Back in my Sewing Room!

It was a long hot summer without much time in my sewing room and now I am back! Over the last week I have been working on one of the projects I bought while I was away on my holiday- the Bow Tucks Bag.

As it turned out I had bought enough fabric to make 2 bags! Here are the outside pieces and linings.

And the finished bags!

...and details of the bows and tucks!

 

What a cute bag!

Two someones I know will enjoy them...yes they are gifts!

I did have some difficulties...I had forgotten that my sewing machine does not like Guttermann Polyester thread. It never has...even right after a cleaning and with a new needle. I had thought I had gotten rid of all my old thread long ago. I did not even think about it when I looked for blue thread for the handles. I am not close to a thread store (at least 1-1/2 hours away) and had forgotten to buy blue thread with the fabric so I was making due.

And here is what I got...

Yuck! It is only on the back and only on the handles (I changed thread as soon as I noticed it).

  I left it as it was warts and all. I decided it was part of the bag's charm...yes I am telling myself that.

Now I am going to start sewing my strips together from my scrap quilt I had started just before I went on holidays. I am so in love with this fabric I almost hate to cut into it, but this quilt has a purpose I think. It may be a gift...it is that season for thinking about Christmas a bit!

Happy Stitching!

Scraps and scraps...

I had a couple of cooler days that actually let me play in my sewing room all day long! It has been a very long time..and it was a mess up there!

Do you know what happens when you have not spent much time is a sewing room? It finds UFO's...mine collected so many projects I had forgotten about...some half started, some almost finished and even some I have dreamed about getting started on.

Remember those boxes of scraps? Well I sorted and ironed and cut all the mediums and darks into 1-1/2" strips. That took some time!

After I sorted them into lengths I sewed some samples.

Using my handy 60 degree triangle ruler I cut out a triangle. After many triangles are cut out I'll start putting them together with light background triangles to make a 6 pointed star quilt.

This is going to be a really fun scrappy quilt but one thing I learned from doing the sample is that I am going to have to press my seams with thought! In the centres of the stars I will have a lot of seams to match and it will be good to have them pressed in opposite directions before I start putting it all together.

The heat is back today so I am going to work on some hand work for a while...

Happy Stitching!

Something Old, Something New!

Let's begin with the old... just a couple of years in the making so far!

I finally starting to work on my hexagon quilt again after quite a long time away from it.

I had been searching for the background fabric and until I found it it had just stalled my enthusiasm! But I think this fabric will work wonderfully for the diamonds and triangles that go between the hexagons. I'll start cutting my freezer paper templates soon. For now I still have some hexagons to sew together.

And now for something with a bit of old and a bit of new....

I noticed a while ago that my 'old' scrap pile is growing and growing and growing. I really don't like it when it gets too big. It becomes overwhelming and too much work to go through it if I'm just looking for a little scrap of something.

 I found a great project to start! So I have started pressing the scraps.

 The plan is to cut the darks and mediums into 1-1/2" strips. I'll post more as it comes together!

And finally something new... but just in the planning stages.

I photocopied my 10 degree ruler to see how I could create a design in each wedge.

So far this is what I have...flying geese! I was playing with the proportions and now that it looks pleasing I'll draft it in EQ7 so I can play with color. The largest goose is 2" tall and the smallest just 1/4" tall. I can hardly wait to see the possibilities!

When the 36 wedges are together it will make a 50 inch circle. My plan is to have an applique border all around it but that is a long way from this stage!

I hope you enjoyed a peek of what is to come!

Happy Stitching!

Hexagon quilt
scraps
planning ruler

I've Been Uninspired

I have been completely uninspired with ALL my projects lately. I have been just going through the motions of working on these projects without my usual passion. My thoughts on quilting are that if I am not enjoying it anymore then it is time for it to be put aside for a while. Sometimes those projects never get finished but sometimes I find I am wanting to work on them again at a later date. I figured it was time for a fresh start. I packed up everything I have been working on and everything in my want to do pile and put it away where I can't see it. I know it's there and maybe one day I will want to play with it again but not for a while.



So I started something completely new! I cut out my test block yesterday and ta-da!

It all went together without a problem so I made a second block today and starting cutting a third block out.

I am loving this scrappy quilt!

The pattern is called Wagon Wheels and is from Quiltmania issue #78.

I am so happy to have my quilting mojo back!

Happy Stitching!

My Quilting History and a Few Tips

Since I began quilting almost 20 years ago I put all my small scraps into a box until one day my box exploded and I had to do something about it. I started cutting up my scraps into 2" squares and then 3 years ago started sewing them into 9 patch blocks. I had no idea what I was going to do with them. This is how it all started...

