by Kim Buchmann on November 25th, 2011I had to tend to a sick dog this week which sorta spoiled our plans to spend T’giving with family in Austin, but turned out to be a positive for getting some sewing done.
While Tammy was in surgery at the Vet on Monday, I ran down to San Antonio to pickup the Bernina 550QE I purchased at Festival. I’ve been sewing on an old (circa early 1970′s) 830 and it suited me fine until I spent some time at Mom’s and used her 440. When I got home, I apologized profusely to my 830 for all the nasty things I said about it, but a new machine was inevitable. Isn’t she pretty?
I returned from Festival with two huge bags of stuff to file, expense receipts to organize, contacts to followup with, new projects & fabric to put away and a head full of ideas, etc. etc. That, along with cleaning up the sewing room, took the better part of two days. Then I pulled out my UFOs and committed to finishing them before I started on anything new.
I took a wedge ruler class with the Wimberley guild back in August and started a small circular quilt for the table in my breakfast room, but I was a “pie slice” short on each half when it came time to sew them together to complete the circle. I saw Michelle Watts at Festival and she gave me some suggestions on how to fix it. It worked! I put the binding on just in time to use it, with some adorable pumkins a lady in one of Mom’s Bees makes, for a T’giving centerpiece. One UFO down…lots more to go.
If you’ve never tried it, the wedge ruler is a marvelous tool! When I signed up for the class, I honestly thought we were going to piece all those squares together individually. This quilt was made with strip sets made entirely from my stash. Once I saw how the ruler worked and the fantastic color/pattern combinations the other ladies in the workshop were using, I realized the possibilites are endless! I’ll be revisiting the wedge ruler soon.
