A Little Break

Break Time!

It's time to take a little break...only for a few days, but I will have lots of good stuff for you soon! 

Stick around...you won't want to miss it!!!

Thankful Thursday!

It's Thankful Thursday!

Hi everyone! 

This has been a crazy week.  I forgot to post yesterday, but today is Thankful Thursday! 

I am very thankful today for sewing time.  I have learned to sew and quilt and it has been wonderful learning experience so far!  It is like a little escape when I get to sew.  I am doing something I love and I can be creative!  While I do not have a dedicated sewing room at the moment, I sit at my kitchen table a sew away!  I know its not the ideal place, but I am working on it.  I love it though.  I will sit and listen to Pandora radio sometimes and jam away while sewing. 

There are days where I can just sew away and then there are days that I cant seem to bring myself to work on anything at all.  That's OK, because sometimes after a big project, you just have to relax and stay away for a few days.  But then, my sewing machine and projects rope me back in!  I love it! 

I have worked on a project this week, that is now gone, but I may do a reveal on it soon.  I had fun with it and am looking forward to quilting and finishing up a few projects soon! 

Below is one of many blocks I did for a quilt this past year. 

I will show you the entire project one day soon!

 Sewing time is so relaxing to me...like some say, it's therapy! No stress, just sewing!

Let me know what you are thankful for!  Have a great day!

Charity Time

It's Tuesday!

I hope you are having a great day so far!  As you may recall, last Tuesday, I gave you a sneak peek of the fabric for a project I was working on:

Yesterday, was a sneak peek of the project:

Today is the full reveal!  Our Modern Quilt Guild decided to do a really fun challenge several months ago.  We called it the Crayon Quilt Challenge.  We picked five crayons out of a bag. With those five crayons, we had to choose two to match to print fabric and the other three we had to match to solid fabric.  We could only use these five colors on the entire quilt and they all had to be used on the top.  Some of the girls were a little intimidated, because it was going to be a challenge to match some of the crayons and make it a pretty quilt.  We had the following rule:

Your quilt must have at least 2 of these attributes of modern quilt design:

• Uses asymmetry
• Reinterprets a traditional quilt block
• Minimalistic
• Alternative block structure or lack of visible block structure
• Uses increased amount of negative space
• Uses improvisational piecing
• Inspired by modern art or architecture

Also, the quilts had to be at least 50" x 50" and we were going to turn them in to be donated to a charity of our choosing.  We also had wonderful prizes to give away for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place and a random drawing for all that made a quilt.

We did use Crayola Crayons.  Here are the five colors I received and the colors I matched them to:

Purple Mountain Majesty--Kona Crocus

Asparagus--Kaffe Fassett green foliage print

Tumbleweed--Kona Wheat

Wild Strawberry--Kaffe Fassett pink circles print

Carnation Pink--Kona Candy Pink

Here is my final quilt creation out of the five crayon colors I had and I love how it turned out!

Back of quilt

Up close of back--used the half square triangles from the flying geese to make the blocks

Here is the front of quilt being shown for judging during our guild meeting:

Back of quilt(upside down because I pinned the number and crayons in wrong corner on front..LOL)

Here are the girls and the nine quilts we finished and donated to our charity, The Samaritan House.

We had nine amazing quilts!  They were all unique, modern and absolutely beautiful.  I am so very proud of our guild and all the ladies who participated in the great challenge.  Some of the girls fretted about their crayons , but I will tell you, they all did the most amazing job coming up with all the beautiful quilts.  What an honor to be part of such a wonderful guild!  By the way, my quilt didn't win anything, but that is OK, because I made it for the charity and not for the prize.  I am always happy to help make charity quilts!  This was such a wonderful and fun challenge!

Have a great day!

Monday Mayhem

It's Monday!

I took the weekend off from the blog, so I apologize.  It was kinda of crazy and there was a lot going on.  It's going to be a busy and crazy week also!  Got to remember to hang on and get through it!

Just want to give you a sneak peek of a project that I just finished this past week. 

I will give you all the details tomorrow! 

I hope you have a Marvelous Monday!

Friday, Friday!

Happy Friday!

Hope you are having a wonderful day! 

It has been a long and busy week this week!  I am glad it is now Friday!

I have been working on several projects lately, but I can't reveal them just yet.  I am starting a quick project today...It is a birthday present for a dear friend of mine.

Below is a Bee Block I did this past year.  I love this X-type block and I love the fabric.  I made it and sent it back to its home.  I need to check up and see if the quilt has been put together yet.  I think it will make such a pretty quilt.  I may have to do this block for one of my quilts soon!

Have a Fantastic Friday!

Thankful Thursday

Welcome to Thankful Thursday!

On Thursdays, I will be talking about things I am thankful for in the sewing world and beyond.  I welcome you to comment and let me know what things you are thankful for.

