SewMod

I’m Still Here

April 27, 2012 in quilts | Tags: bespoken, chain reaction, cluck cluck sew, modern | by Lorrie | 2 comments

Good morning everyone! I’m back from a small break.

Last week life left me with an unruly teen, a 17 year old going on 25, post office mishaps, and other nonsense. Life’s sense of humor seems to be to throw all kinds of things toward you at once to see how much you can handle, or how much wine you will actually consume:) Dealing with such issues can be a drain on the creative process. Kinda leaves your head foggy and unable to focus. Which is why I chose to break for a bit.

Daisy seemed to be keeping herself busy though. This was the scene at my house most of the week. Every time I’d put her toys away in her “toybox”…..

she would drag them back out. It looked like I was running a daycare out of my living room!

Lucky for me, I have lots of friends to help me through. One of them being my good friend Shelley, over at Elsie’s Girl. We had a play date on Wednesday and I managed to get most of my Chain Reaction quilt finished. All the blocks are complete. All that’s left is sewing it into rows.

A scrappy modern throw with lot’s of space for Paige to work her quilting magic on. I’m pretty happy with how its turning out.

Next week we should be releasing the Cannon Beach Dresden pattern and kit on Etsy, so look for that coming soon. Paige will be writing up a blog post for it also. Showing us all the awesome quilting she did on it!

And I’ll be hanging with Shelley again next week. We’re going on a local shop hop on Thursday! I’m sure I will have some goodies from the trip to share with ya!

Enjoy your weekend everyone & we’ll talk more then!

New Project…Chain Reaction

April 13, 2012 in etsy, fabric, patterns, quilts | Tags: art gallery, chain reaction, chevrons, cluck cluck sew, riley blake | by Lorrie | Leave a comment

I spent some time this week working on a new project. Our order for Kona Ash Gray was finally filled so I figured I would take advantage of a couple of yards. I decided on this quilt pattern from Cluck.Cluck.Sew called Chain Reaction.

I’m using all of the Art Gallery fabrics that we have in stock for a modern, scrappy feel. I like it so far!

Not only did the Kona Ash arrive, but also several new patterns, including Who’s Place Owl Place Mats.

And On A Whim by Thimble Blossoms.

The Riley Blake Chevron‘s arrived in the shop but have literally flown off the shelf! We have a couple of the 1/2 yard bundles left until the new bolts arrive.

It’s supposed to be nice here this weekend, so I’m betting my patio will be calling my name for a couple of days. Hopefully, more progress next week on the Chain Reaction. Enjoy your weekend everyone!

Sassafras

April 3, 2012 in quilts | by Lorrie | 2 comments

Finished and ready for quilting! I love how it turned out. It looks like two purple cone flowers stealing all the glory away from a garden of pink flowers.

Sassafras was mostly made using Kaffe fabrics from the shop and our stash. One of my favorite parts of the quilt is the “light” cluster of blocks. It’s as though the littlest cone flower is reaching up for the sun.

It was another beautiful day so I took full advantage of taking the pics outside. Once again receiving a raised eyebrow from my neighbors:) After it’s quilted and bound, I think I’ll take it to the gardens at the college and photograph it there also. It deserves a great shot with all the flowers in bloom. Although,I think the real flowers might be a little jealous, don’t you?

Morning Peeps!

April 2, 2012 in crafts | Tags: easter flower arrangement, peeps | by Lorrie | 5 comments

Spring break is over. Back in action this week. Saturday, Paige and I hung out and did some sewing on Sassafras, which I will hopefully be showing y’all the completed quilt by tomorrow. We think it’s turning out so awesome! I can’t wait to get it finished.

We also made a trip to Ikea for some odds and ends and while we were there bought a couple of vases because we’ve been wanting to make a really cute flower arrangement we saw on Pinterest. If you’re not on Pinterest, sign up! It’s addicting. You’ll love it! Don’t you need another reason to spend all day on the computer?

Isn’t this the cutest? All you need is a vase, jelly beans, box of bunny peeps and some flowers and voila, a super cute Easter display!

It’s Spring!

March 23, 2012 in etsy, fabric, patterns, quilts | Tags: art gallery, backyard baby, kits, poetica, sassafras | by Lorrie | 2 comments

Where have I been? On my patio of course! It’s been in the 80’s in Chicago and I’m certainly taking advantage. I’m being very lazy! It’s hard to focus on working in the studio right now. The birds are singing, flowers are blooming. I’ve had my air on for about a week now. Is that crazy or what? It’s March!

I do already have unwanted guests though…mosquitoes. I have 5 bite marks on my feet from eating dinner outside the other evening. I kept swatting at bugs thinking they must be gnats because there’s no way mosquitoes would be out this early. Boy, was I wrong. They even got me through my socks! I’m afraid they’re going to be so big this year, they’ll be able to carry us away.

We did start a new quilt this past Sunday called Sassafras by Thimble Blossoms. It’s a new pattern we got into the shop last week. It takes a jelly roll but we decided to use some scraps and fat quarters with a lot of Kaffe fabrics. I’m very excited to see how this one turns out.

