Kangaroo and Joey Sewing machine cabinet

It took a while to get the sewing machine cabinet delivered, but it finally arrived at the dealer in flat fold boxes.  We picked it up, removed all the pieces from the boxes and carried them all upstairs.  No need to go the gym that day!

The assembly instructions from Arrow were very complete, with tons of drawings and tips.  They also have a YouTube video on how to install the hydraulic lift mechanism and another one on how to assemble the cabinet.  I was very impressed that they had a woman doing the assembly in the video; that appealed to my sensibility that women can be engineers (like me) and can put things together (like many of you). I love getting out my tools and doing things like this.  Here is the link to the assembly video: assembling the Kangaroo cabinet.  

I did run into a few snags along the way and asked my husband to come up and help me figure things out and hold the heavier parts when two people were needed.  He graciously volunteered to keep helping me.  After 2 days and a few sore hands and bodies, we gave up and called the shop.  Turns out, there were some manufacturing issues that  needed to be fixed before we could complete the assembly.  Our local shop decided to come to the house and complete the assembly for us to make things right.  Gotta love that customer service from the local shop.

In the meantime, we assembled the Joey cabinet.  Again, the instructions were detailed and easy to follow. 

Here is the completed set-up.  It's huge and I love it.

Sheer Class with Kathie Kerler - part two and final - Beach

I wrote a post a little while ago about taking the class with Kathie Kerler on working with sheers.  I did decide to add more quilting after letting it sit for a few weeks.

A few years ago, I quilted a fish themed quilt for my husband.  One of the motifs that I quilted was a large circle with small circles inside of it.  That seemed to fit this quilt too, so I put a few of these on this quilt.  Then, I added horizontal stitches between all of the large circles.  I liked it!  It was faced, and ended up 24" W x 26" H.  I'm calling it "Beach".

I hope you like it!

New Machine and New Layout in the Studio

I couldn't resist the sales events from the local Bernina dealers during late February and March.  Knowing that one of my machines was nearing the end of its life, I jumped on the deals and bought a new Bernina 770 QE Pro along with the embroidery module.  

The machine was so big that it didn't fit into my sewing cabinet.  So, I also had to buy a new sewing cabinet.  I bought the Arrow Kangaroo and Joey combination.  

All of this meant big changes in my studio layout.  My sister came down for a visit and helped me lay out the space and shop for the cabinet.  I'm getting used to the new layout and think that I'm going to love being able to see my design wall and have the ironing board in front of a window.  

I sold my old cabinet, my featherweight machine, and my traveling table to help offset the cost of the new cabinet.  I also plan to sell my Bernina 440 and all of its components.  Now, I just need to learn how to use my new machine and the embroidery module.  I guess that its always good to learn new things, especially at my age.  And this should be my last new machine and cabinet; so why not!

CCQ Challenge - 2026 - Red, White, Blue and Gold - Part Three - Patriotic Lady

This is a continuation of two previous posts about the making of the CCQ challenge piece, the Patriotic Lady.

I made the face, neck and hair with 4 shades of skin tone and selected black and gold for her hair.  After I finished it, I attached it all to the background with a tiny zig zag stitch.

The final item that I needed was the star wand.  I remembered that I had a 1/4" bias tape maker and 1/4" double sided fusible.  I found a nice shade of gold and made it and attached it to the top.  This was also added with a zig zag stitch.

I quilted the top in spirals and stars with gold colored thread.  AND I used my new BSR and Bernina 770 to do the quilting.  I love the new machine and especially the laser light that lets you see exactly where the needle is going to stitch.   I quilted the body with thread to match the clothes, face, and hair. 

 When that was all done, I hand stitched on the embroidered star at the top of the wand.  It was bound with blue striped fabric.

She's 24" W x 39" L.

I hope you like it!

Finishing a friend's inherited UFO projects

One of my quilting friends recently lost her sister, who was an avid quilter and made hundreds of quilts for charity.  The family went through her quilting room and found a ton of unfinished projects.  So, my friend  put the projects into baggies and has been handing them out to some of us to finish and donate to charity.

I picked up 2 of them.  The first one was made entirely of Fairy Frost, a line of shimmery fabric that was popular a few years ago.  I added 2 large borders to make it the 50" x 60" size that they used for donated quilts.  Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture before I passed it along.

