Sew Sad

Two posts in one day.

It is a "no sew" day. 

This is where my beautiful sweet sewing machine should be ... I am sew sad :(

My Janome has gone to the Sewing Shop Spa to be cleansed, oiled, exfoliated, treated, pampered and renwed.  ;)

They said "three to four days" when we called.

When my hubby dropped her off this morning, they said "two weeks" !!!

I could go into the closet and take my old Bro out of the box and set him up and get reacquainted.  

Hmmmmmmmmmm ... maybe.   Poor old guy does not have a nice stop/start button ... and a knee lifter for the presser foot ...  hmmmmmmm ... I am sew spoiled ...

 what! ... NO automatic needle threader !!!!!

That decides it.  Shhhhh ... don't tell him. but he is staying in the closet.  I am not sure I could see to thread the needle. 

I have called for emergency back-up.  :-)

Tonight after she gets out of work, my darling daughter is going to drop off her cute little Janome Gem with all the bells and whistles for me to use while my big beautiful MC6600p is enjoying her little "vaca ..."

I think I will go stroke the fabric and relax.

No worries ... :-)

Curtains 101.3

Brought to you by "Post-It Notes" Patterns ;)

Did you notice that I use many of the high tech tools in my sewing?

The man cave curains are done!!

One final photo later when the panels and tiebacks are hung and hubby passes out the grade ... ;)

A few photos of the last day of sewing ...

I just love this fabric! It is my favorite print from the "Plume" fabrics from Timeless Treasures that hubby hubby chose for his curtains. The picture does not do the lovely greens and blues justice and the touch and feel of this fabric line is sew nice!

Charlie decided on 63" side panels.  I did easy rolled hems on the sides, a single top rod pocket and machine stitched hem. He bought 4 yards for two side panels.  I opened and folded them flat again so I could just cut them in two WOF by 72" panels.  Cut off the selvages and pressed and sewed.

How to photos ...

If you have never done a rolled hem edge before, it is an easy two hand "roll as you sew" technique. Just roll as you go a 1/4 inch on the edge and roll it over another 1/4 inch again  with your right hand and move the fabric forward with your left hand as you feed it to the doggies ... no pressing beforehand. 

I did press the raw edge under 1/4 inch and then press the top for 3.5 inch rod pockets, One pin at the beginning and one at the end to make a nice smooth edge is all that is needed. I top stitch these and then top stitch another seam about a half-inch from the top. 

The hems are done similarly.  I folded one inch over and then another inch and pressed. Then I just sew the sides closed ...

For the tiebacks, hubby thought they "had to have some yellow" to "break up" the green and blue and he wanted the blue scroll strip from the border stripe fabric.  A few more photos ...

I just cut 24" by 4" blue strips and added black edges from my selvage scraps to give them a little stiffness on the edges.  Then I cut yellow for the back of the tiebacks 24" by 8 inches and top stitches the backing over the front for the yellow edges.

Ms Katniss got comfy on my sewing chair and fell asleep in the middle of this process, so I had to use the smaller less comfy chair for much of the day.

If anyone has not fallen asleep here and is really interested in more details, just ask. 

I will check my post-it notes and get back to you ...

;) Pat

Custom Curtains 101.2

I have the custom cafes completed for my hubby's man cave. As you can see this is a very dark room on the north side of the house so the yellow adds a very much needed splash of sunshine.  These came out really nice!

Here are a few photos for the few curious readers ...

Cutting the border strip again ...

Cutting the fabric down to size ...

Pressing the top rod pocket strips to get then ready to sew ...

Sewing on the rod pocket strips and pressing ...

Sewing the rolled hems on the sides ...

sewing down the rod pockets ...

Topstitiching the seam for the top of the rod pocket ...

Pinning on the bottom border strip and hanging to try them on for size ...

More cutting ...

More sewing ...

The first one done ... yay!

These were very much a design as you go project.  After figuring the first one as I sewed along, I was a bit apprehensive about reproducing five more ...

Six matching cafes!  Yay, again! It worked!  The small detail strips on the border stripe even match up window to window.

 Once in a while I surprise myself ... ;)

On to sewing the (much easier) side panels!

Then there must be custom tie-backs.

Did I mention that my hubby has very particular ideas about how these man cave windows should be dressed?

Custom Curtains 101.3 coming soon ... (I hope)

Have a happy quilty day!

:-)

Lowell Quilt Festival

BMQG Mini-Challenge Quilts

Yesterday and today my hubby and I enjoyed the Lowell Quilt Festival.  This is much more than a simple quilt show and there are several venues in the downtown area and a shuttle bus connecting the sites. We started at the Lowell National Historical Park  Visitor Center lot and got our free parking validated and walked the short distance to the New England Quilt Museum where we enjoyed their quilts and shop.  From there we took the shuttle bus to my favorite part of the show ... the beautiful display of works by the Boston Modern Quilt Guild.  Photo of their Mini Challenge Quilts above. 

Here is a photo of some of the BMQG quilts artfully displayed so we could see the beautiful backs without looking for a white glove lady...

BMQG Quilts Displayed at Appleton Mills

Here is one of my favorite quilts ...

"Tissue Paper Petals" ... pieced and quilted my Stephanie Harrison

Inspired by a tissue box !

There were sew many beautiful quilts!  I was feeling very inspired by these simple designs and lovely colors and delightful quilting. 
Then we walked to the main venue in the historic Lowell Memorial Auditorium.  You always know you are there when you see this quilt covered car.  When it came time to make my vendor purchases. I was mostly drawn to some very beautiful new fabric lines and soft colors.

Here is Quilty Inspector Butterfly approving my quilty goodies. :)

Goodnight and sweet quilty dreams!

Quilty Treasures

Today I needed to move some things in my sewing corner ... and this is what I found. This is the block I made a long time ago for a My Quilty Corner of the World Block Swap on The Quilt & Needle.  It is on top of the small stack of blocks I received from some of my quilty friends ...

golden quilty treasures of the heart.

Have a Happy Quilty Day!

:-)