I have been asked what I’ve been sewing lately, so I thought others might like to know.
I have recently bought an new machine. Well, new to me anyway. It’s actually refurbished, but it runs just beautifully and still comes with the factory warranty. It is a Brother SQ 9000, which is a step up from my older CS 6000I. At some point this last fall, little fingers got a hold of my machines and since then, it’s not working right. It has the option of slow, medium, or fast, but since it was played with, I can’t go any faster than medium without the bobbin thread getting all loopy on me. It was quite frustrating. So we decided to get me a new machine, pass my older one to Maacah (for she doesn’t need to go any faster than medium anyway), and pass down the machine Maacah was using to Grace.
Anyway, I’m having fun on my new machine! It’s been about 5 years since my CS 6000I was new and I had forgotten how quite a new machine is.
These are the various projects that I have been working on at the same time. I’m a glutton for punishment, I guess. 
~ I’m very happy to say that before January ended, all swimsuits were finished. Granted, there were only 2 to make (Maacah’s and Damaris’s), but the fact that it’s only January and not July makes me feel real nice.
(Grace is wearing Maacah’s older suit. Thankfully, it fits her nicely.)
~ I am working on 2 wall hangings for the girls in their room.
The first one is for Maacah. She is really into butterflies and when I came across this adorable baby quilt, I knew that it would be perfect for her. I’m making it a wall quilt so we can hang it on the wall, it doesn’t get stepped on (like the many other blankets we have around here), and when I ever get up the energy needed to re-do their room, this will give us something to go on. Update: here is the finished quilt.
The second one is for Grace. She is all “girly” and I was looking for something that would match her tendency toward girly things while, at the same time, compliment Maacah’s butterfly quilt. When I found this cute pillow, I knew this was it. Of course, I enlarged it some for the dimensions of the quilt are not the same as a pillow, but that was easy enough. It is only the piece you applique on that is enlarged and since she has a free PDF of the patterns, I didn’t need to alter their size. I added 3 more flowers and viola! Update: here is the finished quilt.
~ I have been asked to do the center square of a baby’s quilt, to which I am very excited about and readily agreed. In Adam’s family, when there is a new baby or a new spouse, a quilt is made by everyone. Each family is given a square or 2 to embellish the way they want to, sign it, whatever. The square (s) get set back to the family in PA and it gets put together.
Anyway, the theme for the quilt center that I’m doing is “dream and love”, so I was scouring the web for pictures to give me ideas when I stumbled across this one.]: 
I really like the way it looks and when Maacah saw it (who didn’t even know why I was looking at pictures), she said, “It looks like a dream tree.” that answered that question! We’ve played with it a bit and changed a few things, but over all this will be the look of the square.
~ I made this today:
It’s an ironing pad for your table. I try not to iron as much as I can get away with. While I have had ironing boards in the past, I currently don’t have one. This is not a remedy I’m anxious to rectify. However, while doing all these quilts/squares/appliques, I knew that I needed something other than the standard towel on my dryer. I had planned on making one of these for a Christmas present, but that never happened. To which, I am not grateful. I didn’t use all of the materials listed here, for I’m bound by Wal-Mart for sewing/craft supplies and they didn’t have Insul-Brite. They did have the batting material with the silver stuff in it that you would find under the ironing board top material, though. So I doubled this up, in between two pieces of cotton, quilted some strait lines to keep it from bunching up, and it works great! My counter top didn’t even get hot while putting the iron on top of the pad. One needs to make sure they know which side to iron on, which should not be the silver side of the batting. The silver stuff in the batting is what helps keep the heat retained so you don’t want that on top.
When you are done, roll it up, tie a cute bow on it, and it takes up much less space than an ironing board does. Go here to get the more detailed instructions.
~ Of course, there is the never ending mending that needs to be done. And I have a jumper for myself that has been cut out for about a year that I’ll get to sometime. Plus, I have 2 good friends that are expecting their first babies this year, so you know I just have to make them something! 
One is a boy and I already know what he’s getting! 
I think.
Yeah, I’m defiantly having fun with my new machine!