Sewing frenzy

Sue Spargo has a sew along going in celebration of 20 years in business.

I printed all the prompts with intentions to make the flowers one day.

Then she announced a wonderful prize for one lucky person who completes the sew along.

I'm in a sewing frenzy to meet the deadline.

Above is the first flower I tried.

Then there were two.

My wool pieces were too small, so I added pieces.

More flowers.

All the possible threads and needles were found.

My version of a sunflower.

Below is the finish.

I have 8 more flowers to make, then all the stems and leaves.

Will I finish in time? 

We will see.

There was a little pause to make this with Ava, our granddaughter.

Blooming now in our tiny yard.

The daylily above is from my mom's yard.

The one below is from Dixon Botanic Garden's plant sale.

See you next time.

Happy sewing!

 

Progress on quilt tops

Three of the four National Parks quilt tops have borders.

Below is the dark green with tan dot border.

This one has sage green with tossed badges for the border.

Below is the first try layout with blocks of batik.

I wasn't happy with the look so I ripped seams and took out the batik.

The new layout has less batik with small posters inserted.

It wasn't too difficult to resew the blocks.

I sewed in the same order as the original layout -

side with middle poster, then sides of the column, last side to the border.

I think the final top will have light sage green with tossed words for the border.

I have enough of the dark green dot but I want to use as much of the theme fabric as possible.

Grandson David had a big week.

He turned seven!

And participated in a violin recital.

Wish I could have been there in person.

Thankful for photos, videos, and FaceTime.

Happy Sewing!

 

Making National Parks Posters into Quilts

First a Paducah photo retry-

I took a lecture class on thread painting at the quilt show.

I took notes and photos of a couple of examples.

When/if I try thread painting, I will post photos.

Below is a sample of using fabric as the pattern for thread painting.

This week I have been working on quilt tops using National Park Poster fabric and the batik fat quarters I recently won. The first top will be for my younger brother. He has visited much of the US. On family vacations as kids we camped in National Parks-most of the ones on these posters.

Trying out borders.

I used this green as the border on the first top.

A finished top - but- I think I'm going to change the large batik blocks in the center column.

Another border try-out.

This green dotty fabric was in my stash.

I think it looks good with the posters.

I have bought three flannels for backing.

I want to be sure these are snuggly lap quilts.

Another border try-out.

There will be four lap quilts made from these National Parks Posters.

Look for updates next time.

 

Paducah Quilt Show

Friday I attended my first international quilt show.

A church near me took a group to the AQS Paducah show.

We went to the show and ended the trip with a visit to Hancocks.

A few things from the show.

I took two lecture classes and still had time to walk around the exhibits and vendor sections.

 I'm having problems accessing the photos I took of quilts I liked for this post.

I'm writing this bus trip story so I can remember it.

The two travelers who sat in the bus in the seats in front of me were friends.

They called each other at the beginning of the trip when one had gone to the wrong

place to meet the bus. We waited while friend #2 found us and boarded the bus.

When it was time to leave the quilt show and travel to Hancocks, friend #2 was in her seat on the phone to her friend. I could hear her adamantly telling her friend that she was on the right bus. She insisted that she saw the people that she recognized and she had gotten on the right bus. Her friend was just as certain that she was on the right bus and did not see friend #2.

I looked around the bus and spied friend #1 a few rows behind me. I tapped on friend #2 and pointed.

Still on the phone friend #2 told friend #1 to turn around.

They laughed and laughed at themselves, relieved that they were both on the right bus.

It was a fun trip. I am glad I went to my first international quilt show.

 

Charity blocks and small projects

This week was focused on small project finishes.

Grandson David chose some fabric while he was here.

The plan was to make a project bag but we ran out of time.

He did have fun quilting the fabric on the sewing machine.

This is the finished bag.

I will mail it to him if he wants it or it can stay here for his future projects.

Memphis Modern Quilt Guild asked all members to make blocks for two charity quilts.

I think the quilts will go to tornado/flood victims.

The string block below has my 1" strips with a solid supplied by the guild. 

The blocks below had to have bright green alternating with white-low contrast strips.

The color in the photo isn't true and 'bright' is a subjective term to me.

It will be interesting to see how these quilts look when finished.

My recent Missouri Star box included 'Flat Chuck' with a request to take photos with him.

Ava helped me get this pic when I took her to her horseback riding lesson with Miss Julie.

This week I made some more sleep masks for my favorite yoga instructor.

Her daughter-in-law asked for some. A great way to sew up some scraps.

Next Friday I am taking my first trip to the quilt show in Paducah.

I will be shopping for items to include on my collage quilt.

I have signed up for two lectures.

I will share next time.

Happy sewing!

 

Sewing with family

This week we had our daughter and her boys here for a visit.

David's first stop was the sewing room to try on the costume he made last year.

He pinned it to my dress form and I tacked the pieces together.

Next he wanted to make something.

We chose fabric to make a project bag.

He had fun quilting the back piece on the sewing machine.

But what he really wanted was a cape.

I showed him some dark navy fabric in my stash.

He liked the reverse side - a dark gray.

We used this pattern from my pattern stash and added 12 inches to the length.

He wore the cape everywhere and took it back to NYC this morning.

Darling daughter wanted a tote bag with a zip.

'Make a canvas bag' has been on my to-do list for ages.

I had all the necessary fabric, interfacing, and zipper.

I sketched a bag with a flat bottom.

I didn't want to turn the bag from a small opening.

So the bottom was the last piece applied to the bag.

I used left-over binding to finish the seam at the bottom.

Below is the binding is almost finished.

The bag has 4 inside pockets, one outside pocket, and a strap for a rolling bag handle.

Very pleased with this bag even though I broke two sewing machine needles making it.

Last night all the grandkids were here for Mr. M's birthday.

Since Mr. M likes all the flavors of desserts we had a smorgasbord. 

It was a fun week! 

 

The Week before Easter

Early in the week these fat quarters came from Quilting Gail.

I won one of the prizes for participating in the Stay At Home Round Robin.

I think I have an idea of how I'm going to use them.

The curtains were hung in the downstairs living area.

Simple, plain lengths of fabric.

I posted about making the cloth Easter baskets last week end.

I looked through my box of unfinished sewing projects 

and found more unfinished smocked egg bits.

I had six finished.

Now I have nine finished and one ready to finish.

I searched several local craft stores but couldn't find

the styrofoam egg I needed. All sold out.

This heart shaped baskets was in my sewing room and now holds the eggs.

The finish below is a charity quilt from Uncommon Threads Quilt Guild.

The top was done by someone else.

I quilted it and sewed the binding on.

There was enough of the backing left to make the binding.

The quilting is straight-lines about 3" to 4" apart.

I used variegated tan/brown thread for the quilting and binding.

All folded and ready to donate.

Happy Easter!

Can't wait for the grandsons to come tomorrow.

Happy Sewing.