This Just Made Me Laugh!

I, for one, do not need to be imbibing to make a mistake like this!

Free Schwag in the Mail!

I can't believe it!  I actually WON something!  Last week I received an email telling me that I had won this great new book, just published, from a website called Craftside.  Frankly, I did not even remember entering a contest, so this is a double surpise!

This beautiful book is from the publisher of my most favorite magazine, "Where Women Create".  If you haven't seen this magazine, you are in for a treat.  It's pricey, but WE'RE WORTH IT!, aren't we?  It is cram-packed with great ideas for work space organization and various other forms of inspiration.

I can't wait for a quiet moment to pour over every page of my new book.

By the way, I learned something new today.  I wanted to be certain that I had the correct spelling for SCHWAG. I Googled it, and found that SCHWAG is not just products given away free, primarily for promotional purposes, but it is also slang for marijuana, typically of a very low grade.

Uhmmmm,... I think that I prefer the free/promotional variety!

Sheesh!!!

I have spent the entire afternoon photographing and posting five new Thread Catchers at my Etsy Shop.

Seriously... I'd rather make them than post them. The good news is that I decided to break into some of my new fat quarter bundles instead of just gazing lovingly at them.  LOVE the two new lines that I am working with!

OOOPS! One just sold! Make that FOUR new Thread Catchers!

My New BFF, Bonnie Hunter

Me... in the back row on the left, Bonnie is in the second row, just up and to the left of the big red star block.

If you are one who makes quilts, you likely know that BONNIE HUNTER is a seriously big deal out there in the quilting world.  Well,... my Guild, the Umpqua Valley Quilters' Guild, contracted with Bonnie Hunter to lead a workshop for us.  How cool is that!!!!  She books her workshops years out, so we've been waiting and waiting for our very own BH Workshop where we were set to make Bonnie's String Spiderweb quilt. We met at a local community center, a place with great light and lots and lots of electrical outlets... all 30 of us!, and we had the most fun day with Bonnie.

I have to say here that I am so incredibly star struck to be in the company of quilt professionals.  It has been my experience that these women are much like all of us, women who are wives and mothers and lovers of all things connected to quilts and quilting.  Bonnie has found her place in the quilting world in a way that most others have not. She is seriously BIG TIME, with features in magazines and a killer website, Quiltville, where she generously shares her free patterns with all of us. She travels all over the country leading workshops for women who are just like me.  She featured our workshop on her blog Quiltville .

As I have mentioned here on my blog previously, I am compelled to make things be "Matchy, Matchy".  I know that I need to just let go and channel my inner "scrappiness", but it's not easy for me.  So a "Toss Your Cares to the Wind" sort of a color scheme (with a big bunch of restrictions.... no reds, no blacks...)  is what I decided to use for my Scrappy Spider Web quilt.

My blocks, as featured on Bonnie's "Quiltville" blog with her copyright and stamp!  Woo-Hoo!!!
Is this my 15 seconds of fame? I'll take it!

I read the directions for Bonnie's Spider Web quilt and wasn't so sure that this was for me.  But really, I'd make just about anything to be in the company of this Quilting Queen Bee!,  so I sucked it up and started cutting up my fabric strips.  I should insert here that I chose a solid background fabric that I think will give me the look that I am going for.  It's that "vintage green" color, often used in quilts from the 1930's, and I am also imagining a solid cornflower blue or a buttery yellow fabric in the border. To actually have a vision at this point is kind of a surprise for me, even before the piecing is done.  I am just rolling along with the creative process here, which is kind of how it should be, I think. Roll on!

A few blocks made by my Guild Mates.  Love the Halloween fabrics!

If a full day of sewing without distractions is not enough, add in that I sewed all day with other guild members, my friends and table mates, Teri W., LeAnne L. and Shirley S.  Priceless! Lots and lots of chatting going on!

Each and every one of my guild mates, all using the very same pattern, made a remarkably different quilt. That's the wonder of this kind of workshop.  We all use the same pattern but our end products are completely original.

Thank you Bonnie, for being a wonderful instructor and such a fine quilting sister!  We hope that we see you along the way again.

Appliqué Finished - Still Scrunched

I am finished at last with the appliqué  portion of my "Birdsong" quilt and it is STILL scrunched on the master bedroom wall.  The leaf border on the left is there... it's just folded in. I am almost a little sad to have completed this part of my quilt.  I will definitely be doing more or this needle turn appliqué.

