Customer Show and Tell

 Missy gets a lot done! Recently she stopped into the shop to get some backing and binding fabrics for these projects.

Autumn Art Panel Pillows:

Missy purchased the Autumn Art panel and some of the new Elementals fabrics from the shop and made really nice and big pillow covers with them. She is adding a little hand quilting to these to outline the main elements of the panel so they aren't quite done yet. She brought them back in to pick out backing fabric. She picked another fabric from the Elementals collection to use on the back.

Hand Embroidery by Missy:

The two above are Crabapple Hill patterns Missy purchased from another shop. She brought them in to pick out binding fabrics for them.

The hand embroidered towel below is a variation of a pattern/kit from my shop called Giddy Up. I have both the Giddy Up kit and just the Giddy Up pattern.

Missy traced the entire design EXCEPT the words "Giddy Up." She changed it to say "Whoa" instead which is just as cute! She added a little western themed fabric to the bottom of the towel as an accent.

Dinosaur Quilts by Corky

 One of my customers, Corky, has been making dinosaur quilts. She found a pattern online, Dinosaur Quilt.

She modified the pattern by changing the half-square triangles to prairie points for the bumps along the spine of the dinosaur. 

Corky is currently visiting family in Alamosa and she is staying in an RV with limited space. She brought both of these quilts into the shop to use our classroom area to baste the quilts together with their backing and batting so she can quilt them while she is here. All of the fabrics used for both of these she purchased from my shop.

New Shop Sample

 My shop has had this fabric collection for months but I just got around to making up a sample with it. The collection is called Black, White and a Touch of Bright.

The pattern I used is called Quilter's Palette. It's a Villa Rosa Designs postcard pattern. The quilt will finish at 54" by 60", which makes a really nice toddler size quilt.

I'll get kits cut later this week and try to drop this off with my long arm quilter soon. Until then, I think it's adorable even unquilted.

Customer Show And Tell :: Run Around Bags

 One of my customers is planning a big trip with a friend in November. She made them both RunAround Bags for their trip.

These bags are fun and easy to make. Cheryl has very limited experience with zipper installation, but did great with these bags because the way the pattern has you put in the zipper is very forgiving. The pattern is very well written with good diagrams. I would say it is a good beginner bag pattern. It's an older pattern, but doesn't mean it isn't still a great one.

It's a good travel bag because it isn't too big. It will hold your phone, plane ticket, passport, chapstick and a small wallet. You might even be able to get a small paperback book in the back pocket.

These bags finish at 7" by 9" (not including the shoulder strap). They don't require much time or materials to make. You need 2 fat quarters, 1 zipper (10" or longer, but it needs to have plastic teeth so you can cut it down once it is sewn in), and 1/4 yard of fusible fleece. If you have a big enough scrap of batting or fusible fleece (about 8" by 10") that will work too.

I only have one pattern left in stock at the moment, but more are on order and should arrive by the end of this week. So if you want to order a pattern and I am out of stock, just check back in a day or two. Or you can contact me and I will let you know personally when they come in.  RunAround Bag Pattern

FabShop Hop Winner Show and Tell

 My shop has been participating in the online FabShop Hop for several months now and I have no plans to stop just yet. Every month participants can register for prizes. Some of the prizes come directly from FabShop. The rest come from participating shops.

One of my recent winners used her gift certificate to purchase sunflower fabrics from my shop. She sent me photos of what she made with the fabrics.

If you would like to join the hop you can start any time. Click the following link, FabShop Hop, to start hopping! You just need to register (which is free) and then start visiting the various participating shops to find their hidden bunny. Once you find a bunny, you just click on it, follow the directions on the page it takes you to to let FabShop know you found that particular bunny, then go to another shop and do the same thing. You can hunt for all of the bunnies or just the few shops assigned to the letter of your last name. Who knows, you could win a prize just like Jan!

Woodland Winter Quilt Kit :: A Finish

 Finally got the cat to let me get this one quilted and bound.

This one is called Woodland Winter Quilt Kit. It finishes at 75" by 75" and is a beginner friendly kit. The only piecing involved is the four nine patches and eight large half-square triangles. The rest of the piecing is just sewing the units together in a five by five grid.

The four large printed blocks are from a panel, which is of course, included in the kits. Unfortunately, I don't have any more panels, besides the ones in the kits. And honestly, I don't have much of the fabrics included in the kits either. It's been a very popular collection, Woodland Winter.

New Quilt Kit

 I wanted to share with you a photo of the new quilt top I just finished and am kitting up for my shop. However, Ms. Spooky Boo had other plans.

 The quilt is currently being quilted by my longarmer so you will have to wait to see the quilt that is so good the cat couldn't wait until it was finished to try it out. She actually pulled it down off the design wall to get on it!

No, I didn't make her move. I waited for her to wake up on her own before folding it up to take it to get quilted. Sheesh!

Trying Out a New Ruler

 I recently came across a new-to-me ruler: Cat's Cradle Tool from Creative Grids.

This is the original size and it makes units that finish from 1.5" to 4". There is a larger size too that makes units that finish from 4.5" to 8". I don't have the larger one yet, but I've ordered it!

What can you do with this tool you may wonder? Well, it makes these units.

I have always struggled with these units. I don't have the patience to cut triangles (which always have at least one bias edge) and sew them accurately to anything. With this tool you don't have to do that. AND, plenty of wiggle room is built into the cutting sizes so that you can square up your unit at the end and it's perfect! I had a little bundle of older Kim Diehl fabrics that I am using up with this tool. My plan is to make a bunch of these 4" finished size units then set them on point with 4" finished sized squares for a charity quilt.

Chubby Tubby Finish

 I got my new set of shop sample Chubby Tubbies done!

These were made using some of the fabrics from the new Random Thoughts collection by Marcia Derse for Windham Fabrics. I also just received a resupply of the patterns, Chubby Tubbies.

You need 5 fat quarters, 4 zippers and some batting to make these. I used Soft 'n Stable batting which is why these stand up so nicely on their own. A half yard package of Soft 'n Stable is plenty for all four bags. You can use whatever batting you want, but the Soft 'n Stable is what makes these stand up nicely. However, if you use Soft 'n Stable and quilt your bag exterior like I did, cut you exterior fabrics and the Soft 'n Stable 1" bigger in both directions then square them down to the appropriate size after quilting. 

There is one other product I really love to use when putting zippers in bags. It's called Wonder Tape. Below is a video I made demonstrating how to use this hemming tape for zippers. 

This product will wash out if you wash your item but it won't hurt anything at all if you don't wash it out. I have used it for years to install bag zippers and rarely wash the finished bag.

For me, this product was a "game changer" for installing zippers in bags. My zippers look much better in the finished bag since I started using it.

More Stitched Scraps Pincushions

 I have been playing around with more scraps to make stitched pincushions. Previously I was using only one color of thread so I was using only that color fabrics. This time I decided to switch the threads to match the fabrics and use whatever fabrics I wanted.

For all the fabrics except the bottom right I just stitched them down with a running stitch. But for the one in the bottom right corner I stitched along the print on the fabric. I really like the way that piece turned out and I have that fabric in several colors. I decided to make one with just one fabric using a different colorway of that print.

In case you missed my previous post about these click the following link to read more about this technique and see more examples: Stitched pincushions

All of these are finishing at about 4.5" by 4.5". I put crushed walnut shells inside these little pin cushions.