All Four Stitch Outs of Block One Done!

This is a scan of one of my stitch outs of Block One of the Hoop Sisters EmbroidaBlock of the Month 2009

Scan of one of my stitch outs of Block 1

The quilt will be made up of nine different blocks, one per month, each stitched out four times. They are Quilt As You Go Blocks, embroidered and quilted in the hoop. The blocks will be assembled into a finished wall size quilt at the month 10 class. The finished size of mine will be 30″ x 30″ since I am doing the 5 inch blocks. My machine cannot do the 8 inch size.

~*~

Here are my completed blocks for month one.

Stitch outs are done, but have not trimmed excess stabilizer and batting yet. (Waiting for month 10 to do any trimming.)

The edges have not been trimmed after removal from the hoop, you are seeing the stabilizer and batting in addition to the blocks. We will trim all blocks at the month 10 class. This way, we won’t be trimming an incorrect edge and having to re-do the block. These four will be the outermost corner blocks of the finished quilt.

~*~

And here is what they look like from the back (again, they are not trimmed).

Stitches from the back side. You will see these stitches when the quilt is complete.

~*~

Here are the fabrics and threads that I chose.

~*~

This is the Fabric and Thread Guide to keep track of what goes where.

(oops! I can’t find the picture.  i will post it when i find it.)

~*~

We will have our demo for Block Two on the 11^th of September. Hopefully I will have photos of new stitch outs done shortly after.

No, I Have Not Abandoned My Blog!

I can’t believe it has been 3 months since my last post. Many things have been keeping me just to busy, but the biggest was going to my son’s graduation from Air Force Baisc Training at the end of June. We spent 4 days in San Antonio celebrating and visiting with him.
I am currently participating in the HoopSisters Crazy Compass Block of the Month. I have only done 2 of the 4 stitch-outs of block one. I will post pictures and more details this week-end.

OMG! This thing is a Monster!

I finally made my final payment on my Hoop-it-All combo kit.  As you can see in the photos, it takes up quite a bit of space. 

Design being embroidered on the Quilters Double Wide Hoop

I got the Quilter’s Square Double-Wide hoop (16×16″) as well as the Super Giant Double-Wide (16×28″).   It came with a base to set the machine onto, a front and rear extension table, and another piece that fills in a gap on the surface. Since I didn’t have any design scene that would take up that amount of space, I just made an outline design with Embird that I could repeat in each of the 4 quadrants of the hoop.

I was pleasantly surprised by how easy it was to get the points of the hearts to line up perfectly.  I did print out a template from Embird with just one heart just to become familiar with design placement and alignment.

The template is 16" square.

 Next I will need to try something a bit more challenging, but the bigger challange is having the time to play with all of my toys.

Last Minute, but I finished the February Block while it is still February!

Bunny Hill February 2009 BOM - My version.

A Free Mystery Block of the Month from Bunny Hill Designs!
When I came across this free block of the month, I decided to give it a try.  I am new to applique and really have no idea what I am doing. I tried both machine and hand stitches on this block.  I am hoping that as I complete each block my technique will improve.  These are quick enough that a beginner like me can actually get them done in a reasonable amount of time.

If you are interested in getting the patterns for these blocks, visit BunnyHill.

 

 

Here is my January block.  I will add a couple of cute buttons as accents on the swag above the basket when I have all 12 blocks complete and assembled.

My Gifts for a Baby “Sprinkling”

My friend is expecting her second child soon, a girl this time. Since she already had a baby shower when she was expecting her son, she did not want to have another baby shower.  So…. her sister is having a Surprise Baby “Sprinkling” for her.  The sister sent out a letter to the expectant parents’ friends and family asking those who wish to participate to send a small card, book unwrapped gift, etc. to the her.  Later this week, while the new mom is taking a nap, the sister and the baby’s dad will arrange the gifts in the baby’s room and surprise mom when she gets up from her nap. 

 Here is a photo of what I am sending. I made a personalized, flannel, rag quilt style of burp cloth and a personalized door pillow to let visitors know when they arrive to visit that the baby is sleeping.

