Welcome to 2022

Here we go. It's February and time to welcome you all to 2022. Groundhog saw his shadow yesterday and predicts more winter. That, to me, means more time to sew. Here are a few things that I made as 2021 was making its exit. 

I had a lot of Minions fabric left over from mask making, and always have denim, so I made a lap quilt using fleece for the backing. 

Simple strip pieced placemats for Christmas. A great way to use some of my new and vintage Christmsa fabrics. 

I used some Christmas fabrics to make appliques and applied them to new hand/kitchen towels with Wonder Under and then machine zig-zag stitching. I gave a few as gifts and have plenty of towels left to make more. 

Recently, I dipped into my Peter Max fabric collection and made a few tote bags. The pink is bright and colorful, but... 

...this is always my favorite of the Max fabrics. My swim bag is made of this same fabric and I've been using it for a decade or so now. 

I made a monthly theme calendar for sewing for this year. Trying something new! January was tote bags and for February, it's Halloween sewing. Helps me stay focused. I still throw in garments or whatever I feel like, but the goal is to get certain theme-centered items done for Etsy. 

So, here we go - 2022!

My dog is a wimp, and other social-distancing stuff

Today, Richard and I took Abbey to the Warhill area to walk again today. After about a mile of dodging other people and enjoying the warm weather and sun, she was pooped! LOL Here we are, olds, and she's so out of shape that the walk wears her out. We added another halfish mile and called it a day.

I woke up this morning and stayed in bed till 10. I just didn't want to get up. I was mostly awake and had taken Abbey out at 6. She wasn't interested in getting up either at this point. So, we played the sleep/wake game for a couple hours and finally got up. I just wasn't feeling it. No spunk at all. I had planned on making breakfast when Richard got back from Richmond, brunch really. He got back really quickly, so I started sausage. Then I got to thinking that we needed those potatoes I had planned on frying up with left over baked potatoes. At that point, I went ahead and got out the eggs to fry. I wasn't into it, but I got it all made and it was delicious.

Since the walk, I've done my pill box and vacuumed the dining room, as well as set up a fan since it's going to get extra warm today. Winnie is cooking on the old grill tonight (hot dogs). I ordered a gas grill to play with and it should be here any time. Toys are good right now while we're isolating.

I'm sure there's more happening today, but feet up and internet cruising works for me. I have Wyatt Earp on demand and Richard is sitting next to me relaxing too. Go us!

As seen on Facebook:

God bless the internet and a world of creative people!

Summer sewing

It's getting really hot outside here in Virginia, and I'm spending a bit of time inside. Add to that the fact that I've officially retired, and you know how I'm going to spend that extra time - s e w i n g!

I think I'm done sewing baby balls for a while. I got into a potholder binge and have made several recently. Here's some of what I've been working on:

You can never make enough tote bags, right? And if you have a wedge ruler, it's fun to make a Dresden plate design. The cotton is from my stash of interesting calico type fabrics and the blue cotton edging the plate is a cotton faux denim that I also use for bias binding. 

A potholder using scraps of denim and some M&M fabric. I back my potholders with what started as a 9-patch recycled denim piece. I'm all about upcycling jeans, ya know.

 

 The front of these potholders is near and dear to me. I worked for years doing a hand pieced hexagon quilt top and then made another one! They came out to about twin bed sized, but we don't have a twin bed, so I made a decision to put the two together and make a larger coverlet/quilt with them. I ended up with some extra hexagon fabric, so I reinforced the pieces with zig-zag over the hand stitching, used the 9-patch denim back, and created some bias binding with the faux denim cotton. 

With all potholders I make, I use InsulBrite as the filling. It is not heat-proof, but it's about as heat-resistant as you can get. I also make the circles about 8-1/2" in diameter. The denim squares I use for the back start as 4" squares. I prefer round potholders because you can machine stitch one side of the binding and then hand stitch the other.

I also have made a doll quilt using M&M fabric triangles with denim triangles, and just yesterday, finished a lap blanket with patchwork and using fleece as the backing. I don't call it a quilt because there's no batting; the fleece serves a dual purpose of batting and backing, and it's super warm. 

Lastly, I'm working on my Cathedral Window quilt every day. I don't plan on finishing that for 5 years. 

Whew. What are y'all sewing?

