Where Have I Been and What Have I Been Doing?

 Here's a big ole post with all kinds of stuff that happened around the farm.

May is my birthday month and I buy myself all kinds of gifts.

I was in Walmart one day and took a wrong turn looking for thread.

This Brother SE625 sewing and embroidery machine was on clearance for less than 1/2 price

and jumped right into my cart!

We spent Memorial Weekend at the beach with family.

S'mores are a must!

I love our beach time.

I've been loving my wicking tub garden.

Yesterday I harvested my first kale.

We did a major front yard make over.

It all started with asking Ernie to take a walk because

I have a plan and would it work.

I've wanted this to happen for a very long time.

This is only Phase 1 and Phase 2 will happen soon.

While at the beach,

I cut all the parts for a mystery BOM project.

I sewed them all up when I got home.

I'm excited for the final clue.

We went to town to look at a used car.

We came home with a brand new shiny Honda CRV.

This is my very 1st brand new car.

I keep my cars forever.

This was another of my birthday gifts.

Fresh pasta is the bomb!

Hubs cut down a bunch of trees.

They were rotting and dying.

Better he cuts them and lays them down where he wants before

they fall over onto power lines or fences.

I have baby squash!!!

Super excited.

Last Saturday was the annual hunting club picnic.

It's one of their biggest fund raisers for the year. 

I DID NOT make the quilt, but daughter Crystal did.

Her dad was quite proud of her and

the gal that won it was super excited.

So there you have it, 

4 weeks of catch up.

I hope to do better.

Design Wall Monday and.....

...Mystery Monday Link Up

There has been some secret sewing going on around here.

There has been some Quiltville mystery sewing too.

I love making 4 patches and think I've made oodles of them.

Saturday morning I sewed and sewed.

Pressed, matched pairs, sliced and sewed and pressed again.

I counted and pinned.

I was so excited thinking I needed 80, had 50, remembered I need 120.

Yes, that's a little peak inside my head. 

It's a happy place.

(Yes, I know there are words on that selvage edge.

The woven edge is cut off and the words are in the seam line.

Even if they showed a bit, I'm just fine with that.

Gives it a bit of character.)

So I cut some more strips.

It was a busy weekend with meat processing, canning and grandchildren.

Not a bad way to spend the weekend.

Today I'll sew.

Sometimes a girl needs brand new and shiny.

My love of vintage machines has not wavered but 

I like a good electronic machine

and this little gem was on an excellent sale.

Brother 6000i

And she was screaming at me to give her a home.

So I did.

I had to test her out on my 4 patches.

I will continue to use my vintage straight stitch only for piecing.

I will test this girl our on some machine applique and other things this week.

Monday is my favorite day of the week as I stroll around Blogland.

Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times 

and Monday Mystery Link Up at Quiltville.

Time to fill up the cup and get visiting.

Update

By Monday afternoon, all the 4 patches were finished

and put in the bag with the neutral rectangles.

Then put into their bin and put away until Friday.
Can it be Friday???

Design Wall Monday

I've been in a Swoon bag making frenzy this month.

This is Swoon Vivian.
She belongs to granddaughter Taylor.

She gave my Designer 1 sewing machine a serious headache.

So out came the old 60s Kenny the Kenmore.

He is a beast and sewed through those thick layers like they were nothing.

Kenny lives in the living room with a few other machines in cabinets.

Saturday morning machines were shuffled around so Kenny could work his magic.

We finally got some much needed rain.

I felt it was ok to park myself in front of the sewing machine in the living room 

and watch crazy tv-The Walking Dead-while I sewed Pineapple Crazy blocks. 

Saturday night, 3 year old Estella stayed so no more crazy tv but still sewing away.

She was lots of help picking fabric and asked so many questions.

It was quite fun!

The girl loves green.

And blue and orange and....

Why?

This is Swoon Charlotte. 

My sister wanted this upholstery fabric made into shopping bags.

I couldn't do that...

not with this pattern waiting to be made.

She has a vinyl bottom and nylon webbing for the handles.

She will be a good work bag for Mary.

 Wednesday afternoon was spent with these people.

I took my Millefiore hexagons for rosette 2 along with me.

I wasn't sure how I wanted round 1 to go on.

After much spinning blocks and 

"making a puzzle"

we decided this is not the layout we want.

The black bars will circle the center block.

It's always fun to see things through young eyes.

I do have one more Vivian bag to make but she is on hold for a few days.

Today's plan is to finish up those 6 Pineapple Crazy blocks

and put Kenny away for a bit.

(I'm happy to have him out of the corner and easily accessible.)

Next up is to finish Tumalo Trails.

It's feeling a bit neglected. 

Check out what others are working on at Patchwork Times.

While The Cat's Away...

My Cat-Ernie-is gone this weekend on a halibut fishing trip.  

