Resolved to sew 2012

Have you seen the massive giveaway over at Very Berry Handmade? If not, hop over there to check it out. Lovely prizes. And it got me to thinking, what am I resolved to sew this year?

1) my 9-year old needs a new bed-sized quilt. For now, he squeezes himself under the crib sized quilt I made him years ago, and while I am flattered, I imagine he has got to be cold.

2) I started hand quilting a quilt for my bed about 5 years ago and then got bored. Well, I want a quilt on my bed. It is downright embarrassing to be a quilter and not have a quilt on my bed! I'm finishing it this year.

3) Remember my Pindrop block that I made up a while ago while participating in my first Bee this year? I'd like to make a whole quilt out of those.

4) I want to make a bed-sized flannel rag quilt. I have more flannel than I know what to do with.

5) I want to quilt at least 3 of my existing tops this year. I don't know if that is possible, but nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?

6) I've been doing a pretty good job of making and giving homemade gifts, but I want to go all the way this year. It means I'll need to be more disciplined and prepared, but I think I can do it.

Join the giveaway -I'd like to see what you are resolved to do this year.

Dancing pigs?

I've finally made it into my sewing room!  I completed my January Let's Bee Together Bee block.  I love the block and the fabric, but this stressed me out a little, and here's why.  The original reddish fabric, which serves as the foundation of the block, is 12.5" square.  We were to cut it into fourths diagonally, sew the strips onto the 45 degree angle ends, and then sew the 4 pieces back together.  She wanted the final block to be 12.5" square.  That isn't possible, is it?

I have lots of strips - perhaps I'll make a Spider Web quilt for myself one of these days.

As you probably know, it is basketball season, and now, both my boys and my husband have basketball games.  Can you say "bleacher butt"?  Yup, that's how mine is shaped these days.  Luckily, I have a cushioned stadium seat with a back to take with me, particularly on Saturdays, when I have 3 games to attend.  The upside, besides getting to support my guys, is that I get good chunks of time to do handwork.  Here's what I've accomplished so far this month at basketball.  I'm pretty sure I'll be making a mug rug with this little cutie.  Got any design ideas?

Probably my favorite hot drink of all time.

My leaders and enders project continues to grow.  I have a ton of 4.5" blocks of that black floral, which is the whole purpose of this particular project - use 'em up!  Well, those and all my 1.5" squares.

I started a plaid flannel bear paw quilt for my step-father.  Besides me and my husband, I think he's the only person in the family I haven't yet made a quilt for.

Yesterday, in between basketball games, I made it to my quilt guild meeting.  While there, one of the lovely ladies surprised me with a big bag of scraps.  Now, when you think bag of scraps, you think all crumpled up and thrown together, right?  Not hers!  First there were a ton of strips, mostly 2.5" and 4.5" strips, but some 2", 3", 3.5" and 4" strips, too.  How handy!  There were also some bigger scraps, mostly between a fat eighth and fat quarter in size.  I took a photo, but forgot to upload it.

Whenever I'm the recipient of such generosity, I feel the need to share the wealth.  So I put together two little packets of fabric scraps to share. 

The first is this cute green with dancing pigs, along with some bright polka dot scraps.  The dancing pig scraps are: 1 piece 8.5" X 42", 2 pieces 7" X 21" and 1 WOF piece that is 4.5" wide.  The yellow has 3 pieces, 3" X 56" total, the green is 2 pieces, 15" X 6.5" each, and the blue is 2 pieces, 9.5" X 6.5" and 4 pieces 16.5" X 3.5".

The second is this sea shell fabric with two "neutrals" to go with it.  The photo is a bit washed out, I apologize.  Anyway, the seashells are 1 piece 10.5" 15, 1 piece WOF X 11", and one piece 11" X 26".  For the two coordinating neutrals, there are 2 WOF X 4.5" strips of each, and 3 WOF X 2.5" strips of each.

If you are interested in receiving either packet, leave a comment and let me know which you'd prefer, first come, first served.  Happy Sunday!

A new friend!

Not a lot of quilting news to share.  I received a squishy package from a Christmas fabric swap partner.  Not only did she send fabric, but also CHOCOLATE (can you tell that half the bag is missing already?) and a wonderful pair of scissors with a holder.  Thanks, Leslie!!

