Spending time with Family

We have the most wonderful week planned!

I will be spending a whole week with these little guys by the swimming pool, as well as all 6 of our adult children and their spouses.

Bridger is 8, Kennedy is 6, Charlotte is 4 and 
Lucy Jane is 8 months old.

Maisie is 3 l/2.

Maisie's little brother Benjamin is 18 months old.

Reagan is 3 l/2 and her baby sister is due in 2 weeks!

Neo is 3 l/2 and her little sister Kylie is 15 months old.
That's also my son Addison and his wife 
Mabulane (pronounced: ma-boo-lah-nee).

My daughter Vanessa (with Maisie ) is married, but doesn't have any children yet.

... and of course Sean, who has just returned from Brazil.
We are drinking chimarrao :)

This will be the first time we will all have been together for over 2 years.

We will be taking family photos, which I'm very excited about!

We have a talent show planned, a Brazil night, Family Home Evening, lots of games and laughing and good food!

We will be making lots of memories :)

Scissors

Scissors are really important, no matter what your craft is!

These are the 4 scissors I use for sewing.

The ones on the left are Fiskars softouch razor.

I have used them for years, usually when I'm cutting out a dress, or other garment.  It has long, sharp blades that glide along the fabric.

I never use them for anything else except cutting out patterns.

I use the purple pair for cutting threads when I can't find my yellow pair!  Ha ha!!! I don't remember the brand name, but I bought them at a quilt shop.

The yellow pair are Olfa.

I love these scissors and use them all the time!!!

They are little, lightweight and great to keep by the sewing machine.

I use them to cut apart my quilt chain stitching too!

I use the stork scissors for hand sewing.

I use them when I embroider, appliqué, smock, or hand sew my quilt bindings.

They're little and they travel well.

I made the mistake of taking them with me on the airplane shortly after 9/11, and they were confiscated.

I was heartbroken.

After that, I travelled with nail clippers.

Nail clippers will also cut embroidery thread :)

These are my paper scissors, I bought them in a 3 pack at Ikea.

I only use them for paper, and they have stayed really sharp.

All sewers know to only use your sewing scissors for fabric and thread, and only use your paper scissors for paper.

If this simple rule is followed, you will always have sharp scissors.

Great Granny Sew Along, Week 2

I'm participating in the Great Granny Sew Along, created by Lori at Bee in my Bonnet.

If you're new to this sew along and want to see all the host's blogs, I have them all in one area, on my "Great Granny Sew Along" board on Pinterest, here.
I finished my balls of yarn and crochet hook, it was pretty quick to cut out and sew!
They are all Lori Holt fabrics from "Sew Cherry", except for the blue ball of yarn, it is Lecien.
The crochet hook is Pam Kitty.

I like both blocks together :) 

I won't be posting blocks for this sew along for the next two or three weeks, as I will be out of town.
I won't be able to sew but I will post the current blocks to my Pinterest board as they are made available.
Happy quilting!

I love Aurifil thread!

When I first began sewing, and for many years, I would buy my thread at Walmart, or wherever I could find the best deal.

This is hand quilting thread, which I used to run through my pleater when I pleat fabric to smock.

It is strong and durable.

         

I bought it in lots of pretty colors so that I would always have a good selection.

I used to buy my thread from Joann Fabric store.

I would buy this thread in white and natural colors, for piecing quilts.

Here is the link.

It would break now and then, but I was generally satisfied with the quality.

I found a better quality of machine quilting thread, and I also used it to hand sew bindings onto my finished quilts.

Two years ago, I found out about Aurifil thread, and it has changed my thinking about thread.

I won't use anything but Aurifil.
It never breaks, it's silky, it's strong, it has a nice sheen, and it's easy to thread through the eye of a needle.

It's made in Italy, and is 100% cotton.

Did you know that thread comes in different weights?

I prefer the 50 weight thread for quilting and machine quilting.

It's a little on the expensive side initially, but each spool holds 1422 yards, or 1300 meters of thread.

It lasts forever!

Here is a link to my favorite thread :) 

I only have 3 colors, including white and natural.

I sew with white most of the time.

