Lemon Tree Tales

More progress on the summer quilt

Okay, all five strips have been sewn together now. I'm pretty pleased with how the illustration will work with it and the 3-D flower will add a much needed accent. However, I wasn't too happy with the initial attempts to print out a dragonfly photo on ink jet fabric. After thinking about it I am going to go with an embroidered dragonfly instead. That's all that I can show until the recipient gets it in the mail. My mailing deadline is this Thursday! Hmm, now where is that Angelina fiber?

Progress on the summer quilt

These are the strips for the summer quilt. Just two more to go from the stack of fabrics on the right in the background. I wasn't sure if I'd get a lot of bias action with the strips so I sewed them, one at a time, onto a layer of very thin cotton voile. It seems to be working. That first strip is a little too subtle but I'm not going to change it. At first the strip with greens (not sewn yet) was supposed to go in between the aqua and the turquoise but now I'm wondering if it shouldn't go at the bottom. As soon as I get the other two strips done I'll have to play with rearranging them. So far I like them.

Goodies from Prairie Mouse

Look what's growing in my backyard! Just kidding, it's a beautiful mushroom from Prairie Mouse. She was so sweet and sent me a package from New Zealand simply because I said how much I loved her mushrooms! It's so well made too. The bottom has beautiful green blades of grass embroidered around with a stem stitch. Gorgeous!!! It looks right at home in my backyard but will soon find a good resting place in my studio.

She also sent me a kiwi, charms and chocolate. The chocolate didn't last too long ... they were delicious. Yummm! Here's the kiwi. I keep thinking of the fruit and forgot that there's also a bird named that. She often sells these delightful creatures in her etsy shop. Thank you!!!

Tagged by Shashi

Shashi of Sewing with Moonbeams tagged me the other day with this meme:

1. What was I doing 10 years ago?  Since it was summer I was most likely in Miami working at the trade show with my job as a swimwear designer for a manufacturer in LA.

2. Name 5 things on today's "to do" list.  Grocery shopping, laundry, upload pictures of Doll Street Travel doll, cut out fabric strips for a quilt, more laundry!

3. Snacks I enjoy ... chips and salsa and more recently, fresh Ranier cherries from the Cherry Orchard fruit stand.

4. Things I would do if I was a millionaire ... pay off debt, buy house for my dad with a large garage, buy a house for my mom with a large garden, donate funds to keep a lovely synagogue doors open in Cork, Ireland, travel more and buy my hubby a car of his choice (probably a Ferrari). Wow, I hope it's a multi-millionaire because I don't think one million will be sufficient for all of that.  :-)

5. Places I have lived ... Basically soCal (South Central LA, Pomona and many towns in the San Fernando Valley), norCal (Sunnyvale), Miami and Hollywood Florida, and Italy (Rosignano Marittimo near Livorno in Tuscany, Padova (Padua), Mestre (mainland near Venice) and the Lido of Venice). It seems like a lot but other than a total of two years divided between Florida and Italy, I've always lived in California.

I think a lot of people have already been tagged with this one, but if you haven't I'm tagging you now.  :-)

Ray White Sewing Machine Repair Workshop

Last weekend I spent three days at Ray White's Sewing Machine Repair Workshop learning the basics of sewing machine repair. There were eleven of us with two different goals - half wanted to open sewing machine repair businesses and the rest of us just wanted to know how to repair our antique/vintage sewing machines.

I started out working on my Bernina Nova (aka Bernina 900) sewing machine because I knew it already was in fairly good condition. At first I was a little intimidated by opening up the cover to look at the "guts" of it. But by the middle of the second day I was feeling pretty confident that I wasn't going to hurt it as long as I went slowly. For those of you who are wondering who that little doll is, she's Mia Rose who's visiting me from Connecticut as part of the Doll Street Dreamers' travel doll project.

We went through all the steps of adjusting timing, tension, replacing worn or broken gears if needed and basically how to logically think through the mechanics of a sewing machine. He even touched on information about sergers and a little bit about foot controls not to mention teaching us how sewing machines work in general.

By the middle of the third day I had fixed my Elna Grasshopper (yes, I finally broke down and found one of them from ebay last year ... pictures to follow later). Yay!!! I was so happy that I accomplished that because I never really thought of myself as being mechanical. But low and behold I had managed to get something working and working well. Just wait until you see the little teeny tiny stitches that it does. I think that it'll be a great machine for doll-making!

With just a few hours remaining in the workshop, I took out another ebay find - a green Singer 185J machine that wasn't working at all. I couldn't even turn the wheel because it was frozen by all the gummed works. Well after just 20 minutes of cleaning and lubricating it I was able to get it turning and got it to work. I still have to balance the thread tension but once again I was thrilled with that accomplishment.

