Pumpkin Papercuttings Preview

I thought I had missed the Early Work Mercantile update which is always the last evening of the month. My "store bought" calendar on my wall has only 30 days for August! So, I actually have time to finish everything and get it listed tonight... on time.

You can find my work here, but it won't show the pumpkin papercuttings till about 9pm.

I'll be back with a reminder in the morning and share a few of the finished pieces.

Have a wonderful Wednesday!
Lana

European Linen Whole Cloth Quilt

Quite some time back I was thinking about making some linen towels, sheets, and a few quilts for us to use here at home. After a while I decided to buy enough fabric to make a few pieces for my online shop, Honeysuckle Lane.

I've started off with small crib quilts which could also be used for lap quilts. These are whole cloth quilts. I love the look of them and whole cloth quilts allow me to focus on machine quilting rather than piecing the quilts. I'll do that at a later date.

I love how a quilt looks once it has been washed and dried.

I used these gloves while machine quilting. I found them at Northern Tool and Equipment for only $1.99! If you need several pairs for a quilting class or group, you can get them for less than $1 a pair here.

My sister gave me these mini clips. I don't know the brand, and I'd never used them before, but they are so much easier to work with than pins. When sewing on the binding, I used to get my thread caught on the straight pins... but that hasn't happened with these clips. And for such a small size, they sure are strong!

I also use an Ott Lite lamp when doing handwork, especially when sewing on the binding.

I have slowly been listing more items in my shop, including the quilts I've recently made. Come visit and see what's available... and bring your gift list! You may find something for an upcoming birthday, anniversary, baby shower, etc.

Thanks for dropping by!
Blessings,
Lana

I Love My Juki

So... I bought the Juki TL-2000QI and I love it! It runs smooth... and fast! If used full speed, it will sew 1500 stitches per minute!

I haven't tried free-motion quilting yet, but I have made a couple of whole cloth quilts and quilted them using the even feed foot.

The first one with the paisley fabric and folk birds was quilted with a wavy line design.

getting ready to add the binding

I've been using Aurifil thread when quilt making...

and an Ott Lite lamp illuminates everything perfectly! 

I also made a linen whole cloth quilt. This one is quilted with a diamond design. And this linen is so soft! I love it!

I'll be adding these to my Honeysuckle Lane shop soon.

Thanks for stopping by!
Take care & God bless,
Lana

Cautiously Excited...

I am so excited! I am going to get a new (to me) JUKI TL-2000QI sewing machine in a couple of days! I have been using a Pfaff Hobby 750 for... oh.... more than 10 years and maybe more like 15! I'll have to find my purchase receipt to know exactly how long I've had it.

I have wanted a Juki for quite some time after reading blogs of quilters who love their machine. It was always out of my price range, but after patiently watching online classifieds sites, I finally found a Juki that is nearly new, semi-local, and in my price range!

I'll keep my little Pfaff...

...just in case I need to do a few buttonholes or very simple decorative stitches, although I haven't used those more than half a dozen times in the past several years. If I'm not doing hand-stitching, I'm doing straight-stitching and that's what this Juki sewing machine is for.

Once I get my Juki set up and get acquainted with how it works, I plan on getting back to making quilts! I have 3 more to make for family, and I plan on making linen quilts to list in my Honeysuckle Lane shop. Below are some of the colors I have in stock for the linen quilts.

I'll let you know how it goes once I get it settled in. I am excited, but I do know it may take some time get used to it. So that's why I am cautiously excited... for now. :)

Do any of you have a Juki? I'd love to hear what you like / don't like about it!

Take care,
Lana

My Sister's Quilts

My sister works at school, so when school was out for the summer, she took advantage of the time she had and made several quilts.

She had me machine quilt the one below...

and she liked it so much she bought an even feed foot for her machine and started machine quilting the rest of her quilts! I think she's hooked! ;)

It seemed as if every few days she was sending me more photos of yet another design!

She's back to school this week, so I guess she'll be slowing down, but I'll share more of her quilts as she gets them done and sends me photos.

in progress

As for me, I have all my linen fabrics washed and dried. Now I have to decide which colors to combine for my whole cloth linen quilts. I'll be back in a few days with more on those, too!

Have a blessed day,
Lana