~ Quilting and Cleaning ~ Gingerbread Man Quilt ~

Hello Happy Quilters!  For the last couple of weeks I've been trying to quilt my Gingerbread Man quilt.  The progress is slow but little by little she's getting done.  

I love it when the light shines through the studio in the evenings, it really helps to show off he quilting.

As usual I started out thinking a simple quilting plan would be best.   I had no real plan other than a few feathers and free motion with no marking the quilt.  And as usual me, myself and I took over the plan.  This trio can come up with good ideas but the ideas usually are more work than I want to do.

Luckily they came up with a plan that wasn't too hard or intense.  Lots of free motion feathers with very little marking.

All was going well, just feather this girl to death!

And then this started happening and it was leaving black marks on my quilt.  It happened several times and each time I had pick out stitches.  For some reason I kept thinking it was a thread or needle issue.

After about 4 or 5 times of this I pulled my quilter off to the side and started taking it apart.  I soon realized I was the cause.  I wasn't cleaning the bobbin area as often as I should.  And I also didn't oil my quilter after my last quilt.  Oh the shame.  What a mess.

A good cleaning and oiling and I was back in business and things were running smoothly once again.  Lesson learned.....well at least for a little while.  For some reason I repeat this mistake every few months.  Trying to push the limits of my machine when I clearly know what she can handle.  Do any of you do this?  Am I the only one?

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~ Pinch of This and That ~

Hello! Happy Quilters!  Spring is in the air and it won't be long before we start seeing spring flowers peeking up through the dull Podunk winter landscape.  The next few weeks will be filled with a lot of extra outdoor chores.  So I'm working hard to finish up a few projects.  This weeks project is the Gingerbread Man quilt.  An afternoon dig through the stash produced this cute little print from Bonnie and Camille's Smitten line of fabric.  It's perfect!

Years ago when I first started buying designer fabrics the selvage of fabric was often was blank.  Occasionally you would find the brand and designers name.  Today's fabric yardage often has surprises and hidden gems on them.  I love the little message on this one.  Maybe it's the name of this print?  Whatever it is, it made me smile.

Yesterday while contorting myself(and cursing) to make some adjustments on the quilt frame I came up for air and to stretch my cramping muscles and saw this.  Awe...my studio looks so pretty when it's clean.  This too put a smile on my face and made me forget about my current quilt frame issue and body struggles.  My Happy Place can make the worst of days seem brighter.   

After all the stretching and contorting I needed a break and a snack.  So I pulled out the homemade liver pate and made some cheese crackers.  This is so yummy!  Miss Khaleesi loves it too!  We feed her a raw chicken and a smidgen of cooked liver everyday.  Liver is full of nutrients and it's cheap.  If you would like to make a liver pate you can find the recipe I used here.  The cheese crackers are nothing more than melted cheese and believe it or not they are crispy just like crackers.  Much healthier than store bought crackers.  No wheat, no gluten, no sugars, just cheese.  You can find the instructions to make them here. 

Fair warning... pate isn't pretty. 

How much does Khaleesi like liver?  She's focused on it in the picture below.  She'll do anything for a little liver.  Even if it is humiliating like a silly little hat.  Happy St. Patrick's Day!

A little reminder about my giveaway for a jelly roll rug pattern and a tool to help make a jelly roll rug.  Click here to enter.

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~ Testing, Testing, Testing ~

Hello sweet quilting friends!  There's been a lot of testing going on here in the studio as I whip up this yummy little gingerbread man quilt.  The first test was trying to sew the mini buttons on by machine.  It only took about 30 seconds to realize it wasn't going to work.  So all I could do was change the plan and stitch them down by hand.  I considered adding them after the quilt had been quilted but it seemed easier to do it now and quilt around them.

Much to my surprise hand stitching the buttons in place didn't take as long as I thought.  Finally something is going as planned.  Well sorta.  The plan was to have this done about a month ago.  Plan A failed as did plan B, C, and D.  

Now let's talk about Plan E, the stitching down of the embellishments.  The plan for the ric-rac-ish trim was to tack them in place and stop the fraying on the ends with glue then zigzag them into place.  As you can see it didn't work.  Plan F was to use a straight stitch.  Well fiddlesticks I don't like this plan either.  That's okay, as quilters we have so many options. Even though I felt both of these options were failures I left them in the quilt.  A couple tiny issues no one will notice unless I point them out.  We'll just keep it between you and me. 😉  So let's move onto Plan G.