Today, I am thankful for colorful, bright fabric!  Below is an example of the the doll quilt I made recently.  I made it from a Moda Charm Pack and Kona Orange.  The charm pack had lots of different prints that I improv pieced and then I used Kona Orange for the background to make it pop.  I don't usually use a lot of more earthy, nature tones, but this was a great charm pack and I think it turned out really nicely.  My swap partner really liked it. 

Here is an example of bright colors I love and tend to use a lot! 

My favorite colors are bright blue, bright pink and lime green.  I tend to gravitate more to these type of bright colors for a lot of my projects when I can. 

When I decided to do my wall hanging, I knew I had to do it in the colors.  I used Kona Bright Pink, Kona Chartreuse and Kona Aqua and then paired it with Kona Coal.  I will be hanging this in my sewing room soon.  I just love this...so bright and fun!

There are so many fabrics on the market from solids to prints and soon I am going to go through my stash and take pictures of some of the fun fabrics I have, so that I can share with you. 

I have lots of projects in mind, but now I just need to find the time!  LOL 

If you are thankful for bright, colorful fabric,

leave me a comment and let me know some of your favorites!

Have a great Thursday and be thankful!

Work in Progress

Happy Day to You!

  Today is Wednesday and it's a Work in Progress kind of day!

I wanted to share with you a snippet of a quilt top that is done, but still needs to be quilted.  I also need to piece the backing, but I just have not been able to get back to this one.  It is going to be one of my favorites once it's done!

I will keep you up to date once I start back on this one!  I hope to get it done soon!

Have a great day!

Tuesday Sneak Peek

It's Tuesday!

Today, I am posting a sneak peek of fabric for a project I am working on.  I will be able to show it soon, but I have to quilt it and bind it first!  It is a secret, so check back in a few days!

Have a great day!

Monday Mayhem

It's Monday!

I hope your day and week are starting out to be great ones!  As I type this, I have about a million things I need to put on a list and get done!  Ever have those days, weeks, months?  It's going to be a busy one!  LOL  I was in kind of a funk this weekend.  I just didn't feel quite up to par.  I was a little tired and run down, but I think I finally am feeling better today!  I know I am going to be busy and I think I am feeling like I can do it this week!  At least I am telling myself that and staying positive about it!  :)

I wanted to post a couple of pictures of some of the things we did at our sew-in this weekend.

We went over sandwiching a quilt, thread basting and pin basting.

We talked about free motion quilting

Here are some different examples of free motion stitches that our guild president, Emily, put together.

We talked about squaring up quilts

We went over different methods of binding quilts.  This one is using a binding tool for your machine.

We went over hand binding, which is the traditional method.

I went over machine binding, which is what I demonstrated using a decorative stitch!

This was such a wonderful day of learning and sewing and I am so grateful to our girls in the guild.  We all learn so much from each other!

Have a wonderful Monday!

Sunday Sharing

Good morning to all! 

It's Sunday and it is a day of rest for me!  It has been a busy, but great weekend so far! 

Today, I plan to do a little sewing and work on a few projects I have ongoing. 

Yesterday, we had a sew-in with our Modern Guild and it was wonderful.  We started last month and taught some of the basics on how to cut, press and sew.  Yes, the very basics of how to do things the right way.  Not everyone learns to do things the same, so this was a big help for many.  The officers,(myself included), took a class in the Spring and it was so helpful that we turned around and offered this to our guild members. 

We did a flying geese pattern, so that we could learn how to do perfect points.  We started last month and yesterday, we offered sandwiching, basting methods, free motion quilting and binding methods.  It was an absolutely wonderful class.  I showed examples of a couple of things, but I also learned a lot from the other girls.

From the instructions we were given, these are the colors and the pattern of flying geese I laid out.  I played for a long time, switching the blocks around, until I finally decided on this...very geometric.  I used all Kona solids in Coal, Chartreuse, Bight Pink and Aqua...my favorite colors!

Blocks put together

Border added!

Pieced backing(I used some of the triangles cut from the flying geese and made half-square triangles and pieced them together)

Finished with straight-line diagonal quilting and bright pink binding

This wall hanging is going to hang in my sewing room, once I get one put together!

Tomorrow, I will show you some of the examples we taught and examples of the other girls wall hanging!  We had so much fun and everyone did a great job!

Have a great day!

Sewing Saturday!

Happy Saturday to you all!

Today is Saturday and it is going to be a productive day!  I am going  to our Modern Guild's Sew-In today.  We are teaching a small class about sandwiching, basting, quilting and binding.  We are teaching some very basics on each method and I will take pictures and fill you in more tomorrow.

Just a little peek at the project we are working on today!  Will share more later!

Have a Super Saturday!



It's Friday!

Welcome to a Fabulous Friday!

