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A couple of the girls in our SewMod group are doing a free embroidered BOM from Little Miss Shabby called Birdie Stitches.
I’m going to be using Moda’s new line from Lauren and Jessie Jung called Hideaway.
The background fabric is an really pretty turquoise, and we’re using a very cute yellow and white polka dot for borders. I say we because this is not my fabric even though I really, really want it. I’m on a fabric diet…ugh.
Vicki has a fat quarter stack and layer cake of this line and I told her I would stitch it up for her cause I really wanted to make it and I can do this stitching pretty fast….plus all the scraps will be mine:)
I should have my first block done soon and I can’t wait to show y’all. But until then here’s a the Flickr group page if you wanna see everyone’s progress.
Happy sewing this weekend!
Its the last Friday of the year and I was just thinking…. what fabric I should post about today? I decided to show some pics of the fabric in our stash that we would really like to use up in the coming new year and list the projects that we would like to accomplish in 2011.
I would really like to get through the Lucy’s Feather Bed fabric. I bought a lot of this because it is soooo darn cute! But I’ve had it a long time. I think I’ll make some baby items up…burp cloths, changing pads, etc.
Now for the list…
1. Of course the Grandmother’s Flower Garden blocks are atop my list.
2. Susan’s Dresdens….I’m halfway through the embroidery and finished with the bitty dresdens. I have all the dresden blades cut out. I want to show this during our SewMod quilt show in July.
3. Welcome to the North Pole
4. Auntie’s Flower Garden…I only have borders left to applique and attach.
5. New York Beauty blocks…I’m going to work on these during our SewMod Sunday Sew-ins and at the end of the year I can decide how to put them into a quilt.
6. Nesting Time embroidery project. I’m pretty excited about this one. Instead of embroidering the pot, nest and eggs, I will be using this wool. Just imagine the nest with different brown strips of wool and maybe some ribbon woven through it…like you’d see in a real nest.
My list is usually a full page but with the Etsy shop and working at the LQS, I’m sure that I’ll be pretty busy. I can’t wait to see if I’ve been able to check these off my list come December 2011.
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When I started my longarm quilting business 4 years ago I ended up putting several projects on hold and boy do I miss them! Now that I’ve pretty much halted machine quilting for clients I’m so looking forward to finishing them up and creating a bunch more!
As I went through my stacks and containers to pull all the unfinished projects I began to hyperventilate when I realized how long some of these projects have been around…so sad, all these beautiful fabrics and ideas waiting to be made into a special gift or cozy blanket. So, my goal this year is to tackle one at a time starting with some of the ones pictured below and of course use as much of my stash as possible!
1. This baby pinwheel top has to be more than 5 yrs old my memory isn’t so good I will have to ask my friend Karen V. where we got this she has an amazing memory and we tap into her constantly!
2. This is Amy Butler’s Mid-Mod quilt pattern I’m hoping I have enough of the Midwest Modern border fabric I just love the flower pattern.
3. I picked up this kit at a shop in Saginaw Michigan a couple years ago on a retreat with my longtime sewing group the Pieceful Pals. The pattern is called Flora and fabrics are by Valori Wells. I thought it would be a wonderful spring throw to brighten up my living room.
4. These cute winter batiks are adorable…I just haven’t found the right pattern yet…any ideas????
5. I started these blocks earlier this year in one of our SewMod sewing days. I just love the little black cat so reminds me of my Kitty!
6. I picked up this jelly roll and charm packs at the Rosemont Quilt Show at least 3 years ago. Not my usual style but I was drawn to the combination of the purples, browns and greens. Still haven’t found the right pattern…bought enough of the green for the backing and/or borders.
7. This bunch will eventually be made into 7 giant bags one of my designs we will have on Esty soon! Each pair of fabrics from the top down will be quilted together, bound and straps added -they are really cute and carry a ton of stuff…I fill it up with fabric and projects when I go on retreats. They will hold 3-4 large quilts. I even use it as an overnight bag it will hold my pillow, change of clothes and all my toiletries and of course some quilt magazines!
