Machine Quilting Five Minutes Later

Since this is a scrap quilt for cuddliness and doesn't matter, I thought I'd try my amazing new free motion quilting skillz on it.

This was the very first try, smack in the middle of the quilt.  It took only a couple minutes and look how pretty it came out!    
I had one goof-up that I had to restitch, and one broken thread. 
Since taking the pictures I've done a bunch more sections with no goofs and no broken threads.  At this rate the whole thing will be done in no time. 
It's easier than trying to crisscross the blocks or stitch in the ditch-- why?  Because without the machine presser foot, the layers move freely around and any scooting evens out instead of compounding as you get further.  Also, since there's just one area being worked on at a time,there's less muscling of that mass of rolled quilt around inside the machine!

Frugality Win - Tablecloth Dress!

As long as one doesn't mind walking around wearing a tablecloth.

And I don't.

Always Wanted a Dough Blender!

I’ve ALWAYS wanted one of these!  Not quite enough to pay the $20 ish that they sell for, though.

But this really neat one was on Freecycle.  It’s brand new in the box, with manual, MADE IN USA.  The lady I got it from had always wanted one, too!  She never ended up using it.

So now it's down there in the box, warming up a shelf in my storage area, making me happy... until I pass it on to the next Freecycler who's always wanted one of these?

This is How We Make a Quilt Out of SCRAPS

As I said, when I finished Mike's quilt, I thought I was doing something really great by opening up a real store-bought batting to trim down to size for it.  But the result was so thin and useless I was almost ashamed to give it to him. 

For the next effort I'm more sure about using "junk" for the batting. One layer of a Disney Ariel flannel sheet I got at the free swap (I despise that character) and one layer of old cotton thermal weave blanket.  Already you can tell this is going to be a NICE thick, warm quilt.

Right now it's gotten as far as lining up and pinning the layers, which is the hard part! 

Oh boy, will you (please, not) look at the sloppy lining up job on the back of those pieces!  I used some 3.5" squares I got at the free swap, with some 4" squares that were new, and didn't bother to trim.  Whenever I accidentally got a seam pushed over the wrong way, I snipped it.
Casually. 
Not going to make it into the quilting guild, I bet.

Australorps in the Mail

So stinking cute!!!

And they are Ed's project, so I know I won't hear a word of complaint no matter how literal that second word gets :-)

The New Me Gives Away Jigsaw Puzzles

The old hoarder me would have put them away on a shelf "just in case", but the new me boxes them up and gives them away at once. There are lots of jigsaw puzzles out there!

Gorgeous Walk It Out scenery

I'm done with the whole island!

Total steps: 561957
Total distance: 160 miles
Total play time: 78:26
Rainbows completed: 71

There's one new rainbow every day! 

At the end, basically NOTHING happens. 
I got a shot of what the trainer says. 

And that's it!  Luckily the play is the point.  If we had been doing all this trying to achieve some goal at the end, we would be very underwhelmed.

That's okay, I restarted a new profile at once.  I'm doing the whole thing over again, but this time on Easy instead of Normal capsule value.  It's actually very motivating! 

Here's a couple of early morning views from my new island.

Note, why the Suspension Bridge shows up at 2000-- I clicked it accidentally, and didn't want to buy it. The value on Easy level is only 300 steps. I had to switch to Very Hard level for just a minute until I could walk over to find some other capsules and knock that one out of my queue before completing it!