Machines n kitties and cranky OH MY!!

It's been a few days since I posted to my blog - and actually been a few since i've really done anything really quilt-like. I did finish the one block I wanted to for the scrappy red swap; packaged it up and will be sending it out in a week or so. I've also packaged up 2 other squishies for fabric that I'm trading :). Monday Kyle had a basketball game and I went to that. Spent the time before and after just spending time with Reg. Heh .. in my days of basketball widowship I grab my time with him when I can ;). Kyle then had a basketball tourney on Tuesday. He did pretty good and that took the afternoon .. by the time we got home and dinner was done, I was just to bloody tired to much of anything else.

It's not been a total write off the past 3 days;

1. I've been plotting my civil war quilt in the back of mind as well .. researching blocks and habits of quilters back in the 1800s . I'm learning a LOT and having fun!!


2. I've also started to hand sew down the binding of Reg's quilt .. one side down .. 3 to go!

I had a machine 'die' on me on Wednesday .. bloody thing .. was piecing a block for a swap when suddenly my machine sounded like a train .. Clickety clack .. Clickety clack .. I slowed down trying to pinpoint the location of the noise (could have hand sewn faster at that point) I figured I would finish that seam and then stop and look under the machine .. It stopped dead 4 stitches later .. I wasn't going fast at all . The needle did not break - didn't even bend. .. The bobbin case was secure and not lose, I removed the bobbin and casing, the needle was hitting the disc that is UNDER the bobbin case. It almost seems to me that a screw got loose and it spun (!) .. I've joined a few machine groups hoping that someone might have an answer for me .. i've research a lot of possible causes, but none yet .. I'm guessing that this really put me off my stride as I was really cranky for the rest of the day. The above is a copy and paste that I sent to the list.

This is the machine that my mum bought me and while it's not a top end machine, there is sentimental value to it. It is also my only zig zag machine and the one I did all my quilting on. I don't like this for free motion as it skips stitches, but for regular quilting it's just fine. Now I do have my mum's touch n sew, but that machine and don't have any sort of common ground between us ... on one of my lists, someone referred to it as a touch n swear .. I believe it! This machine is also a slant shank machine and all mine are short shank .. feet are not interchangeable.

I have finally done 3 more blocks for my kitty quilt .. I was rather putting these off as they are paper pieced and I've had enough issues with them LOL .. And these were a wee bit different as the lines aren't sewing lines, but guidelines .. well I finally bit the bullet and started them .. I got 3 done and they do go pretty quick .. once you get the hang of pp'ing this way, it is actually pretty easy! I only have about 5 more to go, then the fish, mice, yarn, and milk jugs .. altho, I just might do them for the border instead as this is going to balance out just nicely me thinks. I've not updated the scrapsnclaws webpage yet as I'm going to make more blocks and will update them when I get the set of 8 done I think.

This one's feet are backwards .. I didn't notice it until I took the picture - I just may leave him like that

This one i reversed the fabric for the tail to make it stand out more .. should have been the other way around, but didn't occur to me until AFTER I had him more than 1/2 way done

I really like how this guys face worked out just right! Altho I think that this fabric is a wee bit to busy for the size of this block