My New Favorite Tool!

I know I may sound like a commercial, but I'm so in love with this product!! Lemme tell ya', I've been struggling with my crap machine for a really long time. My piecing just never seems to be as good as it should be. Points not matching up, rows totally crooked, blocks not turning out the right size, bla, bla, bla. For someone who's been quilting as long as I have, it's SO FRUSTRATING for the finished product to look like a total n00b put it together! I can't tell you how many times I've had to give a quilt with an apology! lol!! I tried presser foot after presser foot. I bought several guides. I even bought those magnetic doohickeys. I spent far too much money on far too many tools, all in an attempt to achieve that perfect scant 1/4" & ruler-straight line. Eventually, I came to the conclusion, that either I was the world's worst quilter or there was something wrong with my machine. After putting the machine away in frustration, and walking away from all of my projects for a year, I was determined to find out the answer. Well, after trying all of my tools again, and getting the same results, I'm convinced it's the machine. I think (even tho' I can't prove it) that my needle is set ever-so-slightly to the L of where it should be AND I know my feed dogs aren't working properly. We'll talk about the feed dog thing in another post, but no wonder none of those tricks worked for my seams!! The distance from the actual needle, to the edge of the presser foot, was off! Now, I was at a loss. If the machine itself was the problem, how was I to fix it?!

Enter, Pinterest. Yes! Really, again! lol! I happen to follow several quilters & one of them pinned this tool. I read the post & decided it was worth investigating. So, I googled it, and found a couple videos on how to use it. After watching the videos, and finding them for sale on Amazon for a decent price, I decided to give it a shot. I'm so glad I did! It is the best quilting tool I've ever purchased!!!

<--- Well, here it is! It's sorta hard to see how it works from just this photo, so I totally recommend going to the video link above.

How this differs from any of my other tools, is that it attaches, more specifically, it sticks to the bottom of the actual presser foot!! Why I think this worked for me, is because you have the scant 1/4" measured from the actual needle to the outside line - not from the edge of a tool to the needle. Do you see the small hole? Well, that's where the needle goes. Just make sure the solid line down the middle lines up, and Bam! Perfect seams!

 I'm tellin' ya, I think my needle is off-center! Once I put this on my presser foot & started sewing my half-square triangles, I could not believe the accuracy!! I actually had to square down the blocks for the first time ever! All of my points were perfect. All of them! I was so happy!! After years of struggling, I had finally found something to help me achieve that perfect seam! YAY!

If you read all the info about the Sew Easy Guide, you'll see that it's original purpose was for sewing half & quarter square triangles without marking. I do have to mention, that my half square triangles were far too big (10") for the tool. I still had to draw the diagonal line down the block. But! That was the only marking I had to do! I just lined up the solid line from the tool, with the solid line on my block & the tool helped me keep it all straight! It's so simple, it's genius.

If you're havin' issues with your seams, or just hate drawing all those ridiculous lines for your half & quarter square triangles, I highly recommend purchasing this. It comes in 2 sizes. I got both! Thanks, again, Pinterest!

A Quilt for Alice

Last year, a good friend of mine became pregnant with her first baby - a girl! I could not wait to make a quilt for her! So, I did the usual: I picked out some cute fabric, cut simple squares & pieced a lovely baby quilt. On a whim, I decided to back it with minky. What was I thinking?! How was I going to quilt that on my finicky machine?! *sigh* My machine totally ate it. Seriously. It got so stuck in the feed dog cavity (if that's what it's called lol), that when I finally freed it, there was a huge hole. Ugh! I was so mad!! My friend was moving from one coast to the other, and the shower was my last chance to see her before the big move & baby's arrival.  I decided I would just have to start from scratch & maker her one later.