The next step is to add a tiny 3/4 inch border using the above red fabric next to the leaves, then add a 12 inch outer border using this beautiful large blue print.  It reminds me of vintage wallpaper.

I may regret this later but I have decided to hand quilt this baby.  I want to use colored quilting thread on the birds and leaves but don't feel as if my machine quilting skills are up to snuff to attempt quilting this on my machine.  But I'm not so bad as a hand quilter and I am thinking that I have tons of work into this quilt already, and I don't want to mess it up when it comes to the quilting.
I hope to have this thing on the hoop soon.  Wish me luck!

New Digs for the Wet Pets

It's been NUTS around here for the last couple of weeks.  We have been having our Koi pond rebuilt, an absolute necessity, not just a cosmetic upgrade.  Add in five dump trucks, giant rocks, an excavator and fella's here, ready to work,  at 7:00 am.

You know what they say about swimming pools...  If it's something that you want, then it has value, but if it's not, then it's a liability.  The same thing goes for Koi ponds. Our pond, which we love and value, had become a monster liability. A good portion of our large yard was a soppy BOG, thanks to the old leaking pond and stream bed.  Mr. T. and I knew that taking on and repairing such a large project was not within the scope of our expertise, so we sprung for the "Bucks Deluxe" upgrade.  We had toyed with the idea of trying to fix the problems on our own, but know now that we could never, EVER, have been able to fix all of the problems that came to light as the crew dug in.  I was lamenting having to lay out some serious "Green", but after seeing how hard our crew worked, we are happy to write that hefty check!

Happy Fish!

With these upgrades we are no longer tethered to the pond, having to be here, Johnny-on-the-spot, to clean the filter every other day.  We can now go a WHOLE WEEK, maybe more,  without having to clean anything.  And, get this!  The waterfall has a remote that allows us to control the water flow in the falls.  We can have a relaxing trickle,... or turn it up to a roaring torrent! Mr. T., otherwise known as the King of the Remote... is in heaven!  He's got yet another remote to control!  Carries it in his pocket...  He calls it the "Bruce Almighty Button"!

Contemplating Spawning Upstream?

The best part is that our Koi pond is now the killer focal point, the go to place of our yard and garden, a very relaxing, Zen sort of a space to just sit and watch the fish, marvel at the sunset, enjoy a glass of wine and/or smile at Rosie-the-Wonder-Dog, happily rolling in the grass.

Sadly, we lost two fish while they were out in the holding tanks. One was our "original", our big and beautiful Yamabuki,
Pau-Pau, who was the only fish in the pond when we bought the place six years ago.  We are so going to miss her...

We still have lots of work in store for us,  We will be adding landscape plants as well as pond plants.  Since it's sort of the end of the season here for the local nurseries, it will continue to be a work in progress, on into next year.  But we are looking forward to customizing our investment.  And maybe adding a few more fish.

Must Gush!

They're heeeeere!, and I just have to GUSH about them!  My "High Street" Fat Quarter Bundle by Lily Ashbury arrived today.  The moment that I saw these fabrics I knew that I would use this line to make up my next pattern.  The colors, the prints and the scale are all perfect.  The pattern is in the works, although a sewn up version of it has already had quite a little life over on Pinterest.

Here they are, sitting so pretty, all stacked up in perfect color order, of course!

They wanted to do a little runway walk for you, so here they are. 

and 

the coordinating Bella Solids

One word.  Positively DEVINE!  OK, that was two words....   Let's go for three words.  Absolutely Positively DEVINE!

I-Am-a-Mat-er-i-al Girl

C'mon! Sing along if you are also a MATERIAL GIRL! You can thank me later for inserting that crazy Madonna song into your head.... Liv-ing in a Mat-er-i-al World... over and over and over...

I am in serious "DROOL" mode, awaiting the much anticipated release of the newest fabric line by Lily Ashbury for Moda, aptly named, "High Street".  The line is described as "an elegant collection with a touch of playful bohemian style.  Think Carnaby street circa 1963 when "Swinging London" was flourishing.  Soft grays an sage are accented with punches of orange, yellow and plum.  Soft paisley and ogee elements give a not to this colorful iconic era."

You can view the full line here at the Moda (United Notions) website.  http://storefront.unitednotions.com/storefrontCommerce/search.dosearchType=keyword&keyword=high+street&emailAddress=

The release date for this line is August 2013, and it's August already!  Where, oh where is "High Street?

