An Apple for the Teacher

I finished a new door quilt for my front door to use every September.

I named it “An apple for the Teacher”.

I used the curled apple pattern from an Art To Heart book by Nancy Halvorsen.

I love her stuff!!  And this seems very modern to me!

Next, I’ll be making a new September quilt to hang over the mantle with a schoolhouse on it!

What are you working on?

Back to Work!

Today was first day back for Fairfax county teachers.  We had an all day staff meeting…sigh

I kept thinking about how much

                  I’d rather be at home with

sewing in my studio…

I’ve realized how little “teacher” stuff I have to put out for September.  So, I dug out some stuff from my teacher supply boxes in my basement to put out… still not much.  So, I’m working on something new for my front door …

I’m about half done…  and I can only work on it now after work at night… sigh… so bummed…

Back to School Mini Quilt

I love schoolish things!  And that makes sense as I’ve been a teacher for 34 years now!!  I have a Snoopy “Back to School” flag that I put out front the night before I go back to school each fall for the last 18 years or so. 

It is quite faded, but I love it anyway!!

I also have a fun little mini flag out front that says it all for me regarding education!

And I have this fun flag that goes out on my deck!  I love Peanuts, especially Snoopy!!

I’ll be putting them all out on Sunday night as Monday starts the new school year for us teachers here in Fairfax county…sigh!

Where did summer go?  :-(

So, I’ll also be taking down and putting away all my summer decor stuff and putting out some other school decorations inside this weekend.  Yogi and I decided we needed a mini quilt for my metal stand to go with the whole school theme.  Yogi is very decisive, you know!!  :-)

So, I sketched out an old fashioned school house then selected some fabrics from my stash to use.

Notice how Yogi is actively helping me audition the various fabrics…

I traced each part of the design on the paper side of the fusible,

then pressed it onto the wrong side of each fabric.

Then I cut out each piece.

I scored the paper on the back with a straight pin and peeled the paper off.

The mini quilt has to be 12” square finished, so I used a school stripe I’ve had for years for the 2 1/2” wide border and made a viewing template in order to preview and then fussy cut four cornerstones for the border.

I need an 8 1/2” square for the center and so I pieced this square with a blue for the sky and green for the grass.  After the background is finished, I pressed the fused pieces of the school, roof, steps, door, bell, sun, flag and bushes onto the background.

I used black thread and a straight stitch to stitch around each piece. 

I used a light blue thread to then quilt the sky and a green thread to quilt the grass and a red, white and blue variegated thread to quilt the borders and cornerstones.

I added black rickrack on the seam lines of the borders and cornerstones.  I trimmed the extra batting and backing away.

I used a solid black fabric for the binding.

I hand stitched the binding down on the back and TaaaDaaa!!  All done!  :-)

Don’t forget a label on the back!!  Oh, and I hate putting hanging sleeves on these little quilts, so I hang it using 4 quilting safety pins!! 

So, what are you working on today??

Needagottahaveone

I saw this awesome phrase in a print for sale somewhere on Etsy, I think.  The phrase really stuck with me!

 

So, I decided I needed to make it into a pillow for my sewing room.  I just printed it on regular white copy paper and pinned it on top of the fabric with fusible interfacing pressed on the back.  I stitched through the paper with just a simple straight stitch.  Removing the paper before further stitching on the words was not fun…it took forever!!

I should have used the paper piecing paper instead of plain old copy paper as it would have been soooooooooooo much easier to remove!!

 

After removing the paper, I just freehand stitched over and over until I liked how it looked!!  I added that little flower and black jumbo rick rack around the edges!!

I am pleased how it turned out!!

 

Waddudink??  You like??

What are you working on these days??

 

Professional Tote

Ok, so, I’ve already made a new purse for back to school (my work) next Monday.  So, next on my list was a new computer tote bag.

I’ve had the pattern for at least 3 years…

and it took me three full sewing days to make it!!

The pattern is very well written…

all 26 pages of instruction and 2 pages of cutting direction!!

I really do love how it turned out…

but I still don’t want to go back to work!!  :-(

Camp Quiltalong Prize Giveaway!

Join in some campfire fun for a chance to win great prizes totaling over $1500! Fons & Porter, Fabric.com, and AccuQuilt have teamed up to provide us all with a huge giveaway on Facebook.

Simply “Like” these Facebook pages and gain access to all three sections of a secret code that unlock your chance to win! Follow the camp trail on the bottom of each sponsor’s page and it will take you to the next campground to retrieve the next section of code. Once you’ve captured all three pieces of the secret code, go to www.accuquilt.com/indianblocks  

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Your summer camping trip begins at AccuQuilt, so get GO!-ing at

http://www.facebook.com/accuquilt?sk=wall#!/accuquilt?sk=app_10467688569

Good luck!!  Hope you win something wonderful!!

And, by the way, don't forget you can download 22 free patterns by clicking the button on my sidebar that looks like this and signing up for the AccuQuilt newsletter!  Check it out!!

Hope you are having a terrific summer! 

Fall is just around the corner!!

Another UFO Done!

I made this fall panel quilt top over a year ago, but never quilted it.  So, as I am trying very hard to complete one UFO between new projects, I pulled it out and quilted it on Saturday!

As you know, I am really into Halloween lately, and so it continues with this quilt!

I bought this panel over 5 years ago with my sister, Patty, when we visited a quilt shop on vacation in North Carolina.  It sat in my stash for years! 

Then I saw the border fabric one day when I was browsing at our local G-Street Fabrics and knew it was made to go with this panel!

I just quilted it with a simple meander all over using fun multi-colored thread.  Super quick and easy!!  I finished the binding and label at bee on Monday!  YAY!

Only 2 more quilt tops to quilt up left in my sewing room!! 

Woo hoo!!  Gotta love that!! 

What are you working on today?