Sunday, October 31, 2010

Tablecloth is done!

I finally finished the tablecloth!  I really shouldn't say finally finished, it really only took me three weeks.
I decided to machine quilt it, so worked on it all day yesterday and finished about 9 pm last night.  The machine quilting took about 7 hours, but I'm happy with how it came out!  Whoever invented the walking foot for a sewing machine is pure genius!!!  It works so well and makes the quilting very easy.  The worst part of machine quilting the tablecloth was all the turning I had to do.  Anyway, on with the pictures!
Tablecloth Oct 2010 DONE!!!!

Tablecloth Oct 2010 DONE!!!!

 I've worked on a couple placemats, but don't like how they came out, so I'll have to keep working on them.  I didn't cut the binding for the outside on the bias, and that makes them not lay flat.  As soon as I get some done that I'm happy with, I'll post them.

Back to the tablecloth - as intricate as the pattern looks, it really was pretty easy to make. I'm tossing around the idea of making another one so we have two to change out, but really should finish one of the other projects.  Nel's machine quilts so much better than my machine, so I may work on the quilt I started years ago for our bed and quit hand-quilting it and machine quilt it instead.

Happy Halloween, everyone!

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

A new project!

Since we brought home a round table from Todd's grandma's house, I didn't have any tablecloths that fit well.  We brought a couple home with the table, but they are small.  So last weekend I decided I wanted to make a quilted round tablecloth.  I searched online and found this.   What made me think I could do it, I'm not sure.  The video just made it seem so easy, but later when I really sat down to look at the finished product, I started second-guessing my abilities (lol).  All the corners and everything started to scare me.  But I went to JoAnn's on Sunday.  It's so hard to pick out the fabrics!  I was worried about one of the reds.  Anyway, I started working on it.   I took it to work on Monday and pinned the pieces together, and that worked really well.  (I have a hard time taking the time to pin things when I'm sitting in front of the sewing machine,)   I had to make the boarders pretty large because the table top is 48 inches across, but I'm pretty pleased with how it came out.

Blazing Star Tablecloth

This is just the top, I need to make the sandwich, then I'm going to quilt it with transparent thread.  I'm hoping the quilting will smooth things out.

I'll post pictures when it's done.

Monday, October 11, 2010

Another Project - this one for church

Every year the major fundraiser for our church is "Wurstbraten"

Todd and I always help and are going to again, and for the past three years, I've sewn stuff for the "Country Store".  One year I made a purse, one year I made reusable shopping bags, last year I made some baked potato bags, so while we were at church yesterday morning, I was trying to figure out what I'd make this year.  The bulletin for the service had this on the front:
Church Pillow 10/2010

I got looking at it and wondered if I could do something with it.  Got home and started going through all my fabric and started playing with stuff.  This was my rough-draft:
Church Pillow 10/2010

And this morning I finished it into a pillow!  (I'm thinking of sewing about 1/2 inch around it so it fits the pillow better, but haven't decided yet.)
Church Pillow 10/2010

The nice thing was I didn't have to buy anything for it - all the fabric I had from things I bought or what I brought home from Falls City last year, and the pillow was something we brought home last year.  I also used Nel's sewing machine for the wording on the bottom. (Took me FOREVER to get it just right.)

I hope someone enjoys it!