August Goals

I am going to have to keep this month simple!  I need to make a trip to Missouri to find a house to live in (Anyone know of any rentals in the Theodosia/Ava area?), and I need to get busy about packing!  We are moving in two months!

My first goal this month is to get my great granny square quilt quilted, hopefully by August 9!  We'll see if that happens!  I started on it Monday and have a few flowers done.  I am quilting it on my new Singer 16 industrial treadle!

 It is my third quilt to do FMQ on, the other two were stippling and small quilts.  With all of the Gerber daisies, I was going to outline the daisies in the sashing, that was hard, so instead I am going to do a free form outline!

Not great, but it is a start and I think my niece will like it!    I saw a sort of stipple with small flowers in it that I am thinking of doing in the blocks of the great granny squares.  I'm using a light pink thinking it would blend the best.
I have lots of helpers.  Aren't quilts for sleeping?

 It is very hard to move a quilt with a cat sitting on it!

And if I get up I lose my seat!

My second goal is to finish all 80 of my pinwheels on my sailboat quilt.

 I'm afraid the quilt will not be finished before the baby comes, I really should have done a plain sashing so I could have finished it quicker, but then what would I do with all of the pinwheels?  If I went that route I could finish this quilt this month!  What would you do?  The baby is due August 12.

To summarize, my goals are 1. finish Great Granny Square quilt for my niece's Christmas present and 2.  finish the pinwheels, unless I change my mind, then my goal will be to just finish the sashing on the sailboats!

What are your goals for this month?

Missy

Pets on Quilt Show coming up

I can't wait.  As ya'll know I love quilts and I love cats and I love sharing pictures of my cats on quilts!  Every year in August, Lily Pad Quilting has a pets on quilt show where you can earn some awesome prizes!  This is a heads up so you can participate also, but of course if you just want to vote for my blog when the times comes - that's fine with me!  LOL  Be sure to check it out!

                                                    
You'll enjoy her blog!

 Oreo is resting up and getting ready for the big party!

See you there!

Missy

Tea Party

We had a baby shower for two ladies at our church on Saturday.  We decided to have a tea party.  I was going to make a life size tea pot.  The only problem was that instead of using a pound cake for the ball pan I used a yellow cake recipe and it fell apart.  I just took one half of the ball pan and laid it down on the platter to make the tea pot.

I made the handle and tea spout out of a cookie dough.

I used an 18 star tip to cover the whole tea pot, and for the cap and saucer I used part of the cake top that I had trimmed off, the saucer I used a tip 32, and then put fondant flowers on it and drew scrolls.
It's not what I was wanting, but at least it did not look like this:

I took that to serve to everybody also.
This is a lot better!

Here is the adult's table:

And the children's table:

Nothing fancy, but we had a lot of fun.

Missy

July Finishes!

Can you believe it?  I met all of my goals and am so happy!  Here is my post with all of my goals from the beginning of the month:  http://missyscakesandaprons.blogspot.com/2013/07/july-goals.html

Today I finished the basting on my great granny square quilt.  I want to start quilting it now, but I have a baby shower this weekend and I need to make the cake tomorrow and since I am hosting the shower I doubt I will have time to start playing until next week!  LOL  I used Elmer's glue on the backing and I'm not happy with the puckers, the top I used spray basting which turned out great, so I'll use that from now on!  It was funny to see the cats shaking their feet after walking on the adhesive!  LOL

Pippi and Custard

I finished all 12 of my sailboat blocks last week.

And third, I finished my denim rag quilt!  I did make a mistake on it though, I was not thinking and did not back stitch my blocks, which I guess you should do since I had to go back and resew some "holes" after I washed it.  Lesson learned!

Muffin

Cupcake

I am just so proud of myself for finishing all of my goals for this month and there is still five days left!

Did you meet your goals this month?

Missy

Bloglovin' problems

I have been trying to get on Bloglovin' for two days to read the blogs I follow, sometimes the page will load and sometimes it won't.  Sometimes I can get bloglovin to load and then click on a blog and the blog won't load!  Has anyone else been having problems?  I am getting very frustrated!  I use Google Chrome, but even tried it on Internet Explorer this morning and could not get it to load there either.
Missy

Baby Quilt

My friend Chrystal moved to MO two months ago.  She taught me how to sew and is one of my sewing buddies, I've really missed having our sewing days!  She is having a baby in a couple of weeks and has come back home for the month to have her baby, rather than trying to find a new midwife.  She has not been able to do any sewing for the baby with the move, so I told her to come over and I would dig out some of my stash and we could make her baby a quilt top!

 All of this material had been given to me by different people.  I think the original design was supposed to be all gingham, but I switched it up and did my own thing.  When I saw that rabbit material I knew it had to be the center blocks.   Another friend had already started the lambs in the corners and I had Chrystal put the blanket stitch around the two unfinished lambs.  She used my Janome for that.  The rest of it was done on my Treadle, Singer 16 and she used my hand crank Redhead 66.  We changed up the pattern for a quick top and we finished it in about three hours?  I'm thinking the pink gingham would be good for the binding?  What do you think?

Tiger thinks this is his spot to sleep and was not happy about me sewing here!  LOL  Chrystal needs to buy some batting and muslim and then it needs to be quilted!  If she has not had the baby (the shower is Saturday!) I'm hoping she can come over next week so we can finish it up for her!

