Wordless Wednesday: A Purple House quilt

Alert: MAJOR online fabric sale!!!

By the way, I just had to let you know, I got some REAL deals today at Fabric.com. As in, less than $4 a yard for batiks, Kaffe Fassetts, etc! I would be unhappy if you'd gotten a major deal and didn't let me know, so I thought I'd let you know.

Just sayin.' :)

Looking for some great giveaways?

April meeting, beautiful quilts

Our quilting group held its monthly meeting Saturday. Several beautiful quilts were displayed; you can view them all here.

Accepting the challenge

I accept the challenge.

Jacquie of Tallgrass Prairie Studio has issued a challenge to finish up all of your unfinished items, projects, etc. by May 31st. Whether it's a quilt, spring cleaning, painting a room--whatever you need to finish up, and can realistically finish in a month, is what should go on your 'to do' list for this challenge. If you meet your goal, celebrate! Click here for details.

So, as I'm supposed to mention what I need to finish up in the next month, here's my list:

-finish the homeschooling year

-finish quilting, and then bind, the Purple House quilt

-do a quilt in the Fresh Vanilla pattern with the Strawberry Fields fabric, start to finish

-spring cleaning

-plant a container garden (a tomato or two, a pepper, maybe an herb or two)

-read Raising a Modern-Day Princess

There is more that I need to put on this list, but I will be realistic, and ensure that I at least do these things. Anything more will be gravy.

Join me!

Moving right along with a purple house quilt

So.

I'm moving right along with the quilting of the purple house quilt. I'm doing these free motion flowers with purple variegated thread. It's looking great, I think. But the quilting itself is fairly hard for some reason.

Then my worst sewing nightmare comes true.

The needle breaks (can you see it in these two shots?) and a teensy weensy piece of it flies into my eye.

But I am VERY fortunate; it falls out just as quickly as it flew in. By the time I realize what has happened, it is over. But now I am paranoid. I turn off my sewing machine for the night, and go to bed.

Today, I am wearing these.

These are very cool safety goggles

My husband now calls sewing a full contact sport. Phew.

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OH; and by the way, I think I know why the needle broke. It was a thread issue. I'll discuss it in another post.

A peek at a little house

As I finish up this quilt:

I was inspired to try my hand at a house block--something I'd never done before. I recently bought a pattern for it, but it looks like Greek to me, as I am unfamiliar with paper piecing. So, I sketched it out on paper, and pieced it myself:

I'll post full pix once it's done. In the meantime, feel free to let me know what you think. :)

Modern Quilts giveaway - SCORE!

The Fresh Modern Quilts group in flickr just celebrated its 2000th member by hosting a huge giveaway. Guess who one of the winners was?  :)

ME!!!

There were 29 winners, and I think I was the 8th person to win. I was given one of my first two choices; I LOVE this color combo!

And it was sent by Ashley, of Film in the Fridge! I love her quilts; they are creative, inventive, and absolutely amazing!

OK, now I have to start dreaming of yet another quilt, and how I will design it, and what additional fabrics I will need to buy!

A phone call

Today, I got the chance to talk to a bloggy friend...on the phone!

Now, how cool is that? :)

Some of my bloggy friends are local, and were "real life" friends first. But many are people that I have had the opportunity to meet online. And before today, that is as far as it has typically gone, which is pretty much the norm for online friends. But, thanks to her willingness to step out of her comfort zone, and coax me out of mine, I had a great phone conversation this afternoon.

I won't embarrass her, but you can click here to go to her site; she is a really creative soul whose works challenge you to rethink your approach to various aspects of life.

:)

Sew Mini Sewing Machine for travel

When I travel, I often like to take a sewing machine with me. A regular size/weight sewing machine can be a bit difficult to lug around, and takes up precious cargo space in the van. So I take our Janome Sew Mini sewing machine  with me. It weighs 4.5 pounds, and fits in a regular size tote bag! When our charity sewing circle travels and conducts sewing demonstrations, these are the machines we use. You can click the picture for more details.

I have seen negative reviews for this machine. Because it is a small size machine, people think it is a toy. If they have used it, people complain that it is slow, and that it has no light. Know that the first opinion is not true--this is definitely a real, working sewing machine--and the other two complaints are a small price to pay for the convenience offered by this machine. Sewing super fast when I travel is not a priority, and I just strap a  headlamp onto the machine.

Here's something that many people don't know; it can go through thick or several layers of fabric! You may need to hand crank the wheel over the seam allowances, but the machine will still operate just fine once you've passed over these!

A mini sewing machine does not necessarily mean that it will be a mini stitch sewing machine. The Sew Mini has regular length stitches. It has straight stitch and zigzag stitch options. When I travel, I only need the basics, so this suits me fine. Using it is very straightforward; of course, read the Sew Mini sewing machine instructions before using it, but in a pinch, you could use it without reading the manual. It is that simple to operate.

This is, as you would probably expect, a great sewing machine to purchase for a child. It is affordable, small, lightweight, and its slower sewing speed gives a child time to learn the basic mechanics of sewing.

I cannot offer any personal review for other small machines--the Shark mini sewing machine, the mini Rex sewing machine, the Sew Crafty sewing machine, the mini Brute sewing machine, just to name a few. I do not have any personal experience with these machines. But I do know that the Janome Sew Mini sewing machine is definitely a good little machine, and worth considering.

Mennonite Relief Sale

In an earlier post, I spoke of the preview to the Mennonite Relief Sale. This past weekend was the actual Relief Sale. Over 300 quilts were auctioned, for the sake of funding various worldwide missions. They raised tens thousands of dollars this weekend!

There were food vendors. They are hard to see in this photo; they are stationed around the expo hall, along the walls. What you are best able to see in this photo are the tables where you could sit and eat the food you purchased. Beef cheesteaks; turkey, chicken, or beef barbeque sandwiches; roast beef or ham sandwiches; hot dogs; pizza; baked potatoes; soups. And for dessert, there was strawberry pie; homemade donuts; milkshakes; cookies; and much much more!

There was an a cappella men's group.

There was a station where you could donate your loose change, and it would be counted and bagged. (See the penny hanging in the top left hand corner of this picture?)

And there were QUILTS!!! Three hundred eighty three of them!

Some were antique and vintage.

I, of course, gravitated towards the modern styles.

But I have a major thing for the simplicity of a beautifully crafted Amish quilt.

Once it was time to auction the quilts, they were placed on the slanted rotating surface you see above, and the auctioneer could literally get a quilt auctioned in about thirty seconds!

We went Friday and skipped Saturday. Next year, we will go Saturday and skip Friday. Friday's quilts were the less beautiful ones; they went for anywhere from $15 to $250ish. Saturday's quilts, some of which you can see on the stage in these two photos, went for MUCH more.

The caption in the photo above says, "Meeting basic needs in the name of Christ." You absolutely have to love the dedication of the Mennonites when it comes to being His Hands and His Feet throughout the world.