Margaret
These are wonderful! I LOVE your blog.
Congratulations Margaret!! Random.org picked your #!
It must be true about the lucky #7.
These are wonderful! I LOVE your blog.I finally have one of my sewing boxes listed on the Etsy store. I actually cut into..I know, say it isn’t so..the unfinished Grandmother’s Flower Garden quilt I was working on to make this box.
I hand stitched everything from the flowers, the quilting, and the covering on the underside of the lid and I gotta tell ya that this is hard to part with. I think it turned out just awesome! It’s made from a vintage sewing machine treadle drawer and I’ve attached a lid that doubles as a pincushion. I use mine behind my machine for easy access to my pins, machine needles, and presser feet. It’s one of the things in my sewing room that is unique.
I’ve made several of these over the years. My mom has one out of an orphan block. My Grandma and my Mom-n-Law also have one. This is a pic of mine…
I also made the yellow one on the left. It turned out sooo cute! I machine appliqued the Grandmother’s Flower onto a cute yellow and purple flowered background and hand embroidered a lazy daisy flower in the center.
I’m choosing not to list this cutie on Etsy because it’s not as perfect as I like my things to be. Its flaw is that it doesn’t seem to close as tightly as the other one and I had to move the hardware on it once. If it were mine, I would love it just the same but I kinda figured that if I’m expecting someone to pay for it, then they expect it to be at least close to perfect. I can’t list something I’m not completely happy with.
I just hate the thought of it not being used and loved by anyone. So I thought I would give it away to anyone who leaves a comment on this post today. I’ll pick the winner and post it tomorrow, Saturday the 19th.
So if you’re interested please let me know. Remember it’s only for today, Friday the 18th.
Have a great weekend!
Last Wednesday the SewMod girls got together to exchange our rows for the challenge. My focus fabric was a different Halloween fat quarter for each one of the girls to work with. I think my rows turned out awesome! It’s hard for me not to like anything Halloween. It is my 2nd favorite holiday. I’m sure I don’t need to remind anyone what my 1st favorite is:)
Now the challenge will be to set the rows so that everything flows together. I can use sashing and borders. And since Kelly made the row with the spooky appliqued tree vertical, I get to come up with something extra special to fill in the space. Maybe the tree could use some creepy roots with bones buried there?
I also brought home these rows…
I’ll be putting this quilt together as a charity quilt. In August the area will be having a pretty big shop hop,the Northern Illinois Quilt Fest,which includes Fons and Porter coming to Quilt In Joy for Quilts of Valor. The SewMod girls will be hosting our own quilt show in one of the neighboring buildings. I’m really excited about this! We’re going to hang our row quilts and other things we’ve made, and we’re using this row quilt as a raffle quilt with the proceeds going to a charity.
I’m feeling pretty busy lately! …yet as I write this post I’m watching Matlock..seriously Matlock? Ok , I’m off to be productive!
Have a great day everyone!
Daisy May helped me out Saturday while I made some Valentine’s treats and since she’s my only sweetie this year, her’s were first.
Heart shaped doggie treats with this recipe.
Did you ever notice from any of the pics I’ve posted that she has a heart shaped patch on her side? She’s just so darn cute! Can anyone say “spoiled puppy”?
I made the “knock-off” Thin Mint Cookies. All you need is a box of Ritz Crackers and a bag of the Dark Chocolate Mint Melt-Away candies at Michaels. Melt the chocolate, dip the crackers and place on waxed paper to dry. Its a good substitute if you have a hankering for the original but it’s not Girl Scout “season”.
I also made some Cookies ‘n’ Cream and Peanut Butter ‘n’ Cocoa Truffles. Just try not to pay attention to the coca powder that’s still left in my tile grout. A tile counter top is an arch nemesis for a baker. I dream of the days when I’ll be able to replace it…sigh…but anyway… these are always a hit.
Now I’m off to make some neighbors a Happy Valentine’s Day. I hope yours is sweet too!
With Quilt In Joy having the biggest selection of Batiks in the area, I’m sure at some point someone will want me to help with their fabric selection for a quilt. I’m totally unfamiliar with these fabrics and only until a few weeks ago I had never even owned one of these fabrics.
Remember I’ve been on a turquoise kick lately, so I couldn’t resist these prints.
I’m finding that the only Batiks I seem to be attracted to are the ones that read a certain design. Like the daises above or the one’s that arrived at the store recently. These are from Anthology and Kaufman.
And look at how this one reads flowers. I was immediately drawn to these dark prints.
These caught my interest because they look like cute polka dots. These are the Emma and Essentials line.
And just look at this awesome woven basket made out of Batiks that the store is giving a class in. It’s called Knotty Baskets.
And since I’m Batik challenged, Paige let me borrow several of her books. I’m going to be picking a quilt design and trying to put together an entire Batik quilt. Wish me luck!
Tuffet…eating her curds and whey…
The SewMod girls have decided to do a group project in a couple of weeks and since Paige & I proposed it, we thought we’d try it out before we get together to help things move along smoothly.
