July Finish

     I finally added more FMQ and binding to the RWB bargello so it is finished.  At first I quilted in the ditch all the vertical columns and decided I wanted to do more. I really did not know what to do and decided to practice loops. I need more practice on circles and loops to get smoother.  I did swirls in the border.

     I also finished piecing a scrappy adult comfort quilt top for guild.  Someone else will do the quilting for it. The guild kits are simply 5 ½” squares.  I like to add a little interest so made 3 Maverick Stars (AKA Wonky Stars) from lights. If you have never tried the free-formed stars, you can find more about them from Bonnie Hunter or other designers on the web.  I think they are fun.

     I need to clean house a little today to get ready for a short visit from my quilty sister and her husband.  I hope to take advantage of her visit to get input on my UFOs and what I will work on next.

Enjoy some time sewing and quilting!

Making Mug Rugs

  With our 100 degree weather I have been spending most of my time inside.  I spent 2 days making mug rugs.  They make simple gifts for birthdays or to go with thinking of you notes.

This cute mug rug was made using a free pattern which was the June Mug Rug of the Month on Craftsy.com.     It was designed by Sheryl Hastings   www.shercreativespace.com  Craftsy has several other mug rug patterns  ( many free) you might want to try.

 

 

For this group I used some floral fabric and a simple appliqued butterfly.  I played with some leftover fusible fabric.

Enjoy some time sewing and quilting!

Big Block Quilt Top

     This is another week of Grandma Camp with granddaughters and I have been sewing some outfits for the 18” doll Lily received for her birthday last week.  

     I also managed to finish piecing a charity big block top. Blocks finish at 16" so the top is 48 by 64". 

I designed it in EQ to use up the leftover multicolor dot fabric, 2 1/2" strips and 4 1/2" units.  The quilt has this block and the mirror of it.

Enjoy some time sewing or quilting.

Working On This and That

  Not too much sewing going on here, mostly a little of this and that.

The Circle Back quilt binding and label are sewn on and it is ready to be gifted.

I tried out a half swirl flower motif in the 2" border and like how it looks.  

      A member donated a whole lot of her stash to my church quilt group.  It has been stored a long time and we decided it needed washing.  I have done 2 loads and this remains with me to be washed; another has washed several loads, and there is MUCH more waiting at church.  I spent most of the day Wednesday at group sorting and trimming up pieces that were odd sizes.

  I had a little time to sew and played with crumbs to make fabric.  I have made crumb hearts as I learned from Bonnie Hunter.  Recently on P’s blog The Way ISew It she showed a lovely quilt for Pulse survivors made of rainbow hearts. You can see it here.  

                                                                                                            

Her work inspired me to make some. I found a very helpful chart for making hearts of various sizes on the Cluck-Cluck Sew blog here.

Here are a couple that will finish at 8” with bonus HSTs that will finish at 3”.

Enjoy some time sewing or quilting!

Grandma Camp Crafts

     Update*  After reading Wanda's post about font size, I decided to go back and improve the readability of this post.

  I am enjoying the week with my granddaughters while parents work.  Inspired by the book, Painting on Rocks for Kids by Lin Wellford, the first project my granddaughters worked on this week was painting rocks.  I brought a small collection of rocks that I picked up on my hunt and scrubbed clean.  They used outdoor acrylic paint. The book has an illustration of a town of rock houses which inspired the girls.  Here they are with their rocks.

      

      The oldest has some experience sewing on a machine and a little hand sewing.  The youngest ( 4 the end of this week) has said she wants to learn to sew like her big sister.  She has some practice with sewing cards so I planned a hand sewing project of applique.  I prepared simple animal shapes with fusible web and used a small punch purchased from Hobby Lobby. 

They used tapestry needles and 6 strands of embroidery floss and a running stitch to applique the shapes to hand towels. 

Mattie did a super job and finished 2 animals all by herself. 

    

Lily did a good job but with her short attention span only stitched half of her dog. 

      Another project was ornaments.  They used Paperclay, rolling pin and cookie cutters. With 2 days of thunderstorms and high humidity, their creations were slow to dry.  They finally got painted.   Mattie used a combination of cookie cutter and free-hand cutting.  

   

Lily used cookie cutters, however, she also formed one free-hand. 

    Next craft was hand puppets.  I used a 60% off coupon for a no-sew kit of sock puppets for the youngest.  If I had paid full price, I would have been disappointed.  The adhesive did not stick great and it was very hard to peel the paper backing off.  They did turn out cute.  Lily tried very hard to make them just like the picture on the box.

  I also picked up this free direction sheet from Jo-Ann Fabrics.

The oldest used the pattern for the turtle machine sewn hand puppet. The information says fleece; we used felt. There really were not many directions.
 Mattie chose her colors of felt, traced the pattern, and cut out the pieces.  She decided to add some satin stitching to embellish the turtle shell and drew the face.

     

At first the thick felt did not feed well on the sewing machine and she was disappointed with inconsistencies in the stitching.  It was also a challenge for her to stitch around the arms and head.  I am very proud of her work.

 I have had some time to sew myself but I will share that another day.

Enjoy some time sewing or quilting!

FM Quilting

    I am taking another class on  craftsy.com .  This one is “The Secrets of Free-Motion Quilting” with Christina Cameli.  Even though I have been doing FMQ for 13 years, I want to improve and learn new motifs.  If you have never tried a class, they have some free to try.

  Yesterday I finished the quilting on my “Circle Back” quilt.  

I used this basic motif from the “echo around family” for all except the border.

 First I practiced on my plexiglass.

The hardest part was remembering to start the curve to the left when I wanted to end on the left or start the curve to the right to end on the right.  The good part was even when I forgot to pay attention to which direction I wanted to end, I could still echo again to end up on the correct side to continue the design.

The binding is all ready but will have to wait a week. 

Enjoy a safe, happy 4^th of July with sewing and quilting!