Plan G is to use more glue.  The ric-rac-ish trim was removed from the remaining 11 gingerbread men and more glue was added to hold it in place permanently.   It worked like a charm!  Yah!  

Oh but the testing isn't over yet.  A few days ago, in this blog post, I mentioned a product I use to stop fraying.  Sew Secure has been my go to for fray prevent for years.  Well it's no longer being made.  This saddened and disappointed a few of you.  So I decided to find a replacement.  It wasn't easy.  Fray Check was the go to for everyone and they all had warnings of stiffness when dried. That's a no-no in my quilting world.  I need a product that can be used for hand stitching as well as machine stitching.  Don't you agree?  I'm all about getting the most for my money.  

A pot of coffee was in order as I dug deep into the dark abyss of the internet searching for the perfect fray prevention.  It took hours to find one quilter who recommended something other than the stiff Fray Check.  Her was posted many years ago so I thought the chances of it being off the market was pretty darn good.  But much to my surprise it's still being made.  I felt today was my lucky day.  First I over estimated my hand stitching time and now I've found a product that is still being made.  If it wasn't so far into town I would have bought a lottery ticket.   So just because I love you all so much I purchased a bottle of Aleene's OK to Wash glue on Amazon.  I'll be doing a little test project to see how well it performs.  Buy if you like but honestly I would wait until you get the skinny on this product.  It'll be a few days to a couple of weeks because you know me and how under estimating the time it takes to do ANYTHING.  

Just a little reminder that you can still gt 20% off you entire purchase at The Purple Hobbies website using the code PodunkPrettiesJan20  

Offer ends February 29, 2020.   Make sure when adding the code to your shopping cart that you click APPLY.  You can see my review of the BladeSaver Thread cutter here.  And the Third hand Binding Folder Clip here.

50% OFF Sweet Sixteen PDF pattern

expires 2-15-2020

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~ One More Christmas Quilt ~

 The light at the end of the tunnel!  This cute little gingerbread man is the last of my Christmas quilts for this year last year.  I thought about moving on and packing these away for later in the year.  But who wants another UFO laying around taking up the much needed space for new fabrics, right!? 😉 So onward with the Christmas sewing.  It feels more like Christmas now that the temperatures have dropped outside and in the Studio...60 degrees in my happy little sewing space...BRRRRR! You gotta love older homes that at one time were equipped with wood stoves.  Thank goodness for space heaters.  Imagine what my fabric would look like with a wood stove in the studio. Well as soon as it warms up in there I'll be working on this yummy little guy and 11 more of his buddies.

Last night I auditioned some buttons and trim.  Now to make the decision of simple or over the top cute by adding trim.  Do I want to do the extra work?  Only time will tell and a test of the trim addition process.

Adding the trim might take a considerable amount of time.  Since I'm doing raw edge applique the cute little trim(found at our local Joann's by the yard) can not be turned under to hide the edges.  To hold the trim in place before stitching and to stop the edges of the cotton trim from unraveling I'll need to secure it with Sew Secure.  Placing the tiny trim is tedious and time consuming.  Not to mention the drying time.  The testing will include a warm iron test to help dry the glue faster.   Sew Secure is a permanent but soft version of Fray Check.  Easy to sew through even by hand.  I've used it for years when doing hand applique.  It's great for those inner points needing to be clipped close to the edge.  However it is no longer being made.  Well I can't find it anywhere. Do you know of another product that is similar to Sew Secure? 

Today I'll also be doing a test on machine stitching these tiny little buttons in place.  I've never used my machine for such tiny buttons.  It'll be a slow test, hand cranking my machine just to make sure it's not going to crash into the buttons.  The tiny red and green buttons were my first choice.  I purchased them at the same time as the cotton ric-rac-ish trim in our local store but they are not in the online store, so the link is to Amazon.  A few days later I stumble upon the adorable heart buttons 💘and other small red buttons on Amazon.  By the way these are just links I get nothing for you clicking or buying.  Anyway...I decided the red and green were out and the Buttons Galore were the way to go.

Now I can't decide if I want to use both or mix them up a bit.  What do you think about the buttons A or B?  Geesh, who knew picking buttons could be so hard?

Just a little reminder that you can still gt 20% off you entire purchase at The Purple Hobbies website using the code PodunkPrettiesJan20  

Offer ends February 29, 2020.   Make sure when adding the code to your shopping cart that you click APPLY.  You can see my review of the BladeSaver Thread cutter here.  And the Third hand Binding Folder Clip here.

50% OFF Sweet Sixteen PDF pattern

sale ends 2-15-2020

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