what have I been doing??

Last time I was sharing here, I was on vacation, and now that seems like so long ago even though it hasn't really been that long!  I have been trying to make the most of my time at home for sewing, but that has become more limited as I have been working more at the store.  We have needed to rearrange some hours and duties there, and some of that has come my way.  It's all things that I enjoy doing, I really love being a part of the quilt shop.  

We are adjusting to the absence of one of our key players, as she recuperates from a devastating injury.  This is the kind of injury that strikes horror in the heart of anyone who loves to work with their hands.  She took a bad fall on her stairs at home, and ended up with multiple fractures of wrists and a shoulder.  For weeks, she was incapacitated for anything involving upper extremities.  Now, 4 months later, she is in the midst of constant therapy and exercises.  She has regained limited use of her hands, and can sew on her machine for brief periods and slowly knit with big needles and chunky yarn.  The physical ramifications are a huge challenge, but also the mental and emotional hurdles.  Loosing the ability to do what you love to do (sewing and knitting), loss of independence (unable to drive until a week or so ago) and just feeling like everything has changed without wanting it to change!  We all express encouraging words, but can't truly identify with her situation.  We just want her to get better!  It takes a lot of determination and work for her on a daily basis to do even some of the basic things that we take for granted.  

So, as I share with you about the things I work on, it is good to be reminded that I am lucky to have the ability to enjoy this big part of my life and creativity.

In January, I started making blocks for Urbanology by Sew Kind of Wonderful.  It's a 12-month plan to create interesting shapes and designs with the Mini Quick Curve ruler.  I've used the ruler before, and now I'm a big fan!  These feathers and arrows are my favorites from the whole quilt.  I still have to make the last section, the antlers.  And then, of course, put it all together and quilt it!  I would love to teach this at the store starting in the fall, so I hope I get it all together by then!

My little grandsons, Ian and Jack, like to help with a little stirring and mixing in the kitchen.  So I am making them some little chef aprons with a Mickey Mouse theme.  I found the fabric at the JoAnn's store, they have a lot of licensed fabrics of all kinds to choose from.  I know these guys like Mickey, so this should be a good fit.  I had enough fabric to make 4, so that's what I'm doing, and they can share with friends.

The directions are from Mom and Me Aprons by Atkinson Designs.  It's a straight forward and well-constructed design.

One of the things I do for the store is help with designing and organizing the little make-and-take projects that we use for retreats.  I altered a free online design to make this bag, and have written up the instructions for my modifications.  I get inspiration from all kinds of places, but with something like this, I always feel it's important to give credit to the source that I took that inspiration from.  We make up little kits to hand out to the 54 women at the retreat.  I'm calling it My Tiny Treasure Bag!

I'm also preparing for Grandson #3, arriving in March!  The nursery has the colors shown below in the chevron, arrows and feathers fabrics.  I just spent a little time pulling out some colors of solids in my stash to go with them.  I have some more work to do to get the combinations just right, and then do some sewing.  I'm thinking sheets, changing pad cover, boppy pillow cover, name pennants, diaper storage box and a couple other things if I can.  Better get busy!  Glad I just have to deliver these things, not the baby!

I've had little time for my English Paper Piecing project, Glorious Hexagons.  But I whittle away at the blocks and eventually I hope to have enough to make a quilt.  I have decided that I am going to simplify things a bit and instead of making several of each of the 54 blocks, I am going to make multiples of the blocks that I really prefer.  Those are the blocks with less pieces!  Here are 6 that I have basted and ready to hand stitch together.

And that's all for now!  Have a great day!

feeling lucky!

I know there's a lot of problems all around the world, and many things to obsessively worry about it I choose to go that way.  However, I'm am trying to maintain a positive feeling in my everyday life, without being Pollyanna-ish.  I just had a great time with my mom visiting us, and a quilt retreat, and a relaxing weekend.  I am even feeling really good about the fact that we have done a thorough sort and purge and reorganization of another storage closet!  

And some really fun things to look forward to on the horizon, too-- Dan visiting and bringing Jessica to meet us, a couple more quilt retreats planned, and, drumroll please, 

another grandson due in March!  Woo-hoo!

2 weeks ago while on quilt retreat, a few of us took a field trip to a new (to me) quilt shop in called Altoona, WI.  That's on the eastern border of Eau Claire.  It's called Stitch Supply.  I will definitely be going there again!  They have the largest assortment of Cotton + Steel fabrics that I have seen.  It kinda required me to buy several fat quarters of some of the prints that we haven't ordered for Bear Patch.  Don't they look fun?!  Odd bugs, fountain pens, rotary dials, matchsticks, jacks...

Good additions to my fabric gallery!

My mom stayed with us for a few days after that retreat, then flew out to Whitefish, MT, to visit Dan.  She can get a direct flight from Minneapolis to Kalispell, which makes it easy.  She was there 5 days, then came back to our house for an overnight before returning to Iowa.  Before she left Montana, she asked if she could bring me anything.  I jokingly said I would love a fresh huckleberry pie.  Well, she carried a piece of that pie all the way back to me!  I was so excited!  I'm eating only a little at a time so I can make it last!

After finishing up my recent garment sewing experience - and I will definitely try to get a picture of it in action - I really wanted to get back to sewing some quilt blocks.  So I picked up where I left off at retreat and went back to work on these faux wedding ring blocks--

I have some sewn together, and the rest in different stages of assembly.    I would like to get this done to put on the class schedule at the store after the 1st of the year.  

