Fabric Memory Game

Wow, it has been awhile since I've posted - Blogger has completely changed!  I have alot to show, but I won't do it all at once, too long of a post.  Most of my family has been under the weather the last few weeks and now I've got bronchitis pretty bad. Case in point, I haven't sewn with either long arm or regular machine in 9 days! The photos are of a sweet little project for my great nephew Gus, a little Easter surprise, as it was tucked in a cute egg.  My niece had "pinned" a similar idea on pinterest, beautiful, but very complicated with wool framing which seemed time consuming, so I wanted to try a simpler version.

I fussy cut 2 rectangles from some fabulous fun fabric scraps that one of my "Quilting Sisters" gave me, used red flannel for the back, placed RST, batting on top, stitched a tight scant 1/4 round with just enough to turn, turned right side out and zigzagged (rather haphazardly) around as a top stitch.  It was fun, and pretty easy.  Trying to find nearly identical scraps to cut took the longest amount of time!  Immediately after I was done I thought of perhaps an even easier way to do it but haven't had the time, then didn't feel up to it.  I'll have to try that another day.  Happy quilting!

Happy (Belated) Easter!

I am a bit behind on my posting and photos, but I thought I would post this one first since it has to do with Easter and that is all behind us now, isn't it?  I'll never remember to post this before Easter next year and I don't want to forget this idea. For my DD's birthday last year, she and I made these decorations in July using balloons, yarn and white glue.

 It does take awhile to make them and so we made a few, then allowed them to hang and dry, then the next day, make a few more, allow them to hang and so on.  Well in the midst of all that, our weather became hotter and more humid and that was when our air conditioning unit wasn't working properly and we had the drama of the dishonest repairman.  As it grew more humid they wouldn't dry or stiffen and the final two actually distorted after we popped the balloons. So we finally stopped making them.

We couldn't bear to throw the misshapen ones out and eventually they ended up under our eves.(storage) Fast forward to Sunday morning (this morning) when I realized that I needed baskets for my teen's Easter candy!  The last couple of years I have tried to use containers that they could use for storage in their rooms after Easter as "baskets" for their sweets, but this year I've been so busy and the holiday kind of just crept up on me. Truth is, I didn't give it a second thought until that very moment. I went to the storage area and as I looked in, my eyes were drawn to the bright colors and the idea just popped into my head!  I took them out, cut off the strings tying them together and then just pushed them into themselves!  They actually look more like nests than baskets, but think of all the things you could do with them! If you were to make these specifically for nests or baskets, I would have smaller spacing between the yarn (use more yarn) I had to put the jelly beans in baggies or some would have fallen out!  The larger nests were made from the larger, better shaped decorations, the small nests from the two most misshapen decorations.  I guess this is another example of recycling or re purposing?  So glad we didn't throw them away!  So - for today it's Happy Crafting!

Couch Pillows not Couch Potatoes !

As I finish projects and WISPs, I am also trying to use up the leftover fabric from those projects.  Typically the fabric goes back in to the container/bag/basket/tote from whence it came, collecting dust and wasting space until I come across it again.  Then I usually say, wow, I really should do something with this . . . and nothing happens.  This time I sewed the tops of these pillows right after completing the quilt in January, but I had a
few other irons in the fire that were getting pretty hot, so to speak, that needed tending to first.  Once those irons cooled, I found a piece of backing in my stash that was big enough to quilt them both on the long arm at the same time, I quilted the pillow backs on my regular machine (just straight lines) and stuffed them with cut up bits and scraps (just like the pet pillows I made last year).   Actually, only one pillow is on the couch, the other one is on a chair, and they are both in the same room as the wall hanging, which we moved from the family room to the living room. STILL have fabric left over, but not as much and I will do one smallish wallhanging to fullfill a requirement from my sewing bee that is due in May.  I guess I better start planning!  Happy Quilting !!

March Madness

March is mad for many reasons this year!  I am crazy busy with the children's activities, customer quilts, my own long lists of WISPs and ideas and this completely insane weather is not helping one bit!  I was able to complete the two T-shirt quilts on my WISP/UFO list this month.  It's a pretty new WISP, but I knew if I didn't put them on the list, they might not have gotten done so soon.  My stash count hardly changed because the quilts were done as a favor for a friend, so although I purchased the fabric, I am to be reimbursed, along with the cost of the batting, quilting and binding.  I did use 1 3/4yds of scrap fabric to put together a sample first to see if I needed to change my needle type on my longarm and how the quilting would go. Just four extra blocks with sashing, didn't want to mess up while working on the "real quilts".  I didn't have any problems with the t-shirts, they were stabilized with pellon on the reverse and although I had to really slow down on the t-shirt fabric, it was worth it because I didn't experience any thread breaks or irregular stitching on the back.  It went very smoothly YAY!  Obviously my first T-Shirt quilts, and now that they're done, I wouldn't mind at all doing that again.

