Perfect 10 Quilts Sew Along

Morning friends!  Today is the first day of Fat Quarter Shop's Perfect 10 Quilts Quiltalong.  I'm so happy to be participating.  All you need is the Perfect 10 Quilts book and accompanying ruler . Grab a layer cake and some background and you're practically sewing already.

When I was looking around at layer cakes I couldn't stop thinking about the wonderful quilt that I saw Barb making on Instagram. I loved the Robin's Egg Blue background (Moda Bella Solid 9900 85) and how the prints, all the prints, popped against it. Flower Sacks isn't available yet, but Barb hooked me up and Moda sent me the fabrics.  I can't thank them enough for the chance to sew on something fresh and new.  Fat Quarter Shop sent the book and ruler, and I've been sewing up a storm. It's been a while since I did any sew alongs and it's good to have a deadline, it keeps me on track.  I've missed that. 

 

 

For the quilt along we'll be sewing a sampler from the blocks in the book.  You can head over to the Jolly Jabber here and download the fabric requirements and check out the sampler. There's a pdf for the sampler, but you'll need the book for the instructions. 

Meet Banana, it's a fast and fun block to get started.  No tough decisions, just one layer cake square and background pieces. 

 

And here's Birthday Cake.  Every week on Tuesday we'll stitch and share two new blocks.  You can see all the blocks using the hastags #perfect10Tuesday, #perfect10quiltsbook. 

Here's who's sewing along with us!

Cynthia of Dream Quilt Create

Gina of Thread Grafitti

Greg of Grey Dogwood Studio

Heidi of Buttons and Butterflies

Jennie of Porch Swing Quilts

Kim of Persimon Dreams

Melanie of A Bit of Scrap Stuff

Sinta of Pink Pincushion

Sondra of Out of the Blue Quilts

 

Hope you decide to join us!  See you over on Instagram! xo

Apple Season

Morning friends! Happy Friday!  I've unpacked all my sewing stuff and have been busily stitching away.  I'm working on a sew-along, preparing my blocks and getting my photographs. The gloomy overcast weather along with the time of the year makes pictures a challenge, my house turns into a dungeon.  But really even at the best of times photos challenge me.  There are so many great photographers in our sewing community !

Between blocks yesterday, I decided to make a cute apple.  Nanette had seen Sharon Holland's cute apple pattern and I had to make it.  Of course I forgot I had some cute faux  leather for the stem and instead used ribbon.  Dang. Now I need to make another. The little  leather cord really makes it.  Also I didn't have any green felt that I liked for the leaf, so I fused two pieces of green together and cut out the leaf shape with my pinking shears.  I have used that technique before, I really like it.   

 

This seemed to be the perfect time to get my Dutch Label Company labels out and stitch one on.  The little coffee cup was perfect as I imagine using this with a cup of coffee or tea.  It would  make an adorable gift, right? 

 

You could tuck this in a cellophane bag with the paper tags to close it.  Super cute.  You could throw in a couple of caramels  like a caramel apple! Nanette included caramels and homemade dried apples with her pumpkins and it was an adorable fall gift.

 

Hope you have a happy weekend!  xop

Fall in Love

Hi there friends!  How are you?  I'm home from my trip to see Nanette and her family.  We had a lot of fun, chatting, sewing, going on outings, hanging out with her people, I LOVE IT.

 

We had our usual farewell brunch on Sunday at Cucina in Salt Lake City.  Usually it's Nanette, Dave, her husband, and I, but this time Jaime and Natalie joined us.  The food is great and they make an amazing cup of coffee.  It was a wonderful time.

 

 

I love that it was cooler while I was there, fall in full swing.  No snow though, it's the first time I've been to Utah where I haven't seen or been in snow at some point in the trip.  The weather was so pleasant.  I'm back home to some warm weather and it's unseasonably humid.  GROSS.  And no fresh apples to pluck straight from the trees.  I would have brought some home but you can't get back into CA with produce. 