I did complete another small quilt, below, that could also become a class.  It's called Timbuktu, and I started working on it last January.  It requires the use of the X-blocks ruler.  After I got the quilting done, I couldn't remember if I had binding for it already picked out.  A lot of times I do that, and I usually put a little label on that piece of fabric and store it in a little box.  Labeled "Bindings", of course!  I looked all over the place for a cut of that green fabric because it seemed logical to me that I would have chosen that for the binding.  I never could find it, and it finally dawned on me that maybe it was a different fabric.  I found what was left from the backing fabric, and there was plenty of that to cut binding strips, so that's what I did!

Last week at Bear Patch, we received an order that included these hexagon pre-cuts of the most recent Tula Pink fabric line.  They work just right with my 2" hexagon papers for English Paper Piecing, so I have been getting those ready to stitch together.  Tonight is our employee sewing night at the store and I will be taking that along to work on.

I recently wrote about our English paper piecing group at Bear Patch, and I included the recipe for a yummy dip that I made.  Today I am making it again to share with my co-workers!  Time to get to the grocery store and pick up a few things needed!  I hope your day is lucky, too!

plants and things

It's not time to plant the garden yet, and already I have harvested some punkins!  I finished the quilting on this little quilt (it's 36" square) to have it ready to hang up in the store because I'm going to teach it as a class this summer.  The pumpkin blocks are 6" square and are made with the Mini Quick Curves ruler from Sew Kind of Wonderful.  This was a fun project and I liked working with the ruler.  The directions are easy to follow, and you might want to give it a go yourself!  We have the patterns and rulers over at the store, and we always so mail orders if you like.

And another addition to my household planting---

I went with my neighborhood friends to Plant Nite just a few nights ago.  This is modeled on the Paint Nite events that you might have heard of or experienced.  A group gathers with a leader who brings all the supplies and teaches/explains what to do.  This was a fun and different evening out.  We found a location convenient to us (Ham Lake Lanes!) and joined a group of about 20 people for some planting.  The company operates in many locations.  We did have to meet first for food and adult beverages, luckily there was a designated waitress who kept us supplied!  I like my little planter!  Plus, this was offered as a Groupon, so the price made it silly not to give it a try and enjoy a night out with friends.

The next day I was visiting my friend, Nancy, and she had over-wintered her succulents from the garden and yard.  It was finally safe to put them outside on the deck, although they did get a tarp over them the night we were there because it was borderline cold.  And she is generous with clippings, so I have more plants to put into pots now!  They will spend the summer out on the patio, and hopefully survive for another year!

I have a book recommendation for you, if you have reading time.  This book really didn't take so long to read, partly because it was hard to put down.  One night I read until 1 AM, and I hardly ever do that!  It's Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay.  I won't tell you much about, so as not to spoil the story.  It's historical fiction, set in Paris, in 1942 and the present.  It's a compelling story.

plenty o' projects

I just had a fabulous week with 2 special friends, having a sewing fiesta for a whole week!

I secured a condo at a resort, we moved in our "equipment" and spent all those days just doing whatever we wanted.  It was pretty cold, but we had few reasons to leave the fireside.  Except for a trip out for lunch, quilt shop visiting and restocking a couple groceries.  

Here are some of the things I worked on:

These turned into little pumpkins and were pretty fun to put together.  The curves are cut with the ruler shown below, and then the uneven ends of the curved seams are trimmed to make the correct size of block.  The directions are very good.

Mini Pumpkins by Sew Kind of Wonderful
uses the Mini Quick Curve Ruler
Available at Bear Patch Quilting Co.

I like this ruler so much that I am using it to teach a class at Bear Patch for a little tablerunner, shown in the previous post.

Here's a project that has been waiting about 2 1/2 year for my attention.  It is a set of signature blocks, about 20 of them, for my 60th birthday present from the Ham Lake Piecemakers.

I used my Electric Quilt program to design a small quilt.  This is just the beginning section, the rest is still waiting for me!

Below is another fun quilt with a fun ruler--

The X Blocks ruler.

It uses 2 1/2" strips, I picked a jelly roll of fabrics by Basic Grey for Moda.

I got all of the blocks made, and laid out as I wanted them.  Then I packed them up again for my next chance for sewing.

blocks for Timbuktu

 This is one of 3 little Sweet Pea Pods by Lazy Girl.  I learned to take apart a zipper for this, remove the slider, then put the slider back on.  That's how I got a turquoise zipper pull on that black zipper.

And a little bit of knitting happened, too!  This is the beginning of a scarf called Reyna, pattern available on Ravelry.  I'm using a new yarn (for me) that is a really nice fine merino wool from an Australian company called Cleckheaton.  I saw an advertisement for it at JoAnne's, and I went to check it out.  I turns out to be a pretty nice yarn, a little bit larger gauge than what the pattern called for, but OK for what I wanted.  It's definitely more expensive than the usual JoAnne's yarn selection, so remember your coupon!

And here's another little quilt that is all about dinosaurs for little boys.

This one is for Jack's upcoming 2nd birthday.

I realized that big brother Ian got all kinds of my quilts and snugglies, and I hadn't really made anything special for Jack.  I hope he likes it!

That wraps up the majority of my accomplishments on my sewing vacation.  I also bonded with my Bernina 820, which is a new machine for me.  And it worked great and I loved it!