The second one was so close to being finished.  There were 20 12" blocks all done and the backing was sewn together.  All it needed was to have some sashing cut and then sew it all together.  I decided to use only 16 of the 12" blocks to keep the quilt a reasonable size.  It ended up being 58" x 58".  Here is the completed top:

My friend and her family will quilt these tops and I may get them back to finish up the binding.  And I hope whomever gets these quilts likes them!

CCQ challenge 2026 - Red, White, Blue and Gold - Part One

Clark County Quilters (CCQ) issued a challenge for 2026 to celebrate both the 50th year of the guild and the 250th anniversary of the USA.  The piece had to be done in red, white and blue with stars and stripes, plus gold.  It couldn't be wider than 24", and the length was not limited.  I immediately thought about doing a lady with striped bottoms, star sunglasses, and lots of glitz.  Here are my sketches of ideas:

I found a picture in my sketch book and used that to draw my design to scale.  In order to get the face the right size, I took a picture of it and resized it in Photoshop.  I also posterized it so that I would have the 4 values that I needed to make the face realistic.  Here is the sketch and face to scale.

I started working on the pants first (shown above and detail below).  I knew that I wanted them to be red and white striped, and I used my chop and drop method to make them.  (Actually, I forgot the first step and didn't add the blobs of fabric before adding all the trim!).  I think they turned out very cute.

The next thing that I made was the top and sleeves.  I used 3 shades of blue blobs and trims to give it some kind of shading.  I also added gold thread to add that spark of shiny gold.

I hope you like it so far!

Leftover improv - Part One

I had a little bit of dark, mossy green left over from the art quilt that I made for my brother and sister-in-law, so I thought that I would randomly piece it with some other greens in my stash and see where that would lead.  I just kept adding, inserting, making straight and curved edges and tossed them up on the design wall.  Here it is after a couple of days of playing around.  I had no idea what was going to be made from these pieces.  Sometimes, just playing around with fabric is just plain fun!

Somewhere along in the process, I decided that a little bit of black and white striped fabric would add some life to the otherwise dark piece.  I cut 1" strips and inserted them to show 1/2" in some areas, and 1/4" in others.  

I have to tell you that it was a bugger to sew together.  Some of the seams were curved, some were straight, there were inset and Y seams.   I had to chop some pieces off, add some pieces here and there, and make more units to fill the large empty spots.  It was a good thing that I had an audio book to listen to so that my mind was in a calmer zone while I struggled to sew this piece together.  Even so, I did have to rewind the book a few times when I realized that my problem solving brain had overtaken my listening brain.

After it was sewn, it emerged as an aerial landscape.  So, I went with the feeling of a landscape and started adding hand embroidery stitches.  I started with white.

It is actually much darker than the photo shows.  Anyway, I hope you like it so far!

CCQ Challenge - 2026 - Red, White, Blue and Gold - Part Two - Patriotic Lady

This is a continuation of a previous post about the making of the challenge piece for the CCQ Challenge for 2026.

After making the clothes, I made the shoes.  

And next were the arms and legs.

Then it was the face, neck and hair.

The top as it looked at the end of those stages:

I hope you like it so far!

Quilt give away day and organizing quilt storage

I went through my stash of quilts and am always surprised at how quickly they accumulate.  My storage closet was way out of control!

I had my husband take off the closet doors and install shelves (I stole them from his garage set up).  Then I went through all of the quilt storage bins, all of the old toys, old paper supplies, pictures, genealogy records, and wrapping paper.  It's so much more organized now!  There are 3 bins of bed and small art quilts.  The top shelf is for all the rolled art quilts and a roll of batting.  The bottom shelf holds the genealogy records, sewing and serging equipment and supplies.  Wrapping paper and guest bed supplies are on the 3rd shelf.  And one bin is for batting.

Anyway, here is all the stuff that is getting donated or gifted:

I am so glad to be able to downsize.  Although, I still have 2 bedrooms, the closets in both bedrooms, the hall closet and the under counter storage that are chock full of my quilting, sewing, and art supplies.  Should I be embarrassed?  Well, if you're a creator, you decide!

Sheer class with Kathie Kerler

My guild, Clark County Quilters, recently hosted a class led by Kathie Kerler on how to use sheer fabric overlay to make a wall hanging.  It was a really clever way to add applique without having to sew around the edges first.  The quilting stitches held the applique in place!

