Sew I See!

I've been trying to finish up a couple of old UFO quilting projects, lately.  There are so many other new projects I'd like to start, but the backlog of UFOs was weighing on my conscience.  I'll feel better with some of the old WIPs wrapped up and scratched of that mental list.   - - - - - - - My first UFO pick-back-up of the year was the stack of rainbow-colored string blocks.  You may remember them... I originally thought I'd make them into a quilt of my own design, based on paper lanterns, but as time went on, I lost steam and didn't want to spend that much effort on them.   At that point, I wasn't sure what to do with them, instead.  I played around with ways of laying them out in rainbow order, and came up with a layout that would be "okay", but I still wasn't excited about it— and then serendipity struck, and I found something better! I had some digital rewards points to use up on Amazon before they expired, so I bought the Kindle version of...

There's a new sewing machine in the house!  And this time it's an actual new machine, not a "new" vintage machine.   I bought my "old" computerized sewing machine-- a Brother Designio DZ2400-- during a Black Friday sale in 2014.   It's been a good machine, and it's still going pretty strong.  So much so that I'm keeping it as a back-up machine-- especially because it has some features that, while I don't use them often, are occasionally very useful.  (Zig-zag and decorative stitches, mainly.) However, it does sometimes make some squeaky noises, and... well, it just felt like a good time for an upgrade to a better machine for piecing.  That upgrade, bought in another sale around Black Friday, is a Juki TL-2000Qi.  Be Advised: This is a long, rambling post about the features of the new sewing machine, comparisons between the new and the old, and so on.  It's probably not interesting to anyone who isn't considering buying the same sewin...

No, still not finished, but making progress.  Every bit counts!   This isn't quite where I left it: But it's close!   Let's back up a bit... Last time, I'd just finished putting the top and bottom padding/margins on the individual words.  After that, I put in the spacers between the words.  (I think it was something like 3" strips, finishing at 2.5" spaces, but I don't remember and don't have it beside me to check.) Then I added in the random dots of blue before or after the words on each line of text.  And at that point, it was time to remind myself of how many crumb strips I had, how tall each was (they're in three different heights), etc.  I decided on a layout by... laying them out.  😁  I used the floor-- the only surface in the room large enough.  (Pinning these strips to the design wall would've been messy and just not worth the effort, in my opinion.)   Now I've begun sewing the strips together.  I'm stop...

There's a new old sewing machine in the house.   That is, a new-to-me vintage sewing machine.   It's been here in the house for a while, actually, but what with one thing and another, I haven't gotten around to writing about it until now.   Okay!  Confession:  I actually wrote most of this blog post back in March, and I'm only now coming back to the draft in late August.  It's long and rambling, but I'll probably keep most of it.  There will be a "too long; didn't read" summary just before the photos.   - - - - - - - As much as I like the Minnesota, it has its drawbacks-- the special needles and the less-common (and more difficult to replace) shuttle.  I'm almost afraid to use it too much, for fear that I'll completely wear out the shuttle... I still will use it, I guess, and just hope for the best (and maybe find a spare shuttle, if I can), but I thought it might be nice to have a more modern vintage treadle.  Somet...

I finished a larger-than-usual (for me) diamond painting, since last time.  There wasn't much left to do, after I filled in most of it while Donald was travelling in July.  (He went to a figure-painting show in the Netherlands, then visited his family in Sweden.)  I needed a break from it, so set it aside.  The last 1.5 inches or so went pretty quickly, once I got it back out again.   It's a 40x60 cm diamond painting, with an image of jars of wildflowers against a dilapidated wall with peeling paint-- I mean, against a shabby chic wall.  😜   * * * Sidetrack!  Is shabby chic still "a thing"?  I'm sure some people are still decorating in that style.  In fact, I recently saw a decorating magazine where many things looked like the "primitive" or "country" style I remember from the 90s.  Are those things back in style or did they just never go away for the people who love them?   I think I've officially reached that ...

I'm back, and it hasn't even been a month since the last entry!  😁 Nothing new is finished, but I have a few photos to share. First up, here are the string blocks waiting to become HSTs.  I've made sure to use a wide strip in the center, since that's where they'll be cut in half.   I'm not sure how many I need, because I'm not sure how big the quilt should be.  I'll probably keep making at least a few more blocks, then sit down and do a little math to decide how many more are needed.   - - - - - - - Speaking of doing a little math, earlier this week I calculated how many more crumb strips I need to make a decent-sized throw quilt.  (This is the project with the 3"x10" strips of crumbs pieced onto phonebook foundation papers.)   At that point, the project still needed nineteen strips, but I've been making more since then and probably need only about a dozen more.  However, I'm very low on crumbs now, so that's temporarily on hold....

As mentioned in the last entry, I've reached the point in the crumb quilt where I needed to jump in and start piecing letters and words.  The first few words'-worth 😜 of letters went pretty well, I think.  Then I thumped over a speed bump and slowed right down.   It might have been that those first letters just happened to be "easy" ones, and then I came to one that wasn't so easy.  Or maybe I just ran out of steam or got distracted... I'm not sure why, but I lost my mojo for piecing those letters.  I have quite a few left to do, and I'll get back to them soon, but I'm not going to push it, since there's no deadline.  (I've been feeling rather stressed in general, lately, so that probably has something to do with it!) If anyone's interested, I'm using the freestyle letter-piecing method outlined in  Word Play Quilts , by Tonya Ricucci.  It looks like it's out of print.  There are second-hand copies floating around out there, but I ...

Warning! 😉  This is a particularly long blog post.  It's essentially everything I know and want to remember about a new-to-me sewing machine, so it probably has a lot more information than anyone else (except possibly a budding fan of vintage sewing machines) would ever want or need.  Tl;dr version:  I bought a treadle sewing machine and am excited about it. 😁 - - - - - - - I've thought for a few years, now, that I'd like to someday try a treadle sewing machine.  It would be nice to know that I can sew even without electricity.  I don't exactly expect to need  to do that, but still, it would be good to know that it's possible.  I do live in a place where hurricanes can knock out power for days, if not weeks.  I probably wouldn't feel like treadling away in the aftermath of a hurricane (it's so hot and sticky, and you're likely to be too physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausted to feel like sewing!), but you never know.  We also ...