Leibster Award

I was nominated for a Leibster Award!!!  What is that you ask?  It's kinda like a chain letter to get to know people.....  Elita from Busy Needle Quilting sent the award to me and I have been working on this post for weeks.  It's almost like a homework assignment....Ugh, in a good way!!!

So here are Elita's questions....
1.    What would we be surprised to find in your closet? I have all kinds of craft supplies....and the UFOs to match.  Sewing, quilting, cross stitch, knitting, punch needle, painting, scrap booking, mixed media art...too many to name.. and I love doing them all.....I like to craft hop.

2.  Do you have a favorite beverage while quilting?  I love a nice Diet Coke over crushed ice, 2nd choice is Strawberry Tangerine Sunrise Crystal Light.

3.  What is the one item you would never part with? (quilty or otherwise) my seam ripper!  And my snowmen!  This in a small selection....I keep them up all year in my craft room so I can admire them....We don't get snow at my house.....


4.  Do you have a favourite brand of thread? Not until recently, I have tons of thread of all makes and models, but I just tried isacord and discovered I really like it.  I know they say you have to use cotton thread with cotton fabric, but so far I have used whatever color went well with my project and have been happy.  I did pick up a spool of bottom line 60 weight and an going to try that out.  I saw Cindy Needham use it in her Craftsy class and her work is beautiful why not try it.

5.  Do you have a morning and/or evening routine?  I don't think I have a routine, but there must be a pattern to my days.  This covers weekend only because I do work 40+ hours a week outside the home.   First off, sleep in till 8:30ish,  take the dog out, get online and read up on blogs I follow, suddenly realize how long I have been sucked into cyber world, and get dressed ready for the day.  I take care of errands and grocery shopping, then I can "play"  the rest of the day.  I keep everything out on the kitchen table, (it's quite the organized mess, or unorganized ).  we never eat there even before I took it over.  It has always been craft central, when the girls were at home, stamping, painting and scrap booking has lived there.   I do whatever strikes my fancy for the day and then around 5ish I think yikes, hubby's coming home soon I better make some dinner.  After dinner which he cleans up

 : ) , I will do some hand sewing on the couch while watching tv or go back to my table and stay up till midnight or so.   I guess I do have a routine!

6.  What is your best quilty memory? Watching my sister teach my daughter to make a quilt, she was so patient with her and those 1/4 inch seams.

7.  What is your favourite music to listen to while quilting? I don't really listen to music while sewing, I like to "watch" movies.   Before my iPad I would use my mini DVD player and watch al my favorite movies, yes I like to watch them over and over. I do get netfix in the mail but now I use my iPad and watch Netflix and Hulu.  All time favorite movies, Serendipity, under the Tuscan sun, the entire collection of Sex in the City.   Yes I am a romantic!

8.  What is your next project going to be? I don't have anything in mind as I am consumed with my hexi progress.  I shied up for my first quilting bee, Get Your Hex On and I am the April Queen.  It's also my birthday month so getting all my blocks is month is going to be quite a treat!!!!

9.  What is the farthest you have ever traveled for a quilting event?  I have not been to a quilting event. I did do a shop,hop once and drove to San Diego, a 2.5 hour trip.  I did go to a painting convention one time, by myself, in Vegas and that was so great I signed up for one in Reno and then met someone from the painting guild to drive with and be my roomie.  That was a blast!

10.    Are you a hands-on or lecture-style learner? I like hands on.

11.  If you could do anything, have any occupation, what would it be? I would be a teacher or an artist!

So now I am going to find 11 bloggers to nominate the wonderful award to ( at first I thought no way I NEVER send chain mail and I've had my share but this has been really fun and I can't wait to see the responses from my nominees.....  I love their blogs and would love to learn more about them...

Hope@http://ozen11.blogspot.com/2013/01/blog-post_27.html
Kelsey@http://kelseysews.blogspot.com/
Natti@http://natilittlethings.blogspot.com/
Kristan@http://doodledodesigns.blogspot.com
Deb@http://asimplelifequilts.blogspot.com/
Chase@http://quarterinchmark.blogspot.com

Here are my questions...

1. Why did you start blogging?
2. Who taught you to sew?
3. What is the one thing you have made that you are most proud of?
4. What inspires you?
5. Do you have any UFOs and how did it happen? 
6. What is your next project going to be?
7. Where is the farthest place from home that you have traveled?
8. What is your favorite foot on your sewing machine?
9. What kind of sewing  machine do you have and how many?
10. What is your favorite food?
11. What would we be surprised to find in your closet?

Me and my girl goofing around on the train to DTLA.

Tips on EPP, Basting Triangles

Happy Sunday, today I will attempt to show you how I do my EPP basting on shapes with points. In this case a 1" triangle.   I use a dot of Roxanne's Glue baste to hold the fabric to the shape.   If I have the space on my fabric I try to leave a bit bigger seam allowance because it it hard to get the thin ones turned over the edge of the paper.   I trim them a bit later once they are stitched down.

In this photo you can see I gave the seam allowances a quick press.  This does help if you have the time.  I like to sit at the table and get my pieces glued to the fabric and then take to the TV to stitch, so I give a quick press before I go.  Today I am going to soak us some sun and stitch!

I do a loop around the needle and this makes a small know at the eye and then my thread stays in the needle.  I used to just leave it dangling but I was forever unthreading and having to start over.  I use a very fine needle when sewing the pieces together  and have a hard time getting it threaded to begin with.  I do use a threader too!  This is a thick needle that I use to baste so I can get it through the paper.  I just started using bottom line thread for sewing the pieces together and it is fabulous.  Strong, thin and hardly shows!!  I only have 1 spool but will be getting more....

So I like to sew right onto the paper piece and I take lots stitches.  Unlike a hexagon I can't get these tightly sewn unless I sew all the way up to the corners.  And it's usually not pretty.  Will I be picking out the basting for a long time? Probably but my corners look darn good!  On the first stitch I start a little way away from the corner so I can flip the tail the right way, you will see this in a later step.

So keep going around and make as many stitches as you need to so it is tight on the paper.

I'm almost to the last side, it goes pretty quick.

Right here you need to flip the tail so they all go like a pinwheel, the same direction.

I use my needle to slide the fabric under and use the point of the needle to kind of pull the fabric tight then poke it right into the fabric/paper piece.  This gets a nice tight corner.

Ta Da, All done.  The tails all go the same way and I usually trim them up a little, you can see the top and left look ok but the right is too big and a jagged shape.

All trimmed up.....

One example of a finished 2 inch hexagon.  Next time I will show you how to get all those points to line up before you stitch it all together....

I did this one last night and I think I like it the best so far....You can check out my Flickr set to see the rest of the bunch.......and here is the next set, I have my paper all ready, now I need to pick the fabrics and sew, sew, sew....Happy Sunday, K