I'm back!

It has been way to long since I have posted anything here so let me catch up! First here is a picture of my new sewing chair. WOW what a difference this make! It is comfortable, has back support and wheels to roll around!  I also bought a stand up OTTLITE. Things are bright now. I can see colors of fabric even after dark. 

Above is my OTTLITE iluminating Barbara's quilt!  I got the outside border on and now I need to put the back together.  I promise Barbara I will finish it soon! 

Saturday late afternoon, I went to Lowes to purchase the 1" metal conduit needed for my new toy, the Flynn Quilt system I had purchased a month ago. (They say the PVC conduit is too flexible.) It came with rods 48" long but most quilts I do are wider than that. They only had 10ft lengths so I got "Wilbur" (my new friend at Lowes) to cut them to 7ft lengths. I figure go ahead and get the 7ft just in case I have a large quilt sometime. Big Mistake! Way to long and to heavy to work with. Word of advise to anyone, you need a large table and alot of open space to use the Flynn system with a large quilt!

It seemed like it took forever to get everyone thing set up and ready to put the quilt on the frame.

At least that is done for next time. The only thing I don't care about with the way they say to attached your quilt, it the time it takes. They recommend to baste your back and top to the leader strips on the rods. I know this gives you more strength in the tension but I think I'll try pinning next time. I just need to use flat head pins to take up less space.

Once I finally got everything together and loaded ready to quilt, it worked really well. Except..
for the fact I was working on a table about 50" long and using rods 84" long! The PVC pipes used to balance the rods on kept falling off the table because I would forget to move them down! I did finally manage to get three rows quilted across. I did curly-q's in top border, I did an up and down boxey thing in the inside border and did stippling in the one row on the main quilt design.

It looks ok for a first timer! (I think) There are several swirls and that are not to swirly, more like jerky! I probably should have really practiced a good bit before starting on Lauren's quilt. But I wanted to get started! I have a hard time deciding what design would look good on each quilt. Diagonals and in the ditch work well for me, as I don't have to think to hard. but they do get boring! Hopefully tonight I can get more done and almost finished. I will definitely cut the rods down to about 70"

Today is Wednesday and I finished Lauren's quilt !YEA well almost finished, I just have to put the binding on. No biggie.  The more I used the Flynn system the better I got at it. Not perfect but better.  It sure did save a lot of time verus doing it on my machine by hand feeding it through. 

I bought 4 new pieces of fabric to piece around the animal pictures on Alan's quilt.  I bought some clearance fabric from Connecting Threads website.  So now I have about 30 different 1/2 yard pieces of matching fabrics.  Not sure what I am going to do but can't wait to get started on a new project. BUT I must finish many of my unfinished quilts first. 

Made some headway!

Lately seems like I have to many things to do besides quilting. By the time I get things done, it is too late or I'm to tired to pull out a project to work on.  BUT... I did make a little headway tonight.  I can't tell you how many times I would get out t-shirts for my brother-in-law's t-shirt quilt, lay them out, arrange and rearrange only to put them away. WELL, I actually got some sewed together tonight!  I think I have a plan finally!  NOTE TO SELF... make sure to cut all t-shirts the same size!  Don't get creative!  ugh! 

Last night I did a bit of sewing. I got the border on Barbara's Kaffe Fassett quilt but I still need one more print for the outside border and the backing.  Then I was able to put borders around the critter photos for the quilt I am making for Alan.  I am trying to keep that quilt out of his sight until it is finished. Every quilt I work on he always asks, who it that one for!  I can't wait to at least get the top done so I can say This one is for you!

I did add two pieces to my "Kitchen Sewing Studio". I bought a floor lamp, Ott Lite HD Wide Angle.  OH does it ever shed light on things!  I also bought a small desk type chair with wheels and a form fitting mesh back!  WOW, I didn't know what I was missing until now.  I actually don't slouch sitting in this chair.  Which means I can sew longer without getting as tired.

I guess it is time to go for now and get some sleep.  This computer is begining to hypnotize (sp) me!

Trying to get organized

Well I didn't get much sewing done this weekend. I did get Lora's wallet finished for her birthday. (she works with me) Here are a couple of pictures.

I love this pattern.  It is pretty easy to make and has lots of room.  I went to Hancocks the other day to specifically get a black zipper for this wallet.  I guess you can tell I forget the zipper!  The red zipper justs gives it a little color pop!  The pattern is from Quiltricks.  It also has a second pattern for a smaller size wallet

I did spend a good portion of today trying to get a little more organized in my little sewing area. I bought some plastic drawers to sort things.  Right now it is working. We'll see how organized things stay.

Here are a couple of pics of my work area.  I recently found a tip from another quilter. To use zipper bags to put fabrics scrap from each project.  That way you have colors that match all ready sorted when you need them.  It helps keeps things a bit neater and easy to store.  I have a color of these plastic drawers with those little baggies in them!  Thanks to whoever shared that tidbit.

The brown thing on the wall just to the left, is my piecing wall. It is foam board covered in flannel.

 You can put pattern pieces on this and they stick. You can rearrange pieces over & over again to get things just like you like!  Here is a quilt that I could not have done without this tool! I moved every piece in this pattern at least 5 or 6 times!  ugh!  I wanted to just give up.

My sewing area is quite little but it works for me. To the left of "Izzy" is my cutting table aka my dining room table! If you stand if from of the machine and then turn around you are in my kitchen.  I keep meaning to quilt a sign to hang up in my house...."I quilt...Therefore I don't cook or clean house!" So who needs a kitchen???

New toy arrives Thursday

My new Flynn Multi Quilt frame arrives tomorrow.  I hope it works like it says it should.  This will make quilting much easier. http://www.flynnquilt.com/    I have at least three quilts I can start immediately.

I kind felt yucky this afternoon so after dinner I thought I'd nap. Well of course I couldn't sleep. Didn't have the energy to sew so I begin to quilt electronically.  Searching blogs and seeing what everyone else is up to!  This gave me some mental energy!  It is amazing all the different styles of many quilters.

I have to make a trip to Hancocks tomorrow to get a zipper to finish a birthday wallet. So while I am there, I might as well get a fabric fix. Nothing special in mind, just have to wait and see what jumps out at me.  I have faith, something will jump!

The sun is suppose to be shining and be warm this weekend, so it sounds like a great time to skip housework and SEW!

My latest news! non-sewing related

We got a letter in the mail a couple of days ago....
ALAN HAS BEEN APPROVED FOR FULL DISABILITY!  YEA!
No more worrying as much about paying bills!   We heard alot of horror stories of how long it could take.
But for us only took 2 months!