Repurpose Project

So, a few blogs out in blog land have been posting about repurposing fabric here and here.

This box is just that...When I was in Albuquerque in April, my long time friend asked if I could work on a project for her brother. He wanted to make two things from a heirlom of his Mother's.

What was in the box? A beautiful mink stole. Yes, a mink stole, and I agreed to cut it up and make it into two pillows. Each pillow is to go to each of his children, so they would have something passed on to them from their grandmother and himself.

Can you imagine taking apart something so beautiful and expensive? Yikes, what did I get myself into? I spent about 5 weeks mulling it over thinking of ways to make the pillows. I knew there would not be enough pelts to make two pillows using only the fur. So, I finally came up with the idea of using a base of fabric and stitching on the pelts.

The following are the steps from beginning to completed pillows:

Here is the stole laid out. It contained several pelts all about 3" X 14"

This is the lining, I'll show you later how I used it on one of the pillows.

Here is the "destruction" phase. I had to be very careful in taking it apart, as the pelts were very fragile.

See my orange tool? I use a razor blade as a seam ripper, yes a razor blade! The orange thingy is an excellent way to hold the blade for better control. My Grandma taught me this way, and back then we used a double edged blade! Yikes!

Here it is all destructed and apart. A good size pile of pelts to work with to make the pillows.

Here is the background fabric I used in making these pillows. It is a brocade that I got at 40% off at Joanns.

And here are the finished products!

Here is what I did using a piece from the lining in the stole. The lining had two pockets, with the initials of my client's mother. I also took the manufactur's tag from the lining and sewed it on the pocket. I then sewed the whole pocket on the back of one of the pillows, as a further memento of the mother.

Here is the grouping of the three pillows!

Pets on Quilts 2012

I have had this button on my http://wrensteele.blogspot.com/ for a couple of weeks and you can find out all about it here.




This is a small snapshot of what you can find her blog.

Now, this is a virtual pet and quilt show. But we want to be like the real shows in one very important way --- we are going to have prizes!  (LOTS of prizes!)  And we have some wonderful sponsors lined up already, and more are on the way!  So get your fingers on the camera buttons, and get ready to compete for prizes from these generous peeps.

To see all the prizes offered take a minute to go there and see if you would like to post your pet and win!

July Farmer's Wife Blocks

Next up for July's work are the Farmer's Wife blocks. I managed to get three done late in the evening.

LQS Blocks July

I worked on these Wednesday, but I had more to post about and decided to spread it all out over a couple of day's posts. Again these are my monthly local quilt club blocks, the 30's prints as the club block, and the Asian print in the alternative block.

If you notice, the Asian print block looks different. I cut the prints opposite for two of the prints causing it to have a totally different look even though it is the same patterned block. I liked the. Way it turned out, so I am going to leave it like this for the quilt.

Block 10, 11, 12 Before and After

Yesterday I talked about three blocks I had messed up in getting them put together correctly. And I promised to show you my fixes. So here are the before and after pics:

Block 10

Before - See the lower left pieces are a half turn off?

After - All fixed!

Block 11

Before - this one has the two lower corners wrong! For shame on me....

After - Again all fixed!

Block 12

Before - Can you see how the four points of the star are sewn into the outer sashing. Either I mis read the cutting instructions wrong or I cut the pieces out wrong, because...scroll down.

After - Because, I totally re-cut this block and made it again and it went together just fine this time! Whoohoo!

What did I learn from this excerise? One, my grandma always made me take apart mistakes and make them right. And, two, once they are fixed, you sure feel good about it, making the extra work worth the effort!

Star Skill Builder BOM

Remember when I commented about being a sucker for BOM's here? Well, while sorting through some more bins from moving to my new sewing room, I have unpacked a couple several of BOM's from year's past. My goal is to get a UFO done between each new project I start this year. So far, I am failing miserably, but I have to keep trying!

This one is from a local quilt shop The Cotton Patch and it is called Star Skill Builder. The designer of this series is Diane Bowden, a very talented individual, under her company Spinning Moon Designs.

The program worked that if you purchased two to three fat quarters used in the block, you got that months pattern free. It was this quilt shop's "counter BOM", which was different from their monthly quilt club BOM.

The print fabric is a Marcus Brothers' line by designer Faye Burgos. The blender is by Shadow Play by Maywood, and the background is Essential Dots by Moda. They blend together just beautifully, don't you think?

Notice that there are only 9 blocks? And this is a 12 month BOM... Well, when I laid them out to take the pictures, I noticed that I really messed up on three of the blocks. They were put together WRONG! Can you imagine that, me putting a block together wrong? Yes, more often than I like to admit. I spent an hour or so taking two of them apart and putting them in the order they needed to be, and in the case of the third block, I started from scratch and completely remade it. I'll post the before and after pictures tomorrow.

FW Block - Multiple Pieces

Well, it's time to start sewing my Farmer's Wife allotment of blocks for July. I dug into my Civil War Reproduction colorway and right off the bat I have a block with 60+ pieces. When I have a small block with this many pieces, i like to lay out the whole block, i have a 12" X 12" flannel board that I use to lay out the blocks and hold them in place until I can get the block done.

I got lots of sewing done today, so I will have more to share the rest of the week.

FQS Mystery Designer Club Block 2

This came in the mail this weekend, and of course I wanted to get it done as soon as I could..today was the day!

My Personal Assistant

Here is Junior again. He is my:

Helper
Aide
Critic
Right Hand
Companion
Dependable (updated at the suggestion of a fellow blogger)
And is best known for being indifferent!

But.......I can always depend on him to scope out and find the newest piece of fabric to give it a test run to see how comfortable it is to take a nap! (I was working on my July club blocks tonight when he mosied in and made himself comfortable)

Traveling Stash Giveaway at Quilt Doodle Doodles

Cindy at Quilt Doodle Doodles has this post on her blog that totally has me enthralled. Who thinks up this stuff anyway? How cool is this? Has anyone else out there in blog land ever done this? Leave me a comment (good or bad) and let me know your experience. She has this giveaway open until July 11th, take a minute to visit her blog and enter!

Here's how it works:

Traveling Stash Giveaway!

Rules:
1. Be an active blogger. Post about receiving the box and the giveaway on your blog in a timely manner.
2. There's a note in the box that logs where the box has been. Please add your info and place the note back in the box.
3. There's a list of Rules and Guidelines in the box. Please read and follow these and return the list to the box.
4. You may take anything you like from the box. Just replace every item with comparable quilt shop quality items equal to the amount taken.
5. Ship the box to the next person in a reasonable amount of time.
6. Due to the amount of postage shipping is only within the USA.