Sunday Thoughts

Well hello there blog world. It's been awhile. Things are full steam ahead with my job, Sophie back in school, school activities and play time with the brilliant boyfriend and I just have been putting the bloggy blog on the back burner of life.

So, a quick little catch up...

I made a quilt with Jenny Eliza fabric designed by Jennifer Paganelli for JoAnn's.

Finished quilt using Quilt As You Go tutorial from Maureen Cracknell

This is mostly what it is being used for

What I made with some of the scraps - kitchen towel
The kitchen towel was made using this tutorial from Schnitzel & Boo

Quilt for my friend Mary

I used the Designer Star pattern by Lee from May Chappell

Cotton + Steel, Kaffe, and Moda fabrics

I love the back!

This quilted table runner turned out so cute! I think I will put it in my etsy store that is completely empty right now. I need to take better pics for sure...

...and the back...

My biggest quilty love is paper piecing!! I will try to focus and make a tutorial for paper piecing. I know that there are a lot out there so I wasn't going to. I have had a lot of people asking me how though.

paper pieced feathers

Last bit - There was a partial eclipse last weekend and we wanted to see it from the beach. This was my picture with my phone camera - obviously my phone camera is not the greatest.

Phone camera - no partial eclipse noticed

HOWEVER! Ernie, with his ever present camera, caught this doozy!! So amazing. I will leave you with that :-)

Free Motion Quilting Nightmares

Okay, so maybe not a nightmare exactly…but certainly not fun. I have an old Singer 6235 that is very tempermental. It's a beast (in a good way) when it comes to straight line quilting and piecing - I always forget because I tend to use my little Janome - it travels better and has a lighter touch. The Singer means business - the feed dogs pull that fabric along like no one's business and the thump of the needle up and down is intentional and nothing should stand in it's way. The "whir" is more like a growl where the Janome almost sounds like it is purring.

The biggest difference is the Singer has a free-motion quilting foot and my basic Janome does not. 

I want to free-motion quilt SO bad!! I've done it before and loved the way it turned out! This is my very first art quilt I started in 2003, I hand beaded the heart and the sun, traced Sophie and my hands, made ribbon roses out of hand dyed silk ribbons, and echo quilted the whole thing. I was in the process of making spirals on the 4 marbled yellow/pink small borders and ran out of thread after the first one was completed. Flash forward many years later and I have thread similar enough to the one used and really want to finish the sucker. 

The problem is the machine is really jaunty. I've taken it in numerous times over the past few years and the results are always the same. I can't get the smooth curves and spirals or even straight lines that I did years past. She's become a grouchy old lady. I will keep trying though - Maybe it is just me that is out of practice…the back is loopy but it stitches fine when using the feed dogs (still a little jaunty but not enough to mess up piecing. One stitch here and there is a little crooked). The quilts I am making lately are not for any competitions or anything so it has been fine for straight line quilting too. I'm just disappointed and a new machine is out of the question for the time being. Thanks for letting me vent.

So instead I have been working on this Ferris Wheel Quilt by don't call me betsy. I saw the zebra print Safari Moon fabric by the fabulous Frances Newcombe for Art Gallery Fabrics and fell in love with it! I knew it had to be the center of all of the blocks. I have the smaller print on the same blue that I am using in other blocks. I'm also using a lime-ish green solid with a metallic glint and a soft purple shade that is in the Safari Moon print. I do love these big 18" blocks and I think they will look great all put together.

Work has been crazy busy as it is "Season" for us Florida folks. Everyone is escaping their snowy Winter…and now Spring…and coming to sit by the sea shore in their bikinis and swim trunks. Good for our economy. Siesta Key was named the #3 beach by Mr. Beach this year and the 2 that beat us are in Hawaii. Stiff competition but we are nearly always in the top 5 - this year is the busiest year we've had according to the locals. I will be glad to have the quiet in a few months.

Cheers!

Weekend Fun and Finished Project!

