Stash Statement Book Blog Hop Starts Today
Hi, Today is the first day of the new book blog hop for the book Stash Statement, which is written by Kelly Young who blogs over at My Quilt Fascination. Stash Statement is a wonderful collection of 13 new scrappy quilt patterns. Kelly teaches you how to sew from your stash and use the tiniest of scraps to make new yardage to create some amazing improv quilt designs. She teaches you three different techniques to use what she calls structured improv. This is improv piecing with a pattern. I will admit I have never made an improv and this makes it an easy less scary way to attempt it for the first time.
The book blog hop tour will run from April 16th through July 9th, with a new quilt highlighted each week. Kelly asked a group of her fellow quilting friends to make up a quilt for her book. I will be sharing my quilt on the blog hop on May 21st.
I have been a long time follower of Kelly’s blog. She was part of my inspiration to start my memory quilt project. She made a set of memory quilts from her loved one’s plaid shirts. She asked me to try and use my plaid scraps to make my chosen quilt from her book. I started with 30 shirts and have made 15 quilts so far. I need to get at least 3 more made. I wasn’t sure if I was going to have enough fabrics to make what I needed. Today, I drug out all my fabric shirt pieces and piles and photographed them. It appears that I have more left than I thought. 
I have a pile from cutting the first Swoon quilt from shirt backs. I have piles of single long sleeves, single short sleeves (Dog in Sweaters was cut from single shirt sleeves), single shirt fronts and piles of extra parts of shirt backs. I have an entire bag full of yokes, plackets and cuffs. There is a stack of yokes that have the shirt brand patches sewn on them still. I will be incorporating them into the improv blocks for my book quilt. I have no real idea what to do with the plackets, most have snaps. I cut off all the buttons from the button down shirts. Maybe fold them and use in some fabric weaving project??
During the blog hop, there will be multiple chances to win a copy of the book. You can enter on Kelly’s blog and the Martingale publisher site. Please check out the weekly stops on this hop and be prepared to be inspired on how you can use up your fabric scraps and create a lovely quilt.
Here is the scheduled book tour:
Stash Statement Blog Tour Schedule-
4/16- Grand Bazaar Shelley @ Cora’s Quilts
Connie @ Freemotion by the River
4/23- Louvered Lindsey @ Primrose Cottage Quilts
4/30- Precarious Jess @ Quilty Habit
5/7- Beach Retreat Sarah @ Sarah Goer Quilts
5/14- Fire Pit Alison @ Little Bunny Quilts
5/21- Detour Laura @ Slice of Pi Quilts
Shelley @ The Carpenter’s Daughter Who Quilts
5/28- Murrina Yvonne @ Quilting Jetgirl
6/4- Scattered Jayne @ Twiggy and Opal
Christine @ Triangles and Squares
6/11- Bloom Chicka Boom Chris @ made by ChrissieD
Michelle @ From Bolt to Beauty
6/18- Regatta Susan @ Quilt Fabrication
6/25- Catch a Falling Star Cynthia @ Quilting is More Fun Than Housework
7/2- College Prep Hilary @ by Hilary Jordan
7/9- Take Flight (bonus digital pattern) Kelli @ Seriously, I Think It Needs Stitches
Get yourself a copy of Stash Statement which is available from the following:
- Kelly Young’s Shop – buying it here will get you a signed copy!
- Martingale – Stash Statement by Kelly Young
- Amazon – Stash Statement by Kelly Young
Thanks for stopping by and please come back to check out my quilt on May 21st. I am sure I will have more memory quilts to share before then and working on some non-plaid quilts for fun.
Happy Sewing,
Shelley
Candy Scraps Part Deux: Dad’s Plaid Shirts Memory Quilt
Hi, I have another memory quilt top finished. This one was made from Moda Bake Shop’s Candy Scraps quilt tutorial by Corey Yoder. I have made this quilt before and used it to create a graduation gift quilt in Iowa State University colors for our niece.
This is the start of my paper piecing the blocks. I enlarged the design from 64 blocks to 80 blocks. When I made the graduation quilt, somehow I managed to paperpiece and get the quilt completely quilted and bound in 12 days. It took longer to make this top but I guess I didn’t devote my entire free time to making it. I was working on the City Tiles at same time.
