She's back!!!

My favorite machine (Ms. Sapphire) was out of commission for almost two full weeks. UGH! 

Yesterday hubby went for a nice scenic drive to Warrenton, VA with me to pick up my beloved machine from Kelly Ann's Quilting.  They took such good care of her and got her back into working order.  It's really kind of cool that the machine keeps track of actual sewing hours and I logged over 225 hours over the last 13 months. WOW! 

 While my beloved machine was away for repairs, I was using my old Janome and she did very well.  She even cooperated when I tried out free motion quilting on her. The sewing bed is pretty small and I don't have an extension table for her, so there wasn't a lot of room to move the quilt around.  I decided to wait on quilting the Craisy Daisy and Jelly Roll Quilts until Ms. Sapphire came home. 

With that decision made I had several days to wait, so it was time to pick something from my WIP pile and see what kind of progress I could make. I picked a mystery quilt that I had collected all the steps for and made fabric choices from my stash, but never made it any farther.  After a few days of cutting and piecing I've made it through 4 of the 6 steps, and now it goes back into the WIP pile.

Mystery Quilt Progress

While Sapphire was out of commission here's what I accomplished:

Pieced and sandwiched Craisy Daisy & chose a free motion quilting pattern

Completed a Jelly Roll Race Top & Sandwiched it

Made it a little over half way through the mystery quilt top.

Now I'm off to practice free motion daisies on Ms. Sapphire and see how she likes them.
My goal this week is to completely finish the Craisy Daisy quilt and be able get it into the mail next week.

Blessings & 

Happy Stitching!

Marcia

P.S. Don't forget to stop by the shop and take advantage of the Snow Days Discount Extension
(Through Jan 31st)

Snow Days

Snow Days Discount Extended through January 31st

Now is the time to get that bundle of fabric you've had your eye on in the shop. 

With the additional savings Saltwater by Tula Pink is available at a 30% savings! 

Don't miss out.... this is only available for 3 days (Jan. 25-27). 

Enjoy Your Snow Days Discount! 

Blessings &
Happy Stitching!
Marcia 

Visit the shop: 

Quilt Top in a Day {Jelly Roll Race}

With yesterday being an official Holiday {Martin Luther King Jr. Day} I thought it would be a good idea to give myself an official day off and spend the day doing something just for the fun of it.

My Jelly Roll Race Quilt Top

I've been wanting to test out the quilt pattern known as, "The Jelly Roll Race" and I had the perfect jelly roll in my stash for my play time. 

The Jelly Roll I started with

Okay....so for those of you who have never heard of the Jelly Roll Race,  it's a race to create a quilt top from a Jelly Roll that a lot of quilt guilds have been doing at their guild meetings. 

Here's how it works:

1. Unroll the jelly roll.

2. Pull out 2 strips and lay the ends at 90 degrees to each other {with right sides together) and sew corner to corner to create a 45 degree seam. {Yes it matters which corner to corner you sew...test one to make sure you have it right before doing your whole stack}.

3. Continue adding strips {either exactly as they come off the stack or randomly pull one out of the stack} until you have all the strips sewn together in one long strip.

4. Trim off all the extra fabric flaps on the seams.
EDITED TO ADD: 
5. Cut approximately 18" off of one end of the strip. This will make it so that the seams are staggered throughout the quilt. The piece you cut off is no longer needed it can go in the  scrap bin. (Thanks Beatrice for pointing out the absence of this all important step!).

6. Find the end of your strip, holding the end of the strip pull through the fabric until you come to the other end of the strip. {This is where the race begins} Lay the two end right sides together and begin sewing the two strips side by side with one very long seam. When you get near the end of this long strip you'll find a fold on the very end...stop sewing. Your going to cut this fold {right on the fold} to create two completely separate strips that you've been sewing together. Finish stitching the two strips together. The single long strip you started with is now 2 strips stitched side by side and half the length.

