My Happy Place!

I've definitely visited my Happy Place today... The technician called me on Wednesday and gave me a very thorough description of what had been wrong with my machine. It appears that (at least some) Pfaff Quilt Expression 4.0 machines have come with a fault to do with the tension, and he said in my case 'bits' (my term, can't remember the term he used) had actually fallen apart and were sitting inside the machine. He replaced those under warranty and gave the machine a thorough service, and I picked up my repaired machine on Thursday; now it's almost working perfectly! I tightened the bobbin tension a bit more,  it was a bit too loose for my liking, and unfortunately the knee lift does not engage. This has never happened to me before, does anyone have any suggestions, please? I will call them and ask to have it fixed, but  if there is anything I can do, I would love to have it working over the long weekend! (It's funny how used I am to it lol).

On Wednesday we also came across a nice second hand Ikea TV unit on Gumtree and so our lounge had a little reshuffle:

Very European looking lol, but we love it:)

DH put the grey cushion on the top for the cats who even have their own 'stairs' up via the scratching post to the right lol. Of course I could not resist the chance to bring my fabrics up into the house:

Needs some sorting out, especially after I squeezed a bit more in...

The drawers are just perfect for threads etc...

but I didn't want to be greedy and take over all of it (apart from that I would have needed to refold too much fabric to fit it into the drawers on the left of the unit; I would never keep my fabrics tidy enough to have them in the open shelves!) so I had to find another space:

With my large rulers on the top shelf and my cutting board underneath:)

The batting went back into the basement (there is only so far that I can push it lol) where it will remain with my other craft things until we get to move into a bigger place (probably September).

So for the rest of the day I just tutued. The quilting is all completed on the Subway Map quilt. I have cut a very skinny binding at only 2'' because I was short on the black and I hope this will suit the design. I still didn't quite have enough so I pieced some of the left-over coloured squares and added these pieces into the binding. Tomorrow I will try to get some Elmer's School Glue so I can glue baste and stitch it on. I have also done a bit of {cough} mending - some things just have to be done.

My furry supervisor;
it's not ideal to have the sewing area in the lounge, but maybe it gets my to tidy up better?

The weather has been grey and rainy over the last 2-3 days, for all I care it can stay like this for most of this weekend - gives me more time to play:) My boys are quite happy to just blob out, term 1 finished yesterday and they will have two weeks of holidays now. Tomorrow we are expecting our first proper visitors, friends from New Zealand, so really looking forward to this!

Suzanne and I have been talking for some time about our Vintage Quilt Revival Samplers, and this is a feature fabric we are considering:

Daydream Arcadia Scarlet by Kate Spain for Moda Fabrics - Image Source

I'm very keen to get back into some regular sewing - watch this space! In the meantime I will try to find / piece a suitable backing for the Giant Chevron and start marking out what will happen to the quilting on it - really excited about that!

I hope you visit your Happy Place this Easter, too - Happy Sewing!

Rain, rain, go away...

Term break and the weather in the first week has been atrocious! We've had a massive storm that has left roads and country side flooded (just google "Northland storm flooding 2014" to see some of the pictures...). We ended up with no power for 72h from Tuesday night to Friday night. Thank goodness it wasn't too cold (though we ended up borrowing a gas heater on Friday - that's what you get when you build a house with heat pumps and no fire place lol). Our freezer had a sleepover at Suz' place who got power back before us, our oldest son had a sleepover at Oma's (who had power and wifi ;D) and the rest of the time we just got on with things. We had access to plenty of water with 10,000 gallons in the water tanks but carrying it inside in buckets is not that much fun (incl. water for flushing the toilet...). In the aftermath of the storm we are dealing with road closures and detours, but overall our family are just fine, much better off than some other people.

As I am not a friend of handwork I didn't get much done last week - I seriously got tempted to take it up I can tell you! I have made up a little since, let's hope the power stays on :)

Here are some pics of Fireworks which I finished and washed at the end of June; as this is a UFO from 2012 (??) I will share this also on Sew It's Finished:

 

 

 

 

Tokyo Subway is getting there, still quilting endless echo spirals... I won't bore you with pictures that are just more of the same. I think I might have about 2/3rds done now.

