Candy Wrapped

Another table runner is complete! For this one I used the Bon Bon block from the Quiltblock Cookbook by Amy Gibson.I’ll be honest – this first block had too much red in it and needed a bit more contrast. So, I unpicked those candy stripes and substituted green ones. A much better result was achieved with the green.I added a few more candies and put it all together into a table runner. And, that candy stripe? I used it for the binding. Can we all just agree that a striped binding is everything?A sweet gingerbread cookie backing and this runner was complete! I’ve added it to the list of items that are in the running for my guild Christmas Dirty Santa Swap. I have a few more ideas but am getting a little low on time so we’ll see what else I can get done before that meeting.

Happy Sewing!

Random Roundup #15

I made some progress on the Foxes Baby quilt from last week’s post.   I pieced some of the foxes fabric with the cuddle dots for the back and basted it.  It’s all ready for quilting.That progress was made at a sewing day with a few new sewers.  One is making a full-size quilt using squares so I showed her how to prepare a nine-patch, the staple of the quilters world.  I introduced her to the 1/4 inch piecing foot to make her piecing more precise and she was headed online to find one for her machine.  The other was putting together a dress.  I’m not a garment sewer so I showed her how to read the pattern and decipher the language.  The pieces were already cut out and we made great progress on it.  She got all her darts sewn in the bodice and also a few pleats on the skirt part.  Now she’s trying to get the sizing right before we get the zipper installed.  The pieces were slightly too small on the bodice so she cut and darted a second bodice section.  It was a bit too big once sewn to the skirt so she took it home to seam rip and study and I’m sure she’ll have a great plan by the time she comes back over.

Sugar Block Club 2016:

It’s the halfway point for the Sugar Block Club and I got caught up on all my blocks.It’s going to be such a pretty quilt.  I love the color palette that I chose.  The purples and teals just pop against those low volumes.

Stash Enhancement:

Chrissy at Sew Lux had a large Memorial Day sale and I gave in big time.  The prices were super low and I couldn’t resist.The top three are from a line called Meadowbloom.  The colors are more vibrant than shown here and are so gorgeous!  I love the blue one on the top.This grouping contains a few from the For You line by Zen Chic (the teal and grey ones).  Zen Chic is one of my favorite designers and these do not disappoint.  The yellow one on top is Color Theory Mesh.  I love the randomness of the color placement.  It’s such a great blender.

This next grouping I see being great additions to a circus themed baby quilt that I have in my head.  So bright and cheerful! The mutli-colored pieces are from Best Day Ever and the ‘plus’ one is called Math Nerd.  I love that!  I could use it in multiple different types of quilt patterns.  I’m looking forward to getting all these designs out of my head and through my sewing machine.

Happy sewing!

Sugar Cross Quilt

 I finished the January 2016 block for the Sugar Block Club 3.0 by Amy Gibson of Stitchery Dickory Dock and needed a place to store it while the rest of the blocks are released throughout the year. I love this fabric combination and needed to use one of my storage boxes to keep it all together and to make sure I don’t use it while I continue to work on the rest of the blocks. While doing that, I came across one of the boxes that had the Sugar Club 2014 blocks in it.  A little switcher-roo occurred and I decided to pop those into a quilt top.  This will make quite a dip into my stash.  There was a lot of left-over fabric from what I had chosen and I really didn’t want to put most of it back into my stash.

I laid out the blocks and decided on a layout. I’m not a big fan of 3×4 with sashing all around and I like to offset things a little to give a bit of interest to the quilt.  I ended up with some blocks square and some blocks on point, some blocks bordered and some not. To marry everything together I used the same fabrics for border and accent pieces. I adore the cross on the top section and it really drove the design of this top.  I took all the pinwheel blocks and surrounded the center block within the cross to give this top some movement.  I used the remaining fabric to piece together the back which left very little added back to my stash.  Yay!    It was bound with a sparkly and swirly gold dot on ivory print.  I added a little of the Joel Dewberry Woodgrain to pop it and bring it all together.  The quilting was a thick wavy line going around the cross and a thinner line inside the cross going lengthwise and width wise.  Thicker wavy lines went vertically and horizontally on the edges and over the on-point blocks.  There is so much texture going on and I love it!       I’ve got one more top quilt sandwich ready to be made and some backing fabric on it’s way for another.  Let’s see if I can get at least 1 quilt done and out of my stash per month.  That sounds like a pretty doable plan, right?

