Sew Rip Repeat

Happy Valentine's Day!

2014-02-14T06:32:00.002-05:00

Happy Valentine's Day! What a day it's going to be to be working in a kindergarten classroom today. Twenty-six children are so excited to pass out their valentines and have a party with their new friends. Here at the home front we'll be celebrating low key with a nice dinner out. We'll also be celebrating the start of our winter break and definitely wishing our record breaking snow will start to melt! It will be nice to be home next week and work on some more of my Swoon blocks.

Today I'm showing lots of little 1-1/2" HST's to make-up this heart lap quilt. There are three 9" blocks plus I added sashing all the way around to make it 30" square. I used 4 different shades of reds and pinks that I had in my stash.

V and Co. made a quilt last year with her ombre fabric line. I loved it! I needed to make my own but with only a small amount of fabric in my stash I had to make a smaller version. My goal was a table topper but it just didn't look quite right on the table.

I straight-lined quilted the entire quilt. I still need a lot of practice getting the stitch length to be consistent and the width of each row the same. To my family they will never notice and that's all that matters to me.

My heart table topper is now hanging in my living room. I smile every time I walk in the door and see it. I might have to keep it up for awhile since outside is covered in the white stuff. Below is a picture of the Great Lakes nearly frozen over for the first time in over 20 years. It's a beautiful picture!

[Photo by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration]

Happy Valentine's Day!

Sampler of Sewing

2014-02-11T15:57:00.000-05:00

Wow a year has passed since I've written anything on this little old blog of mine. Not to say I haven't been sewing, just not with as much gusto! I'm now a permanent Paraprofessional working with elementary children with disabilities so blogging and sewing has taken a backseat.

Here's just a highlight of only a handful of items I have sewn.

Starting in the top left corner and moving to the right. Last spring I was back making costumes for my son's school, this time it was Indian costumes for Peter Pan. My son was the lead as Peter Pan and it was such a treat! The 3rd photo is a WIP, Amy Butler Weekend Bag. I'm doing the quilt-as-you-go method and I just need to start assembling the bag. The pillows were Christmas presents for my girls. I loved Vanessa Christenson's Wonky Star Quilt & Pillow so I just did my own version with a 9-patch. I've made almost a dozen of Noodlehead's Gathered Clutches. I added a strap and passed them out as gifts for nieces and friends. The tree is a 6-1/2" paper-pieced block that I was playing with from a pattern I received from a friend. I've started the Aurifil Block of the Month and made the first block with 2 jelly rolls of Cameo by Amy Butler I had won from Flamingo Toes. Swoon! Who doesn't love this block? Mine is smaller than the original pattern. The bright blue was from the fabric I had from dresses I made for Spamalot last fall. I'm hoping to make more blocks with the other bright colors from that play. The last two pictures is my biggest project of all time and a huge WIP. I had won a big bag full of scraps from Kansas Troubles Quilters. I played with that fabric and arranged them in color for many, many months before I finally decided the Scrappy Trip Along would be the best fit for all the fabric. I think in all I've made over 42 blocks. My goal is to make two twin size tops.

So sewing is being done but just not trying to make it my #1 priority and writing about it. I'm not even digging out my camera to take top-notch photos but using my Ipod because it's within reach at the time.

I just finished my version of Vanessa Christenson's Heart Quilt using batiks that I had and lots of 1-1/2" HST's! I love it! Here's a sneak-peek!

Have a Great Day!

Endings & Beginnings

2013-02-21T21:18:00.001-05:00

When I decided that my February finish was going to be my longest Work in Progress I knew that I was going to be treading waters I've never done before. I put on my Walking Foot or what mine is referred to as a Dual Feed Foot and decided diagonals would be the way to go. I'd show you a close up but it's quite scary how stitching in the ditch was really to the left or right of a seam. I used my invisible marker and drew the lines so I'd have some sort of direction but even the best laid plans veer off the beaten path.

I also followed Lori's Binding Tutorial since I've never done that before either. I will say one thing that these finishes have me learning and doing things I've never done before. The binding went on quite smoothly. My corners aren't quite the picture perfect seam but I've accomplished something that really makes me proud.

And then the back . . .

I'm so happy with my end result.

I've been so tempted to try a block from the Scrappy Trips Around The World! I decided I'd use the fabric I won from Lynne of Kansas Troubles Quilters and her line of Sandhill Plums by Moda. I actually made 2 blocks but this is one of them. Once I knew how to do the first one the second one went by quite quickly.

I won quite a few scraps so we'll see how big I can get this. My daughter was quite bummed that the Wreath was just a small table size and something that she could not wrap her body around. Hopefully this will do the trick.

Have a Great Day!

Longest Work-in-Progress

2013-02-04T07:24:00.000-05:00

Many (not a few) years ago - let's just say it - 18 years ago a pattern came out on the Internet from McCall's Quilting. The pattern was "Christmas Wreath" and it was November, 1995. In 2001 (from the date stamp on my printed sheet) I came across this pattern. The wreath was made up of lots of half square triangles in an assortment of greens and reds. In true fashion I looked at it and dove right in. I didn't have a clue to what I was doing. I doubt very much any of these seams were true 1/4" seams. I winged it with fat quarter bundles I got from my local Jo Ann's.

