Tuesday, December 31, 2013

New Light

My trusty desk flip top Ott Light needs a new bulb. I've been having a terrible time finding the correct replacement bulb because my light is so old. So I have upgraded.

Meet Stella.



She arrived last night. I got her from Amazon. Here is the link. It's not an inexpensive light, but wow is it nice!

This might be my only post for this week. We are doing inventory at the store this week and it is taking FOREVER. Instead of sewing, I'm counting.


Friday, December 27, 2013

Pin Cushion Innards

The first project for others is completed.


These are sandbags for inside pin cushions. Six each for two different friends, two for me. I would have made more for myself, but I ran out of sand.


Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Merry Christmas Grace!

I put the final stitches in the binding this morning. This is now finished and ready to be mailed off to its new home.


My niece pieced the center then sent it to me along with the border fabric. I picked out backing and binding, attached the borders, then quilted it simply with an all-over meander and bound it.

I used a nice marble-look purple on the back.


I hope you will enjoy using it Grace!

I have a couple more projects for others to finish up. My plan is to get these done before the end of the year so that my January sewing time can be all about me. It's my birthday month and this is what I am giving myself, a whole of month of sewing just for me.

I have a couple of projects that having been sitting in pretty piles for months and at least a dozen tops that need to be quilted. I am not going to set any specific goals for myself (i.e. put pressure on myself to finish certain things), I'm just going to do only sewing for myself for the whole month. That means no store samples, no charity quilts, no gifts for others, just projects for me.

Merry Christmas!


Monday, December 23, 2013

Back in the Sewing Room Again

I took an unplanned sewing/blog break last week. The guess right now is that I had an allergic reaction to something I ate Monday evening. As a result I spent most of the week in bed and didn't get anything on my list done.

I got this quilt basted on Monday afternoon, before getting sick. It was suppose to be finished last week and back to its owner.


This quilt belongs to my niece. She pieced the middle then sent it to me to finish for her. The new goal is to have it back to her before the end of this year. So far, so good!


Friday, December 13, 2013

A Friday Finish


This quilt is on its way to its new home. It is simply quilted with an all-over meander and measures approximately 58" by 74".


Thursday, December 12, 2013

Hand Dyed Goodness

I decided some time ago that while I really like hand dyed fabric, I don't enjoy the dyeing process. So I will happily pay someone else to do the dyeing for me. Luckily, I have a friend who enjoys dyeing fabric. Recently we have done some trading. I gave her a sewing chair I was no longer using and she gave me some of her hand dyed fabric.

When we got all the snow a few weeks ago, she snow dyed.


Aren't these fabulous! I have no idea what I will do them, but I had to have them. Heck, I could just frame these and call it good!

I also got these three hand dyed pieces she did at her recent Ricky Tims retreat.


Again, I have no plan for these but they will enhance my stash nicely.


Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Wool Pin Cushion

Thank you for all of your sympathy for yesterday's mishap! I'm happy to report that the quilting is now finished and the binding is made. Today's project will be attaching the binding and the label so I can get it in the mail by the end of the week. I hope to be able to show it as a finish in a few days.

Over the weekend I started a small wool, hand project to do while watching my Auburn Tigers win on Saturday afternoon. I finished it up yesterday evening.


This will be a gift for a quilting friend.


Friday, December 6, 2013

Theatre O and a Charity Quilt

My son is participating in the drama club at his middle school, Theatre O. Last night was opening night of their production of Beauty and the Beast Jr. My son is the Candle Man, a Villager, a wolf, and in several of the musical numbers in the chorus. Here he is after last nights performance dressed in his Villager costume.


All the kids did great! It's quite a large production with 33 actors and 22 stage crew.

In quilting news I whipped up a Jelly Roll 1600 quilt yesterday in between work, chores and other daily tasks. I didn't get a full view photo yesterday and snapped the photo below quickly before heading off to work.


It is basted and ready to quilt this weekend.

Gene, this is what I will send for your Angel Project.


Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Village Scene

In my art group we have been working on our next group project. We are doing a village scene. I am woefully behind on my section due to work and lack of an idea that excited me. I've planned and picked fabric for several different pieces but never even cut anything for it because it just didn't feel right.

I started over, again, with this two weeks ago.



I know, it doesn't look like much. This was just the start of my new idea. While auditioning fabrics I realized that my batiks stash was low, which may have been part of my problem. I remedied that last Friday.

Here is what is looks like today.


The tree is off to the side because I haven't decided if I will use it or not. I need to put something in the bottom third. I was planning to just put flowers but then I cut out this tree trunk. So maybe I'll put flowers and a tree. I'm still playing at this point. I also need to add a recognizable quilt block somewhere. I've got a couple of ideas for this, just haven't gotten that far yet.

After I get everything fused on I will stitch it all down and add more stitching in places to enhance and fill out the design. I will also add other embellishments, although exactly what is yet to be determined.

There are six of us in my art group, The Sew Silly Sisters. We are each doing a 12" by 30" finished size panel for this piece that will end up being 72" by 30". Everyone is stitching and embellishing their own piece. When they are done, we will sew them together then layer it with batting and backing. Someone will do a little bit of quilting to hold everything together, but the idea is to only do minimal quilting at this point.


Monday, December 2, 2013

Flying South

My last class sample is finished!


The quilt is fairly big, 72" by 72" and we still have quite a bit of snow on the ground. Makes it difficult to get a full view photo of this quilt, but I think you can get the idea.

This one should look somewhat familiar because I have made another version of this pattern and called it Scrap Jar Insanity. The pattern for the center is from the book Cut the Scraps. In the book she calls it Fly Away. The pattern for the border is called Migrating Geese and is a technique developed by Deb Tucker of Studio 180 Design.