I have been challenging myself to make fiber art pieces WITHOUT lime green and decided for this piece to use turquoise shades.  A few people in the class were shocked that I didn't bring green to the class.  

The piece was put together in the class with fused fabric pieces cut out on her cutting machine.  I used both circles and stars.  Then, I quilted around all of the motifs in the class.

I'm not sure if it's quilted enough for me yet.  Anyway, I hope you like it at this stage.

Knitted slippers sole repair

My sister made me a pair of knitted slippers using the old family pattern that our Mom used.  I've made several pairs myself, but currently only have the one that my sister made.  She was VERY SMART and knitted an extra pair of soles.  I've replaced the worn out soles at least 3 times already and am so thankful to have that spare that I can swap out.

All I have to do is remove the yarn stitches holding the sole to the slipper and pop back on the spare pair, using the green yarn again to stitch them together.  When I'm all done, I take the removed soles, add new non-skid fabric on the bottom and put them away for the next time I need a new sole.  Here are the fixed slippers:

I hope you have someone in your family that will make you knitted slippers (or hats, sweaters, etc.)  Its such a nice gift to have... and one that keeps on giving.

Commission Wall Hanging - Final

This is a continuation of 2 previous posts about the making of the commission wall hanging for my brother and sister-in-law.  

The piece was quilted on my long arm in several colors of thread and with curvy lines in most places and some stones in other places.  

The quilt ended up so even at all of the edges and corners, that I just cleaned them up and finished the edges with facing.  It ended up at 34" W x 40" H.

I hope they like it and I hope you do too!

Commission Wall Hanging - Part Two

This is a continuation of a previous post about the making of a commission piece for my brother and sister-in-law.

After I placed the upper left section on the design wall, one of the pieces stuck out like a sore thumb.  I had saved all of the freezer paper pattern pieces and used it to draw another stabilizer piece, then switched out the offending fabric.  It looked much better.  Can you see it too?

While the upper left section looks very dark and like one fabric, it is actually 5 different fabrics.  I think it'll add some subtle texture to the piece, but it was a lot of work for not much impact.

I worked on the lower left section next and cut the swirly curvy moss green middle piece to make sure that I had enough fabric in the right color before I cut up the entire yardage.

The next section was the upper right.

Then part of the lower right.  I changed out the fabric on several pieces many times while trying to introduce some more white/light turquoise.  

Here is the completed top.  I hope you like it so far!

Commission wall hanging - Part One

My brother and sister-in-law bought a house in Scottsdale, Arizona last year that has a ton of wall space.  They commissioned me to make a wall hanging for them and I started working through the process of designing a fiber art piece that:

(1) fits in the space

(2) fits in with their artistic aesthetic

(3) goes with their color scheme

(4) is something that I can accomplish with my skill set

They sent a few pictures that might work for them and gave me a general color scheme.  Then, I took a trip to see them in February that would enable me to narrow down the choices and start designing the piece.  Here's where we ended up after that trip:

We went shopping for fabric in the colors that they wanted in the piece:

And I pulled more from my stash;

I drew the design to scale on freezer paper.

Then started cutting it into sections that could be pieced.  I traced each piece in the section onto freezer paper and used them for the patterns.

In order to see how the colors were coming together, I pinned the freezer paper pattern on the back side.  When the section was all cut and placed, I ironed the freezer paper back onto the right side.

I decided to use fabric glue to hold the pieces together until they could be sewn.  Later in the night, when I couldn't sleep, I realized that with all the curved edges, it would be a colossal mess trying to sew it together and keep it flat.  So, I got out the Ricky Tims water soluble stabilizer and I drew each piece a second time.  That meant that in addition to the pattern, there were 2 more steps before I could start cutting pieces again.  

I also decided to put more information on the pattern and placed an "o" for the side that was turned over to the back, and an "u" for the side that would be under.  Each piece also got a number so that I would know in what order to start putting the pieces together.  

Then, I was able to start working with the fabric again.  First was to glue the stabilizer to the back of the fabric, trim it, and pin them both and put it in place on the main pattern.  When a large section was completed, I turned one of the edges on each piece and glued it together with it's neighbor. The hash marks on the freezer paper helped to align up the pieces.  Here is a view of a section from the right side and from the back side.

Here are a couple of sections with all of the right stabilizers and placement done.  I used an invisible thread to zig zag the edges together.

I hope its heading in the right direction.  And I hope you like it so far!