Here are the first16 blocks and they show how the design will shape up. The navy is quite dark and is difficult to photograph.
This was 20 blocks together. Ugh, only a fourth of the way there. Ha.
Here are all 10 rows of 8 blocks layed out on the bed. The last row was too much for the length and wanted to fall out of the photo.
Hip Hip Hooray! Yeah!! We have a completed flimsy. It finishes 64 by 80. Some of the rows fought me with the stretchiness of the plaids. The first quilt didn’t fight me like this one did. It took lots of pins to make sure rows stayed aligned. This quilt is going to go to my husband. I intended to give him the My Guy quilt but we have decided to gift that one to Dad’s best friend from college. I guess the hardest one to finish should stay in the family. I thought we were going to see Dad’s friend last weekend and hoped or intended to have this quilted for him as we don’t see him often. It took me way longer than I thought to finish quilting my Tribal Plus quilt and I pieced a striped backing for the My Guy quilt. During a comedy of errors, it took me 4 times to get that pieced back basted to the My Guy quilt. I have learned how to use that Kwik Klip thing to help you open and close safety pins. Why it has taken me years to own one? My Guy quilt is basted and next in line for quilting and City Tiles will be basting soon after.
Thank you for stopping by my blog. I will be linking this finish up with Crazy Mom Quilts linky party.
Happy Sewing,
Shelley
Manly Mod Charms Quilt: Dad’s Plaid Shirts Memory Quilt
Hi, I have finished another memory quilt project. This one is huge and fits our king size bed. It will be for us. I used Emily Dennis’ Mod Charms Quilt tutorial. I used it before to make the memory quilt that I call Workshirt Mosaic. The pattern is free on her website. She recently gave instructions to make a larger version of it. She calls it a Queen and it finishes at 94 by 112 inches.
These are all my charm squares cut out for my quilt. I used one XL Tall men’s shirt in entirety in my design. The shirt was one that had been hanging in our closet and I would wake up each morning seeing it peek out of the closet at me. My husband’s Mom had given him this shirt of his Dad’s to actually wear but he has so many of his own plaid shirts that don’t get worn. I knew he wouldn’t miss it. He really likes how the quilt turned out and agrees he has too many of his own shirts to wear.
This was the first graph I did of the design I was wanting. I just wasn’t sure how large to make it so it would fit the king bed. It was neat to see that Emily posted photos on Instagram of cutting out one in black and white using the larger pattern the same day I cut this one out. I sent her a message to thank her for sharing the new directions. I wanted to make the most of the one shirt.
Starting layout of my charm squares.
This is how my plaid squares will lay out. I tried my best to keep the plaid all going in the same direction as I cut it off the shirt.
This is the top half of the quilt rows layed out on the bed.
This is the completed Manly Mod Charms quilt top. It is next to impossible to photograph in entirety. It is 94 by 112 inches.
This is how the top fits our king bed from the side. I am wondering about adding another row of squares to the sides so after quilting and washing it doesn’t shrink up too much. I like more wider quilts as my husband can tend to pull them off my side even though I am mostly in the middle of the bed. The three legged tomcat or Clover, our Aussie is on the other side of me. I am most likely going to back this with a sheet so I do not have to piece a backing. Actually, I may still need to piece a back to get one large enough.
This is my 13th memory quilt from the same pile of 30 plaid shirts. I have one more completed and cut out a new one this weekend. I need to design three more and that will become quilts for my husband, his Mom, three sisters, our two kids, two nephews, five nieces, Dad’s brother and Dad’s best friend from college.
Thank you for your continued support of my blog. It is greatly appreciated.
Have a great weekend.
Happy Sewing,
Shelley
Frame Quilt: Dad’s Plaid Shirts Memory Quilt
Hi, I am trying to catch up this weekend on some blog posts that are long overdue. I pieced another memory quilt from Dad’s plaid shirts. I used the Frame quilt pattern by Sandra Clemons. I had the blue and white sashing all ready cut from when I miscut the Double the Plus quilt two years ago. Many of the pieces I needed to cut to size were all ready cut.
This had to be one of the easiest quilts to make into a memory quilt since I just needed to cut 20 squares from my shirts. I thought I had 20 different squares but ended up with doubles from one shirt.
