Needlework… ME??

At the last few guild meetings, we were taught how to do some of the more popular hand work.  At one meeting we explored making hexies, and at the last meeting, we did some redwork.  Now, I am one of those sewists whose motto is “gimme my sewing machine over hand sewing ANY DAY”!!

I used to HATE even doing the hand sewing on the binding and label on my quilts….

But I have evolved to really LOVE doing that hand work!  And I unexpectedly enjoyed doing those hexies at that meeting and the redwork reminded me of all the crewel work I did as a child!

(image from Google)

As a teeneager in the groovey 70’s, I hand embroidered all over my hiphugger jeans!!

(image from Google)

So, I decided to ENABLE myself to do some more hand sewing by making a decorative box to store my threads and needles and projects to be kept beside my recliner in the family room.

Soooo, I had this awesome basket box that we got last Christmas filled with all kinds of gift foods.  It’s been sitting empty on a shelf in the library for months.

I pulled out a pile of “She Who Sews” scraps and played with a bunch of different ideas before finally choosing to make two of my all-time favorite quilt blocks to put on the box top!

I made two identical churn dash blocks then surrounded them with a pale green measuring tape fabric.

I fused 2 layers of fleece on the back side, then hot glued that on top of the box, gluing down the raw edges on the sides, which I covered with some fun jumbo rick rack.

If you used to make those fabric and lace covered photo albums back in the 80’s when that was all the rage, you use the same technique for this!

I measured the inside of the box and cut out cardboard pieces for the sides, bottom and the underside of the top.  Lay each piece of cardboard face down on the fabric and cut the fabric about 1.5” bigger on all sides.  Use hot glue to secure the fabric wrapped to the back side of the cardboard, then hot glue the covered cardboard into the box.

Taaaa daaaa!!  All done!  Now I keep it filled with hand sewing supplies right next to me, so that at night instead of surfing Pinterest, I can do something constructive!!  I don’t think I’ll ever hand quilt a quilt, but definitely some smaller embroidery projects or hexies!!

So, whatcha up to this week???

Little Slugger Quilt

Back in June, a dear friend sent me the most WONDERFUL birthday box filled with pure fun and sunshine!

When we chatted afterwards, she told me how CRAZY her little two year old son, Henry, is about baseball!

I have so many lovely memories from my own son growing up as a baseball player from the age of 5 until he left for college!

So, I decided to make Henry a baseball quilt!

I searched online and found an adorable panel with 6 scenes about little boys playing baseball!!

I still has some baseball prints in my stash from my own son, and bought a few more online to create Henry’s quilt!

My friend sent me some photos of Henry snuggling with his new quilt…

which she says he goes nowhere without!!

Is there any better reason to make a quilt???

And Yogi “paw-picked” the baseball panel I used…

     …  can you guess why??

My Guild Summer Challenge Quilt!

Ever since our local quilt guild announced this summer’s challenge, I’ve been racking my brain what to make and what colors to choose.

One dear friend decided to make the half-square triangle quilt she’s always wanted to make using blues and whites.  And another one has made a purple and white postage stamp quilt for the challenge!!  And I could not decide what colors to choose!!

If i were to pick the fabric color I have the most of in my stash, it’d have to be green…  but what color to go with green??? 

I was looking through my stash bins last weekend and found a kit I bought at least a year ago from Connecting Threads and had totally forgotten about!

A two color only quilt!!  The name of this pattern is “Floating Stars” and is still available on the Connecting threads website!

A red and white quilt!!

With such lovely fabrics for the top and binding!!

And I even had bought the backing, too!!

EUREKA!!!  I had my summer challenge project already in my stash!! 

Did not have to buy a thing!!

Not even batting or thread!!

So, I cut it all out!

Strip pieced the blocks!!

Made the top!

Laid it out on the kitchen island and pinned the quilt sandwich!

And took a few days to quilt it on The Queen Mother ( aka my HQ Sweet Sixteen Sit Down machine)! 

I quilted it with freehand leaves… which has always been such a fav of mine!!

When I’m quilting on The Queen Mother, my sewing room is a bit of a mess, as I have to move stuff off her and set up the side tables for more surface area for the project to lie on.

Well, I finished the last little bit of quilting this morning and worked on the binding this afternoon!

And I found the most perfect label in my label box!!  It was meant to be!

Yippee skippee!  All done!!

I am really pleased how well it turned out and I’ve always wanted a red and white quilt!!

OK, any of you HQU ladies out there reading this post, I hope you all are working on your own challenge project and I can not WAIT to see them all at the September meeting!!

Yogi wants to know what you are busy working on this weekend!?

Sew Cool!!

First off, I never blogged about a super fun decal I had made to fit the front of my Bernina 640!

I saw this decal on Etsy and contacted the gal and asked if it could be made really small to fit on the front of my machine and she was so nice to work with me to get it just right!!

So, if you are interested in a decal for your machine or wall or whatever, the Zindee Etsy store is a good place to go!!

Now, second, I saw this pin on Pinterest a few days ago, and used the link to go to the website and check out these bright machine lights.

For $30.00 (and FREE shipping), you get a long self-adhesive strip of 25 tiny little LED lights and cords and power plug and little self-stick brackets.  The strip of lights can be cut at certain places , so you can make it the perfect size for the underside of your particular machine.  Here’s my Bernina as it was-

I knew my Bernina would not need even half of this strip, so I also purchased the Sewing Expansion Kit for $15.00, which would allow me to use the rest of the lights on the strip on another machine!  Look at my Bernina NOW!! WOW!! 

My HandiQuilter Sweet Sixteen Sit-Down machine does not have a built-in light.  It only came with the gooseneck Ott light attached to the top.  So, I’ve always needed more lights around me there when I quilt!  You can see how much of the sewing space is in shadow!!

Not anymore!!  Is this not amazing!!??  I am just so darn pleased at the light they provide!  And even with free shipping, I got my lights in two days!!

So, if you find it challenging (frustrating?) to sew at night these days, I would highly recommend you check out these awesome bright lights at inspiredled.com!

OK, so, what are you up to these days?  I hope you have something really fun to do this weekend!! I’ll be sewing and Yogiboy will be snoozing!!  LOL!!