So, the most important thing that I learned is that you really must clean and lubricate your sewing machine often. Sewing machine oil will gum up and turn into varnish if it's allowed to sit still for long periods of time. Instead of sewing machine oil we used a lubricant that was originally designed for bicycles called Tri-Flow. It has a little teflon in it and won't gum up. It also will clean and break down the old varnish. This is how I was able to get the little 185J working again.

It was an amazing class! Ray was a fount of information with over 45 years of experience and so willing to share his knowledge with everyone. If you have any interest in learning how to repair sewing machines then this is the class to take. You can also find lots of information from a group of helpful people at the  wefixit yahoo group. Our hostess was also quite knowledgeable and has an amazing sewing machine collection. She's a true collector and showed me some of her antique hand cranks.

Brilliante Weblog Award

Connie of Clothmatters awarded me the Brillante Weblog Award the other day. Connie makes the most adorable little pin dolls and pincushions so stop by and say hello to her. Here's the rules:

• Put the logo on your blog
• Add a link to the person who awarded you
• Nominate at least 7 other blogs
• Add links to those blogs on yours
• Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs.

I've recently discovered some new-to-me blogs of some extremely talented ladies and wanted to tell you all about them:

1)  Agnes of Feet Stamping Dolls ... she has the most innovative way to display dolls that are integral to the design .. definitely a must see.
2)  Connie Ortiz of Dolls, Fairies & Other Thoughts ... another talented dollmaker.
3)  Gaia of I Piccolini ... oh, this lady makes the most beautiful bears, dolls and illustrations. Her blog is written in both Italian and English and is simply delightful.
4)  Linda Misa of Tact-Ilse ... you may have seen her work in magazines and she teaches online. I love the beautiful eyes on her dolls and collages.
5)  Helen of Patchy Work of Mini Grey ... a quilter who shares my taste in the brighter, happier colors.
6)  Natalie Hamade of Creative Characters ... dolls that would give all the showgirls in Vegas a run for their money. Check out the talent in her faces! She teaches online too.
7)  Lori-Beth's project at Art For Food ... here's a woman who decided that she would use her art to make a difference in her community. Go and read all about it.

Schmetz Sewing Machine Needles

This past weekend I saw what has to be the world's largest sewing machine needle - a larger than life Schmetz size 100 needle. It doesn't look especially large laying on the table, but take a look at this next picture where I'm holding it in my hand. Isn't that amazing?! I spent three days attending a sewing machine repair workshop and learned LOTS - first subject was needles. Schmetz made this as a demonstration model to show all the parts of a needle - the eye, the long groove, the scarf and the flat back. The long groove is where the thread lays in to guide it gently towards the eye. Turn the needle around 180 degrees and you'll find the scarf - that little slightly carved out section. This is where the the thread makes a loop and is captured by the hook in the bobbin area. Finally the flat back is ALWAYS opposite the long groove. Keep in mind that the older needles did not necessarily have this flat back.

It's very important to know that the older sewing machine needle system called 15x1 will NOT work in machines from the mid 1970s to the present. So please, if you inherit some sewing machine needles in a case of vintage sewing accessories, do not use them. They could damage your modern sewing machine. Sewing machine needles are so inexpensive that it's not a good place to save money. The standardized sewing machine needle system is the 130/705 and I think that Schmetz makes a superior quality of needle. Just remember to choose the correct needle for the type of thread and fabric that you're sewing. Also change your needles often - every 8 hours of sewing or so. Of course a brand new needle for a new project is never going to be too often. There's more useful information on this post by QuiltersBuzz here.

Safira the travel doll

What do you do when the heat of summer is upon you and the gas prices are so high that a lot of vacation travel isn't feasible? Why you send a travel ambassador in your stead. Quite a few ladies over at Doll Street Dreamers have decided to host a summer travel doll round robin. Each of us made a doll and their passport/journal to send to one of five partners. They are to take our dolls around town to all the sights and remember to take lots of photographs. Since we're mailing them internationally as well as within the United States we had to keep our little lovelies under 10 inches. With that in mind I wondered what I should do and happened to come across a pattern that Heera made for our doll club. (That is before she "abandoned" us for North Carolina.) Don't you just love her dancer legs? So without further ado, I introduce you to Safira. She has high hopes of becoming a dancer one day and kept threatening to run off to join Cirque du Soleil or the nearest dance troupe.

Safira and her travel journal. She's also bringing little hostess gifts.

A closeup of her face:

She was very excited to be getting her very first passport and feels mighty grown up now.

She's off to her first stop to visit Sherry in Iowa and should be back within three months or so. That is if she doesn't decide to stay somewhere else along the way.