Wednesday

Twister Table Topper

Normally I would be at the Senior Center today but I'm staying home today. Every Wednesday afternoon I go there to meet with other quilting ladies and it is most enjoyable. I love the camaraderie and inspiration that comes from the time I spend there. But today I'm exhausted from cleaning out my sewing room and I don't feel like getting ready to head out the door - it feels more like a yoga pants kind of day, ha!

Over the past two Wednesdays I volunteered at my granddaughters' school as the book fair coordinator. It was a big job and I was required to be there every day for the last two weeks. I also missed another Senior Center day because I went on a pumpkin farm field trip with my youngest granddaughter. And next week I will be in Houston so that makes another week missed.

But back to today. I decided I'm going to take this quarter off from the center. Since I will miss so many weeks I'm just going to skip it until the new year. And with my cleaned out sewing room, I am really enjoying sewing in there. I haven't said that in a very long time.

So today I finished this project I found in a stack of stuff when I cleaned yesterday. It was quilted and all I had to do was put the binding on. Lo and behold, I even knew where the fabric was for the binding since the cleaning. I really don't know why I never finished this, but it's done now.

Tuesday

A Clean Sewing Room

I cleaned out my sewing room. To most people it probably still looks cluttered, but trust me, this is cleaned out!

Since I got my longarmer, I just kept piling stuff around the room just anywhere. I stuffed new fabric purchases in cubbies and bins. I had no idea what I had!

Then yesterday my husband left for up north and I decided to take everything out and start fresh. Since hubby won't be back for 3 days I knew this was a good time. I could leave things strewn all over the place until I was ready to put it away.

I sure wish I would have taken a "before" photo. I had stacks and stacks of fabrics piled all over. I sorted, stacked, resorted and restacked until I had collections and colors and everything neatly put away. Surprisingly it took me just half of a day to complete all that.

Then I dusted and vacuumed and got all the other things laying around in order. I haven't felt this organized in a very long time. It also helped that over the last few weeks I finished quilting a whole bunch of quilts and got them out of the way too.

Once I finished putting everything in its place I started a new project. I could pull fabrics knowing exactly where I put them! I also found a few unfinished projects that I now feel inspired to complete. It sure feels good to be organized.


Saturday

Corner Flower Shoppe Quilt

This is the last of the quilt tops my daughter left for me to quilt. It's from a kit she purchased at a local quilt shop in Racine. 

The pattern is called Corner Flower Shoppe by Quilt Soup. It's so very cute! 

I used some flannel for the back of the quilt and longarmed it using a pantograph called Knit 1 Purl 2 by Natalie Gorman. 

I stitched the binding on it and washed it right away so it is ready for her use.



Wednesday

Butterfly Quilt

This is my daughter's butterfly applique quilt. It's one of her stack of finished quilt tops that she brought over last month. In fact, she had another smaller baby quilt version of this quilt that I finished for her.

I free-motion quilted this one and put the binding on it for her. I like this one better than the baby quilt, I think its the borders that make the difference.

She sure does nice work.



Thursday

Longarm Quilting Projects

I'm tackling my daughter's unfinished quilts when I can. Both of these needed the backing completed before they could go on the longarmer. So I put the backing together while watching baseball. I just love the baseball season right up to the world series. The games have been really exciting. Especially since our Milwaukee Brewers are in the playoff run.


Monday

Quilts for Kids

Today we had our Quilts for Kids meeting and I turned these in. After a summer of no meetings, I wasn't sure how many I would have ready and I only end up having a few.

Half of these were my daughter's quilts. She started them last year and never finished them. I finally quilted them for her. Life with small children has kept her away from sewing and I am happy to help.

It was a busy summer and I'm happy I got these completed.

Sunday

My Homemade Pantograph

I bought this paper holder from Ikea a while back. Originally I thought my granddaughters would use the paper for their art. The rolls of paper are less than $4 each so I figured it was a good investment since they like to draw a lot.

They never used the paper.

Once I got my longarmer, I thought it would be good paper to use to make my own pantograph patterns. Today I tried it out.

I wanted a spider web pantograph but I didn't like the ones I saw for sale. I did find something similar to a spider web so I ordered it but it's pretty large and I really wanted something smaller in design to use on table runners and table toppers.

I drew a simple spider web then traced it onto the roll paper until I had 9 spider webs exactly the same. I tried it out on a 36" square table topper. It was just the right size pattern for this project. I think I will try this again.




Friday

Halloween Table Decor

In an effort to use up some older fall fabrics, I finally broke into a fat quarter bundle I purchased a very long time ago. It's a cute bundle and I whipped up a nice table topper for my daughter's kitchen table.

The special surprise for my granddaughter is the Nightmare before Christmas fabric that I used for the backing. It is her very favorite thing besides dinosaurs.

I made a larger version of the table topper out of the same fabrics, I think I will save that one to sell at a future craft fair.

I also picked up a table runner kit from a local quilt shop last week. It didn't take long to put it together. I had some incentive since I wanted it for my kitchen table. With halloween looming, I knew it was best to get it done quickly so I would have time to enjoy it.



Saturday

Rainbow Quilt WIP

This is one of my daughter's quilt projects. She normally completes her own projects but she has 7 or 8 quilts tops done and she can't seem to keep up with getting them quilted.

Normally I wouldn't post her projects here, after all it's her work, not mine however, I did put this quilt of hers on my longarmer.

I decided to buy a bolt of high loft quilt batting and I really wanted to try some of it out for this project. So I loaded the quilt and batting and chose this cute butterfly panto for the quilting. I used bright variegated thread for the butterflies.

The quilting turned out exactly as I had hoped, the thick batting really made the butterflies pop. They are quite puffy.

This is a Quilts for Kids quilt and I'm sure a little girl will love it since it turned out so cute.

The quilting is done but my daughter can put the binding on!

Thursday

Modern Maples Table Topper

I made this table topper today using the Modern Maples quilt pattern. The blocks measure 12 inches finished so I decided to make 9 of them in order to get a 36-inch square table topper.

It was really fun using this bundle of fall fabrics for this project. It was a perfect match with the maple leaves.

I quilted it on my longarmer using a panto that had leaves and berries. A variegated thread worked perfectly to enhance the pretty maple leaf blocks.

This is exactly what my kitchen table needed for this fall!

Monday

What's on the design board?

Over the past few months, I haven't been tracking my projects from month-to-month. I think the new longarmer and the busy summer has put a kink in my routine to the point where I'm not getting much sewing done.

Now that it's cooling off where I am spending more time indoors, I'm getting back to doing some sewing.

I took all my fall fabrics out of my stash and piled it on my cutting table. I decided it's time to use a bunch of it up by making some new table toppers.

I made up a few Halloween toppers and I will be ready to quilt them as soon as I find a smaller spider-web pantograph that I like.

I'm also obsessed with maple leaf blocks. I want to make as many as I can to create a few table runners and table toppers. I will keep some for my own table and add the rest to my craft fair stash.