Stash Buster Report December 5, 2015

I've had a lot of sewing time this week and have made some headway on my crossroads quilt. I've bought and cut a lot more fabric than I'll probably use on it though. I'm not really satisfied with it and have been trying out more combinations - thus the purchases.

With some of the excess fabric, I cut out some hexagons for these cute coasters I saw on Lisa J's blog sunlight in winter quilts.



Linking to Patchwork Times.

December's UFO

I was soooo close when I took down my design wall flannel, and then completely forgot about this little quilt. This is the unfinished quilt I plan to finish in December, although with everything going on this month, even it may be a challenge.








Linking to A Lovely Year of Finishes – December Goal Party at Sew BitterSweet Designs.

Design Wall Monday

Yes, I know, it's on the floor, not the wall. My "design wall" has been taken down for the moment so the floor it is.


I completed the block portion of this quilt and thought I'd take a picture before I hand it off to the group. Don't look carefully; it's far from perfect. But it's done and right now that's worth celebrating. I don't know if someone there will finish the borders or if they will give it back to me to do once they find the border fabric. Seems like they chose fabric for it originally, but since the size changed, they may change that too.

This is all I got done this weekend, besides cutting a few blocks for a trial run on a new quilt.

Linking to
Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times.
Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt
Design Board Monday at Bits 'n Bobs
Main Crush Monday at Cooking up Quilts

Stash Report Sunday Week 48

I finally found time for some sewing and succumbed to the call from some pretty fabrics so I thought I'd update my stash report.




I bought a few yards of muslin to make a new shower curtain and while at the store, I bought some fabrics to start a quilt for my guest room. It was my consolation prize for making a boring shower curtain and putting together quilt blocks for someone else. I bought eight yards of pastel prints and added them to some that I already had. The colors in this quilt are going to be primarily green and pink.

I started the year with a stash total of 441.75 and am now at 445.25. Next year I need a weekly or monthly goal to keep me on track.



Linked to Stash Report at Patchwork Times.

Sewing Room Sunday

Before we went to Missouri, I bought a used Grace Machine Quilter frame. I finally put it together this weekend and tried it out. It's definitely not as smooth as a long arm but much cheaper. Much, much cheaper. It came with the basic frame, a queen/king extension kit, and a pattern perfect setup.

With the basic frame, free motion quilting is done by standing on the far side and holding the handles like with a long arm. But the sewing machine's foot pedal is mounted on top of the sewing machine and the handle to press the pedal is at the top of those grips, and I find it very uncomfortable. But it can also be used from the other side when using a printed design. There is a wood stylus that can be attached to the side of the sewing machine carriage to trace the design. This is my first attempt using the stylus. Not to bad with a wandering pattern, but would look pretty bad if it was something with a recognizable pattern, like circles.

This is one of the wood pattern perfect pieces. They attach outside the frame but I want to enlarge the slots that are used to adjust side to side for a better offset.

The instructions on assembling the table were good, but really lacking in everything else. I found a video that showed the frame with the pieces on it, so between that and the instructions, I managed to get it on. I used the previous owner's leader cloths, but I need to make some that work better.

Now the bad part. I don't have anywhere to put it. It's in the living room now, which is also my sewing room, but it can't stay out except when it's being used. So now I have to figure out how to take the legs off to store it, or something else besides taking it completely apart every time. It took hours to put it together this time and it already had some of the pieces together. I'm sure it would get easier with time, but spending the better part of a day assembling is just not something I want to do every time I want to use it.

See the towels on the floor under the frame?  I need to get a rug to protect the floor from scratches before I trip over a towel.