I Entered This in a Contest

I entered this one into another Quilting Gallery Contest. Thanks for all the votes for the lst contest I entered. I didn't stand a chance against the quilt that got over 700 votes, though. I thought I would try another one. So starting Friday-Sunday you can vote Here for this quilt here. Thanks so much for your votes. You can vote only once, but this time for your favorite 3 quilts.

Sakura Quilt

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Round Robin House Quilt

The applique group I belong to had a round robin day. We each made a house of our choosing and appliqued it to a background fabric. Then the idea was to pass the house on to the next person to add a little applique or embroidery or embellishment and when you were done to pass it to the next person and so on. By the end of the day your house looked quite different and this was the result of mine. I just quilted it and added the binding. It was so fun to see how everyone's house turned out. That was the first round robin I ever did, and while this was a one day thing, usually a round robin gets larger and larger as more and more people add on borders or blocks to it and you have more time to complete your addition to the quilt too.

Round Robin House quilt.

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Miss Mouse

I just received a comment from Linda on my thread catcher posting here and saw she had a blog called Memories and Mouse Making so I went to her blog to see what she does and oh my gosh she makes the cutest little mice. That reminded me of the mouse that my mom made when I was a young girl. So I took photos of Miss Mouse to share with you all and Linda. Please take a look at her blog too and see her cute little "mouses".

With hood pulled down.

Profile showing tail.

With hood up.

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NMQA

I went to NMQA (New Mexico Quilters Association) today because they had guest speaker Laura Wasilowski there. She was great and so funny. To see photos of her,  NMQA show-and-tell and the annual balloon quilt, hop on over to my other blog (Daryl's Fiber Arts Blog) here.
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Twister Around the World Quilt

It's quilted now. I posted photos of this quilt top not too long ago here.  I used a simple straight stitching to quilt it in a variegated thread.

Close-up of center.

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Would You Vote for My Quilt? (pretty please with sugar on top)

I just entered the Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt that I recently quilted and my Mother pieced by hand (back in the early 1970's); in the Quilting Gallery Weekly Contest. You can vote once starting today (Friday) for your favorite quilt with the hexagon theme. I would appreciate it if you would vote for my quilt. Here is a photo of it. Go here to vote for the quilt.
Thank you so much!
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Collapsible Thread Catcher

This is easy to make and very useful, especially if you go to classes or even if you sew in other rooms of the house and need a place to put all those snips of threads, fabric, yarn, etc. This was a free pdf online you can get here from Red Hen Fabrics.

 I did alter the circle size of the cardboard pieces because you either need to gather the fabric tube in order for it to fit to the cardboard pieces when you sew the pieces, OR draw the cardboard pieces using the outside measurement as I did. The instructions tell you to draw the inside ring measurement, plus it says to further reduce down an 1/8th inch from the inner circle and that causes you to have excess fabric to have to gather to make it fit. No mention of that, nor do the photos show excess fabric. Since it's cardboard I could gently bend it and insert it through the fabric tube using the larger size. I suppose the reason for the smaller size is so that the bottom piece fits into the ring when collapsed down. Where as mine sits on top. Not a big deal, but it made sewing around the cardboard to the fabric tube much easier without excess gathers in the fabric.

Here it is collapsed down. You twist it like you would when opening or closing a lid on a jar.

Untwist it and it stands up ready to hold your threads and snips of fabrics. Portable to go with you.

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Red & Green Purse

I made this purse and it's for sale for $25.00, including shipping. It has pockets inside, a braided strap, Velcro closure with decorative buttons on the outside. I quilted the exterior. E-mail me if interested.

No Longer available. This was won in a give-away I had.

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More Scrap Bags Full of...Well Scraps

More bags I made for my fabric scraps. For the tutorial go here.

Front of Blue Scrap Bag.

Flip side of Blue Scrap Bag.

This is a smaller bag, because I don't use as much brown fabrics, or at least I didn't think I did, but this little bag is now stuffed full of brown scraps.

Flip side of brown bag.

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Butterflies

Here is one butterfly on the blossoms.

This is our plum tree loaded with blossoms. The butterflies are going just crazy for the blossoms too. There are dozens of them landing on the blossoms. They flutter all over when I get close, but you can see a couple of the butterflies in this photo I took.

