Ever Wonder about Sewing Machine Needles?

One of the questions I had when learning to sew was about sewing needles.  How do you pick the correct one for the type of job you're sewing?   I have sewn now for about six years and until today I really didn't know if I was using correct size or type of needles.  I came across a website that changed that for me.  Pat Bravo has a PDF on needles over at Art Studio Fabrics.  I found it very helpful and thought it might help other women who questioned their choice in needles.  Hope it helps!

Wonderful Weekend

I am so in love with having weekends off.  Now I'm kicking myself for not trying before this year to get weekends off.  It's weird how we just go on with life day after day without much thought on how we can make our lives better.  It took me quite a while (about six months) to get a schedule change at work.  But like all really great things, it took time to make it happen.  The reason for my giddiness is that I feel like I'm newly married again!  It's so nice to have time with Zdenek.  It's nice to go out together and enjoy each other's company.

This weekend was full of fun times together:

First of all, we had morning coffee together on the patio.  It's still pretty hot in Arizona so morning is the only time we can spend on our patio.  But soon, we'll be having dinners out there.

On Saturday, we went shopping!!!  I haven't shopped for clothes in so long so I really enjoyed it.  I loved that Zdenek could tell me if  an outfit looked good on me or not.  Normally I would only do this with my sister but once in a while shopping with a man is OK!  I just believe my sister is the best person to shop with.  She has excellent taste, knows what looks good on me and we always have fun.  But she lives in Florida.  She wasn't available this past Saturday!

OMG...I almost forgot the best news of my weekend!  On Saturday, my niece had her baby!!!  Now I'm a great Auntie!  Sounds so weird to me.   My sister, Cindy, is the first of my siblings to become a grandma!  Her daughter, Brittany, had a little boy named Archer:

My sister, Cindy with her new grandson, Archer

On Saturday, we celebrated Octoberfest at a local German restaurant, Brat Haus.  They have a great outdoor sitting area full of long and short picnic tables under shade trees and umbrellas.  I didn't get a picture of waitstaff outfits but they wore old time German attire, I think it adds to the experience.  So we drank beer and enjoyed a sausage meal:

In addition to enjoying a meal out, we headed over to the park to enjoy Ballet in the Park!  Every year Arizona Ballet Company does several performances at different parks on a Saturday evening.  This was the first year we could go.   It was a beautiful night, the stars were bright and the performance beautiful.

(Of course, I had to have some Kettle Popcorn!)

(photo from AZ Ballet Company)

I did have some time to sew on Sunday.  I'm working on a project for a blog hop that I plan to write a post about this week.  It's all about English Paper Piecing.  It's a slow process but really great for my soul.  I love that I can make something by hand with just small pieces of fabric and thread.  This pattern is called Star Blossom by Rachel Hauser.  Rachel has a tutorial on her blog, Stitched in color.

Now, I'm wishing every day was a weekend :)

TGIFF

 

Today is my first day participating in TGIFF:  Thank Goodness It's Finished Friday!  Wow, I love how that sounds!  Although I'm still at work (don't anybody tell on me!) I did start and finish a project this week.  It's really a small project but I'm counting it all the same.

My bed needed a girly touch to it.  A few months ago, we purchased a whole new bedroom set.  Hopefully one that will last us the rest of our lives.  I couldn't believe how long we struggled to find one that both of us would like.  But we did find one!  Well, I need to take a picture of it for you but right now...you know, I'm at work!  Anyways, our bedspread has geometric pattern so it really needed something girly on it so I made us some new pillowcases and I LOVE them. 

I found a great pillow tutorial on YouTube by Crafty Gemini.  There are only three seams to sew.  EASY PEASY!    I plan to make more.

Umbrella Paper Piecing

I really love how my first umbrella turned out:

I wasn't fast at piecing this together but I'm definitely improving on the skill part of piecing!  I hardly used my seam ripper.  It's teaching me patience too! It took me about 2 1/2 hours to put together!

I purchased this pattern from Kristy at Quiet Play who offers three varieties of this pattern.  Of course, I chose the easiest one to try first.  I'm not dumb!  I can't wait to make more of them so I can make something beautiful with them.  I guess living in the desert makes me wishful for more rain...hence my fascination with umbrellas.  Thanks Kristy, I really like your pattern!

Cat in the Hat Quilt

Today I finished my quilt, Cat in the Hat, for my niece.  She is expecting her first little one in two weeks.  It's a small quilt  (measures 25x28 inches) to use in strollers and cat seats (opps! I mean car seat!)   Of course, I want it to be the quilt her baby loves!  I embroidered the baby's name under Thing One and Thing Two to make it more personable.  I purchased this pattern from Sheila  on Etsy.

Work in Progress

It feels like I haven't been here much...

However, I have been a busy bee :)

I am still working on organizing my fabrics:

All the fabric is better organized except
for my scrap bin.