I have one spool of invisible thread which I use when attaching dresdens to a block.

I discovered that Aurifil makes invisible thread, that will be next on my list!

Yes, I'm a thread snob.

Since I've discovered Aurifil, I won't sew with anything else :)
Here's a link to find the nearest Aurifil dealer near you!

If you haven't tried it yet, have I inspired you to try a spool of Aurifil?

Modern Instabee 2014 (April)

I've told you before that I joined the 2014 Modern Instabee.

Our group is hive 11, there are a lot of quilters participating.

This is the book that we are choosing our blocks from.

It's a great book, I would recommend it to anyone.

There are 13 blocks, and they are in 3 different categories.

Beginner blocks, confident blocks, and intermediate blocks.

The quilter who chose the month of April, also chose the Painter's Palette, a beginner block. 

She wanted solid colors only, with a white background.

I don't have very much of a selection in solid colors, but luckily I had some that went well together, in a rainbow assortment.

I think the block turned out really well :)

Won't it make a cute quilt to have these blocks with many different colors?

I searched the internet to find a finished quilt using the "painter's palette" block and couldn't find one.

I'm looking forward to seeing the finished quilt, I think it will be very original.

It was a great block to sew, very easy and quick!

 

If you're interested in seeing more of these finished blocks or any other from Hive 11, go to Instagram and look up #moderninstabeehive11.

If you want to see all of the hives, look up #moderninstabee2014.

Have a great weekend!

Great Granny Sew Along

I can't resist joining any of Lori Holt's (Bee in my Bonnet) sew alongs!

This is the first block.

A tisket, a tasket, a basket full of yarn, or Easter Eggs :)

I'm using mostly Pam Kitty fabrics, they're so vibrant and cheerful!

Bernina 750 QE

A lot of people have asked me why I chose the Bernina 750 QE.  

The machine is huge, and weighs about 50 pounds.

It is not a machine to be lugged to retreats or on airplanes.

It has a really strong and powerful motor compared to a regular machine.

• The throat area is wide and deep, letting you roll your quilt and fit it really easily to the right of the needle.  Sometimes I even keep a pad of paper with notes on the throat when I am piecing a quilt.

• As I mentioned before, the motor in the machine is very strong.  No matter what heavy duty sewing I am doing, the motor never sounds strained.
• I can quilt twice as fast, the speed and versatility is unmatched.
• There are sensors that alert you when the bobbin is out of thread.  This is a huge help, because I have sewn and sewn and sewn, before I knew I was out of thread.  There is also an alert that lets you know when your needle comes unthreaded.

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The bobbin holds 80% more thread than a regular bobbin.

• The machine comes with a stitch regulator.  I used to have such a difficult time keeping my stitches the same length when I was machine quilting.  Now, the stitch regulator keeps them all the same length no matter what!!!

This is a photo of my actual stitch regulator.

Here is a sample of stipple quilting that I did with my stitch regulator.  All the stitches are even!

There are many different feet you can get for this machine which are unbelievable!  This is my 1/4" foot that has a regulator that you pull down from the back.  It feeds the fabric between the foot and the feed dog without pulling or straining.  I love it!!!  Sewing is so much easier :)

All the feet have a sensor that let you know important facts on the screen monitor.  The foot knows that you can only choose certain stitches and it notifies you accordingly.

I saw a great wavy quilting stitch that I tried on my tee shirt quilt.

It's stitch 4, the width is 4.9 and the length is 2.5

The sewing machine also starts out taking a few stitches in place to stabilize the thread and when you are through sewing a row, you can touch the scissors button and the machine will take a few stitches and then cut the thread for you.

This is what the machine looks like when I turn it on.

It takes about 30 seconds for the computer to load.

I typed a personal greeting :)

You can select from a variety of colors for the background.  I chose aqua.

My Bernina was purchased at an authorized Bernina dealer, and came with 2 free classes from an authorized Bernina dealer.  I learned a lot about my machine but I know there's a lot more to discover.  Another nice feature is an arm that plugs in and you can sew by pressing your knee against it.  This is especially helpful when you are machine quilting. 

I absolutely love my Bernina 750 QE!!!