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Itty Bitty Heart Twister Quilt

Okay I know it's Saint Patrick's Day as well as International Quilting Day and I don't have a green quilt to show you, but how about being a month late for Valentine's Day?

I made another twister quilt, this time a heart. After I made the Trip-Around-the-World twister quilt top see here, I received a comment from Diane who made an itty bitty one. So I looked at Diane's blog and saw she not only made a shamrock twister (perfect for today being St. Patrick's Day) but a heart twister too. I had to try the heart, although Diane's is even smaller than mine. All twister quilts start out as squares like this.

Then after you recut and resew they end up as tessellating pinwheels (the twister part). I didn't buy a pattern for this, I just looked at a few photos online and I could figure it out myself. I also made my own template out of a plastic lid from a can. I did have to draw around the template with a pencil and cut it out with scissors, since the template I made was not a thick plastic, but that works for me. I found this itty bitty size a bit challening to quilt because of all the thick seams being so close together. I did have some thread breaking and tension issues. I think for that reason I would start with a larger square for making the twister quilts and not make one quite this tiny again.

I made a Lil' Twister quilt out of Civil War reproduction fabrics that you can see here and a little one I have on my dresser here, although this photo is just the quilt top.

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Garage Sale Find

I was walking to the library, which is about 1/2 mile from my house, and there is a house near the library that has this metal sculpture of a rooster outside. I asked the owner if I could take a picture of the rooster as I loved how whimsical and colorful it was. He said I should go for the gusto and he would take a picture of me with the rooster, so here we are together. We are the same height it looks like too. I'm 5' 3" tall.

At that same house that the rooster lives at, was also a garage sale and I found this treasure for $5.00! I have always wanted a dress form, but didn't want one bad enough to pay the big bucks to get one. Now you should have seen me walk across the street and into the library with this dress form tucked under my arm! The long stand was pushed up in the form, but I am sure I was quite the sight. The library branch manager had to walk up to me and ask me about it too. Then I walked back home and I tell you my arms are sore today from lugging that thing home.

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What to do With Fabric Scraps

I am a scrapaholic and save every single piece of fabric. The larger fabric scraps I use in something creative like a quilt or bag, but the tiniest scraps end up here in this bucket.

Here is my bucket of scraps. I throw all the tiniest scraps of fabrics into this bucket. You know all those trimmings from whatever I am sewing. Plus all the thread snips and then there are the batting scraps and tidbits of yarn. What do I do with these you might ask?

I make pet beds out of whatever fabric I might have that is sturdy enough for the exterior fabric. This one is a polar fleece fabric. I have used upholstery-type fabric and old blue jeans that I cut the legs off to make a pillow and sew it into a bed. I donate the beds to a no-kill cat shelter. I stuff the beds with all those fabric/thread/batting scraps that I toss into the bucket. The beds can be easily washed and the stuffing doesn't all lump together into a blob like polyester stuffing does if you have ever tried to wash a pillow stuffed with poly stuffing.

If you want to make a pet bed and stuff with your fabric scraps, just follow my tip for making a pillow HERE and stuff with scraps, sew the opening closed and that's it. Simple, huh? Plus you will be recycling, upcycling and re-purposing all at the same time! Pin It Now!

Tip For Sewing Around a Pillow

1. Start sewing around a pillow or other item that you will be turning right-side-out, by first sewing from the bottom and back stitch to secure the stitches and then turn to start your seam.
2. When you get to the corner area make one stitch on the diagonal. (Sometimes you might make 2-3 diagonal stiches here, it depends on what you are turning and how large the item is.)
3. The diagonal stitch (or stitches) will be easier to poke out later.

1. Sew all the way around, making sure to make the one diagonal stitch in each of the 4 corners.
2. Leaving space in the center to turn, you will end your stitching by turning and stitching down toward the raw edges, similar to how you started.
3. Make sure you back stitch to secure the stitches at the end.

1. Clip all 4 corners on a diagonal.

1. Turn right-side-out and poke out the corners.
2.  By adding those starting and stopping stitches, your pillow will naturally fold in to make the opening so much easier to sew closed.

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Bright Hopes Quilt

Go here to Craftsy for the free pdf tutorial for this quilt.

I finally finished this quilt top, but it still needs to be quilted. I'm slower at getting them quilted. The block is called Bright Hopes and is from a book I have had for decades. I added white sashing between the blocks, however if you were to use just 5 fabrics and join them without sashing, the quilt would have a woven-look to it.