Looking at this WIP brings me back to when my children were young and in some sort of school program. I had hours to myself that I had not seen in awhile so I jumped into those itsy-bitsy HST's with enthusiasm that I've never had before.

I was an extreme amateur tackling something that truly only someone who's actually done this before would do. My points aren't true, my squares weren't accurate but I burst through the challenge like no one's business.

So it is only fitting that I choose this beautiful wreath as my February finish. I will be first of all taking apart batting that I had started to sew in the ditch (I was clueless remember). I have backing fabric already so I'll sandwich, pin and use my walking foot like no body's business. Nothing fancy just straight seams. Then I'll make a binding and find some sort of tutorial on that because I've definitely never added a binding to something before.

Then when I'm done I can cross off my longest WIP, a first of hopefully many finished quilts even if it's just a wall hanging size and getting over my fear of making and sewing some binding. Wow! I do have a little ammunition in my corner that we'll be on winter break for a whole week and it will be give me plenty of time to sew.

Have a Great Day!

2012 Craftsy BOM Finished

2013-01-28T11:20:00.001-05:00

This quilt top has been a long time coming - a year to be exact! I've learned so much and I have to thank Craftsy for sponsoring a year long Block of the Month. Amy at Stitchery Dickory Dock provided me with a visual and printable handouts to be able to go at my own pace and learn new techniques that I've never even thought of doing before.

The one thing I definitely learned is I will not be making anything that has to do with hexagons! I hated the hand sewing to make the hexi's and the attachment of them on the block. Hand sewing is just not my thing!

I also learned on the curved piecing that I do need to use spray starch on one of the pieces. This picture is actually my second block of the same thing. The first one was so crooked and out of shape it was quite embarrassing. By starching the curved piece and keeping the top piece flexible I was able to handle the curves much better and get an accurate measurement.

I've said it before and I think I'll say it again - I LOVE PAPER PIECING! My blocks come out accurate and just putting the pieces together make me happy! This is by far my favorite block!

I signed up to for Shanna's "A Lovely Year of Finishes" at the beginning of January with having to complete 14 blocks. This was a lot of work to finish and luckily it's a "snow day" today so I was able to finish it up this morning. I still want to add more to the top and sides to make it bigger but for now we're calling this a finished top.

Time to think about what I want to finish for the February links - something much smaller will more than likely be on my agenda. I've also been encouraged by my blog friend Fiona from Celtic Thistle Stitches to link up to her blog. Every month she is encouraging blogs to link up their post on something that they've done new to them. If you've done something that is new to you - go link up!

Have a Great Day!

January Check-In

2013-01-18T06:37:00.000-05:00

The Craftsy 2012 Block of the Month just might be a finish by the end of the month. When I signed up for Shanna's "A Lovely Year of Finishes" I honestly didn't think that I would get all those blocks done. Out of 20 blocks I only had 6 (3 months) done!

I now have 10 more done! Yeah! I have 4 more to go and of course I have saved the Hexi's blocks for the last. I've also cut out the pieces for the curved piecing blocks so I can get to those ASAP. You can see all of the blocks over in my Flickr page.

It's funny how once you take a picture you see things that you definitely would do different in a block. There are a few blocks that I have done that I've made a mistake on or the color combination is terrible. I'll be ripping one block out that is upside down and redoing it (if you see it don't point it out, I already see it), and one of my original blocks I have to re-do because the background is totally different.

In the mail I received a Snowman Applique quilt book. Patricia from Quilting Lines sent me the book after drawing my name from my stockings link. I love snowmen and can't wait to add that to my long list of projects/wish lists of things I'd love to accomplish in 2013.

Have a Great Day!

Finishes

2013-01-07T06:02:00.001-05:00

I kept going back and forth over to Shanna's blog Fiber Of All Sorts to decide whether I wanted to join her new group and be accountable to all my unfinished UFO's. Then she sent me a message to join their flickr group called "A Lovely Year of Finishes". I have quite a few but the one that I jumped into last January with both feet because I wanted to learn to quilt has appeared to be a project that I got tired of. I joined the Craftsy Block of the Month 2012 and stopped when she got to April. I'll be honest I love to cross stitch but I really hate hand sewing. Hexi's to me is hand sewing and I just stopped because I don't like to hand sew. I just received a new email that 2013's BOM is out so I really need to finish this top.

This was the Balkan Puzzle Block from February that I never talked about. Luckily I have done a few more months in the past year and on Saturday sewed June and July's blocks. To finish this UFO I have to finish the months of August, September, October and the dreaded April. Will I get done and have a quilt top by the end of the month with a new UFO for February? I have no idea what life is going to throw in my way to not let me finish but I certainly will try.

So here we go time to start the year of 2013 with finishes and even new projects. Time to make myself accountable to all the UFO's I've started and never finished. One in particular is a wreath I made over 10 years ago but didn't know how to quilt and never finished so that might be a month.

If you want to join in today is the last day so hurry.

Have a Great Day!

