ScrapLab Fussy-fun

ScrapLab was this last weekend and we had fun fussy-cutting designs and motifs for our sampler blocks.  We used The Fussy-Cut Sampler book, available here.

It's a great way to take all those old fabrics that don't fit your design aesthetic anymore and make them modern.  But it works with new finds, too!!

SEW MUCH FUN!!

Instant gratification!

I've added some NEW patterns in my etsy shop!  They're digital downloads -- how cool is that??  No waiting!  Instant gratification!  Plus there's lots of little goodies I've made in the shop, too.  And more are coming -- I gotta work on the pictures...

ScrapLab goes BIG TIME!

I have a feature wall at Running Stitch Fabrics in Kent, WA!!  I'm so excited!  ScrapLab has been such a success, and we've made so many cool projects, they're now all hanging on the wall!  I'm so proud of my ScrapLab Experimenters for making this such a great class!  Come play with us sometime, and experiment with all those leftover pieces we ALL have!

Deer Heads

A million years ago (or at least it seems that long), I lived with a guy who hunted.  This meant dead "stuff" on my walls.  I could never figure out how to decorate around it: a black tail, a white tail, and a moose shoulder mount; an elk European mount; and a bear rug.  (How the hell do I even remember all these terms?!?)  Luckily, in my new house, there's no dead shit on the walls, and it's not allowed in.  But I think that's why I laughed so hard when I saw the "Wild Animals" pattern from Shannon Brinkley.  This scrappy fabric deer head, made of beautiful leftover fabric pieces, is something I can totally get behind!!

The blue one is quilted and just waiting for binding -- my least favorite part.  The yellow one needs to be quilted...

I didn't do these two in quite the way Shannon Brinkley describes in her pattern, but I plan to make one that way soon.  I made them in the Sunday Morning Quilts slab method -- Shannon's method involves double-sided fusible interfacing, and I didn't have enough of that at home late at night when I decided to make these, so I slabbed it up.  (I have a Scrappy Slab class coming up soon at Running Stitch Fabrics, so I was in slab mode anyway.  They are SO FUN to make, and so fast!  Here are some blocks that were made the last time I taught this class...)

Anyway, this is today's Make it Modern Moment -- I'm turning some of my favorite scraps into deer head wall-hangings, seriously LOLing, and rejoicing in how much my life has changed.  

There's more than just deer heads in Shannon's pattern, and more than just the pattern I used!  There's one with skylines, and giraffes, and bears, and even a unicorn!  I got my copy at Running Stitch Fabrics in Kent, WA.

Happy Sewing!

Bargello

A few years ago (like maybe 15...yeesh!) I took a Bargello quilting class, because MAN!  They are pretty!!  I made one chunk, and decided I was done, because ICK, tiny pieces and lots and lots and lots of pins to keep those little bitty corners lined up.  I put it in my unfinished project bin.

But the colors I picked were so pretty, and I couldn't let it sit there unfinished.  How could I make it more "now-me"?  I found some dusty purple, and put asymmetrical borders around the Bargello Chunk.  Then I found some shot cotton in my stash, and added that.  THEN, I found a solid teal-green that was sort of in the same color family, and I added that as an asymmetrical border.  I flopped the top onto my queen size bed to see how it would fit, and I decided it needed another border.  So, light teal went all the way around.





Today I started quilting it, and it didn't go smoothly, but tomorrow I'll finish it.  I'm very happy with the quilting that I did today!







But where did that dog hair come from??  This is why I can't have nice things...

Where I sew...

I've been in my house for almost two years now.  I love sunny mornings as my sewing room faces east and it's just so pretty in there. Only a few projects going on at one time...

It's 2015!

2014 was a very hard year, with many, many changes in my life that were not good.  BUT, I have been truly blessed in many other changes.  I am buying a house, that is miles closer to work, and I am also close enough to get to teach at my friend Alice's quilt shop, Running Stitch Fabrics.  Today was the first class that I taught there, Session #1 of the Scrap Quilt Meetup, and it was SO MUCH FUN!!  We made scrappy slabs from the book Sunday Morning Quilts, and everyone left with a great start.

Here are a few completed blocks!!

It was a GREAT group of ladies, and I felt so blessed to be their teacher this afternoon.  

