Stitching in the Barn

Happy New Year!!!! It seems like every year I start off wanting to sew and blog more. I get new quilting stuff for Christmas that I'm excited about and work slows down for me in January. Then, I get sick/depressed/busy again, forget all about blogging and last year I actually didn't get a lot of sewing in. It was a crazy year. I have 6 drafts saved up from January of last year that I didn't get to post because I didn't have the pictures ready and never got around to them. I think this will be my year to change all that. At the end of 2015, I finally got to sew something other than mending! It finally got cold here in DFW after Christmas so my daughter and I had to make our dogs sweaters. We used Simplicity 3939. I bought it on sale for under $2 a few years back. It's for smaller dogs.

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...

I've had a year filled with health challenges but I should be back in the game again. I did finish the last quilt I posted about but I don't know if I have any pictures of it. Since then, I haven't really done much because I haven't had the energy for it. That all changed at the end of May and I've been working on a fast and easy quilt. I hope to finish it today and post later after its been washed. It was just something to use up what I had and get back into the groove of quilting/sewing. Actually in February I made a new skirt for myself for V-day and now I plan to sew some clothes after this quilt. Also I may change to my other gmail account to post but its still me and only me. Thanks for still following me!

This blog is really stark right now but I like starting with a blank page, whether virtual or paper. This is my first post on my new quilting blog. I have an old blog on Live Journal that I hope to also keep updating with my quilting progress. I came to Blogger because I saw there were a great many quilters here and I'd like to comment on the ones that only let other Blogger accounts comment. I'm a  35 year old mother of two and I've been quilting and sewing for 10 years. In 2009 my husband bought and fixed a vintage Necchi BU sewing machine for me and that has been the answer to my prayers. My previous two machines have not been able to tackle the job of quilting adequately. My new machine quilts like a dream. I piece my quilts on a vintage Singer Rocketeer, also known as a 503a. I love my vintage machines and while I now have my set up complete, I can see myself delving further into the charm and usefulness of vintage sewing machines. My current WIP is a full size qui...