I have yet another Thread Catcher Pattern in my head and this line is going to be positively PERFECT for it! This new pattern will be sort of the "in between" of my two previous patterns, with a somewhat simpler pincushion design than my Dreamy Dresden Pincushion, but with a bit more pizazz than my Sew In Style pincushion. The pincushion design will be foundation pieced, and I know, that's a bit scary for those who have not done such piecing, but the new pattern will give a simple lesson in foundation piecing and you will be surprised at just how simple and precise it is!

Cross your fingers for me that this line is released soon, very soon.

Me and My Big Bro

About 1953, I think....

Over the last few months, I have been getting re-acquainted with my older brother.  He kind of vanished, POOF!, about a million years ago, back when I was a young Mom.  It was 1978, I think, a lifetime ago.  I have missed him all of these years, wondered where he was, hoped that he was having a good life.  Did I have a sister-in-law? Was I an Auntie? Was he even still living? Mr. T. and I seriously searched for him, but with no luck.

Through the magic of the Internet, and with the good fortune to be married to a retired Federal Agent, my very own Mr. T,... who is some kind of a super-whiz at investigations, we finally located him a few months ago in New Orleans.  My brother and I have connected through Facebook and are communicating back and forth, getting to know each other again after all of these years. He's a musician living in the French Quarter.  He has sent me CD's of his compositions.  Really great stuff!  He always was a superb musician!

No, I am not an Auntie, I do not have a sister-in-law, but that's just fine with me.  I am just happy to have found my Big Brother after all of these years.  That's him, in the photo above, standing in the middle.  I am seated in his pedal airplane, sitting like a brazen hussy with my leg slung over the side ..., and with my brothers initials, J.P., painted on the side by our father.  My bro "flew" all over the neighborhood in his pedal airplane, and he let me channel my inner Amelia Earhart from time to time.  I bet that airplane would be worth about a gazillion dollars today!

Who that kid on the right is?... I have no idea. All I see in the photo is me and my big bro.

The Design Wall Blues

If I could sing, which I can't.... (OK, I try... in the car... along with the radio... ), I'd be singing,  "I Got 'Dem Design Wall Blu-oooz".

I have no single wall in our sweet old bungalow large enough, and without heavy furniture placed in front, to accomodate a design wall.

After months of not even touching my Birdsong quilt, I am happily immersed. Since I must make do without a proper design wall, I have tacked my "in progress" quilt blocks on the wall behind the door in the master bedroom, scrunched between the bedroom door and Mr T.'s highboy.  As you can see, I still do not have enough room to tack them all up side by side. Notice that the blocks on the left are overlapping.  The little neon green and pink sticky notes tell me just where the blocks need to be placed.

I needed to get the blocks tacked to the wall so that I could stand back from them and make some decisions about which fabrics to use in the next blocks that I make.  I don't have lots of variety in the blues and reds and do not want to use the same fabrics adjacent to each other.

I am loving the way that the leafy border at the top looks.  Each little leaf is a four inch block.  This border will be on the top, sides and bottom of the quilt, inside the 12 inch outer border, fabric yet to be determined, but probably one of the blue prints, or... one of the red prints.  Still undecided.

These are two of my favorite blocks, the Chipping Sparrow and the Lark Bunting.

I can see that my needle turn hand appliqué  skills have improved a great deal since I began this quilt, having just learned the technique a few weeks prior to starting. I wasn't doing so badly at first...my work looked surprisingly good,  but I was incredibly tight in the neck, shoulders and hands.  I am happy to say that I have since learned to relax while doing this variety of hand appliqué.  I think that I have found my groove, so to speak, or my Zen, depending on how old you are.  Bet you can't guess how old I am. Insert Peace sign here...

Only NINE more bird blocks to go!  I am well over half done with them, but still have tons of those little four inch leaf blocks.

UPDATE - July 17, 2013 - Moving right along. I have finished four more blocks and only have FIVE more to go!

I have learned something about myself in the process of making this quilt.  I do not especially enjoy doing the prep for the blocks, cutting all of the pieces and preparing them for appliqué.  Progress completely bogs down when I need to prep blocks.  That is the point at which time it becomes easier to procrastinate than to continue.  So I figured out that if I prep two or three blocks at one time, then put them in zipper bags, ready to go, that I am ready to sew whenever I like.  Hmmm, maybe this is why I have so many unfinished projects. Poor prepping, perhaps. Well,... that,.. and I am a Gemini, which kind of says it all.

I will remember this little lesson on future projects.  Prep, prep, prep.  Kind of like eating your peas first.

I'm International !

