5 Days in and...kind of proud of myself!

5 days into the new year... and I am surprised at what I have done! One of my goals this year is to learn new things and try new techniques and patterns.

Last month I made a quilt for my brother....he is the guitar man and I found this great guitar print.....

So now I have to start one for my sister and came up with this... as I couldn't find any appropriate "cat" fabric as she loves cats. But I did get a great cat theme fleece for the back.

The blue you see is my design wall.... a fleece blanket with a casing on top with an expansion rod..in front of the closet in my sewing room!  But here is a block....

The block is only up the the middle of that X...the blocks together make the X. I thought it pretty cool.. X's and diamonds. It is all HST's and I made 16 blocks and then I think I'll just add borders. Anything more will be to busy. I was kind of proud of myself for making the blocks "perfect" enough that points matched and the X's were made exact as possible!


But getting tired of looking at those colors and making the blocks had my eyes crossed...I took breaks.. and worked on this one....

 On Cyber Monday I bought 4 charm packs. I don't like charm packs because they have so many colors/prints... but nothing matches. I bought 4 thinking I'd have enough to make enough HST's to do something with and they were on sale for 83 cents each! I intend to  give this to a friend, so the fact that I dont' really like these colors was beside the point. Another thing I am trying to learn.. just cause I don't like it, doesn't mean someone else won't like it!  I call this one "Peas, Corn and Carrots".

I have since changed the layout but am limited because..as is my dislike of charm packs...there isn't enough to do anything else with! As is it is only 45"x45" and I need it larger.... and that is with 4 charm packs and white on white yardage from my stash! I am working on making borders with the three colors from my yardage stash. However, that has gone on hold for the moment because.....

My first cousin twice removed (I think I have that right) is expecting a little boy in April (she is the one I made the wedding quilt "To Have and To Hold...." last year.

These are the colors I chose.. and Mickey Mouse (I forgot to include the yellow in the picture!) I am working on a design... think I have what I want but set it aside to make sure.
This is the fleece for the back that I got...50% off coupons at Joann's...couldn't do it without them!

So I have things already in progress and deadlines set as needed. I am working on learning how to make crazy quilts too... and did a little playing around and decided instead of making a full crazy quilt for each of my 5 grand daughters... I think I am going to start with a crazy christmas stocking and then work from there. I hope to leave them something to remember me with.

What have you got going so far this year? What plans do you have for new creations?
 

P.S. I have 52 Singer brand Class 15 bobbins for sale...they are Singer brand, but universal Class 15, for sale...if you are interested... Click Here .  I got a new Brother machine and although it is Class 15 too.. I prefer to use brand specific for things like this so I get no problems with warrenty work and them saying I didn't use the right bobbins! 

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Thanks for stopping by and...keep on sewing those memories!

 

Pansey's are my favorite flower, but charm packs are annoying!

A room for nothing but sewing? yep...it does deserve to be called a "studio"!!!! And I have one...so...what's going on in my studio this week?

Well, I am at the moment...at a stand still. I have finished all the quilts I had been working on. A Civil War quilt for my son and a guitar quilt for my brother...which I will be spotlighting soon here on my blog...but then got to where I was done, cleaned the room and now... can't come up with a thing to do! Nothing was appealing to me! But as I was walking past the drawer that holds charms packs..the few I have...and I just opened it more to fix the charms into more organized placement,

April: Finished, WIP's and Destash

Wow... April was  a crazy month!  But at the same time a great month of finishes, new creations and...not a single trip to the fabric store! And the thrift store didn't have any fabric this month either. But...I did participate in a fat quarter swap and swapped fat quarters I had with some other ladies for new fat quarters! Got some nice pieces. So in April,  my stash has not grown, my budget has not been incumbered and I was able to finish several projects and start a few!

FINISHED - Monkey Tote Bag

My grand daughter loves monkeys so this fabric was perfect.I bought it a couple months ago with her in mind. I didn't have a pattern, just used the basic size....13x15 rectangle with 3" sides, and lined with poly.cotton broadcloth and quilted/FMQ'ed with the meander method

  I added a side pocket on the outside and one on the inside, a front pocket and one on the inside. I did forget to add a clip or O ring so she could clip things on to it tho. Oh, well, guess that means I get to make her another one!

 
 
FINISHED - The "Nanny" Bag
Then I go to visit my 4 grand kids, I enjoy taking them a little "something". So I found this awesomely cute fabric....with little cats playing around in a sewing room... and made myself a tote bag! Yes, you read that right...made myself something! Most every thing I make is for others or for a house decoration, but this time...it was for me! I love pockets so it has alot of pockets inside and out! I used the quilting bar for the first time to do just square quilting lines..worked great.  I grew up with Mary Poppins and her "carpet bag" of treasures...had the books and the LP record (yes, LP record!) but never saw the movie until I was pregnant with my second child in 1982! But I still remember Mary Poppins and her carpet bag. So, I hope to create some wonderful memories for the kids of when Nanny came to visit! And I LOVE pockets, so this tote has pockets all over...that pocket there on the front has pockets inside it! Plus pockets on the sides and inside! I hope I create some wonderful memories for the girls of their speical times with me!

