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Saturday, October 31, 2015

Let there be light


 In our old house my sewing room was a guest bedroom. I was always walking around a queen size bed and my sewing chair was always up against the bed. So when we moved to this house I dedicated one room to just my sewing room and of course I picked the bigger of the two rooms.  The room was great but it didn't have enough light. There was a light on the ceiling fan but it only had 40 watt bulbs which was pretty much useless. I added 5 lamps in the room and still I had issues with lighting especially when taking pictures. Well a year after moving I finally got my lighting done by my wonderful electrician hubby.

 There are three lights over my sewing table and three over my cutting area.
 One of the things my husband hated was my use of extension cords and extra connectors. With the lighting it fixed half the issues with cords but I had one at my ironing board and he really didn't like that especially since it would spontaneously shut off and on when I would use the iron. To fix this he installed a 4 plug outlet that is controlled by a light switch so I don't have to unplug the iron and the lamp I just flip the switch. He also made it so that outlet is dedicated to just one 20 amp circuit by it self.
Light switch controlling a 4 plug outlet. 


Close up of light switch
It seems like my sewing room is always a work in progress but for now I am very happy with it and very thankful for my husband and his electrical abilities!! 



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Sunday, October 25, 2015

Farmer's Wife 1930's Sew Along update



This week in The Farmer's Wife 1930's Sew Along we made three blocks instead of only two. I prefer to make three blocks a week, but I have plenty of other projects to keep me busy. I will post soon on other projects.
Katherine

Susannah
Katherine and Susannah were very similar in style. I had to be careful to check the placement of everything before I sewed these.
Old Maid
The Old Maid block wad fun and I am happy with the fabric choices on this one. I may start using a few more solids as all the different prints seem to be a jumble on some of my blocks. (live and learn right?) I don't dislike my other blocks enough to change them but from here on out I may be limiting how many prints I put in the same block.


I have been using my Marti Michell templets for these blocks and it is making it SO much easier. I am very happy with the results.
Despite my best efforts to print the templates from the CD that comes with the book correctly and trying everything people have suggested; my blocks were not 6 1/2" like they should be, they come out about 1/8" too short. 

I have the A, B and C set of templates and just ordered the N and D sets. I hear these are the sets we will be getting into soon. The only other set that I am aware that we will use is set S but I am not sure when it will be used so I will order it later. 




Well, from what I have heard there are over 5000 people participating in The Farmer's Wife Sew Along. 


It is not too late to begin and you can find a book here. The Farmer’s Wife 1930s Sampler Quilt: Inspiring Letters from Farm Women of the Great Depression and 99 Quilt Blocks That Honor Them bLaurie Aaron Hird for Fons & Porter/F+W; RRP $28.99 –  Click here to purchase Paperback – Click here to purchase eBook (affiliate link).

We have made 10 blocks now and it is so fun to see all the photos being posted on the Facebook page; Farmer's Wife 1930's Sampler Quilt Sew-along.

Here are all the blocks together.




 Well, I hope you enjoyed this little update. I will be posting again soon about some exciting things happening in and to my sewing studio. ;-)