You know, when I began selling my Sew In Style Thread Catcher Pattern in mid May and soon thereafter added my Dreamy Dresden Thread Catcher Pattern, I had no idea how they would be received.  I listed them, crossed my fingers and then, well,.. then, the orders started rolling in.

I am in absolute amazement that my patterns have been purchased from all around the planet!  To date, and as best that I can remember, I have had purchases from Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Sweden, Denmark, Israel, Portugal, Scotland, Wales, the Netherlands, England, Germany, Spain, France, Italy, Norway, the United Kingdom, Hungary, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Thailand, South Africa... and don't forget TEXAS, only because Texas is bigger than most of the countries that I have had orders from.  I am betting that there are more of my thread catchers in Texas than in any other state or country!  Notice in the picture above that I have altered world geography and have pasted TEXAS somewhere in the South Pacific, and I pasted it BIG, really BIG, because you ladies from Texas have been such really wonderful customers!

Seriously... thank you, thank you everyone for being as excited as I am about my little sewing accessory.

Good things really do come in small packages!

Feeling Grateful...

As Mr. T. and I were driving home yesterday, I just had to take a photo of the river, less than a mile from our bungalow.  I had forgotten my camera at home, but my iPhone captured this beautiful view of the river perfectly!  Breathtaking!

And we get to live here!

My Dreamy Dresden Thread Catcher Pattern is Now Available!

My Dreamy Dresden Thread Catcher Pattern in now available for Instant Digital Download at my Etsy shop,   Curry Bungalow.

This is the pattern that has received SO much attention, pins and re-pins over at Pinterest.  It has driven thousands upon thousands of hits here at my blog.

Can I just say here,... I am exhausted!  Tough work, this pattern writing stuff is!  I had set a proposed release date of June 15th, which seemed entirely possible when I set the goal, but as it got closer and closer, I was putting in more and more hours, finessing the text, color correcting the photographs and designing the cover.

My younger daughter, known here in Blogland as Butterfly, who is a super-talented graphic designer, designed the cover for my Sew In Style Thread Catcher Pattern.  Well, she is up to her eyeballs in freelance graphic design work at the moment and I did not want to lay one more thing on her plate.  So I decided to take the plunge and design the cover page myself.  I did email her my various cover designs and she gave me her input.  As I kept sending her more modifications and variations, she finally told me to just let it be, to go with the first clean and uncluttered design that I had done and to just quit noodling the cover to death.

Phewwww!!! I am so glad that the pro told me to give it up.  I would probably still be working on the cover... and would not have had the pattern up and listed a full 24 hours before my projected release date.  Thank you, Butterfly, for slapping me to my senses,...but in a very professional way, of course.

I hope that you will enjoy this pattern as much as I do.  The big fun for me is in combining the fabrics.  But I also love making these for gifts.  Imagine, a stunning handmade gift for family and friends for under $20.00!  And that's just for the first one that includes the pattern.  For successive thread catchers, the cost can drop to about half of that price! Get ready to be making these for all of your creative friends and family.

Oh, and please, feel free to pin my thread catcher photo to Pinterest.  It will help my little "Bungalow Industry" immensely if you do.  Thanks so much.  And if you make your own Dreamy Dresden Thread Catcher, please post your own creation on the Curry Bungalow Facebook Page.  HAPPY SEWING!

Such a Tease! Next Thread Catcher Pattern Coming Soon!

I am SO excited!  I have finished the prototype for my Dresden Thread Catcher pattern! I used these yummy fabrics from the "Love and Joy" line by Dena Fishbein.  I'm crazy about these prints and colors.

I am shooting for a release date of June 15th, which is not that far away.  So I'd better get back to work.  Just wanted to put out a little teaser showing the fabrics that I am using. 

Stay tuned...

My Sew In Style Thread Catcher Pattern Has Launched!

This is the story of 

"The Little Thread Catcher That Could"

The Pattern Cover Page, LOOKIN' GOOD!

You, too, can make your very own Thread Catcher!

The Oh-So-Practical Detachable Pincushion

Woo-Hoo! My long awaited Sew In Style Thread Catcher pattern is finally finished and has just  been pushed from the nest.  Lets's hope that it has wings! I am SO doing the Happy Dance!

It is available for  INSTANT DIGITAL DOWNLOAD at my Etsy Shop, Curry Bungalow.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/CurryBungalow

The whole Instant Digital Download thing at Etsy is kind of a new thing, from what I hear.  That means that you get your pattern within minutes of purchase, rather than whenever the seller sends it out to you.  How cool is that?

