all kinds of sewing going on!

Two weeks ago I joined a group of friends for a retreat at Bridge Creek Cottage in Augusta, WI.  We tried out these temporary tattoos.

My body art!

Assorted adorned quilters' arms.

 One of the quilts I worked on at this retreat was derived from a pattern I made in 2010.  After publishing the pattern for this quilt, I added a modification for a little baby quilt using the center portion.  By changing up some of the fabrics, I gave it a new look.

Star Light, my design for Quilt MN 2010

This is the baby quilt version.  It's for a little girl due in December!  My nephew, Scott, and his wife, Katie, are having their first baby.  Scott is the son of my sister, Jan.

This will be quilted very soon and finished right around the time that this little princess arrives!  They are using nursery colors around the theme of the vintage Peter Rabbit pictures and storybook, so this will hopefully fit with that.  They live out near San Francisco.

I tackled another new project, too.  My machine got a good workout making 8 owls.  Each of those eyeballs has about 20 pieces in it!

I was relieved to get them all done, except for that poor fellow on the left.  I made a mistake in the cutting and didn't have the extra fabric along with me to correct the problem while I was there.

Forest Friends by Elizabeth Hartman

I picked up and worked on a project that I had started last year.  I made 3 of the 6 stockings in this pattern by Laura Heine. See the full set below.  These will be displayed at Bear Patch for our Christmas window.

Stopping By The Woods by Laura Heine (Fiberworks)

Here's something I started working on when I got back home--my little grandson, Ian, is going to be moving to a new sleeping arrangement soon.  A new baby brother in the house in March means Ian (4) moves to a new bedroom and a bunk bed!  He needs a special new quilt to make that move happen with ease, don't you think?  He's really involved with super heroes right now, they are his favorite topic of play and entertainment.  Thomas the Train is so 2015!  So I ventured into the licensed prints aisle at JoAnn's.  I was gobsmacked by the assortment there!  I don't think I've ever been in that aisle before!  I found some good choices for Ian's quilt, and drafted a simple design that keeps large sections of the characters intact.  Here are some blocks on my design wall--

I showed him, via FaceTime, some of the fabrics and he was so excited!

I had been looking at a pattern for a little bag, Sew Together, by Sew Demented.  I was a little hesitant to get it going because it had quite a few parts to it and I couldn't decide what fabric to use!  I wanted it to be just the perfect fabric because I thought it would probably be the one and only that I made from that pattern!  Do you ever have that feeling?  I finally took the plunge and put all the pieces together.

It has 3 zippered compartments inside.  I used mostly fabric from Cotton + Steel.  And some Moda Grunge for the pocket lining.  I added some beautiful ribbons on the outside for trim.  It actually all went together very well, my only stumbling block was putting together that long purple zipper with the striped binding at the edge.  I'm not real satisfied with my top-stitching for that.  I did have some helpful coaching from my friend, Mary, who was at the retreat and has made this more than once.  Thanks, Mary!

And here's something that is part of a much bigger plan.  A little birdie, part of the Urbanologie quilt pattern from Sew Kind of Wonderful.  It's made with the Mini Quick Curve ruler.

Can you find the birds in the picture below?  I'm considering making this as a block-of-the-month class at Bear Patch in 2017.  There are 12 different pieced units incorporated into the overall layout.

So that pretty well sums up what's happening in the sewing world at my house!  Today is the day before Thanksgiving, and I'm not scheduled to work but had thought I would go to the store anyway.  It's closed, and I have to get working on changing the window display to our Christmas theme.  It's nice to do that when there aren't customers observing the mess!  But it snowed during the night, and has started snowing again as I write this.  So I probably won't be driving the 30 miles to do that.  Instead, I will make it 10 miles to the grocery store to get what I need to make my pumpkin dessert for dinner tomorrow at my brother's house!  Priorities, you know!  And that will leave me more time for sewing at home!

hooked up again

After another 1.5 hours on the phone to troubleshoot the new modem, Bob has succeeded in getting one of our 2 computers back online--yay! The man deserves a medal! So here are some photos:

First, the quilt that I quilted for Bernina Barb--

I don't know the pattern name, but I do know that a kit for it is available at the Bear Patch Sewing Center. The unique part of this quilt is the machine embroidered designs that match the designs of the fabric motifs. The machine embroidery is a whole new element to incorporate into quilt designs. When I purchased my new Bernina 730 last December, I opted not to include the embroidery module. Maybe need to re-think that? Here's a closer look at a small section of the machine embroidery.

After completing that, I decided to do one of my own quilts that has been waiting for some attention! This is a small baby-size version of my Star Light pattern--

And I love it when the planets align and bring me the perfect fabric for backing and binding!

tricks and treats

We had a few more visitors on Halloween this year, but that's not saying much because last year we had ZERO! Our most favorite was this little camo dino that we found wandering on the frontporch--

Cheerfully escorted by Grandpa Jim (in his golfer costume), wearing a fine dinosaur suit crafted by Michelle. Good job!

I've been working on an adaptation of my Star Light quilt, I decided that I wanted to make a version that is smaller so it could be more like a kid-size quilt. Instead of shrinking all the proportions, I chose to keep the center star the same size and eliminate some borders. I think I like the scale and layout so far. The colors are inspired by a quilt I saw on the Red Pepper blog. It took me a bit to find what I think are the right shades and clear tones to put together. I asked for some help here in finding more of this red and white polkadot, but guess what! I got what I needed from the fat quarter that I had! I had held off sewing this for quite awhile so I could find more of that fabric, but I was really itching to get it started. Then all of a sudden it dawned on me that I really didn't need all that much of the polkadot, and when I calculated it out, it worked! After that point, it all came together nicely.

The lighting here wasn't so good, it was pretty late (around midnight) when I finished sewing and I wanted to grab a quick picture. It helps me to view the overall quilt in a picture like this, sort of like looking at a design wall (which I still haven't created!). So, this is ready for some quilting, but has to wait its turn since I am kind of backed up on the quilting right now for customers who need things done for the holidays. But it really helps to have this out of my head and off the cutting table. I am going to teach the Star Light quilt for a class at Bear Patch and it will be fun to offer the group this variation.

searching

I guess many people search for meaning in their lives, but I am searching for fabric! I have a plan in mind for a variation of my Star Light quilt and it involves this pretty little polka dot that turned up in my stash from an unknown source. It is only a fat quarter. I need more to make it work. I might be able to find something else similar, after looking online for a bit I can find a multitude of red polka dots with dots all in a row, but I have my mind set on this one so I am going to exhaust all my resources before I settle.

Here's Star Light in blue--

I want this polka dot for the little squares in the border that looks a bit like a zigzag. So if anyone glancing at this page knows who designed/manufactured this fabric, or even better, where to get some, please give me a shout!

I finished binding up the Knittin' Mittens quilt, I really like this little stripe. I like the process of putting bindings on my quilts, and I often choose a stripe or plaid that gives a special little finishing touch.

We have had some major winds here the past 2 days, it was nice to wake up this morning and not hear the howling outside. Two great big pine trees blew down in our neighborhood, and we were without power for about 16 hours which is very unusual for us. Usually we get a little flicker of outage, but rarely something lasting that long. Really made us stop and think about all we are so used to having, but which many people in the world would consider a luxury. Flushing toilets, heated running water, refrigeration, heat, lights, TV, stove, microwave, automatic garage door opener, sewing machines! All those basics. But we did manage to keep warm and read by flashlight, and we were very happy to have everything working again. Kind of reminds me of this quote:

Do what you can, with what you have, where you are. --Theodore Roosevelt