DVD Steelbook Quilts

Hubby was so excited. He got more steelbook DVDs in the mail and laid them out to admire them. LOL. He said "See, I can make a quilt too!" *rolls eyes* Then he says excitedly, "3 more and I have a whole quilt!" ROTFLOL





I had no idea he had this many. Most come from Futureshop, a store in Canada from someone on Ebay.

I made his day when I did a search for "steelbook" in the Ebay search. I found him the "Indiana Jones" trilogy steelbook for pre-order. He was dancing around so excited.

"I never thought of looking that way for them. I just put in titles to see if they had one", he said.

*sigh* This is the man who can find DVDs for ridiculously low prices yet can't search for them in Ebay??

He's now looking for the last X-men movie steelbook because, "It has claw marks from Wolverine etched into the box!!!" It's only found in the Futureshop stores who can't or won't send items out of Canada. (Idiots) The last copy he found went for almost 300 dollars on Ebay the other day. All this for a metal box with claw marks on it.

Finished Cathedral Windows Top

It's done!! I still have some blanket stitching around the edges but the top is done!! This was more work than I thought it would be but it turned out FABULOUS! Thank you so much to those who sent blue fabric.

It's hard to believe this started out as circles:


To a few squares:


And to a partially finished quilt:


I still need to quilt it. I'd like to tie it with baby blue yarn so my daughter can help. I'm not sure how else to quilt it except for monofilament thread and going around the inside of the squares. Any ideas?

Mariner's Compass Quilt finalization designs

I played some more with my Mariner's Compass quilts today. I'm a little closer to what I want but still not there. It's one of those "I know exactly what I want; I'll know when I see it" things.

I was hoping hubby would take me to a fabric store about an hour away today but he can't. They have funky hours and with hubby sleeping days that makes it so much harder. Epilepsy just sucks.

I've also thought about doing a whole cloth quilt using the mariner's compass. I did figure out that I can print the quilt full size (70x70) on about a zillion sheets of paper. Then I can tape them together and transfer them to freezer paper. From freezer paper to fabric and then machine quilt. I have 25 yards of white fabric. I'd have to do some more quilting to fill in the empty spaces, but it would work. Most whole cloth quilts are all flowery. I like the geometrics of this.

"Mountain Sunset" Bargello Quilt

Here's a picture of my bargello quilt. I'm almost done with the quilting but still need to do the borders. This has been a fun quilt to design. I used metallic, rayon and cotton thread to free motion quilt it. It's turned really nice and the quilting gives it texture and motion.



Here's a more detailed look at the quilting:

Fusible Batting

I ADORE fusible batting. I tried it out for the first time on my blue star quilt today and fell in love. I laid the batting out on the floor and then put the top on. Starting in the middle of the quilt I started pressing out toward the edges.  Put your iron on high and keep pressing.  I'm not sure what brand I used but it's used for quilting.  It's either Warm and Natural or a Harriet Hargrave brand.  It's fusible on both sides and it's not the 4.99 craft stuff.  (I actually sit/crawl on my top doing this) It was wonderful to have it all stay in place and not ripple all over. Next I flipped the top/batting over and pressed the backing to the batting. No pinning and the entire quilt stuck together! This is amazing!

Jenny Haskins has a fusible fleece and you can see my use with it if you click on the header as it takes you to the newest posts.  It's much thinner and softer.  

I bought one of those new marking pencils by Bohin. Choked on 12 bucks but having a mechanical chalk pencil is SO worth it. I tested it out on the fabric and it came out. I made a template of the above pattern and traced it onto my quilt. So far so good!

I got out my blue silk thread and started at it. Here's the finished square. I free motioned the entire block and NOTHING shifted or moved!! I'm so excited. Fusible batting rocks!

Here's the picture of the top.

Back Basting

I thought I'd share how to back baste for hand applique. It's actually really easy and a great way to baste.

First trace the pattern onto the paper side of freezer paper. This pattern is from the "Virtues" quilt that I am working on.