I love the Irish Chain look to this pattern. I think it should be well received since it is going to a niece whose family is Irish. I love the electric blue. It really pops.
Here is the left half of quilt. With careful pressing of my seams, most of them nested perfectly the first time around.
Here is the right hand side of the quilt.
I really love how this memory quilt turned out. It will be hard to give up. I have another memory quilt to blog about yet. I have a new one cut out this week and have three more I need to design yet. The leftover scraps bag is to go towards making a quilt for an upcoming quilt book blog tour in April/May.
Thank you for stopping by and checking out my latest quilt projects. I will be linking this finish up with Crazy Mom Quilt’s Finish It Friday linky party.
Have a great weekend.
Happy Sewing,
Shelley
City Tiles QAL: Flimsy Complete
Hi, I sewed along with the City Tiles Quilt along from January 16th to February 26th and completed making my quilt top. The City Tiles pattern is by Emily Dennis and the pattern originally came out in April 2016. I did actually start making my quilt at that time but only made 3 of my 25 blocks needed. Life got complicated with my husband’s back surgery recovery and my Father inlaw having just passed away. I decided that this QAL was a good chance to get back to making this quilt and actually get a top made.
I chose to use this fat quarter bundle of V &Co. Color Theory to make my quilt.
These are the prints that I pulled to use for my squares.
Here are all my fabric squares and rectangles cut. I made the 18 inch blocks. The pattern also has a 12 inch block version. The standard throw used 16 blocks but I chose to make mine with 25 blocks. This uses my Color Theory prints in the best way. I eliminated the gray prints since I was using gray as sashing. There are 1675 pieces cut here with some piles having 300-500 pieces. I am very thankful after cutting almost 2 years ago that I didn’t lose a single piece. I kept them all tidy and named in ziplock sandwich bags in a plastic bin.
Here are my completed blue blocks.
Here are my completed pink blocks.
Here are my completed yellow blocks.
Here are my completed green blocks.
Here are my completed turquoise blocks. I think the blue and the turquoise have to be my favorites.
Here are my blocks pieced into the five rows. The bottom row didn’t want to stay on the bed.
Here is my completed flimsy and it finished at 90 inches square. It will need to have another good pressing before basting the quilt. I pressed most seams open so the blocks would lay flat and they do but it was a bugger when assembling some rows as I started to have some seams come undone here and there and it took extra time to go fix them. I hope I got them all. I will try a smaller stitch length.
On Monday March 19th, Emily Dennis starts a new QAL for her Ombre Gems quilt pattern. Guess what, I have that one started last year and only got a couple blocks made. I lost steam as I had a hard time laying out my chosen fabrics in a random pattern. I hope to get these made into a quilt this time around as well. These are being made from my long time stashed Sweetwater Authentic prints, the original ones from like 2010.
Thank you for stopping by my blog and checking out my latest projects. I will be linking this up with Finish It Friday over at Crazy Mom Quilts.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
Happy Sewing,
Shelley
Modern Plus Signs Quilt Blog Hop: Tribal Plus Quilt
Hi, Welcome to the Modern Plus Signs Quilt Book Blog Hop. Cheryl @ Meadow Mist Designs and Paige @ Quilted Blooms invited 40+ quilting friends to participate in the blog hop. I am honored to have been asked to make a quilt from their book to share on the blog hop.
The book has 16 original takes on the modern plus quilt block. I have three favorite designs in the book and chose the Tribal Plus quilt as my design to make for the blog hop. I have made many quilts from other patterns that Cheryl designed as Meadow Mist Designs. All the patterns in this book have great instructions. I had no problem getting the needed pieces cut from the amount of material that this pattern called for. I rounded all amounts up to the next yard, so if it called for half a yard, then I purchased a full yard. I chose to enlarge the Tribal Plus quilt by two blocks per row to get a wider quilt. The instructions amount gave me the pieces needed to make them. I only needed to cut my borders larger.
I chose to make my quilt from all Cotton and Steel prints and solids. This was my first time sewing with them and I really enjoyed working with them and hope to purchase more in the future.