Cathedral Pillow Present

2012-12-27T08:17:00.000-05:00

I finally tried my hand at making a Cathedral Window Pillow. I've wanted to make my mom something for a long time and with Christmas right around the corner it was the best time to do it. I followed along with this tutorial from Moda Bake Shop by Angela Nash of My Three Sons. The only thing I didn't do was the binding. To be honest I've never done binding before and I didn't want to add to my stress level of getting this pillow done. (The first two pictures are from my phone.)

As you can see from the picture above I went with the "Lake View" pillow.

The hardest part and most time consuming is all the folding of the fabric. Since this was my first try at making such a time consuming project on such short notice my corners certainly are not as precise as they should be.

I looked all over Flickr to see what I could do about all the corners of the blocks. Some corners looked pretty good (not perfect) and some I could see right through to the other side of the piece which wasn't good. I thought of making yo-yo's, using regular buttons, folding fabric (again) to cover all those points but making fabric covered buttons won out.

There are nine fabric covered buttons (another craft I have never done) and half way through making them I changed colors. I was going to make them dark blue but that just took away from all the work that I had done. I didn't want anyone to look at the pillow and only see the buttons so white won out. Since I only bought what I needed taking the ones apart that I had already done was quite a challenge.

I love this pillow! I should have taken a picture with my mom and the pillow but of course I didn't think of it then. I will definitely be making this pillow again and conquering my fear of binding!

In other exciting news our Christmas was fantastic. I was surprised with a Silhouette Cameo from my husband and I can't wait to start being creative with it.

Hope everyone has the healthiest of New Year's! We're celebrating with neighbors and I'm looking forward to saying good-by to 2012!

Have a Great Day!

The stockings were hung ...

2012-12-22T08:53:00.001-05:00

I was featured on Craft Gossip!

My first love of crafting has to be counted cross-stitch. I started doing cross-stitch right out of high school. 14 count Aida was the cloth of choice! Using those counts and cloths didn't last long when I came across all the different colors of linens, thread counts and patterns. I subscribed to Better Homes & Gardens Cross-Stitch & Country Crafts Magazine many years ago and when I saw the beautiful counted cross-stitch patterns of different stockings I knew I wanted to do it. I didn't even have children yet when these patterns came out so I saved them. Once I started to have children I set out to make each one of them their very own unique stocking.

There is alot of back stitch in these stockings because of all the details so I would put the stockings aside when I grew tired of doing them. I dug them out of a box a few years ago along with their patterns and went through them line by line to find where I had not finished them. Once they were completed I again put them back in their box until this year. My original intent was to always sew them into a regular stocking and hang them on the fireplace but as the years went by I knew that was not going to be a reality. I finally had a brilliant idea that I would frame the stockings in separate frames where I could display them as long as I wanted. I went to my local Joann's and bought 3 remnant mat boards of the same color and frames that were half off. After stretching them on a board, cutting the mat and putting them in the 16x20 frames they were ready to be hung.

The above stocking was my first for my oldest daughter who was born in 1992. The pattern is called Sugar 'n' Spice from the magazines July/Aug. 1992 issue.

This stocking was for my middle daughter born in 1995. The pattern is called The Music Room and the issue was from July/Aug 1991.

The last stocking I made was for my son who was born in 1997. His pattern is called Snips 'n' Snails from Jul/Aug 1993.

So after 20 years the stockings were hung . . . on the wall!

I'm linking these up over at Quilting Lines where she is having a linking party that has to do with stockings.

In other news I won a few blog hops. Kate from Katie Mae Quilts sent me this layer cake of Millie's Closet by Lori Holt. Lori blogs over at Bee In My Bonnet. I'm thinking I really need a new pin cushion with a thread catcher and this fabric will be perfect.

Below Alison from Little Bunny Quilts sent me 50 charm squares from her collection. Wow what an assortment of fabric! These will definitely be put to good use.

May everyone have the Merriest of Christmas's and the Happiest New Year!

Christmas Runners

2012-12-07T06:32:00.000-05:00

First off I have to show off the wonderful bundles of fabrics I won from Victoria Findlay Wolfe at Bumble Beans Inc.. It was a month ago and like usual blogging takes a back seat to my life. :(

Photo from Victoria Findlay Wolfe

The fabric is from Newcastle Fabrics. I love it! Victoria is a busy women always sewing and quilting gorgeous quilts. She has a new book called 15 Minutes Of Play along with a blog hop thats finishing up on the 10th. Go check out the hop here. Can't wait to make either a quilt top or some bright pillows for my girls. Thanks Victoria!

On to Christmas sewing. My sewing machine also doubles as an embroidery machine and every once in awhile I'll add embroidery to plain pieces. I added some bells and a beautiful wreath to a table runner to jazz it up. I bought 6 9 ft. long table runners at Pottery Barn a few years ago and have been slowly shortening them to 4 1/2 ft. and making them into seasonal runners. This is the rest of my stash of table runners.

I'd love to tell you where I got these gorgeous embroideries but I downloaded so many pieces when I first received my machine 12 years ago that I didn't keep track. I love the simplicity of these motifs and how delicate they look.

No one said I was a photographer and you can certainly tell in these pictures. This one is in my family room on our coffee table. I think our friends are afraid to set anything on them because they still continue to use coasters!