7. Open up the two pieces, holding one end find the other end and again lay the strips right sides together and sew to the other end stopping short of the end to cut the fold apart, then finish stitching the strips together. Now you have 4 strips sewn side by side and once again it's half the size.

8. Continue laying the strips right side together, sewing a seam and cutting the fold until your piece is just over a yard wide {with the strips running horizontally}.   My finished top ended up being 50" x 60", your finished size will depend on how many strips are in the jelly roll you are using.

All of the tutorials I've seen say that this quilt top can be done in about an hour.  It took me a bit longer than that, but only because I couldn't get past my perfectionist tendencies and I was only racing against myself, so I still won the race. hehehe

A few tips:

Keep an eye on your bobbin thread, I used 2 full bobbins.

Don't worry about perfection and it'll go much quicker. 

After sewing all the strips end to end I pressed all the seams in the same direction {before sewing the strips side by side}. 

While sewing the top I didn't press any of the seams. Once the top was finished I pressed all the seams in the same direction.

When Cutting the fold, use the scissors to pull the fabric straight and cut right on the fold. 

Here's a fun video from Jenny Doan demonstrating the Jelly Roll Race:

This afternoon, I'm going to see if my little Janome feels like doing some free-motion quilting and if she does I'm going to use this jelly roll top to practice the free-motion daisies that I want to use to quilt the Craisy Daisy Quilt.

Happy Stitching & 

Many Blessings,
Marcia

P.S. Hop over to the shop at www.littlepinkrose.com and checkout all the new additions and discounts in the Bargain Bin. All of the Salt Water Collection by Tula Pink is 20% off this week as well. While you're over there be sure to sign up for our Newsletter and never miss out on sales or coupons.

Craisy Daisy Top Ready to Quilt

I have to say that little Ms. Janome has done a fantastic job this week!

She did such a great job that I was able to accomplish my goal of finishing the 

Craisy Daisy Quilt top before the end of the week.  

I've been playing with some ideas about how to quilt this one and I think I've settled on an all over Free Motion Daisy Pattern. Something similar to this.....

Free Motion Quilting  Practice - Daisies

I think this may look a little more like clovers than daisies, so I will definitely be practicing more this week, while my Husqvarna (that I use for free motion quilting) is being repaired. I could try to do the free motion quilting on the Janome, but in the past I've had lots of issues doing free motion on it and I really don't want to fight with it, especially not on a new design.

Happy Sewing! 

Marcia

P.S. Hop over to the shop at www.littlepinkrose.com and checkout all the new additions and discounts in the Bargain Bin. All of the Salt Water Collection by Tula Pink is 20% off this week as well. While you're over there be sure to sign up for our Newsletter and never miss out on sales or coupons. 

Pulling out the Old Machine {& WIP update}

My poor Sapphire (yes I named my sewing machine) is sick and in desperate need of a trip to the hospital. But, just like a real doctor the next available appointment was over a week away.  At least I know that Sapphire's doctor is an expert and will take good care of her, sending her home ready to get back to work. 

In the meantime I'm pulling Ms. Janome off the shelf and praying that she won't be as difficult and temperamental as she was the last time we tried to work together.

Ms. Janome

To entice her into behaving herself, I took her apart, cleaned out some fuzz and gave her a drink of oil in all those strategic places laid out in her care manual and prayed for the best. 

Praise the Lord! 

So far she is producing some beautiful stitches and working amazingly surprisingly well!! 

Here's what Ms. Janome and I have done so far this morning.....

Craisy Daisy Baby Quilt

I am a bit concerned (and maybe it's just me) about my choice of the solid Citron Green pieces in the quilt...seems a bit harsh or overwhelming to me, so on the design wall it went.  I needed to see it all laid out. After laying it out (as seen above) I do like it a bit better than I thought I would. 

I'm thinking that using either a light pink or white thread for the quilting and adding some stitched daisies in the Solid and light pink squares will bring it all together in a satisfying way.  

Any thoughts? Should I scrap the solid green and find something different for those pieces? 

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts! 

Happy Stitching &

Many Blessings,
Marcia