 It was SO cold when I got my DH and DS to hold the quilts up to take pictures, only 39 degrees.  Of course my DS doesn't feel the cold, so he wears shorts practically year round!  Today they say it's going to hit 80 degrees and that was just 2 1/2 days ago.  No wonder my sinuses and allergies are going wild.  My DD took the picture below on Saturday, the poor daffodils don't know what to do; although this little fellow is not nearly so droopy today!  Happy Quilting!

Cold Winter Noses

I Cannot say that we have experienced very many cold winter noses this winter, and if we have, we don't have to endure it for very long as it warms up again in just a few days! I could say that this is my late February 1 XMAS Item, but I prefer to put a postive spin on it and say that it is my final February finish and a very early finish for my March 1 XMAS Item!  This Sandy Grevais panel has been hanging on the wall of my studio for over two years, right after I finally sewed the border on it, but I must have purchased it over 5 years ago.  I had to close the blinds to take the "before" picture, and as you can see Samantha was bored by the whole process.  I finally quilted it, bound it and sewed the sleeve on it, and that's also 1 2/3 yards to add to  my Stash Out tally as well as another UFO to mark as FINISHED!  Happy Quilting!

Being a Little Naughty Was Very Nice!

I was naughty in my failure to complete my project in time for One Xmas project a month, but I was having a lot of fun - which is always very nice!  The Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival was nearby in Hampton, Virginia so I went on Thursday with a few of my friends in my Quilting Bee.  Mere words cannot adequately describe the experience!  Visual overload?  Amazing? Awe inspiring? It was fabulous, we didn't even want to stop and eat lunch, we inhaled our sandwiches so we could run back in and feast our eyes!  Of course I forgot my camera.  The vendors were a lot of fun to look at too, and the best part about visiting the vendors was that I could bring a little bit home with me! The bag was made by women in Madagascar, gorgeous - it was so hard choosing just one! 3 in our group of 5 each purchased one.  The template was intriguing, I have a few projects in mind for that!  The glue is actually a business necessity, and the fabric? Well, I was actually very good - I went home with the least amount of fabric in our group!  Both bundles of fat quarters were such a good price and just so irresistible!!

On Sunday, the last day of the quilt festival, my dh suggested we go!! Obviously he is campaigning for husband of the year, and doing a pretty good job, too!  We had ribs slow cooking in the oven so we could only go for a few hours, but it was wonderful.  There were less people so it was much easier to see the quilts and wearables and to take it all in.  I was able to see a few demonstrations, which sold me on the cans of 505 and 606, which I will offer my opinion once I get a chance to try them.  I have quilts in mind for the two large parcels of fabric, they are both backings, 2 yards by 108".  In terms of tallying up Stash Count In will be adding about 9 1/2 yards, not bad considering most of it is backings.  Fun, Fun, Fun!  Happy Quilting!

Pastel Lucky Stars

I sewed down the binding, sewed on the buttons to the wall hanging and finished the snap bag yesterday morning, all in plenty of time to bring it to today's guild meeting for show and tell.  Tomorrow I will mail it to Milan, Italy, where my husband's cousin resides with her husband.  She is due March 1st, and I hope baby is patient until the quilt arrives!  It's kind of neat how things work out(sometimes)I orignially bought this in 2006 as a kit from my favorite quilt store, Quilt Corner, for a neighbor who was expecting.  But then I heard her tell another neighbor that since she was having a boy, her entire color scheme was going to be blue and white . . . Oooops!  When I asked my cousin which colors she would like the quilt to be, I was sooooo thrilled when she said yellow and green!  I had forgotten about the kit until last March when I cleaned up/redecorated my quilt studio!  7 1/2 yds of fabric GONE! I used it all except a tiny strip left from the background and bits and pieces from the backing.  I used the snippits from the half square triangles to make pinwheels to make the wall hanging and the label.  I haven't written in the label yet, I am waiting for input from my DH.

The buttons I used on the wallhanging are so sweet!  I bought them over 25 years ago when I used to knit a lot of baby sweaters.  They are perfect as there are ducks in one of the fabrics.  I guess it pays to be a pack rat ;D  Today was my lucky day overall - I won the blocks for the block of the month, which I am so thrilled about, I just LOVE them.  I also won a drawing for a fat quarter!  I should go buy a lottery ticket! Happy Quilting!