FINISHED - Traveling Sewing Book
I bought a  pattern from Craftsey but the instructions were very "minor" shall I say, but I got the idea good enough and created my own version.  I used batting on the front and did line quilting/FMQ just straight lines across and a  heavy interfacing on the inside. Then just added sewing necessities. 

Pin cushion and needle book, both velcroed so they are removable. A pocket for thread, pocket for other things (I gave her a seam ripper) a pocket for scissor and I added of my own idea...and zipper pouch in the middle where I put in some 5x5" batik charms. She loves batik and calls them "fogs". Last time she was with me I taught her how to hand sew and she made her own "pockets" out of charms,that she called "Nothing Pockets" ....because she put nothing in them! So now she can make more or create something else. I am happy to be able to help her create some memories!

FINISHED - Wedding Quilt..."To have and to hold.."
I fought this quilt the whole way.  Daniel Boone would have been proud of me for fighting this 'ol bear!  Everything that could go wrong, did and I ran out of fabric twice! But I learned to use transparent thread (on the top) and a really fun Scrabble game feature on the back with the bride and groom's names. But I finished it and got it mailed to the bride. It is 72x72.  I hope her memories of her special day stay with her always! Click here to see it.....>> "To Have and To Hold...From This Day Forward".

 

WIPS for April

Postage Stamp Quilt... I participated in a postage stamp square swap where I swapped with 8 other ladies, 100 each, 2.5" squares!   I had never done anything like this before so it was exciting to see what I would receive! Of 800 squares... I only received 2 that were the same prints as prints I already had! And NO duplicates! So it was pretty cool. In going through them all, I found many that had a single image/item on the square so I pulled those out with the intention of making an I Spy quilt with them. Need to collect more or create a way to use them with other sizes of charms to make the quilt. This will be a WIP for a while I figure!

I Spy quilt..... I am working on an I Spy quilt for my grand children. I was cutting 3.5x3.5 inch squares of my own stash of items, but didn't have enough so I offered out a swap with others for some charms suitable for the I Spy and my cyber friends blessed me with enough to finish the quilt! I will be finishing the top this week, and have to decide what to do on the back. Then make the book of the list of things to "spy"...then I am done...and get to enjoy it with the kids!

Reorganized My Sewing Room
 

 
I also reorganized my sewing room.  Having the sewing table and my pressing table with my chair in the middle is the most perfect way to go! I sew and then spin and can press and spin back to sew! No jumping up and down to press and now I press all the time! My "to do" list is on my bulletin board right in front of my face so I can always be   thinking of next project.And nice to have a window to open when weather allows! And the TV.. I have DVD's or CD's for that..no tv connection.  

 

My fabric is on 2 book shelves in front of my sewing table. I love just looking at the colors! I have them in color stacks with (usually) solids on the bottom and prints on top of each stack. To the far left in the third photo is a plastic 5 drawer unit where I have my scraps. I have the color taped to the front of the drawer to show what color is in what drawer to better help me organize the scraps. And the crewel flower picture... I did that, oh about 25 years or so ago!. 


April was pretty cool...I hope May will be too! I am particularly itching to get the I Spy quilt done and play with my grand children! They are going to love it!

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I Spy Quilt, Part 1 -The quilt begins!

I am so grateful for some cyber friends that sent me some pieces to use for the I Spy quilt I am making for my grand children.  Pauline, Linda, Pam and Rachel, Kori, Suzette and Donella, Sherri and Cecile, Diane, Wendy and Laura -  thank you  SO much your your help!  I am so amazed at the prints they sent me! I know there's alot of fabric I have never seen, but these are beyond what I  thought I could see! They are just perfect, unique images  for an I Spy quilt. While looking through the pieces, I kept telling myself "its for the kids! It's for the kids! You can't have it!" I am so excited to start working on the quilt again. 

This is the way I am making the blocks. 3x3" I Spy center square with 1" sashings all around. I call them sashings, others may call them "borders". Either way, I chose this way of construction to set off the images better. I have seen many with the image pieces just all sewn together and no organization and to me they just look messy, busy and cluttered. I want the kids to do a little searching for the items, but I don't want them exhausted after doing so! The white borders/sashings just work well for this reason.

 

So far I have 12 blocks per row which makes the rows 60" long(wide) which is what I want, so