Sew-Along or a Tutorial?

I have been working on a tutorial for a quilt that I had made. But I got to thinking, would you prefer I made a tutorial (pdf version) and put it on Craftsy where you could download it? Or I could do a sew-along here on my blog where I show a step or 2 each day; which would you prefer? Please leave me a comment below or email me and tell me which you prefer. I'll go with the majority on this.

I suppose you want to see what we will making first, huh? My Batik Hearts Quilt.

Batik Hearts Quilt.

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Local Outdoor Quilt Show

This is one of the quilts in the show made by my friend, Tara.

I took 161 photos of quilts (and some plants too) at the local annual quilt show in the park. If you would like to see the photos you can go here. I also have these posted on my other blog. I do a show & tell blog for the groups that I belong to at Daryl's Fiber Arts Blog.
 




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Shake Your Pom-Poms Blog Hop

Thanks to Madame Samm of Sew We Quilt and our cheerleader Thearica of Pig Tales and Quilts for bringing us this blog hop.

I saw that my 5-year old grandson had some pom-poms and Google eyes in his craft box and when I said I needed some pom-poms he told me that I could take some of his pom-poms and Google eyes. How sweet of him! He was so thrilled to see what I made with his pom-poms and Google eyes. Plus while I was babysitting  him last month, I dyed some batting with Kool-Aid and used the microwave oven at his house because I don't have a microwave oven. I wanted to use the microwave to speed up the dying process, but I could have placed it in the sun all day instead. 

 I used my Kool-Aid dyed batting to create these letters. I added embroidery stitches, beads, sequins and tiny pom-poms in the center of the "o's".

Those two with their Google eyes are just meant for each other.

I used one of Amy Bradley's lady from her Quilter's Yearbook and then made my own clown hat. I added a pom-pom for her nose, pom-pom necklace, pom-poms to her hat and one large pom-pom brooch. Google eyes made her look cross-eyed and I found the little bumble bee (with tiny Google eyes) and just had to put the bee on her nose as though she were looking at the bee and that why she looked cross-eyed.

"Quit Clowning Around and...Shake Your Pom-Poms!!!

I had so much fun making my quilt. I hope you enjoyed her and now here are the other quilters that are sharing their creations with you today too. I hope you hop on over and see what they have created for this blog hop. I know I can't wait to see what these ladies have created, so I'll be hopping over to see each blog too.

April 26~

Cherry Valley Designs

Life in the Scrapatch

Felt free på Åsly

Love it Sew it

Patchouli Moon Studio {me}

Dreaming In Patchwork

Jane's Quilting

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Drawstring Bag

I finished the Drawstring Bag I made from the Make it With Me Sew Along at Sweet Bee Buzzings. Bethany's directions were excellent. The bag is simple, and good looking.

 I used a colorful fabric that I had bought over 10 years ago!. I only bought a half of yard of it and it was just the perfect amount to make this bag, including using a piece of it for the lining of the interior zippered pocket.  This bag could be made using one fabric for the main body of the bag or you could make it patchwork by cutting squares and sewing the squares together. I opted to use this fabric since it has a patchwork feel to it, yet I didn't have the extra work of making the patchwork first.

This is the other side of the bag.

Inside the bag there is both a zippered pocket and a slip-in patch pocket.

I used the exterior fabric for the lining of the zippered pocket. 

This is the other interior pocket that is divided into two sections.

I chose to use an accent fabric in the teal color for both the handles and the drawstring, plus the inside pocket too. I had just enough of the teal fabric to make those parts too.

The only thing I had an issue with making this bag was with the grommets. I have made several shower curtains in the past and used the grommet plier-like tool, which works great. However, I bought some Drtiz brand grommets a while back when my husband needed something with grommets. These were weird-looking grommets with teeth on the one part. I studied it for a long time and could not figure out why there was teeth and how the metal would attach to the fabric. I ended up in tears and my husband came to my rescue. I didn't have the strength to pound the metal part down flat enough with the hammer. Hubby pounded all the grommets in place. Then as I finished making the rest of the bag and was going to sew the 1/4-inch top-stitching around the top of the bag, I felt 2 of the grommets were loose. I tried gluing them on to stay in place. Then I could feel the back of one of the grommets had come completely off and was inside the bag!

The grommets I had used in the past were essentially eyelets. These grommets with the teeth are just awful in my opinion! They don't make sense. If you look at the photos in Bethany's sew-along, that's the kind I have always used with the plier tool and they work beautifully and are easy to insert and stay put. So I will never use grommets again that have those teeth on them!

