Paintbox 3, 4 & 5; Carolina Christmas part 5

I've been getting a couple of hours of sewing in each night....
Wednesday night: Paintbox set #3 (hit the blues)

Thursday night: Paintbox #4 (in come the greens)

Tonight: Paintbox #5 (and the yellows)
These are so fun and quick to sew up; right around an hour from cutting-start to pressing-finish. Oh----can you find the boo-boo on set #5? When I realized what I had done, I simple said..."psht! Hardly noticeable, specially once all 80 blocks will be sewn together." You see it yet?


And I've also been working on Carolina Christmas step 5's Pointsetta blocks; 10 completed Wednesday evening, and 11 more tonight.

I am SOOOO thankful I have my Brother as a backup machine. My piecing is DEFINITELY not as good using it, but.....hey! At least I can still sew!!!! I have plans to hit the road tomorrow AM a bit before 8:00 so I can get to the shop by 9:00 to drop off my Bernina. Sadly, I won't be able to get it back until the following weekend because it can't get looked at tomorrow. So LAUREL-----if you are around, I'll be at Sew Complete at 9:00!!! ;0) But I'll be turning around right away; I don't want to "waste" the day completely.

Happy Friday :0)

Determined, despite "surgery"...Now or Forever sees a finish!

The morning started later than usual, awaiting my parent's departure, but eventually I found myself chaining through 104 broken dishes for Carolina Christmas, part #4.

Then I grabbed Now or Forever and started quiltin' along....until ...."cher-chuck, chuck, clickity-click, click....."...

The sound sure wasn't normal, so I figured I'd give the machine a good cleaning and oiling. Sadly, it didn't help. I'm not a technician, but I have trouble-shooted it a bit----the needle/bobbin-case are "missing" each other. Either the needle is a fraction of a second too early, or the bobbin case is a bit late. ((**sigh**)). So, after sitting STUMPED for a few moments (maybe 10 ???), I finally faced the inevitable and packed her up for a trip to the shop. Sadly the shop is an hour away, so she'll have to wait until the weekend, which will mean at LEAST another week after THAT before I get her back....

....so ol' standy-by "Brother" made an appearance.
I was soooooooo close to being finished with the quilting, and I remember the frustration I used to have with the Brother when it came to FMQ...BUT, after a practice patch and adjustment of the tension, I was off-n-runnin' again! By mid-afternoon, the quilting was completed and binding sewn on, still awaiting hand-stitching though. I don't have a walking foot for the Brother and I SURE MISS IT!!!!!! In fact, there are a FEW things I am now taking for granted on the Bernina 440 QE that my Brother doesn't have...
1) The needle up/down feature
2) the on/off button when FMQ
3) the stitch regulator! But it sure was fun and relaxing to take the quilting at a nice leisurely pace.
4) the needle threader (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
5) the 1/4" foot
6) the bigger "table"
...to name a few...
but, she came through when I needed her.

And then.......with only an hour left of guilt-free quilting time, I figured it was a perfect opportunity to tackle the "true" Paintbox quiltalong. (See side bar for link).
Carol (Cornfield Quilter) sent this BEAUTIFUL jelly roll of Moda fabrics when she returned Perkiomen Daydreams from quilting. What a lovely PIF gift!!!!!!!!!

The quilt-along uses 10" squares for the "focal" fabric part, but the pattern works perfectly with 2.5" strips too! I first cut off 2.5" square, then a 2.5"x3.5" rectangle for the back, then need to thin the strip to 1.75"....

JUST enough is available in the strip to cut 2 each of 6.5" 5", 4", and 2.5" rectangles!!! It's was meant to be.


My first set of Oh Fransson Paintbox's :0)

I'm a bit behind, but should be able to catch up in no time. As clearly shown in the picture, I am doing the variation with white. Thanks again CANDACE for the beautiful motivational Paintboxes on your blog!!!!