The next runner I got the idea off Pinterest. Just like the pillow from Pinterest I straight stitched around the pieces. Not the best idea! I have since washed it and of course fabric frayed and pieces came apart. I have now gone back and zig zagged all around to make it secure and tight. Lesson learned - don't straight stitch applique you'll be re-doing your piece!

This table runner is laying on our buffett in the diningroom. I can never get enough of Christmas (except at Halloween)! It's my favorite holiday of the year!

Have a Great Day!

More Dresdens

2012-12-03T17:02:00.002-05:00

Now that I think about it I'm really getting into making things with my Dresden ruler. I just love how uniform and simple they look in my table runner. They are versatile when making my Turkey's. Now they look even better in my new project, a pillow.

I bought the fabric as remnants at my local quilt store. They didn't have a very great selection of Christmas fabric left so when I saw these on the counter I scooped them up knowing I could do something with them. I love the colors!

Since I'm still learning and haven't been sewing lately quite as much as I would love to be I did a blanket stitch around the whole outer edge with a zig zag stitch around the center. Quilting is not my forte at the moment and I had some DMC Perle Cotton in Black and some Kreinik Red Metallic Floss I decided I would just stitch around the outer edge. The end result is so much more than I could have imagined.

I made the pillows pretty basic with an envelope style on the back so I could cover up my regular everyday pillows in our family room. This makes changing the decor so much easier and an even cost effective way out. I love how the house is starting to look like Christmas.

Have a Great Day!

Thanksgiving Decor

2012-11-12T12:03:00.002-05:00

Thanksgiving seems to get lost in the shuffle everywhere you look. I see Halloween and then BAM! we're right into Christmas. Since I have alot of decor that is more geared towards fall than Halloween I like to keep it out but I noticed that I don't have a Thanksgiving Tablerunner or some pillows for outside.

You have to love Pinterest for all the beautiful ideas that are just a click away. The turkey layout was inspired by a pin from here. I had the bright colors left over from Spamalot and the tablerunner was pre-made from Pottery Barn. We usually head to our cottage for Thanksgiving but since it's still over a week away this gets us excited for Thanksgiving and spending time with our family.

The pillow above is just appliqued onto a canvas drop cloth that I made into a pillow form from Home Depot. I love having the porch decorated!

The acorn pillow has been pinned to my Pinterest account since the beginning. I pinned it from here but did my own thing. Some applique with satin stitch and I was done. Simple!

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and don't let all the hustle and bustle of Christmas arrive on your doorstep to early. We're going to be spending Thanksgiving counting our blessings and being thankful that we're all able to spend the time with each other.

Have a Great Day!

Costumes for Spamalot

2012-10-22T06:10:00.000-04:00

Whew! What a whirlwind these past few weeks have been. It started when I went to a Drama Boosters meeting for Monte Python's Spamalot for my son's drama class and the teacher asked one little question: "Can anyone sew?" I slowly and hesitantly raised my hand. All along I've told my son to never volunteer me to sew any costumes and here I was raising my hand. What was I thinking? The teacher was giddy with excitement that she found another volunteer to help sew 11 costumes. That night she gave me a cheaply made costume from the Renaissance period that was a skirt, peasant top and vest that she liked but wanted burgundy for the skirt. Knowing that I have never heard of the play, she also instructed me to look on youtube for inspiration.

All 11 girls were different sizes so I bought Simplicity 5582 pattern and used the largest size I could. I decided that elastic was going to be my favorite way to fit all the girls with a one size pattern.

I made ties to match the skirts to give a little pop of color to the vests. I didn't really want to spend money on grommets for 11 vests but in the end I decided that it would look the best.

Friday was a sewing party at my house with time running against me. My mom hemmed all the skirts from the measurements that I had taken the previous week. I sewed vests all day, instead of lining the vests I made my own bias tape for the sleeves, hem and top. That night while the kids were at the last home football game we continued to hem and sew while I recruited my husband on grommets and my girlfriend finishing up all the ironing.

We lucked out! Out of 11 costumes only 2 vests needed some adjustments. The skirts were a perfect length for all the girls and the shirts were perfect. This was a huge accomplishment for me to be able to sew 11 (33 pieces in all) costumes in 2 weeks. What a rewarding experience! Now time to go get caught up on everything that is on my own back burner.

Have a Great Day!

Homecoming

2012-10-01T06:27:00.001-04:00

I have been sewing but not anything quilting related. I've been sewing for my daughter. I haven't sewn for my children since they were little and I was making Halloween costumes and matching Christmas outfits. It felt so good watching her come downstairs to see the pieces of fabric turn into a beautiful dress.

This was our inspiration: Simplicity Pattern 3878 by Jessica McClintock. Her choice in color was teal. We both decided all the roses that are glued/sewed onto the dress just was not going to be her. She wanted sparkle and glitter. We found the tulle that had glitter all over it and let me tell you that stuff gets everywhere! We've had glitter all over house!

The pattern was pretty much very easy to use. I found I had a few questions on how the pattern read when doing the bodice but I quickly figured it out. I had more of a hard time with the fabric being so shiny and slippery that I really had to go slow and take my time. There is boning in the dress and I will say there has to be a better way for that to fit. If I had time I would have torn it out and thought of something better. It kept twisting and as much as it bothered me in the end it didn't bother her.

