Well, I heard back yesterday on my sewing machine and it seems that the marriage is ending. My sewing machine and I are not feeling the love any more and I need to trade it in for a newer model. It seems that I am a user and abuser of my poor 16 year old machine and make it do more than it is capable of doing these days. Apparently you are not supposed to sew all day, every day – I am supposed to have a life and generally do things other than quilting?? What?!
So I need to trade in my machine and I am having a dilemma as to what I should consider. If I want to continue as is, I just need to have a macine that goes froward, reverse, and does a nice zig zag. But I got to thinking about an embroidery machine and what I could do with that. Very tempting… It would give me more options for personalization, embroidered blocks, and some snazzy crazy quilts. I was even thinking that it would be cool to set up a machine at a craft fair and offer on the spot personalization for people who buy a quilt. I am not really sure what to charge for something like that. Does anyone have any suggestions? Ideas?
Well, my sewing machine conked out on me – again. So today on my way out to Bristol, VT, I will be stopping by Sew Many Treasures in Williston to see about getting it fixed. If they can fix it, I will hold off on sending it out to Pfaff to be repaired until AFTER the crazy craft fair season and holidays are over. I just need it to last 3 more months!! Pretty please? With a bobbin on top?
The reason why I am going to Bristol is to pull my quilts out of the Art on Main gallery. When I stopped by there to change out my product two months ago, I saw that my quilts were stuffed onto this tiny rack that was shoved underneath this waterfall scarf display rack. You could barely see one of the quilts, let alone the other four hidden behind it. No wonder I have had no sales from that gallery all year! Bah!
On Friday night I finally got to start on my new jacket. I took all of those yummy fat quarters and cut them into 1.5″ strips, then sewed them end to end. Once that was done, I strip pieced them to batting that was cut to a McCalls jacket pattern.
Here’s a shot of all the strips:
And here’s one of the strips being attached to the jacket:
Sunday afternoon I was headed up to get my photo taken and was frantically basting the cuff binding down as I had run out of time. After I got home, I was finally able to finish it off and am pleased with the result. The colors remind me of a brilliant sunset and are just perfect for fall. Here is the finished jacket:
While I was on vacation in Cape Cod last month, I went to the Bayberry Quilt Guild’s quilt show. It was a much bigger event than I was expecting with much shopping to be had. While I wasn’t too terribly impressed with the quality of the quilts, they had a ton of vendors! Here is a shot of some of the yummy fabric and patterns I picked up.
The orange and purple fat quarters (16 of them!!!) are in the wash right now. I want to start on a jacket out of them this afternoon. While they are in the wash, I am busily quilting up the rainbow Dinosaurs quilts I didn’t get to yesterday like I wanted to. I have to have a professional photo of me taken for the galleries and promotions and I would really like this jacket for the shot. I think it won’t take too long to do up as I plan on making a simple strip pieced design (the pattern in the photo but with batting instead as I haven’t found a good sweatshirt yet!).
I had a bit of good news today that I wanted to share here. The manager of the Frog Hollow Gallery and I met today at the Burlington, VT location and had a nice chat about my quilts. It seems that since the jurying last month, they have been looking forward to my call to set up the first delivery of quilts. He seems to think that they will sell like hot cakes, and judging by the sheer number of people in the gallery today (and that he now has NINE of my quilts!), I am cautiously optimistic that he may be right. This is all so exciting!
On a different note, I have been doing a lot of soul searching to see if this is the right time to look to getting a physical location for my business. I believe it is. It has always been my dream to have a full quilt store with an attached studio and sell both quilting fabrics and notions as well as completed quilts. I have signed up for classes this winter, will be ironing out my business plan, and looking to do pesky things like become an LLC. Should keep me busy!
Today was spent trying to wrap up a lot of odds and ends – I finished quilting the last Nursery Rhyme baby quilt and quilted the first of the Rainbow Dinosaur baby quilts. It was fairly quick to do up, so I think the remaining three could (possibly) get done up tomorrow.
Today also saw a massive thread order for only two kinds of thread in one color – unbleached white cotton. Yeah, kinda boring, but it is the one I piece with and do a lot of my quilting with. With all of the craft fairs coming up this fall, I need to replenish the Toddler Blanket inventory, Baby Blankets, and Nursing Covers. Last time I made them up, I used 5,000 yds of thread and didn’t make nearly enough. Do you think 20,000 will do the job this time? 
Here is a shot of my new fishy friend in my sewing room. I have decided that I will be decorating the room with only things that make me smile, and he definitely does that! He may need more friends next time I visit the Lemon Tree Pottery in Brewster, MA, but my sewing supplies may not survive their appetites!
Here it is, my newest quilt pattern, Crib Rails, based on the traditional quilt block, split rails. It is my hope that you will enjoy making this pattern as it is fairly quick to do, and good for all skill levels. This quilt is also available for sale on my website as the Safari Baby Quilt.
Download the Crib Rails Pattern as a Word .doc (279k) or as an Adobe .pdf (139k).
Before I make this quilt pattern available on my website Baby’s Breath Quilts, I would love to hear feedback from all of my friends in Blog-land. The good, bad and the ugly are all appreciated. Especially if you catch any mistakes! 
Thanks!
As always, my quilt patterns are protected by copyright and are available for free to all home quilters for personal use only. I ask that you please write to me for permission if you want to use it for any other reason, including re-sale.
Many interesting things happened on the way to… completing this bag. Most resulted in the use of the seam ripper! Ah, well. I suppose in this case, when life gives you limes, you make limeade!
As I finished putting together the squares for the body of the bag, I next ironed on some deco bond and quilted it to some cotton batting. Then I tacked on the beaded fringe. The band around the top of the bag was sewn on using my zipper foot and took quite a while to do. I had to simultaneously sew tightly against the beads (without sewing over them) in one direction and pull the band fabric in the other direction so the seam allowances lined up. Needless to say, when I melted the sequins on the fringe with the iron, I got a tad grumpy. I should have known this was going to happen as I had bought extra fringe.
Then the side seams were closed up, the bottom sewn, and I added handles. The lining was the last step and went in very nicely. I always like to double sew the top seam that attaches the lining to the bag. I think it helps reinforce the seam, especially where the handles are. Turn it right sides out, close the turning hole in the lining, and finally sew another seam around the top of the bag to discourage the lining from pulling out of the bag as it is used. Viola! C’est finis!
While I was at the Vermont Quilt Festival, I found this really eye-popping raspberry silk fabric that I just had to have. I needed to make a bag for my sister that was young, fresh and hip – and she loves the color pink. Then I hit upon this great Timeless Treasures batik in shades of green (all in the same booth! What luck!) and had my epiphany. Take all this yummy fabric, pair it with beaded fringe and you have a really cool bag!
Here is a shot of the to-be-ironed-pile. Aren’t they pwetty?
All of the strips are cut…
Here are the strips sewn in the on point pattern.
I love this pattern, but cannot, due to copyright reasons, share it with anyone. If I had made it, I would gladly post it because you can do so much with it. But I think that any enterprising quilter can look at the photos (esp. the last one) and get a pretty good idea how I made it.