The blue print actually has tiny black plus signs on it. It is a new favorite and I would love to have a whole bolt of it. The quilt instructions would have used the pink print as the binding but I had more of the gold solid. I purchased my fabric from Fabric dot com and for some reason,they required different minimums of yardage purchased and the minimum for the gold was 2 yards when I really only needed one yard. I like the fabric enough, it was no problem finding another use for a remnant.
This photo may be a more truer show of the colors. I quilted 1/4 inch away from everything. It was a lot of starts and stops every 2 inches. I really like the design and would think about adding a few more rounds for extra texture.
I chose to use something out of the norm for me as a backing on this quilt. I use alot of solids or sheeting lately as backing. This is one of JoAnn Fabrics premium quilting fabrics. I thought it had a great tribal feel and it had all the same colorings as my Cotton and Steel prints. It was because of this backing that I also chose to use the mustard gold instead of the pink print as the binding. To be honest, this was my first time in ages that I hand sewed the binding on my quilt. I have about 12 inches that needs to be finished.
I enjoyed making the Tribal Plus quilt. This will be a quilt that I am keeping for myself. It ended up being 68 by 63″ since I added two blocks to each row for extra width. I have plans to make a couple more tops from the book in the near future and might use them as the last couple memory quilts I need to make for my year long memory quilt project.
The blog hop for the Modern Plus Sign Quilts is going on for two weeks and the full schedule can be found below.
Monday, March 12th
Cheryl @ Meadow Mist Designs
Paige @ Quilted Blooms
Tuesday, March 13th
Soma @ Whims and Fancies
Ann @ Brown Paws Quilting
Kitty @ Night Quilter
Sophie @ Luna Lovequilts
Afton @ Quilting Mod
Shelley @ The Carpenters Daughter Who Quilts
Wednesday, March 14th
Jayne @ Twiggy and Opal
Jen @ A Dream and a Stitch
Abigail @ Cut & Alter
Yvonne @ Quilting Jetgirl
Sandra @ mmm! quilts
Karen @ Run Sew Fun
Thursday, March 15th
Linda @ Flourishing Palms
Bernie @ Needle and Foot
Liz @ Savor Every Stitch
Stacey @ Stacey In Stitches
Michelle @ From Bolt to Beauty
Patty @ Elm Street Quilts
Melanie @ A Bit of Scrap Stuff Blog
Friday, March 16th
Myra @ Busy Hands Quilts
Izzy @ Dizzy Quilts
Ruth @ Charly and Ben’s Crafty Corner
Christa @ Christa Quilts
Monday, March 19th
Jessica @ Quilty Habit
Cindy @ Hyacinth Quilt Designs
Jennifer @ The Inquiring Quilter
Julie @ The Crafty Quilter
Tuesday, March 20th
Tish @ Tish N Wonderland
Judy @ Sew Some Sunshine
Emily @ The Darling Dogwood
Wanda @ Wanda’s Life Sampler
Karen @ Tu-Na Quilts, Travels, and Eats
Katherine @ Sew Me Something Good
Wednesday, March 21st
Anja @ Anja Quilts
Kate @ Smiles from Kate
Sue @ Sevenoaks Street Quilts
Carole @ From My Carolina Home
Alison @ Little Bunny Quilts
Thursday, March 22nd
Debbie @ Esch House Quilts
Laura @ Slice of Pi Quilts
Beth @ Cooking Up Quilts
Janice @ Color Creating and Quilting
Joanne @ Quilts by Joanne
Friday, March 23rd
Cheryl @ Meadow Mist Designs
Paige @ Quilted Blooms
There are weekly drawings for some awesome prizes and if you visit Cheryl and Paige webpages, you will find the Rafflecopter to enter the drawings.
If you would like to purchase your own copy of the Modern Plus Signs Quilts book, they can be found here.
What to Make Next?? More New Quilt Patterns to play with.
Hi, I have tried to not let having my main sewing machine die keep me from quilting. I am always on the look out for my next project. I have acquired another stack of new quilt patterns since July. I find alot of inspiration by following my favorite quilt designers on Instagram. By following on Instagram and subscribing to their newsletters, you get access to pattern sales and deals on the new releases.