Instead of rosettes and the bow on the dress I decided to try my hand at a fabric flower. They are everywhere and I've never tried one before. I mixed the satin and tulle on a 2 1/2" circle. It was exactly what we were looking for and it made the dress.

She loved the dress! Homecoming was a success and she said she danced the night away. She has a group of friends that she's had since elementary and they are a tight group of kids. They had a wonderful dinner at of the friends house where they all got dressed together afterwards. Of course as the proud mom there were tons of pictures but my favorite would have to be the one my girlfriend took of her. It's my favorite!

I'm now back to the sewing room but this time for costumes for the fall play of "Spamalot" for my son's drama class. I guess that's what happens when you sew and no one else does. Wish me luck because this is way out of my comfort zone.

Have a Great Day!

Star Flower Pillow

2012-07-23T13:10:00.001-04:00

Wow - life certainly has a way of getting past you and I'm totally shocked that I haven't written a word on this little blog since April. Good thing this little blog is just my way of seeing my own improvement and not out to get the highest number of hits.

Life certainly has been busy in my neck of the woods is one reason I have not blogged or even really sewed anything for that matter. My eldest daughter had a seizure in the middle of the night in May and my main concern has been to make sure she is fine - which she is! Medically the neurologist can not find anything wrong with her after numerous tests and are saying that this is a very common occurence in teenagers (she's 19). It can be caused by stress or even a hormonal imbalance. So . . . needless to say I'm now her designated driver along with my other 2 teenagers. So sewing and even blogging has become a back burner on my list of things to do.

I have been eyeing the beautiful charm pack of Reunion from Diane that I won months ago. Ever since it arrived. I so wanted to make Aylin Öztürk's Star Flower Pillow. I've had it pinned on my Pinterest account ever since I first saw it on Moda's website. I love it and I knew I could do it since I've done so many paper piecing projects.

So here is my pillow. I didn't do the binding since I've never conquered it and I also didn't want to use up any of my Reunion stash. Pretty selfish - uh? I've since made another pillow using HST's to go with it but that will have to be blogged at a later date when I have more time to sit on the computer and download the pictures.

Off to go run some teenagers around.

Have a Great Day!

NY Beauty Block 3

2012-04-27T17:40:00.001-04:00

I'm behind a week with my NY Beauty QAL but I finally squeezed in some sewing time to do it. I didn't use the tutorial that was used on this block because it was pieced a totally different way that I've been doing it so far. The tutorial also didn't have any dimensions to cut the fabric so I had to measure and figure out my own way. I was very cautious the way I measured my squares because I want to be able to have enough of this fabric to finish. For anyone else that is contemplating doing this block I measured the height and width of the points and added at least 1/4" all the way around. This seemed to work well for me. On the smaller points near the end I used scraps since they were such tiny points. Of course no sewing can get done without ripping apart some seams or starting over and I did have to do that a few times. This is a learning curve for me and I'm plugging right along. So here is NY Beauty Block 3.

In other news I've been honored to win a few more fabric bundles from other bloggers. The beautiful Denyse Schmidt fabric came from Deborah of Simply Miss Luella. I love all those pieces and can't wait to be able to make something for our cottage with these colors. They will be perfect. Thanks Deborah!

Next up I was lucky to be an unpected 3rd pick by Pauline of Quilt 'n Queen. She had a great tutorial of aprons on Sew We Quilt using tea towels. So this beautiful Moda Fabric called Pastel Plaid and Hideaway will be an apron using her tutorial. Thanks Pauline!

This next package arrived completely unexpected. Weeks earlier I had won scraps of fabric from Lynne of Kansas Troubles Quilters and her line of Sandhill Plums by Moda. There was a lot of fabric that arrived in the mail so when more fabric arrived I was beyond thrilled. I already know I'm going to be doing some sort of patchwork quilt to use up all the different sizes of fabric that I have. I want to be able to measure all these scraps and make sure I use all of them. Thanks Lynne!

I'm loving my new job as an aide to pre-schoolers. My afternoons are flying by and there have been some days that I'm working a different program in the morning. Needless to say I'm wiped by the end of the day. So with 8 weeks left of school I'm not counting on getting much sewing done except for finishing up the NY Beauties.

Have a Great Day and since it's Friday also a Great Weekend!

NY Beauty Block 6

2012-04-15T09:00:00.003-04:00

The pictures are way to dark when I took this even though the sun was still out so you'll have to see purple and white not black and white. This block went together so well. I can see I'm starting to run low on my leftover material from my girls dresses that I'm so hoping I can get these done. We only have 4 blocks more to go.

All my seams have come together without a flaw and the points look really good. I can honestly say I'm improving on this technique. Here's all the blocks that I've done so far.

In other news we spent our Easter at our cottage in Northern Michigan. It was so nice to be able to get away and know that in 4 weeks we'll be putting the dock in the water. The lake was so peaceful and calm.

I have so many projects in my head that I'd like to start and I'm hoping I can find the time to get to them. I took a job that is 3 hours a day being a Parapro for Autistic Impaired Pre-Schoolers, so hopefully I can find the time to sew some in the morning. It's raining in Michigan today but the sun is supposed to come out and the temperature is supposed to rise to almost 80 degrees. Summer is coming!

