My quilt group show and tell

Usually we just put our show and tell on our group blog Material Girls Idaho, but we had such a great showing yesterday I thought I'd share it here too. Aren't my friends amazingly talented!

Young Women's Evening of Excellence

Tomorrow night the young women in our church (12 - 18 yrs old) will present their Evening of Excellence. Each girl showcases something they have achieved some excellence in this past year. Since DD Kristina has been sewing small projects all year and has a couple quilt tops in the works too, she and I came up with the idea of making a pillowcase. I found this cute fabric with all their Young Women values on it and we knew it would be perfect. It's from ldsfabric.com. Kristina says she saw the green and had to have it. It's flannel too which will be nice and cozy for a pillow. She found some red fabric in my stash and picked it for the accent stripe. Here are the simple directions for making one:
3/4 yd main fabric
1/4 yd border (cut to 9" wide)
3/4 yd trim (cut to 1 1/2" wide)
Iron trim in half lengthwise. Place border right side up. Place main fabric on top of border also right side up. Then place trim on top of both layers with raw edges even at top. Sew through all layers 1/4" seam.
Open out border. Press the seam towards the border. Also turn under top edge of border 1/4" and press. Fold border in half, press. Make sure it covers the seam line. Top stitch close to folded edge.
Fold pillowcase in half with right sides together. Stitch 1/4" around the side and bottom. Zig zag around the the edges for a nicely finished seam. Turn right side out and enjoy a good night's sleep!

Applique--Not!

I seem to struggle with applique, at least the kind where you turn under the edges. I'm loving the fact that we're going through a raw edge fad right now and I have used raw edge applique in many quilts now. But my attempts at the traditional applique never look quite as clean as I'd like. I find it frustrating. So after my parents took a trip to Hawaii and my mom brought me back a book on Hawaiian quilting, I felt compelled to give it a try again, BUT this time I just drew the design onto the fabric background and used fabric paint to get the desired effect. I hand quilted around the edges, purposely making the stitches larger and darker than my regular hand quilting and I loved how it turned out. No stress, no disappointment!

Cracked Wheat Cereal-Mmmmm

Here's the recipe for one of my all time favorite breakfasts. You can crack the wheat in your blender by just pulsing it a few times. Then all you have to do is remember the night before to get started on it and in the morning you'll have a sweet, warm and chewy soul satisfying bowl of cracked wheat cereal. I add a little milk to mine and warm it in the microwave. It's a great way to warm up these cool fall mornings.

Wonderful Wool and Cottages too

This was my first attempt at working with wool. It's a familiar pattern that I changed just slightly and made it for my sister in law. In fact every time I see it at her house, I secretly want it back. Is that bad?
For the frame I bought some molding from Home Depot and stained it. Wool was so wonderful to work with, it's like butter to sew through, and now that I'm better at doing the buttonhole stitch, I would love to make another piece. My only hesitation is that I would have to start purchasing all different colors and varieties of wool to add to my already overcrowded closet full of quilting fabric. Maybe I can hide it somewhere else!


I've been working all afternoon on my Christmas cottage blocks for the exchange. Here's one of the 11 I'll be sending in the mail in the next day or two.

Quilt tops and swirly skirts

It took me a while, but I finally made a decision about what fabric to use for the border and now I love it. I've made the back for it already and I used flannel for the center. I wanted flannel for the entire back, but I bought the end of the bolt and that's all they had. Luckily I had plenty of the brown print I had used on the front border. My little camera doesn't do the colors any justice though, which makes me sad. Wish you could see how the colors pop.






My sister, the Apron Lady, has a fun new pattern for a swirl skirt and lucky me, my girls get to be the guinea pigs and try out all her new stuff. Nikki loves her skirt and has worn it several days to school. She makes it look good over anything. I can tell these will be a big hit with my girls. The pattern will be available real soon. The best part is that they literally take about a half hour to sew. My kind of project!

Memories

One of the best parts of quilting is having something tangible that evokes memories. Sometimes those memories come from the fabric itself like when we use pieces of the cute little dresses our daughters wore when they were young. Sometimes I remember exactly what I was doing at that point in my life when a particular quilt was made. Other times a quilt has been some well needed therapy, a bit of sanity in a sometimes chaotic world. I made this quilt when we moved from the coast of South Carolina to our home here in Idaho. I needed something to remind me of the beautiful coastline that had been our home for many years. The shark's tooth holds a fun memory of the many hours we spent searching the sand for fossilized shark's teeth. Each time we found one, it became a personal victory and a fun family competition. Each square has meaning. I'm so happy I made this quilt. Each time I walk by it I feel a soft southern humid wind breeze by my face and a whiff of salty marsh mud fills the air.

On the road again...

The schools around here had a couple days off last weekend so we packed up and took a quick trip to visit my son at college in Rexburg. Of course, we had to stop by Amy's store The Quilt Shoppe in Ridby to see what was new. I was looking for some fabric to make borders for my snuggly quilt. Amy has such cute samples on all of her walls and tables I just had to take some pictures to show. It's fun to browse around.











My niece Mary is also at college but she works in Amy's shop part time. She likes working there so much that she's decided she'd like to open a quilt shop of her own one day. I hope she opens it in my neighborhood! Amy is on the left in the bottom picture and my niece is on the right. Now I'm off to pick up my sewing machine from the shop so I can start working on my Christmas cottage blocks for the exchange I'm doing.

Snuggle Quilt

I love the feeling of finishing a new quilt top. Actually I haven't added my borders yet, but the end is in sight and it looks a lot better in person. I'm making this quilt for some winter snuggling. I'm going to put flannel on the back so that it's nice and soft and I'll even wash it a couple times after I quilt it. I really like how it's turned out and I've used lots of scraps from my stash which was my goal. I can't wait to use it.