Observations of the Day – August 8, 2019

GUESS WHAT?!?!?!?

Observations for the Day:

I FINISHED A QUILT!!!!! Now Hubby can quit bothering me about it. It’s not perfect, but it’s made with love and I learned a lot. I also watched a bazillion binding videos. Thank heavens for YouTube! I hope My Pretty One gets many years of use out of it (and sorry mama Elissa for the spoiler if you’re reading this since I haven’t mailed it yet!).

• That bias basting foot was not my friend even after watching YouTube tutorials. Anyone with links, tips or just words or encouragement would be appreciated.

• I also got these fabric bias tape makers in 6MM 12MM 18MM 25MM sizes and a Clover 2-Inch Bias Tape Maker. I also have a 2 ½” and a 4 ½” strip AccuQuilt die. I used the 2 ½” for this binding and NONE of the tape makers work. As you well know, my degree is in English cuz I can’t do math. And millimeters really???? Couldn’t they have included both metric AND inches? My generation didn’t learn metric and it annoys me to have to convert it on Google! Soooo, with all that being said, is there a worksheet that someone has handy with cut sizes in inches for the tape makers and/or a solution to the AccuQuilt problem? I’ll pay it forward next blog.

• You know that good news/bad news thing I do? Here’s one:
  • Bad news – my Brother PE770 decided to mega nest every time I try to use it.
  • Good news – there are YouTube videos for that.
  • Bad news – nothing seemed to work but one suggestion was to replace the bobbin case.
  • Good news – Amazon delivered a new one to my house today (the UPS man worries that something has happened to me if I miss a day).
  • Bad news – damn thing still nests.
  • Great news – I’m buying a Meridian, the brand-new release from Baby Lock. This baby is so advanced, it might just cook hubby supper so I don’t have to!
  • Bad grumpy face news – Baby Lock won’t let LQS even order it until August 15^th so I have to wait and we all know how good I am about that!
  • Additional information – hubby got all twitchy when I first told him the price, especially on top of the recent Crescendo purchase. He’s down to just a few tics now…

• Know how to use a seam ripper? I thought I did until I came across this video from Margaret at Let’s Learn to Sew . She just glides jack right across that fabric like butter! I was doing the “pick and rip” method. It was a little awkward at first, but now I’m a pro (been sewing stupidly lately so I had lots of practice!).

• Can anyone tell me what this foot is for (on the left)? It’s not a ¼” foot and it’s not an edge-joining foot – it’s somewhere in between. I have a ¼” foot on the right for reference. Thanks in advance!

• I went to my first Kimberbell class this past weekend – the Spooky Soiree. I made a coaster, a candy tube holder, a cutlery holder and what was supposed to be a hat, but I decided to leave off the headband part and use it as a decoration. You can see other ideas on the above link. My LQS loaned me a Baby Lock Solaris and I must admit that I swooned a couple of times. Get this – my hoop came apart mid-project which would normally be a disaster, but the ever-so-patient Stephanie re-hooped it, took a picture with the machine, overlaid the placement diagram over the picture and lined that sucker up. Project saved! Here are my goodies:

• Look at this darling mini cabinet I bought from Etsy to store my growing collection of presser feet in!

• I also bought a Creative Grids 15 Degree 9.5″ Triangle Quilting Ruler Template  because I saw it on a YouTube Christmas tree skirt tutorial. Does anyone have one of these? It might make a Barbie-sized skirt because it is TINY! I’ll have to go back and find the video again to see how they used it (must have taken my Ambien cuz I don’t remember LOL), but I’m dubious.

• We watched #1 daughter’s dogs while they went on vacay to Florida. Baby Chaos must have thought Rat (Taquito) was cold.

•   Next time I’ll have an update on Baby the Biscuit and Sonshine’s quilt. Let’s just say that her quilt involved 252 2 ½” squares of just one color and convinced me to keep my AccuQuilt system.

• Until next time, keep sewing my friends!