Patience...

That’s what I keep telling myself!  My Bliss system is arriving today, hopefully this morning!

While I’m waiting, I’m attempting a bit of sewing room cleanup.  With all the quilts I’ve been making, I have a pile of scraps on my cutting table that need organizing.

The AccuQuilt Studio is one of the best things ever… if not THE best thing.. that I’ve added.  I can cut a gazillion two and a half inch squares (or any other size) in no time at all.  And they’re all perfect!

When I get my studio built (anyone else tired of hearing that?  I am!) I’m going to add more drawers for pre-cut scraps.  Or better yet… I should cut everything in my scrap containers and re-use them all to sort it.  I’ve been trying to talk myself into that for some time now!

Hurry up Mr. Delivery Man!

Design floor Monday

I have something to share this week… and you’ll never believe what I’m doing!  Applique!  That’s been a dirty word in my sewing room for a long time!  I love the way applique looks, but I sure never want to go to all the work involved.

Saturday morning Jim slept in, and I felt like doing some mindless sewing.  Last year for Christmas I’d made my mother-in-law a quilt, and I’d picked the prettiest green, pink and yellow charm squares out of three different charm packs.

What was left I grabbed and put together with some sashing blocks, but alas when I’d sewn them all together I only had about a forty inch quilt.  LOL  Nothing in my stash other than solids to match for borders, so I got the hare brained idea to do some applique on more of the sashing fabric!

I used the “Rose of Sharon” dies for my AccuQuilt Studio to cut the shapes.  My goodness, that was an incredible amount of work, and people say this speeds the process up?  Eep!  Now I’m positive that unless I have a die with the shape I want, I’ll not be cutting any appliques out by hand!

My arrangement needed a twelve inch border to fit… so I’m not sure where I’m going with this plan, but I am really enjoying sewing the motifs down!  I thought it would be hard, but it isn’t. 

Head over to Judy’s blog to see what everyone else is up to this Monday.  Oh and OMG… you must try this!

Grilled Ribeye Steak with Onion and Bleu Cheese Sauce.

Absolutely to die for!

Design Wall Monday

Judy over at Patchwork Times hosts “Design Wall Monday” every week, but I don’t always seem to have anything on my wall at the time… but this week I do!  Not much yet, and I have a fairly busy week ahead so I don’t know if I’ll get a lot accomplished on it this week either.

I still need to redraw this quilt in EQ to eliminate the smaller patches, but my sample quilt is being sewn out as is, because I’m lazy and it was just so amazingly fast to run all these little blocks through the AccuQuilter!

I’m piecing this quilt on my Bernina 630… she’s been ignored for so long and I really do enjoy sewing on that machine!  Sometimes, things get a little chaotic in my main work room, where my computer, cutting table and the 830 reside.  It’s nice to have a second sewing space when I need a clean slate!

I keep my 630, serger and coverstitch machine in the second room, and it’s always neater, I like to go in there and sew.

Yesterday Jim spent the morning snugging up my APQS frame, and tinkering with the wheel settings.  I’d made some adjustments and wasn’t happy with them, so I’d asked him to do the detail work!  Being an engineer, he’s much more precise about that stuff than I am!

I also loaded up the second “Five Little Monkeys Quilt” that I started last year, and was quilting on my 830.  I had chosen Sulky Blendables for the thread, and it kept breaking over and over again.  I got so frustrated I set the quilt aside and forgot about it.  Guess what?  My Millennium isn’t batting an eye at that Sulky thread, it’s quilting it up like a dream!  This one will be a charity quilt when I finish it, I’d done some experimenting on it, and the results weren’t terrific.

Pinwheel Party Block Six

I finished block six for the Pinwheel Party this morning.  One of my blocks wasn’t too perfect, and so I decided to take advantage of that by doing a video demonstration on how to correct that with the Bernina Dual Feed.  

Here’s another table runner, same pattern as before, cut on the AccuQuilt Studio.  This one is for me, I still keep finding bits and pieces of Moda Chocolat in my stash!

And last but not least for the day, another in the hoop cosmetic bag for my sister.

I’ll make her a couple more before sending them on to her.

I just finished loading up a practice sandwich on the HQ16, as I have someone coming in from Illinois this weekend to look at it.  Wish us both luck, her that it’s the machine she wants, and me that it sells so I can have some more room to work in downstairs!