Next month, we'll make ANOTHER super fun scrap quilt, and it's in the window!!  This is always so exciting to me! :)

Front of the quilt

I can't just have a simple back...

Come sew with me in person!  It was really fun, and this scrap series will happen all year long. And I hope and pray that 2015 will be a better year than 2014 was -- I think it will be!!  As I said on New Year's Eve, and I say it to myself everyday:

Hawaii Quilt

I bought fabric in Maui both times I've been there, and FINALLY finished the quilt and the quilting!!

But then I had a dilemma -- how does one bind a rainbow quilt??

I decided:  With rainbow binding.  I used up a few scraps of binding I'd been saving, plus added a few other colors, and I think it turned out GREAT!!

I'm off to work on the next project...

Grace the Cat, Quilting Assistant

My kitty, Gracie, has been helping me quilt again.  By sitting on them.

What a goof-ball!!

She also helps me grade papers.  By sitting on them.

So helpful...

Quilt Room Re-org

For years I've simply folded my fabrics all the same and then stacked it, but the problem is I would always need the fabric halfway down the stack, and it would just be a big mess to get it out and try to restack everything.  So, when I saw this picture on Pinterest that led me to this blog post about how to store your fabric storage, and then I also saw it on Threads Magazine's website. All that has to be done is to buy comic book storage boards, and then fold and wrap your fabric around them.

I've been working on this project for a few days now...But the embarrassing part is that I had to buy 500 (!!!) comic book storage boards to wrap all of my stash.  Apparently, I've been collecting fabric for a while.  I'll take a picture when it's all completed!  Hopefully, when I need a fabric, it will be much easier to get it out from the storage area from now on!

Art Quilt Challange

The third Sunday of every month, I hang out at Ruby Street Quiltworks with the RAQ, the Ruby Street Art Quilters.  A few months ago, a fellow group member brought in a whole stack of doilies she had got from a family member, and it became our next challenge.  I had an idea immediately -- an RV!!  Who knows where this idea came from...I think it turned out SUPER CUTE!!

Do you see the doily along the sides of RV?

But then, I read the challenge rules a little closer -- I'm not such a great rule-follower when it comes to sewing. ;)  It was supposed to be a flat item, somewhere around 12" square, so I had to make a back-up/secondary project.  I really like it too!  So, I've had fun lately...I love challenges like this.

It's really not as lumpy in real life...I'm off to sew up my next project!!

Sew Expo 2

I got one other amazing thing at Sew Expo!  I forgot, and it's the one thing I'm MOST excited about.  Please don't judge me for being so excited about this, though... the spend-thrift in me is thrilled to the core about this!  It's this fusible stuff that fuses small pieces of batting together super-fast and super-strong so the piece created can be used inside of another quilt.  (Here is the company's website.)  So, you know, all those annoying edges around a large piece of batting that I am forced to cut off because my quilt is smaller?  ALL BETTER because I can just fuse it to another piece, and TA-DA!  Into another quilt it goes!

I used to spend lots of time sewing these pieces together, and let me say, fusing is the way to go -- but it's totally a "Why the hell didn't I think of this?" idea... I was so excited that on Sunday of last weekend (you know, the day after I'd bought the stuff) I spent a short hour and half fusing batting pieces together and getting straight-up organized.

I learned a couple things while I was doing it...and who knows?  There's probably a handy-dandy tutorial on their website that says all of this stuff, but I didn't find it before I went to town fusing away:

1.  The spot where the batting abuts doesn't have to straight, just exactly the same...

So I got around this by laying the batting pieces on top of each other, and cutting through both layers.

Then, I pulled out the little pieces from under each, and the batting matched up exactly.

2.  It is REALLY sticky.

It seems to have the consistency of fusible interfacing you'd use on clothes, as opposed to double-sided fusible interfacing for applique on quilts.  Nevertheless, it's fusible, so I used my scungy iron.  I love this iron.  I wish it wasn't so scungy -- I'd still be using it as my 'daily driver'...but as you can see, it's seen better days...you can see my new daily-driver iron in the back...

And after a short while, my stack of "this is too big to throw away" batting scraps went from a mess to an organized stack of labeled, usable pieces!!

Before

After

I'm off to sew again for at least a little while...I've got lots of batting to quilt up, don't ya know??