Oh, Happy Day!

Oh, happy day! I finally took the big step and bought a new machine. Here she is, the Janome 11000. I have had the Janome 9000 for at least seven years, and have thoroughly enjoyed it, but always wished I had a second machine. It will be great to be able to do regular sewing while my 11000 is embroidering. The 11000 also has a much larger embroidery field so the sky is the limit with what I can embroider. It will also be nice to still have a machine at home when I take one or the other in for routine check-ups.

Before now, it just never seemed like the time to make the additional investment. Recently, it simply “became the time,” so down I went to this wonderful sewing machine shop in St. Petersburg called Sue’s Bay Area Sewing, and I bought it. The best part is that I have met the most wonderful of women there, and am very happy I discovered Sue’s shops. There are actually four shops in different parts of the county to choose from, and that is going to be splendidly convenient as well.

Since this machine does exponentially more than my old one did, I keep getting distracted trying all the new capabilities out. So, in the 48 hours I have owned the new machine I have only completed these two bags for my niece who is about to start pre-school. I was very pleased with the ease with which I can take designs directly from my computer to the machine, and combine them, laying them out directly on the machines computer screen exactly the way I want them sewn out. It is a wonderful thing. My mind is racing with the projects I want to do. The other night I actually had a dream about dish towels! Now THAT is a good thing…

Summer Fun, Motorcycles, and Sewing Machines

So, I have been away for awhile for two reasons. My previous post discusses the pillowcases I made recently for my son, who lives in New York. My baby boy had recently purchased a motorcycle and subsequently I was “blessed” with the phone call every mother dreads. Yes, there had been an accident. Jordan hit a deer on his motorcycle and though he faired much better than the deer, it was very frightening for a few days. He is doing fine right now, and is on the mend. He was lucky enough to have “only” a bad concussion, a severely broken left arm (that will require surgery), a few broken fingers in addition to the customary road rash that goes hand and hand with a motorcycle accident.

I always try to find the good in every situation that arises in my life, and yes, there was good in this accident. My son has decided that motorcycling is a dangerous thing. He found that even when a driver, such as himself, is doing all the right things, it is dangerous. He is giving up his motorcycle and going back to four wheels only. For this I am very thankful. I am very pleased that he is still here with us to have learned this lesson.

Secondly, my husband and I have been very busy wrapping up the sale of a large building that is on Duval Street in Key West, Florida. The sale closed on Friday so as soon as I have time to look up from all the work that I neglected in the last several weeks, I am heading out to my favorite sewing machine shop to pick up the Janome 11000. I need a shiny new toy right now. I have had the Janome 9000 for years and absolutely love it. I will never give that one up. Besides, I have only ever had one machine and think it is time to have two. Soon my granddaughter is going to be sewing beside me and she will need a machine all her own to work at (ok, since she is only 15 months old, it will be a little while, but it is always good to look to the future…). Now I will be able to send one in for maintenance without going into a deep depression at the loss of my beloved machine. I will still have one at home to keep me company! YEAH!!!

Sweet Serendipity

Serendipity is the effect by which one accidentally discovers something fortunate, especially while looking for something else entirely.

A few weeks back, my lovely son phoned from New York. He is 21 years old and he phoned to let me know that the flannel pillow case I made for him more than 6 years ago has finally passed away. It was literally threadbare the last time I saw it, and quite honestly, I can not believe it made it this long (makes me wonder how many times it actually was washed since last I saw it...). All that being said, he then asks me if I could please make it out of the very same flannel I used the last time? Now, keep in mind that I moved from New York to Florida, and six years have passed! So I explained to my son, as gently as I could, that there was absolutely no way I would ever find that "moose tracks" flannel again. No way.

Cut to this past Saturday morning. I head over to the "End of Month, End of Bolt" sale at my favorite quilt shop, Country Quilts and Bears (30% off if you buy the end of the bolt!). I head straight to the flannel (living in Florida, it wasn't real busy on the flannel side of the store) and I start looking for the bolt with the least amount of fabric on it. I don't care much what the flannel is, and I don't give a single thought to finding the flannel I bought for him all those years ago. It doesn't even enter my mind... until I see this rather thin bolt, and look closer at it because I just can not believe what I am seeing. The EXACT same fabric that I used to make the original pillowcase! I buy it all - without even thinking, and make him two (maybe that will promote more frequent washings).

Serendipity, if you ask me...

The Big Closing

Well, we did it! My husband and I are in the real estate business, and after four years of marketing a particular building in Key West, Florida, we have finalized a deal. It will close on July 25th, and I could not be more excited and pleased. I saw a ticker on another blog this morning, and said to myself, if ever there was a time for me to post a ticker, it is today.

