Sewing Machines and Studio Bits

I've been upgrading, repositioning, and rearranging the studio

for maximum sewing pleasure.

Here's the quilt rack I finally assembled. It's a Grace Z44.

It's been mocking me for a month or so now.

Once I figure out how to load the quilts on this monster, there'll be no stopping me!

Here's a few shots of Grams' sewing machine.

This is a Singer 329K.

It sews like a dream.

This is an entry-level bells-and-whistles Baby Lock Grace.

It's nice & light. It makes great stitches.
A White Serger Superlock 2000. Groovy seams!
Janome Coverpro 900. groovier seams! all knit all the time.
Both the coverstitch and serger on Grams' potting table I refinished.
My super workhorse - Juki TL98Q in a nifty race car red dust cover...

And a bonus new fabric storage cabinet:

Uncle David's Vintage Drunkard's Path

The wonderful vintage fabrics I first mentioned here have been cut, pieced, & quilted.

These fabrics came from Uncle David's mother & sister:

I'm pretty sure these two gals bought these fabrics, stashed it in a box, and forgot about them.

In 1955.

These cloths were in great condition!

This is my first attempt at curves and at the drunkard's path quilt pattern.

The pattern is super cute and easier than I expected.

Here, you can see the pieced backing with the vintage pieces:
I used the red fabric with green strawberries for binding (also vintage)
The curves came out so much better than I could have imagined:
Again, quilted by the fabulous gals at Melear's Fabrics in Salem & Sullivan MO.

Delivered to Uncle David this morning.... I think he loved it!

A new throne for the studio!

I went to the furniture store tonight, looking for some vessels for fabric storage.

I didn't find what I thought I wanted, but I did find some other interesting things:

I didn't buy this:

(An orange lamp!)

Or this:

(an orange clubchair)

But I did buy this nifty swivel chair for the studio.

Oh, the sewing I'll do on this!

Not loving paper piecing.

Lots more work than I imagined...

This flower took 2 hours.

What do folks like about it?

Roadtrip!

Road trip to NC with two fabric shop stops.

Two new-to-me batting.

Dream Green is made from recycled plastic bottles!

And the Simply Cotton from Maryjo's.
Bonus greens for a pal's green scrappy quilt:

I scored some red & turquoise for the next project - to be named.

Here's Maryjo's in the background.
The second quilt shop was in Tennesee - Little Blessings Quilt Shop
A happy dog retrieving a bumper somewhere in the northeast:
and in Lake Norman
On the road
I got lost in Ikea.
Hot. Jungle hot in NC in July.

UPDATE: Reproduction 30's Fabrics Hourglass Project

I started this top a while back [the beginnings of the hourglass project] and am just finishing it.
The more I work on this, the more I adore it.
The design's traditional simplicity along with the very cute reproduction fabrics is making this a favorite for me.

And, it's huge. About 100 square inches.

I have 10 yds of a blue reproduction print that is auditioning for the backing.

If you have some ideas on what should go on the back, send me an email: patti.meyer@gmail.com!

Thanks for looking!

County Fair (cheater fabric) Quilt!

The cheater print is back from Melear Fabrics, quilted beautifully!


I used Denyse Schmidt's County Fair cheater blocks, county fair sashings, and flannel on the backside to make this especially warm.

Caitlynn's Hearts-a-Fire Quilt

Here's Caitlynn's birthday quilt!
Wrapped, before it made the journey to Baltimore:

Quilted by the gals at Melear Fabrics. It's looks great - there's little hearts all over it!

I think it was the perfect size, color, and pattern for her.

Happy Birthday, Caitlynn!

Emmalina's First Quilt

Here's Emmalina's first quilt!
I followed the tutorial at Tall Grass Studio for the wonky log cabin pattern.
It makes a great baby quilt!


Fun and wonky everywhere -

Here, I hand-stitched an "E."

Warm flannel on the backside.

Sleep well, little Emmalina!

Orange Light District

Today's score from an antique store: a lamp made just for me.

It's orange. And yellow.

The woman who sold it to me explained, "You don't see a lot of orange lamps..."

I agreed, paid, smiled, and went home.

Quilt Story for the Blogger Quilt Festival

Here is my entry for the quilt blogger festival.

This quilt is special to me because it marked a turning point in my own sewing.

My grandmother taught me to sew and the joy of making quilts. For years, I had been working hard and improving my skills, but it wasn't until the few quilt tops leading up to this one and this quilt that I believe my grandmother was proud of my sewing.

Throughout my apprenticeship with grams, she was part of a hand-quilting network of women in the community. She would tell me about it, but it was this quilt top that she allowed to be hand-quilted by her group.

Here's some photos of the quilt in the frame - with me and grams at the library where she quilted:

And the finished product, with prairie points:

Scraptakular #1, quilted!

I'm loving how this turned out!

Scraptakular #1 just came back from Melear's Fabrics.

They did a super job on this! I love their quilting.

I rolled the backing forward to bind the edge.

My scrap pile's gettin' smaller!

Bonus Vintage Fabrics

A million thanks to my Aunt Lynn & Uncle David for these wonderful vintage fabrics.

I'm not sure what they'll turn into - but it will be something wonderful, I'm sure.

Today @ the Lake

We took a little walk around the lake today.

Ok, so Stella got in the lake today.

In this photo, altho I was calling her name and making her special noise, she was preoccupied with the possibility of eating a wasp. Which she did just after I snapped this one.