{Post #797} New Front Door Decoration

This is a decoration that I can see using every season (or until I grow tired of it).  I had hoped to embellish it a little with "something", but I don't yet know what that something is.  On my birthday last month, a dear friend brought me a large purple (my favorite color) chrysanthemum.  I had seen this idea done in a slightly different way, so it was time to try it.  I went to a local "indoor yard sale", run by a mission that benefits from the sales and got this little TV table to transform. 

One of the great things about it is that the pot sits down inside the table, so it won't get blown over.  A little black spray paint and light sanding, and voila!

Before:

I was going to put one of my artificial pumpkins on the floor beside it, but it kept getting blown away...time to buy a real one!


~Joan

{Post #796} Machine Woes

I think my machine is in good hands.  Of course, all I want to do now is sew!!  I am going to machine quilt the two runners (1 and 2) I just pieced.  My machine had a few issues, but it was limping along.  The automatic needle threader (which I never used, but now that it's broken off, my eyes are bad enough that I need it), one of the two screws that held the throat plate down disappeared (aliens?), and the thread tension was only correct when it was set on 9 (out of 9).  So it was time!!

~Joan

{Post #795} Blue I Spy and Tuscany Runner

I am about to do something drastic...live without my sewing machine for about a week.  I just found that there is a sewing machine repair/maintenance place about 5 minutes from my house (as opposed to over an hour away, where I used to take it).  So I am going to take it in after I finish this post.

I've been a busy sewing bee.  I decided to finish an old project (UFO) and start a new one.  There was an I Spy quilt top languishing in my sewing room for over a year.  I am giving it as a surprise, but I don't think the family even knows I have a blog.  I learned a new free-motion quilting pattern and it turned out fantastic.  It's hard to get a good pic of the quilting, but here it is washed and dried.

It looks odd because I took the picture at an angle to hopefully capture more of the texture after it was washed and dried.  Here are a couple close-up pics before it was quilted.  Don't you love the monkeys??  They are having a GOOD time!

Some of the squares are one fabric, and a handful of them are 4 different fabrics pieced together.

Here is a picture of the whole thing, before quilting.  It measures about 40" square.

Then, in preparation for being w/o my machine for a while, I cleaned off all the little scraps on my cutting table.  Once it was cleaned off and all the strips and squares were in their proper places, I picked one of my all-time favorite fabrics that I just have a bit of, that I never used because it was one of my favorite fabrics and I didn't have much of it, and I plunged in and cut up that fabric to make a table runner!  Those of you with a hoarded stash know what I mean.  You can't bear to cut it because there isn't much, but the print is big, oh, the drama. 

The piecing is finished, and here is a close-up and a pic of the whole thing, which measures about 18" x 48" (I think)...

Hope to have this on my fall table this year, so I will quilt it soon.  Now off to deliver my machine to be spruced up and then back home to shampoo my bedroom carpet (nothing but fun around here, my friends).  After that I am going to inventory and declutter my pantry and big freezer.  I know, you're all jealous.  Go sew something!

~Joan