But I didn't sew at all this weekend.  Instead, I went on a 23-hour date with my husband!  He somehow got a free night at a hotel in a town about 30 minutes from here, so we invited another family to come kid/pet/housesit for us, and the two of us went to dinner and a movie, spent the night in a fabulous hotel, slept in, and then went to brunch.  I think it's so important to spend time as a couple and remember what it is we love about each other when the kids are out of the equation.  Contrary to my boys' belief (they cry if we even suggest that one day they will have to move out!), one day, it will just be the two of us in the house, and we certainly don't want to be strangers.

Speaking of strangers, a couple months ago I met a woman at the library and her three boys.  She had recently moved here from New Hampshire (another Yankee!) and her boys were looking for a cub scout pack (I was wearing my Den Leader uniform after our meeting).  We chatted and I gave her my number, but I never heard from her again. 

Fast forward to today:  I met her at the library again today (both of our oldest sons are in the local Guys Read bookclub), and we talked a bit.  She noticed that I had some quilting magazines in front of me, and she's a quilter, too!!!  Add to that the fact that we are (practically) the same age, and that she has/had a crafty blog (http://earthycraftymommy.blogspot.com/ although she hasn't posted in a while), and I am SO EXCITED to be making a new friend with so much in common with me!!  (are you reading this Michelle?  Hi!!  We'll have to invite you and the boys over so they can play and we can play with FABRIC!)

Well, I tried.

My first grader is going to a birthday party this weekend.  I asked the mom if the birthday boy had the Frog and Toad books, because Donald loves them, but coincidentally, that is what she bought for her son for his birthday.  So I bought another book by the same author, Owl at Home, to give.  But a book needs a bookmark, right?  I tried to make one that looked like an owl.  Please don't laugh.  Squint, if you must.  Turn it sideways and upside down and look at it from a distance.  Even if you don't think it looks like an owl, tell me it does.

Jason said it looks like 2 triangles and 2 circles.  Donald said, "I don't know...a bird, maybe?"  Whatever it looks like, it is what is getting wrapped up with the book.

I'm also giving some books to my nephew, so I wanted to make a monster bookmark for him. 

Perhaps my monster should have more teeth?  Bigger eyes?  I don't know.  I'm pretty underwhelmed with the result.  But nonetheless, the monster bookmark is getting wrapped up with my nephew's book.  I tried.

I'm not trying anything else for the next hour or so.  It is over 60 degrees and sunny, so I'm brewing tea and heading out to the porch to read!  Yesterday, 3 quilt fiction books arrived in the mail:
The Double Cross and The Devil"s Puzzle by Clare O'Donahue (the 3rd and 4th Someday Quilts mysteries),
and The Cat, the Lady and the Liar by Leann Sweeney (the 3rd Cats In Trouble mystery).    I may not get any sewing done in the next few days with these books to keep me busy.  Ah!  The weekend!

I need help

According to Random Number Generator, the winner of the giveaway is:

#9 Jan - "Oh I love give aways by my friends, cos I know they are always great things. Please enter me Erin, if I am allowed cos I am across the Pond of course. I wont be cross if I cant. I will still be your friend.  Happy New Year by the way."

Jan, I think I have your address already, but please send it again just in case.  Thanks to everyone for entering and for reading my blog.


I haven't gotten a ton of sewing done lately because I got it in my head to clean and rearrange my sewing room.  It would have been OK, if I hadn't gotten into the closet...I can't believe how much stuff I have!  I did take two pieces of fabric of questionable material to Goodwill, but here's the problem.  While at Goodwill, I thought I'd just peek around for some more pillowcases for more shopping totes.  Yikes!  I walked out of there with eight of them! (It's a sickness, isn't it, this fabric addiction of mine.  I felt like a hoarder bringing fabric out of corners where I didn't even know it resided yesterday.  And then I come home with MORE!)  

