Sew With Lucy

Isn't this a happy looking

sewing machine?

I would like you to meet Lucy.

Her name is Lucy

because the red

reminds me of

a certain comedienne

of the same name.

Lucy is a tricksy

kinda girl.

Look at what she can do.

Pretty neat, don't ya think.

When I needed to sew around a pant leg this feature came in handy. Very nice.

I love having the sewing "tools" handy in the little compartment. I bought a special 1/4" quilting foot for Lucy to use when piecing. When I have to thread or wind the bobbin I still drag out the manual, but I am getting used to her. And it is a lot of fun using the different stitches.

To keep the dust from collecting on my table, Lucy, fabric, etc., and to keep sunlight from doing any damage I put a border on a piece of muslin and use it as a dust cover.

Good night, Lucy.

It is my plan that you will be able to click on all the photos in this post and then be able to see a larger photo. 

While checking back through my posts I noticed that some of the photos would not enlarge when I clicked on them and went searching for the reason why and for the fix.

I finally found some information that said that if photos are dragged and dropped while editing they sometimes lose their links. Which means they won't enlarge when you click the photo, so I am bringing in one photo to the post at a time and not even clicking on it and just typing around it and then publishing before adding another photo. 

So, we will see what happens.

Ahhhhh... success!

But I don't think I will keep bringing in the photos one at a time.

It takes too long.

Tomorrow, I will upload 3 or 4 photos all at once

and just try typing around them.

Smiles 

Happy New Year 2009! and DIY

Well, almost... it is still Dec. 31st, but I don't plan on being up to post at midnight. So, I'm wishing us all a happy, healthy, prosperous New Year!

Here is a one day old Brahma chick to help bring in the New Year.

Peep, Peep, Peep!

We are going to celebrate with Pizza fresh from the best pizza

joint in town... well, the nearest town. I'm not looking forward to hearing gun shots and the sound of fireworks at the stroke of 12. Well, at least with the snow bits laying around I won't have to worry about any fire danger. Maybe this year things will be quieter. hope hope

After I have some pizza and post this, I'm going to make lemon curd, because we received a bunch of free home grown lemons and Fuyu persimmons. I have to do something with the

lemons... there is always lemonade, but I'll resort to that only if I mess up the lemon curd. Next I 'll have to figure out what to do with the persimmons. I tried one and it was so sweet! Kinda like a very, very, very sweet cantaloupe. I think they are 25% sugar. I need to find stove top recipes because the oven is not online. I'll let you know how it all turns out... hopefully with photos.

I said I would post about the Christmas quilts, so I will begin at their beginning: a photo of the hand pieced beige block and one of the layouts of the blue and yellow. My sewing machine broke and I began hand piecing the beige block out of scraps from the wedding quilt. I found that I loved hand piecing. I don't think I did a great job of it because it was my first attempt, but there is something very satisfying about holding the fabric close and taking your time sewing. When piecing or quilting, I hold the fabric in my hands and lap, no hoop, and use quilting thread and a long size 10 Milliners needle. I would like to use a size 11, but I can't thread the things. I try for even stitches and get about 5 to 7 per inch if you count the stitches on one side.

I wish I had been able to learn to quilt from someone in my family, but I learned mostly from searching for helpful quilt sites on the internet. I'm glad I did because I have found that my quilting leans heavily toward what is called Liberated Quilting. I do love traditional quilt patterns, but even more I love making up my own quilt patterns. I have only made three quilts. The wedding quilt was from a pattern, but the other two were from blocks I made from patterns, some blocks I made up, and then arranged them the way I wanted.

I have decided that if I want to get a quilt finished quickly I need to machine sew, and that is OK too. I have a new sewing machine that I love called The Heart Truth. Pretty nifty machine with 50 stitches and it makes great button holes. I'll have to get a photo of it and make a Heart Truth post. The sewing machine in the photo is of my old Singer Touch and Sew... the one that jammed. sniff sniff

I have included a photo of my built-in ironing board (from an old house in San Francisco) that I built into the wall here in my book/computer/sewing room. That was a fun DIY project.

Here you can see that while sitting in the chair I have access to the computer, sewing

machine and ironing board. Pretty neat! I built the shelf out of old doors and put the bookshelves on top. Needs painting.

The books are due to be sorted through this year and the dead computers need to be fixed or taken to where ever dead computers and monitors go to lead their afterlife.

I am going to try and post 5 photos with this post, if that doesn't work I will post the photos by themselves. I'll get the hang of this eventually. oh yeah (PS ... my daughter informs me that 5 photos are too much for blogger to handle, but I am trying anyway. So far I have three photos posted, but the two of the quilts keep going poof... Yea! I just got the last one! Save Now! Bye)