 

We had a great time sewing.  I worked on my Christmas project but we took a break and made some pumpkin mats for gifts.  This required a couple of trips to quilt shops, I needed some oranges and we needed a bit of wool for the leaves.  We drew our own pumpkins and leaves, so there's no pattern.  It was a lot of fun. 

 

Came home to my Sew Stitching Happy  box.  I have never ordered  a curated box before.  I fell in love with the cute calendar fabric and HAD TO HAVE IT.  It was just my good fortune that the box had a cute collection of fabric and notions that made it perfect to order. That little bag has a spool of thread and who doesn't need more thread?  Anyway Cassie has a cute shop, I follow her on Instagram.

 

I hope you're all well.  I'm looking forward to a fun project coming up soon! I'm feeling that happy sewing vibe right now.  How about you?  Have fun friends. xop

 

 

 

 

Rambling

Morning from my own home! My mother-in-law is doing great  and she kicked me to the curb! She's ready to get back to her normal life and I'm happy to be home with Bret.  I've missed my sewing, even when I'm not sewing, I like sitting in my sewing room and looking at my stuff.  I'm sure she missed doing stuff without me checking on her every 5 minutes!  It was a fun time though, and I'll miss it!

 

I've been thinking a lot about my stash of fabric.  Not just my pkm stash but all the fabrics I have and still love.  I am considering  a small project and made a quick fabric pull.  Not sure if any or all of these will show up in my project or really, even if I'll actually make it but it was fun.  I really enjoy quilts made with fabric that is pulled from many different lines. 

 

I'm working on a quilt from an old 2002  For the Love of Quilting Magazine, named Wild Irish Rose.  I originally made it in 30's fabric and always wished I had made the flower centers with connector triangles, so this time I cut some squares for that.  I think these will turn out well, the little corners won't line up to the pieced squares, so no pressure there, we'll see if my grand plan works when I begin to stitch it all together.

 

My fabric inspiration is Urban Chiks Swell Christmas.  Kristyne made  my quilt inspiration (see it here on Instagram) and you recognize my kit making style. This project is using strip sets so there's lots of units that I have ready to assemble.  I have one more strip set to cut and that's ready for some power sewing.  I'm glad I saved the magazine, I really like the way that the project was organized. 

 

Organization is key when you're working on a longer term project.. there's lots of things here that look similar but are used in different spots.  Mine are all in different little bags (saved from fabric orders!) and they correspond to each step. I hate it when I've set a project aside then have to do some quilt forensics to figure out what needs doing next. 

 

That's what doing with me.  We've had some California fall weather in the 70s but this week it will soar  back up to the 90s in what hopefully with be the end of the summer heat.  HOPEFULLY.

 

Ok, that's it for me friends, what's doing with you?  xop

That Quirky Feeling

Hi friends, how are you?  We're enjoying some delightful weather this week, in the 70s!  Yesterday morning it was in late 40s when I got up.  Definitely fall weather. Chatting with my mother-in-law, we can hardly believe it's already halfway through September for pete's sake.  What a year it's been for us. 

One of the things I've been thinking about lately is how back in the day we'd drive for hours to check out quilt shops and see what was new.  You couldn't see everything under the sun on the internet like you can now, so you'd have to drive all over.    We'd somehow get wind of a new quilt shop opening and we'd make a plan of visiting it as soon as it opened, and hitting all the shops along the way.  USING PAPER MAPS! Sometimes MapQuest or whatever mapping software was available at the time.  Martingale put out books featuring quilt shops and I loved it.  I dreamed of visiting places.  Plan trips around shops, it was a cool thing. 

 

Now it doesn't seem like people do that quite as much. Or maybe it's just me?  But one shop I've wanted to see for a while is Temecula Quilt Company. I'd seen those cute little ruler boxes with their name on them.  My friend Joyce told me about their sew alongs on the blog, and just the photos.. well they're captivating! 

 

All this brings me to the one of the latest e-books that Martingale shared with me, Temecula Quilt Company Quirky Little Quilts.  If you like sweet little quilts get ready to fall in love.   So many adorable projects, it brings me back to my Civil War reproduction days. 

