Stash Overflow

More flying geese. It seems I have not yet mastered the ability to make flying geese the right size in the required size except with paper piecing.

What happened here?

When I first started quilting I had an early 1970s Kenmore sewing machine. I decided I wanted a new machine and had decided on Bernina but wasn’t ready to spend that much money. While talking to my mother, who is not a needlewoman, said, “Machines are probably pretty expensive now. I bet that’s going to cost $400-500.” I told her it was more like $3000. She said I didn’t need a machine that expensive.

I was complaining at a sew-in for a mystery quilt that had flying geese in it that the Kenmore was pushing the fabric off the feed dogs. Kathy came over and said, “Let me see that”. She sat down and sewed a bit, then said, “I’ve sewn on a lot of machines in my day. This machine is a piece of crap!”

That afternoon she wanted to go to Fabric Chest in Glen Burnie (sadly no longer in business). I don’t remember the motivation for going but Linda and I hadn’t been so we went, too. Fabric Chest was a Bernina dealer. As soon as we set foot in the door, Kathy asked if they had any used machines. They had a 10 year old 1230. Well, Kathy and Linda were so excited to show it to me that the sales clerk couldn’t get a word in edgewise. I think Kathy would have made me walk home if I hadn’t bought the 1230.

I haven’t been sewing Easy Street on my Bernina because it had to go to the hospital. My workhorse Janome Gem Gold has been doing all the work. Using Bonnie’s method of making the geese, some of mine turned out right and some didn’t. What I don’t understand is why the ones with the turquoise wings were a little smaller than the ones with the white wings. I ended up trimming most of my blocks. But, they are done.

Flying Geese squares done!

Next time I have to do flying geese, I’m using Deb Tucker’s Wing Clipper ruler. It uses the make-it-bigger-then-cut-it-to-size technique.

I finally got the white bricks cut. And, I cut some of the green squares. Unfortunately, I’m not going to be able to work on Easy Street again until New Year’s Day. I thought I might be able to do a little work on it Friday while I’m getting ready to travel but I learned today that a member of my guild died so I’ll probably be going to the funeral home for the visitation.

Tip: Use a nylon scrubby to clean the trimming schmutz off the cutting mat.

See what others are doing on Easy Street.

Tags: Easy Street, sewing machine, Tips

This entry was posted on December 19, 2012 at 10:58 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.