Dreaming and Storage Solutions

You know about Camille, right?  If you don't, check out her blog immediately, and also check out her awesome giveaway going on right now.

A few posts ago, I talked about all the great sewing stuff I got for Christmas.  Something I got a lot of was thread.  Not to mention - not long before Christmas, I bought a Mettler assortment pack.  That means I went from having about 5 spools of thread, to having...well, alot.

And I had nowhere to really put all that thread.

I also don't really have a dedicated sewing/craft space.  I use my dining room table to sew on, and I store everything either in the random blue wing chair in the corner of our dining room or the upstairs hall closet, which is becoming way too small to hold my growing fabric stash. 

I keep seeing cool and pretty ways people store things like fabric and thread spools, but I didn't want to buy anything new (my husband is breathing a sigh of relief right now if he's reading), so I went digging.

I found these three kind-of vase bowl things that were WAY back in one of my cabinets.  I can't remember the last time I used them, or even when I got them, or what I got them for.  But I thought my spools would look great in them, and I was right!

The funny thing is, now it doesn't look like alot of thread, but there's actually about 70 spools!

Christmas Jackpot!

Check out all the loot I got for Christmas from my mother-in-law! Not included in these pictures was a $25 gift card to Joann's, which I've already used.

I was happy.

By the way, the present from my mom was a facial at a spa. So I got spoiled from both sides.

Adventures in Stippling

See this little baby?

I found a free motion foot for my machine on Amazon for $3.75! The normal price is $20! I'm not gonna lie, I did a little happy dance when I saw that price. You see, my husband and I are on the cheap frugal side, so this really just made my day. I never really wanted to get into stippling because it really intimidated me, but recently I've been dying to try it! So I jumped right in.

That's a good thing, and a bad thing.

I was making a quilt for a friend's baby (who's shower is this Saturday), and I decided to have my first stippling go on that.

That's the bad part.

Unfortunately, either the tension was off, or I had a bad bobbin, but for whatever reason, the stitching on the back is not great. I did a little section, saw the bad stitching, so I took it all out, switched out my bobbin, and tried again. I only checked the back at the very beginning, and it was great! However, it didn't stay great during the whole stitching session. And I did kind of go a little crazy! I didn't know stippling could be fun! So I got carried away, and when I came to a stopping place, I turned it around and saw the yucky stitches again. I stitched WAY too much of it to want to turn around and tear it out.

So I came up with a scheme plan.

I failed to mention that I used some out of print Heather Ross fabric for this little quilt (and it is
little), and I had kind of started falling in love with it as I was working on it, so when I realized how bad the back was, I thought instead of ripping all of that stitching out, why not just keep this one, and give it to Kendall for a doll quilt? I already had the idea to make both of my girls doll quilts for Christmas anyway, and this is just getting a head start.

Right?

Yeah, that's it!

When I showed Kendall the quilt, her reaction just solidified my scheme new idea. She gasped and said, "Good job, Mama! Give me five!"

By the way, me getting to keep this quilt is the good part...I think...Right? Is it good to keep something you intended to giveaway?

Sure, why not!

So it won't be a perfect little doll quilt, but it will be super cute. And she loves it already. And this is one less thing I have to do for Christmas (I do plan on actually giving it to her at Christmas).

Now I just need to figure out what's causing my stitching to go bad, and finish the quilt. In the meantime, here's a little peak at what it looks like.

By the way, I realize I have a long way to go in my stippling skills, but I'm happy with what I've done, and I'm eager to do more!

PS...

I'm also thankful for early Christmas gifts...like this one from my mom. It's an extension table for my machine!!

My New Love

Recently, and I can't remember which blog I read this on, someone posted about how they just started using a 1/4" foot for their piecing. I didn't know such a thing existed, but knew I needed it, since my 1/4" seams are probably closer to 1/2".

I got one yesterday, and I'm in love. Seriously, perfect seams. And mine was only $7 from Amazon!

I really could have used this for my quilt along quilt. Oh well.