Sewing Room

I have two lovely guest bedrooms upstairs that no one ever sleeps in.  We rarely have overnight guests here.  I am going to change one of them into a Sewing Room, and move my operations out of the dining room!!  I'm so excited about this project!  I bought two 6-ft tables, we will remove the bed and the "hutch top" from one of the old dressers, so I will have plenty of flat space to spread out, and lots of storage space for my stash and stuff.  I can keep my stash in the 2 dressers that are in there.  There is a nice wall for my Design board.  It has south and west windows, so lots of natural light.  I can't wait to get started!  I'll post some Before and After pics when I get my camera charged up and the project done!

Broken Bobbin Case.

I am now, once again, inbetween quilts.  I thought this would be a good time to send the sewing machine to the Fix-It Guy for an "oil change."  I was expecting to get it back on Wed.  However, I got a call from him  on Thursday, and it seems I have a broken bobbin case.  This could explain some of the trouble I had with the tension when quilting the Harry Potter quilt.  Seems a point broke off a piece in there.  I remember when I cleaned out all that dust and lint in the machine I did find a piece of gray felt (?) and when I plucked it out, it seemed to be stuck and/or half-glued down.  I wonder if it had previously been covered by something, because I didn't recall seeing it before.  Anyway, I authorized the repair ($40) and the Fix-It Guy will have to order the part, so I have no idea when my sewing machine will come home.   :(

Award Winning Quilt!

Here is my Harry Potter quilt in the Darlington Quilt Show: Quilts of Lafayette County:

I'm so excited and exhilarated!  My quilt won TWO awards!  The Viewers Choice Award and the Staff Choice Award.  People who walked through the quilts got to vote for their favorite, thus the Viewer's Choice.  The Staff Choice Award came from the people who put the show together, the venders, the judges, etc.  One judge called my quilt a "Masterpiece, clearly her choice for "best of show."  (OMG!!!)  She said it stopped her in her tracks and she knew "this is the one."  She took a picture of it and she says she rarely does that.  There was no Best of Show Award since this show was not for judging, but only for displaying the quilts.   I'm on top of the world. 

Here are my ribbons:

Baby Books

I am inbetween quilts at the moment.  There are a lot of fun, easy-to-do projects I'd like to try and so now seemed a good time.  I have an e-book of pot holder patterns, they looks really fun and fast!  (Maybe for Christmas gifts for all the ladies in the family...!)  My niece is having twins in January, so I want to do a couple of little baby quilts and I had these 2 book panels, which I whipped up today.

Books for the Baker babies

I've also been learning about "diamond quilts" and I'd like to try one of those.  Especially the art quilts.  Maybe do a wall hanging.  I took a Craftsy class on diamond quilting, and I'm eager to try it!  Those Craftsy classes really have a lot of great tips!  Here is a sample of a diamond "art quilt".

This is a very small sample of a very large quilt, but it shows how the diamonds combine to make an ocean picture.  It gives you the idea of what I'd like to do, anyway.  So!  That is what I have been up too!.  

Finished!

My Harry Potter Quilt is FINISHED!  I finished the binding today.  I had to rip the binding out and re-do it.  I had trouble with the tension.  I think the problem laid in my walking foot.  After spending hours ripping out the binding, I tried to resew it, and had the exact same problem--major loops on the backside.  I took the walking foot off, and put the regular sewing foot on, and tried some sample sewing on a scrap.  It sewed perfectly.  So I tried the binding and again, it sewed perfectly, and the binding looked great on both sides.  I don't know what the deal is, but I probably won't be using that walking foot anymore!  I might buy a new one, but this one isn't that old, it came with the machine.  When I take my sewing machine in for its oil change,  maybe I'll take the walking foot in too and have the fix-it guy look at it.

At any rate, here is my finished Project of Doom!  Next week it will be hanging in a Quilt Show:  Quilts of Lafayette County!  (It's not a show for judging, just for showing off quilts!)