The beauty of a Featherweight

I belong to a wonderful group of women who gather once a month and celebrate the Singer Featherweight.
The last few months we have been working on a kinda of round robin. Each month we make a block for someone in the group and then the next month we pass to another person, by the end we will each have a quilt block created by the most talented and loving women. Here is a bit of the quilts in process.

Blogging Tuesday

Well tonight is Blogging Tuesday...
 My husband wanted to learn to Blog so I am showing him the ropes. Funny thing is I am not very good at this. So for the next few weeks we will be experminting on layouts, designs, color themes and content. So if you know something and you want to share, please do so.

It's Friday Night

Well it Friday night, dinner was delicious and kitchen is cleaned. Thanks Hunny for doing the dishes. I have put on my calendar that this weekend was a personal at home quilt retreat. So I will be doing not too much more than quilting, pressing, pinning and quilting.
I have a few things that I need to finish

A Birthday present from my bestest friend. Her Birthday was Jan 21st. Ok so I am a little late, but home made gifts take more time than the mall. Pss it a secret I am making her a really cool table runner. You will see the picture after I have it completed.

Next project is a baby quilt for my new niece. Isabelle Lucia Hall, she is 7 weeks old and just beautiful and she lives in California. Sweet floral fabrics and appliqued hearts.

Last but not least, my son Broc who is going to Dental School at Tufts University in Boston. On March 26th he will be receiving his White Coat. This ceremony represents the transition from academic to clinical practice. So I am going to finish his T-Shirt Quilt from Villanova University.
It funny, while he was in college at Villanova I asked him a million times if he wanted a t-shirt quit and he said no. So Christmas 2009 guess what he brought home, 20 of his favorite t-shirts for a quilt.

What a great find!

Last Sunday my husband Gil and I went on a little date. We were on our way to a Chinese buffet and we saw an estate sale. Of course we had to pull over. Gil made a great find and found a children's sewing machine from the 50's. It is called a Little Betty Sew-O-Matic made by Straco.






My Friend Kelly who owns Glitz Beadz in Star www.glitzbeadz.com invited me to the Boise Bead Society last week. We learned how to make a herringbone spiral technique. It is pretty easy once you get the hang of it. It was a nice group of women . I plan to go back next month.

This last week we attended the Boise Basin Quilt Guild. Saw some great quilting friend and was so inspired by the show and tell. The speaker was Joyce Cambron. She just published abook, here is her website http://www.seamslikefunquilts.com/ Check it out she has some cool quilts and techniques.

1918 White Treadle Sewing Machine

Well I have been working on my 1918 White Treadle Sewing machine. Gil and I took it out of the cabinet and starting oiling and cleaning. At first it clinked when the needle went up and down but after a good oiling it sounds pretty good. It has a bit of grime as you can imagine for being almost 100 years old. I did a lot of research on the Internet and found some great websites on treadles and cleaning them. Here is a link in case you have one that you would to clean and restore.

http://www.treadleon.net/

I also was able to get a copy of the manual without paying $10.00. I called White sewing machine and they told me the year my machine was built from the serial number. They also told me that all cabinets were made in Cleavland Ohio. It is my understanding that my cabinet is rare, so I now will research who made it and how many were made. I am also including a picture of the attachments. Going to take me a while to figure all these out. I will keep you posted.

I learned to make Beaded Beads. I just love them and can't wait to make a whole bunch. I will post pictures soon

A New Beginning

Why do we wait till January 1st for new beginnings. I recently read a blog and the person asked why not make the changes in August. Well let's pretend this is August.

Since it has been ages since I posted lets just start with goals this year and then I will get to posting all the things I have made.

I have been following a few art quilt bloggers and recently posted was the Sketchbook Challenge. sketchbookchallenge.blogspot.com

I think this kind of challenge will enhance my art skills and develop my artistic goals. I invite you to join me on this adventure.

The challenge is posted every month and you are to sketch the theme of the month. I am going to follow this challenge but I am going to take it a little further. I am going to draw in my sketchbook but I am also going to quilt my sketch with non conventional material.

The first month theme is "Highly Prized".....

I will post as I go along and reflect on the process.

I have been using my featherweight recently and now I want to get to my treadle. I got my treadle in Canada a few years back and it has been a great lamp table. So I am going to try to find the manual and tune it and play with it.

So here is to new Beginnings and to Quilting, Beading, Knitting and Blogging.......

Did I miss February?

Some how I missed the whole month of February! Fear not; I still did some creating. As many of you know I am a tax preparer and bookkeeper so I am just a little busy.

I made this caterpillar bracelet for a friend's birthday in January.

I have a great friend who owns a bead store in town and she went out of town at the beginning of the month so I got to work in her fun store. I love working in the store because it throws me in to the world of creativity. I also get to take her classes. At the beginning of the month I took the Beyond Basics. It was a cool class! I learned how to use jewelry cones, tying those sliding knots on leather necklaces and much much more.

I also took a beaded watch band class, and I am addicted. I plan to make lots of these.

Take a look here.

At the end of the month I got to work at the bead store again. I made a few pair of earringa, a cool necklace and earrings. I did some vacuuming and heard just a ton of beads being vacuumed. So I investigated. The beads I could identify I put back in their dishes, those I could not find a home for became this necklace. I added a few of my own beads. I love this necklace as it goes with everything and it is so easy to make.

I did get a little sewing in, I have a block of the month so I completed my first block of the quilt. and here is the fabric for this month. My small group worked on a small purse. I have to finish it then I will post, but this month we are working on a small watercolor quilts. It inspired me to get my UFO watercolor quilt top out and work on it.

Just a couple more things