Tuesday's State of Affairs

And, it is not pretty. I am just keeping it real here. It is also extremely gloomy here this morning. So, the lighting is terrible.
Here is my sewing machine and cutting table. What a mess! I am working on several projects at the moment. You will find out what the stripe fabric is for someday soon.

I struggled with the machine itself this weekend. I got so frustrated that I stomped right out of the house and took a short walk to pick up the mail. Dan took a look and come to find out, it is the spool of thread giving me grief. I never dreamed it was the thread. I thought the machine itself was messing up.
Do you notice how much thread is left on that spool? I cannot even wind up bobbins with this particular spool. What a waste! Well, it is not a waste considering I can use the rest to hand sew bindings onto quilts.
Here is the troublesome spool compared to a full spool of thread. As a side note, these threads are getting harder and harder to find. I am going to switch to another brand. I am thinking of trying Aurifil threads with this machine. I have heard some good things about this brand. So, I am crossing my fingers Aurifil will work out beautifully when I do try them out with the machine.

By the way, I have not been back in the room since this fiasco (until now). I am planning to get back to sewing this afternoon. Pray for me! Pray that I do not get anymore grief from the machine and/or threads. Ha!
Here is my ironing board. I have a "work triangle" set up in the small space and it works very well. As you can see, this area is a mess too. I mean, do see the floor? And, why did the ironing board turn into a "hot spot"? Ugh, Ugh, Ugh! Anyway, as you can see, the top to the Maxine Mug flying geese mug rug is finished.
This is a closeup shot of backing for the Maxine flying geese mug rug. It is still a work in progress. I think I'm going to be real please with this silly little thing when it is finished.

Oops! Im Caught!

Im Out Ov Her!
Chessie was a bad girl. She snuck in, pawed an opening between the design wall and doors to closet and then hid behind the fabric. It was Gracie that "tattled" on her by acting like a Pointer (dog). I was surprised. Chessie is usually either sleeping underneath a chair or boldly laying on a small cot sized sleeper sofa. I would have never realized Chessie was in the room if it had not been for Gracie. By the way, I used a flash with the last two pictures. I grabbed the flash before attempting to take pictures of her because I know she does not like the camera.

Piece,

Tuesday's State of Affairs

I have been slowly working on making flying geese out of charm squares using a Fit to be Geese ruler. Actually, I used scraps because I wanted to be sure I understood the instructions first before dipping into a charm pack (a bundle of 5" squares).

I am not going to bother with the instructions in this post because you find them here and here. Both of these links were written by the same author. The first is in a PDF format and the second is a blog post.
I first dug into scraps leftover from my mother's Maxine quilt. I then sprayed it with some of Mary Ellen's Best Press. I have been hearing a lot of positive comments about this stuff and wanted to give it a try. I then cut a 5" square from each fabric. I also cut 4 1/4" squares from each fabric. If I were using a charm pack, I would have trimmed them down to 4 1/4" squares. Yes, there will be a little wastage making flying geese out of a charm pack. But, that is the price I am willing to pay if they turn out well.Triangles from the squares. I dived into chain piecing to make these units. It made things very quick! I think I will be doing a lot more chain piecing in the future!Finished Flying Geese Units
I am real pleased with my efforts. These are the best flying geese I have ever made. I think using the Mary Ellen's Best Press helped immensely especially when sewing on the bias. I also liked the Fit to be Geese ruler as it made trimming up the units easy.

Now, what to do with these units? I think I will sew up the units like you see in the picture and maybe make one row go in the opposite direction. And, I think I will make a mug rug. However, I could not decide which fabric scraps to use as borders.So, I converted the picture to a black and white format. It looks like the "blah blah blah" fabric has the best contrast. So, I am going with that. I hope I made the right choice! And, I hope I have enough of this fabric to use. Ha!