Thursday, March 28, 2013

6 random bits for Thursday

1.  this is the prokaryotic cell model {made of cake!} that my son made for his science class

prokaryotic cell cake

He does the daily reading, questions, vocab work etcetera at home, and once a week goes to class to do labs with other children.  He has a fantastic teacher {completely volunteer} that I love to pieces!  This is the first cake he has ever baked by himself, and it was delicious!  the recipe came from my vintage Betty Crocker, of course :)   the gummy worms are the flagella, and the rainbow sours are the DNA.  I'd like to think I have rainbow DNA, it sounds so happy, don't you think?

2.  I very much dislike using pins.  I avoid them as much as possible when I sew.  But this week I had a project involving a charm pack of Dream On, some sweet flannel, and five yards of pom pom trim that I just couldn't do without pins.  It took an hour and a half to pin one very long seam, and when I was almost done I noticed the fabrics don't line up in a huge way and I need to take out all the pins and start again!  let me tell you, that one hurt.

3. 
orange polka dot bunny-to-be

I want to make stuffed bunnies for each of my sons for Easter.  Like every sewing project I touch this week, these are having problems too.  I was supposed to trace the bunny template, then flip and trace it facing the other way.  I didn't flip.  I did two sets before I noticed.

4.  I sewed the binding on my batik geese, but didn't make the binding long enough.  Of course I had it mostly sewed on by machine before I noticed.

5.
I love a good pair of shoes!

I had a great shoe shopping day!  I found these super cheap on clearance.  There was only one pair left, and it fit perfectly! 

6.  I think I finally have both working e-mail and internet again, yay!  {I was without a connection for a little while, and the e-mail has been an ongoing problem for what seems like ages now}

lets go see what randomness everyone else is sharing over at Random Thursday, shall we?

Saturday, March 16, 2013

quilting, interrupted

pin basted flying geese quilt

basted rainbow geese quilt

I basted the rainbow geese today.  The backing is a yellow, orange, and pink batik with a gold vine printed all over  it.  Yup, it's bold :)  It has also been in my stash for a few years, so putting it to use feels real good.

Anyway, I was quilting away, just straight lines with the walking foot, when my thread broke.  I had to rip some stitches, rethread, and started quilting again.  I didn't get far before I had a nasty tangled mess in the bobbin.  Rip stitches, clean bobbin case, rethread, resume quilting.  Again, I only got a few stitches before my bobbin thread was in a nasty mess.

the top of my quilt

my machine has never done that before!  and on the back, it looks like this

the back of my quilt :(

ick! 

I'm not sure what is going on.  If you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them.  My machine was recently serviced.  I guess I'm off to mop the floor and figure out what I am going to feed the kids tonight, now that they aren't visiting their Dad as planned.  I hope your national Quilting Day is going a little smoother!

Thursday, March 14, 2013

how did it get to be Friday again so soon?!?

Hello Everybody!!!

Welcome to TGIFF! - did you bring some finishes to share?  I can't wait to see them!  :)

here is mine:

rainbow batik full frontal

{sorry for the icky cloudy day indoor picture.  the close ups are better, promise}

rainbow batik geese quilt 4

A few days ago I posted pictures of some of the layouts I was considering for this quilt {here}.  I really liked the first one, but didn't have enough fabrics of each color of the rainbow to make it work.

rainbow batik geese quilt 2

After reading through the comments on my previous post, I decided to leave in the brown prints.  I hardly even notice them now all the geese are sewn together.  {roygbivb?}

rainbow batik geese quilt 3

Sadly, my Friday finish is just a flimsy finish, not a finish finish.  A few days ago, my youngest son had a sledding accident and injured his eye.  We were in the ER two consecutive nights, followed up by a visit to the pediatric optometrist.  The front of his eye was all scraped up :(   Several days and many eyedrops later, he is doing just fine, but needless to say my sewing time has taken a hit this week.  I still need this quilt done this weekend, though, so I'll be sewing like crazy Friday and hopefully have a finish finish to show soon.

rainbow batik geese quilt 1

The details:
   - made with a charm pack of Moda's Over the Rainbow Batiks
   - I had to go back to Joanns to match the grey, which I now know is Kona Coal
   - the reason I had to match the grey was to add a 3 inch boarder all around
   - I will probably do straight line quilting, although I would really like to do some FMQ
   - I'm making a rainbow-y batik binding
   - the quilt measures about  46.5" x 38.5"

Saturday, March 9, 2013

time to zip it up....

You may have noticed the Triple Zip Along happening around blogland awhile ago.  Well, I made one too {whoo hoo!} and snuck it into the flicker group just in the nick of time.  I've been running all around with it because I love it so, but somehow I neglected to show all of you here.  I think it is about time I made my little zip pouch respectable and blogged about it, don't you?

tripple zip
 

Even though my zippers are boring white, I kind of like them  {i had to shop local, and we have poor color selection}

tripple zip

AMH Innocent Crush, inside & out :)  Oh, and I found the perfect lilac thread for top stitching in my thread bin!  little things like that make me so happy :)

tripple zip pouch back

Hmmmm, looks like my pouch is getting a little sassy and showing off her backside ;)

PS - next Friday is my turn to host TGIFF.  meet me back here with some finishes, ok? :)
I'm linking up to Submarine Sunday!, Show and Tell Tuesday  & Fabric Tuesday