This weekend was the exotic car show in downtown Sarasota. They called it a "Great Gatsby" show but really there were only a few cars that were Gatsbyesque. Most of them were expensive sports cars but they were fun to look at anyway and it was a free event - and who doesn't like free events? Oh and The Mystery Machine was there! Those meddling kids...

After the car show and a few errands I was able to spend a lot of time with my sewing machine. I started this mini quilt called Dwell by Thimble Blossoms a few weeks ago and it was so fun to pick out fabrics for each little block and watch it all come together. I used a lot of fabric from the Scrumptious line by Bonnie and Camille for Moda. I love that line - so cute! Now I have scraps too :) While I was putting it together I took pictures and posted them to Instagram with the #dwellalong hashtag and I was able to follow along and see other people's come together too. The designer herself, Camille Roskelley, "liked" mine and I felt giddy and a bit like a teenage fan girl when I saw that….

I misread the directions for the chimney at first so a couple of them turned out wonky and I had to make new ones. I will use those in a smaller one for a friend. They are all the same but just didn't match the size of the other ones so I even thought about making mug rugs out of the orphan blocks. There are enough to do a mini-mini wall hanging though so it will be a little gifty for a sweet friend. I may go back and do another mini quilt because they are a little addicting! 

It is far from perfect but it turned out pretty cute just the same! Maybe I will hang it up in my Real Estate office. It suits it perfectly!

Friday Night Fun

Last night was PMS (Pizza, Munchies, Sewing…what did you think it meant?) night at one of the local quilt stores, Cotton Patch. My new friend Jaden had wanted to go and invited me to sign up to join her (if you want a good read, good laugh, and to learn a new recipe or learn how to not store fish sperm - go check out her blog!). Another friend had ended up being there last night as well and all together there were about 25 of us and the shop owner who is such a great lady. We stayed until midnight - gasp! I didn't even know I could stay awake that long anymore. Only a couple of us got loopy. It was really fun to see all of the projects that were brought and a few of them finished. I couldn't decide what to bring so I loaded myself down and brought a million projects with me. There was so much gabbing and munching and laughing that I am surprised I finished anything! 

Well, I didn't really…I shorted myself 1 white square so I had to finish my Sugar Block Club BOM this morning. I love the way it turned out and it looks so pretty next to its January friend.

Jaden and I met last month at the Modern Quilt Guild meeting. Elizabeth Dackson of don't call me betsy was the guest speaker and we had a free motion quilting workshop. She has a beautiful BOM called Lucky Stars and they are all paper pieced. Both of us signed up and neither of us know how to paper piece so we both brought our projects thinking we could learn together. Laura, the amazing owner of Cotton Patch, gave us an impromptu class on paper piecing and now we are SET! I can't wait to dig into my stash and finish this! I love paper piecing! 

This little itty bitty booger was last on my list of things I started and didn't finish. Thimble Blossoms Dwell . My little house block is only 3" x 4.5". I was able to dig through my stash and find enough coordinating pieces that I would almost call it a stash buster. But at a finished size of 13" x 15", I don't think there is a lot of "busting" going on. 

All in all it was a great night! I signed up for the March one as well and maybe this time I won't bring so many projects! I just need to finish something.

Cheers!

Finished Project!

It was such a beautiful day yesterday! Sunshine and low 80's. Almost makes a girl feel guilty when her friends up north and back in Texas and Oklahoma are freezing and prepping for another Winter storm. Then I remember that I chose to move here and they choose to stay there! I will enjoy my sunshine and warm Winters. Maybe one day this week I will even make it to the beach.

I did a lot of cutting and sewing this weekend. Sophie's pencil bag broke and I have a pattern for a bag but it is a little big. I explained it every way I could and she insisted that it would be fine. So instead of watching the Superbowl (Dallas wasn't in it so I don't care much anyway) Sophie and I went to JoAnn's to find fabric to match some pieces we already had. 

