Dresdens Galore

I chose to make a Quarter Dresden block for my hive mates in this round of the 3 x 6 mini bee. 

I love them. 

I hope the ladies love them too!

We Have a Winner!

I didn't want to keep anyone waiting so soon after 8:00 p.m. hit here in Toronto I logged in to Random.org to find my winner.  First of all, I was shocked but very much overjoyed to receive 329 comments on my giveaway post. Wow! Who would have thunk it? 

I don't know how to show you a screen shot of my winning number but...it was comment number 312.

Congratulations to Sam of Monkey Huggers!!!  Her winning comment:

I have an Elna and I'm pretty happy with it - my overlocker is also an Elna and I bought my 13 year old a basic Elna for Christmas, so I guess I must be happy!

Sam, I've sent you an email requesting your mailing address so I can send you the delicious Tula Pink Nightshade bundle.

WIP Wednesday: The Quilt Wrangling Edition

It's been two week's since my last WIP Wednesday post and so much has gone down on Modern Balabusta.  I entered the Spring Blogger's Quilt Festival AND I'm in the process of hosting my very first giveaway! Have you entered yet? You totally should, because I'm giving away five fat quarters of Nightshade by Tula Pink! I'm in shock at the number of entrants so far. At last count there are 227 people entered. Whoa! I really hope some of the entrants become new followers, even though I didn't make following my blog a requirement to win. Instead, I hope to entice readers with my charm and wit. Is it working yet?

The main WIP I've been working on is my Sew Happy Quilt. I had an appointment in the middle of the day last Thursday and decided to that the entire day off work. I took the opportunity to use The Workroom's amazingly large table to baste the SHQ. It took over two hours to iron and baste this sucker, but having a large waist high surface to use was fantastic!

I'm using a Sulky Blendables cotton thread for the quilting. So far I'm not overly impressed with the quality of the thread. I'm finding it a bit thin. Has anyone else used Sulky Blendables before? What did you think of it?

Quilting a full sized quilt on my basic Kenmore machine is less than awesome. I'm dreaming of a better machine, with dual feed and a stitch regulator. I've been scouring craigslist and kijiji hoping to come across an amazing deal for a used high end Bernina or Juki. No luck yet though. Maybe I should start a special savings fund for my next machine. I'm thinking a mason jar to collect my loose loonies and twoonies. I should have enough for a good machine in 10 years that way. Hmm...perhaps not the best plan I've ever had...

 

I initially wanted to try free motion quilting this quilt, but I suspected it would be too difficult with such a large quilt. The few times I've tried to FMQ on my Kenmore, I've had tension issues. So instead, I went for some organic, sort-of-straight line quilting in varying widths.  

 

 

I'm fairly happy with how it's coming along. I keep reminding myself that it doesn't have to be perfect.

What did you get up to this week?

WIP status report
Flora Charm Quilt - HSTs are in progress
Farmer's Wife QAL - still going strong
We Bee Learning Bee - May block is finished and in the mail

Sew. Happy. Quilt back  - Done, quilt is basted, quilting is in progress!

Give a Day quilt - gathering ideas

3 x 6 blocks for Q2 -all of my dresdens are cut and sewing has begun

 

Hibernating projects

Levi's Bed Quilt - This should probably come off the list

Levi's Growth Chart - no progress

NY Beauty QAL - fabric has arrived!

I'm linking up with WIP Wednesdays at Freshly Pieced and the Canadian Needle and Thread Network. Check out what everyone else is up to. There's so much creativity out there!

If I Knew Then What I Know Now...

Last July, when I purchased my sewing machine, I had no idea that I would become hooked on quilting.  I figured all I needed was a basic, entry level sewing machine so that I could learn to sew bags, hem my own pants and maybe make some cute pajama pants for Levi. I went the easy route; I went to Sears. I didn't buy the least expensive machine. I bought the SECOND cheapest machine instead. It's a Kenmore 17 stitch, one step button-holer and it is... adequate.

Yes, it sews in a straight line, it's easy to thread and it's light. But honestly? It really isn't cutting it for me. I've noticed that it skips stitches every so often. I can't adjust the stitch speed. I can only move the needle position to the right to a set place. The throat is super small. It gets clogged up really quickly with lint and when that happens it gets LOUD! (Yes, I clean it often and oil it too).

Sure, my walking foot allows me to quilt okay, but FMQ? Not so much. It's possible...but man do I want a stitch regulator! Tension issues abound.  And I keep reading about dual feed. WANT x1000! I do have a number of cool presser feet, like my open toe quarter foot (LOVE!), but can I find an open toe quilting foot? No, I can not.

So you see, there was a good reason for my asking entrants for my giveaway to tell me what machine they sew on and why they love their sewing machine (psst - it's an awesome prize so be sure to enter). It's research! With over 155 comments so far, I'm getting a ton of opinions.

