Sunday, February 28, 2021

Bloom Fabric Postcard

The theme this week at Sunday Postcard Art is “Bloom”.

I get so excited when their themes can be worked into a fabric postcard and I have the time to play along.

I am not a Winter girl, so I’m looking forward to Spring and Summer!


Now to fill in the backside and get it in the mail.



Happy Mail Day!

Monday, February 22, 2021

Eclectic Quilt and Giveaway



I’ve joined in with the “Show Your Stripes” blog hop.  Many thanks to Carla of 
Creatin’ In The Sticks for allowing me to join and all her hard work of organizing a successful blog hop.

My stripes project began with a smallish quilt.  55” X 60”
Using a bundle of Tim Holtz fabric fat eighths that I have had stashed for a few years.
I pulled out the bundle, plus considered a few extra pieces to add to it.



I cut the pieces into 2.5” strips.



I arranged a line-up and stitched the strips together end to end.  I made the top using the jelly roll race technique except in a controlled manner.



Because I’m terrible at accepting the unknown.  I had to have some control.



I squared it up and quilted it.



Added the binding.  I know, shocking that it isn’t a striped binding!  Who would’ve guessed for a stripes blog hop that I wouldn’t use a stripe for the binding.



Hand stitching the binding to the back is my favorite part of quilting.


And DONE!



I love including selvedges in my quilts.  I stitched the few selvedge strips end to end for a fun narrow row.



That’s another stored project OUT of storage.  It is my last long stored project.  What a super feeling to have ZERO planned projects in storage.

I also don’t want to keep making scraps to store.  I had some strips leftover.  They became a pillow.





But there are STILL some strips and pieces of strips!



Too hard to just toss them out.  And I can’t just keep keeping them. Too many scraps become too chaotic for me.  So I stitched them all together.



Then cut that slab in half, stitched it end to end and I now have a long hot pad for the table.



That’s it.  I always find it amazing how far a fat eighth collection will go.

The Giveaway...




I have a striped fabric postcard that I will send to one of my followers.  Simply include in your comment that you’d like to receive this postcard in your mail.  I will contact the winner for mailing info.

Check out my fellow bloggers sharing their striped projects today to inspire your sewing creativity.

Monday, February 15, 2021

Have A Heart

I finished just barely in time for Valentine’s Day, this year!

This Have A Heart wall hanging finished a bit larger than I had in mind, but that’s how it goes when I make it up as I go along.  23.5” X 23.5”


I have seen many similar hangings on Pinterest and wanted to try one myself.  I’m not thrilled with it, but it will do.

I pulled fabrics from my stash.



I cut 4.5” squares and 3.5” squares.  The small squares were backed with Wonder Under.



I used my paper crafting BigKick to cut the hearts.



25 quickly cut hearts.



I arranged the blocks and stitched them together.  Then fused the hearts in place.



I raw edge appliquéd the hearts with black thread for an outlined look.  Then quilted around each square.



I then couched two strands of Perle Coton 8 around the outside edge of the hearts.  

 

This was all finished on the 13th.

On the 14th I made a tag to attach to the wall hanging for a stab at added detail interest.



I might try this again someday in hopes of getting it more to my liking. 

Monday, February 8, 2021

The Month of Hearts and Flowers

A small old piece that has been languishing, awaiting inspiration for a finish.  

It was planned to be a pillow.


It was too small as is.  But it would be too large if I added to it.  So it sat.  Stored for quite a long time.

The flower is a rubber stamp image that I enlarged for applique.  The rest of it is paper pieced.


I suddenly realized it was a perfect size as is for the little 12” table top display frame I recently purchased for a cross stitch piece.


I recently made a birthday tag for a small gift.  And that inspired me to do a little more paper crafting with tags.  On Pinterest I found a tutorial for a window technique using acetate.

It started out as a future need of a birthday tag instead of a card.  As I worked on it, it was soon apparent to me that it intended to be a Valentine tag.



It’s a bit of a struggle to keep the acetate clean while working with it, but a not too close look doesn’t reveal that.


I always do a little on the back of my tags.

This prompted me to pull out the heart themed tags I had done in previous years.



Now they all hang out around the house on available knobs.


Or just tucked into a drawer.





I think it’s a fun idea to enjoy them.  I’ll be switching them out throughout the year as I’ve got quite a few tags that have been in hiding for much too long.

My Calendar Journal format has changed once again!  I most likely will be sticking with this easy format for now on.  I’ve printed off the months and am just decorating the blank spacing simply with washi tapes.



Happy Valentine’s Day!

Wednesday, January 27, 2021

Mixer Mat

My new mixer arrived earlier than expected.  It’s always a pleasant surprise to receive something sooner than expected.  These KitchenAid mixers are heavy!  It was suggested to place a towel under the mixer so that it can be moved around on the counter easier.  Well, a towel is fine for those who don’t sew.  But I had to have a quilted mat, don’tcha know.



I had a couple of quilted scrap fabric pieces that had been my sewing machine cover.  After I made the cover, I got an acrylic extension table for my machine.  The cover no longer fit well.  So I took it apart.  There were two pieces.  The smaller piece was a perfect size for a mat under the mixer.  I just needed to bind the edges.