Hello again!  Today it Friday! TGIF!  It has been a busy week and I have actually been able to sew just a little bit!  I wanted to show you a sneak peek of a project I have been working on.  This project is one we are doing for our guild sew-in.  We are teaching a couple of classes on how to make this project.  I will reveal it soon and explain what we did in these classes. 

More to come soon!

In the mean time, please have a safe and Fabulous Friday!

Thankful Thursday

Happy Thursday!

Today, I am thinking about starting something called Thankful Thursdays. 

I thought it might be nice to say what I am thankful for here in the sewing world and beyond.

I am really thankful for my best friend, Michelle, because she talked me in to buying a sewing machine and taking classes with her to learn to sew and quilt.  Originally, I was going to buy just a cheap little machine so that I could sew on my handmade cards.  I had no intention of sewing or quilting.  But, Michelle got me thinking about it and I decided it would be fun! 

So, it's not been quite three years ago, but I have come a long way since then.  I have taken a few classes and helped found the branch of the Modern Quilt Guild in our city.  I have made some baby quilts, throw size quilts and joined some different online swaps and bee blocks swaps.  I have made some wall hangings, pillows, place mats and tote bags and I love it!  All of these things have really helped me to learn more and to grow in this hobby!

Even though Michelle is not sewing right now, due to being a full time working mom, she still loves it and wants to get back to it soon.  Never enough time in the day to do all that you want.  Hopefully soon, she will be able to get in her sewing room and be able to have the time she would like, to sit down and sew again.  She really enjoys it and I am so thankful to her for getting me into this hobby!

Sew, tell me what you are thankful for!

I really enjoy it and I am so glad I am on this sewing journey!

Have a happy day!

Work in Progress

It's Wednesday!

Today, I thought I would share a quick WIP(Work in Progress)! 

We all have those, many of them!  This is a project a started earlier this year and I am hoping to complete it shortly, as soon as I get several other projects out of the way!

I will share more with you as soon as I get done!

Have a Wonderful Wednesday!

Potato Chip Charity Quilt

It's Tuesday!!!

Today, I am going to show you a charity quilt I made for my sister's church this past spring.  Last year, I made a baby quilt and this year, I decided to make a throw quilt.  I wanted to stick with an easy pattern, so I decided to do a Potato Chip Quilt.  This is a very simple pattern and I had some beautiful, pastel, floral fabric to make this quilt with.  The name of this quilt is "Springtime Blossoms" and it helped raise money for a children's charity in Omaha, Nebraska.

I wanted to show you several views of the quilt and quilting.  I did straight line quilting around the squares and then I did a diamond square in the middle of each square to give it a little contrast.  This quilt went together very quickly and is one I will make again!

Have a great day!



Baby Burp Cloths

Good Monday morning to you!

I wanted to show you the Baby Burp Cloths that I made for my sister recently.  I just mailed these to her, along with a baby quilt that you will see soon.  She just received them on Saturday, along with a new baby quilt and absolutely loves them!  These were very easy to make using cloth diapers, cotton batting and some fabric scraps.

 I just measured the length of these diapers and cut and pieced my fabric for each one. I cut my batting just about a 1/4 inch shorter and folded it over the fabric and ironed the sides down, then pinned and stitched the edges with some decorative stitching.  That's all!  It was a very easy and quick project and a very nice way to spruce up those cloth diapers!

I do apologize for the pictures of each one.  When I took them, I didn't realize the towel they were laying on was so close in color. It was a light blue, but it looks white in the picture.
 Anyway, I hope I have inspired you to make your next baby shower gifts!

Have a great day!

Backyard Beauties

Happy Sunday to you!

I hope you are having a great day!  Here is a special baby quilt I made recently for my sister who just  had a baby.  My new nephew's name is Saxon and this baby quilt is called "Backyard Beauties!"

I made this quilt using Michael Miller's fabric line called "Backyard Baby" by Patty Sloniger.  It has fabulous critter prints, like bugs in jars, backyard critters, maple leaf whirlygigs, and birch trees with woodpeckers.  These prints were perfect for this quilt, because we grew up with several big maple trees in our front yard and many birch trees in our back yard.  We always had woodpeckers around pecking on these trees.  When I saw this fabric line, I just knew it would be perfect for a little boy and  to bring back the memories of us growing up.   

I also used Kona solids in Aqua and Peridot for the background.  I decided to do wonky star blocks for this quilt and alternated the blocks and backgrounds!  These blocks were nine inches unfinished, so the final measurement was about 36" x 45".

Before quilting

Before quilting...close up

Backing...Birch trees with woodpecker

Finished quilt...all washed and crinkly!!!

I just love how this quilt turned out and I think my sister and nephew really love it!  I also really enjoyed designing, piecing and quilting this quilt.  It now has a special home and will be treasured for a very long time!  That is why we quilt...to make special things for special people!