Little Video Of Baby Matthew

This video starts out sideways, then I realized what I was doing and turned the camera around!

Who knows what a little one is thinking................?

Australia Day January 26th.

Just got to have my Vegemite.............

The iconic Aussie spread.........and the vintage commercial I knew as a child!

I am linking up with Vintage Thingies Thursday so check Suzanne's blog, Colorado Lady , for all the other vintage things!

Phoenix Modern Quilt Guild.

Today we met at Sarah 's home, it's the third meeting of the Phx.chapter and the second I have attended.
BJ drove this time and we had brought snacks to share along with our Mug Rugs for swapping!
As expected there was quite a variety of styles and designs......

and the backs were as interesting as the front of these little pieces of art.

The following are items from "show and tell", some complete, others WIPs [Works In Progress]

and the pieced backing.

Below is the backing of this WIP.
and the pic below is the back view.
There were about a dozen of us there this month and we plan to meet again the last Saturday in February.

The Mug Rug

The Phoenix Modern Quilt Guild is to meet again next Saturday and I understand there is to be a "Rug Mug" swap, so this evening I took a few minutes to make one.

I sewed on a little pocket and put in a ginger tea bag. I might stop into the coffee shop and pick up one of those sticks with sugar crystals on them.

I pulled out an orphan block, sandwiched it with a piece of scrap batting and a couple of strips from the scrap drawer for backing.

A few more strips from the scraps collection and I had enough for a binding............
and the whole thing went together before I had even watched an entire episode of "Criminal Minds"!

I promised last post to show a pic. of how I sew the binding from the front using my SID foot, shown above, very slick!

Here's a close-up so you can see the 'almost invisible' stitching attaching the binding from the front.

A good way to use up an orphan block and a few scraps, every little bit helps to keep the stash under control!

Baby Girl Quilt In A Hurry

End of this month we are expecting another baby in our church family, a girl. The baby shower was today and I needed to make a quilt-quickly!

I had another of the Minkee backed kits I had bought from Connecting Threads a few months ago and it's mostly pink, how convenient. I quilted it with a freehand all-over floral design, now it is bound and ready except for the label- I am waiting on a name for that!

The quilt had to be done this week, even without the urgency of the shower because after tomorrow my big machine will not be here to do the quilting, it is going to CA for maintenance. I have had it four years and other than my own regular attention my A-1 has had no other technical care. The local A-1 rep. is going to "Road To California" next week and kindly volunteered to lug my LA with her for the A-1 owner Stewart Plank to do a maintenance. Very nice of her and an offer I could not refuse! These big machines are fairly easy to maintain but every once in a while they benefit from a professional check-up. The Gammill longarm I had for 6 yrears before the A-1, was only once taken to a prof. for maintenance and that was right before I sold it.

I will be without "Ellie" for about week but I have plenty of other sewing, always another quilt to piece and when the LA comes back it will be in tip top shape and ready to roll!

This afternoon BJ and I sewed, she was working on a pinwheel baby quilt for her shop's challenge. I forgot to take pics but it's turning out very cute and the method is really nice and easy. I was impressed enough that I think I will use the idea for the next baby quilt I am planning for niece Brooke in Australia, expecting their third babe in a couple of months. I have heaps of baby fabrics in stash, plenty for a scrappy pinwheel quilt.

This afternoon I did get Claudia's last quilt bound, only needing a label, then I can get it to her family next month while we are in CO. I found the binding on the sale table at "Quiltz", the colors go perfectly with those in the quilt. I do not know what Claudia had in mind for the binding but I am sure she will not mind that I chose this.

I love this binding method-sew to the front, turn to the back, pin from the front. I then attach my Stitch-In-the-Ditch [SID] foot and sew carefully from the front removing the pins as I come to them.

As you can see the stitching in back is neat and in front not visible-well, not unless you get your nose practically on the quilt and use a magnifying glass, LOL!

I just don't sew binding by hand anymore, not worth it, I much prefer to use the time to make more quilts!

I am very visual and I suspect lots of quilters are too, so next time I do a binding I will make a little video and post it.

Mannheim Needs a New Family!

Friends here in Phoenix have a sweet little Dachsie that needs a new family. Due to family circumstances beyond their control they feel that they can no longer give Mannheim the attention he deserves, so with much sadness they are searching for a wonderful person/persons to adopt this little guy. Because we are doggy people and we have lots of doggy friends, I offered to spread the word.

Mannheim is a miniature weighing in at about 12 lbs. Below is the description from his current family so that you will be aware of his particular needs.

If you are interested in adopting Mannheim, leave a comment so that I can forward your contact info or send me an email from my profile page, and I will see that his family gets it.

"He is a very sweet 6 year old boy. He is a cuddler—affectionate, happy, and spoiled rotten. He needs a home without children or other animals. He does not do well with other dogs, because he doesn’t know he is a dog! He was neutered as a puppy. Also he was born with congenital cataracts in the right eye, which were repaired surgically. He will need to be on one eye drop a day for the rest of his life, but his vision is now quite good. The drops are inexpensive and I have a 4 month supply of drops that I will give to his new owner.

The ideal home will offer him companionship of an adult couple or a single animal lover. He needs to be taken in and out every few hours. He is housebroken if taken out to potty frequently. He is also trained to go into his kennel when the owner leaves the home. He does best if left alone for only 4-5 hours at a time. He likes to travel and is good in the car.

Here is a picture. Thanks so much…Can’t stand the thought of giving him up, but also realize our schedules are not ideal for the home he deserves!"

Un-quilting!

Let me preface this post with a disclaimer-It is about 10 years now that I have been a longarmer, and to date had never encountered my current problem! So either I have been extraordinarily blessed or just dumb lucky?

Without going into details of how, when, where and why, I will simply tell you that I am un-quilting this large and very pretty quilt.....and needless to say it is a great deal of work that will keep me occupied and away from more interesting/fun activities for a week -or two?!

This huge job has me searching for faster and easier ways to "frog" [rippit-rippit] my quilting.

I began with the quilt on the longarm but after a while when I realized I would probably want to remove all of the quilting, I unpinned the quilt and took it to the couch, more comfortable than sitting on the saddle stool at the LA.

Above is the commonly known Dritz seam ripper, quite effective, but I thought perhaps another brand or style might work better so I purchased this one with it's "ergonomic" handle. So far I have not really noticed any difference in how my hand feels as I work at this but if I do I will let you know.

Another handy tool for removing stitches, the hemostats-when did you ever know a nurse- no matter how long retired-who did not have at least one pair of this handy tool! I have several and for this task they are absolutely mandatory for saving my poor hands extra stress.

The quilting you see in these pics is a view of the back of this quilt, the stitches are fairly small and in the sashing and corner blocks there is a lot of backtracking-two rows of stitching one upon the other-making the chore even more tedious!

I am whining a lot [not wining LOL] to anyone who will listen so you can be sure I will be celebrating to all and sundry when it is finally done!
One final tool, a pair of tiny, fine pointed scissors for snipping knots that defy removal!
I will be frogging daily most of the day, with breaks for something more rewarding, like putting the borders on the NYE Mystery quilt.

The borders are all cut and ready to sew......

this is the order of application, the small blue stop border then two more additions to use up most of the balance of these fabrics.

I plan to intersperse the frogging with other activities, blogging, walking Button dog, going to the gym , sewing and perhaps even quilting to make the whole process more bearable. We are expecting another new baby at our church and I need to quilt the baby scrap quilt I made a few weeks ago, so that might be good therapy for an unquilting break!.

You can be sure that I will be celebrating right here once this chore is finished and I can put the top back on the LA to begin anew!