Sick Days

Somehow my husband has escaped this terrible virus that has decimated the kids and settled in my throat. Blerg. At least I'm not too wiped out for sewing. I started today by diving into the autumn colors Rapid City quilt that I have had basted for several weeks. I decided on swirly cloud quilting, using the humongous cone of thread that my healthy husband got me for Christmas. We got nine or ten inches of snow yesterday, but the sun was out this morning, so my sewing space was bright and warm. The pearly fabric that I used for the block borders was really glowing in the winter light.

When I'm quilting something this big, I appropriate the gateleg table that we normally use as a sofa table, and I set up a TV tray on my right to support the weight of the quilt. The boys were not happy to give up their ginger ale and kleenex stand today.

I got about half of the quilt finished; the swirly motif is looking very nice against the straight lines of the patchwork.

I guess I should start thinking about making some binding for this one!

Changing gears

I discovered an exciting feature about my embroidery machine today: the feet screw down to adjust the height of the attachment. This means I can simply place an old shelf over the cut-out on the new table, without worrying about finding something large enough to fit the entire embroidery unit (which is quite large). I had been a little worried about that, so I'm feeling relieved this evening. I got a nice start on the festive Christmas flamingos that I'm stitching out for my friend Deb:

Reindeer flamingo

Once I got the first of these in progress, I had the opportunity for the ultimate in stitcherific joy: running both machines at once!! What a glorious mess was my "studio" area:

The third flamingo is stitching out at this point. Happy, messy mess!

I used the second machine to start sewing selvedges down to make some new bolster pillows for our family room. These are rather tedious to make. It feels like it's taking forever. I must remind myself that I did quite a number of other non-sewing things today, so in reality getting them half finished is an accomplishment.

I oriented one set to go around the diameter of the pillow, and the other to run along its length. One set I left a bit apart to show a glimpse of the fabric print, but I prefer the look of the all-selvedge version where only the fabric titles and color registration dots are visible. I think it looks like a code.

Most selvedge projects that I have seen leave a bit of fabric showing between strips.

I prefer this look, where the fabric prints are entirely hidden under the selvedge strips.

Exploring my studio space

A peek at my new table set-up (thanks to my handyman husband):

A challenge for this project is that the base of my machine is considerably broader than the bed, so I still need to cut a piece of acrylic to wrap around the arm and cover the little gap that's still there. Works like a dream though - I have quilted a few little pieces just to get a feel for the new angle; the table itself is about three inches shorter than the desk I was using, and it's also recessed another three inches or so. That's a whole new skeletal pattern to get used to.