I am getting a bit restless with quilting this big beast, so I have basted and SIDed Spring Fling. Using some polyester batting for the loft (and because I still had it on hand lol) it is waiting to be quilted further now. I might try to imitate the quilting on the original.

It's fairly puffy looking as you can see :)

My apologies, I had pinned it upside down so I flipped the photo which looks a bit strange now (at least to me!)

Weekend before last I needed some instant gratification type - combine that with a colleague leaving at the end of the month this will be heading her way:

Remember the lovely coaster Suz gave me for Christmas? I used the same pattern :)

Here is my coaster for Di :) Hope she'll like it :)

So that's me all caught up - I think? What's happening in your neck of the woods?

Happy Sewing!

Rain, rain go away...

It's yet another rainy weekend.... maybe it would be easier if it wasn't cold and miserable, too! Did I really grow up with frost and snow and the likes between October and May?! Must be getting old lol!

Anyway, with DH on late shift last night I joined FNSI over at Wendy's (sugarlanequilts.blogspot.com). I wanted to get another Bag done and - taadaah! - I finished it this afternoon:

As with all Elizabeth Hartman's pattern I have tried, this came together without any sweat. It isn't easy to get the right kind of interfacing around here, but this time I got some cheap light iron-on interfacing from Spotlight (at $7.99 for the lot I can't complain!) which worked a treat. The outer is duck Indian cotton, the inner a batik I bought when Grandmother's Garden last came to Whangarei (another purchase from that occasion that has become a bag ;D). This will replace my current bag from Applebottoms which looks cute but is starting to fall apart (the outer fake leather is separating from the material underneath - sorry, not very technical here!).

What else have I been up to?

Blocks 21 and 22 of Tokyo Subway have been laid out and are ready to sew (tomorrow?).

I am still stitching down the binding for the quilt for oldest DS' fundraising at school but here are some slightly better pics until the weather improves (Monday I would guess - Murphy's law...):

I have tried to continue the quilting on "Summer all year long" but despite a recent service, my Pfaff Quilt Expression 4.0 still seem to have the old issues of tension problems, skipped stitches and breaking thread. I am using my favourite, Aurifil 50 weight, in the top and Signature in the bottom - this had worked beautifully originally.  It will work for a bit, and then everything will go haywire, there is a scratching sound as if the thread is catching on some rough bits on the inside. I have been trying to get some screwdrivers to have a look inside (as the machine came from oversea's I have no warranty on it anyway) but have been unable to get the right kind. Somewhere in blogland I had read about someone else having a similar issue where a part needed polishing or exchanging - I have used the machine intensively since I got it, but you would think it takes more than 1 year to wear things out?! I will try to give the technician a call on Monday and see what he says. The bill for the service didn't break the bank, but my issue is not resolved either...

So what else is going on around here?

Work is great but really busy. My schools are making great progress, but my biggest worry remains juggling work with children pick up etc. with DH on shifts - but if he worked 8-5 they would have to go to OSCAR most days which is not really what we want either... Speaking of shifts, him being at work this weekend meant no Stitch and Chat for me - again! Well, might just have to continue talking to myself...

We have to make some serious decisions about school choices for our two oldest boys: Our 13y old brought home their option choices for 2014 (they have to take 4 out of 5 options on offer). With him being at a very small school with only 16 students in his year level we knew this would happen eventually... The 10y old is in his last year at primary school and somehow I don't fancy having three boys at three different schools - but will he be happy where his brother might be happy?!

New Zealand just had another big earthquake yesterday, very unsettling for everyone down there - something I can't even imagine really! Thinking of all you down there! Time to thank our lucky stars that they brought us to the Far North all those years ago - now if we could have public transport, more opportunity for cultural things and more school choices please... Speaking of cultural things, since our recent trip to Germany I miss playing music more so than before. The children are getting older and are no longer taking up all our time - but then all too soon they will be off during their own thing... Hmmm, something to keep on thinking about...

Anyway, time to get going! Happy sewing everyone!