Gone to the birds. Again.

Now that the charity quilt is finished, I decided it was time to work on a couple of birds again.  I have a picture in my mind of a bird that I want to create, but I needed to get back into the mode of creating birds again before diving in and creating one from scratch.

I had started this little chick a couple of months ago.  Surprisingly, all the parts and pieces were still in one location.

I had, however, forgotten something fairly important:  it isn't easy working with something this small.  Adding in the head gusset and the back gusset were challenging.

I had to start working with the tiny, tiny pins again. Just picking them up is a bit of a challenge.

Then, I started attaching the head to the body.  That was when things got really complicated.  The directions stated that I needed to turn the head right-side out, put the head into the body, and pin the two pieces right-side together.  This makes sense.  And, it actually sounded relatively simple.

The reality is that it was actually quite difficult.

The opening was so small that once the foot is down, there is hardly any room left in the opening.

I eventually finished.  And, then started stuffing the bird.  I'm not quite happy with the way it turned out.  Even though I was careful to be relatively exact, there are still a few odd puckers.

I'm thinking that perhaps this chick needs some accessories.  Maybe a hat...or a boa...or...

I'm obviously not sure yet, but I think I'm going to finish this one--puckers and all!

And, the charity quilt is finished!

There are a few things here and there that I would probably do differently, but overall I'm pretty happy with it.  I need to clip a few threads yet, but otherwise it is finished. 

Whew. The quilting is done. Now for the binding...

 After many delays, some ripping, some wondering how I was going to make it work, etc., the charity quilt is now almost finished.  I just finished quilting it and trimmed the excess batting and backing fabric.

All in all, I'm happy with the way it turned out.  There are a few places that I wish looked a little better, and one area that I'm a little concerned about how the binding is going to work with it, but in general and considering everything--it will work!

Now, I need to go find some binding.  Ah--a justifiable trip to a fabric store!  Life is good!

Progress Made

I made pretty good progress on the quilt tonight.  Most of the times when I had to stop it was because I needed to adjust the weight of the fabric instead of the usual cause: thread issues.

The rhythm just felt right tonight, and the quilting flowed fairly well.  I estimate that I'm about 40% done with the quilting.  May the next session go as smoothly!

Let the Quilting Begin!

 Sunday evening I tried to start quilting the charity quilt.  I was able to get the backing, batting, and top together, but when I started quilting, I had nothing but problems.  I have a "test sandwich" that I use to begin quilting.  It is made from scrap fabric and scrap batting.  No problems showed up when I quilted on the test sandwich, but when I checked the back of the quilt after quilting about 14 inches, I had massive problems.  It looked like a bird's nest with the long loops.

Monday evening was a workout night, and after working out, I didn't feel like ripping out the stitches.

Tonight, however, I dove in.  I ripped out the quilting I had done on Sunday, and then changed the bobbin, changed the needle, and re-threaded the machine.  The first run on the test sandwich wasn't good.  So, I flipped the bobbin around and re-threaded the machine.  The second run on the test sandwich was better, but still not what I wanted.  So, I adjusted the tension, and the third test run worked.

Let the quilting begin!  The first couple of attempts, the thread broke after a minute or two.  I fiddled with the adjustments again, and off I went!  I probably have an area 3 feet by 3 feet quilted tonight. 

I probably could have continued, but this is a large quilt and that means a lot of weight to maneuver.  I can't imagine quilting without the foot shown in the photo to the right.  Since discovering this large, flat foot, quilting has definitely gotten much easier.

Although, I still always hold my breath when I check the back of the quilt.  So far, so good.  No large issues.  No large loops forming a nest in the back.  No tight stitches stretching the fabric.  And, no folds in the fabric.  Life is good!

Treasure Hunting!

Yesterday, I was in Cripple Creek for an Elks event.  With an hour of downtime between activities, I was a bit too antsy to just sit.  A friend and I decided to go and look through some of the stores.  I had in my mind to go into a store that I've enjoyed looking around before, and the store did not disappoint!

It is an antique store, and we weren't very far into the store before Shelly started looking through a basket on the counter.  When I said that yes, I do use beads, she started pulling out treasures:  broken jewelry pieces.  While the jewelry itself can no longer be used, the beads can be re-purposed into various craft projects.  The best part?  Each piece was just 10 cents! 



Thirty cents bought me two unmatched earings and a broken bracelet.

Upstairs, we  discovered a bowl full of lace bits. Some just a few inches long.  Some a couple of feet long.  And, again, all were just 10 cents.

My main splurge for the first visit was a piece of lace from a wall display.  I paid a whopping $2.50 for a piece of "Lace, Shamrock white" that is a little over two feet long by about an inch or an inch and a quarter wide.

And, yes, you saw that correctly:  there were two visits.  Shelly and I wanted to make it back to the awards banquet, but we were only partially through the store.  While I didn't see anything new on the second visit, I did have time to rethink one of the trims that Shelly had shown me (but didn't want to buy herself)--a $5 card of green trim.  I'm thinking a peacock would love to strut this stuff!