I was glad to be able to use one of the pieces.  It can barely even be seen under the mixer.  Which is kind of a shame, but it’s out of the way of ingredient messes and makes it much easier for me to pull the mixer out for use.



       These Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars are SO delicious!  I hope the link works.  Tip:  They take a long time to set to be able to cut them cleanly.  Several hours.  I decided next time I make them I would cut them the next day.  Also, the recipe suggests a 12 bar servings.  For us that is too large of a serving.  I cut them much smaller.  Although it was very hard to walk by them without just sitting down to eat them all!  YUM!

We’re getting plenty of snow this month with more to come shortly!


I love when the snow sticks to the trees.  So beautiful!


Its piling up weekly!



And it’s gotten down right cold too.  I’m staying inside sewing and baking.

Wednesday, January 6, 2021

Out With the Old...

...In With the New.  Welcome 2021!

My last sewing for the year 2020 was this set of potholders as a Christmas gift for my friend who loves to cook.  They went along with a sampling of Poppy Seed Cake.


The Poppy Seed Cake and Poppy Seed Cookies were the last baking I was able to do with my 47 year old Sunbeam Mixmaster as it has given out on me.  

Loud noise, a not promising smell and a hot motor as I desperately tried to get the cake mixed before burning down the house.  


The beaters wouldn’t even snap in for this staged photo!

I do hope that my new-on-the-way KitchenAid mixer will give me as many good years and yummy treats.

The last of 2020.


There will once again be a new calendar journal format for 2021.



It was a rather rough December with appliances breaking down, but even with that and the nasty Virus, life is good.

2021 begins with some unexpected yet welcome deep cleaning of my house.  Boy does it need it!  But sewing and playing are so much more fun!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Friday, December 18, 2020

Christmas In The Kitchen

I’ve made loads of potholders over the years but have NEVER made Christmas potholders.  How can that be?

I still had scraps from my Bah-Humbug Christmas Quilt and Pillow 
Realizing I had no Christmas themed/colored potholders, I continued to play with the smallest Triangle Ruler.



I really enjoy playing around with the designs that half square triangles can make.  

The thing about scraps for me is that they only make more scraps.  Because there aren’t quite enough scraps to make something, I always need to cut off a bit more from the yardage to finish my scrap project!  It’s still fun to ‘try’ using them up though.


I thought about gifting them to my friend who loves to cook and bake, but I couldn’t part with them.  I’ll make her some everyday ones.  I just had a thought.  Potholders wear and wear out.  Maybe I will make her a new set annually.  Oh!  Good idea, Annie!

This is the end of my Christmas sewing this year.  How fun it was to sew Christmas items at Christmas time.  I did not expect to finish any of these items by Christmas.  That’s a bonus gift to myself.  Time to get some ingredients in that bowl now!

Merry Christmas!

Friday, December 11, 2020

Bah-Humbug Christmas Quilt

It was about time for me to have a Christmas Quilt.  This is it and just in time to enjoy it for a few weeks this Christmas.



I used Leila Gardunia’s Scrappy Triangles.  A collection of 53 paper piecing blocks.  I was hoping to use up some of the Christmas fabrics that have been in my stash for a long time.  Using some up is the perfect excuse to shop for some new pieces...right?



I loved sewing the blocks and watching the design come to life, all the while listening to Christmas music...since just before Halloween.



I’m not one that names my quilts.  But, this is when this Christmas quilt got its name, Bah-Humbug!
The first column I stitched together on the right end revealed two blocks a bit smaller than the other six.  That was not going to be good for this design.  I was so upset thinking how many more will there be?  I just wanted to throw the whole mess away!  I already had so much time invested in the blocks.  Within the hour I decided to sew it all together (trying not to notice how the blocks wouldn’t line up nicely), quilt it and donate it somewhere.
BAH-HUMBUG!!!



The other thing I didn’t like was needing to keep the papers on the blocks until they were all sewn together.  (I started removing some paper from a few blocks but quickly realized I was going to have an even bigger struggle than just mis-sized blocks).  I did remove the seam allowance papers to make it easier to press the seams.



Guess what?  There were no other mis-sized blocks!  Only the two on the end.  That made me happier.  I was also very happy to get those papers off.

But then I began quilting the thing.



It seemed like a lot of black.  I thought I’d give the black some interest by stitching with red thread.  I worried about it for awhile before starting.  My fear was realized just as I knew it would be.  I cannot sew a straight line to save my own life let alone someone else’s.  It really shows on the solid black.  I knew I gave this quilt the right name!  At this point I couldn’t wait to get it done and get it out of my sight.  So much so that I had to take a break from it and try a Christmas pillow instead.

For the pillow I used the smallest Triangle Ruler.



I just used scrap bits left after finishing the quilt blocks.


 
This was calming my upset over the quilt.



I don’t really know how I feel about the design for a pillow, but I do know that I liked it better than the quilt, mostly because it was not near the trouble the quilt has been.


When I was finished with quilting the quilt and it was no longer just 12 or so inches away from my face, the crooked straight line quilting stopped bothering me because it wasn’t noticeable.

As I was hand stitching the binding, I realized that it was the exact detail the quilt needed.  At that moment I fell in love with this quilt!



I think it’s bold and subtle at the same time.  I love that.
This quilt measures 58” square.  Just right for cuddling under to watch Christmas movies.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.