8. I have all these wonderful hand-dyed fabrics…they are pushing 15 years old by now. So beautiful and soft! They actually inspired my very first quilt below which I paper-pieced the summer of 1995 using copier paper… never will do that again! Took forever to pick out all the paper. I also sewed it using my mom’s Singer which had two speeds screamin’ fast or off.
I still can’t believe this quilt is rolled up in a bag waiting to be finished. Back in ’95 I had no idea how to machine quilt so there are a billion little stipple stitches throughout all the white areas. A few years ago my mom started picking out the stitches, I took over last year. Very tedious work so I decided to pick out from the backside so if I accidentally ripped the fabric it didn’t matter because it is just plain white fabric…doing it this way is definitely protecting the front from any damage and speeding up the process.
After all the stitching is gone it will be ready for the Gammill…I’m still working on the quilting design -stay tuned if I get this done by the end of the year I will jump for joy – I can’t wait to wrap myself up in it!
Paige
Hey, do y’all like my new Christmas dress?
I’m just joking:) Shelley and I decided to do a little shopping yesterday. We visited the Red Barn Nursery. They turn the whole farmer’s market barn into a cozy Christmas place. They have a fire in the fireplace and even a kitty that was especially fond of Shelley.
Then we headed to the Woodstock town square where we went to Seasons by Peg/Cobblestones. Oh my that was Christmas heaven in there! So many awesome displays and gifts and ornaments. The whole store was Christmas. 
That’s where we saw this cool “dress” displayed. And look at these cute elf shoes that I couldn’t resist buying.
They match my quilt perfect, right?
Of course we couldn’t go shopping without visiting at least one quilt store. So off to Material Girls. One of my projects for 2011 is to finish the rest of the New York Beauty quilt. My 1st block is the one that I use for my avatar.
My focus is going to be Kona cottons as the solids, Kaffe polka dots along with Kaffe prints. So, I picked some more of those up today. Here’s what I have so far. 
I”m thinking that me and Shelley may need to make a trip to Quiltology in Chicago this weekend to do some fabric shopping. They have a great selection of Kaffe.
Colorful Christmas Flannel from Riley Blake
Speaking of flannel…..need a quick gift?
Every year I make about 10 rice bag warmers and keep them by my door for the neighbors and friends. Super quick, super easy and everyone LOVES them, especially here in the frozen Midwest. I gift myself a new one each year and the old one goes in the freezer because they are also great ice packs. I probably heat mine up at least once a day in the winter.
All you need is flannel, long grain white rice, and the special ingredient is…apple cinnamon tea.
It’s a great way to use your flannel scraps. You can make them any size you want…square or rectangle. After you’ve sewn the bag, fill it a little over half way with the rice, I just use my judgment here…there are no rules. Cut open 1 of the tea bags and pour in with the rice. Sew the opening closed and you’re done!
I attach simple instructions for those who’ve never used one….
Apple-Cinnamon Warmer
Heat in microwave 1min & 45 sec.
It will come out of your microwave smelling like apple pie…you’ll love it! Just the thing for a snowy night.
Here is a couple of fabric lines that are hopefully on their way into a quilt shop near you…
Suburbia by Caleb Gray
Don’t ya think the kitchen ones would be great made into potholders!
And Metro Cafe 2 by Suzanne Ultman. Cute coffee cups and beans!
I thought I would share some pics of Daisy May today also. She thinks she’s human. Here she is sleeping on a pillow under the covers last night.
And I love her in this cute sweater!
Have a great weekend everyone!
I love wool!
But I have a confession to make. I kinda hate working with it. It’s just not my favorite thing. So I pawn all my projects off on my mom. This is the latest project she made for me. It turned out sooo cute!
And this is where I’m displaying it this Christmas…..thanks mom!