All these photos are from Martingale.  I picked my two favorites to share with you, but you can go check out the rest of the quilts here.  I love this flower shape, this quilt is Petite Posies.  I know it's an old block from way-back-when and that's exactly why I like it.  I still feel drawn to these quilts even though I mainly sew with the brighter PMK palette.  And really wouldn't all quilts work in whatever colors you picked?

My absolute favorite in the book is T is for Temecula.  I love that block and I love the way Sheryl has used the changing background colors to give this a little extra sparkle.

The whole book is totally charming.  Lots of photographs of vignette's which I LOVE.  It makes the book so special to me,  pretty to look at even if you don't stitch a quilt.  Entertainment while reading and then later while sewing.  Double the fun.  

 

I'll confess it only makes me want to visit the shop more!!!  I hope you take a minute to check out the book over on the Martingale site. The pictures are yummy! Happy browsing and happy sewing friends! xop

Dutch Label Shop

Hi there friends! I'm back home for a few hours working  (broken record alert) on getting my sewing room put back together  (and pretending I'm not searching for that seam tape.) Is any of it surprising, nope . 

 

Earlier this year Abby at Dutch Label Shop contacted me asking if I'd like to try out some of their labels. I wasn't able to do it at the time but Abby contacted me again recently and  I was happy to be able to say yes, I'd love to give them a try.  I was  in love with the look of the ribbons and tags after checking out Helen's post about them. 

 

I ordered two kinds of sew on labels, and some hang tags.  They have a lot of little designs to use on your tags, and I couldn't resist the coffee cup and button, and the cherry was perfect for the hang tags.  I like the idea of tying the paper tags onto small projects or including them in with gifts.  I just used some seam tape on them, but Helen used some raffia and some bakers twine which was delightful. I'm using one of mine as a bookmark so I can enjoy it daily.  I'm looking forward to a project to stitch one on, maybe on my next visit home!

 

I hope you get a chance to check out the labels!!!  Thanks again  Dutch Label Shop for offering  me the chance to order them!

 

 

Sew Dreams

Hello friends! I don't know about you, but when I can't sew I do the next best thing and pull out some quilt books to look at and dream about sewing.  Martingale has very kindly shared some  new release e-books with me and the first one that caught my eye was Barb and Mary's new Easy Layer-Cake Quilts 2 book.  I'm a huge fan of those sisters, Barb and I are  #superfriends  It's probably good we have some geography between us, we're a couple of  troublemakers! 

 

Easy Layer-Cake Quilts 2 has a lot of really cute cheerful projects in it. Around the Block caught my eye, I love the confetti feeling of it.  The instructions are great and I like the method they use to put this quilt together.  To me it's an easy to make without a design wall quilt, which I love.  Perfect to sit and stitch with friends, no thinking allowed!

 

If you're feeling fall, Flipping Out is super cute.  It's a big quilt requiring 2 layer cakes and a jelly roll, and is a nice bed sized quilt. 

 

I'm always happy to share new books that I fall in love with, but I'm extra-happy to share books written by friends you admire!  Congratulations Barb and Mary on another great fun book!

Asking for a friend

Hi there friends.  I'm home for the afternoon to catch up on things around here.  My mother-in-law is doing well, thank you to all who checked on us!

 

ANYWAY.... people, as per usual I'm looking for things I can't find.  I have a half used spool of vintage Hug Snug seam binding that I needed for a quick project.  CAN NOT FIND IT.  There are few things that have a regular place here, and this tape is one of them.  AND IT'S NOT THERE. It's not even there the second or third time I looked! Which sad to say often happens.

 

 

I have torn the place apart looking for it. At one point I even lost my phone along the way and spent another 10 minutes backtracking my trail looking for it. The saddest part of this story is, I have a fresh new spool and I can totally cut off the pieces I need and move along with my life, and eventually I did it, but I still feel like I need to search for the other spool.