This is a photo of the grommet with the teeth. What are those teeth for? They hold on to the fabric, but when they get pounded with the hammer, don't they just flatten against the upper ring? What holds the fabric in place? The protruding part of the ring shown on the top just gets flattened too as the other side of the teeth doesn't have an indentation to hold that part to the lower ring. Whereas on an eyelet, the long part curls around the bottom ring into the indentation. This upper part doesn't do that because there is no indentation and it doesn't flatten in the same way. Is it just me or has anyone else had issues with these grommets too?

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The Tammy Bag Blog Hop Coming in June

Madame Samm has created not only another blog hop, but she also has created this wonderful Tammy Bag! Only 50 participants will be in this blog hop and I sure hope that I get in, but I will have to be patient and see if I get an email from her letting me know if I did or not. You can visit her blog Sew We Quilt for the details and to see if there is still space to join this blog hop. If not, please make sure you come back June 12-18 to hop around to the blogs who are participating to see all the lovely Tammy Bags that are created. I know I will be anxious to see what everyone creates!

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Yippee Look What I Won...

I was one of the lucky winners of a fabric bundle from Fabri-Quilt, for being one of the top picks from Madame Samm's Sew We Quilt  April Showers Mug Rug Blog Hop. I'm thrilled to have won such a fantastic bundle of fabric! There were 2 other lucky ladies who won a fabric bundle too.
Here's what I will be receiving~

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Kitty Kat Pincushion

Remember the posting where I showed the Kitty Kat pincushion that I found the FREE pattern online? It was designed by Sue Daniel. I made the pincushion using hand dyed wool felt that I purchased at a quilt show a couple of years ago. It came out cute. I did some of the sewing my way because I usually have my own way of doing things and don't always follow instructions the way they are written. Perhaps because I have been sewing for so long, I have found easier and better ways to do some things.

I added colorful pins on the burgundy wool cushion, so it's all ready to use.

Side view shows the different section of the cat.

Maybe it's not polite to show the rear view? Lol.

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Shake Your Pom-Poms Schedule~

April 24~

Pig Tales and Quilts

in stitches and seams

CherrysPrairiePrimitives

Blooming Where I am Planted

Needled Mom

Sew Many Yarns

Moosestash Quilting

Nutz4Redwork

April 25~

Mhairi

Just Sew Sue

I Piece 2 – Mary

Get More Done...Today

Scraps of Life

Dancing Thru-Threads

Needle d

Sowing Stitches

April 26~

Cherry Valley Designs

Life in the Scrapatch

Felt free på Åsly

Love it Sew it

Patchouli Moon Studio {me}

Dreaming In Patchwork

In The Boon Docks

Jane’s Quilting

April 29~

Accio Fabric

Quiltsmiles

Scrapbook-chickadoodle

In The Sewing Basket

life, quilts and a cat too

Debby Kratovil Quilts

Just Let Me Quilt

Meadowbrook

April 30~

I Like To Quilt Blog

Sew Incredibly Crazy

Thimblemouse & Spouse

Cate`s Linens

Around the Homestead

Buzzing and Bumbling

les passions de Cliodana

Bumbleberry Stitches

Sew We Quilt

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Fun Mugs...

I was looking at Amazon.com and found some fun mugs. There are a lot more mugs than these on Amazon. Wouldn't it be fun get some of these mugs and make mug rugs for them? Since we are in the last few days of the Spring Mug Rug Blog Hop, I thought I would share these with you.

My husband jokes with me that I am always right. So I really should buy this mug and make a matching mug rug to go with it just to reinforce the fact that I am (always right that is, lol).

This is a pretty one.

Joe Cool here. This mug would be perfect for the Peanuts Gang upcoming blog hop. Who doesn't just love Snoopy?

I love this one and wouldn't you be able to make the sweetest mug rug to match it?

Cute kitty mug.

You'd be craving donuts whenever you drank from this mug.

For the Rubix Cube fans.

This one is a bit much! Coffee or tea just cannot taste good in this mug!

For you photography buffs.

Here's another lady bug mug too.

I already made a lady bug mug rug to match my lady bug mug, but this mug is a bit more elegant.

I love the catffeinated and the decatf  on this mug.

Since I live in New Mexico (although I don't live in Roswell), I thought an Alien mug would be  fun.

Not sure coffee or tea would taste very good in this one, but the recycling part is nice.

Who doesn't love Dr. Seuss?

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I've Been Featured...

...at Threading My Way for my Fabric Wrapped Bag. Thanks Pam for featuring my bag. Please click on the link to visit Pam's blog. There are several other creations that have been featured too by various people, so check out the others as well.


 


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