Stitching in the Barn

Lately I've been wanting to sew but I haven't been able to decide what I want to sew. I keep seeing so many awesome projects online and not able to choose one. I did eventually manage to get off the computer and sew up a couple of things, so far, this week. While at the Dallas Quilt Guild Show, me, my MIL & my daughter saw Cynthia England demonstrating her Picture Piecing technique. Her booth was filled with amazing examples of quilts made from patterns designed by her using this technique. Her process looked easy so we chose that as our next group project. It was very hard for the three of us to decide but we finally chose this kitty quilt pattern & kit. I also bought a pattern for a rose block that was 1/2 off. After we got home, we took out our patterns and looked them over. Woah, there were a lot of tiny lines all over it! It looked so hard! We went to the computer to check out her website. She has a great video tutorial, and a print one, with plent...

Me & the kids played around with the Slice machine after working on a project for my 10 yo son. He did a research project on VCU for March Madness. He had to put it on a poster board so we got out the Slice and cut some letters and circles out of cardstock. I bought this great stack of solid color cardstock at Target, 72 12" X 12" sheets in 18 colors, for under $8. I got sticker shock when I saw the price per sheet at the craft store and invested in these instead. I'm glad I'm not getting into scrapbooking, I thought fabric was expensive, sheesh.  Here's his poster (sorry for the blurry picture): We cut the letters and orange circles from the basic design card, which happened to match the font the school uses. My daughter drew the black lines on with a Sharpie then we added some double sided tape to the back and stuck them all on. The two images at the bottom were printed from the website, cut out and glued on. I have to backtrack and show ...

It seems I've been on a spending spree on quilt rulers over the past few weeks. I blame my MIL for my recent spending last week but I think it started at Valentines Day when my husband bought me these rulers I had been salivating over. Then my MIL came into town for spring break and decided to buy quilting supplies for her & her sister so they can start quilting at JoAnn's. Shopping with her always makes me want to buy something for myself so I got the Easy Angle because Bonnie Hunter recommended it and a Double Wedding Ring template set that was on clearance from $30 down to $8! I stopped at the checkout to make sure it was complete, the bag was torn on one side. It turned out that one of the small pieces was missing so I got it at 1/2 off so it was only $4 and there was a drawing of the template in the book so I'm not really missing any pieces! I have to tell you I'm glad I started quilting 10 years ago! The prices for equipment seem so hi...

My mother-in-law came to visit last week during Spring Break. It was fun. We had a quilt project me, her and my daughter were in the middle of before she visited. It was great for National Quilting Day. It was like we celebrated all week. We completed them, well mostly. I still need to attach the binding on my daughter's quilt. It was a kit we picked up a while ago called Misty Pines by Jeri Kelly. It finishes at 7.75 inches by 21.25 inches. It came with a paper pieced center and all the fabrics to finish it except batting. We bought three to work on them together. It was my daughter and MIL's first quilt. It was a great idea to buy a complete kit for their first project because we didn't have to spend the extra time debating over choosing fabric and some of the pieces were already cut to size so we could get right to working on them. They came out great. Here's mine: And my daughter's: The kit didn't include a binding so we went out to buy...

I was in the JoAnn's Monday buying grommets when I happened to notice their original model Slice machines were on clearance. I had just seen the new Slice Elite at Hobby Lobby the previous weekend and noticed there was an applique' card you could buy for it. Also, I Have A Notion reviewed the new Slice Fabrique on their blog earlier this month. They will be carrying them & the accessories. The Slice is a die cutting machine by the scrapbooking company Making Memories that is very hard to find info about online, except at their site, even though it has been around since 2008. They are now branching out into the quilting and fabric crafting hobbies with their 2 new models but it turns out the original model  can use the new design cards. The older model on clearance was $80, at my local JoAnn's in Grapevine, TX, while the new models run at $150 and it looks like they haven't gotten the bugs out of them yet. The biggest differences between them that I...

Well this post is going to have quite a few pictures :o) I'll make them thumbnails, some with links to the full size. I finished up the two blocks I needed for blockofthemonth  last week:   These are January and February. I'll make March's block later. While sewing these, I finally remembered my leaders & enders blocks. I got one done but something went wrong with my friendship star. I don't know how this happened but I almost did it on the next one! I left this one alone and fixed the second. It looks funny but not entirely unappealing so I don't think I'm going to fix it.

