Off the Clock

I have been really busy this last few weeks.  Further to my post the other day, I finished up the second sundress for granddaughters and made the two pens for my inlaws.   Mom had some labels made up for us a few years ago and I just ran across them.  Seemed like the perfect way to easily show which side is the back.  This was a really fun project.  The pink dress was sewn on the Brother.  I set the stitch length to 3.5 and increased the tension to 5.  Then the Brother broke down on me and is in for repair.  I tried using the Pfaff for the blue one but no matter what I tried I couldn't get any tension on the elastic.  So I pulled out Black Betty (the Janome heavy duty mechanical machine), set the stitch length and tension the same as I did for the Brother and it did a beautiful job. The brown pen is made from a maple burl.  That one is for my brother-in-law who does a lot of woodworking.  My sister-in-law is very connected...

Just a little "catch up" post on some things I've been working on. I began quilting by taking a class at my local quilting store.  This was a year ago but I never posted a pic of my finished project, so here you go: It is a lap sized quilt and I've been using it for sitting outside on cool evenings when camping.  Speaking of camping, I also wanted to make a quilt for the trailer.  I needed to protect the couch from Thor and also just to have an extra blanket on hand.  Well, Thor got very sick after our last camping trip and we lost him while I was working on this quilt.  I sewed in the sunroom keeping him company while he tried to recover from his surgery.  Somehow that makes the quilt even more meaningful for me.  I've got the quilt pieced and am ready to make the backing, sandwich and quilt it. I used a package of Northcott's Stonehenge strips and embroidered wolves, bears and other wildlife on alternating squares.  I used up every s...