Nancy's Scraps

Some of my favorite moments in my sewing room seem to involve playing with scraps. Specifically...Nancy's scraps. She gifted me a bag quite some time ago. It was an absolute treasure trove of bits, pieces, BIGGER pieces and leftover block units. Some of them were from the Tilda line, and Nancy had just made an adorable quilt from thos fabrics. I was sort of surprised that they had made it into that bag of scraps, but then Nancy isn't as sentimental about her fabrics as I sometimes can be. Anyway, since I had been on a bag making kick for the Bridal shower, I pieced those pretty scraps in the quilt as you go method...and Made this pretty little bag (complete with one of Alyson's zipper fobs) and gave it to Nancy in October. Here is it:

Sometimes I actually finish things...

But I never get around to posting them anywhere except, perhaps, Instagram. I have no good reason why (outside of pure laziness). I hosted a bridal shower for my youngest this summer. August, I think. At the last minute I realized I needed some kind of prizes for some games we were going to play --that decision was last minute as well. I think my daughter suggested I make some of those Ca$h and Carry bags...(Oh gee...not those damn things again, right?) So I did. My sister- in- law Alyson (Tal, to my kids. Short for Aunt Al) made the cute little zipper pulls and overnighted them from Hawaii. I love that we got to collaborate on the project, even from such a distance. Here they are:

I like them enough to post all the pics I took!

A New Family Member

Meet Savannah!

This little beauty is a rescue thru A Rejoyceful Animal Rescue, a fantastic hard-working organization that my youngest is involved in. We received word that this girl needed a home asap, so with a little coaxing from Nikki I dove in and took her. She was going to stay with us for a couple weeks and then head to The Condo's at a local pet store.... However, thinks dont always go as planned. Savannah became a "Foster Fail" , and was adopted by daughter Elle and her guy Kyle. Here they are filling out her adoption papers and sealing the deal.

They are fantastic Fur Baby paents. Savannah took her first trip by plane a few weeks ago, and it was decided she needed an outfit to wear on the plane...so I once again engaged in Cat Knitting....and fashioned this little cowl and my baby, Little Man, became my fit model.

And here is lovely Savannah, modeling her cowl, in her current home in NYC.

I think the color suits her beautifully, and I think she agrees!

Megan Sowyer

I've been following watercolor artist /maker Megan Swoyer  (www.greenbushmedia.com)
 for some time now on Instagram. (meganswoyer)

I was made aware of her work by my daughter who worked under Megan at a local/regional publication.

I've been admiring her work, and kept hoping my life/schedule would allow me to take a class with her but that hasn't happened yet.

I did, however, get the opportunity to meet up with her a couple of weeks ago and see some of her work AND I left our meeting with a nice little bag of her scraps.

I immediately went home and spread them out all over the floor.  

At first I had a hard time figuring out exactly what I could do.  The fabrics are a heavier weight than quilting cotton, so i needed to be concerned about bulk.

Also, they are larger, directional prints so I had to take that into account.

And lastly....self-doubt crept into my thoughts .

  The kind of self-doubt that I find paralyzing at times. 

Even worse than self-doubt is my terrible habit of procrastinating.
Here it is, OCTOBER 26.  Well over a month since my meeting with Megan and I am JUST NOW finishing up this blog post.
I'm going to partially blame my daughter who told me I really needed to make an extra effort in staging pics of my makes...
Frankly, I'm just happy to finish things.  Take a picture and share before I no longer care or even have the item I made. 

Now comes feelings of guilt that it has taken me so long to post this.
(My head Is indeeed hanging in shame.)

So here goes.

(This is going to be SO anti-climactic!)

 I made this from a pattern I have used many times.
It's the Ca$h and Carry by Atkinson Designs.

So...there's one project.

And here's Rex, showing a super simple little eyeglass case.  This one has a simple lining but no batting.

 I will make another WITH the batting so that it has more body and will hold the glasses a bit more snuggly.


So there you have it.  There is more to show, but it is going into the next blogpost.
(procrastination.....)

S

Charity Sewing

A little charity sewing...

 

 

5" sqs, cut from thrifted shirts and scraps from stash.

S 

Another Pixel Heart

How many pixel hearts will be too many?

(How many have I shared?)

(I think there are 3 you haven't seen yet!)

This time around...I used 2.5" squares rather than 5" squares.

The result was a baby sized quilt.

Terrible lighting has that left side of the quilt looking yellow and wont allow the quilting to show.

I'll take a better pic after it's been bound....

Just wanted to share.

S

A Quick Peek...

Here's a quick peek at one of the projects I made at the 

Tri-County Quilt Guild retreat this week.

Just a quick little zip bag, made with Nancy's scraps.

S

For Haley

Just a little something for a fellow maker.....

 S

A Simple Finish

My original mini-group members will know what this quilt is supposed to be.

It's my decade-late 

Library Quilt.

Inspired by a quilt that we saw one afternoon at the 

Oxford, Michigan library,

it became our Material Girl's challenge for that year.

The other three members of the group made their own beautiful versions...

I, on the other hand, for whatever reason which is now long forgotten, never made mine.

So last month, rather than work on something that I was supposed to be working on ,started and finished making this little quilt in just a couple days.