Last Cathedral Window update and other sewing stuff

I shared with you how I've started my last Cathedral Window quilt. I have all the fabric and years to do the hand sewing. I thought I'd share a couple of updated photos.

Pretty traditional design. I'm sewing what I can when I can and am putting no pressure on myself to get it done quickly.

Denim tote bags have been on my mind lately too, and there are a few ready to sell. I'm using up some old Grandmother Flower Garden flowers I made some time ago and have been saving.

As a fun addition, I used recycled blue jean pockets inside each bag, attached to the lining.  

Another bag design included using a wedge ruler to play with design and shades of blue. This one is much more striking in person. Again, there is a cotton lining and a recycled blue jean pocket inside.  

And if I didn't have enough recycled blue jean fabric sewing projects, I made a set of placemats. Patchwork denim with Grandmothers Flower Garden patch on one side and strip quilting with a cotton that I also used for binding on the other side.

And then there's painting. Not sure where I got this idea, but I did and here it is. Acrylic paint on a wooden plaque.

Keep sewing and creating. Let me know if I can help you learn something along the way!

Mike's Cathedral Window Quilt is done

I've been working on a lap quilt for my brother for a couple years. I finished it last week (and now I work on my last one as I mentioned in my previous post) and he came by today to retrieve it. He and his wife are both artists, so I played with ROYGBIV a lot for patterning. It's not your grandmother's Cathedral Window!

I used the primary colors for the frames and black for the windows. I've not seen it totally unfurled until this picture was taken. Me likie!

The back shows the ROYGBIV patterning a little better.

I think I might love this quilt. I was very proud to hand it over to him. I can't believe I finished it!

Last Cathedral Window Quilt on My Planet

I've made Cathedral Window quilts, both small and not so small, before. I wrote instructions on how to make them. (You can see some of my earlier Cathedral Window quilts and see instructions here.) If you happen to use my instructions, I make them this exact way. The one I'm making now is starting with a 9" square of a kind of dark blue ivy fabric:

The blue is darker than shown in the photo. I will be making 670ish of these to make a queen cover. I have 555 to go. There are always more! My husband honestly described this type of quilt as "the most labor intensive" of anything I've done. I'm not sure that's true, but I'll take it!

Now why do I say this is the last one? I will be hand sewing for about 3 years or so on this, I'm sure. I'm 62 now and my hands are not what they used to be, so it'll be slow going. I'm sure I'll make other patterns of patchwork and quilting (I have too much denim not to), but I'm fairly certain this is the last of this particular breed. And I'm okay with that!

My in-progress sewing includes:

• Jack-o-Lantern placemats. 
• Two tunic tops for me.
• A long skirt or two for the summer.
• And then some..... 

I'll update the quilt over the days/weeks/months as it progresses.

What are you sewing?

One of the most beautiful updates ever - Anna, Brian, and Catherine's quilt

Any of you who follow me know that I love to make quits for babies. My daughter's bestie, Anna, and her husband, Brian announced they were expecting and I got to work hunting for fabric and coming up with a design. He's into trains and she's into him, so by default, she's into trains too, right? ROYGBV makes for a nice color scheme. I found the train fabric first (had to order more!) and then took that to the fabric store to match up the nontraditional red/orange/yellow/green/blue/violet colors. Babies like bright and contrast, so I tried to keep that in mind.

To refresh your memory, here are the posts from conception to completion:

• Design and first block.
• Coming along.
• Taking shape.
• Done, oh, and let's do a pillow too!

Yesterday, February 20, Anna posted the most beautiful pictures on Facebook featuring Catherine with her quilt and pillow. Cuteness overload! This kind of stuff makes it all worthwhile. And now, here's she is:

I told Anna I had tried to make the pillow as delicious as possible. 

Must have worked!

Look at this beautiful baby. Who cares about the quilt!?!

Thank you Anna, Brian, and Catherine for sharing the pictures with me and for allowing me to share them here. How can you not smile when you see this? 

Anna and Brian quilt, now known as Catherine's quilt!

The quilt is done (May 28 - October 1, 2017). The baby's been born. Now to bring the two together. It's taken time as I've been working on a play and doing some other things, but here's the result and I hope they love it.

This is a 4x5 block log cabin design. The first fabric I chose was the train fabric, a nod to Catherine's father, Brian. I found muted ROYGBV fabrics at Joanns and created the log cabin around a 2" piece of the train fabric. 