As I have mentioned previously, it is not such an easy a task to write down how it is that you construct an item.  I feel as if I could make one of my Thread Catchers in my sleep, Zzzzzzzzzzz.....I've made so many!  But putting that all in to words is not as simple as it might seem.

Please, feel free to "Pin" to Pinterest, post to Facebook, tell your friends and pass the word.  It is, after all, because of the interest from all of you that I was inspired and motivated to actually write this pattern.

Have you got a minute here?  I just want to tell you how this all came about.

I was just cruising along, selling a few Thread Catchers on Etsy and posting my thread catchers on my blogs,
www.tintheburg.blogspot.com and www.currybungalow.blogspot.com, when people began “pinning” them to Pinterest.  All of a sudden, my blog hits went through the roof!

Flashback to late March 2013... I had just mentioned to Mr. T., (He’s my sweetie of 43, count ‘em, 43 years!) that I had a total of over 5000 hits on my Blog!  I was feeling pretty happy about that.  Then something crazy happened.  Since late March, my Blog hits have gone from a very respectable 5000 to nearly 87,000!  And those hits are almost all driven by Pinterest pins!

People began to email me, asking me if they could buy the pattern.  Well… I didn't have a pattern, other than what was in my head.  So I set about putting it all down into a Word document, which was later converted to a PDF file, and I am feeling pretty good about what I have produced.  I am betting that all of you are going to love making your own Thread Catchers, and then, you are going to make them as gifts for people that you care about. It seems impossible to make just one!

Along with the pattern, I am also offering a supply kit that includes all of the items, minus your choice of fabrics, thread and the button for the posy, needed to make this item.  I will discount the kit if you purchase the pattern and the kit at the same time.

For those of you who are interested in the pattern for the thread catcher with the Dresden block applied to the top, I am already working on that pattern.  It should go together much faster that this one, since most of the work is already done.  As I am so fond of saying, please STAY TUNED!

I must extend my heartfelt thanks to all of you who have waited so very patiently for this, for those of you who have contacted me and for “Liking” Curry Bungalow on Facebook.  I am over the moon and inside out that you love my little sewing accessory!  It's "The Little Thread Catcher That Could" !

And that just shows.... "The Power of the PIN" !

Thread Catch Pattern Spoiler

I spent a good part of the day working on my "SEW-IN-STYLE" Thread Catcher Pattern.

Have you ever written a pattern?  It is not such an easy task as you would expect, but mine is close to being finished, I promise.

I am posting a bit of a "spoiler" here, letting all of you in on a sneak peek at the fabrics that I am using to make my pattern prototype.

My prototype was made using the newly released "Spring House" fabric line by Moda, designed by Stephanie Ryan.  Is it just me or are these fabrics just the dreamiest?  They were all so pretty that I had a hard time deciding just which ones to use for my pattern prototype.

The next step is to add my photos to the pattern text and to then polish off the cover.  The finished pattern is close to being completed, really close.

Thanks to everyone!  You have been incredibly patient and I so appreciate that.

Stay tuned!

I Like You... Please Like Me! :)

Ohhhhh,...I try, but I'm not so Blogger/Etsy/Facebook savvy, so for those of you who have traveled this way to find a thread catcher, I have just built a Facebook  website for "Curry Bungalow", my very own bungalow BIZ!

So if you would like to get moment by moment, up to the minute updates for when I add new Thread Catchers to my Etsy Shop, just search for Curry Bungalow, the website, on Facebook, then you will want to LIKE ME.

...You like me, you really like me! Oh, I forgot,... I am not Sally Fields.

You may also see a page for Curry Bungalow, but that's the one that is a "friend" page, not quite what I had in mind.  Not that I don't want to be your friend... but if we connect that way then we are going to receive each others posts on our pages.  Not so good...  I've tried to delete that page, but I am not smart enough, apparently.

Seriously folks, I am so very touched that so many of you are excited about my little sewing accessory.  Thank you, everyone, for being so incredibly supportive.

 I am humbled,... truly.

Hello Spring !!!

I've missed you, terribly...

No sunshine yesterday here in the 'Burg, but lots and lots of Daffies are blooming in the garden!

 They are kind of like "Sunshine a Stem"!

Getting Presents in the Mail

Don't you just love it when you get a present in the mail?  I got one today.

Well,... it wasn't exactly a present. I bought it.  I paid for it. But when I opened that Priority Mail envelope, I found this.  Sew Lux certainly knows how to package an order to make it look like a present, don't they?

