Okay so I attempted the little star quilt and obviously I have a problem with geometric shapes. I starched my fabric and I took my time in cutting out the 10 X 10 squares. The instructions were very clear and yet some how it must have been the little quilting fairies decided that I was not to have a star quilt but rather a diamond quilt. Twas quite distressing that it did not turn out the way I wanted and yet I still rather like it. So here are my pictures

this is my fabric choice beautiful reds and a nice creamy background with a red backing.

 Here are my ribbon choices, which I am going to decide on which one I wish to use in adding some flair and personality that is me into the blanket.

 My 16 cut 10" X 10" squares.

 My 10" X 10" squares sewn and cut to be the 1/2 and 1/2 print and background fabric.

 My 10" X 10" squares pressed and ready to join. This by the way is where I began to veer sharply from the star design that I was attempting to capture and it became definitely a diamond.

And here is my windmill diamond top completed you know I failed geometry in school, but I must say this looks kind of cool. And I have plenty of stash I believe that I can attempt again tomorrow for the star.

Sewing and Passing it on

I found my next quilt design that I want to try it has the star design and seems to be fairly simple to do. My biggest desire is to learn how to get my points straight and to line the rows up evenly. Of course that all means that if I cut straight and I sew in a straight line then it should be pretty simple to do right. Anyhow, after class tomorrow I am going to attempt this quilt. I think I will actually take pictures before cutting, after cutting and as I sew them together. This design is fairly simple and I think I will be able to bring it alive with some additional design thoughts that I have. I now have enough machines with decorative stitches to be able to really bring out some practice with this. At least that is my hope.

The site that I found the tutorial on for the blanket is here:

http://www.makeithandmade.com/2013/09/big-star-baby-blanket.html

Now this is Palak's blanket  that she made but to give a quick idea, the colors I have chosen are red and cream. I will take pictures and let you all know how it works out.

I have about four weeks left of classes and next term I am taking a sewing class and two child development classes so I should have fun.

Oh ya I forgot

Ok so everyone knows that I have an embroidery machine, a sewing machine, well two sewing machines actually and a serger. I have constantly been trying to figure out how I want to set them all up in a less messy way. Soooooooooooo I talked with my husband and he has begun to build me a sewing and cutting table. Well of course than I had to complicate things and add a new machine. Yep, he suggested that I post a picture of all of them and title it do you think he will notice. Well of course I really don't make big purchases like this without talking to him. And yes all my machines are Singers. I now have a second embroidery machine and before anyone asks yes this one is slightly different than the other one I have it does heirloom and endless embroidery and though I could explain what that is I will instead show you a picture of what it is to make it easier to understand why I wanted a second machine. However, here is a picture of my machines.

There they are all of my machines. As the new sewing table gets built I will eventually post pictures of those. We have been slowing finishing up the flooring and molding in the living room and I am loving how it is coming together. But it is a work in progress something is always getting changed around.

So now for examples of what heirloom embroidery and endless embroidery are. The first photo below is the endless embroidery, the last photo is the heirloom embroidery. I find it fascinating how much thread and time is saved when doing this work by machine. If I were to take this project on to do all by hand it could take up to a full year to complete a project.

 I still enjoy hand embroidery in fact I have a project that can only be done the way I want it if I do it by hand. The dimensions of the project do not allow me to do it on my machine without multi-hooping that means to hoop it more than once to put it on my machine. But the design itself is not one that has been created for a machine it is a design that I have done before only this one is for me and it is much larger.

If I had to choose two objects to take with me on an extended deserted island it would be my hand embroidery and The Tolkien books, I think that I would be quite content creating the images of Tolkein's world in thread and fabric.

Catching Up

Ok so I acknowledge that writing a blog is not something I do well, I may not even do it good. I forget all the time about putting my thoughts and actions down on paper. However, it isn't that life has been boring it is that I have been busy living life. I have finished up quite a few projects, I have started new projects, I have even asked myself why in the world did I do this or that. To show some of the finished projects now though. Here is the bird quilt that I started in July of 2012 I began it by doing some hand embroidery on the tree at my nieces wedding.

 

The quilt hanger was made by my husband it has birds scroll-sawed on the ends.

My next projects that I finished which I sent to my nephew and his fiance  are the flowers that I machined embroidered and then stretched just like a real painting, only done with thread.

I finished up some Halloween decorations that I have been working on as well.

And started a new Halloween wall hanging, So far it looks good but I need more trees I think.

So between these and a few other projects that I don't have photos of yet and the two classes that I am taking I have been very busy. I hope everyone is happy and doing what they want today.