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Storing Fabric Scraps

You can store fabric scraps in plastic food containers like this one here. Or in those zippered plastic bags that bed sheets come in. Or you can make a fabric bag to store them in and use up some fabric scraps in the process of making the bag. See the tutorial for how to make the bag.

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Strippy Zippy Bag Tutorial

Find the free tutorial for making this bag here at Craftsy.

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A New Week

I woke up this morning to snow on the ground. It is sunny outside now and I can see a lot of the snow is already melting.

So much happened last week. First with Karen from Sew Many Ways writing her posting that sent so many of you to come and look at my blog. Then Norma from Pink Bling Crafter who also wrote a posting about me and my blog after reading what Karen wrote. This whole big chain reaction thing happened and I was so excited and happy to have each and every one of you just stop by even once for a look at what I do on my blog, but thrilled to have gained so many new followers and the comments I received are all so wonderful and much appreciated.

It's the connections that we make through being a follower, a blogger, or making comments that keep us going and get us inspired and inspire others to continue what we do. Before I felt as though I was doing a show-and-tell to an invisible mute audience. I couldn't see any of you or know what you thought. Now I have made connections and know some of your names and even faces from your photos. I know you like to see who we bloggers are from reading what Karen wrote about what makes a good blog on her site, but as a blogger it's so nice to also see who you are too. Even if you don't have a blog, it's nice to be able to put a face with a name or visa versa. Then a few of you mentioned to me that you had family or grew up here in New Mexico and you see the world keeps getting smaller.

I have followers from other countries now too and that's so great. I love that we can communicate through Google Translator. I truly feel like I have made some wonderful friends through this blogging experience and I really appreciate your thoughts and your visits here.

Hugs to you all. Now it's time to work on my next tutorial, so check back later this week. See you are already inspiring me to work on a new tutorial. Pin It Now!

Lil' Twister Trip-Around-the-World Quilt

This is the 3rd Lil' Twister quilt that I have made. I tested out this technique on a small runner size first, then made one in random Civil War Reproduction fabrics for my husband and now I had to try this one starting with a Trip-Around-the-World top first. These are kind of addicting to make. Because it starts off as squares like this:

1st a Trip-Around-the-World quilt top...

...and after you cut and re-sew, it looks like this. It's essentially tessellating pinwhells. I thought it was a great idea to start with a Trip-Around-the-World quilt top first. I saw a quilt like this last week here: Quilting by the River. Connie, from Quilting by the River calls hers Worldy Twist Quilt.

A closer look.

But wait there's more...you have leftovers after you cut the pinwheel shapes and you end up with enough leftover squares to make a small doll size quilt top. So now I have a miniature version of what I started out with, except that I don't have enough of the yellow print fabric to add a border to this as I am using what's left of that fabric to bind the larger quilt. I'll find another fabric if I decide to add a border to this one.
Now I just need to quilt them.

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Grandmother's Flower Garden Quilt

This has to be one of the oldest UFO's ever. I just finished this Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt. It was started over 40 years ago by my mother and meant for my younger sister. My sister asked for a pink quilt. When my mom was nearly done with all the piecing of this quilt (all by hand), my sister decided she would rather have a biscuit puff quilt! So mom made her the biscuit puff quilt and put this quilt away. Several years ago she gave this to me to finish, since I make quilts. I didn't know how I was going to finish it because Mom had already layered it and basted it and even hand quilted around a few of the blocks. The batting was a fluffy polyester batting and I didn't think it was so easy to hand quilt. So after my new sewing table was ready to use, I decided I would machine quilt this. I just wasn't sure what I was going to do about the edges with all those hexagon shapes. I didn't want to bind around all those! So I decided I would just follow that pink garden path fabric and cut off those points and bind it. That's why the short ends look the way they do. I could have taken the batting and backing off and appliqued it all onto another fabric, but ugh, I just wanted to finish it. So 40+ years later it's all done!

Mom was making me a blue & yellow sampler quilt around the same time as she was working on this and I never got it. She wanted me to finish that quilt too a few years ago, but my husband suggested that she finish it and give it to our daughter (Mom's only granddaughter), so she did minimal quilting on it and did give it to her.

Grandmother's Flower Garden~ all hand pieced by my mother and machine quilted by me.

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