Originally uploaded by MyToothFairyPillow

 *********************

I took photos of each stage while I was making the burp cloth and plan to make a tutorial of how it is made. Hopefully I will get it posted in the next week or so.

*********************

 

Rag Style Burp Cloth and Baby is Sleeping Door Pillow

Phoenix Quilt, Craft & Sewing Festival

The Phoenix Quilt, Craft & Sewing Festival was this past Thursday, Friday and Saturday. I was only able to attend on Saturday. I sat in on a couple of classes and learned a few new tips and techniques. Unfortunately, the time I spent sitting in the classes took away from time to walk around to see all of the beautiful quilts, sewing and crafted items. I did get to stop by a few of the booths in the smaller of the two buildings that housed the festival. It is probably a good thing that I didn’t get to see too much more than I did ~ I made a rather large purchase while I was there. As I noted in an earlier post, I have the Brother Duetta 4500D sewing/embroidery machine and I have been hoping to eventually get the Hoop-it-all for it I figured I would get it someday, but had no plans to buy it anytime soon. Well….. I wandered by a booth that had several embroidery machines set up with various sizes and shapes of the Hoop-it-all. So I stopped and listened in on a conversation between the sales lady and a customer. I ended up talking to the husband of the sales lady. As it turned out, they were the owners (he is the inventor) of the Hoop-it-all. They were the nicest people. They were offering a show discount along with free shipping. To top it off, I could do a lay-away type of payment on it to spread the payments over a few months with no interest or finance charges, but that means that I won’t get it until it is paid for. I really couldn’t pass up the discount, plus they are increasing their prices soon. I am hoping to have it by summer.

My Sewing/Embroidery/Crafting/Computer Room

Last summer, I was fortunate enough to be able to upgrade to the Brother Duetta 4500D.  My old machine (which still works perfectly) only has a 4×4″ embroidery area.  This one has a much larger 7×11″ area.  I can also transfer the designs to it either directly from my computer, with a USB thumb drive,  from a purchased card or one that I write the files to.  Shortly after I bought this one, Brother came out with an even bigger and better (and WAY more costlier) machine.  I am happy with this one, I just wish I had more time to play on it.

 

~*~ 

Another toy of mine is my serger.  It is a Babylock Evolve.  I have had it for atleast 5 years and still need to use the quick guide every time I want to use it because it has SO many stitch options available. 

~*~

This one is just a basic sewing machine.  I don’t want to have to change the Duetta from embroidery to sewing and back, so I usually leave it set up for embroidery and use this one for sewing.  There are times that I want to use stitches or options that this one isn’t capable of, so then I do have to change the Duetta, but it is nice to not have to for all sewing.   I ran out of space for this one on the table top where the Serger and Embroidery machine sit, so I decided to use this odd shaped nook for additional sewing space.

~*~

My threads used to be in several different containers, drawers and racks.  I would always forget what I did or didn’t have and didn’t always take time to put the spools back into their place when I was finished with them.  A couple of weeks ago, I decided to make a custom rack to fit behind the door.  It is out of the way and usually the door is open, so the rack is out of sight. 

 ~*~

 I do still have 2 pullout  drawers in a rolling cart for smaller spools of embroidery thread and for my sewing thread.

Rolling storage cart with removable lidded drawers.

Storage for my sewing threads.

Some of my sewing threads.

 

I am hoping this new storage method will make it easier for me to put my threads back when  I am done with them.

Hello world!

 My blog is named  ”MyToothFairyPillow”, because I am a Dental Hygienist and I enjoy making Tooth Fairy Pillows from time to time and I just thought it was a cute name.  In the past, I have sold some of my pillows in my etsy shop (http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5232270).  I have not had the chance to make any recently, but hope to again, when time allows.  I also occasionally make embroidered items from recycled denim as well as embroidered baby items.  You can see a few of them here:   (http://mytoothfairypillow.wordpress.com/my-previous-projects/)