Yeah, I might have a problem. I am my Father’s daughter. I love a good bargain! I will give all the names and links to where these lovelies can be purchased below. (If you missed my first list of new patterns earlier this year, that blog post is found here)
This is Mabel and she is one Lella Boutique’s latest patterns. This star quilt is made with an awesome technique and requires no Y seams and no paper piecing. I love it!
This is Square Dance by Happy Quilting’s Melissa Corry. This is a fun modern design that you could use up your scraps with.
This is Kira by GE Designs. It is another fun pattern that uses a really neat technique to make a difficult design made easy.
This is North Star by Emily Dennis. I love Emily’s quilts and this star is alot of fun and should look great in about any collection.
This is Geo Gems by Emily Dennis. I really like the secondary design that these quilt blocks make.
This is Diamond Ripples by Then Came June. I love this quilt design! I watched this designer and this quilt design on Instagram. This uses a technique to make multiple half square triangles at once so it will help construction go alot faster.
This is Fly Away by Suzy Quilts. I love this quilt and all the different versions that have shown up on Instagram. This quilt is in the works on my sewing table. I got all the fabric cut and HSTs made and trimmed before my sewing machine died. Since the HSTs are just as I need them, I have been afraid off my one machine eating them or not being able to match the same scant 1/4 inch seams. I have a 1/4 foot ordered for my new to me machine.
This is Triangle Trove by Bonjour Quilts. I really like this one. The photo spoke to me as I knew I had some fabrics in my stash that would work. I have since used one of the fabrics to start the above Fly Away quilt project.
This is Charm Pack Churn Dash by Sterling Quilt Co. A very fun pattern for using charm packs or your scraps.
This is Winter Star by Shannon Fraser Designs. It is a pattern that has been out for a while but I kept seeing it around Instagram and fell in love with the simplicity of the design. There are many ways you could personalize this design.
This is Prairie Waltz Mini and Prairie Waltz by Hello Melly Designs. The full size quilt blocks finish at 16.5 inches square and the mini quilt blocks finish at 8.5 inches square.
This is Dawn by MissyMackCreations. Lots of potential lovely quilts can be made from this pattern.
This is Cross Stitch by Coriander Quilts. I really like this take on an Irish Chain crossed with cross stitch.
This is O Happy Day by Bonnie of Cotton Way. I just love the total scrappiness of it.
This is Beach Day by Bonnie of Cotton Way. I love the scrappiness of this design as well. I think it would be great in patriotic prints,batiks or even plaids.
This is Crossroads by Emily Dennis. I love this quilt made up in solids. I haven’t made very many quilts in just solids.
This is Hexie Rows by Emily Dennis. I think I now own all Emily’s hexagon quilt patterns. I haven’t made a hexagon quilt yet. I think this is one of the easier ones.
This is Emma’s Sitting Room by Amanda of Crazy Mom Quilts. This is a great HST quilt design that you make multiples at once. You can go scrappy or choose 4 colors to make your HSTs.
This is Nine Patch Plus by Center Street Quilts. Plus quilt blocks are some of my favorite designs. I plan to use this to make one of the last memory quilts I need to make.
This is the Amalfi Tote by Pfitzsewswell. This is Not a Quilt. LOL I admired all the lovely totes that showed up on Instagram while this pattern was being tested. My daughter would like it made out of leather and possible Pendleton Wool. We are looking to purchase some fun Pendleton blanket remnants off Ebay in the near future. This tote pattern isn’t too complicated and has great directions. Perfect size to hold her laptop.
The next quilt design is Frame by Sandra Clemons. For some odd reason, it will not let me load the photo down here again. I am currently working on putting this quilt together as a memory quilt. I had the start of a quilt from last year, where I miscut a bunch of pieces and started over from scratch. There is enough pieces cut for over half the squares needed and strips to cut the rest. I will just need to add my plaids.
This is Starcrossed by Bonjour Quilts. This is her newest pattern. I am a newsletter subscriber and the newsletter came out last night and I of course bought the pattern this morning. I love Kirsty’s designs.
I hope you will check out these designers and some of their patterns. With Black Friday and Cyber Monday coming up this next week, many of the designers will be having sales on their patterns and fabric.
I hope you have a great week and a Happy Thanksgiving, if you are reading from the US.
Many thanks to all the new readers stopping by my blog this week. I greatly appreciate the support. I hope you will see something you like and stick around for awhile.
