Argh! My machine

Okay I need to vent to people who understand!! My sewing machine is giving me problems again. I just had it in for service over Thanksgiving. It's now running very loud and my top thread keeps breaking. Aurefil again.

I've got to take it back in for service again. This machine is only a year old. What gives? Am I using it too much?! It's a Bernina 230. What kind of machine do you have? Do you like it, have you had problems? I can't get another machine already. Please tell me this is a blip and my machine will be fine. I'm already having withdrawal and I just put it away 15 minutes ago.

Tutorial: Argyle Pillow

I have a thing for argyle. I love love love it. Since I started quilting a year ago, I have wanted to do an argyle design, but I haven't found a pattern for it. I've seen plenty of square argyles, but never a diamond. I figured eventually I would create my own design and when I saw this one from Katie at From the Blue Chair I was totally inspired. I decided to do one for my daughter's new room and document it for a tutorial. 
Here's my completed pillow.

In hindsight I wish I had chosen a lighter brown, I feel like it dominates the pillow too much. Or, that I had just stitched those lines on like Katie did. But anyway, if you are interested in making your own, here's how I did it. I will warn, this is not a beginner project. Diamonds are a pain to line up your points!

You will need:
1/4 yard of your two colors (pink and green) or 1/2 yard of one color for a monochromatic argyle
1/2 yard of your white for the rest of the diamonds
1/2 yard of backing fabric
1/4 yard for the "sashing" (the brown- I'm calling it sashing for lack of a better term)
16 inch pillow
Spray starch - I'm not usually a big starch user, but it's helpful to starch all your fabrics with all the sharp points in this one.

Start by cutting your diamonds.

Cut two 3.5 strips for each color and four 3.5 strips for the white.

 Take one strip and line up the 45 degree line with the bottom. Cut off the portion on the left.

Slide the ruler over 3.5 inches (keeping the 45 degree mark lined up on the bottom) and cut on the right side of the ruler and you will have a 3.5 inch triangle.

It will look like this one above.

Lay out your diamonds when they are all cut. For a 16 inch pillow, you will need 18 colors and 20 white. I debated between this layout and the one I finally chose. (by the way, there are too many diamonds here. I couldn't figure out the math so I just made it too big and cut it down).

Once it is laid out, you will piece together the dimonds in rows in the direction indicated by my wonky arrow.

 

Draw a quarter inch line on the piece you are working on.

Line the quarter inch mark on the green piece so that it lines up with the edge of the piece beneath it. (Where the arrow is pointing). It should form a nice "V".

Once your rows are put together, you will need to join them. To line up your points, match the quarter inch line so it intersects with the color going in the opposite direction beneath it. In the photo above take a look at the left pin. You can see the green fabric underneath meeting the quarter inch line above to make a "V".

Once all your lines are sewing together you can cut your sashing at 3/4 of an inch.

 Measure the halfway mark for your diamond width and cut. This should be 1.5 inches. Then you can start attaching the sashing.

I've had to jump ahead a little in my photos to demonstrate the best way to line up your diamonds. I was this far in when I figured it out! Up until this point I had been eyeballing it and doing some seam ripping. What I learned was this: Attach the sashing to one side of the cut. Then line up the other side of the strip overtop of the new sashing so the sashing lines meet up (or the diamond tops and bottoms). You can see this above on the line where the arrow points.

Flip the row over where it stands.

Then shift it to the left over to the edge of the sashing where you will pin it without shifting it up or down.

Continue until you have both directions completed.

Trim to 17 x 17. At this point I debated adding fusible web for stability. This is totally your call. I chose not to add it.

Cut your backing fabric into two pieces. One should be 17x14 and the other 17x10.  On both pieces, take one of the 17 inch length sides and fold it in 1/2 inch and press. Fold in it another 1/2 inch and press again. This will keep the edges nice.

 Placing fabrics right side together, lay down the large piece first. Make sure the folded edge is face up and line up your edges.

Lay the second piece on top and pin everything carefully. Sew around with a 1/4 inch seam and back stitch over the folded section for stability. Finish your edges as you like. I found with so many layers of fabric I couldn't use my pinking shears. I don't have a serger so I zigzag stitched around the edge.

Place the cover on your pillow and you are done! Hope you like it.

PMQG Solids Challenge

Our last PMQG meeting was Tuesday night and everyone brought their solids challenge project. We were originally given these four solids to work with.

The challenge was to use 1 additional yard of fabric to create something. You could break that 1 yard up as much as you wanted. I chose to add small amounts of 6 additional fabrics and make a small casual table runner for our kitchen table. The final dimensions came out approx 28x17.

This was an idea I saw in a magazine for a large lap quilt, but couldn't find the original so I kind of recreated it smaller. These are 4 patches cut at a tilted angle. I also have to say, I've been using this and my husband spilled coffee on some of the white and it came out!  These Kona solids are awesome.

Close up of the quilting. I wasn't sure how to quilt this one because the angles don't all meet. So I wound up outlining the boxes.

The back I did a diagonal stripe which I could probably also use as the "right" side too.

Head over to the Philly Modern Quilt Guild to see what everyone else did!

