An End Equals a New Beginning

The time has come for my to say goodbye to my tiny little corner that I called my studio, technically it is half of the room we called our office. I started quilting two years ago this month and have not looked back. I have often surprised myself with what I have accomplished in a tiny space. I have a design wall on the wall opposite of my desk, my sewing machines waits patiently on the floor while I cut, and I normally have an ironing board tucked in front of the small drawers. I set up a cardboard pattern cutting mat on my bed in the other room to baste quilts and make the best of the tight quarters.

Today my featherweight is in Maryland awaiting my arrival, I am frantically working on a last minute project, and I am beginning to pack up what I will take with me and organizing for the movers to arrive tomorrow morning.

I cannot wait to set up my new, larger space and to share it with you once I get it all unpacked.

I will not miss having to coordinate who gets up from their desk first!

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Organized chaos!

A post shared by Elizabeth (@andpins) on Apr 19, 2014 at 7:43am PDT

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Sewing with Friends

I have been spoiled this month, absolutely spoiled! I have been introduced to sewing with friends and I LOVE it! First at the MidAtlantic MOD, this past weekend with Casey (which I’ll get to in a second), and sewing with Nancy at the New York Beauty class taught by the wonderful Sarah Bond that I started on Monday.

When I first started quilting almost two years ago I posted the WIP photo below of my first quilt, I was surprised and excited that my good friend Casey said that she had just finished her first one two weeks ago (we had no clue what the other was up to)! I tell you, we are meant to be friends!

Casey popped in last Wednesday for a visit, planning on just staying for an overnight, and I ended up convincing her to stay all weekend so we could make a quilt together. She had never machine quilted before and I wanted to introduce her to it. Warning: photo heavy!

It was fun showing her my process for everything, from sketching out the quilt, cutting the fabrics, an introduction to chain piecing, quilting and binding.

We picked fabric from my stash on Thursday, cut on Friday, and finished on Saturday! It was a whirlwind weekend, but we had a blast.

I even had time while she was piecing to break out my Featherweight and get my April block done for the Modern Instabee! (Yes, we had to coordinate who moved their chair first.)

Our binding session was fueled by fresh carrot cake and Riesling, it lasted into the wee hours of the evening, but we got it done. In the future, I may always wait to bind quilts with friends, it goes so much faster!

I loved Casey’s choice of orange thread to quilt with, it really made the whole quilt.

I think I have her hooked on machine quilting. I received a text from her on Monday asking what type of foot she needed to quilt!

What do you prefer, sewing with friends or solo?

 

 

 

 

 

Introducing Betsy!

I’m in love and I think my Bernina has noticed! Meet Betsy, my beautiful celery green Singer Featherweight. She was born in 1964.

I have been dreaming of a Featherweight for almost a year and my wonderful MIL and family gifted me one for Christmas. I have been getting to know her over the last two weeks while my Bernina is in the shop for a tune up.

Betsy needed a bag since the handle on her original train case is missing, so I set out to make her one. I found Crafty Hipster’s tutorial and modified it to suit my needs. I used her to make it and I was impressed that she handled the layers and layers of fabric with no trouble.

I changed the handles, added exterior pockets and lined the exterior and interior fabrics with heavy interfacing. Additionally, I added flaps with magnets to keep the dust off of her.

My featherweight sews beautifully and I am happy to have a second machine to take to sewing days and retreats. It’s also a bonus to not have to constantly rethread the Bernina to use a different color thread!