A Long Overdue Recap of WWW!

Wow the last WWW (What I’m Working On Wednesday) was in January and here March is coming to an end. Where does the time go?

Ok so I mentioned back then the Quilters’ Guild of Arlington’s postcard for the annual festival of quilts show. Done:

Then I mentioned crocheting drink cozies for the “Meet Samantha” party. Here are the photos of the drink cozies, the mini crochet dresses and some bunting made for the party:

The cloud and hearts mobile for her room still isn’t finished (just need to go over the hoop with another coat of white paint). Now how hard can that be. Not hard at all, just have to remember to do it!

About the fingerless gloves I had listed as a FIF project, they really did get done and turned over to my son to use.

At that same FIF I had mentioned some smaller microwavable fabric bowls. They were finished and the whole set was given as a gift.

So what else have I been up to? Well I made myself a needlework pillow to support my hands and arms when I’m hand stitching. Where’s the photo you ask? Well I left it where my stitching group meets so I will have to wait until I get it back this Thursday. I’m really pleased with it!

I finally got some headpieces finished for my granddaughter and a friend. Similar ones are being listed in my Etsy shop. 

Oh and I’ve also finally finished the little embroidered pendants and listed them in my shop also.

Recently I took a class on back basted needle turned applique. So I’m practicing that technique.

And I almost forgot the Wounded Warrior Quilt. I’ve finished piecing it together and will give it to a longarm quilter this week. I’m attending a retreat this week and will try and get a good picture of it while I’m there.

And I’m slowly (very slowly) getting my workroom back to some sort of order. And I think that’s enough for now, although I feel like I’m forgetting something!

Happy Stitching (on Wednesday and every other day)!

Rose

Just Bobbing Along

Homemade Bobbin Holder 

A long, long time ago I asked my husband to make me something to keep my sewing bobbins on. I had a lot of them and they were always getting tangled up because I kept them in a drawer or on my sewing table. I had purchased one of those blue bobbin keepers but I had way more bobbins than it could hold. So he put his creative head to the task and made me a holder for many, many bobbins. More bobbins than I had and then he bought me more bobbins. I used to do a lot of sewing with different colored threads so they came in handy.

Then a long time ago I found out I was using the wrong bobbin in my sewing machine so I bought some more bobbins of the correct size. But I had all of these already filled bobbins and couldn’t bring myself to waste them or the thread that was wound on them. So I carried them from home to home.

Bobbin Holder Hanging on Pegboard

When we put up pegboards in my sewing room in Texas I hung my thread racks and then figured out a way to hang the bobbin rack my husband had made for me.

Recently I was packing up a “to go” project (in this case it was making fabric yoyos or Suffolk puffs). I was adding thread spools to my small carry case and thought there should be a better way because the spools took up a lot of room. Then I spied my incorrect bobbins with thread on them. Perfect I thought I’ll start using that thread up. 

Bobbins with little thread, poorly wound thread, and wrong size

Then I realized I had some correct bobbins that only had a little bit of thread left on them. Now you know if you use those in your machine sure enough you will run out of thread before you finish sewing the seam. Ok I can use those up too! And then there is the few where the bobbin didn’t wind properly. Add those to the mix.

But I didn’t want to just put the bobbins in with the yoyos because the thread would just get all tangled up. What to do? Remember that blue bobbin keep I mentioned earlier? Perfect.

Blue bobbin keeper with threads

Now I’m making use of the bobbins and thread and the blue bobbin keeper.

What will happen though to all the empty spindles on the tool my husband made me? Well as you can see by my photos small spools of thread fit on them nicely.

Happy Bobbing Along!

Rose 

Why I Keep Blue Painters Tape in my Sewing Room

 Aha you thought I forgot about my blog!

Not so. I check it every now and then and think “you know I really need to start posting more often”. Well here I go again and since it is Monday and that means hints and tips here goes.

I started making a project that required layering the top fabric, batting, and a piece of muslin. Does that sound like a quilt? Well not exactly. The pieces were only 18 inches square but they did need to be quilted. But the quilting needed was only 4 inches apart. I really didn’t want to mark my lines with anything other than my trusty Jergens soap sliver. Won’t go into all the reasons why here but I didn’t want to wash the square before I completed the project and washing it after was possible but not likely to happen. Only problem was I couldn’t find my soap sliver. Ok now what. I have a quilting guide that might help if only I could find it. Does that sound like someone needs to do some serious cleaning and organizing? Not going to happen right now I want this project done. Well I did find the guide but it wasn’t going to give me the 4 inch spacing the pattern called for. Now what to do? And then I spied my handy roll of blue painter’s tape.

Using blue painters tape to mark stitching lines

That will work just lay it down straight and stitch along the edge. Worked like a charm. Just watch which side of the tape to stitch along to get the desired spacing. I was done in no time.

And I won’t waste the tape. It won’t be thrown out until I’ve filled it up with stray threads. Yup it does double duty as a thread catcher. You can also write notes on it. I have a piece stuck to my machine right now to remind me what settings I need on my machine to do my ¼ seams.

Okay I’m planning to come back on Wednesday with some photos etc. of what I’ve been working on lately including this project (which is now finished).

Happy Crafting!

Rose