Too Many Baby Gifts

I've been working on baby gifts, 8 of them. Seems like lots of women at the school where hubby works are having babies, all about the same time. So I've been making tiny, little dresses, fancy jackets from silk, little kimonos, & bonnets. Each of these tiny items takes several hours to put together, counting all the decorative & heirloom stitching, the lace & trims, not to mention, the small amount of space there is to sew. Have you ever tried to make tiny sleeves without sewing them together? It takes time, you must go slow to avoid sewing tubular things like sleeves together. It's a lot more difficult than it sounds, believe me.

This week, my quilt guild is going on a field trip. We shop for fabric, visit other quilt shops in the area & eat. We're going to southern KY Tuesday. This time my daughter's going too. She's psyched about it. I was waiting till the morning or the trip to make a final decision about going, depending on the weather & how I felt, but it looks like I'll be going anyway, regardless of how I feel, otherwise, daughter will be disappointed & I'll have to listen to her whine about not going. Oh well, I probably need a day out, away from it all anyway. More about the trip later. I'll go back to making baby outfits. . .

Heirloom Sewing

I've been interested in heirloom sewing for a few years, dabbling in it off & on. Well, I'm back on for now. I'm learning techniques about the craft. There are several women at the school where my husband works who are having babies, so I will have somewhere for the projects to go once they're finished, provided they don't turn out as total disasters. At this writing, I'm working on a christening outfit. I have it cut out & am designing the fancy parts now. I'm learning about stuff like entredeux & mederia applique, wing needles and pin tucks and such. I'll get there, eventually. I'll post some photos of the projects when finished.

Marriner's Compass Quilt Problems

I had major problems with this quilt on the Grand Quilter, which kept coming un- threaded half way through a quilting run. So I took the quilt off the frame & proceeded to finish the quilting on my little Bernina. I finished it, but it looks lousy, at least the quilting part. I'm totally aggravated with the Grand Quilter,a Pfaff product. It does this to me every time I use it (coming un-threaded in the middle of a run, often multiple times). I have had the tech & the shop owner work with it to tell me nothing is wrong with the machine, I'm going too fast. I slow down, it happens anyway. Anyone want to buy a lightly used Grand Quilter & frame? I have to bind the huge quilt yet. I was thinking about putting it in the Spring Quilt show, but now I'm not so sure. Maybe people will notice the design on the top & not the quilting so much. Anyway, I got some nice comments which I appreciate. That alone encourages me to continue the project. Once I finish it, I'll just have another bed quilt for my bed (king size) & one for the cats & dog, who sleep with me, to lay on. Oh well, life goes on.

The New Quilt

Here's photos of my new quilt, the one that began as a 4 foot project & ended as 99" square. Its huge!!The next hurdle is to quilt it. There are also some detail pics of the project. The ends of the quilt have half mariners compasses & the corners are new york beauty blocks.