Have a Great Day!

NY Beauty Catch Up

2012-04-05T11:33:00.002-04:00

I've been a paper piecing fool! For 3 days straight I've been playing catch up to get caught up with the NY Beauty QAL. Since work and family life has occupied my time I needed to get to my sewing machine pronto before I got even farther behind. Since I'm technically doing each block 4 times it took me almost 2 days just to cut and sew. I decided early on since I had so many blocks to do that I'd just get all the paper piecing done first and then put the blocks together. I didn't want to take the time to keep switching my needles and stitch lengths everytime I got a block done.

This is Block 1. At first I was going to add a solid as the 2nd color. I made all of the pieces with the 2nd color to finally come to the conclusion I'd rather keep it a 2 color block - white and my purple print. So I technically had to go back and start over on the piecing. I'm glad I did because it makes the blocks more elegant looking without the 2nd color thrown into the mix.

This is Block 7. Loved this block with sharpness of the long wedges. By this time I'd already done so much paper piecing that I didn't have to think as much how I was laying the fabric on the paper.

Finally Block 8. I really am loving paper piecing! I love my color choices and how they are coming together. My blocks aren't lining up exactly but since I've never done anything quite like this before I'd say I'm doing pretty good. I'm hoping that once I'm finally done and able to quilt it, no one will ever notice the imperfections.

Last but not least is that my mailman, Jim, has been filling my mailbox with prizes that I've won. The first package to arrive were lovely scraps from Lynne of Kansas Troubles Quilters and their fabric line Sugarhill Plums by Moda. I love these scraps and I'm looking forward to making some sort of scrap quilt. The next time Jim arrived I jumped for joy because Fresh Fabric Treats and Modern Blocks arrived from Angela of Angela Yosten (sounds like I'm on a first name basis and I really am not). She was also kind enough to autograph the pages that she has a project in. I've been pouring over these books trying to figure out what to do first. I should just start at the first one and work my way through the book (not a bad idea).

Then there was the St. Patrick's Day Blog Hop Party that alot of blogs were participating in. I won 3 prizes from 3 different bloggers. To go along with my paper piecing frenzy arrived a Carolina Lily Tissue Paper Foundations pattern from Kathy at Quilted Solutions. I'm looking forward to this pattern. Then Diane at Brasier House sent me not 1 but 2 Charm Packs and 2 1/3 yd. pieces of fabric of Reunion from Sweetwater. Yeah me was all I could think of since I've been loving that fabric line since I first saw it. Today Jim brought me a nice layer cake of Farmer's Market by Brannock & Patek by Moda from Debbie at Tis The Season To Be Quilting. I've never owned any "designer" fabric before and now I have 3 different pieces and I'm so thrilled to be able to make something beautiful with these lovely fabrics. Thanks everyone!

To bad all that luck I was having didn't win me the Mega Millions Lottery but I'll take the $2 instead. So off to get some things accomplished since we're on Spring Break and really haven't done anything.

Have a Great Day!

Life First/Sewing Second

2012-03-28T06:58:00.000-04:00

I'm MIA but for a good reason. Sewing is a hobby for me. Something that makes my days go faster and keeps me away from - cleaning. Lately though I've been doing what I thought 20 years ago I'd never do - subbing in my local school district as a teacher's aide helping physically impaired children. If you're a mother you know the routine of what you have to do when your children are young. You are their sole provider to getting them fed, bathed, clean and the obvious happy and safe. As a teacher's aide I don't bathe children but the other 3 are up there in the to do list, besides helping them get the best education that they can.

Thank God my children went to a school where children of all disabilities are a regular site. Their elementary housed a program in our district with special needs children. I've noticed when my children were young and we would go out to dinner and their was a handicapped person there that people stare - my family and most importantly my children do not! They don't see a child/adult with disabilities - they see an individual or better yet just a little boy or girl. Proud moment when I finally figured it all out!

What started out as an hour a day working in the lunchroom when all 3 of my children started going to school full time has evolved into quite the part-time job. As the year progressed I was asked to substitute as an aide to help in the program with the children that also go to that school. Nervous is an understatement of my very first day. Learning their disabilities, proper lifting if need be, feeding if that was what I had to do and stepping back and letting them try to do things themselves was a big learning curve for me. As a mother you want to do everything possible but then their comes a time you have to say - TRY! This is what you have to do with special needs children. They are not as strong and sometimes not as capable of doing certain things that normal children can do but with patience and practice they can succeed in doing these tasks. Great accomplishment for them, bigger reward for me watching this unfold. I've now been subbing for more than 10 years.

So that is what I've been doing for the past few weeks. I like to tease the regular aides in the building that I have the best of both worlds. I get to work in all 4 of the different classrooms: preschool, kindergarten/first grade, second through fifth grade and then in regular education classrooms. I love it and wish I could get in full time but the way the budget cuts are going I'll probably never get in. So I'll take what I can get and enjoy every minute of it!

So my days have been filled with children of all ages and getting more joy than I ever thought possible. Hopefully sewing will be taking place next week when we are on spring break, if the dust bunnies don't come and get us first!