(there's only 7 shown, but that's because there are two of the solid pink pillowcases)

The only sewing I have done is to finally get the top and bottom borders added to my Birdie Stitches BOM quilt.  I'm stopping there for now.  I don't think I want more borders, but we'll see.  If so, I'll need to get more muslin as I've run out.


although now that I look at it, I should probably add some white on the two sides, just for balance

 What I should really do is use up some of my fabric as backings, sandwich up some of my quilt tops and do some simple machine quilting.  Some of my quilt tops have been languishing in a cupboard for years - it is time to make them full-fledged quilts!  And time to come to terms with the fact that as a hand-quilter, I will never finish all the quilts I want to finish.  I need to diversify.

Here's a question - how do you quilt a top with embroidery on it?  I'd love to finish up this Birdie Stitches quilt, but I am stumped.  The embroidered bits are about 8" square.  It seems like sewing over them would mess up the embroidery, but isn't that too big a space to leave un-quilted?  Help!  All suggestions are welcome.

Ironic

I had to laugh at myself yesterday.  Lately, I've been turning old pillowcases into reusable shopping bags.  Yesterday, I found myself MAKING a pillowcase!

This is my first ever pillowcase, using the Tube or Sausage method that I learned with this Missouri Star Quilt Company video tutorial.  EASY!!!  Why did it take me so long to try this?  It is for my darling niece to match the nightgown I made her this summer.  I just adore that pink owl fabric, and I will be so sad when it is all gone.

I have some books to send to my nephew, and I felt bad not sending something homemade to him.  How about a bookmark for his book?  Have you seen these Monster Corner Bookmarks?  I wanted to make him one, but out of fabric, not paper.  So I started playing around with fabric...

My first attempt:

I like it, but the bottom edge in the back is unfinished, just two fabrics fused together, and I'm afraid they might unravel. Back to the drawing board.

My second attempt:

After fusing the fabrics together, I hemmed the bottom edges before making it into a corner. VERY BULKY! I thought my sewing machine was going to revolt in protest! Back to the drawing board.

My third attempt:



I sewed the two fabrics right sides together (3 sides), then turned right side out and fused.  Nice neat bottom edge - I have found my method!  Although, why am I putting the ribbon loops in the corner?  While I like the decorative touch, they are unnecessary and add bulk in the corner.  I think I'll eliminate those from now on.

 But before I made a monster corner bookmark for my nephew, I was inspired to find some fabric that reminded me of water to make a corner bookmark to go with my giveaway of Riel Nason's book, The Town That Drowned.

Have you entered the giveaway yet?  If not, comment on my last post before I go to bed on Tuesday, January 3 for a chance to win the book and bookmark, the Urban Circus scraps, the travel tissue holder and the chocolates.

It's my last day of vacation, what am I doing on the computer?  It's back to the sewing room for me!

Ahoy mateys, there's a giveaway!

I had a couple of goals for yesterday - to finish another green pillowcase shopping bag, to put borders on my Birdie Stitches BOM quilt and to finish the book I was reading.  The shopping bag got done...

but the quilt borders didn't because a demanding little pirate shanghaied me and pressed me into service to make a Jolly Roger for his pirate ship.


I also finished reading my book.  I read Riel Nason's debut novel, The Town That Drowned. 

Some of you probably know her from her blog, The Q and the U, and all of her wonderful selvege creations.  She's made more Halloween quilts than anyone I've ever heard of!  So, from her blog, I knew she was clever and creative and talented, but reading her book has really solidified my awe of her.  It was AMAZING!

The setting was described in a way that I could visualize where everything took place.  The characters were believeable, complex and human and diverse.  The plot built up to a climax that had me forgetting to breathe and then sobbing out loud.  My nose ran for a full hour after finishing the book.  And while the book wasn't about quilts, they were weaved in here and there, fun details to remind me that quilting is her favorite hobby.  I highly recommend the book to anyone looking for something to read.  And to start things of, I am giving away my (once read, but otherwise new) copy of the book.  (because I'm going to buy 3 more copies for myself and family members and try to get them signed!)

Since I missed the gift exchange with my guild, I'm adding my gift to this giveaway - a bundle of Laurie Wisbrun's Urban Circus scraps, a winter travel sized tissue holder, and some Ghiradelli chocolates. 

To enter to win, simply leave a comment.  Be sure I have a way to get in touch with you.  I'll leave this open until the end of my first day back at work (Tuesday, January 3rd).  I'll need something to look forward to at the end of what is sure to be a LOOOONNNNGGGGG day! 

Happy New Year, everyone!