The pattern was fairly simple. 6 scrappy 8" blocks, a 14" sport zipper, 2 layers of batting, a 15"x22" piece of fabric for lining and voila! You have a bag. Being the first zipper I have ever done, of course I sewed part of it on wrong and had to unstitch it. The bag…well…it's really big! I told Sophie I would make her a smaller one and could use this one myself. She insisted on keeping this one though and proceeded to empty out her backpack of any non-important things…ie: math book…and said she would just pack an apple for lunch to save room. Oh goodness. I think I will be making another smaller bag in the near future.

Sophie and Ernie spent some time working on a very difficult Dr Who puzzle while I sewed and cut fabric for my Friday play day. It was a very pleasant evening. I do love our family time - it makes my heart happy!

APQ Quilt Along

Well, yesterday was a sewing day for sure. Kind of anyway. Friday night I finished my first block from the APQ Quilt Along. I'm not quite sure how I feel about it. It is very busy for sure. I have been hoarding saving this kokeshi (doll) fabric since 2002 and I have quite a bit of it along with some sushi fabric. So I thought I would finally cut into it and use it as the large rectangles in the center of each block. Definitely  NOT low volume like it was supposed to be. I am going to keep going at the urging of a new friend and see if they get better as I go.

The Pattern and Fabric Stash

The First Block...

After the first block I decided it needed some softening up. I will use oranges, pinks, and a dark yellow for all of the "X"s and dark turquoise and this lighter one below for the rings. All the middles will be the X colors and the light turquoise chevron print that you can't see in these pictures.

The Second Block...

Scrappy Togetherness…

It's the beginning of a new month and I have 2 BOM's to do and now this one that I want to finish cutting. This Friday is PMS (pizza, munchies, sewing) night at Cotton Patch Quilt Shop and I am going with my new friend, Jaden, from Steamy Kitchen. Good thing my little machine is back from the doctor's and working better than ever. I better get cutting so I have something to do!

Cheers!

Sunday Funday!

So sorry to see the day come to an end. It was a lovely weekend although a bit cloudy today. Ernie and I started out the day by going out to the St. Armands Art & Craft fair to see a client/friend of his. I just love our weekend time together. On our way back to the car we had a little rain shower. Nothing major just enough to make us a little damp and chilly. Then we headed back to go our separate ways for a little while. I dropped Sophie off at the mall and went to the grocery store. Then I came home to sew for a little bit. One of my machines, Little Nellie, is at the doctor's office and my old Bessie is here but sick. Well, I think I figured it out! I took out the bobbin and I noticed there is a little raised bump right on the edge where the thread comes out…I pulled out another bobbin and popped it in and sure enough, she is stitching like the old girl she used to be. I haven't tried free-motion quilting with her yet because I didn't want to push my luck. But she is piecing ok!

These beauties came in a few weeks ago and I have been trying to decide what to do with them. Then I found Amy Gibson's blog Stitchery Dickory Dock and fell in love with her new BOM - Sugar Block Club. I may do another one of these with other materials I have as a gift for someone. So fun! 

Well, I am so glad one of my machines is running. When you get an itch to sew you just have to sew! Don't get me wrong…there are other things I could be doing but none of them are quite as fun :)

What projects are you working on this week?

Cheers!

Oh Happy Day!

What a great day!! Right now I am bubbling over with happiness. Well, as bubbly as I can be since I'm fighting some bug that is trying to take over my body. Anyway…I went to the Modern Quilt Guild meeting today, which I was excited about anyway, and they were having a free-motion quilting workshop. At the beginning a lady with converse type sneakers snuck in and started setting up at the front. I thought "she looks cool - I like her style - this should be interesting!" I paid my dues and was wandering around and started flipping through the cool looking lady's book…a quilt in it looked familiar, hey! So did the next one! Wait a minute…it turns out it was Elizabeth Dackson! I follow her blog Don't Call Me Betsy. She is super amazing and lives right here in Tampa. She invited me to her guild meetings in Tampa and I would love to try to make it out there. Her's are on Saturday too so we'll see. THEN, another awesome looking lady came in and sat near me. She is new to sewing but LOVES to cook and has chickens (ahem…Ernie…she has chickens!! I want chickens…) This awesome lady is Jaden from Steamy Kitchen. She loves to cook which is amazing because I love to eat…and cook a little myself. She lives here in Sarasota and wants to go to the Tampa meetings too and then go out for dinner afterwards. I am so happy right now. After living in Florida for almost 3 years I feel like I have finally found my niche. I have a wonderful boyfriend, I'm finally making girlfriends and finally making a life for myself and for Sophie here. 