Happy Sewing,
Shelley
Memory Quilts from Dad’s Shirts: A Year in Review
Hi, I am very close to having a year’s time involved in my memory quilt project. I started it after Thanksgiving last year. Our Dad passed away in March of 2016. He was a Farmer and a Crop Consultant. He had a vast wardrobe of plaid shirts and chambray and denim work shirts. This project originally started with me just wanting to make a quilt for my husband and maybe my kids. I never imagined how far a collection of 30 plaid shirts and 5 to 7 denim shirts would take me. I have put my entire heart and soul into creating as many quilts as I could. I am up to 11 different tops and have fabric left, and need to create 5 to 7 more.
I will give a quick review of the completed tops and give links to the blog posts, if you missed them from when published.
This quilt top is made from the popular My Guy quilt pattern. It could be originally found in American Patchwork & Quilting magazine in their June 2009 issue. This quilt of course will be going to my husband. You can read more about my process here and here.
This quilt top is made from Plus Squared by Emily Dennis. This uses pieces from all 30 different plaids and uses a denim work shirt as the center squares. This quilt will be going to my Mother inlaw. You can read more about my process here. Our three legged rescue cat, Clarence had to show off his modeling skills in this photo.
This quilt is one that I have decided to call Workshirt Mosaic. I think it was made from 5 different chambray and denim workshirts and then I picked my favorite blue plaid shirt as an accent block. I remember purchasing it for Dad for his birthday one year. This quilt was designed from using a tutorial by Emily Dennis for a quilt made from two colors of charm pack squares. I drew the design out on a graph paper and carried the design out a little on each side to make it larger. You can read more about my process here and there is links to the tutorial found there as well. This will be going to one of my nieces.
This quilt is made from the Uptown quilt pattern by Cluck Cluck Sew. I divided up the blocks switching out half the position of the plaids and denims. This quilt will be going to one of my nieces. You can read more about my process here.
This quilt is made from the original sized Swoon pattern by ThimbleBlossoms. The blocks finished at 24 inches. I chose to add the tiny denim sashing stones as added interest.This will be going to our sister, Barb. There was a Swoon quiltalong online starting in January. It was held for the first three months. I was able to piece 4 Swoon quilts in 2.5 months. I am quite proud of that accomplishment. You can read more about my process here, here, and here.
This is a Scrappy Patchwork Swoon and it has pieces from all 30 of Dad’s shirts. This is a pattern by Thimbleblossoms. This quilt will be going to our sister, Joyce. You can read more about my process here,
This is another Scrappy Patchwork Swoon and is created in the same colors as the first but positions switched. This will be going to our sister, Judy. When creating any of the Swoon quilts, you will be creating alot of half square triangles. It makes good sense to draw another line to create an additional smaller HST that you can use in another project. You can read more about my process here.
This design was created from laying out leftover HSTs. This will have a wide navy border added to the outside in near future to finish off this top. This was created from the leftovers of the red background Swoon. This will likely go to one of our nephews. I don’t think I blogged about these yet. I know I shared photos on Instagram. I saw a similar top made from a fellow Swoon quiltalong participant on IG.
This quilt top was created from the leftover HSTs from the blue background scrappy patchwork Swoon. This will have a wide red border added to the outside. Adding borders will make these top approximately 72 inches square. This will likely go to one of our nephews.
This fun quilt is Dogs in Sweaters by Elizabeth Hartman. I chose 15 of my favorite plaids for their sweaters. I added either red, navy or black as the coordinating sweater trims. This quilt will be going to my son. You can read more about my process here.
This quilt was made from the Moda Bake Shop tutorial for the Woodruff quilt by Cake Stand Quilts. This top was the first of the 11 to be quilted and bound. It was gifted to our niece, who was married the end of October and this quilt was on display at the reception. This was a small way for Grandpa to be able to attend her wedding in spirit. You can read about my process here.
My wonderful sister inlaw( who was the Mother of the bride ) machine embroidered a patch for each of the memory quilts for me. We had seen the idea for these on Pinterest. They make the quilts extra special.