I've received some great packages in the mail lately and some more are on their way! My goal is to take some pictures and thank these blogs properly as soon as my days are free.

Have a Great Day (I will be)!

New York Quilt Along Blocks 0 & 5

2012-03-18T19:50:00.001-04:00

Sara at Sew Sweetness is hosting a New York Beauty Quilt Along on her blog that I have happened to join along in. These blocks are all paper pieced and I have found a new love for this art.

This quilt was at the quilt show I went to a month ago and when I looked at this quilt I then wondered what I had signed up for. All those pieces should have made me run as fast as I could but it didn't. I was scared with all the colors so I was still undecided on what fabrics I was going to use.

So the 5th of March was the day that the tutorial for Block 0 came out over at My Go-Go Life hosted by Kim. As I read over the directions I decided that the curved seams were going to be my hardest part. The more I read the directions, the more I told myself I could do this.

I continued to watch the Flickr group to get inspiration on colors. One particular square kept catching my eye and I knew what I was going to do. I decided 2 colors were going to be my destiny. One was a plain old Kona White with the other fabric being from a stash of a sentimental piece. The purple is from dresses that I had made my 2 girls 14 years ago as Christmas dresses. I have had these dresses packed away just because I had spent so much time on them that I couldn't donate them or give them to family members. While cleaning out boxes I found these lost treasures and decided the only way to keep this memory alive was to cut the dresses apart. To say the least I'm making new memories for this fabric. Every time I look at these squares I'm reminded of 2 little girls who have now grown into beautiful young women.

Block 0

Block 5

Block 5's tutorial was on Sara's blog. Block 5 had alot more pieces and I definitely had my share of mistakes along the way.

If you aren't doing the NY Beauty QAL try it! These blocks are beautiful and I can't wait to find out how the journey of these "beauties" turn out.

The weather in Michigan is starting to finally turn the corner and we're all spending alot more time outside. Hope you've had a great weekend!

Two Final Blocks = 1 Quilt Top

2012-03-12T16:18:00.000-04:00

I cannot begin to write about how much I have learned from doing Sew Happy Geek's QAL this past month. When I found Jenna's blog over a month ago I really had no clue what I was doing. To get you caught up you can find the first blocks here, here, and finally here.

This block was called the Quatra Star. Jenna has a video up on her site on how to do this block. It could have been done 2 ways - paper or foundation pieced. After watching the video I decided I'd rather screw up on a piece of paper than a piece of fabric, no matter how scrappy it is. Call me scared but what little fabric I have I need to make the most of it. I've done a few paper pieced blocks from participating in the Solstice Star blocks by Fresh Lemons Quilts so I felt more comfortable in this technique. Good thing is because my handy, dandy seam ripper came through again for me. When you paper piece you really have to make sure that you have enough fabric to cover the area that it is intended. I really love paper piecing. The sky is the limit on what you can accomplish with a piece of paper, lines and fabric.

The last block was the Dresden block. I was hoping to use my acrylic template but this blades were taller than mine so I used Jenna's paper template. The fabrics above were the last of my stash of all these colors from this QAL. I started with remnants and thank goodness I made it to the end.

To be entered into the giveaway you had to have your blocks sewn into a quilt top by the 18th. I knew if I was going to spend this much time on these 12 blocks I was going to finish. Since I had run out of fabric I needed to purchase more white. With the blocks done and ready to be put together I found I had made a mistake all along on these blocks. Being the newbie as I was when I first started I didn't quite understand that when you say 12" finished this really means 12.5" before sewn into the top. Duh!! I had stopped trimming my squares after the first 6 and when I noticed they were different sizes and the points weren't sharp it dawned on me. Never make that mistake again!

I'm so glad I took this leap and conquered my fears of cutting pieces of fabric to make different patterns. I have some blocks that are my favorite and there is one that I wish I had changed the colors but never did. The touch of blue was a last minute addition. I had thought about red but one of the pieces of fabric in the blocks has this blue in it. In the end it gives it a little splash of something different.

I'm off to get caught up on my NY Beauty QAL since block number two comes out today.

Have a Great Day!

Birthday Table Runner

2012-03-08T06:18:00.001-05:00

I've been on a table runner kick lately. I had bought three 8 ft. white table runners for only $9.99 from Pottery Barn's outlet awhile ago. They've been sitting just waiting for the perfect project. One of them is a birthday table runner for my buffett. Below is my inspiration that I had pinned on Pinterest.

RSH Catalog

First things first though I didn't want an 8 ft. table runner, I wanted a 4 ft. one for my buffett, so I cut it in half. The table runners have mitered corners so I had to finish up the end that I cut off before I could even get to the applique.

The original table runner had a 2" hem plus another 1/2" so I had to rip the seam down 10" to give me room to miter the end. I did this on both sides.

I ironed the runner really good and then folded in a 1/2" for the first hem. I folded again another 2" to match the hem for the whole table runner. As you can see from the picture above I also made sure that I matched the creases (that I couldn't iron out) from the original 2" hem on the side.

I matched my corners from the long end to the short end with the right sides together. I'm now ready to miter the end. I don't know if this is the right way or wrong way but this is what worked for me.

