Scrap Management

As soon as P started back to school, it seems that my brain had some space for sewing ideas. This week I designed a bunch of quilts and started cutting up scraps. I cut a whole stack of triangles for half square triangle units that would finish at one inch. When I started sewing them I realized how small that actually was. Hmmm. I put that project in a bag and scaled up my plan. I cut an even LARGER stack of triangles that will finish at one and a quarter inches. Yeah, because that's SO much bigger.Fun times, I tell you. I may be finished with the summer blahs and be moving into full fall sewing madness!It's a good thing I have have at least FIVE quilts started and on my project table right now. I'll be able to alternate between them. When I get the crazies from tiny triangles, I can switch to tiny squares!!! Bwahahahahahahaha!!!

Lucky Girl with Linen

I finished the second Lucky Girl quilt for Jennifer last week and took it to Lake Michigan for a photo shoot. Here's a little pool ambiance for you.I added a bit of linen to this quilt. This is a pretty linen that I thought was a perfect match to the brownish mustard color in some of the Lucky Girl prints. I used it for a few scattered pinwheels and also the binding. I think it gives the quilt a bit of a sophisticated flair.

I stitched in the ditch around each of the pinwheels but left the solid parts blank. The rest of the quilt is quilted with an allover shellish design. I think I've got the hang of stitching in the ditch with the longarm now, at least on straight lines.
Here's a fun shot from the back with the sunlight shining through.
The finished quilt is 60 by 78 inches.
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Summer Vacation!

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We have had a long summer saying a very sweet, sad, and loving goodbye to my dear mother-in-law.  I am lucky to have known her and love that she was a presence in my life and that my children grew up spending time with her while they grew up.  She did not have an easy life, but always kept a cheerful attitude and positive outlook. She was a hard person to bring down and I strive to be like her in that way.Now that things are settling down a bit we thought we should take a quick get away before starting back into the school routine this week.One of the great things about living in Michigan is that we are never very far from a beach. We really needed the change of scenery and our little twenty four hour vacation seemed longer than that because we were some place different and had no distractions.The beach was a fitting place for our getaway. We visited the beach with B's mother a number of times over the years. We treasure those memories and also strive to create new family memories for our children.We came back refreshed and much more ready to start the new school year. Sometimes you just need to go take a walk on the beach!

Lego Sewing Room

Look at this Lego diorama Miss P built of my sewing room. There I am standing at the longarm. Behind me is my desk with the (very large) computer on it. To the right of my desk is my cutting table. In the background you can see the fabric cabinet and a RED Bernina. It would be pretty cool if I really had a red sewing machine, wouldn't it?

Lucky Girl Progress

I'm almost finished with my next Lucky Girl quilt forJennifer. I just completed the quilting and took it off the frame. I hope to get the binding on and share it with you soon.For now, I'll share my progress successes with you.Check it out!! I can stitch in the ditch now! I love learning new skills. I still need some practice on curves but look at that straight stitching there. I'm pretty thrilled with it.And look how close I was to running out of thread on the last prewound bobbin.I am a LUCKY GIRL; the stars must be aligned in my favor this week!

First Day of the Fair

Miss P and I enjoyed the first day of the local fair yesterday.It was all kicked off with a kids bike parade from downtown to the fairgrounds. The middle school band leads the way for all the kids and their decorated bikes.Many of the kids get dressed up in costumes. This year there was even someone riding a unicycle.UnicycleIt is fun because so many of the kids in town participate and they get to see their friends. The parade goes at a walking speed and can be a bit challenging for new bike riders so miss P chose to scooter in the parade this year.Some of the first events at the fair are a "trike pull" where the kids try to pull jugs of water in a milk crate tied to the back of a tricycle. There's a treasure hunt where you hunt for coins in a big pile of sawdust, and also the sack races.After the fun and games in the kids arena we went to check on our entries. P was thrilled that she won a blue ribbon on her geranium top. I guess those french seams paid off!We did well with our entries. Everything we entered won a ribbon and all but one was blue! The kids hobby section can be very competitive.I love looking at all the entries.Next, we headed off to see the animals and use our ride tickets that P won from the kids activities! She is a big fan of the carousel so she has to do that every year. Last year she tried the big slide but wasn't quite heavy enough to make it down without stopping. She was pleased to have a fun ride down the slide this time.We always finish the evening with a ride on the Ferris wheel just as it is getting dark and the lights have come on.The fair is a great event for our community and a wonderful way to start winding down our summer vacation.