Speaking of stash – I’m still getting in items I ordered before the new year began.  These beauties came from the Intrepid Thread pre-Christmas sale. 

Studio Stash by Jennifer Sampou – I love this crossed grid print.  So reminiscent of my love of cross-stitch.  Knit by Timeless Treasures – I know lots of people who knit or crochet so this would be perfect for pouches or stash bags. I also received this green and pink Robert Kaufman bundle courtesy of the Year-end sale at Craftsy.   I love the headphone/earmuffs print.  They would make great additions to a tween quilt top or pillow.

Second week in and I have a few finishes under my belt.  What a great start to the year!  I have lots of ideas brewing so let’s see if I can keep it up.  😊

Fall is here!

I’m starting Fall with a quilt top finish! Yay! I was able to complete the Triple Barnstar quilt top and I love it.

Now if I can just get a few quilts basted we might be in business. I also pieced a backing for a disappearing nine-patch quilt that I made using Sunnyside by Kate Spain. So that puts me at about 5 or 6 quilts that need to be basted so that I can quilt them. The basting is my least favorite part of this whole process so I just tend to put it off completely (unless I have some sort of deadline.)

So, I switched gears and put together the October Block for the Beyond the Block challenge for the Sugar Block Club. This one is called Peace and the challenge is to find some time to be peaceful by unplugging and enjoying life, or relaxing however you choose to relax and find peace. This may be one of my favorite blocks so far.

Then I decided that my mom needs a Halloween wall hanging since she’s terrified that the dogs will try to eat her Halloween quilt again. I already did surgery on it once and I know she doesn’t want that to happen again. So, I don’t think she will be adding it to her decor this year. I found this super cute Witch Hat pattern on Craftsy and it was free. Just perfect!

I shopped my stash for the fabric I would use for this block and it’s going to work out so well. I am also using this sweet little bucket to keep the pieced sections from getting lost. It’s working out great!

My Kitty Mini Quilt is ready to head to it’s new owner and I’m so excited to send it out into the world. I used a 9″ Flowering Snowball pattern with Catnap and Chicopee fabric lines. They play so well together.

I’ve got the goodies and just need to wrap everything and package it up. I got the cutest dog and cat wrapping paper that will work out so perfect for this swap.

Happy Fall everyone!

Triple Barnstar Workshop

I had to go back to work this week so I did not get nearly the amount of sewing done that I had last week on my ‘sewcation’. I did a little more work on the Triple Barnstar Quilt. I posted this shot last week of a few of the blocks:

I got all the blocks made and then I laid them out into the pattern, creating a even distribution of colors and patterns, and then started sewing sections together. I like to piece in sections and not necessarily rows. It helps me to match up seams a little more precisely. Eventually you do have to piece a row or two but it helps me keep everything straight in the meantime. I got the center star section pieced and it looks so cool.

White is not a color that I normally work with especially in a solid. But it came in the kit and I going with it. I’m a bit concerned at this point as how to quilt it. With a patterned background the quilting kind of fades in but with white I just don’t know. I love quilts that have a solid white background but it is nothing I’ve used on my own quilts. Taking this large step out of my comfort zone will be good for me and help me think a different way about the quilting plan and technique.

At this point, I have 3/4 of the top done and pieced together. It’s a gorgeous pattern and these Birch Farm fabrics (by Joel Dewberry) really work well with it.

Since I am not buying fabric, and will be shopping my own stash for any projects, I don’t have any pretties to show. But, I did pick up some swap goodies for the 3 swaps I’m currently in. I posted this super secret swap goodie on Instagram for the Disney Mini Quilt Swap and everyone was really excited about it.

I also picked up some Needle Magnets, some sewing goodies, and some local Memphis flavor.

I hope my partners will enjoy whichever of these goodies is coming their way!

Random Roundup #4

There’s been a lot more relaxing and a lot less sewing going on over here since my days off last week. I’ve gotten a few things accomplished but no one project has gotten a lot of attention. Here’s what I’ve done:

Sugar Block Club – I posted the June block here but never posted the first 6 blocks all together.

I also already completed the July block.