I took my square ruler and matched up the lines. As you can see where the crease is the ruler is marked at 2 (I hemmed 2") and then I matched up the skinny line on the ruler. I marked the line in a water soluable pen from one end to the crease. (Since I'm known to do things a few times no matter how many times I measure I did a basting stitch to make sure it was right.) I then turned it right side out to make sure the hems lined up all the way around the table runner. Flipped it back over and cut the end down 1/4".

Done! I now have 2 table runners but first things first we need to get on with the project at hand - the Birthday Table Runner. I printed out a font that I had downloaded. I loved everything about it but it was just to thin for what I wanted to do. So I thickened it up with a marker on both sides and transferred them onto fabric.

I used Steam-A-Seam for the letters. I've used it before and I like how I can re-arrange the pieces to my liking but also having the pieces only temporarily still stick.

Once I had the letters displayed how I liked them I was ready to sew. I ended up using a zig zag stitch and a variegated thread from Sulky in Black and White.

Once the letters were finished I debated on adding small presents, cupcakes, hats or even confetti all around the runner but it would have made it to crowded. I didn't want that.

As you can see I just placed the letters all over in a slanted and uneven manner.

We're ready now for cake and ice cream on our next birthday celebration.

Have a Great Day!

I'm linking to a few sites:

Portable Ironing Board

2012-03-06T07:07:00.002-05:00

Since I knew the New York Beauty Quilt Along was starting very soon I dreaded having to get up after every strip to iron. My husband always teases me that I need to have "time management", so I decided I needed something right next to me to iron. So I set out to our local craft store over the weekend. Have you seen how much money they want for a small portable ironing board? Seriously I looked and the cheapest I found was $27 and it had to be less than a 12x12. I couldn't justify spending that much money on something that I knew I had all the tools to do at home.

So off to work I went the other night.I found a piece of board in the garage that I ~~swiped~~ asked if I could have. Couldn't tell you what kind of board it is but I knew it was thick enough to get the stapler through without going all the way through to the other side. It looks big in this picture but it is actually 12x30 inches. I debated on having my husband trim it down for me but decided against it.

I knew I had fleece, Insul-Bright, and canvas fabric that I had bought at a local thirft store in my stash of stuff. I also read to use batting but since I had all this extra remnant of fleece I decided to use that instead. I layered my fleece, Insul-Bright, and then the canvas in that particular order. I made sure everything fit nice with at least enough extra to wrap around the board to staple.

After I put the fleece on I noticed that I really didn't need any extra fabric on the ends and it would cause more of a problem with bulk when I went to finish it up so I cut it down to the exact length of the board.

I continued on my merry way with the Insul-Bright (also cutting off the very end) and then the canvas. When it came time to staple the final fabric I just pulled it and stapled it. Nothing to neat about this since no one will ever be looking at the bottom of it.

For the ends I just folded it almost like a package and brought the ends up and over. Staple and done!

Here's my new Portable Ironing Board in my messy little corner of my sewing table.

Could have cleaned up don't you think? Wow! Anyways I've since moved this to the right of my sewing table so there is no overhang. My sewing area is shaped like an L and since I'm right handed having it at this end would not have benefited me. I used my new board yesterday afternoon and have to tell you I got so much accomplished in such little time. No getting up, taking off the readers, picking up the readers at the ironing station because I forgot to take them off, etc., etc. Why didn't I think of this before? I love it!

Have a Great Day!

I'm finally a Winner!

2012-03-03T10:51:00.002-05:00

I'm so excited! I was picked by Angela Yosten to win 2 books - 2! She's even going to sign them! Thank you Angela!

The first book "Fresh Fabric Treats" is by lots of Moda Bake Shop designers. The cover is beautiful!

The next one is "Modern Blocks" and this has 99 (wow that's alot) of Quilt Blocks from different designers.

I'm beyond thrilled to be able to finally feel and look through the pages of these beautiful books that I've had my eye on. Someone needs to pinch me!

Have a Great Day!

St. Patrick's Dresden Plate Tablerunner

2012-03-02T08:08:00.001-05:00

Thought I'd finally try my hand at what the quilting world calls a Dresden Plate with scraps of fabric. I also had an 8ft. white table runner I had purchased from Pottery Barn years ago from a girls weekend at the outlet mall for real cheap. I cut the table runner in half and made two out of the one. I even mitered the corners to match all the way around.

I used 5" blades (that's what they call the individual pieces) to make my Dresden. I then used a trick I had seen on the Internet to make my circle. I actually sewed two pieces together, cut a slit in one of the pieces and turned it inside out. This worked so much better than folding in the edge to make the applique. I then straight stitched all around the edge onto my table runner and blanket stitched the center.

I ended up making two plates for each end of my table runner. I'm using it for St. Patrick's Day but my daughter informed me we can use it at Christmas too. I've made a couple of table runners using other techniques for Christmas already that I haven't blogged about but she made a great point.

I love it! I have it here on my dining room table but I have officially moved it to the buffet where I don't have to worry about anyone messing it up at dinner. I have another idea for another table runner that I saw on Pinterest so I'll have to try that next. It's a birthday one and since my middle daughter's birthday is next month I better get moving.

Have a Great Day!