It totally would have happened...except I got pregnant. doh! Morning/noon/night sickness, extreme fatigue, the works. On top of that, Dan traveled for 4 solid months and I was homeschooling. Even tho' I really wanted to, there was no way I was going to have the time or energy to quilt.  But, everything has a season, right? So, when the pregnancy was just about done & as I began to plan the quilt for my baby girl, I decided to go ahead & plan a replacement quilt, as well. Then, when my girlfriend said she was coming back for a visit, I knew it was time. So, I got to work!

I had a blast picking out fabric, choosing the pattern & sewing this quilt. My biggest issue was with the quilting. Back to that blasted feed dog problem. It was getting stuck - again! Even with just regular cotton backing. Ugh! This time, I decided not to force it. I took it off the machine, ripped the stitches I had sewn & hand tied it. You know, it turned out great!! I'm super happy with the results. For the first time ever, I could give a quilt without an apology! haha!

"Through the Looking Glass" - a quilt for Alice. 

It turned out super cute. I'm really happy with every part of it. 

 You know, life is constantly changing. Friends come, and they go. Sometimes the Lord moves you, and sometimes He moves the friend. But, a quilt...it moves right along with you, and it brings with it, the memories & the love of the one who made it. I put a whole lot of love into this one & I'm  quite happy to let it go.

Awww...don't you just love that happy face?! Man, I really do love quilting!! =D

A Walk to Remember

I'm so excited!! It's been a VERY long time coming! After all these years, this will be the first quilt I've made just for me!! I have kept the scrap fabric from about 7 different quilts, and am creating a very unique and very special quilt. I'm sure as I'm making it, and as I'm using it, I will be able to enjoy memory after memory of all the girls with whom I share the fabric.

This project is very much a representation of a large chapter in my life. Each piece of fabric represents someone who shared in that story and helped shape who I am today - in one way or another. This quilt will be very symbolic of my time and experiences at LBC. Beautiful, colorful, simple yet complex, full of character  - and finished. Let's face it - life changes! People grow up, move away, change ideals, mature, etc. We had a lot of wonderful memories (and a lot of sad ones), met a lot of great people, learned, grew, and made some life long friends. Finishing this quilt will definitely be finishing that great and terrible chapter, and I will at last be able to move on.

Please join me as I go (and grow) through this process!

Choosing fabric!

This is a large portion of the scrap that I have from those quilts. Each of them are so different from the others, that it was hard to envision how they would all fit together and coexist in one project. But as you can see from this photo, they go quite well!

I find it a bit ironic that the name of the pattern is "Bonds of Affection"

Choosing a Pattern:

When it was time to find just the right pattern, I turned to my stacks of quilt magazines and spent hours pouring over every page. I knew that I had lots of varying fabrics - and lots of varying white!. So, I figured it would all make a terrifically scrappy quilt! As I was looking, this one popped out and "called my name". I put it aside and went through all my other patterns, but at the end of all the searching, I knew this was the one.

Note my scribbles & re-scribbles. lol

Making it work:

Obviously, since the pattern was designed with a specific fabric in mind,  I needed to tweak it to work with what fabric I had. This is where the fun (and the math >.<) begins! It took me about 30 mins (and 2 Tylenol) to figure it out, but it was imperative to have exact directions, or the entire project could go wrong...so very, very wrong. lol








Cutting it up:

Fabric sorted & ready for pressing & cutting! (In my kitchen/dining room/classroom/quilt studio :D)

All pressed, cut, sorted & ready for piecing!

I'm really looking forward to working on, and finishing this project! I absolutely love sitting down to cut, sew, pres & fuss over every little detail.  After all the headaches, sore wrists, raw fingertips & piles of cut (& ripped out!) thread, I'll FINALLY have a quilt for me!  Yay!

**Over the summer, I'll be doing a few more posts on this project, as I go through it. I've named the quilt "A Walk to Remember." They will be more "instructional," so I'll be posting them on my other site, lissiegirlquilts. The site is still not all the way up yet, but I'll link to them when they become available. Thanks for following me on this journey! As always, leave your comments & suggestions. I'm eager to hear from you!**