So, I came across this thread that’s made for your machine especially for wool. It’s Aurifil Lana thread. I’m going to give mom a break and work on a wool project by myself.
I’m excited about it and I’ll update everyone on how the new thread works.
Now, for my doodle sandwich….so far so good! Can’t wait to see what Paige has for us next Monday.
Paige’s Pick – Those that know me know I love color and contrast even during the holiday season and even more so because of the lack of sun as the winter settles into the midwest. This selection is called June Bug by Alexander Henry House Designer …ok I know we just had Thanksgiving but can’t we daydream of a nice warm sunny day in June!
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Did you know that Moda is carrying the Basic Grey Grunge line as one of their basics now! Love these “solids”. I used some of them in the Figgy Pudding and Fruitcake lines & now I want them all!….hint, hint to anyone needing a Christmas idea for me:) 
So, I told you I’d show you my doodle progress…well, I don’t think I did too bad. Practiced every day on it and I did get better. I had a hard time keeping my pen on the paper and I constantly wanted to stop and think about where I was going next. I think my doodles look more like drawings than Paige’s awesome “doodle” but hopefully I’ll progress. 
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And this was my final result….
I had a hard time being creative so I decided to start with something I knew how to draw……the letter “L” from my name…can you see it? And I just kept drawing what inspired me from there. Thanks Paige for pushing me into thinking outside my comfort zone! I definitely felt like I learned something from this challenge.
Fabric friday’s here again. WOW, I can’t believe another week flew by…next week is Thanksgiving! Here’s what we got for ya this week…..
Paige’s selection – A Stitch in Dye has caught my eye this week her hand-dyed fabrics are rich in color and modern in design. These would look great used in a bag, mug rug, laptop sleeve – it’s endless! Check out the full selection on her etsy site I’ve also added a link to her blog under our favorite blogs list.
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This week I chose Michael Miller’s Sanctuary by Patty Young. 
My fave is the warm palette. I think it has an edgier feel. I love those espresso browns with pinks. I fell in love with her other line, Mezzanine, and I don’t want to miss this one. Check out her blog if you get a chance. Lots of stuff to see!
Have a great weekend everyone!
It’s almost that time of year, and I’ve been busy making up some Christmas goodies…but not the fattening kind:)
I seem to be a bit obsessed with these two lines from Basic Grey. Both having the same woodsy browns, icy blues, and and fir greens make combining these two collections effortless, which I love.
I’ve made the Plates for Your table, which is a Moda Bake Shop tutorial.
A hostess gift for the neighborhood Christmas party….
A quilt….
A wall hanging from the scraps of the quilt…..
And, last but not least… no, I can’t say that because I still have enough scraps for something else….. I just completed another Pillow Panache class from the LQS.
Hmmm…I wonder what I can do with the rest of those scraps?
I did!
I’ve resisted free motion. It makes me throw small tantrums and I know my sewing machine does not like to be called naughty words. It’s my own fault. I’m impatient and want it to be done right the first time. That’s just not the way it works when you quilt though. And when someone told me it takes many, many hours of practice to get it right…well…I have many, many projects I’d rather be doing. So, I kept putting it off. So, I promised Paige I would give it a try to show you guys my progress. I’m starting from the beginning y’all… starting with Doodling. Sure it looks kinda shaky and I ran over my lines a couple of times and I froze up when I started to think about it too hard, but I’m going to practice, practice, practice. Hope you guys do too…Keep in touch and let us know how you’re doing!
I spent yesterday with Shelley from Elsie’s Girl blog finalizing our fabrics for Welcome to the North Pole quilt we’ve been wanting to do together.
I’m using the new Sheri Berry Christmas line, 12 Joys of Christmas, with a black night sky. You can’t tell from the pic but it’s a black with grayish dots (my snow falling).
Its kinda retro and I’m excited to get started. So, hopefully I’ll have some progress to show you soon.
Tomorrows post…more Christmas. I just want to apologize now for my Christmas fabric addiction:)
Talk soon
SewMod