Tag Archives: Featherweight

Stash Report – Week 7, 2015

IMG_5876 IMG_5875

Yesterday, we had high tea at a new to me tea house in Woodland Hills.  I was very surprised to learn that they were there for 10 years and I never knew about them.  I love having high tea.  I love to dress up, enjoy a good cup of tea, scones, etc. But, best of all, I love to talk with whoever comes with me about what’s going on and simply enjoy ourselves.  The girl and I used to go to high tea when we were up north regularly.  I hope we can continue that practice now that we’ve found and enjoyed this place.  Maybe we can bring some friends to join us to share this experience.

 

Scrapitude  Clue #2 Finished  2/14/2015

Scrapitude
Clue #2
Finished
2/14/2015

Other than going to high tea, I spent most of the day in my sewing room.  I finished clue #2 for Scrapitude.

"Lola" 2/15/2015

“Lola”
2/15/2015

I cut the last two pieces of fabric and finished designing the secret project.  I like it much better with the new additions.  I’m glad I waited rather than just lived with what I had.  The top is pretty much done.  I’ve got 3 final rows to put together and then I can sandwich it and quilt it.  The best part of this project was that I used the featherweight for the first time.  I had to read the manual to learn how to put the bobbin in and thread the machine.  It wasn’t difficult.  But I was still scared.  It’s a really old machine!  But I LOVE it!  The first few stitches were big stitches but once I figured out how to adjust the stitch length it was wonderful.  They weren’t lying when people said that the stitches sew a nice straight line.

I also used the time to think about what I would name her.  I’m not very creative with naming my machines.  I’ve got Bernina and I’ve been thinking of the midArm as Bailey.  But I couldn’t call this featherweight Singer, my first machine was a borrowed Singer from my mom.  It worked but it was cheap and loud and when I got it going, it would shake the table I was on.  It worked, it did it’s job, but I didn’t love it.  So I can’t call the featherweight Singer.  And I can’t keep calling it Featherweight.  In my mind, it wasn’t working.  I decided to call her “Lola”.  In my culture, we call our grandmothers Lola.  And that is what this machine reminds me of, an older lady, to be respected, and probably the kind of machine my Lola used if she sewed.

So on to the stash report – nothing was finished so nothing was used.  Remember I received 3 pieces for the secret project so I added 1.5 yards. 🙁  That’s okay.  I definitely bought way too much fabric for this project but I think I’ll be doing more secret projects to get the fabric used. Woohoo!

Used this week: 0 yards
Used year to Date: -14.25 yards
Added this week: 1.5 yards
Added Year to Date: 21.75 yards
Net Added for 2015: 7.5 yards

see more stash reports at  Patchwork Times

~Have a quilty week!

Melanie

Happy Valentines Day!

happy vday

On special days, like today, and the hubby asks what I want to do – I would love to stay in my sewing room all day… It’s heaven!

So the plans for today is to finish up this month’s clue for Scrapitude…

Scrapitude Clue #2 1st half finished 2/14/2015

Scrapitude
Clue #2
1st half finished
2/14/2015

I have all of the first part done and was well on my way to finishing the second part last night when my thread broke.  I took the opportunity to clean the machine.  By the time it was all back together again, I was tired and went to bed.  Now its a new day and I’m sure I can get that second part finished this morning.

Next up will be my secret project, the new fabric came in and I’m not thrilled with it.  It’s one of the downfalls of buying fabric online.  I learned how to quilt from a traditional quilt shop and all my fabric is 100% cotton.  I do not know the difference between twill and satin and polyester and blends.  I don’t care to know.  Give me the good 100% cotton any day.  I’ll happily pay for it too. I don’t want to worry about bleeding or learning how to adjust my machine for different fabrics, etc.  Of course premium price doesn’t always mean that there aren’t issues but I don’t look for trouble if I don’t have to.  Anyway, all that to say that two of the three pieces of fabric I bought are usable.  The third would have been a great backing and but I’ve only got a half yard of it.  I may go back and buy more for the backing.  Of the two remaining pieces, one is 100% cotton.  The other is twill.  I have no idea what that is but it is thicker than regular fabric and I’m still going to use it because its adorable.  It just feels different, thicker, rougher.  I ordered the fabric from fabrics.com and I wouldn’t recommend purchasing from there if you could help it.  I ordered the fabric on 2/3/15 and they didn’t ship it out until 2/9/15.  That is a full 6 days which I think is unreasonable for online ordering.  Then it went via UPS ground and it took another 4 days to get to me from Georgia.  I could have paid more for faster shipping.  And I probably would have if I knew it would take 6 days for them to fulfill the order.

Once I get the fabric cut and the design laid out in a way I like I plan to use the featherweight for the first time.  🙂

Happy quilting!

Melanie

 

Stash Report – Week 4, 2015

My New Featherweight 1/24/15

My New Featherweight
1/24/15

I couldn’t restrain myself.  At Road2CA I found this little baby at a price I could not say no to.  I don’t have to clean it up or deal with broken bits.  I can thread it, plug it in, and start sewing.  I actually haven’t had the nerve yet but once I get through the awe of actually having one of my own, I’ll get going on it.  I made a bunch of purchases yesterday and I’ll be showing them off over the week.  But I want to spend the rest of the day working on a project so here’s the stash report:

I used half a yard on the little pin cushion I finished last Sunday  –

Pincushion 1/19/2015

Pincushion
1/19/2015

But I added yardage from Road2CA.  In previous shows, corduroy fabric was my fabric.  I first saw it at the Long Beach Quilt Show in 2012 and at every show and quilt shop since, I keep an eye out for it.  Now, my LQS carries a bit of it so.  I have a Corduroy quilt I’m working but I love the fabric so every time I see a different one, I buy a bit of it.  I didn’t see any at Road2CA this year.  Which made me sad at first.  Until I saw Moda’s Linen and now I am loving Moda’s Linen.  I do not know if I’m loving Moda’s Linen or linen in general but now I’ve got my eye out for linen.  So I’ve got 5.25 to add to my stash.

Moda's Linen

Moda’s Linen

In addition, I bought a kit.  I know I said no kits but I want to start making bags and bag kits are going to help me start learning how to actually do this.  It’s bad enough that I often cannot understand the patterns but to have to gather all the materials makes it really hard to get started.  So – I bought 1 kit to try it out.  (I have 1 kit here at home that I know of and maybe more stashed away).  I WILL get to it at some point.  I’m not sure how much yardage is in here but from the supply list I’ll round it to 2 yards.

IMG_5719[1]

 

I’m almost done with Flowers and Baskets – only the binding left to do so that will help with my numbers soon. In the meantime:

Used this week: .5 yards
Used year to Date: 7.5 yards
Added this week: 7.25 yards
Added Year to Date: 20.25 yards
Net Added for 2015: 12.75 yards

see more stash reports at  Patchwork Times

~Have a quilty week!

Melanie