\

How sweet of Sew Lux Fabric and Gifts to package up my order to look like something that I might have received at my 5th Birthday Party!  I took a little trip back in time, WAY back in time!  I was remembering my dotted swiss party dress, Neopolitan ice cream and a white cake with pink sprinkles. 

Oh,... did I mention that Sew Lux had great prices for all of the fabrics that I wanted,... in one place?  Sweet!

I will be ordering from them again, most certainly.

 I LOVE getting presents in the mail

Luuucccyyyyy! I'm Home!

I am over the moon and inside out!

Meet “Lucy”, my newly acquired 78 year old Singer Featherweight, born Nov. 5, 1935. She’s looking exceptionally snappy for her age, isn’t she? She just had a total face-lift where she got her stylin’ red paint job. She is my new traveling machine and I can't wait to take her to classes and workshops.  She and I are going to have tons of fun together!

Feelin' Like the Queen of Thread Catchers!

Holy Cow!  I am feelin' like the Thread Catcher Queen!  Hand me my crown, please.

Some of my thread catchers were picked up on Pinterest and my blog has kind of BLOWN UP!, with thousands of hits per day, over 45,000 views in the past month and tons of interest and purchases at my Etsy shop, Curry Bungalow.

It makes me happy to know that people are loving my original design, buying them and requesting special orders, but it was also making me just a little crazy.

At first I thought that I had to keep my store stocked with these things and I was glued to my sewing machine.  Then I had this epiphany.... and epiphanies are good.  I make these things for fun because I love combining fabrics into something pretty and practical, AND it gives me a bona fide excuse to order fabrics that I love but would not necessarily build into a quilt.

So I have decided that in the interest of sanity, I resolve to just plug away, making these things in my studio, (OK, OK, it's a sewing closet... but I can dream, can't I?...) and posting them on Etsy as I complete them.  No pressure on myself.

I am also working on a downloadable pdf pattern for those of you who want to make your own and hope to have that available soon at my Etsy shop.

This has all been a huge lesson for me. The lesson is, "Do what you love",... and I love to make things, but I especially... simply... love to sew.

SEW it's all good, right?

Still Puttering...

Oh,... have I ever been having fun with new fabrics and new pincushion designs.  I just had to share this Thread Catcher that I completed moments ago.  I just posted it for sale at my Etsy Shop .

Isn't this pincushion the just the cutest!  That's a five inch Dresden Plate quilt block applied to the top of the pincushion!  I know, I know, I'm crazy, aren't I?

Fast Forward! This pattern, as well as two other Thread Catcher Patterns is now available at my Etsy shop, Curry Bungalow.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/CurryBungalow

Evolution of a Thread Catcher

Can you bear yet another post about my Thread Catchers?  I have been selling them like hotcakes over at my Etsy shop and have recently made this one that is kind of over-the-top pretty, or at least I think so.  

I used my Luna Notte scraps from my Hanging Basket quilt.  I have lots of little odd bits left over and they were perfect for the paper-pieced pincushion.  It is good sized, about four inches square and is filled with crushed walnut shells to give it a bit of heft. It is attached to the thread catcher with Velcro so that you can use it by itself if desired.

I have found little techniques and tricks along the way to make the construction of my Thread Catchers go a bit quicker.  Faster is all well and good, but I actually get a better result, as well.  I have worked up a way to insert the boning in the top of the bag that gives me a much cleaner and smoother edge at the opening on the bag.  

I am wondering just what turn these things will take next.  Can they get any better?  Maybe...  I have another pincushion idea in mind to try. 

This particular Thread Catcher now resides in Perth, Australia.  Kind of CRAZY, right?  G'day!

Chubby Chicks, Revisited - Part Deaux

It is a cold and rainy day here today in the 'Burg, the perfect kind of day to work on my Chubby Chicks quilt. I could call them "Cheery Chicks", couldn't I?  I kind of need them to be Cheery Chicks on a day like today...

Making the quilt sandwich is not my favorite thing to do.  I don't have a super large work area so it is always a little difficult getting the whole thing laid out and put together.   But I was using my new basting gun and that went pretty well, I think.  The entire quilt is now basted and ready to be quilted.

I am using the smaller print on the right for my backing and the larger print will be the binding.  I will also be adding a tiny orange piped edge to the binding.

I like to bring the backing and batting forward and pin all around the outer edge.  This helps to keep the edge of the quilt from fraying.  It will suffer through lots and lots of handling when Elizabeth (my Bernina 440QE...) and I do the quilting.  Next step is to decide on my quilting design.  I am hoping to have it under the needle tomorrow.