Lucky Girl

In my summer of slow sewing I finally finished a quilt!!This is a commission quilt for Jennifer Paganelli and uses her upcoming Lucky Girl line of fabrics. It was pretty fun to put together even if there are loads of partial seams. I love the herringbone effect.I had fun quilting it with loopy loops on the longarm.Finished measurements 60 x 80 inches.I should probably also mention that my oldest son designed this quilt for me. Yeah, he's helpful like that AND he's good with quilt math.I'm working on another more involved quilt from the same fabric line so stay tuned for that!

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Three Kitchen Fairies

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We have had some lovely weather this week in Michigan. I've been taking advantage of the cooler drier air by spending time outside reading and even doing a little hand stitching. It's been like a vacation without the hassle of packing and driving.Paloma, of Three Kitchen Fairies, sent me some of her hexie papers to try and I finally got around to making a project with them. These are one inch on each side. The paper is thinner than the papers I had been using and I love that you can get a thin crisp turned edge with these papers. They are also easier to pop out after stitching. The papers in the photo have been used and are in great condition for using again. If you want to try them yourself you can get the papers here in Paloma's etsy shop. She also has some sweet instant download embroidery patterns. I especially like this one.A few scraps, aurifil 50 wt thread, and hexie papers are the perfect ingredients for relaxing afternoon and a pretty transformation for a tea towel.Now, I think I need to get some more of these bright tea towels to decorate. 

Taking it to the Next Level

My little sewing business seems to be taking off with a few patterns for sale, quilts getting published in magazines and books, custom quilts, and now, the new longarm quilting adventure. I thought it was time for a more "official" look.A logo will help take my business to the next level.My logo was designed by Sophia Pappas, a freelance designer and illustrator, and a graduate from the College for Creative Studies in Detroit. She was a joy to work with and knew just what I wanted when I didn't! If you are in need of any freelance artwork, I highly recommend her.

Oceans of Notions

This is a reposting of a guest post I did on Pink Castle Fabrics as part of their "Oceans of Notions" series back in February. I thought it might be good to post it over here too.Oceans of NotionsWhen Megan first asked me to share some of my studio for her Oceans of Notions feature here I was a little nervous. My sewing room is far from what I would expect to see in an inspirational storage and studio feature. Megan assured me they are looking for inspirational ideas that anyone can use so I agreed to share. 

First, I need to tell you that I don't have a finished sewing room. We have been renovating our house for the last 25 years. Yes, you read that right twenty five YEARS. I no longer even notice that half of my sewing room doesn't have a ceiling. A few years ago, we removed the wood wall surface from one corner of my sewing room. In doing so, we discovered a hidden space under the stairs.  We turned that space into a "queenly place" for my daughter. I let her decorate her room with some of my vintage linens and "tapestries".  She has spent many hours playing in there while I sew.  I'm sharing this with you to illustrate that my studio is constantly changing. We are moving things and rearranging as the need arises. Now that my daughter is in second grade she doesn't use her queenly place as much but spends a lot of time at her desk which is also in my sewing room. She does homework, artwork, or sews while I work at my computer or on the sewing machine.
With our needs constantly changing I need storage for my sewing notions that can adapt to each incarnation of the room. I like using old items that I may already have to store things in. My collection of ribbons, trims, and rick rack are arranged in an old suitcase.
I keep my threads in an old wooden two drawer thread cabinet that belonged to my mother. Floss and perle cotton are stored in a more modern thread cabinet.
I keep this pin cushion jar right next to my sewing machine. The bottom holds the small safety pins that I use to baste the layers of a quilt together. I drop the open pins in the jar as I quilt and they are ready to use on the next quilt. The top has a pin cushion that holds a couple of "self threading" needles for burying threads as I quilt. The large flower head pins are the ones that my daughter uses when she sews. I like that the weight of the jar holds the cushion in place while I pull out the needles.
Much of my old sewing notion collection is stored in jars. I have jars and jars of old buttons.
Not all of the sewing notions are housed in my sewing room. This cabinet is in our entry but someday I hope to have a place to hang it in my sewing room. It has some antique sewing items and other goodies behind the glass. The drawers on the right are filled with elastic, beads, buttons, vintage lace, silk ribbon, and special embroidery threads. (Please note the additional jars of buttons and ignore the cracked plaster and old woodstove holes in the wall).
Some of my old sewing items are just for show and are kept in the livingroom in a glass cabinet. Here, you might be able to see a basket of antique needle books and another of antique buttons. The old basket on the left is filled with old wooden spools. Yeah, I have a real weakness for old sewing stuff. Is there a twelve step program for that?
I hope some of these storage ideas can help you keep your sewing notions tamed and easy to find.

