My Quilts Are Looking Back at Me!

Lately my quilts have been looking back at me! LOL

 

I have been working on another baby quilt and yesterday I finished the applique blocks by putting the eyes on.  Then I got the blocks sewn together and the borders added.

This is the crab block.

...And a fish!

A smiling Jelly Fish - so cute!

 

This is the finished quilt ready to be basted and quilted.  I really love this pattern.  It is from the book Quilts, Bibs, Blankies... Oh My! by Kim Schaefer.  I changed the pattern by adding the nine patches and made it smaller than the original quilt. 

 

Love the way this came out.  I am sure a litte one will find it very interesting to look at!

 

Happy Stitching!

 

Deb

 



Lesson Learned

I wanted to pass along a lesson I learned this week. 

I turned on my sewing machine on Sunday afternoon and realized, after the initial calibration it normally does, the needle did not go to the center position.  I thought that was strange.  I tried a couple of other stitches, turned the machine on and off, still the same situation.  It did a straight stitch okay and I could move the needle position to the correct 1/4" I needed... but that's not right!  I tried a buttonhole stitch and you can see the result above - Yikes!  It seemed that all the stitches were corrupted.  I was so upset.  My baby was sick!

I talked to my machine dealer on Monday and while they suggested I need to have the machine serviced (which I agree!), they didn't offer much in the way of a solution.  Other than, as I said, bringing the machine to them, leaving it for a couple of weeks, and hope the repair didn't bankrupt me!  However, they did say that maybe the 'sensors' had dust in them, but that wasn't something I could get to or do myself.  Apparently the 'sensors' regulate the needle position. 
Interesting....

So I gave the machine a good cleaning, which I do periodically - but lint builds up so quickly.  Cleaned out the bobbin case, the entire bobbin area and any crevices I could get my cleaning tool into.  I tried to blow any dust or thread particles out of the tension disks (even though you can't access them on my Viking) as best I could.

This is what I was able to pull out from under the bobbin case area. Yuk.

Nice and clean... or at least the best I could do for now. 

I turned the machine back on and viola' !!!!!  The needle went to the center position!  I controlled my excitement until I tried the buttonhole stitch and it worked perfectly!!!  I was so excited!!  I had my machine back!

A perfect buttonhole stitch!

So lesson learned......  keep your machine as free of lint and thread as possible.. and clean it often!

Happy & Clean Stitching!

Deb

Catching Up!

It's been awhile since I have posted a blog.. but that doesn't mean I haven't been busy.  Just focusing on some other things around here along with my quilting.  Quilters never have a lack of anything to do and our hands are seldom idle.  So, I won't bore you with everything that I have been up to lately, but will share the quilting highlights!

I have a friend that has a birthday this week.  Dawn is a quilter who love flamingos.  So what do you get a such a person for their birthday?  ... you make them a flamingo quilt!  This was really fun to make and even more fun to give!  I should have taken a picture of the back - it's flamingo fabric, of course!

I also have been working on this baby quilt.   I was so pleased to finish the machine quilting on this today.

Then I added the binding.  Love polka dot binding on baby quilts!

Of course someone decided to take over my chair when I was at the cutting table!

Finally, I decided to add some texture with big stitch quilting in a nice green on the brown strips. 

This will be so cute for a little one.  

Happy Stitching!

Deb