Crafty Sewing and a Little Giving

Posted by Nadine

It all started with LittleOne’s new job. Yep, my youngest daughter–turning 18 in three days (which honestly seams pretty unreal to me!)–landed a job at a government agency with a high school work study program. Her very first job no less! Just like ITMan, she wears a badge to work every day and this required much searching to find her a badge holder/lanyard thing that was way more awesome than the typical ones on offer at the local office super store. Continue reading →

Sunday Stash and InchieSee Playtime

Posted by Nadine

Last week I made a quick trip to my LQS to pick up my Pfaff 1475 with its brand new motherboard. Ouch on that. The machine is probably nearing 20 years old and it’s been packed up in the original box for about five years. When I took it out a few weeks back hoping to use it when my Bernina needed repairs, the Pfaff was DoA on the sewing table. It was NOT a great week to try to sew anything! 🙁

Despite being essentially a backup machine these days, I decided I should go ahead and repair it now since it’s a really wonderful machine (one of the older Pfaff machines that was made in Germany before Husqvarna Viking bought Pfaff out and moved production to cheaper areas), and if I didn’t have it repaired now it wasn’t likely to get done at all as the parts for it are no longer manufactured. And who knows? One of my girls might eventually decide to sew and need a machine… maybe… okay I’m reaching here I know!

While I was at the LQS, I did the mad dash through the fabric in hopes to pick up some more of that yummy Kate Spain fabric that I ran short on, and maybe a couple of bluesy aquas to go with it. Continue reading →

Coming Soon: Memory Lane Monday @ DWQ

Posted by Nadine

I’ve thought about all of my older quilts from time to time, and realized that not only are they not all labeled (yes, I know…bad quilter award here), I don’t even have photos of all of them. I have a whole house full of quilts; they’re in closets, on racks, on the walls, draped over chairs and couches, and stacked up on desks and cabinets. There are many more quilts in the house than I’ve documented on this site or anywhere else.

I began to photograph all of my quilts last week planning to add pages to the gallery section on the website to document them all. I’ve made it through all of the smaller quilts that I could throw up on the design wall, though I need to hope for a sunny weekend day so that ITMan can help me with photographing the larger ones outside I think. I’ve also spent a bit of time digging around in my (apparently) rather faulty memory trying to figure out exactly when some of them were made since I didn’t label them!

Then over the weekend I wandered around the Internet (I do that way too much btw!), and I found myself on LuAnn Kessi’s site. Her machine quilting is a-maz-ing, and I love her sketchbook work, wow! In her profile she says, “I also feel it is important to display my original quilts, as my older work defines who I am today.” Continue reading →

Work in Progress: From the Depths of the UFO Cabinet

Posted by Nadine

I had an idea the other day that sent me digging through my UFO stash. Years ago, and I mean a LOT of years, I made a bunch of Jacket Jazz jackets. Remember those from the books by Judy Murrah?? I started making those in 1993 I think! I still have the jackets I made, except maybe one or two that I sold instead of keeping for myself. I LOVED making them, and I even taught a bunch of other folks to make them when we were stationed in Stuttgart, Germany. Heck, these jackets were my transition from sewing clothing and evening wear like this: Continue reading →

A Love-ly Finish for Valentine’s Day

Posted by Nadine

Have you ever had a quilt that went together so well that you were left wondering how you managed it? I mean, I have the ones that refuse to be friendly and fight with me from beginning to end quite frequently, so when I get one that’s extra cooperative it’s definitely a pleasure and a bonus!

I had a set of Inchies that didn’t work out for another project quite some time ago, and they’ve been sitting around in a bag waiting for a home ever since. They weren’t really “Valentine” colors, but I thought I could work them in to a small project for the season anyway. This was another one of those projects without a plan, so I was doubly rewarded that I like it so well now that it’s finished! Continue reading →

Work in Progress Wednesday–Coloring Outside the Lines Update

Posted by Nadine

Work In Progress Wednesday at Freshly Pieced

Edit2: I linked this WIP Wednesday post up at Freshly Pieced today. If you found your way here from over there, welcome! For regular readers, if you’d like to see lots more inspiring WIP Wednesday projects, visit Freshly Pieced!

EDIT: Yep, you can tell it’s been a bit of a crazy day around here, since I posted this on Tuesday… instead of Wednesday! /sigh

Waaaay back in September, I wanted to make a simple quilt, something I could just make, and get lost in the process. I don’t think I actually said it out loud or in the post, but I probably also wanted something quick. Unfortunately, this project wasn’t any of those things! If it had been, it probably would already be done and gracing the chair in the bedroom instead of still lolling about in my studio. 😛 Continue reading →