drops of death! or something.

Its ok to laugh.
I should have done this earlier this week, I have been away for the weekend, and come back thinking, I better have a go or the next one will be going and I am running behind trying to catch up all the time.

So I fitted the correct foot on. i adjusted the presser foot tension. I pushed the button. And it wouldn't play. Aaaargh. Why no play today?? Silly thing. I took it all off, and tried again. Still not playing. I could sew but not with my foot.

Eventually, havin searched the manual front to back and back to front- I think There has to be something on the internet?? How stupid can I get. The flashing symbol on the machine tells me exactly why it isn't playing. FGor this foot it insists on putting the feed dogs down, and I hadn't!
The machine is cleverer than I am ( not that that says much) and It knows what I am doing wrong. It just can't shout loud enough to get me to understand.Whew. So feed dogs down and we are off.

Want to see the hopeless result? Unfortunately i forgot to put a strong contrast on to let me see detail of my mess but, I will show you.

This is the back, Grotty picture, but some loops are visible.  And the front?

Unfortunately I have some excellent patches of excess fabric bunching in between the loops. I shall have to have another go, with more contrast, but first go at this pattern, so I am getting somewhere.

I have learnt, I cope better travelling Left to Right. I cope better looping down from the top, rather than up from the bottom. I need lots more practice. And I am dead mean over the fabric I am prepared to use. Anything I like, even if I have no use for it, I don't want to 'waste' on practice. even tough I need the practice and know it is not a waste. Attitude adjustment please.

Now go look at everyone else at fluffy sheep  and see what they have done, 'cos they are all much better than my effort.

Sunday sewing

Yes I had a lovely day, yesterday. I spent a good bit of it playing with fabric some stuff I had from some years ago, and some more recent, and at some point I will get pictures. Just not quite yet. I played with old crafty ideas, and a new pattern and just played, instead of getting on with the dreaded housework.
and at the end of the day, I had produce. I tried two slightly different ways of binding an edge, and have yet to decide which I like better. I can go on thinking about that a while yet . Maybe both? I look at different methods on the net, and they always look better when other folk do them, than when I do. Is it like FMQ? Other peoples looks great, and mine is rubbish...

And then back to today and the usual work round. Feet firmly back on the ground.

Feed my addiction

I have some very pretty fabrics waiting for the right projects to come and play.

  I found this batik, which just sings to me, in a fabric shop which is not really local, but if my local shop (5 miles) hasn't got what I need then Leons may. (14 miles).   The spots and the batik both were at Leons.

 I don't know where I got the seahorses, but they go with the batik beautifully.

Quilting fabric I have a choice. I always forget Bambers, (10 miles)  which is really a sewing machine shop, where they are mega helpful and really care that you get the right machine, but have a fabric and haberdashery upstairs too. And we have a tiny little local shop which shuts at funny times, which also does some Quilting cottons, and are really helpful, but with limited range. But if I really want quilting stuff I need to go to Patchfinders, who also do delicious workshops. But they are 25-30 miles away.Or wait 'til I visit DD who has a fantastic place almost on her doorstep, which is hidden away in an industrial estate, and took us a lot of trawling around to find even when we knew it was there.

But they gave me these (sold me..)

 




The richness of these sing to me.
I was in patchfinders and saw and fell in love with this

  such a dainty print, and lovely colour. Sadly, I had nothing else that would go with it. So I had to find a few helpers...

and now I need a project to go with them.

When I was FMQ- ing I had a silly happen. This has never happened before. I removed the spool from the top of the machine, to put another colour on, and the thread leapt half off the spool in my hand!


I have tried to gently persuade it back on, but I am not convinced it will run right again. It just looks birds nesty. Humph.

green mountain star

 so, at the end of last month, we had a choice of bonus blocks to make, and I chose this one. It was a bit 'bitty' and there were a lot of corners that really didn't match well. Overall, the block is attractive, but fiddly. The geese are made with a one seam method, and give a really pretty folded edge result.

string block

This is this weeks block in the skill builder, I am not sure I would want a whole quilt of them, but it does work.

Free motion? or what

So, I decided to have a go at Fluffy Sheeps free motion workshop.
I set up the machine.Change the presser foot.  Decided to go for a strong contrast thread, so I could see just how bad things are. Then I started. First off, the bobbin tension managed to be far too tight. So I end up with a gathered layered rag.
RIP it out.

this is the underneath side.

Let us try again. Rethread the bobbin.  Same result. See the right hand end of the left hand patch? (is that English? just about?)

So I changed the foot back to a conventional foot, and lifted the feed dogs again to see how that went. The left hand end is the result. Well, I thought that looked grand. But... it isn't free motion quilting, is it?

Ok Back to the start. Now my lovely posh new machine has a cheating facility. Why not just use the cheat mode? It is a special foot for free sewing, which is supposed to keep stitches fairly even.

Result is the right hand square.Not too bad, but somehow, the non free motion just looks better. I think the tension is better. Perhaps I need to play with presser foot tension or something!

so now I am going to try to post the front, but the computer is not necessarily co-operating...

Left most- normal machine use. Raggy bit- first attempts, tension up the spout- Right side FMQ

All I can say is, I tried. Keep practising?

Sorry, I am back, see Kiki's giveaway

I have just seen, poor Keira on Its So Kiki is feeling poorly. She is also hosting a fabric giveaway, so have a little look, and let her know she is being thought about!

Cows again

 So the first thing was to check my layout. Which I did. Carefully. And then sewed it wrong, so it ended up as the mirror image. Never mind, I think it looks ok.

I added sashing at the side and top of two from the middle and bottom rows, and just to the side of two from the top row, and to the top of the remaining blocks in the middle and bottom  row.  Then joined up in the rows and lastly connected the threee rows. A border followed.

pinning the layers

finished quilt

This house block from the skill builderby Leila really centre detail                                           makes this quilt a little bit special. I can sort of feel a quilt full of houses coming along.... 

I took the quilt along and gave it to my dear friend, who loves cows, and loves chickens, and I think she was very pleased with it. I forgot to take a picture of the label, but it is labelled on the back, specially for her!

 

 

 

 

I have to tell you, also, that Lynne from Lily's quilts is doing a series on Gifts for quilters, and she is doing an accompanying giveaway, with some lovely coloured circle fabric. It cannot do any harm to have a look...

The other interesting join in thing is fluffy sheep, doing a free motion quilting remote workshop. The idea is that we do a little bit every week, and so become capable and confident. I am hoping to give it a go, thoufgh I may well start off by being behind! Procrastination rules!