Saturday 21 July 2012

Messy thread & random blocks

Over on Sew Many Ways she is having a linky party to do with THREAD -- a Thread Organizing Party.  There are so many clever ways to store your thread - and mine is not one of them!!  [but it currently works for me]

You see, my homemade thread 'bucket' lives in the corner under the lamp, out of the way on my teenie tiny sewing desk in the closet-room that I sew in.

This fabric bucket of mine holds all my bobbins (I only have 6) plus all my spools of thread.  I will admit that there are some pretty dodgy spools of thread in there - name brands NO-ONE has ever heard of, purchased a long time ago or picked up in an emergency to sew a button on the go type of thing.  I love collecting hotel thread kits - so I have a separate tin full of those!  In fact, I keep one sewing kit at work and two work colleague's needed to borrow it yesterday!! 


Anyways, there you have it - my way of storing my thread.  Check the linky party out - it is fascinating to see how differently we all do it!!  One day I will have a storage rack thing on the wall to store the threads and filled bobbins.  One day....
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In other news - I made Annaliese her block for the July Running with Scissors bee.  I quite like the Kona Pomegranate she used mixed with the oranges and fuchsia - it will be a bright quilt.  She will be squaring it off to 9.5 inches. 

I aso have one Great Granny completed and another practically sewn together.  But poor Mr Toyota has pulled a sickie - he doesn't want to play anymore...  I think he may need to go to the sewing machine doctor for a check up (which I know is lonnnnnnnng overdue).  Poor fella - he was skipping stitches and the thread was breaking every few inches so I changed the needle, the bobbin, the top thread, re-threaded it, adjusted the tension, the other tensiony thingymebobberdoohickey thing {all at different times to see which if those things was acting up} and nope - he just wouldn't play right.  So I left him alone to think about his behaviour.  I will try him today and see what happens.  Maybe he just needs a rest? 

Here is the first completed Great Granny:

And the one needing two more rows sewn on:

And one of the seven more waiting in the wings to be sewn:

So once Mr Toyota starts to be himself again I will crack on and get these done.  I'm using all scraps (except for some text print in one of the blocks) - but it is amazing what you can get out of your scraps!  And OMG these are a blast to make!  I may also use some fabric I won from RicRak Studio from an Etsy shop called Sarah Waterhouse Textiles.  I won two fat quarters so I picked 'suitcases in pink' and some fabric with speech bubble s containing verbal 'insults'!  Too funny!!  I'd love to see 'Halfwit' or 'Oaf' in one of my Great Granny squares!! 

Ok, Happy Saturday - see you soon!

7 comments:

Karen from Sew Many Ways... said...

Thanks so much for linking up your sewing thread idea...I love the fabric bags. I have a few hotel sewing kits too. I just think sewing kits are the cutest thing, even if I never use them.
Take care,
Karen

Charlotte said...

love the grannies - they look fab with the extra ring.

Jodi B. said...

I hear you...less is more. And your little thread bucket is a cutie. Your blocks are lovely and you have such accurate piecing.

Cherie said...

What a cool thread idea! I keep mine in drawers.

Loving the blocks. Maybe Mr T just needs a good dusting out? =D

Quilter Kathy said...

You are tempting me with the great granny squares!

Unknown said...

I love your thread AND that granny square!!!! ...super size me :)

Sew Create It - Jane said...

Both your fushia block and granny block are fabulous...I really think another granny quilt is in my future :-)

Hope your machine gets sorted...sounds like the timing is out or it needs a good cleaning..