I traced it first in pencil and then went over it in black marker. I also drew in the center lines for easy placement with the fabric. On the back of your block lightly mark the center lines as well.

Put the freezer paper on your ironing board paper side down. Next, using the center lines place the FRONT of your block onto the freezer paper. The back of your block is up facing you. Press the fabric to the freezer paper. Because you used black marker, you can easily trace the design in pencil to the back. No light boxes or tape. One easy step.

You will need a light box of sorts now. I take my acrylic table that I got with a previous machine and add my OTT light. You can use any light that will fit underneath. Works great.



Take the fabric you are going to use and place it on top of the light box. Take the fabric block and place the block on top of the fabric. Using the light box, you can see the design that needs to be basted. I don't know if you can see the pencil marks, but this is the back of my block. Green fabric for the leaves are under it.



Got thread you absolutely hate?? This is your chance to use it. Baste around the pencil lines with that thread. Make sure it's visible enough for the fabric you are using. In my case I've used this terribly ugly yellow thread. It's hard to see where I basted because the back is yellow.

After you have basted around the pencil marks, turn it over and now your piece is basted ready for turning under. Take your scissors and carefully trim the fabric around the yellow basting stitching. As you applique, take out the basting stitches. Where the stitches were made, you can follow them as a guide. It's so simple and easy. It's my favorite method of applique.

Janome 6600 table and Paint Sponges

I got an email from a lady looking for this table as she couldn't find it. I checked on Ebay for Kens Sewing Center and couldn't find it. Wow. So I did a Google search for Ken's website and called him up asking about this table. He said Janome no longer allows him to ship out-of-state and had to shut down his Ebay store because of it. Geesh. Talk about getting ruthless Janome. When I asked how come he has these tables and my Janome dealer has NO clue what I am talking about he said that most dealers don't carry acessories. They just want to sell machines. He said he sold hundreds of them all the time as the demand was so high.

I emailed Janome and let them have it (politely of course) about my frustrations of my dealer not knowing about this table and that their new rule was unfair to us as the consumer. They won't care of course, but at least I feel better.

SO since Janome is being stupid, if your dealer has no clue what you are talking about give them this part number: 494702002 for the Janome Sewing Cabinet. It took me forever to find it on the Janome website.

Hopefully that clears up some things for people who want this Janome table.

Next problem LOL.
I've been using invisible thread for a week now without any problems until today. Sigh. Of course I need to get this project done ASAP so I can mail it out when problems hit. I had just changed needles and was quilting along nicely when there was this loud CLUNK and my needle broke. Of course it's my last size 60 needle. I rethreaded the machine and put in a new size 70 needle and proceeded to sew. CLUNK and the needle breaks. Today really isn't my day. I check the thread path again and realized that the thread was getting caught up in the thread stand thingy. The invisible thread is twisting around the thread holder. I try my big thread holder and as I watching it, it got twisted up again.

I really can't can't win today. The invisible thread is all twisty like from being on the spool and I really needed better tension. Then it hit me. My mom has a thread stand that she got from her Viking dealer years ago. It has a foam thingy that you put your thread through and creates wonderful tension. Of course when I checked the Viking store a couple of years ago when I was visiting my mom they said the stopped carrying those about 10 years ago.

I had hubby drive me to my local Pamida and got a few of those cheap wide foam brushes in the paint department. They are just like the sponge thingy on my mom's thread holder. I carefully took out the handle and realized it was just perfect to fit over the the two thread paths over my Janome 6600.


IT WORKED. I took a needle and pushed the invisible thread through the foam and followed the thread path. No problems whatsoever. Whoo Hooo! Yeah, I know about the safety pin trick but the thread was twisting up by the bend in the holder.

My day is going so much better now. I just need to put a sleeve on the back of the quilt and keep working on hubby's quilt. I don't know if the foam works for thicker threads (my mom's stand does) but for invisible threads, it's perfect.

It's nice to know I'm not nearly as dumb as I think I am.










494702002