La Machine

An early anniversary present. It is amazing what paying about $100 more for a machine means for ease of sewing. This is the Brother Project Runway PC210 or something like that. I don't know. Brother likes to attach all kinds of numbers to every machine they make and I swear it seems like they change the numbers with each individual machine. Sort of complicated. They should just give them names like "Laverne" or "Shirley". I am loving this new machine though. And I'm taking the old machine to the parsonage so I can have one up there too. 

Madonna and child coming along nicely.

And my second project, Mr. Egret is also coming along nicely. I never do more than 2 projects at a time though.


Hmmmm..... now that I have 2 machines, I think I know what I'll name them.

Burlap

The quilt top is just about finished. I still have to embroider around the hand and I'm not 100% sure about the holy medal yet. But once those things are figured out I will begin the quilting. I haven't settled on a pattern yet for that either.

On the left there is the burlap that I put up on the design wall. At first it was very stinky, but that's gone now and the burlap is really kind of nifty. It is stickier than the table cloth backing and is great for sticking pins in. Thinking about doing the whole wall that way.  

Changes

This is where I am with Bathtime Madonna. She has quite a bit of work to go, but I am happy with the results so far. I did a classic nine patch for part of the floor. The fabric is all hand painted. After I took a picture and looked, I can see that there is a very nifty shadow effect in the left hand bottom corner. Not planned. Happy accident. 

This week has been very busy. I have been transferred at my "place of employ", and will now be the archivist for the Bienes Museum of the Modern Book and the historical collection. I can't even begin to express how thrilled I am by this. So lots going on at work.

Going to the parsonage this weekend for a much needed rest and to see those grandbabies! 

Trunk show

I started working on and finished a piece for the SAQA Trunk Show a bit early. But I just knew in my mind what I wanted to do.

Miss Ivy. 

Once everything was quilted I was having a hard time with the binding. At first I tried facing the tiny quilt (7x10) and was unhappy with the results. The quilt seemed squished and distorted. I think that has to do with the small size of the quilt, in that a larger quilt could bear the facing better.

I settled on binding. I sort of like the way the black border looks. 

I had fun doing this small piece and I think that's the idea. You're supposed to explore new techniques and try new things with this. I employed layering and free motion quilting. Also, her embroidered scarf and hair which I am very happy with.

Before starting on the next piece, I decided to do some experimentation with an old sketch from one of my sketch books. Sometimes I just feel like I need to stretch my wings a bit before starting on the next big project.