Now if only I could find a way to rationalize needing a new machine when my current one is less than a year old....

It's Giveaway Day!

A BIG welcome to everyone visiting Modern Balabusta for the first time today! I know why you're here... Today's the big day: GIVEAWAY DAY!

Okay, so it's actually an entire week. Read up on all the details on Sew Mama Sew here and take a few minutes (hours?) to enter all the fabulous giveaways being hosted across the sewing blogosphere.

My giveaway is in the sewing craft supplies category. Last week I teased y'all with this photo:

 

That's right folks! I'm giving away a fat quarter bundle of Tula Pink's Nightshade in the excellent Eveningshade colour way.

 

You guys, this stuff is H-O-T! Tula has some fabulous quilt patterns using this fabric line. Check out Sara's blog post at Sew Sweetness about Tula's Quilt Market booth to get inspired. I'm certain Nightshade is going to sell out fast so get it while you can.

The details:

YES, I will ship internationally!

YES, I'll use random.org to select a winner from all comments on this post (the first number in the random sequence generator will be my winner)

YES, I will leave this giveaway open until May 25 at 8 p.m. EST.

YES, I will contact you by the 27th and ship by June 1st.

NO, you can't win if you are a no-reply blogger, unless you leave me your email address in your comment. If the winner is a no-reply blogger, I'll select the next number on the list. Not sure if you are a no-reply blogger? Read Lee's post on Freshly Pieced for details.

TO ENTER, leave me a comment and tell me what sewing machine you use and one thing that you love about it.

Thank you so much for visiting. I hope you'll come back again soon!

Bloggers' Quilt Festival is Here!

I'll admit that picking which quilt to showcase for the Spring Bloggers' Quilt Festival wasn't difficult. Why's that? Well, I've really only finished one quilt to date (two if you count Levi's growth chart, but technically it isn't done because I'm stalled on the embroidery)!

If this quilt festival is new to you, I highly recommend you check it out. Pretty much every quilt blogger online participates. Seriously. As of today there are 372 entries. Last fall there were 617 entries. This thing is BIG! The rules are that you pick one quilt to show and tell it's story. The quilt doesn't have to be new, in fact, you can have already blogged about it - but you do need to write a new post.

Welcome to any new readers visiting Modern Balabusta for the first time! I'm so happy that you've stopped by. Please say hello so that I can make sure you check out your festival entry. I can't wait to see what you've made!

Okay. Enough preamble!  Behold...The Frog Prince Quilt! (The original post about this quilt can be found here).

The Frog Prince Quilt will always be special to me because it's the first quilt I completed. I took a Sampler Quilt class at The Workroom with Johanna Masko.  I'd been dabbling in quilting already, but felt that proper instruction would give me a good foundation to quilting and I wasn't disappointed. Johanna is an amazing teacher.

Testing out options for my Churn Dash block. Which would you have selected?
(Spoiler alert: I used #1)

The class covered fabric selection, basic piecing, curves and applique, sashing, borders, basting, straight line quilting and binding (machine and hand). We learned it all!

I thought I would hate hand sewing. Boy was I wrong!

I used many prints from Tula Pink's Prince Charming collection, as well as Kona solids, Jewels from Outfoxed (which regular readers will recall is my very favorite blender), Cultivated Flower from Modern Workshop, Sundae in Sherbet from Ruby, Hernshead  from Central Park and two prints from Origins by Basic Grey. I'm probably missing some stuff but you get the idea.

I also experimented with improv piecing when making my scrappy back.

Getting started on the scrappy back

The scrappy back allowed me to use up a bunch of scraps and also to include the 16 HSTs I made from the leftovers of my flying geese block.

Not perfect piecing, but still loveable!

Finished back

Ribbit

I like using painters tape as guidelines.

I used a pop of pink in my binding, something I've seen others do.
I love it and think this will likely be included in future quilts.

The finished quilt

Please take time to check out the other entries in the Spring Bloggers' Quilt Festival. Thanks for stopping by!

Giveaway Day is May 21!

Have you heard about Sew Mama Sew's Giveaway Day?  If you haven't, I highly recommend you check it out so that you can get in on the fun! From Sew Mama Sew's blog:

Giveaway Day is a biannual, HUGE event we coordinate where everyone with a shop or blog can give something away.

And guess what everyone? I'm going to host my very first giveaway here on Modern Balabusta! Yep, it's true. You, my loyal readers (all ten of you :P), will have a chance to win some fabulous stuff. My giveaway will be in the Sewing + Craft Supplies category. I was at The Workroom today and picked up this highly coveted prize.

Here's a sneak peak!

Don't forget to check back here on May 21st to enter!