Crackpot Quilters’ Blog

by Nancy

I’m happy to report that my Secret Crackpot Crochet Project is finished! 🙂 And I’m very pleased with how it turned out. I think the recipient will like it too.

Once I finished that, I started on a crochet eggplant, which is now done. I’ve take a picture but haven’t downloaded it yet. I have to say it is one of my favorite crochet veggies so far. Who doesn’t love a crochet eggplant?

Prior to starting the Secret Project, I made this cupcake, simply because it was cute. It was my first foray into beading, though of course only very basic beading. I decided to give it to my friend Lee, whose birthday is today.

Well, see, it was like this. We were at the CLH for New Years, and I decided that it was high time that I started quilting the Crackpot Summer 2008 Star Quilt. I didn’t have my quilting gun or a very good place to spread out the quilt for basting, but I was very – um – determined, so I pushed ahead, laying the quilt out on the dining table and basting by hand. But the table wasn’t really big enough so I didn’t tape the quilt to the table before basting it and it was a bit puckery but I figured that wouldn’t matter all that much but then the basting stitches kept getting caught in the presser foot but I quilted two blocks anyway, being very determined, but then it became obvious that it was getting more and more puckered up and it was fast becoming a disaster and I gave up and took out all the quilting, which was a pain because I had used monofilament thread that really is almost invisible and I also took out all the basting and decided to start all over again when I was home and had better equipment.

Which I did a couple of days ago using the new and amazing Magic Sewing Table, which, after I pushed the sewing machine down to the storage position and put the solid piece in place to cover the hole,  turned out to be exactly the right size for spreading out the quilt to baste. And since the Magic Sewing Table is on casters, I could easily move it away from the wall so I could walk all the way around it, which is much better than crawling around on the kitchen floor, especially since it eliminates the first step of washing the kitchen floor. So I got it all perfectly basted and then turned and basted the edges while watching “Emma” on PBS. Then last night I finally started on the quilting, and the Magic Sewing Table again showed it’s stuff. There is lots of room to spread out the quilt and wrestle it under the machine. Since I am now sitting up much higher with respect to the bed of the machine, it is much easier to see what I am doing and steer the fabric under the needle. And for some reason, I even have much better control of the foot pedal. So I quilted 3 of the 9 blocks on the quilt last night in less than an hour, and it looks fantastic, if I do say so myself. But of course, most of the credit goes to the Magic Sewing Table. (-:  [And, Nancy, how do you get those cute little smileys into your posts??]