Thread Play

Yesterday, I quilted a small baby quilt on the Gammill. It was good to get some practice loading, basting the sides, keeping it square, etc.Today, I pinned the practice muslin back on the frame and switched to a darker thread for visibility over all my other practice.I'm having fun switching back and forth between freeform sewing like these plants and feathers on one side of the practice pieceand skill building drills on the other half. I think of it like the compulsory figures and and free skating sections in figure skating competitions.  (Yes, I know that they no longer judge compulsory figures but I do remember watching them and was impressed by the figures left on the ice - you didn't want to see a double line after skating the figure with both feet.) I hope the quilting drills will help build muscle memory for better freehand quilting.  I'm currently making rows and rows of circles working both horizontally and vertically and I'm getting better at making them the same on each row. 

Welcome to a New Member of the My Sewing Machine Family

Look! I have a new friend in the sewing room. It's a Gammill!!!!The lovely Tammy from TK Quilting and Designs brought it to my house yesterday. After putting it together she taught me the basics on loading, oiling, threading and getting started with the quilting. She even stitched out a few feathers for me to stitch over, and over, and over.  I'm stitching it without thread for practice. It really does help build the muscle memory for making smooth curves and flowing feathers.We had fun taking turns last night. Look, it's so easy a child can do it! Actually, Miss P was pretty good. She stitched out an awesome swirly border and a mermaid!D tried the pantograph set up.We filled up our practice quilt but didn't want to stop to load more fabric so we just kept stitching.I want to quilt all the things!I think it might be time to load something new. I'll have to make a quick top... unless someone else has a quilt I can play on. Anyone?

Family Time

The pie was delicious.We worked a 1000 piece puzzle, played badminton, ate watermelon, dinner on the grill, more badminton, a few other games and crafts, blueberry pie, more badminton, a few songs on the player piano, and smores over a "camp" fire - overall it was a pretty stellar day.Also, have any of you locals noticed that we seem to have almost NO mosquitoes this summer??? This is quite a pleasant change from the past few summers when the mosquitoes have kept us prisoners in the house.I hope you had a great Fourth of July too. 

Future Fruit

Miss P and I journeyed around the property this afternoon and found that we have home grown fruit in our future. I love the fruit trees because we don't really have to do anything for them. Did you hear that? NO WEEDING for all this fruit! We won't mention the state of the garden. No, let's not go there.applespearsplumsgrapesWe also found that part of a tree had fallen in the middle of one of our paths. I guess we get firewood too!We look forward to a busy August of harvest, food preservation, and fire wood cutting. Yeehaw.Do you have any exciting weekend plans? The kids will all be here for the Fourth and we've planned a cookout with smores! 

Instagram Photos

Narrow hand appliquéd bias strips. 1/16” quilting lines not going over the appliqué. I’m about a month in on the quilting and ALMOST finished. Whoop! Quilted with Invisalign on top and Decobob in the bobbin. Threads by @wo
This summer we watched my two oldest grand kids one day a week. Towards the end of the summer they started making projects on their own in the sewing room. They made lots of little projects from my scrap basket including pillow cases and tiny quilts
Here’s the layout with all but one block done. I’ll finish that last block when I get more of the baby poop green/mustard fabric. I put out the call and the internet provided! This top will be finished soon! This is a remake of an 1870s
I’m finally getting around to putting these stars together. I made the stars a few years ago and have been on the hunt for the perfect setting fabrics. These @carolynfriedlander prints are the perfect match for the 1800s reproduction prints in