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!

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!

projects in the works

 Hi!  A little re-cap here and some new, too!
I finished up this tote bag as my first encounter with Kraft-tex.  It's that brown stuff on the bag bottom portion.  It's a papery fabric alternative, and something I have wanted to try for quite awhile but never made it a priority.  Not very long ago, I saw a purse/bag pattern in a shop that uses Kraft-tex, and their sample was appealing.  Knowing that this was in supply over at Bear Patch, I immediately wanted to make it!  But first I found this free pattern over on the C&T website and thought I would start with something easy.  So here's my first project!

I have continued to whittle away at my Mini Rings quilt (shown below) and as of bedtime last night I now have it 2/3 done, with the first 2 vertical rows all sewn together.  I do like the color and design style of this.  But it also is made with some different techniques, and I'm not sure I have mastered those!  I'm not sure if it's my sewing, or just the nature of the beast, but a lot of my seams and corners do not match, which is not my norm.

On a whim, I took a few spare minutes and glue-basted these 2" hexies from a pre-cut pack of Tula Pink's newest fabric line, Slow and Steady.  The colors are happy!  No definite plan for these yet, but I'll cook up something from those ideas running around in my brain!

And I've picked out fabric and supplies for the next little bag project--

Since I have a couple of sewing retreats coming up this fall, I want to be prepared!  This Sew Together Bag has been simmering on the back burner in my sewing room for quite awhile, just waiting for me to pay attention and pick out the fabric!  I love picking out fabrics to go together, but I often can't be rushed with that.  I just like to take my time, I guess!

preparations

I'm attending a quilt retreat with members of my quilt group, the Ham Lake Piecemakers, soon.  Actually, today I realized that it is 1 week from today!  That really snuck up on me!  I have to move it up on my mental calendar and get my gear lined up.  I am taking mostly projects that are already started and really need to be finished.  But I do have one new project that I just started, and plan to teach for a winter class.  It's called Mini Rings by Sew Kind of Wonderful.  It requires a special ruler, the Mini Quick Curve Ruler.

I'm making mine with a different color combination--

Strip sets to be cut into arcs.

Lots of scrap curves.

All of my pieces cut and organized for a ride to retreat!

A sample block sewn to test the pattern and my skills!

Last week I shared some pictures of the squirt gun art.  Today I had time to play with an idea I had to use some small pieces of the paintings.  This is a frame that floats the paper between 2 sheets of glass.  Place on a painted wall in a medium gray shade, it looks like something very likeable!

Thank you, Ian and Jack!  Love you!

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.

music to my ears

It has been only a week since the grandsons went back to NC.  I think I have all the toys picked up, but I haven't gotten around to cleaning the floors and bathrooms yet!  That can wait!

Ian surprised me and asked if he could sew something with me--I'm not sure if it was the intrigue of the sewing room and all of the goodies in there, or that he really knows what sewing is about!  Either way, I thought it was worth making a little pillowcase from my red truck fabric during Jack's naptime.  He stood on a little stool right by my chair to watch the machine do its magic, and he was all smiles when he got to hug his pillow!  We will definitely do that again, and include little Jack in the fun, too!

Here's a cut shot of Ian after we got out some of our old Lego collection--

he had great plans to make everything in the diagrams!  He already likes to build with blocks, and now is old enough to move to the Lego pieces.  And it makes a fun thing to do with Papa and Grandpa, too.

Over at Bear Patch, we have put up a display of employees' projects, and I dug out this one for something that not a lot of people have ever seen.  It is Urban Beads by Sew Kind of Wonderful.  I made it about 4 years ago (I think) and have never finished it.  Just waiting for quilting--just like the shoemaker's children, my quilts usually wait for finishing!  

I had to tear myself away from English Paper Piecing this evening, while watching the NCAA Basketball Tournament on TV.  I am really really wanting to finish up the project I have going so I can start the next one.  I did stray from the straight and narrow this afternoon, and gave into the temptation to prepare some pieces for my new project, Glorious Hexagons.  I did some fussy cutting from some interesting fabrics to see what the design combinations would look like.  Here's what I cut and glued today, and tucked away into my sewing basket.  They are fun!

Does this look like fun to you, or am I nuts?!

Here's one quilt that I made for a store sample that I actually have quilted and bound.  It will go into our upcoming display of baby and kid quilts.  This dragon fabric was so cute, and so easy to work into this pattern called Diva 2 by Maple Island Quilts.  I would not recommend using a directional fabric int he border like that gray one I used.  It has a diamond design, and I quickly realized that I was going to need to alter the cutting so the diamonds all stood up and down, not part of them sideways!