 

Sigh.  Well it's not like I haven't moved on for the most part. I mean I'm still me.

 

I almost have everything is checked off my list of things to do here. Hope you're doing well.  I love keeping up with you guys that are on Instagram.  I'm not doing much but hey did you see I did some hand sewing?  Kind of crazy for me but I loved it!  Elise sent me some of her Dilly Flower papers to try and I thought it was so fun. I have been inspired by her photos.. check out her IG feed here.

 

Ok that's it.  I'm just about over looking for lost stuff for today.  I haven't had a chance to put my room back together yet, one last inspection to go before everything can get put away.  I know my tape will show up then!  Miss you guys! xo

P. S. Cross your fingers it's not with the tailor's ham!

Pass the cough drops

Hi there friends! how are you? I've been coughing up a storm, not sure if I've caught whatever Bret has or I'm just having problems with the smoke in the air, but cough cough cough is all I do.  It's a toss up considering all the smoke in the air from the fires buring away in California. 

In the meantime I've tackled another Moda Blockheads 2 block.  I may or may not have been influence by my ironing board!

 

Lots of triangles in this block by Lynne from Kansas Troubles.  My triangle piecing isn't that great, but I made my little half square triangle blocks and got out my Clearly  Perfect Slotted Trimmers  from Kari and trimmed them up. Holy cow my segments went together perfectly with no nudging or pulling and I felt like I was winning at life.

I've tried all kinds of methods and tools but this one is my favorite.  I'm just not the piecer I used to be and honestly I was never that great.  I've had to use a lot of gentle persuasion over the years to make things line up.  This time, all good.  Of course I did get a little prideful and the last corner unit I attached had to be talked into working out which goes to show me I ought not get too full of myself.  Pride and all that!

 

My blocks are looking like a jumbled mess, not sure how I like the combos I have going. Everyone's blocks all look so good together, mine look like they have an identity crisis going on.

 

Oh well. Whatever, it's all in fun right? I have spent some time thinking about how to handle the three blocks I haven't done yet and how I can use them to make these make sense.  Or maybe I'll slam them all together and just say hey, what the heck. Or maybe I'll get distracted by something else and WHO KNOWS WHAT CAN HAPPEN.

 

So that's it.  Happy weekend people! Stay safe friends! xop

Why lie?

Hi there friends!  Hope you're doing well.  What are you up to? I've been staying indoors, the air is smoky from all the California wildfires.  Most of the time I have my phone in my hand waiting for updates from Elizabeth about her situation in Murphys (she's safe so far) and walking around my house figuring out ways to avoid any housework. (Definitely not complaining, the smoke is way worse for Elizabeth and NorCal people)

 

Speaking of housework, do you wear an apron?  I have a million white tops so I always wear an apron.  I always think about an old original series episode of Queer Eye when the guys lament that the contestant's wife got dirty from her own house.  OMG THAT'S ME. I'm constantly leaning into something so I always put on an apron when it comes time to clean.

 

 Look at how cute my favorite  apron is! Elizabeth made this for me for Christmas one year, and I love it.  Love the fussy cut vintage tablecloth. Elizabeth is such a talented seamstress. 

It's super cute on.  And it looks perfect hanging up in my kitchen. 

 

 

Which is where it went about 5 minutes after this photo because duh, you can't do dirty stuff in this apron.  I'M NOT PERFECT PEOPLE.  I am trying to use stuff and not save it but some stuff needs to be saved.  Like this apron.

 

Ok, that's all the nonsense from these parts, FOR NOW. What's up with you?

 

 

Give me an A

It's the last week of the Spelling Bee! I can hardly believe it! So many blocks!   Thanks to Fat Quarter Shop and Lori for inviting me to play along!

 

Don't worry, Lori isn't out of cute ideas! That fall quilt and the new Vintage Christmas book will be here before you know it! Thanks for the cute recap of the year Fat Quarter Shop!

