Patriotic Pinwheels

Today seems to be a day for finishing projects.  I just finished sewing the topstitching on a set of napkins I started for Thanksgiving, ummmm a really long time ago - like 2010 I think. Yeah! Ooops.

Then I finished up this Red/White/Blue Pinwheel table runner.  I started it around Memorial day.  Missed that holiday obviously, but it's ready for the fourth of July, this year even!  At least that holiday hasn't arrived yet. Phew!

Inspired by the backing fabric from Riley Blake, I wanted a pinwheel runner so I followed some of the tutorials posted by Rachel at ps i quilt for her pinwheel sampler quilt. The other block was just copied off the back of an old quilting magazine.  I used a pinwheel inspired starburst pattern for the quilting in contrasting thread.

This project whipped up very quickly and was a lot of fun (and far less work than a whole quilt).  I like that!

Fun stuff.   Hope your week is just as productive.  Happy Sewing!

Pattern testers wanted

THANK-YOU to everyone who volunteered to test sew.  I now have all the pattern testers I need.  


Greetings sewists! I'm getting ready to launch a new pattern - it's the cell phone wristlet pattern, much overdue but finally finished.

The pattern is all done but I would love to get some pattern testers to let me know what they think of the instructions and to get general feedback on the written pattern. If you're willing to be a pattern tester, and have some experience sewing purses/bags etc please comment here or send me an email at cascadeskids at gmail dot com. Ideally I'd love to get at least some beginning and some more advanced sewers, so if you want to test the pattern let me know what you would consider your sewing 'level'. You would also be required to send me an email with your review of the pattern. Nothing formal or fancy, just places where you thought the instructions weren't clear or areas that you think need improvement.



You must be able to sew this up and review it in the next 2 weeks - so please don't volunteer unless you have time to do the sewing and get it reviewed. For being a pattern tester you'll get a hardware kit from me and the pattern for free but you'll have to supply your own fabric/interfacings and you do get to keep your wristlet of course. I would like to get US residents only so that I can get this turned around a little quicker. I only need about 4-6 testers so get those emails rolling. I'll post back here when I'm done gathering volunteers. Hopefully tomorrow.

NOTE - if your account is set to no-reply I won't be able to get back to you because I cant see your email address - please email me directly or make sure you're comments are set to reply with your email adress.  Thanks!  Come one, come all! Happy Sewing!

Quilting and more quilting...

Earlier this year, it became apparent that my beloved Activa 135 sewing machine of many many years was quite possibly getting ready for retirement.  This was voluntary on her part, but it soon became obvious to me that she was no longer capable of the physical demands I was putting her through.  I suppose it is possible to wear out a sewing machine although it does seem a bit unlikely, but I do put in about 20 hours a week on a busy week which equates to approx. 1000/year or 10000 hours over her lifetime.  Hmm, what is the lifespan of a home sewing machine anyway?  Luckily, hubby who is techno savvy managed to resuscitate her a few times over the past few months but finally I had to concede that she was no longer the youngin’ she used to be.  

Sadly, I replaced her – well kinda sadly but not too much ‘cause who doesn’t love a new sewing machine?!  Yeah, but I did feel kind of bad when she was relegated to the corner of the sewing room, sitting forlornly on the floor all packaged up by herself.  She served me well over the past decade.  She will go in for a full spa service treatment and hopefully she can retire to be used occasionally when the kids have sewing projects they want to do.   

So who/what did I replace her with you ask? Well here’s a peak at her younger sister.

 I have not yet put her through the paces but I will likely write a full review of this machine in a few months when I’ve tested her out thoroughly.  She didn't rest on her laurels for long, she proceeded immediately to free-motion quilting this stems quilt which had been awaiting some stippling.  The new machine came with the much touted BSR (Bernina stitch regulator) and so I gave that a thorough workout over the weekend with this new quilt. 

. Seems a bit strange to me that I didn't even test out all her stitches before diving into a huge quilting project, but that's what I did. Trial by fire I suppose. I decided to use this orange peel quilting pattern that  Elizabeth Hartman talks about in this post (inspiration taken from her new book).  Let me just say that while I like the results, I’ll never do that much quilting again – it took FOREVER and was quite labor intensive on even this relatively small lap quilt.
  
Yikes!!  But I did put the BSR through it’s paces, more on that later.

So I finished quilting the newly christened Scrappy Stems quilt over the weekend.    I do like the end result.  The Stems quilt is a pattern by Fig Tree and Co and can be found here.

That’s all for now. Happy Sewing!