We’re making this cute little tuffet.
I used a Blessings jelly roll for this practice one but I really wanna make one using the Amy Butler Soul Blossoms jelly roll.
It took us quite a while to get this done, mostly because I’m the absolute worst paper/foundation piecer ever. I had to keep asking…now where do I start? I’m surprised she just didn’t take it away from me and do it herself. She’s very patient!
I think I’ll use my tuffet as a little bedside table in the guest room. Anyone up for a sleepover?
It will be so exciting to see everyone’s choices and finished tuffet.
I don’t think we’ll be eating any curd though. What is that anyway?…doesn’t even sound good…unless it’s Wisconsin cheese curds…yum,yum!
Shelley and I had a crafty day on Tuesday. We made the Moda Bake Shop’s Memo Board. It’s so much more fun to do things with friends. Even Daisy had a playdate.
Meet Dixie, Shelley’s cute pup. She came to help us out.
Just a few simple ingredients for this recipe:
Charm pack
Fusible fleece
Cork
Ribbons and buttons
Foam board
Frame
Shelley made hers from Amy Butler solids.
And I used Basic Grey’s Origins.
They’re almost too cute to put notes and pictures on!
Page 3 of Journal: (for Pages 1 & 2 click here)
On this page we will be filling in the space with some basic and fun designs to use as large overall patterns or background fillers. Set up the sandwich with a vertical and horizontal line to create a 4-patch as in my sample below.
The following images can be printed then placed under a white sheet of paper to practice doodle before quilting, I used a heavy black marker so it would show through.
Square 1 – Starting with the top left square of the 4-patch meander around the space with loops. Add variety by vary the size of the loops. This is a great basic overall pattern to fill in small areas or over an entire quilt.
Square 2 – Start at any corner you are most comfortable I tend to work this pattern from top left to bottom right or vice versa. This pattern is a tear drop shape echoed multiple times. As you can see in the enlarged example you can echo back over one to move to another area. If you follow my lines you will see how that works. I have used this design as a large overall on a single panel baby quilt it can also fill in particular block pieces of a block to enhance other pieces or design within the block.
Square 3 – This pattern is a repeating swirl or wave pattern and looks best when you vary the size of the swirl. I like to start my swirls in a clockwise motion…forgive my unsmooth swirls Kitty insisted on helping this morning by showing me where the next swirl should go while giving me head-butts…in cat terms that truly means a head and a butt in your face!
This is a great design to use on borders though make sure it balances your quilting in the center if you make really small swirls and dense spacing your borders will tighten up. To avoid this visualize the size of your hand when you make a fist then keep your swirls larger. You will be pleasantly surprised how fast you can quilt a border with this design.
Square 4 – This is one of my favorite alternatives to straight parallel lines and can be quilted on the 45 degree angle for more interest if you like. Your spacing can be tight or generous depending on the area you are filling like space around appliqué or to create texture in a basket block. If you noticed I filled the entire area with one continuous line – to illustrate this my lines don’t touch the outer square seam but when you actually quilt it be sure to get as close to the seam to keep it neat looking. Tip: Use the lines created by your seams as a guideline to help keep your line straight and spacing consistent. Visualize how many lines you want to fill the space and keep it in mind as you move from one side to the other and adjust spacing on the next line as needed.
A few tips:
1) Practice doodle each design on paper first.
2) Watch your tension and adjust as needed.
3) You may find quilting gloves helpful with maneuvering the fabric.
Honestly, my days have been screwed up because of the snow days. I didn’t realize it was almost Fabric Friday till about 10 o’clock last night. I’m seriouly unprepared!
Instead of leaving you hanging, I thought I would just show you some of the fabrics I can’t seem to stop thinking about.
Up 1st is Knitty Gritty from Michael Miller. I love this with the scissors under the skulls. The other piece to this line has knitting needles crossed behind the skulls.
It comes in lavender too. I can see a cute wallet or a coffee cup cozy out of this.
A novelty print from Michael Miller that I saw recently made into a bag.
I don’t know how old this Halloween fabric is. I think it’s Maywood Studios. I know Paige will like this one.
You didn’t think I’d leave out Christmas did you?
Here’s a peek at the new Kate Spain’s line Flurry.
And the Basic Grey line Jovial, which I’m just counting the days for. Although I kinda wished they had named it a Christmas treat like the last two, Fruitcake & Figgy Pudding. Those names were so much fun.
Have a great SuperBowl weekend everyone!
And Happy Birthday Mom!!
Maybe the more appropriate title should be snowed in.
After that super scary blizzard Tuesday night, I had 3 feet drifts preventing me from leaving or opening any doors. It made for a claustrophobic me and a confused puppy, who didn’t understand why we couldn’t take a potty walk…ugh We weren’t dug out till 3:00 p.m….poor thing!
This is the path to my front door! If I was a kid this would be awesome!
So, what do you do on a snow day besides listen to your teenager whine about having nothing to do because he can’t leave the house?
Work on Birdie Stitches block 2.
SewMod