WIP Wednesday and a question

Here is my current work in progress. It's going to be a baby quilt. I was intrigued by the McKenzie by Dena Designs fabric since it used black with pastels. I think that will be an interesting contrast.
I'm also trying to step out of my bubble and mix fabric lines. I was thinking about it and I think I tend to stick with one line per quilt because I don't really have a great LQS nearby. For those of you who freely mix fabric lines, do you have a local shop or are you buying online? How do you get over the fear of things not matching when you buy them online? Or is that just a good way to build stash? haha!

Another silly question. How do you store your pins? Why do they make the boxes so the pins will never fit back in??  I'm not a huge fan of these pins, they are a little fat for my liking. But since I'm sewing in "public spaces" now I need to be able to find them when they drop. And these red heads do not want to fit nicely in the box. What do you use? Is your pincushion big enough for a whole box of pins?

Another finished Christmas gift

I finished the playmat for my daughter yesterday. It's a Moda Bake Shop pattern and you can find it here. This was a nice quick layer cake project.  I had won the Punctuation layer cake from an online fabric company that now seems to be gone. :( But when I saw this project I definitely wanted to make this one.

Here's a peek at the back and the little rock pockets in the corner. Very clever addition! I went with a dark background so it can be taken outside and I won't stress too much about dirt.

Here's a close up of my applique. It's a little rough on the mat because I didn't use stablizer. After a couple recommendations on my last post, I did use stabilizer on the bean bags and it helped A LOT!

The stitching on this is much cleaner.

And I got to use my much neglected pinking shears. Actually, this may be the first time I've ever used them! They were part of the sewing kit my mother passed on to me.

Silly story about the bean bags. I went to the craft store looking for some type of plastic/synthetic filler for the bags. I asked one of the employees where I might find some. She directed me, then added, "but it might be cheaper just to fill it with beans".  DING! Oh yeah, bean bags.  Duh.  So I used some dried beans inside the bags and I'll just have to remember to store them in a dry location so they don't try and sprout.

And finally the cute little tote. LeAnne has the tote instructions on her blog here. Very easy. And so smart, it's big enough to hold the mat and the bean bags.  This was a great little project, the directions were easy to follow and it came together quickly. Lets hope the little princess likes it too!

Work in Progress Wednesday

I'm jumping in on the WIP Wednesday reports. Mostly because we settle on the new house in 3 weeks. So I don't think I'm going to get much finished in the way of quilting. Here's my real work in progress.

I have a whopping 8 boxes packed! In my defense, we had 5 people staying here this weekend for an early Christmas. So now I can get to the real packing.
But, it can't be all work right? Here's the fun projects I have in progress.

This tablecloth needs to come off and be trimmed. I can never seem to buy the right size. Does this happen to you or is it just me???

My playmat from Moda/Everyday Celebrations is underway. And let me tell you, I don't know how to applique so this is a pretty ghetto method underway. You can see my pinning in the "jump" block in the middle. I didn't use stabilizer, just freezer paper for cutting. I have at least switched to fabric glue and not pins.

A close up of "hop" shows how lumpy it is! I watched some videos on applique, but these letters and numbers were so small that I couldn't iron the edges under. At least not at my skill level!

So it's just raw edged.  I figure it's going to get played with and jumped on so it's okay to be a little rough right? Thank goodness we have an applique workshop coming up next week at PMQG. I need the education! Anyone else have a project like this that they totally made up their own method?

I couldn't stay away

I've never done a Sew and Tell with AmyLou and I think it's time! Head over there to see some great projects.

I had packed away my sewing machine for Thanksgiving and planned to keep it packed through this weekend. We have a large amount of family coming to visit on Friday and stay through the weekend for an early Christmas celebration. So that didn't leave much room for my extra stuff all over the dining room.



But around Wednesday, I started getting the itch to sew. And my new Parisville fabric was screaming to get out of the box.
So I pulled everything out and decided to make the Whimsy Bag from LazyGirl Designs. I needed a new purse that was larger than what I'm currently carrying. Since I'm generally carrying diapers, sippy cups and goldfish, this bag is great. It's actually a tote and is 12x12 with a 4 inch boxed bottom so it stands up on its own. The only thing I'm not thrilled with is there is no closure up top. I may add on a button strap or something just to keep it somewhat closed.

Here's a shot of the lining. I love all the fabrics in this line so it was hard to decide on what to use on this bag.

This is the lining of the pockets.

And of course, detail of the crazy cameo print. I know this will be getting a lot of attention. My husband is a little freaked out by it. He doesn't need to know that I'm using this fabric for our next bed quilt.

Here's the other cameo that shows on my bag. This one is totally going to freak out my sister. She has an irrational fear of squirrels. hee hee! I just love the curly tail (yeah, the one that I cut off in the photo. sorry).
I was surprised at how large the cameos are when I got the fabrics. The measurement from the top of the bag to the top of the pocket is 5 inches and there is more of that cameo in the pocket. I had plans to fussy cut that for my next quilt, but I'm rethinking it because of the scale. Or I have to rethink the quilt design I have in mind! What do you do with your super large scale prints? It seems a shame to cut this into small pieces.