Friday, January 29, 2010

Paintbox Blocks - Week 3

I'm skipping around the color wheel a bit while working on my Paintbox quilt.  I finished four red blocks,


two pinks and one blue, which brings me to a total of 26 blocks. I love the quilt-along process; it takes the pressure off. Eight blocks a week are easy to squeeze in to my schedule.

   
I stopped by my LQS yesterday to see if they still had some Heather Ross in the sale section, but the one I was looking for was gone. I did get three yards of the Wildflowers on yellow from the 'Lightning Bugs and Other Mysteries' collection. It will make a pretty summer dress or skirt. I was ready to check out when I spotted this Jennifer Panganelli Flower Power FQ bundle in the 25% off bin.  I couldn't resist! I need to go on either a fabric diet or a sewing binge!

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Colorfastness Swatch Pillow



Yea! I washed my quilted swatch with a Shout Color Catcher and nothing bled, so here's my pillow!



It was also a good place to audition fabrics for my quilt. One fabric looked a lot like batik to me and I had decided I probably wouldn't use it in the quilt. I have nothing against batik, but I wouldn't mix batik with other printed fabrics. But washed, it's not so bad (top photo, second block from the left in the third row) and I'll probably go ahead and use it.



When Shea saw the quilted swatch, she thought it was going to be another placemat, so she was really disappointed when I told her it was a pillow. Elizabeth's Paintbox pattern calls for forty fabrics, but I only used 36 in the pillow. I have actually collected over 50 fabrics that I've matched to my Kona roll-ups, so I have plenty to make her a placemat to test the remaining fabrics.



A simple button closure for the back.

Oh, I almost forgot about my sewing machine woes yesterday. Long story short, I dropped one of the needle plate screws down into the machine. It disappeared. I unplugged everything and turned the heavy beast upside down, but nothing came out. I was afraid to continue sewing not knowing if that screw had lodged itself into a moving part, so I packed it up and drove into town to the store where I bought it.



They had to completely dismantle it to find the screw, so I got to see my sewing machine's guts. She's got quite a motherboard in there! I felt like an idiot, but they were happy to help and didn't charge me anything to retrieve the screw, so all ended well. Note to self: when removing the needle plate to clean out the lint that's keeping your low bobbin alert laser from working, set the screws to the side, not on the machine!