What do you think?

 

 

 

These awesome dishtowels were given to me 32 years ago at my wedding shower.  They were made especially for me by my friend Karen, who I haven’t seen for many years. I adored these when I first saw them.  I still do.  They have sat in the linen closet all this time because I don’t want to dry dishes with them.  So I just pull them out once in a while to look at and then back they go. 

For some reason, they popped into my head first thing out of bed this morning and I wondered if they could be made into a quilt!  A light bulb moment!  The towels aren’t quilt material, but for me it would be just a special quilt, maybe one that could lay at the foot of our bed.

Do you think this is a wise idea?

Any advice?

Scrap Bag

I was sorting through the scrap bins when these two fabrics landed beside each other on the table.  When I noticed them, they struck me as ideal for that new bag I’ve been needing.  I found a third scrap to match and all together there was just barely enough to do it.  So this became my weekend project - made entirely from the scrap bin.  Woohoo!

Mr. Sunshine and I also planned to get some outdoor projects done but the weather wouldn’t cooperate.  This past week we’ve had lots of rain, wind and chilly cold.  So weird for June.  Instead, we spent the time playing indoors with our granddaughters.  Which is way more fun than yard work. 

Honey I shrunk the quilt!

On page 30 of the latest AP&Q magazine is an awesome quilt called “Summer Salsa” designed by Kathie Holland.  It just jumped right out and begged me to make it!  (Maybe it’s all that sunshine yellow).   But I already have a few too many unfinished quilts going at the moment and I don’t dare start another one.  So, instead, I decided to shrink it down into a small project. 

The original quilt is 77” x 85” with 6” blocks.  My little quilt has 1 1/2” blocks and finished at 17” x 19.” 

It was a fun thing to try!  

(By the way, I’ve decided the skitty-wampus blocks together with the wavy lines could possibly make one a bit seasick, so I will be more careful with that from now on).

for sweet little girls

My latest stitching project… 2 little dresses for my 2 little nieces.

White dresses with pretty pink pinafores.

 

 

         So sweet!

 

 

 

Sisters

Today I finished another Jo’s Little Women Club quilt called “Sisters”. 

 

It’s 12 inches square.  The women in the center were a challenge as each sister is about an inch in size and very detailed.  I just about went blind trying to stitch that tiny!

This quilt has extra special meaning for me because I grew up as one of four sisters. 

This is me (far left) and my younger sisters 35 or so years ago.  I hope my sisters are okay with me posting this.  We don’t get pictures together anymore as we live so far away from each other and especially since my youngest sister has passed away (far right).  So pictures like this with us together mean a lot to me.  But my two sisters and I do keep in close touch with each other through email. 

I love my sisters!

Autumn Crossing …in Springtime?

 

 

Yeah! We’re finally having beautiful Spring weather here, even though yesterday I finished a quilt called Autumn Crossing.  Perhaps a little untimely, but oh well.  It measures about 18 x 22 inches and is hand quilted.  The smallest squares are three quarters of an inch.  For now, I’m going to use it as a topper for a cabinet where it fits perfectly.  I have been participating in a local Jo’s Little Women’s Club making small quilts like this.  The patterns are so sweet! 

Some Assembly Required

My very thoughtful Mr. Sunshine recently took me shopping and let me pick out some beautiful fabrics and patterns.  Later, when my son-in-law saw it, he joked, “Here’s your gift, go put it together.”  But Mr. Sunshine knows that he was giving me the gift of doing one of my favorite things.  And I had such a super time “assembling” this little 13 x 17 inch quilt.

My mother understands that too.  One day, many years ago, when I was first married and living far away from family, there came a big box in the mail.  Inside I found fabric, yarn, needles, crochet hooks, hoops, a conglomeration of all sorts of stuff like that.  Wonderful stuff.  I was intrigued and went right to work with it.  I grew up sewing, mostly clothes, but this started my passion for sewing to be creative.  That gift made a big difference to my life and is treasured to this very day.