I had plenty of the log cabins left when I was done, so decided to create a small pillow to go with the quilt. I fashioned a ruffle out of strips of fabric and there you go!

The back of the quilt, which was made quilt-as-you-go, is train fabric.  

Here's a closeup of the ROYGBV log cabin. I used 2 strips of each color, but all the prints are different. 

I created binding using the strips I had cut for the log cabin itself. I reinforced all the seams in the binding since the pieces are so small and I want it to hold up to as many washings as needed. Everything except the binding was machine stitched. I like to hand stitch the binding on a quilt. 

And the pillow. I added strips to an original log cabin until I had used each of the color designs twice. That made a nice size (about 12") pillow. But it needed a ruffle! I had plenty of strips left from the quilt itself to make a ruffle. For the log cabin side, I used train fabric.....

....and for the train fabric side, I used the ROYGBV strips. I think it looks pretty cute! 

I'll be seeing Anna soon and will deliver the quilt, pillow, and some other goodies in person. I'm excited to pass this along and hope Catherine drags it around the house, gets it dirty, loves it, and who knows what else with it. It's hers now. Welcome to the world Catherine Jenkins!

Sewing room progress

We have been renewing/remodeling the house over the past several months. One of my projects has been to reclaim the sewing room. When I had to empty it, I made sure to divide fabric and "stuff" into keep, give away, and not sure piles. I have gotten organized before, but this time, am taking the opportunity to get organized and keep it that way!

After the carpet and painting was done, I bought two shelving units and tons of see-through plastic bins that snap easily (hands are aging and the old one were getting harder to open!). I got 18-gallon bins for most things, smaller for other things, and kept 4 of my large bins for things like junk jeans and bigger runs of fabric.

As of today, I'm about 85% done moving my sewing goodies back into the room. It's so organized that I almost can't stand it! I ended up with 2 large boxes of fabric to give to my friend.

One side of the room has my 2 desks for sewing machines. I'm talking to a furniture builder about making a custom desk. The size of the room is a limiting factor, but I do like the size of these desks. I'm used to it. I have a folding table stored on the opposite wall to use for cutting. The only down side of the whole space is that the ironing board is in the other room, but that's a small price to pay for a good sewing space. 

Example of the shelves. Everything is categorized and the bins are marked front and back. I have 2 quilt tops that are done on the top shelf; I need to send those out for quilting. I know I'm never going to do it myself. On the other side of the room, I have an old reliable bookshelf and another small set of wire shelves. We will use the small shelves for items that we'll need outside (this shelf is right by the sliding door to the back yard). 

I told my husband today that I'm ready to retire and get to sewing! The new space is making me really want to get going.

Happy sewing!

Anna and Brian quilt, take 3

I finished a row today. I feel pretty good about that! Four rows to go. The nice thing about quilt as you go is that the whole thing is pretty much done when you finish the rows.

I'm running out of train fabric! Thankfully, the person I bought it from on eBay had one more yard and I found a yard from another seller. Doesn't always seem to be that way? I underestimated how much it would take to make the foundation blocks. Thank you, eBay.

I may not finish this quilt before the baby shower (July 1). So, what I think is going to happen is I will take whatever is done to the shower and let Anna unwrap it, then bring it back home to finish it and mail to her when it's done.

More pictures as I get a little further along!

Anna and Brian quilt, take 2

I'm trying to work on this quilt every day so I have it ready for her baby shower on July 1. I'm determined to make it so!

I played with connecting the blocks today (quilt as you go) and I think it's going to look pretty cute.

The train fabric is going to connect the theme and I chose to use a wider sash than the logs in the log cabin. Yup. I think I love it.

I am going to bind the quilt with the ROYGBV fabrics somehow. I haven't figured that out yet. I think binding with the train fabric might be too much.

Alicia's quilt - from fabric to precious

Alicia is a friend of my daughter's, and therefore, a friend of mine. That's the way it works, right? I made a simple pinwheel quilt for her baby some time ago. He's been born and growing like a weed. Ivan is his name. She posted a picture on Facebook today showing Ivan sleeping on the quilt. This is why we sew. From fabric bits to a peaceful baby sleeping. So beautiful.

This is a cute dog/cat fabric. It was a perfect fit for Alicia. 

A couple of rows and then: 

Yep, that's why we sew.