I can assure you that on July 26th, I will be busy. There is a particular Janome that has been calling my name for years... Can't you hear it? "...Susan....Susan...time to upgrade your machine..." I must comply. It is the right thing to do.

Scrap Happy Quilt with Borders

As promised, here is a photo of the quilt with borders and pinned, ready for me to quilt myself. I intend to use a medium dark purple 30s fabric to bind it - that will frame it nicely, I believe. For those who asked, the flower blocks are 9.5 inches unfinished, 9 inches finished. The logs in the border are 2 inch by 4 inch, unfinished. The quilt top is a total of 54 inches square.

Have a great Father’s Day everyone! May all your cookouts be rain free, happy events!

Scrap Happy Quilt

Here is my latest completed quilt top (YEAH – crossed it off the list!!). I made this for my ever so sweet niece, who lives in New York. It is made entirely out of my stash. I had purchased an unbelievably large quantity of four inch charms years ago, for some project or other that I was doing at the time. As luck would have it, I didn’t use all the charms up. In fact, the Depression Quilt that is shown two posts back is made entirely out of those very same left over four inch charms. That gives you some idea as to how many charms I had laying about. That quilt didn’t even use them up!

I drew the flower pattern freehand, making sure that each four inch charm would produce two petals. Waste not, want not, as my Grandmother used to say. Then for each of the logs that make up the inner borders, I simply cut a four inch charm in half. That also helped to use up a good quantity of charms. To make the flower blocks, I used a fusible product (Wonder Under) to adhere the petals and flower centers to the white on white fabric scraps, then top stitched them all down very carefully using my machine’s blanket stitch. I like to use a rather close setting on the stitch regulator when using the blanket stitch for appliqué. This way I am sure there will be no raveling after years of washing.

To finish this one off, I plan to use a medium to dark pink binding to “frame” it up. I need to figure out what to use for the backing first. All in all, I am quite pleased with this very simple, very happy little quilt. And again, nothing but stash!

I intend to complete, before Christmas, three more quilts for her siblings (egads!). I really would like to give them each a quilt for Christmas. I probably should have started in January…

**Post Script - I just discovered that Hubby took our digital camera with him on a business trip! Rather than hold back the post until he gets back with the camera, I decided that I would use the photo of the quilt top without borders and replace it with the finished one when he returns. Big Sigh...

Appreciating All Things Old

My husband and I purchased a home almost exactly one year ago, and have been remodeling it ever since. It is a 1925 Craftsman style house and surprisingly this house was very near it's original condition. What I mean by this is that nothing had been updated since it was built, well, except for the addition of many, many layers of paint. We have tried to maintain the integrity of the original design while updating it to what I feel to be a minimum standard of living. For example, we live in Clearwater, Florida and this house did not have central air conditioning. In my humble opinion, that would be the equivalent of living in Mishicot, Wisconsin and not having heat in your house. It still had the original porcelain sink mounted on the wall in the kitchen and typical to the period, it had no kitchen cabinets to speak of. We had to completely remodel the kitchen, in addition to many other “minor” projects like re-drywalling all the walls and ceilings, rewiring the entire house, and sanding every single Dade County Pine floor….

It’s been a very long journey, but right now I would have to say that I am most pleased, not with freshly restored wood floors or the crown moldings throughout every room, and not even with the brand new kitchen. What I am most delighted with is the restored glass and brass interior door knobs! I smile every time I touch one. I can not even begin to guess how many layers of paint had built up on the key holes and brass fittings to these door knobs. I soaked every last layer of paint off (thank you Martha Stewart for you website tips), and with the help of my husband we have reinstalled them to the original solid wood doors. I even stripped the brass hinges, and honestly I couldn’t be more proud of this hardware. As I was gazing at them again tonight, it occurred to me that just as I admire the craftsmanship of the quilts of yesteryear, I feel much the same about these door knobs and doors. Back in the 1920’s when these doors were made, they were done by hand, just as the old quilts were. They were not created on an assembly line, nor was machinery used that you just “fed” the doors through to get the holes drilled out properly to fit the knobs. They really were "crafted".

Though I love the way I assemble quilts today, I can’t help but think back with admiration to the methods that led up to the way we create things now.

I had to show off the hibiscus that came with the house and grows in the front yard. It is ancient, and over the last year, with lots of love, natural pesticides and plant food, I have coaxed it back in to bloom. I do so love old things!