pieces to the floor...bushy dog tails can clean of your wall in one pass.

 

I sewed three sides of two towels sandwiched together (with what I decided were the stickiest sides together) and then turned it. Sweetie cut a 15 1/4" pieces of Luan (sp? very thin plywood) for me and I stretched the pocket over the Luan. The sides of the Luan was covered with masking tape because even with sanding the edges were still too snaggy.

 

To make it stand up, I used two cheap plastic picture stands that I've had forever. I binder clipped the base of the stand to the Luan and use actual faces of the frames as the feet of the portable design board. 

 

You can buy microfiber by the yard on-line and if I remember correctly, it's at least 50" wide. I plan on making large pockets for the foam insulation boards that I already use and I will have double sided design walls!

 

What I'm Listening To In The Shop

I'm really enjoying this audio book...the reader is excellent...the story takes you all over Atlanta.

I was on the hold list for this AB for months...worth the wait!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Machingers Needed A Bath

Before (duh...right)

 



 

After a ride in the washer and an air dry...not pristine, but much better...maybe I shouldn't have waited to long to wash them!



Dirty Santa Gift That I Brought Home

 

Just what I wanted!!!

 

 



(iron not included)

 

 

Due to the luck of the draw, I picked first and last...

I had to be a Dirty Santa and take this from someone...

Gifts Made For Guilds Dirty Santa Gift Exchange

 

I saw this on Pinterest...yes, I finally succumbed to Pinterest...but only mildly so!

There wasn't a pattern so I just had to wing it. Mine is reversible.

 

 

I also made a mug rug/pot holder (used Insul-Bright) that is double sided.

 

The mini topper is just the right size to fit on top of the toilet tank.

Using Full Line Stencil For All Over Quilting

This large all over quilt design quilts up really quickly...done before my new set up. I wasn't observant when I placed my order and ended up with the larger of the stencils for this design...something really larger than I wanted, but I was eager to use it, so it wasn't going back. It'll be good really for a quick quilting of a charity quilt.

On the smaller sample, the top half was marked with a regular plastic stencil and Pounce Powder. The bottom section was FMQ'ed after I had marked a grid with a Frixon pen and ruler.

I want to try out some Bottom Line thread by Superior, but am concerned about using an iron on it to make the Pounce Powder disappear...especially since the powder really is hard to get out of the stitch line unless the iron is really hot and you really dig down into the stitch line.

 

 So as an experiment, I dug out my cloths steamer to try and remove the powder and it was not successful at all. My iron set on synthetic was able to get most of the powder off but not deep in the stitch line.

 

For another experiment, I got out a Frixon making pen and put a line on this sample and used the steamer. The ink line disappeared but not the white line. Then I used the steam in my iron and that didn't budge it either...so test your fabric before marking. I generally just use the pens for lighter fabric and use it in conjunction with the Pounce Powder to fill in a quilt design that doesn't show up on light sections of fabric.

Quilting Table Assembly For New Juki TL 2010Q

 

Here's my new machine again before opening is cut.

A quick cut with a jig saw.

The openings edges cleaned up nicely with sandpaper. I had Sweetie cut the opening 3" longer so I could slide the machine back to access the bobbin and allowed for power cords to feed under the table.

Set up how I intend to quilt.

 

I think when the permanent set up is done, I will have Sweetie cut an opening in the back left corner to set the machine in for piecing. Sweetie also wants to put locking rollers on the legs so I can move the set up away from the wall easily.

Simple Pleasures

I was so delighted to see the little buds this morning...I had to snap a picture on my iPhone to text my friend Gail.  She has had the mother plant for years and potted a little piece for me a couple of months ago...I wasn't expecting to get buds this soon. This is the only sunny spot in my house and only in the winter when the leaves are off the trees.

New Juki TL 2010Q is here....WooHoo!!!!

I thought it was time to resurfaced in Blogland...went through a rather long stretch where I just didn't have anything to say...got some quilting done, read a whole lot of books and blogs...no apologies here, there's ways to much of it out there in Blogland...as if all bloggers we follow owe us a post of a regular basis...let life get in the way!!!!

 

 

Anywho...BELATED SQUEAL!!!!!  This actually came Christmas Eve...UPS was so busy that it arrived via a black pickup.

 

Here's a sneak peek at (just realized I haven't named it/her/him yet) sitting on the quilting table that Sweetie is putting together for me. The surface is permanent (may be some future modifications) but its base is a work in progress.  More pictures soon.

There grand kids (DS) over the holidays for a short visit...we're the halfway point on the way to Florida (his fathers residence) so they stopped on the way there and back.  Thanks to some super glue the snowmen are almost good as new.

The mat was a quilting doodle that turned out pretty good and I'm not into wasting fabric (even out dated mauve), so I slapped a totally machine applied practice binding (more out dated fabric) on and was please with my work.

There are more pictures in the que for future posts...It feels good to post!!!!

Later....Lainee