The pattern is by Jo Morton and the blocks are just 3 inches square.

It looks just great on my little quilt wall.

Thank you Mr. Sunshine!

A little bitty challenge

Stuffed in a drawer, I found a small plastic bag of leftover scraps from a quilt I had made.  The pieces of fabric were all very tiny, the biggest ones just 5” by 1 1/4”.  At that size, they are usually discarded as useless.   I thought, “What was I thinking?”  It was time to toss them…or…hmmm… could I really use them?  The wheels in my head started rolling so I challenged myself and this is what I came up with.

Now, just as soon as I bind it, we have a new topper for the coffee table made entirely from those teeny tiny bits of fabric plus some muslin.  And they aren’t junk anymore. 

Do you see the candy dish full of old Scrabble tiles sitting there on the coffee table?  Our family has so much fun with those.  I’m always finding messages of some sort from the kids after they’ve been here.  They get very creative and make me laugh. 

A good little house

It’s been fun watching our children settle down to family life in their own houses….which happen to be lots bigger than our house.  Of course we are quite comfy in our home of 25 years and hope to live out our days here.

I saw this quote the other day and it got me to thinking.  So I found a pattern for a tiny 3 1/2 inch house in the book, Little Bits of Whimsy, by Kathleen Brooks.  I stitched everything together and now have this hanging on a wall in our humble little house.

My Way

I’m making some progress on my klosjes. 

This is my first attempt at a tutorial.  Its mostly for Kaaren who wondered how I made my pattern.  There may be better methods out there but this is how I figured it out and its working well for me.

First I sketched my pattern on 1/4” graph paper.  (You can print some here).  Mine finish at 3 inches square.  I decided I wanted my center to be 1 1/4 inches.  I kind of pulled that out of a hat…it just looked good to me. 

I added seam allowance and cut the two main pieces out.  Then I cut a permanent pattern from template plastic. The final template includes the 1/4” seam allowance. 

Can you see the holes in the plastic?  I was puzzled about getting accurate seam lines and borders, so the way I chose to do it was to punch those holes in the template so I could mark the seam line and corners. 

With a fine marker, I trace the template on the wrong side of my fabric and mark dots through the holes for the stitching line.  Maybe you can see the teeny tiny dots on the fabric. 

Marking and cutting the fabric goes pretty quick for me this way. And when I sew the pieces together I just match and sew dot to dot… I figure I can hand sew a straight line freestyle for at least an inch.

And finally I put all the cut and ready pieces into this cute little tin that Teresa gave me for Christmas.  Thanks again Teresa, it is just perfect for this project.  I tuck it into my purse so I can keep my fingers occupied wherever I go. 

I shouldn’t…

But it looks like I will. 

I’ve been watching many of you hand-stitching away on your Klosjes.  So awesome to see them growing into piles of blocks from little scraps.  I just love it!!  I had to try them out.  And they are fun.

“But Annette!  You are already busy working on a hand sewing project…

…so Klosjes are a no-no!” 

Hmmm…but then again, I’m overwhelmed with scraps.  I save them all, even tiny ones.  They are so pretty that I can’t bear to toss them.

 

I think I have more scraps than fabric, actually.  My ‘Stack 0 Scraps’ reaches almost to the ceiling. 

Plus other smaller stashes here and there. Klosjes would be such a beautiful way to use and enjoy them.

So I guess I will succumb.

Klosjes here I come!

Sew in love

We had a great weekend getting together with family.  Busy days and good days.  Monday was going to be slower paced so I took the opportunity to start a new stitchery that I had my eye on.  Once I started, I couldn’t stop.  Much of the day was spent working on this cute design by Mac A Doodles.  I made a few changes so it would fit the little hanger I already had and it was finished just in time for bed last night. 

Mr. Sunshine means the world to me and it was nice to think about our years together (32) while stitching away.