Progress!

On March 24, I finally finished my January UFO project!  I didn't want to rush my work just to meet a deadline that was sort of artificial in the first place.  In January, I completed all of the straight line quilting with the walking foot.  Then in the beginning of March, I completed the free motion machine quilting. I used different motifs in the various areas.  This past Saturday, I added the binding and the hanging sleeve.  I am quite pleased with the project, and it only took a decade or two from start to finish!

I am in the midst of a major decluttering/reorganizing project in my bedroom.  My bedroom is also my craft room.  This project has been ongoing for months, but became more accelerated at the end of February when I bought my new friend Sergio home.

Sergio is a new Viking Husqvarna serger.  I have resisted buying a serger for quite some time, but I do so much garment sewing that it really makes sense to have one.  Anyway, I want to set it up on a little table so I can leave it up most of the time and move back and forth between sewing and serging without having to switch out the machines on the same table.  To be able to do this I need to declutter and rearrange the room to make room for a table.  I might try to put the serger on top of a lovely cabinet I bought that houses an antique treadle sewing machine.  I have the new owner classes for the machine in early April, I just can't decide if I will try to figure it out myself before that.

I also finished my Easter (2017) dress.  I started it for last Easter.  I redrew the neckline to match some embroidery I was using at the neckline, with no thought to the fact my neck still needed to fit the neckline, which of course it didn't.  I threw the dress aside, and then it turned out we stayed home last Easter anyway, because my husband Bob was not up to going anywhere.  I resurrected the dress recently.  I recut the neckline, chopping off the embroidery.  I redid the embroidery once I had a neckline that fit well.  I used bias binding in place of the ruined facings.  I definitely needed a refresher on order of assembly: for some reason I left installing the zipper until last, and that was not a good idea at all!  Since my return to sewing, my husband had been my helper to mark my hems for me.  For this dress I tried a new gadget I bought that one can use to shoot chalk along a line around the level of your dress where the hem should go.  It worked like a charm on the front, I think getting the markings on the back will take some practice.

Yesterday I made a t-shirt!  I used my old tried and true pattern and the remainder of a big piece of grey knit I bought years ago at the Goodville Fabric Outlet (now Zincks).  I wanted to try out the heat transfer vinyl and my Cricut machine to make a graphic T.  

I added one of the little Maggie Made This labels I had made.  I used thread that matched my vinyl.  I really enjoyed making this!