All my fabrics are folded so that I can
see what's in each bin.  

I added more fabrics to this.   

 I haven't yet had time to organize the fabric by color but plan to do it in the next couple of weeks.

These are projects that I'm currently working on:

Dogwood Blossom Quilt:

I'm embarrassed  to say this project is still ongoing.  I work on this quilt a small bit at a time.  I'm still really on step two, which is the hand embroidery part that I have worked on for a few months.  It's hard because there are so many projects that are much quicker to finish so I work on them instead of this one.

Stash Attack!

Since organizing my fabrics, I realized I had way too many scraps.  I hate the idea of throwing them away because I think most can be recycled into another project.  Since learning English Paper Piecing method, I decided to dedicate some of my stash to make small projects such as these placemats:

Star Blossom, English Paper Piecing (EPP):

This was a project from Rachel's Handstitched: Camp Pearl class that I took over the summer.  I'm finally getting around to this project.  She had offered instructions for 16 projects!  Too many for me to do during the summer months so now I'm trying to get to some of them.  I'm really enjoying this project.  She's planning to offer the class again in 2013 and I highly recommend it if you're wanting to learn several different types of hand stitching.  I found her instructions very thorough, offering interesting and diverse  projects.  You can be a beginner  or advanced sewer.  On her blog, Stitched in Color, she offers several free tutorials where you could get a feel for her style.  At first, I couldn't get the hang of EPP but now I can hardly put it down.  I love the portability of this style of hand stitching.  I can even take it to work, whip it out and work on it when it's slow.

The finished project should look like this:

(photo by Rachel: Stitched in color)

Crochet Reversible Baby Blanket:

I'm so close to having this project done! I just need to stitch two sides of the fabric to the yarn and I'll be done :)  I'm making this for my niece, Brittany. She's having her first baby (a boy who's being named Archer)  in two weeks.  Brittany is the first of my sibling's kids to have a baby so it's very exciting for us.  I'm gonna be a Great Auntie... it is just so hard for me to comprehend this.  Surely, I'm not that old!  Anyways, I purchased this pattern from Sheila on Etsy.  (I love Etsy!)

( I embroidered Archer's name under Thing1 and Thing 2)

I made the same blanket for a friend's first grandchild, Leo: 

So I've been busy and hopefully I'll be able to report more progress next week.  My husband, Zdenek, came home from visiting his family in Czech Republic on Thursday; I'm enjoying some much needed couple time together.  I love having weekends off from the hospital.  I can say that having this time off so me and Zdenek can be together more often has made me a happier person.  

Sew long for now.....Kim

A great Day..Fabric was Involved!

Just thought I would share a bit of my day...

1.) Organized some fabric:

I decided to store smaller pieces of fabric in this unused sweater keeper,
still have plenty of room for more!

Not sure this will work...fabric height too high  but at least organized!

2.)  Went for a pedicure:

I love the color Orange!

3.)  I had to go to Crate and Barrel warehouse to check out furniture that was suppose to be delivered tomorrow.  This is the third time they are trying to deliver inferior furniture.  Not sure what to do about this.

4.)  Picked up my sewing machine from the repair shop.  It was been there 3 weeks!  I know! You feel my pain.  Well, don't  feel too sorry for me, I have another machine so I have been sewing!  I have a Janome Jem Platinum  760  that  I purchased when I decided to learn quilting about 5 years ago.  It's considered a three-quarter's machine.  SMALL!   The machine that was sick was my Janome Memory Craft 6600.  The tension was broken and needed repaired desperately.  I was putting tape on the tension dial to keep in one place!  So finally, I broke down and took it in.  Well, it was an expensive repair...see the repair ticket!  That's right, $123.00 Big Bucks!  I hope after this repair that I can make better stitches!  I kept blaming bad stitching on my sick machine...what if it's me that's the problem????  Of course, not!

5.)  Fabric......Right next to the repair shop is a fabric shop. I was drawn to it just like a moth to a flame!  I bought a five fat quarter bundle last week at this shop.   I fell in love with this fabric.  It's Laura Gunn, Garden Wall collection.  The store ran out of the floral print :(  I asked the owner if she could get more and she is going to call and see tomorrow.  I was afraid that she wouldnt 't be able to so I went on line and found a fat quarter bundle on Etsy  from sewlovefabrics!  I was so excited that she had it; I bought it on the spot.  I also purchased a couple other fat quarters.  Wow.  I said I wouldn't buy more fabric this month because of the repair bill...do you think my husband will notice???   No worries...he loves me!  I'll cook him something nice ;)

(Picture by sewlovefabrics)

While at the store today, I picked up a Thanksgiving Charm pack and a yard of Laura Gunn's Orange Painters Canvas:

I plan to sew a table runner using the X and O quilting pattern found at the Missouri Star Quilt Co.

Well, as you can see, I had a full day....;)  

P.S.  I think I might need to go to a fabric anonymous meeting....