Pouches – I made 2 pouches – one that I will post next week and one that I made for an employee of mine that is transferring departments. She’s the one person at work that wants to see all this stuff I create. She makes jewelry so we have a crafting mutual respect for each other. I used a free pattern that I found on Craftsy. I used a Home Decor print remnant for the outside. I learned to use a larger seam allowance when using this particular piece of fabric. There was a little fraying on some of the areas of the bag. I have enough of the fabric left over and will be making some pillows so I will use a larger allowance for those.


I might use a stiffer interface or some fusible fleece next time I make this. I think it needs a little more structure. Anyway – she loved it! She’s already got plans for how she will use it.

Random Blocks for bigger projects – A third Memory block. This one is from the second quilt I ever made.

I talked about the inspiration for this quilt in this post. I have more fabrics pulled but not sewn together yet.

I started the Mini-Medallion Quiltalong over on Clover and Violet in association with SewLux. This is my fabric pull:

The center block is just so cute. All the information can be found on Clover and Violet’s blog .

The first border pattern got released today. I can’t wait to see what it is and get started sewing it up.

While I was relaxing, I took advantage of Swim, Bike, Quilt’s moving destash on Instagram and picked up some wonderful fabrics.

I was so happy to be able to snag those text prints!
I also got a few more items from #thegreatfabrcidestash on Instagram.
There’s some Essex Linen in Olive in that bunch of loveliness. I can’t wait to find something great to use it in. That grouping also included 2 pieces of Wee Gallery, Terrain by Kate Spain, and Circa 1934.
Now, I’ve got to pop back over to Clover and Violet and see what that first border looks like.

Memories in the Making

I recently came across a post on Riddle and {whimsy} where a quilt top was being made using fabric from previously made quilts. It was one old quilt per block and the idea just struck me as something that I definitely needed to incorporate into a new quilt top. Jo used the Catvent pattern but I was thinking more along the lines of the Broken Herringbone. I had been wanting to try that block for a while now and felt that this would be the perfect project for it. So – I tried it out using fabric from the first quilt I ever made.
That quilt is titled Snow Buddies and was made somewhere around 1998. I still use it. Summer, Spring, Winter, Fall – the season does not matter. It is well worn and well loved.

It’s a simple nine-patch that I tied with yarn. The binding is flipped over from the backing fabric and is fraying in the most beautiful way.

As a beginning quilter it is very likely that I overbought yardage of fabric so I believe that I have enough fabric left over from the older quilts in order to take this idea to completion. The problem will be as I get into the more recent ones where fabric buying was a little more precise. I still think I should be okay. Now, onto the first block:

Yay! It came out just as i thought and I am thrilled with this plan! Block 2 has some fabric to be found so moving on….
Block 3 is from a quilt I named Delightfully Deer that I created in 2001 for a hunting friend of mine in Montana. And I’m finally on trend – those deer are coming back in style right about now.

The tutorial is courtesy of Anne at play-crafts. It was very easy to follow and I’m excited to finally have a plan that will use this block. I’m going to write the name and year on the lower right sashing strip and place the blocks chronologically so I can see how my fabric choices changed over the years.

I also put together the June Sugar Block Club block – Teach.

I’m glad that I had the opportunity to go ‘Beyond the Block‘ and teach my nieces how to sew cute zipper pouches. You can read about that experience here. It was wonderful for them to create something with their own hands. And I was proud to give them that during their visit last week.

I also picked up this cool bundle! There’s the periodic table and some formula text print and those beakers! It’s just so great!

They are from Science Fair for Robert Kaufman. I went to check out the name and fell in love with the selvedge.

Eeeeek! It’s so cute!

Inspiration!

So, I’ve been working on way too many projects once again. My favorite, right now, is the Sugar Block Club by Amy Gibson of Stitchery Dickory Dock. It’s a subscription Block of the Month and I am loving it. I decided to run with red and black with some white accents. The more we get through the year the more I love how it’s coming together.

I’ve added more white as the year moves on and I really like the effect.

The blocks come out on the first of each month and I tend to complete them rather quickly. Ooh, the emails also come with a dessert recipe. That’s where the ‘Sugar’ part comes from. Yummy. Here are the rest of the blocks for the year through June. These are my 2 favorite blocks so far!!

I can’t wait for July to come and see where Amy takes us next…..