Tuesday

Snow Day

We had a heavy snowfall yesterday which was the first in a while. So far, there's been little snow to report which is unusual for Wisconsin. We even had local news reporters in the neighborhood this morning to do interviews on the snow between traffic reports.  Here's what it looks like out my bedroom window.

Normally I would mention how nice it is to be snowed in, however my husband tested positive for covid-19 last week so we are under quarantine which means I've been stuck at home even before the snowfall.  

It all makes for a good reason to work on a quilt project. In a effort to finish an old project, I took out a quilt I started in fall of 2019 called Flying Leap. Here it is in sections on the design board. 


 I wonder if I can finish the whole quilt top by the end of the day. I'm sure going to try!

Saturday

Coffee Tea Towel

I finally figured out what to do with the first embroidery piece I made with my new machine - a tea towel! I washed up some blank tea towels last week and today I cut some 2 and a half inch squares of coffee themed coordinating prints. I sewed the squares together and stitched them onto the towel 3 and a half inches up from the bottom of the towel. I cut the embroidery piece down to fit in the center and used a sating stitch to attach it to the towel. I do like how it turned out.

Monday

A Thank You and Scones

I got a lovely thank you note for the completed holiday projects I made a month or so ago. It sure made my day. She was nice enough to send along some buttons she thought I could use. They are so cute I am sure I will find a way to incorporate them into future projects.


I tried a new scone recipe. They are called Coconut Cream Scones and the recipe can be found here. They are really good. The one thing I try to do when making a new recipe is to follow it exactly. I believe you can't complain about how bad a recipe is if you didn't follow it, hahaha. Well, this recipe was wonderful except that next time I will divide the dough into two balls then slice them up into scones. These were way too large. 

Wednesday

Aprons

I am in the mood to get rid of things. It happens every January and usually involves getting rid of clothes I don't wear anymore or cleaning out a linen closet or two. This year it's all about fabric. So I made a large pile to take to my church basement sew day on Saturday. While sorting through fabrics, I took many pieces that were big enough and made aprons. I made two sizes, toddler and child. It was a lot of fun using up cute prints. 
The one issue I ran into was that I needed long fabric pieces for the ties. For some, I just didn't have enough that coordinated with the prints I used so I got some cotton twill. I ordered off-white and white in half-inch and one-inch from Amazon. It was pretty cheap for 50 yard rolls and I only had to wait 2 days for the twill to be delivered. Now I just have to sew some cute buttons on the front for embellishment and they will be ready for my next craft fair. 

Speaking of the basement quilters group, I am attending for the first time since October. Back in October, the group leader decided to start things back up after shutting down for 6 months because of the pandemic. I attended but I wasn't very comfortable with it. It's not that I didn't feel safe enough, I did. I just didn't like sewing wearing a mask all day. And after spending so much time home sewing, I didn't take the time to prepare for whether the room would be too warm or cold, so I was cold. I didn't bring enough beverages for the whole day. It was just poor planning on my part. So I stayed home for the November and December sew days. But now I want to start fresh, more prepared and in a better place regarding the pandemic. I was going to sew all day 6 feet away from everyone with no mask on, but by using lots of homemade hand sanitizer. 

I am planning to make a quilt top called bear paw on point from the latest Missouri Star Block Magazine. Here are the pieces cut out and ready to go:
Missouri Star Block Magazine

Sunday

A Memorial T-Shirt Quilt

My daughter's friend Corina wanted a quilt made from her grandpa's shirts. When Corina dropped off the shirts, there were so many that I had to make two. The first one was made from dress shirts and was delivered in time to give as a gift before Thanksgiving. Right after Christmas I started on the second quilt from t-shirts and other knit shirts. There were even a few flannel shirts thrown in. 


Once it was finished, I looked at the stack of remaining fabric scraps and figured out how to make a pillow from one of the shirts. I used a 16" pillow form as a measurement to make the pillow cover. The buttons on the front became the opening to get the pillow form in. 


Leftover pieces from the dress shirts made a nice patchwork pillow cover, the cuffs were incorporated into the patchwork as well. I quilted the patchwork with some straight-line stitch-in-the-ditch quilting. 


Back in fall, Corina's daughter asked me if I could make her a baby doll quilt. I started it back in fall and sadly it never got finished. Then last week while cleaning up the sewing room, I came across it and finished it. I was happy to be able to complete it for her. 


I dropped everything off yesterday. Corina was happy with the extra surprises and glad to be able to gift the quilt and pillow to her grandma. 

Thursday

Pencil Me In Quilt

This quilt has been sitting in my sewing room since October. Sadly, it fell victim to the holiday quilting and crafting rush but that's ok, there was no rush to finish it. I used half of a Tula Pink jelly roll to make it and the pattern can be found in Fons and Porter's Magazine. It measures 48' by 68.5" so it's lap size. 

Fons & Porter

I used a pantograph called Amica for the quilting.

Fons & Porter


This was a nice bonus project using leftovers. It will make a nice gift.

Monday

Ruxin's Pet Bed

My cat, Ruxin just loved the charity pet beds I made last month. When I got ready to deliver them, I struggled with taking the bed he claimed away from him. In fact, I delivered all of them except the one he claimed for himself.  

I decided I needed to make him one of his own. Instead of using donated fleece that was earmarked for charity projects I needed to buy my own to make a bed for him. I knew it would be a while before I took the time to go to the fabric store to buy fleece, it just wasn't a priority. Then one day I was cleaning out a cabinet in my sewing studio and I came across an unfinished quilt. It was just two pieces of fabric with batting in-between that was used to practice on my longarmer the day it was set up in my house. I decided it was perfect to cut up to make a pet bed. I didn't need to go fabric shopping after all. Yay!


I washed the piece to get all the sizing out since my cat would be sleeping on it. Then I cut it into two pieces and stitched them together to form the pillow. I stuffed the bed with leftover batting scraps and the leftover pieces from the quilt top. It was nice and soft and the perfect size for Ruxin. 


And I think he likes it. 

I had to sneak the charity pet bed away when Ruxin was off playing with my husband. I did have to vacuum all his pet hair off the fleece, he is such a hairy beast, lol. I got it delivered just in time for it to go with the rest of the pet beds.

Friday

January Project Plans

Happy new year! I've put away all my Christmas fabrics and I am working on a t-shirt quilt for a client today. The quilt top is done, but I need to get some backing fabric before I can quilt it on the longarmer. My plan is to pick up the fabric to finish it tomorrow while I'm working at the quilt shop. 

The design board is pretty empty except for a piece I finished on the embroidery machine. I want to turn it into an apron pocket.

I have a stack of quilt tops to longarm and I'm hoping to get a few of those completed this week. There's at least 4 Quilts for Kids quilt tops in the bunch that are long overdue. I'm also working on a list of craft fair projects to start on. I want to get a jump on those before the March craft fair date gets too close. 

Since it is the start of a new year I thought I would list some of my crafting and quilting goals for this year:

  • Embroidery machine lessons
  • Quilt listings on Etsy and Ebay
  • Take a class on collage quilts
  • Scroll saw craft projects
  • Purge old fabrics
  • Rearrange sewing studio

Here's to 2021!