Teaching

I am blessed with a daughter in law that wants to learn to sew.  She came to me awhile back and asked me to help her buy a sewing machine, which we did, but since has had to put it in storage, because they are moving.

Then my son and her came visiting for a few weeks, and while they were here, I needed to go to the fabric store for a pattern, as they were having a big sale.  I asked if she wanted to go, and she did, so off we went.  Unfortunately they did not have my pattern in stock, so I began to look for another pattern close to what I was looking for, and she began perusing through the pattern books as well.

She came across a pattern, that she wanted to get and make a pair of outfits for her twin nieces.  So she got the pattern, picked out some really cute fabric, and all the notions.  She discovered that part of sewing is half the fun!

We then spent the next two days learning how to lay out a pattern, cutting out the pattern including the notches, learning the difference between stitch lengths (basting, topstitching, and regular seam stitches), learning about interfacing, stitch widths, using elastic, making gathers, turning sashing ties, making button holes, and sewing on shank buttons.

This is the first outfit, and I am so pleased with how it turned out for her!  She was a good listener, paid close attention, and never got to frustrated, or wanted to give up at any time.  I am really proud of her and her tenaciousness of sticking it out to the finished product.

Now, isn't that the cutest outfit!  She also made two pairs of short, one solid, and one in the print.  Good job to my daughter in law!

Warmest...

Spring Outside Work

I have been so busy this spring working on getting our property ready for summer.  The garden is coming up with lettuce, peas, carrots, beets, spinach, chard and strawberries.  I only have the first four boxes planted or partially planted.

This box has peas and onions,

This is the lettuce, spinach, and peas box.  Oh yeah, that plant in the upper left hand corner is a voluntary potato that came up this year.

And this box has the carrots and more peas.  I planted several different colors of carrots this year, yellow, red, purple, and of course orange.

Here are my pallet planters that hubby made for my strawberries.  They already have flowers which will produce a strawberry later, and has a total of 50 plants in two of these planters.

Look at how my greenhouse plants are doing.  I have hundreds of seedlings that have turned into real live big plants!  I am so happy that it is such a success for my first year at trying this greenhouse work.

Flowers are blooming in my porch planters,

My son spread three yards of 3/4" gravel in our big driveway.  

My hubby was so nice, and bought me a new work toy to help me with all my work outside and around our house.  WhooHoo!!!

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Applique Blocks

A couple of posts ago, I showed a sneak peek of the appliqué' blocks that I started working on for the Patchwork Party Spring Edition 2007 BOM that I pulled out as my next UFO project.

It has taken more time to complete these blocks than I originally planned on spending.  But as the saying goes, in for the penny, in for the pound.  Lots of little pieces, lots of time doing placement, lots and lots of satin stitching around all the little pieces.

I will have to say, this is also a learning curve for me, as I have not in the past ever used the satin stitch on an appliqué.  I had to figure the best place to start, how to pivot in the "V" parts of the pieces, how to move slowly around curves, and how to make crisp points.  You probably can tell the areas I first worked on in the learning curve, as it shows some not so perfect stitching.  All in all though, I really like the way they all turned out.

Here are the appliquéd blocks:

This block is called Nosegay.

This block is called Rose at Dawn.

This block is called Floribunda.

This block is called Sweet Dahlia. 

This block is called Antique Tulip.

This block is called Tulip Time.

The blocks are beautiful, and will blend in with the 12 sampler blocks just perfectly, so it was worth the time and effort in getting them done.  

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He is Alive, He has Risen

A Spring(y) Project

I have been working on a couple of UFO's this winter that are warm colors fitting for the cold dreary days, and I decided now that it is Spring in full bloom here in the Pacific Northwest, I needed a Spring(y) project to work on.  A short while back I pulled out a 2007 project, called Patchwork Party 2007 Spring Edition.   I finished the a few of the remaining twelve sampler blocks, but I still needed to work on the six additional appliqué blocks and the log cabin border blocks.  Today, I started working on the appliqué blocks.  They are similar to Biltmore flower blocks.

In the picture below, I have done two blocks, they are just overlapping so I could fit it in one picture.  the block on the left is called Rose at Dawn, and the one on the left is called Antique Tulip.  I will still have to stitch down the pieces, as they are only being held down with Heat and Bond material.

I included the instruction sheet, showing a corner of each of the six appliqué blocks.  I have four more to go, and then I will work on the log cabin blocks.  This is the only picture I have from the internet quilt company, Suzannes Quilts, that was included with the finishing kit that I ordered from them back in 2007.  This shows the layout of the sampler blocks, the appliqué blocks, and the log cabin blocks.

It's going to be another large quilt!

Warmest...

Chocolate Legacy UFO Top Done

Yessiree, the top is done.  You can read about it from the beginning here.  The original program started back in 2006, and I got it out to finally complete last November, only to spend a few months working on it off and on.

I took pictures this evening, so the lighting is not so great, but this quilt is the biggest one I have ever made.  It is laying on a queen size bed, and almost hangs down to the floor on all sides.  I'm glad it came out this big, because I wanted it to fit nicely on my King size bed.

Now the challenge will be to get it sandwiched and quilted.  I found, after much searching on the internet, backing that is 108" wide and from Moda's Chocolat line.  It is red tone on tone just like below.  I am not usually a fan of red, but I think I am really going to like this one, and it "fits" perfectly with all the prints from this line.  

I have formulated a couple of quilting ideas for this top, but I will wait to see once I get it all sandwiched, before I decide which way to go.

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Back in the Saddle Again

For the first time in so many weeks, I was back in the sewing room, working on a few things.  One of the first things I worked on was a custom order for a tablecloth for an oblong table in an Easter print.  It is for the same customer that I made 9 sets of holiday themed potholders a couple of months ago.  I was able to find the same Easter print that I used in making the potholders, to make this tablecloth.  It was a fairly simple make, starting with the size of the table, adding  4" hang all the way around, and an additional 1" for a hem all away around.  Then I took a serving plate, about 14" in diameter to round out the corners to fit the oblong part of the table.

Then it was back to the making of the pieced sashing for the Primrose Prairie UFO quilt.  Remember I have to make 214 of these pieces, and each piece has 7 pieces.  Making the sashing scrappy, there are 18 different dark prints, and 12 different light prints.  Somehow the math worked out to be, I needed to make 13 blocks of each print, using one duplicate light print with each 13 pieces set.  After I get them all done, I will either be short a few or have a few extra.  Either way, I have a lot of pieces to make to complete the sashing.  

The box of the cut out pieces show below, here shows that I had one 13 piece dark color set done, and I have 5 sets done.  Only 13 sets to go....I will be sounding like a broken record blogging about this until I get them done.  Sigh...

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