My first quilt

May 2009 079, originally uploaded by pearljamfanatic.

Oh boy...I started this a few months back and threw it aside out of frustration with the quilting part of things. My daughter kept seeing it sitting there untouched and hounded me to finish it for her so I finally did. She doesn't care about all the mistakes and it makes her happy so I am satisfied. I can't say I'll be making another quilt any time soon, though!

It's made out of scrap fabric except for the backing which is yellow flannel. I started out on this adventure to see if I could do it. I read lots of instructions on the internet and went for it. Sometimes that's just what we need to do to learn and grow. I'm sure the next one will be better, right?

New swimsuit

A new swimsuit for the girl. Ottobre 3/09, #38, size 116. I like that it doesn't ride up her rear end. She picked out the fabric last weekend when swimsuit fabric was on sale for 50% off.

A real bad t-shirt

May 2009 049, originally uploaded by pearljamfanatic.

This simple curved raglan t-shirt that the boy requested ended up giving me fits when it came to using my coverstitcher (Brother 2340CV) on it. I was going for a three thread exposed coverstich and the machine wouldn't work without skipping stitches constantly. After changing needles, rethreading, adjusting the pressure screw, I switched to a 2 needle narrow coverstitch and that was that. Doesn't look very good but I was ready to throw everything out the window by that point! He likes it so I'll take it.

You know, just about everything I've read from Brother coverstitch owners has been so positive. I have had so much trouble since I got mine over a year ago. I find myself avoiding it and dreading its use and that sucks. I got mine used, so maybe that has something to do with it. The only time it might not skip stitches seems to be when I'm sewing on interlock, and that's only if I'm using two needles, not three. Three is always a disaster. I've changed the needles and adjusted everything I could think of to adjust. Anyone have any other ideas other than the obvious one of getting it serviced?

The lost shirt

May 2009 045, originally uploaded by pearljamfanatic.

I made this shirt a while back but lost it, never to be found until I was organizing my fabric. I don't know why I set it aside - maybe to get a picture? I'm just glad it still fits for a bit.

Teacher appreciation week

This coming week is teacher appreciation week. On Friday the kids brought home a paper that gave them ideas for something to do for their teacher each day of the week. Monday's idea is to bring a little treat for her, so we came up with a couple of cute things that I could sew and they could give.

First up is this cute patchwork apple made from more of my Moda Uptown scraps. I used the basic instructions from the tutorial at The Wool Food Mama's blog here. I did the leaves a bit differently. The girl is happy to give this to her teacher tomorrow!



The other item is for the boy to gift. We bought a composition notebook and made a cute cover for it as in this tutorial at Joy's Hope. It was easy and fast and is super cute. I want to make some for me!