TGIF

Hi friends!  How are you?  I can't believe it's August already, and as I'm sure I've mentioned before, time is flying by at a record pace.  My sewing room is still a mess and stuff is all over the place, but I did manage to get a couple of Moda Blockhead Blocks done.  They're the easy ones of course.  This cute block is by  Stacy Iest Hsu and you can find the instructions here.

 

This little chubby plus block is by quilting idol Laurie Simpson and you can find it here.  Mine looks a little funky due to the fact that I had to lean way over some crap to cut it out.  Not all that accurate considering it's all squares and rectangles.  Oh well. It was fun to dig thru my larger scrap box for some older PKM fabrics like that red. 

 

In my renewed effort to use things I've been saving, get a load of this pretty ironing board cover!  It was a gift a least at year ago if not more... and I've been saving it. Duh. But with the duct work came a fine layer of dust all over my sewing room, making it the perfect time to change that old yucky cover for this pretty one. 

 

 

Lets see how long it lasts.  In the mean time ignore that crap that's normally behind the curtain.  We still have some testing to be done on the new furnace/ac/ductwork and they need access to the vent that's behind a bunch of stuff normally hidden by a curtain.

 

Anyway soon enough the inspections etc will be done and things can return to it's normal level of chaos.  Hope you have a great weekend pals! xop

 

One lonely block

Hi friends!  I can't believe we're nearing the end of July.  Time seems to move at a pretty fantastic rate these days.  I'm already behind 3 Moda Blockheads2 blocks, but I managed to throw together this little pineapple by Jan Patek yesterday in the blink of an eye.  It looks cheerful up on my 'design wall'.. which is really just a vinyl flannel backed table cloth push pinned to the wall in my hallway. Not sew fancy.

 

It's a sweet little thing.  I left off the little ribs that you can see in Jan's design, mostly because I was lazy.  They're a cute addition. I was happy to have some fabric that fit the bill close at hand, and the background print will  help me add more colors to the rest of the blocks.  I went off into a pink and red  tangent and getting back to my more PKM colors is a bit work considering I don't know what's coming and what will end up where.  With projects like these I have a tendency to end up with a random mishmash of things that I don't necessarily like in the end.  Is there a secret to this?  Am I on the only one who doesn't know it?  I probably should have read the instructions better.   

 

Whatever, I like making the blocks and maybe someday all these blocks will be treasure discovered in a bag at a garage sale or a thrift store.   I just enjoy making them one at a time and if they don't turn into anything else then no biggy, they've already served their purpose. 

 

I'm really not up to much else.  Just normal day stuff.  Drinking coffee, doing the laundry. What about you? I hope you're keeping cool  (or warm for you southern hemisphere folk) and things are going along as best as they can. xo

Use it or....

Hi there friends!  How are you?  Summer is progressing along here.  My air conditioning is back and better than ever. Nothing is put away though, they still need to replace all the ducting under the house next week.  Cool air is flowing  till then, so I'm happy about it. 

 

You might remember WAY BACK  when the Queen celebrated her Jubilee. It's been years, right? Anyway Frankie and I acquired some of the cute celebratory tins courtesy of her friend Martin.  My tins have been in protective custody since then.  I don't know about you, but I have a habit of putting things in cold storage saving them for later. Well I'm no spring chicken and it's later now.  Time to start using things, right? 

I had a bunch of stuff on my sewing table getting in the way so I pulled out my Jubilee tin (there's still one in cold storage, I'm not perfect) and  my biscuit tin that I did nothing with and used them to store my little collections of beads and beading supplies.

Imagine Frankie's surprise when she's cleaning out my stuff when I head to the great sewing room in the sky and she finds this stuff.  She wisely began using her tins immediately.  Most of the time she's able to fight the saving-for-later-gene and use her things.  Most of the time..

 

They're cute and I'm glad I have a blog post to refer back to when I need to find where my stuff is.  In the mean time that's just a fraction of the stuff on my sewing table.  No flat surface is safe with me around.

 

Hope you're using all your stuff and having fun.  Don't be like me!!! xop