Luau Torches - Part one

I recently downloaded a free pattern called "Luau Torches".  It looks like it was originally a mystery quilt pattern, but it was offered free as a complete download.  It looked like just the right pattern for a quilt retreat project.  I missed out on several quilt retreats in the last year due to hip issues, hip surgery, and personal travel.  But, this time, I was able to secure a spot and put it on my calendar.

I printed off a couple of sheets of the pattern in black and white and colored them in with colored pencils.  It was no surprise to me that I selected green, turquoise and navy for my colors.   I also decided not to add the borders so that the quilt was the smaller size that our charity group likes to donate.

To make things smoother at the retreat, I precut all of the pieces and placed them in a project box. 

Can't wait for the retreat to sew this up!

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!