Do you have sewing buddies?

Missy
 " A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother."  Proverbs 18:24

Cats and Treadles

Have you ever noticed how much cats love sewing machines?  I try so hard to keep them off my machines but they want to be right next to me at all times.
I got two new industrial treadles, but I am only keeping one of them because my friend, Chrystal, really wants one also, so I'll sell one of them to her.  The only thing is trying to decide which one to keep!  LOL  The main reason I wanted one was to do my free motion quilting on, so I'll need to test them out on my niece's quilt, it really needs to get quilted - the top has been done since like February or March!  LOL

This one is a Singer 31-15.  Cupcake wanted to be the first to show it to you!  You should have seen her trying to catch the wheel as it turned!  I had to stop because I was worried she would catch it and hurt her paw!
Here is a better picture of the 5-31, it has a serial number of G4064667,the serial number range is listed on the ISMACS site as a 31 class, being issued May 15 1915  in an allotment of 5000 machines
A 31-15 is commonly called  the "Tailors Machine",  It sure does sew great for being 100 years old!

The threading is different on it too.  I believe I did it right by threading through all three holes.

 I could not figure out what that knee pedal was for at first, it is to lift the presser foot!  That is pretty neat to be able to keep both hands on your project and then lift the presser foot with your knee!  BUT I have a tendency to knock my knee on it when I first sit down.

I want you to see the size difference on the treadles.  The one on the left is my Franklin.  The throat size on it is four inches by eight inches, the throat size on the 31-15 is 4 1/2 inches by ten inches.  Not to mention how much bigger the whole head is.  A lot of times people trying to sell a regular treadle will say "industrial" strength.  That is like calling my Mazda 5 a semi truck!  My car is pretty small in comparison (it is a micro mini van) and can not come near to the same horsepower as a semi.  It is the same with these machines.  Industrial machines were made for factory work.  The wheels are also bigger which makes them go faster.  With that said, my Franklin could out sew any modern day plastic machine out there.  I sewed my nephew's denim quilt with four layers of denim in some places on my Franklin Treadle and my Singer Redeye 66 hand crank.

 The other machine I got has a fiddle base on it, it is a Singer 16 with a patent of 1890.  The serial number is 10377480.  Serial numbers without a letter prefix are from before 1900.

I oiled the machines real good before sewing with them, and now I have oil coming out, so I sewed a paper towel to soak up the oil.  Right now I'm liking this one better, I sewed on it yesterday and just love the way it sews and my darning foot fits it, I'm going to test out my walking foot on it too.

Here it is by my Redhead 66.

 Don't you love my line of machines?  LOL This is line of machines is my sewing room!
 I forgot to take a picture of it, but both of the industrials have tables in the back that will flip up to give you more room to sew.

The throat space on the 16 is 4 1/2 inches by ten inches.  My Redhead is 4 1/2 inches by eight inches and my New Home hand crank is the smallest at four inches by seven inches.

If anyone has anymore information on these machines please share!
I bought the industrials from Pat, whose quilts I have been sharing with ya'll.  She also sent home a cabinet for a Singer 12, now I either need to get the head to go with it or sell the cabinet.  LOL  It is tiny!

Pat showed me a great way to figure out my 1/4 inch seam.  She puts the needle down on top of the 1/4 mark on the ruler, makes a more accurate mark that way.

This seam guide came with my machine, but when I tried to tighten the screw, it did not hold firmly.  I'm wondering if it is because the plate is not laying flat?
I decided to use my painter's tape instead.

Remember to share any information you might have on these machines!

Missy

Pat's awesome quilts

 My friend Pat has been quilting for over 50 years, so she has a lot of quilts to share!  The above quilt was designed by Pat and won first at the Houston quilt show a few years ago.  It was even featured in a magazine spread with the pattern!  It is hard to see in the picture, but it is a 3-D log cabin quilt with appliqued vines and flowers.

 Here is another version of a log cabin quilt, it is a version of the courthouse steps that she calls "dogs on the court house steps", What a great scrappy quilt!  Pat says " Courthouse Steps quilt is from a book by Mary Ellen Hopkins. It was tricky to piece, since each block shares two fabrics with each of the blocks around it. "

 I love the secondary design on this quilt.

 Don't you love the 3-D effect with these butterflies?  She fussy cut the butterflies from a piece of material and then appliqued them on.  What a magnificent twist on the churn dash, she called it another name, but I can't remember it.  She also designed this one!

 She saw a similar pattern for this quilt and made her own design that she drew out and then appliqued.  She says that she uses Wonder Under for her appliques.

 The quilt below is the one on the guest bed that we used.  I love the bright colors!

 Nothing like sleeping under a gorgeous quilt!

 I love the border!

 Of course Boy Cat matches the quilt perfectly!

Pat designed most of her quilts and she quilted most of them, although she says she's old enough now to let someone else do the quilting!  LOL  Most of her quilts from the past 10 - 15 years have been done on a treadle!
Her husband said that he loves to see the excitement on her face when she is designing and piecing a new quilt pattern.  Now that is a husband who "gets it"!

There is so much I could learn from her, I wish I lived closer!

Missy

Jeremiah 31:34  "And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more."