Friendship block

In my quilt group, Material Girls, each month one of us brings a pattern for a block and sometimes they bring fabric swatches so we can make good matches and then we each make 1 or 2 blocks for that person. It's been so interesting to see which block we'll be doing each month and it forces us to put together patterns, fabrics and designs that a lot of times we would have never picked. Here is the friendship block this month that I just made for Jeanie. She gave us the center square and the 4 corner squares and then asked us to use red, white or black in the strips. I think it turned out darling and can't wait to see all the rest of the squares at our next meeting. It's my turn next month and I'm having a hard time coming up with an idea.




On another note, I saw this design for a wall hanging and since I'm a Bear scout den leader I thought maybe they could make something like this using straws and cutting them into various lengths. If I can find straws in Christmas colors (red, green, gold, silver) I thought it would make a cute wreath wall hanging. We'll see. It may be too labor intensive for 9 year olds, but I thought it was pretty and interesting.

Out with the old...

I don't know what happened to my mind the other day while making a bias binding for my quilt. I couldn't find my little bias making tool, so I remembered from a quilt class years ago that if you pin into your ironing board with 2 pins, leaving the exact opening you want for the size bias you're making, you can just fold it and pull it through and iron it all in one smooth move. Well, it was going along swimmingly just as I had remembered until I lifted up my iron. What made me think I could leave my iron in the down position for such a long time (I made an extra long piece of binding) and not see any effects from it on the ironing board. My big board cover was burned (although I must say my binding turned out beautifully). Was this the price I had to pay? Not only was it burned, but the next day I must have still had a blank spot in my brain because as I began my new project and was ironing a pretty off white background piece I noticed the residue from the burn on the board was transferring to my white fabric. Ughh! Luckily it washed out. So this time I ironed it once more but on the other side of the ironing board this time. This other side only had a few heart shaped figures left over from an ambitious fusible webbing incident.

Then it dawned on me, make a new cover. My big ironing board is just a large rectangular piece of plywood on top of my regular ironing board and it has been wonderful. My first cover was just a gun metal grey color. I never really thought much of it. So first I looked through all my fabric that was at least 1 1/2 to 2 yards long (not many to choose from) and this is what I found. I quickly cut it to size, staple gunned it to the back leaving all the previous existing layers and look how great it looks now. I never thought I'd say this, but I actually enjoy looking at my ironing board every time I walk in the room now.

Snippets anyone?

I know this is an old book, but this is such a fun method. It's from Cindy Walter's book Snippet Sensations. This is quick and rewarding. It goes together very fast and if you like putting floral arrangements together, you'd probably do a much better job than me. Iron Steam-a-Seam onto the back of your fabric choices, then snip away and position onto a background. It has a light stickiness to it and it's repositionable. It will become permanent when you iron it to the background. Just machine quilt over the top of it. Tons of possibilities.

Oh to be 13 again!

My DD (in the green) got together with her friends at middle school and decided, planned, shopped and executed this year's Halloween costume. They went together as a rainbow. They looked darling as they traversed the streets of our neighborhood, skipping, chanting and singing as they went. So carefree, so innocent. Oh to be 13 again!

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.

Refreshing blue and yellow

I change things around every so often with my quilts and I decided to put this quilt up on the wall for now because it's so refreshing to look at. There's something about blue and yellow that just makes me feel good when I look at it. Also with this quilt I was able to use so many of my scraps, another reason to feel good. I machine pieced and also machine quilted it. This is about the largest quilt I feel comfortable machine quilting on my home machine. Anything larger than this and I have to send it out to be quilted -at least until I find the funds and the space for a longarm of my own ;)

Door Prize

Look what I won at my quilt group's Material Girls Idaho meeting yesterday. It's a great pattern especially for those of us trying to use up our mounds of scraps and some very fun Halloween fabric. I am so lucky and belong to the best quilt group around. Every month my friends never cease to amaze me with their creations. It's so motivating. The week before the meeting I'm motivated to finish something so I can take it for Show and Tell. The 2 weeks after the meeting my head is so full of fun new ideas from things I saw at our meeting and I'm cutting, designing, shopping and quilting every spare minute I have. I hope everyone has a group like this in their life.

Currently on my design wall...

I've cut out these squares and have them on my design wall so I can look at them for a couple days. It helps me decide what I'll eventually do with them. I've numbered each square-thus the little pieces of paper on each.


Also on my wall is this artistic rendering of myself by my daughter Leah. She loves drawing pictures of me. I particularly like the scarf and free flowing belt that she's added to my attire on top of what looks to be a stylish pair of culottes.

Words

I went to a friend's home party for http://uppercaseliving.com/ and I couldn't resist getting a few things. There were so many fun ideas for decorating with words and letters. This frame came with 4 separate pieces of glass and your choice of words to place onto each piece. I got a saying or word in a color of my choice that would go with each season. I hung it in my kitchen so at least some of the family would notice when it changes. You can rub the letters onto practically any surface including most wall surfaces. I've had fun with it.

Tutu time

Shhhhh...While my youngest daughter was at school yesterday, I picked up some fun tulle from Joanne's and made this tutu for her 7th birthday which is next week. She loves to dress up and to dance, so I'm sure this tutu will get lots of use. I loved how easy it was to make and especially that it was a no-sew project. Since my dog doesn't like to play dress up, I had to use the chair. It's not quite as flattering, but you can get the gist of it. I'm going to add some ribbons and bows to it also. After all, this is going to a princess!

Apron Swap

So finally, here's a picture of the apron and a close up of the fabric I sent to my Fall Apron Swap partner, Jenn. I made this Flirty Skirty apron with some chocolatey delicious Marcus Brothers fabric. Jenn posted this picture on her blog and since I forgot to take a picture of it before I mailed it to her, she's graciously sharing it with me. I'm happy she liked it.

Hot Pad

Had some free moments the other night while watching a football game with the family and I managed to finish my locker hook rug hot pad. I'm pretty happy that I used so many scraps-just cut them into 1 1/4" strips, connect them together and hook away. At first I was going for an actual design on the pad as you can see with the red stripe at the top, but then I decided I didn't want to think about it that much and just went random but with harmonious colors. I like it. I didn't quite get the tension right on every loop, but it definitely looks homey and homemade. I'm using it on the kitchen table almost like a small table runner in the middle with a candle on top. Rug Maker's Homestead is a great place to see all kinds of rugs, how to make them, etc.