Recently I figured it out!

I was happily sewing along and looked at my first finished block and oops! Those sashings weren't quite lining up. I am not concerned with being too perfect with this quilt but I did want it a little better than that.

I thought I would share a few tips to get sashings lined up a little better.

Here is my block laid out and ready to sew the long sashings on.

I match the center of the long sashing with the center of the block and pin in place. If I am sewing a long sashing that goes the width of a whole quilt I divide into quarters and pin at each quarter. That way you know your sashing is evenly distributed across. Pin the rest of the sashing and sew.

Now for the second side- I normally would press before starting this, but in this case my sashing was cut 1" wide and I was pressing towards the sashing, so that would create sewing problems.

Line up the sashing to the block, but instead of matching the centers I match the sashings between the blocks and pin. Then sew and press.

Much better!

This quilt has produced a lot of stray threads, probably because of all the handling over the last few years. I had a head smacking light bulb moment- to use my lint brush to pick up those threads off the finished quilt blocks! Why in the world did I never think if that before now?

And my last tip...another duh moment ( 2 in one day...did my brain just start working?)

I have a couple of rulers with a 1/2" added to them and I am always forgetting that and cutting wrong. I am so used to 6", not 6 1/2". In my notions drawer I had some of the ruler highlighter tape and I just put that down at my cutting line and ta-da! No more cutting wrong! You could also use any low tack tape such as painters tape.

I've been thinking about my miniature double wedding ring I want to make and have been looking through my fabrics. A couple of years ago I had bought a fat eighth pack of 'japanese' type taupes and greys. I needed something to add to those for the background. What do you think? It will be very non-traditional but I am liking it.

Back to my sewing room...Happy Stitching!

Retreat Weekend

It was a great weekend. Saturday and Sunday spent quilting in the company of other quilters is always good. I had my camera along but guess who forgot to take pictures...yes, that would be me! Too busy sewing I suppose. This time I decided to start a new large quilt so I cut all my fabric before the weekend so I could just enjoy the sewing. It took me 3 days to cut it all out! I guess it had been a while since I cut out a large scrap quilt all at once. I did not expect it to take that long.

Here are some of the finished blocks from the weekend-

I am using greens, browns and blues and making 16", 10", 6" and 4" churn dashes. The original patterrn is from the February 2008 issue of  American Patchwork and Quilting magazine. Lately I have found myself attracted to quilts that have combinations of blocks in different sizes.

I am roughly dividing each size into brown/blue, brown/green and blue/green combinations. This quilt will be bigger than the pattern but I am not sure yet whether to add more blocks or a border. I'll decide that later.

I finished all the 16" and 10" blocks and got a good start on the 6" blocks this weekend. I am really happy with them and I am loving these colors! All the fabrics came right from my stash except a little bit of dark blue I got from a friend. I love scrap quilts and this one will be wonderful. I'll be working on it over the next week or two so hopefully it won't be long before I can show the top finished. I was going to have it long-armed but I am loving it so much that I may hand quilt it or use the big stitch on it.

I love it when a plan comes together!

Happy Stitching!

I'm smitten!

Remember this pile?

Well it sat right beside my sewing machine for a very long time but yesterday it officially became something!

All I had left from the pile was a couple of 5"x7" pieces.

I am so smitten with this little quilt. I don't often use black but I may have to start.

I think the black sashing really makes it!

Happy Stitching!

Scraps!

I've been busy cleaning up my sewing room and doing a little reorganizing. I was finding that things I used often weren't within easy reach anymore...that could have been in part because I had a mountain of things to put away. And while I was putting things away I found a mountain of UFO's! But one in particular caught my eye...

I want to introduce you to my scraps...anything less than about 2-1/2 inches wide (unless I know a use for it) goes into my scrap container or should I say CONTAINERS!

And from these scraps I cut 2" squares for 9-patch blocks.

Here they are, in all their chain pieced glory.

This is what I found. Here are the sections all pressed and waiting to be sewn together. But now that it's found again what in the world am I going to do with it. I think my 9-patch mojo (do people still use that word?) is gone. This pile is literally a history of my quilting past dating back almost 20 years.

Maybe I've been too co-ordinated in my fabric choices lately. I used to love scrappy...the more the better but now it is more of I love planned scrappy so back to the UFO pile you go 9-patches.

But that gets me thinking about those 3 containers full of scraps.

Do I even want them? What will I do with them if I keep them?

These are the questions that are swirling in my brain right now.

Happy Stitching!