I'm trying to post/document my sewing more often. Today, all I have is a list of stuff I bought to sew with but haven't done any sewing, yet. Actually, I repaired a car seat cover for my husband this weekend but that doesn't really count because it wasn't for me. I scored some $2/yard flannel solids from Jo Ann's last week when they were on sale, about 5 yards. They're for the backing of my daughter's quilt. I looked at the backing and realized I probably didn't need that much. I wish I had had the money to get more. With the price of cotton ready to go up, who knows what it will cost next year. Also at Jo Ann's, I bought some muslin and Warm & White batting to start the quilting on my BOM blocks. I brought a 40% & 50% coupon with me and told the cashier I specifically wanted the 50% coupon used on the batting. That evening, I looked over my purchases and the receipt and noticed the 40% came off the batting and the 50% came o...

I call it "Welcome Spring" After that awful cold snap we had here in DFW, I think I wanted something really bright and cheerful. It's 22 inches square, thankfully. I don't think I could stomach these two colors together if it was much larger. This is a good representation of the colors. The blocks are each 6 inches finished. It's basically a sample to try out my new Tri-Recs rulers. I free motion quilted it with Connecting Threads' Essentials in Purple.

Today I stitched & turned it with the batting & the backing and did the stitch in the ditch to prep it for free-motion quilting. I used Purple thread from Connecting Threads and I love how it looks. I used a tip I picked up recently. I used hairspray as basting spray to stick the two layers that weren't getting turned together. Since it was a small quilt & I had an old can of Aquanet hanging around I thought I'd try it and it worked very well. I didn't even have to go outside for better ventilation to use it. I sprayed it on both sides to be sure it stuck and everything went fine. There were no puckers on the back side of my quilt, just on the top that was only pin basted.

I'm suffering from a headache right now but I had to post. I finished my quilt top! I must have been really inspired because I designed & made it in 3 days! I even had work 2 of those days. Of course it's just 22 inches square but it's still complete. Here it is Hmmm, now that I look at the picture, it looks a bit wavy on the edges. I have to admit I practically slapped the borders on. But I love the way it came out! The colors are very loud but I used these in combination with white recently and thought they might lend themselves to a 2 color quilt. Now I wish I put some white in there, at least it's a small quilt. I'm hoping to quilt it sometime this weekend. I'll probably just sandwich, sew & turn it out with the batting & backing because I don't feel like making binding. I think I needed this bright quilt to come out of the cold winter & the hard times we've had lately. I can't wait to use my Tri-Recs rulers ...

I couldn't get the quilt out of my mind & sketched this up earlier today on Inkscape Then I took a 2 hour nap. The day can be long when you wake up at 2:30 am to go to work. Everyone went to bed around 10 pm because they were feeling sick so I stayed up to sew and got this done Now its after almost 2 am & I'm going to pay for it tomorrow. Its a 6.5 inch 54-40 or Fight block. I decided to start with two extremely bright colors on a mini quilt and couldn't wait to get a block done. Now I'm too tired to continue. Plus, I made a mistake in my math and cut the strips for the 4-patches 2.5 inches instead of 1.5 inches & wasted a bit of fabric, which irks me so I'm off to get some sleep.

I hope y'all are able to spend it with the ones y'all love. Today I'm making a heart shaped brownie for my family and I bought some of their favorite chocolates too. I got my V-day present early, last Thursday. My husband bought me 3 yards of Kona White, the Tri-Recs rulers and a quilt/quilt block a day calendar.

Well I'm back, I think. The main reason I've been gone is because I work retail and this Holiday season the store I work at did better than most. Then some unexpected family complications kept me away from sewing and the computer for a few more weeks until we got iced in. We're expecting another wave of snow Wednesday and I'm kind of sick of it. I'm glad I don't live or moved further north because I don't understand how y'all deal with it. I hope everyone snowed under multiple feet of snow since Christmas are staying sane, healthy & warm. I did, at least, finally got back to a sewing machine while we were iced in. I finished 4 of these blocks from the blockofthemonth   group. I just need two more to catch back up. I'm really happy that my skills are better than I remembered! I hope I can keep up posting more but only time will tell. I feel really unsettled and scatterbrained so I won't be surprised if it takes me another mon...