I would love to be able to have as many of these quilts quilted by Christmas as possible. I have had a couple rough months this summer with feeling poorly and then my main sewing machine went up in smoke. You can read about that tale here. I have collected many new quilt patterns this summer. I am always trying to find new ways to use Dad’s shirts but don’t worry I do also plan to make some non-plaid quilts in the near future. New patterns is a way to make up for the many that I lost last year when our computer was struck by lightning.
I will be linking up and sharing this blog post with various linky parties that you can find in my Linky Party link page at top of the blog.
Thank you for stopping by and reading my blog. Welcome to all the new readers this week!
Happy Sewing,
Shelley
Sewing Machine Woes
Hi, I have been away from sewing and blogging the last few months as I have been having trouble with my sewing machine and have had things to deal with family and health wise.
My main sewing machine had been acting up earlier this year when I had trouble with the walking foot continuing to walk or quilt after I had stopped and had my foot completely off the foot pedal. I tried searching solutions online and even wrote the store that my Mom had purchased this machine and her embroidery machine from. They were not very helpful other than suggest that I could bring it in to be checked out. It could be a problem with the foot pedal or worst case scenario, it might be the mother board and parts are no longer available. I had all ready seen that by searching online even in Viking sewing shops in Canada. The machine seemed to work fine when not using the walking foot, so I thought I would continue to use it while I could. It didn’t act up everytime I used the walking foot either, maybe just after I had been using it for an extended period.
This is my Viking 990 sewing machine. I inherited it from my Mom when she passed away in June 2013. I have figured that I have pieced at least 40 quilt tops with it in that time.
Well, fast forward to first week of October and I am attempting to finish binding the Woodruff quilt. I have three sides bound and am working on sewing the fourth side down. I am maybe shy of 24 inches to completion. All of sudden I hear this sizzling sound like bacon cooking. (I can not really smell so didn’t smell anything off). There was a loud pop and then lots of gray smoke comes rolling out of the above pictured machine. I have never moved so fast, shutting off things and yanking cords. I raced the machine outdoors to the concrete slab of our porch. I am no means an expert, but I am assuming this machine is TOAST. I assume the circuit board or something has blown. This machine had been emitting a sound for quite awhile. It sewed perfectly fine for the last 4 years other than the occasional hiccup with the walking foot. My Pfaff 1473 CD made a similar sound and the Pfaff tech guy said to use it until I couldn’t as it was most likely mother board going out. The Pfaff never got to the point of going up in smoke. One day the lights just came on but nothing else.
I had to get out my inherited Viking Designer 1 to finish binding the Woodruff quilt.
I had only sewn once on this machine in the last 4 years. I don’t know why. I guess I let it intimidate me a bit. The big reason is that it was my Mom’s pride and joy. She actually had two of the same Designer 1 machines and my sister inherited the other. This machine seemed to work fine sewing on the binding. I haven’t sewn much since the first week of October as I am fighting it on getting it to do what I need it do.
All this little push buttons literally push my sister and I’s buttons. LOL We are so used to having some sort of lever to raise the presser foot up and down. There isn’t one on this machine. A button to raise or lower the foot. The Fix It Button is a problem for us at times. On her machine, she says that Fix button starts lighting up and beeping at her as soon as she flips the On switch. We do not know why, but hope to sit down in the upcoming weeks together with both machines to see if we can figure it out. My main problem is figuring out how to get a scant 1/4 inch. I was first in a menu for stretch stitches by accident and it kept beeping at me about a stretch 75 needle, I had a 90/14 in as I always quilt with that size. I finally found the quilt stitch menu but I am having a skipped stitch problem besides it wanting to each my fabric. Mom never taught us how to use this machine or really even demonstrate it other than watching her embroider something once or twice. Our Dad was going to offer to send us and the machines down to the store for training after Mom passed but that never panned out and now the store seems to have forgotten she was a popular customer.
I think the machine doesn’t like my large spools of thread. They have a large diameter cardboard tube opening and the spool cap leaves alot of play on the spool pin. I think the Gutermann spools fit better so may have to go back to them. I tried placing the spool outwards and it helped just a bit so thread didn’t catch.