Oh, and I learned some tricks to free-motion quilting to top it all off :) 

Sarasota Surface Design Guild

I promised myself that I would get more involved in life this year. Creative life, community life, etc. So, the boyfriend wouldn't let me back out of going to the monthly meeting last night as I so often do. I joined in December 2012 and went to 3 meetings all year :( Poor sportsmanship. Epic failure on my part. I joined again last night and plan on getting more involved. Such a lovely group of ladies from all walks of life! The creative energy in that group is astonishing! Weavers, painters, quilters, art quilters, jewelry makers, nature printers, fabric dyers, doll makers…I could go on and on. Plus they do play days once a month and you can try your hand at something you may never have thought of doing. One meeting I learned how to hand dye silk and made a beautiful scarf. I'm not sure why I talk myself out of going to the meetings. Maybe because after 3 meetings I still knew the same amount of people? ZERO. This time I brought a show and tell.

An art piece that I have been working on. I will finish it as soon as I get my other sewing machine up and running. I need the free-motion quilting foot. Oh well, I need it anyway for the Modern Quilt Guild meeting I am going to join this Saturday. They are doing a workshop on free-motion quilting too so it is perfect timing! 

I met some really amazing women last night and am very glad I have a boyfriend as stubborn as me who pushed me to go. Calamity Kim is a member of the guild and is a bit of a renaissance woman. She did a presentation/history of fashion and talked about losing your inhibitions and creating your own style. She talked about cutting up old pieces of clothing and reverting them back into just fabric to create something new and useful. I loved her quirky style and she was too funny! Such a great spirit. It is not my style to wear but I would love to make an artist apron using her techniques. Hmmm…just what I need. A new project…

Cheers!

Winter Cleaning…Kinda Like Spring...but Not

So, I finally got fed up with my creative work space and took the time to do something about it. Our little duplex leaves much to be desired but I am so grateful to have any space at all that I should at least make it user friendly! When we lived in Texas we had a 3 bedroom house and the 3rd bedroom was my sewing/craft room. It was wonderful! Somehow I had to cram that entire room into 1 wall. I read a few of my favorite blogs and took tips from their spaces. Let me give you a quick tour. Now don't get lost…I know the space is enormous ;)

My very embarrassing "before"

The lighting is better than it looks. We have a wall to wall sliding glass door to the left of the space and a light on the hutch behind it. I moved the Ikea basket shelf thing to the side so that I have more useable table top space and can watch Netflix and my favorite obsession of the moment. 

I added a little cheap bookshelf (Target $22) and found a little hexagon shaped tray, some cute heavy paper boxes with ribbon handles and a pack of stick on labels in the Target dollar section. I may have to go back for more before they are gone. I labeled one little box for scraps and the other one for selvedges. The blue containers on the new bookshelf are from the dollar store and I labeled those with current projects I am working on. One is for a Split 9 Patch Quilt and one is for an Art Quilt series I am creating.

All in all I love my new space! All together my "remodel" cost $27. Whoo hoo! I guess sometimes it helps to have a lot of crud you can reuse and repurpose. It's still a work in progress but I will tell you this past Sunday morning was bliss. It's so much easier to sew when you can find everything and not trip over boxes. Off to sew for the last 30 minutes of my morning…

Cheers!