We also have this spring cutie called Wonky Little Houses Pillow Pattern.

And some new bolts from Art Gallery.

Delicate Duet Plum & Rhythmic Lilac from the Poetica Line.

And a couple of fun prints called Retro Harmony in Sugar & Cocoa.

BackYard Baby Kit is also available now. Kit includes everything needed to complete the entire quilt except your batting, including a FREE pattern. Quilt measures 40″ x 40″ and is only $32.99.

All of these are available on Etsy. Enjoy your weekend everyone!

Pride of the Prairie Quilt Show

March 13, 2012 in patterns, quilt show, quilts | Tags: cannon beach, dresden quilt, sewmod patterns | by Lorrie | 6 comments

Thanks to everyone who came out to the Pride of the Prairie Quilt Show this weekend. It was a huge success and Paige and I had a great time! They have a wonderful guild and were very welcoming. We met a lot of new people.

We set up in a small classroom. I was really proud of us for getting everything loaded in an Altima, setting up 2 hours before the show and doing such a great job of displaying everything without pipe and drape this time.

It’s fun to work quilt shows especially since we are an online shop . It gives us a chance to meet new people and even see returning customers. We get a feeling for what excites and inspires them. We enjoy helping people with color choices and bringing ideas to life. Here’s a grouping we helped one of the ladies put together.Very cheerful!

We revealed Paige’s new design called Cannon Beach, named after a trip she took there a couple of years ago. We hung it outside the door in the hallway. It definitely was an eye catcher and brought in traffic to the shop.

The quilt was made using the Hope Valley by Denyse Schmidt. The line is out of production but we came up with another one so that we could kit it for the show. We used mostly Midnight Garden by Sandi Henderson. Here’s a little peek of it in the corner. I’ll get around to showing y’all more pics when we get it quilted and bound.

We sold all the kits we had made for this. It’s very exciting when people love what you’ve worked hard at designing and creating! We will have the pattern available on Etsy & SewModDesigns as soon as we put the PDF together.

Here’s a few of the other quilts that were on display.

Now I’ve gotta get back to putting the studio back together and deciding what my next project will be. I’m thinking houses….

Hoopin’ It up

March 8, 2012 in crafts | Tags: applique, embroidery hoop, hoop art, hoopin it up, lush, patty young | by Lorrie | 2 comments

If you’re in the area join us March 10 & 11, 2012 for the Pride of the Prairie Quilt Show . Hours are 9-5 on Saturday & 11-4 on Sunday. The show will be held at Richland Grade School, 1919 Caton Farm Road, Crest Hill, IL.

I’ve been busy, busy cutting kits and preparing samples, but I did find enough time in my schedule to do some crafting this week. I’m totally hooked on hoop art, so I decided to do a little of my own by hooping “SewMod” and resting them on top of my peg board in the studio. Cuteness!!

Using Lush fat quarters, I fused and machine appliqued the letters with a decorative stitch on my sewing machine.

I added a piece of muslin for stability, hooped them, trimmed the fabric and pressed the trimmed fabric to the back. You can choose to cover the back but if its going against the wall, who’s gonna know, right?

So simple and sooo cute. It puts me in a spring mood. It also doesn’t hurt that our weather has been awesome. I finally was able to open my windows and air the house out…yay!

I promise on Monday I’ll be back with some quilt & booth pics from the show, so be sure to check back then. Have a great weekend & we hope to see some of you at the show!

Embroidery Update

March 5, 2012 in embroidery | Tags: hand embroidery, which witch's boot | by Lorrie | 4 comments

I didn’t get to spend too much time with my Jacks this weekend even though I’m really enjoying this embroidery. It has a lot of dimension. I tried to get you a good pic of it so you could see all the french knots and satin stitching.

I can’t wait to start those circle flowers! Why didn’t I get around to those, you ask? Well, I was super busy all weekend working on a new project for our show coming up this weekend, which involved making 80 of these…

SewMod Stacks

March 2, 2012 in fabric | Tags: blend fabrics, calypso, heirloom, joel dewberry, sewmod stacks | by Lorrie | 1 comment

A stack of the Amber Heirloom with a special touch of the Blend Calypso Stripe and Spindle. I really like these two mixed in here. Seems to brighten it a bit. And you can’t go wrong with a good stripe!

Half yard stack of 7 was ~~$31.00~~, now 15% off for $26.35 available on Etsy and SewModDesigns.

Check back on Monday. I plan to show my embroidery progress on the Witch’s Boot. Enjoy your sewing weekend!

I marked It Off My List

March 1, 2012 in embroidery, quilts | Tags: backyard baby, dresden table runner, lush, Michael Miller, North garden dresden table runner, patty young, wonky wildflowers | by Lorrie | 5 comments

It feels sooo good to mark something off the list as finished. There was a whole lotta that going on around here this week! Three to be precise.

~~BackYard Baby~~ Quilted, bound & kitted.

I kitted these for our upcoming show in the sand pails with a shovel. After all it is called BackYard Baby. So cute! Hopefully it will draw some attention into the booth.