Stitching in the Barn

I shouldn't have started this project on a day I wasn't feeling the best but I thought it would help spur me on to get something done. I started with the X-men symbol block because it was the simplest. I thought I knew what colors went where without looking at my notes and sewed on the wrong color. There were only supposed to be the medium blue and yellow up to this point, not the dark blue. I jumped the gun on the last color. I reprinted my block out & started over because I just didn't want to rip out what I had done and it wasn't much anyway. Then I set it aside until I felt better.

I do more than just stitching in my barn. Last weekend I made soap. I never thought about making soap before last year. I never felt like I could live like "Little House on the Prairie", being raised a city girl, but I've got chickens, make my own bread (by machine) and make my own soap. The reasons I do these things is because of my health. Living with homemade products lets me see exactly what goes into it and I make sure there' are as few chemicals in it as I can afford. I use organic flour for my bread because the chemicals they use now on commercial bread are way beyond any that our bodies can handle long term. I've had great results so far cutting out a lot of everyday stuff for natural equivalents that work and cost less, even organic. Making my own soap is one of my favorite ways.

I'm making some dice bags for me & my son. You can find the links for the patterns and paper piecing on this post . I really started on this project a while ago up to this point. Then the woven hearts took me on a detour.  I had no problem picking fabrics for this project and they all came fro my stash! I had the red and black and white for Deadpool. 

I bought my son a game for Christmas: As you can see, it comes with a lot of dice and you get more in the booster packs.  We've been having a lot of fun playing it and we're thinking of taking it to the next level. There's a group that plays near us every Wednesday that we might go to. If we're going to take this on the road, and because I love geeky sewing, I gotta make us some dice bags!

I'm forcing myself to make this blog post. It's been a tough week and I don't want to do this but blogging does make me happy so I hope this helps me get back on track. I've finished my quilt, mostly. It could use more quilting but this is as done as it's going to get for now. This was the hardest one to weave and I'm really proud of it. Sorry the picture is a bit blurry, I just couldn't seem to get them all to look sharp today. I stitched around all the red sections with a continuous line when I attached the applique'. Then, after pin basting the quilt together, I stitched through all three layers around the heart on the edge and then a second time using the edge of my presser foot as a guide. I also stitched inside the border.

I got my hearts trimmed and fused down. The picture's not great but I waned to document my progress. I hope to stitch down the applique's tomorrow and layer it for quilting. The first post for this project, with the links for how to make the hearts, is here . Linking up with: Can I get a whoop whoop??

Today, I've been working on the woven hearts I started on yesterday's post . I cut out my fusible web and laid them on the pink fabric to see in what order I wanted them.

I had planned to post about another project I had started this weekend but then Monday happened.  I love Linky Parties. I love seeing what others are creating or have in the past. You're most likely reading this blog because you found me on one. On one of them I saw a picture of some cute woven hearts and had to click on the link. Vera's post is titled "Mug Rug Detour" and she detoured me from my project.  Her mug rugs were darling so I clicked the link to see how she made the hearts . When I saw how she wove together the hearts she used, I was intrigued. Then she had another link at the bottom to go to a page with different ways to cut the fabric to weave some amazing hearts! The first page was a standard 9-patch and I left. I came back later and noticed there were more pages. On the second page I found a picture of an angel woven from strips! It just blew my mind! There are 27 different patterns you can weave, some of them are incredible. It opened my eyes t

Recently I've done a lot of my sewing on this baby She's a nice green tea colored Sears Kenmore model #158.15160.

They are finally done!

I'm still working on my potholders.  I used an old friend from high school to help me baste them. Aqua Net is cheap and the fumes are not as toxic as basting spray. I basted them in the bathroom so it wouldn't get on the carpet. I ONLY use it on small projects. It's not the stickiest stuff.

Here's the start of my potholders. My husband helped to pick out this assortment of fabrics. The lighting is awful and this was originally two pictures but you get the idea. The furthest one on the right is one he dyed for me ages ago. He said it looked muddy and not as nice as the others so it's going to be the solid side of the potholders. 

So after a couple of failed attempts at rotary cutting hexagons,

This is my first post in over a year. Hello, again! I'm back to it and this week I made new potholders for my kitchen, from old scraps. I need like a ton of these! I haven't made any in years and my old ones were starting to look very bad last year! I found this quick tutorial on You Tube last week. The original instructions started with 10 inch squares. It made the too big one on the left. I made the one on the right with 8 inch squares and it's the perfect size. Of course, it called for Insul-Bright batting but I just used two layers of Warm and Natural batting scraps I had and it was plenty, in addition to all the layers of fabric, to protect my hands. The last one, at top, I made from a hexagon template but it's just basically a very large coaster. The design is made by weaving together folded squares. On the hexagon, I used 3 hexagons like the wine coasters I've seen on Moda Bake shop . My daughter said they'd be tempted to put their hands in th

Wow! I knew last year had been a doozy of one but I hadn't realized I hadn't updated at all! I've had medical problems, lost faith in doctors, and solved my own issues through eating better and natural health alternatives. I'm feeling better than I have in years and I'm allowing myself to get everything back on track. This includes some serious Spring cleaning and allowing myself time to sew. It's not that I haven't sewn at all since my last post but it's come close. The quilts I wanted to finish are still waiting, fortunately they're patient, and I've bought new fabrics to work with, but haven't used it. My MIL has a project me & my daughter sew with her and it was finished last year. I would have posted pictures but blogging hasn't been on my radar. I'll post that soon. I'm so grateful for her starting these projects with us. It allows both of us the time to do something we love together and normally inspires me to sew mor