I have pulled this Kenmore 24 stitch sewing machine out of storage. I purchased it maybe 5 or 6 years ago off Ebay. It was a purchase with a rocky start as when the box arrived, the bottom of the shipping carton had gotten wet somewhere along the line. There was bubblewrap wound around the machine and there was actually moisture and condensation on the plasticwrap and machine. It really freaked me out and I wiped machine dry with a towel and let it warm up and couple hours before I would think about attempting to plug it in. The other big problem was that there was no thread holder pins on this machine. They had been broken off and were not found in the box. It sounded like maybe one was in machine. I wrote the seller a very upset email. She apologized and said she was out of town and her boyfriend shipped the machine for her. She would make it right and ordered me a set of spool pins from Sears. The machine does sew fairly nicely. I managed to have my Pfaff working one more time after this machine was purchased and then I inherited the Viking 990 and used it exclusively.
I purchased this Neechi 536 FB sewing machine last week at a local consignment shop for $25.00. It is all metal which I love. It was so clean and well taken care of. This purchase had the option of returning it for store credit within a week, if machine didn’t do what it was supposed to do. I pulled up a You-Tube video where a gal demostrated how to use the machine as her sister had just purchased the machine. I looked all over the machine and I couldn’t figure out where there was an on off switch. I had to Google that separately and come to find out, there is No On/Off button. If it is plugged in, then it is On. You open the front cover and push button to turn on the light bulb. I imagine this is because it was likely a former built in machine. I guess I will be using a power strip and just making sure to switch off the power strip. I only had to set the one tension knob to the number mentioned in the YouTube video and this machine sewed perfect tension right off with whatever needle was in it and the old Coats and Clark thread. The big win with this machine is that it uses Class 15 standard bobbins that my first older Kenmore machine used and I have multiple dozen bobbins. This machine takes low shank feet so would use the old Kenmore feet and has a snap on foot attachment on it currently so it can use the feet off the Viking 990 that just died. Winner, Winner Chicken Dinner. Now to get it so I can match up the scant 1/4 inch that I have on a couple current projects in the works.
I hope to be back to sewing and quilting this week on either or both the Kenmore 24 stitch and the Neechi 536FB.
Hope you all had a great weekend.
Happy Sewing,
Shelley
Woodruff Memory Quilt Finish: Dad’s Shirts
Hi, I am happy to share my tenth memory quilt made from our Dad’s plaid shirts. This is the first one that has been quilted and bound. It was on display at our niece’s wedding in October at the reception. I wanted it finished in time so it would be like part of Grandpa was able to be there in spirit at their wedding.
I used the Moda Bake Shop quilt tutorial called Woodruff designed by Nicola Dodd of Cake Stand Quilts. Nicola quilted her version in a neat all over petal quilt design and she shared how she did it on her blog. I had hoped to try it on my quilt but time got away from me and I hope to try it on another quilt in the future. She even shared a photo of my quilt when it was a work in progress on her blog.
Here are my fabrics that I used in my quilt. I chose to use a denim solid cotton as my background squares.
The blocks were alot of fun to make. It is a version of the disappearing four patch. I made 42 blocks of the pieced blocks instead of the 32 pieced blocks that Nicola made in her quilt.
Here are all my completed pieced blocks. I used 20 different plaids in them. Even those this is my tenth quilt using these fabrics, sometimes I struggle when figuring out where to place them all in a quilt design, so the scrappy makes sense.
This is a sample of what the quilt would look like with it’s background squares. Below is Nicola’s version.
Nicola used a cute tiny gingham check as her alternate squares. I had enough going on with 20 different plaids and beside denim goes universally well with the plaids. I have very little left of Dad’s denim work shirts. Their remnants will make it into some quilt project in the future. I had two diferent shades of denim blue variegated thread that I wanted to use to quilt this top. I used it for both top and bobbin threads.
Here is the finished quilt flimsy laid out on top of our king size bed. My enlarged version finished at around 76 inches square.
My sister inlaw embroidered me a whole bunch of patches for all of my memory quilts. She is the Mother of the bride.
Here is my patch on the back of the finished quilt.
Here is a close up.
I really like how the finished quilt turned out. I wish I could afford an entire bolt of this denim background fabric.
I will be linking up this quilt finish with Crazy Mom Quilts Finish It Up Friday. Thank you for stopping by my blog.
Happy Sewing,
Shelley
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