It is comprised mostly of thrifted shirt fabric with a few of Nancy's scraps.

Backed with a happy blue and white polka dot, bound with some leftover binding, I can both proudly and sheepishly announce that my Library Quilt is complete.

I will be donating it to the Tri-County Quilt Guild this next month.

S

My Bucket List

My bucket list got shorter this summer.

This past August I went to the AQS show in Grand Rapids, Michigan and was fortunate enough to get to take a class with Joe Cunningham.

He has been on my bucket list ever since I created one for myself.

The class I took was Rock The Block

My original plan was to use all neutrals...but that was derailed when Joe critiqued our fabrics and he pushed me to use more color.

And so, I took the chance, dove into my fabric and created 

CatTastrophe!

I wasn't immediately in love with the quilt when it was just a top, and it sat, folded up, in my project bag for a couple months.  I pulled it out and decided to just get it quilted and be done with it.

Once quilted, I absolutely loved it.

It was a wavy mess after the circular quilting, so I blocked it and it flattened right out.

 It's a great tangible memory of a fun week.  Many thanks to Joe Cunningham for pushing me to try something new!

(www.joethequilter.com)

S

Black Cat

This is one week during the year where I tend to focus on getting things done, and here is the first finish I have to share.

Black Cat

Kit by Laura Heine / Fiberworks

Quilted with Neon Affinity thread.

I bought the kit at the AQS show in Grand Rapids this past August.

It was a fun challenge...a technique that I haven't tried before and I'm feeling good about the outcome.

I have a couple other Fiberworks kits in my stash, and I'm looking forward to making another!

Another Thank You

Quilted with Sol panto from Urban Elementz.

75" Square

A Little Modern Quilt

Black and White Kona cotton fabric, improvised piecing. White rayon thread and Zebra variegated thread.

New York City buildings for backing.

Finished with facing.  

23 1/4" x 34"

A Special Thank You

What took me so long?

This quilt has been done for weeks!

I'll be donating it to Tri -County Quilt Guild.

S

Testing....

This is just a test.  I've been told my blog has gone goofy....

Can you see it?

I finally got last years Quiltville Mystery quilt loaded on the long arm.

Little Girl was supervising, and the job wore her out.

S

A Week Made For Sewing

I sort of have the week-off....and so I'm using it the way I want...I'm sewing and quilting.

My String Stars are on the long arm...and Little Man is doing his best to help me (not) get this finished quickly...

I had the Quilt Chicks over Tuesday to sew.  We had a great time.  Lots of sewing, and lots of idea sharing.  All that sharing made it difficult to go to sleep that night.  So, after laying in bed at 11:30 and being unable to fall asleep, I put my slippers on and ran down to the basement.  I found a bin of fabrics, ran them through the studio cutter with the 3.5" die, and then went back to bed less than 30 minutes later.

So I woke up and started sewing this charity project immediately, sewing all those strips together end to end....

But not without some assistance...

And cutting them into 44" strips

Which I laid out before I had to leave to meet friends for dinner.  I did not expect to return home to them looking this tidy...but the cats only disturbed one row!

I got up early again this morning and got right to sewing.

And got this little top put together!

Inspections were made. Approvals were granted.

I'm waiting till nap time to head back down to the long arm...the cat's nap time, that is.

S

This UFO is NOT that "U" Anymore.....

A project that has been sitting, abandoned and in a deep, rarely opened closet since 2014 has resurfaced and been reworked.

Despite roadblocks to progress:

 Protection:

And Frequent Inspections:

I managed to assemble this:

The pieces are from a Bonnie Hunter pattern that went awry.

Unit sizes that didn't work out, due in part to some very bad cutting on my part, caused me to give up.

I uncovered the bin that the project was hiding in this past weekend and decided that I would work on it as my Superbowl project.

I never bothered to turn on the game but I did sew away all day and had a wonderful time.

(I am aware of the mistake in the border and will be picking that apart today)

I'm looking forward to getting this quilted and enjoying it for awhile before it gets donated.

S

February Finish: The Fine Lines Project

24.5" x 34.5"

Close Up View

Fine Lines Tutorial by Kathleen Loomis

Finished with facing tutorial by Joe Cunningham

Fine Lines and Facings

I learned something new this past week.

I had The Fine Lines Project sewn together, quilted and ready to finish, but I wanted to do something other than a traditional binding.

I did some searching and found a couple tutorials on Facing A Quilt.

One of the most simple and straight forward tutorials I found was from Joe Cunningham.

 I had a smaller project that I wanted to practice on...I also tried out the idea of folded corners on the backside so that I could hang these quilts simply from a wood slat, dowel or ruler.

 Holy Cat Hair!

This shows the facings on the backside and the corners for holding whatever I choose to hang it with.

Little Girl inspecting the backside of The Fine Lines Project.  I suspect she would like to add just a little more cat hair to the composition...

Little Girl and Little Man inspecting the top side before trimming and facing....

The Fine Lines Project, faced and ready for hand stitching.
25.5" x 34.5"
I like that clean finished edge on this quilt, and it was super simple to do.  It just required quite a bit of steam and pressing to get it to be smooth and flat.
I'm looking forward to getting the hand stitching done and then I'll find a place to hang this!

S