Friday Wrap-Up

This has been a really great week for me.  I finally feel like I'm accomplishing something.  Wednesday, I finally finished Jake's Bubble Guppies Quilt.  I have a Janome Memory Craft 6600 sewing machine, and it is a dream to quilt with.  I love free motion quilting, although it took a lot of practice before I felt comfortable with this technique.  I love to quilt loop-de-loops and that's what I used on Jake's quilt.  The picture leaves a little to be desired, but there it is.  He was so excited to see Mr. Grumpfish (who was probably the easiest applique to do), but loved the quilt.

And yesterday, I finished Izzy's Princess quilt.  I used a basic stipple design on this one.  I love to stipple, but if I don't think about what I'm doing, the design seems to change (it begins to resemble little boy parts)  I don't know what that says about my brain, but there it is - right out there.

Izzy was glad to get her quilt.  She was fascinated by the whole quilting process.  She questioned what all the different feet were for, why I wore gloves, and it eventually turned into a great teaching opportunity.  I let her feel the feed dogs in up and down positions, and then explained the walking and darning feet.  I showed her how the darning foot allows me to move the fabric, whereas the 1/4" foot does not.  And I showed her the different stitches. I've never tried to teach someone else to sew, but it may be in my future.  Surprisingly, this morning her oldest sister private messaged me about wanting to learn to sew.

I started to sew at age 9, when I joined 4-H, and as I got older, gave up other classes in school to take Home Ec.  Sewing is a passion for me - I can never get enough.  I have made all the curtains in my house (a huge savings), I have made leisure suits (am I showing my age?), I have made wedding gowns, christening gowns, First Communion dresses, purses, aprons, wallets, and of course, quilts.  Rod jokes that if he needed a tuxedo by Sunday, I could have it done; but that sewing on a button takes years!  He just doesn't realize that mending and sewing aren't the same thing!  Hope your weekend is SEW nice.