The Mouse--me--is playing.

On his way out of town,

he dropped the beast off at the spa.

Instead of a weekend full of quilting tops from Mt. ToBeQuilted,

 I came up with a new plan-

finish more tops.

I had put my Ambassador machine in this cabinet a few weeks ago

with the intention of sewing in the living room in front of the tv.

I don't have a tv in my sewing room.

I had yet to open it until this weekend. 

I have done so much while Ernie has been gone.

I make a list of 3 household to do projects, 

hurry and get them done so I can sew without guilt.

Project 1 was to finish this top.

I had made a mistake on row 6 while at retreat and had already taken the row apart.

I thought maybe the other rows were wrong too 

but I waited until row 6 was sewn back together and checked them.

Thank goodness they were all good and no more un-sewing had to happen.

This is now a top with the backing and binding selected, waiting to be quilted.

Town Square is is ready for inner and outer borders.

I love this, it's so bright and happy.

What will happen today?

I have a couple ideas....

but first I must take care of those 3 things on my list.

The Cat will be home tomorrow so this Mouse must get playing.

Leaving A Little Hint

I spent some time Sunday evening working on Grand Illusion. I had just a few more short strips to sew together when I ran out of bobbin thread.  I pulled out my trusty little bobbin saver for a new bobbin only to find all my gray ones are now empty. Since I was sewing with black fabric on the bottom, I just finished up with a black bobbin.

Now I'm ready to quit for the night. I have to remember to wind bobbins before I start sewing again. I left myself a little reminder.  It was time for a new needle and some oil and the dust bunnies need to find their selves a new home. I think this whole process took 5 minutes and I am set to sew for a few more hours.

I love that short stubby screwdriver but I forgot it's too fat to fit the screws of the throat plate. The little pink makeup brush is the best for holding on to those dust bunnies.  Of course I don't remember when I changed the needle last but I knew it was time for a new one.

A clean machine is a happy machine and that means I can sew, sew, sew!
.

Quilting Time Leads To A Finish

Here is my 60th birthday present to myself. 

My word of the year is Celebrate and boy have I been.

I absolutely love this machine! 

My chuckle--I was telling Denise about getting it 

and how disappointed I was that there was no light.

I think she thinks I'm nuts. 

She told me where the button is-on the side face above the needle.

Dorkie me!

I like to free motion quilt with gloves on.

These are plain ole garden gloves and

they work great because they have that rubber grippy stuff on them.

Those little red things on the end of the pins?

Those are called Pinmoor

and I wonder where they have been all my quilting life!

I'll be buying more of those.

No more puncture wounds on my arms when using straight pins.

Today's quilting time lead to the finish of the Elk quilt for the hunting club's annual picnic raffle.

I'm hoping there will be lots of arguing and bickering and ticket purchasing for this.

Next up is Mae's Flower Garden. 

I'm in the zone.

Sewing Machine Setup on Scrappy Saturday

Remember back at the beginning of the month when this little beauty came to live with me? I've wanted to set her up to be my main machine but haven't gotten around to it.

Until this morning. I decided to just get to it. First things first, it had to come out of that nasty base. But I couldn't figure out how to do it. So I asked on the Vintage Sewing Machine page on Facebook.  Within a few minutes I had some suggestions.  See those 2 screws? I didn't see them until someone mentioned it. So within a couple minutes of finding out about them, I had the base off.  Then the real fun began.

Bonnie Hunter has talked about the Sewing Mates Sew AdjusTable several times. I broke down and ordered one a while back. After just a few adjustments, I had the table just right for this machine. The best part is if I use another machine, I don't have to buy another table, just adjust this one-pretty cool.  I got my quarter inch guide set and started sewing on my card trick block for my Row Quilt that I am making as part of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

Today I am going to see how many blocks I can finish up between laundry and garden.  So far, 1 done.
See other great Rainbow Scrap Challenge projects at SoScrappy.

I Tried To Resist...

...really, I did.  I saw the ad for this little beauty on Craigslist last Friday.  I drooled and almost called. Then I sent the link to my friend thinking she might want it.  When it was still listed last night, I told Ernie about it. He wondered why I hadn't already went and got it.

So this morning I checked again and sent the message.  Immediately she called me and I was on my way.  To heck with that long list of other things I had to do today. I want this.  The poor little gal was almost in tears when I paid her. She loves vintage machines and proudly showed me her Morse machine-which I offered to also buy.  But as a college student with her finances the way they are, somethings have to go and she loves to sew and had to choose.  That has to be tough.......and I'm very glad I'm not in that situation because I probably would cry.  It was a pleasure to meet her and talk about our passion for the older machines.

This is an Ambassador Deluxe 100, made in Japan.  I'm thinking maybe a Singer Class 15 clone, but I'm not sure.  Are you???

Now about that to do list..............