lindsey marcella

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

 

(Washcloth pattern found here)

yummy

Off to a pre-Thanksgiving dinner with Derek's friends. I put together a little thank you for them:

 

2 pretty soaps, and 2 knit washcloths.

We bought a CSA this year for our Thanksgiving dinner. There's a lot of food...and things I've never had before. I made the 'menu' today and it should be fun!

 

cozy

 

A new set just in time for a dusting of snow.

 

No one even has to know that the hat is striped because I ran out of yarn.

 

The perfect light blue vintage button with some wear.

back-tack :: gifted

Here are the things I made/put together for Alison, my B-T4 partner.

 
Snowflake pincushion and paper box

 
Inside the box some soaps and lip gloss from my fav shop 4th Ave Soap Co

 
Japanese craft book - this was my fav page; I love those pillows

 
And a quilt. This was loosely based off of Amy Butler's Brick Path Quilt. The pom poms were supposed to be sewed in but that seemed kind of impractical to me. I wound up putting eyelets in the corners that are tiny and not really noticable, and the poms can be taken off for washing, etc.

 

  

Such a fun swap.

spoiled

not even joking! my back-tack 4 partner alison (ever heard of the sampler?!) sent me the most incredible package. when I showed derek he actually said "so are you going to send her a million more things now!?" she was so generous, and thoughtful...everything is so perfect. thank you so much alison. seriously!

*Updated* I was able to get some better photos so I've changed them out. There were a few more things in the package like the knit aid (vickie howell) book...but I had to take the sun as it came!

   

 

 

  btw. i am teaching derek to knit because he WANTS to learn.

keeping busy

I can finally share at least one thing that has kept me so busy.

 

The baby quilt I was working on for someone at work. This was very fun to make (I love chocolate and pink)...and it turned out just like I wanted.

 

Nice and big for either the crib or floor. And by big I mean bigger than crib, on the smallish side of lap.

 

The back is a great vintage sheet that matched perfectly and is so soft. Always careful with baby items I made sure this was safe and clean!

 

And for the back, a little name plate label. Isn't that a pretty name? I would've liked to have embroider the exact birthday, but I don't know when I would have been able to get it back to do that, so 2008 worked too. I gave this to Stephanie on Friday at her baby shower at work and I'm pretty sure she liked it.

Other things I've been working on : Back-Tack IV - package went out today! And some fun knitting. I've got something on my hat and around my neck but it's too dark for photos. Good thing these are finished because it snowed today!!!

sewing machine blues

Sew (get it?) you know how I was talking about how much I love my sewing machine? I was really in the grove last weekend. Sunday especially. I have a few things I'm working on that I would like to finish ASAP. Seems my sewing machine decided that was not going to happen. I was quilting away and flipped it over...the tension's screwy again! Knots and little skipped stitches. Now I have a lot to rip out. I mentioned before that it's a little iffy with gutermann thread which is my favorite. I have better luck with the cheapo stuff. I even brought out my old machine to try because I really wanted to finish up what I was doing. That started having issues! So A. it would appear my walking foot is somehow out of whack or B. the thread has changed and isn't as primo as before. I don't have anymore of the cheap stuff (and when I say cheap I'm just talking madeira) in the creamy color I love. Uck. I would just like to sew a little!

Off to rip rows and rows of icky stitches! And they're in the ditch too...

**Updated. I have the Viking Sapphire 870 Quilt. This is a machine I had researched and tested before I purchased it. I thought it was exactly what I wanted, and it was a big investment, even with help! I guess I am not the one who is having these issues, which makes me very frustrated and not too pleased with Viking. Here's what Juliette of Chickpea Sewing Studio says:

"My issue is the following:

when i move the needle to the left to topstitch the tension on the bobbin goes bad.

We tried all the floor models, even the designers (new) and it's the same thing. Here is the reason: the plate is much much wider than on old machines and the fabric is less supported. therefore for a straight stitch if you get a straight stitch plate that should help a lot. for the totstitching I bought a left-something- topstitching foot.
I sent mine to the repair person twice before I gave up (today). I will buy the plate as soon as they have one to sell me. I must say that I am angry to have to buy more things for such an expensive piece of equipment, especially since I had no problems before...

I call this a design flaw. They call it a trade off for having a much larger space for decorative stitches..."

I completely agree that this is a pretty big flaw. I wanted the extra space for machine quilting, but now I have a beautiful quilt with a raggedy messed up back that I have to rip. I will be visiting my machine store tomorrow to see if they have the plate, but also contacting Viking directly. I would think twice before purchasing a new Viking...which is sad because I loved my old 330 electronic!

 

This photo has nothing to do with the post. I just like these beads a lot!

see i still love sewing

I don't think this is just a sewing blog, or a quilting blog, or a knitting blog, or an embroidery blog, you get the picture. I don't limit myself to one craft, because it makes it so much more fun that way. Sure, I'll get in the knit zone for a few weeks, but I still go back to other things.

I think I can show this quilt now since it was shipped a bit ago. This is a quilt I made for my dad. It was kind of a thank you/b-day gift. See, he helped me get my lovely sewing machine. So I made a quilt! This is couch quilt. I wanted to make it pretty neutral, so I used pretty greens and tans. The stars are from the quilt along, then I just built out from there.

The colors were pretty hard to photograph!

   

I couldn't even get a good picture of the back. Oh well, just hope it arrived safe and sound and that it is liked.

 

This is a better idea of what the colors are like! See how off the above pics are?