WIP and new Machine

A beautiful sunny Easter Day! Hope everyone is having a great Easter. We had our family Easter dinner last week as our youngest son has to work this weekend.
Today the hubster and I are enjoying the weather with just a little bit of yard work and a walk.

Oh yes she's here! I have my new machine doesn't she look good sitting on my table. She sews so nice, and I am slowly learning how to use her. She has a bit of a learning curve to her, but the biggest thing is the pressure foot lifter is either by knee lift or a button which I already like. I keep reaching for the leaver to lift the foot, old habits might take awhile to break.  Haven't tried any fmqing on her yet, as I'm anxiously awaiting the sew steady table I ordered for her, hopefully it comes this week.

my new baby, she sews so pretty. Those little stick it notes are squirrels.

I have been trying to finish a project up before my next guild meeting. We had some people ask how to do a watercolour project. Somehow I am in charge of organizing the program and I don't even remember volunteering...hmmm. Wonder how that happened. I am auditioning some appliques to add to my piece. 

auditioning applique

The flower is a keeper love that red batik. However the hummingbird needs some major help, the back wing is all wrong. I am going to use the batik on the bottom left corner for some leaves. It does have some potential, just requires a little more work.

I may work on this some more today or maybe I'll watch one of my Craftsy classes, like Wild Quilting or an Angela Walters class.

 Craftsy( an affliate link) is saying a sweet farewell to National Craft Month by offering you the chance to get any online class for $19.99! Check out all the classes on sale before the offer ends on Monday.

However you spend your day have a great one!

Craftsy Supplies Sale

Today I get my new sewing machine! While waiting for her to arrive I've been doing some internet strolling of my favourite places, and one of those is Craftsy.

I may have picked up a few things already from them, including more fabric. No kits yet, but I had my finger ready to click on some with up to 60% off it was hard let me tell you.

I am an affiliate for Craftsy, and as such may receive a small commission if you click on one of the links in the post above and make a purchase.  It does not cost you any more.

Sandra of mmmquilts  has recently been thread shopping at Connecting Threads (not affliated). I have now stocked up on thread during their flash thread sale, can't beat the price. So far I like their threads and haven't had any problems with them.

Okay I'm off to make sure my sewing desk is all polished and ready for my new machine. Happy shopping.

Fun Day!

My guild put on a workshop by Joyce O'Connell. I love workshops who doesn't, they are always so much fun. And this one was no exception. The workshop she was doing  was  “I WANT TO MAKE AN ART QUILT – BUT I CANNOT DRAW”. It is a turned edge applique technique using the Appliquick Rods. I found a you-tube video that shows how to use them. Although I love you-tube for lots of things, nothing beats hands on from an experienced instructor. She had us use a medium weight fusible interfacing and Fons and Porters glue pens.

supplies

The image was supplied by Joyce and is copyright protected. We traced the image onto the fusible then marked registration marks for aiding in putting all the pieces back together correctly in the proper place. A few pieces were cut and turned at a time, that was more than enough as it would be was easy to mix up the pieces.

progress this is the back of the small head pieced

This took until noon to get this far, as there may have been some chatting and shenanigans going on. This is why I like workshops the camaraderie of other quilters sharing quilt and life tales, helps us forget our own problems and just simply relax and enjoy. Of course we also learn something new either from the class instructor or each other. I am glad I took this workshop and learned a new to me technique.

small head

By the end of a seven hour day I did get the head finished, lots more to do though on this piece. But oh boy the ideas that this technique opens up are swirling around. Now just to work on one at a time with no squirrels anywhere in sight is my newest goal. Someone, she knows who she is has been sending me squirrels and I am trying a little unsuccessfully to ignore them. We'll see how well that goes. I may just have started a new piece of my own, I'm just saying.

The following is a picture of one of Joyce's finished pieces she brought to class.

Joyce's finished piece

Have you had the opportunity to go to a workshop? If so I hope you had a good experience and learned something new.