A Handy Tip for Quilters and those who sew

So last week was my Quilt Guild meeting. I really enjoy going to these meetings. I am often times inspired to get more done in my sewing room when they have show and tell.

Another great thing about going to the quilt guild meetings is learning helpful hints that will help make my time in my sewing room more enjoyable. And today I will share one of the tips I learned from my last meeting.

 

You know your hand weights - that you use to help keep you strong and keep your bones strong? Well they can be useful in your sewing room as well. When you are using your long ruler to cut fabric - you can place the weight on one end of if and that way you can hold one end of it and not have to slide your hand down and risk - moving the ruler. Great tip!!

Now you have two uses for this handy tool. I hope you are taking advantage of at least using your hand weights a couple of times a week to help keep your bones strong. It is very important to do so!

Creativity Opens Up Opportunities

Here are a few more things that I have been working on in my sewing room.

The bright Block of the Month was one that I needed to sew from last month. The blue and brown one is the BOM that I had to put together for BOM for this coming Friday.

 

The project in the middle is a new project.

The was my attempt at making a Clothes Pin holder. I am a visual learner and the way the directions were set up for making this bag confused me. When I thought it was finished and I was complaining out how the sides were looking kind of rough and my husband suggested I turn it inside out = and sure enough ~ that is exactly what it needed! I was thrilled. There is improvements needed by the next time that I make it but I am proud of myself for trying.

 

You see, as I have shared with you all before -I have a tendency to be a perfectionist. Well because of this- I tend to shy away from doing things that I don't think I can do a really good job on. So I am proud of myself for attempting to make this bag even though I was concerned about how it would turn out.

 

We need to give ourselves permission to be creative. We really do!

 

I am sure glad that I have become more creative. Not only am I figuring out how to make pretty things(BOM), useful things(clothes bin bag/holder, quilted hammock's for the kitties) but we also begin to have the confidence to make basic adjustments to our clothes and this can come in very handy. Just last week -I made two adjustments that made some clothing much more useful for me.

First, I had a nice red and white floweredy skirt. This skirt goes down several inches below the knees(just like I like) however, it had a slit on the side that went up about 8 inches or so. Well I really do not like slits. So I took the seams out around the slit and was able to sew the seam and close the slit. And now the skirt is how I like it!

Then my sister had giving me a pair of this navy blue pants with little white stripes. Well they are not really something I would use - but I cut off 8-10 inches off of each leg and then I hemmed them up. Now I have a nice pair of capri's. Something I am more likely to use.

These are just a few examples of how being open to being creative - you can do things to improve your life.

I am so glad that I am becoming a more creative person.

In the Sewing Room -Edited(photo added)

Yesterday, since there were storms in the forecast I decided to spend some time in my sewing room.

I decided to make a cat sized quilt.

 

 Actually a while back I had made this quilt top- and in the original size that I made it - it was 4X this size. I decided to cut it down in order to work on this project.

We had a cat climbing toy thing that came with material that just did not hold up very well. So I made a small quilt. And thanks to my husband was able to get it in place by the time we went to bed last night.

I was happy that I had more of this quilt left - because I noticed that there is another place on this toy that needs a new quilt attached.
Not only does this make it more attractive but it is more sturdy. And it can also be removed and washed!

Sorry to keep adding but wanted to add this just in case someone wanted to make this project- I made the little quilts and then I sewed some fabric tubing on the underside to slide the plastic posts of the cat toy through in order to keep the quilt in place.

 

Sorry for the poor quality of these photos - I lost the cord to upload photos from my camera so I had to use the photos from my phone. Don't know why it is so grainy. But at least you still get an idea of what it looks like.

 

I hope you all are doing well today. God bless :O)

 

EDITED TO ADD:

Look what I got done this morning! This one was much easier since I had all

the bugs worked out of my original plan.
Anyway I wanted to show you what they look like now. There is one more spot but for now I am going to leave it the way it is to give the cats options. 

In the Sewing Room

So I have been busy in my sewing room lately. Sewing is very good therapy.

A couple of years ago, I learned how to make these cool coasters. I made them for friends and family. Then recently I decided to make some to put at my MIL store to sell. So I have been working on them ever since.

 

They have been at my MIL store for about a week and a half and I have sold 2 sets already.

These are the ones that I have sold so far.

And I have one more set that has been put back, so that someone can come buy it when they get paid. I have about 17 more sets that are there for sale.

To be honest, this has been something that in the past I would have been to intimidated to do - I would have thought that I just could not do good enough. But I have grown a lot lately. And I am thrilled to have the opportunity to sell these great sets. I have several more sets ready to sew together. And some fabric matched up to get ready to get some more sets cut out and ready to sew.

 

Well I just wanted to let you know a little of what has kept me so busy lately. Lots of things - along with lots of sewing.

 

In the Sewing Room

A couple of weeks ago, I was at one of my favorite thrift stores and I found these:

Three packages of these Moda Charm packs. Well one day - I had some free time so I started sewing some blocks together. Since there was like 1 square of each fabric and each bunch had about 25-30 different fabrics. So I got to a point that I was kind of stuck as to what to do with the pattern of it. So I got a piece of graph paper or something like that and began to work:

I ended up having to unsew a few places in order to make things match and look good. All and All I am pretty happy with the results.

Except the fact that it is only about 40 inches square. And do not have enough fabric to do another round of squares on it. Then I ran into another problem. Well what I would like to do is to buy some of one of these fabrics in order to do a border or two around it and then one of the fabrics for the binding, but guess what? Since it has been a while since this fabric was sold - I am having a hard time finding some fabric to work with. So now I am kind of stuck. I am kind of wishing I had have thought it all out and then I might have just tried to make a table runner or two. The positive - is that I know now. So before you start a project - think it through.

A Finished Project!

I am so sorry that it has taken me so long to get this post together to share with you all. About a week or so ago, I shared this photo and said that I was finishing up quilt that I had bought this fabric for. As you can tell it took me a LONG time from when I bought this fabric -December 2009 - to when I finally got the quilt put together. I sewed the last border on the quilt on Sunday October 30th, 2011.
Well probably not too long after I bought this fabric - I spent a long time cutting out over 357 pieces of fabric in order to put this quilt together. I know that count to be true because earlier this morning - I got my directions out for this quilt and added the numbers all together. I say more than because in the count pieces like the border pieces and such are not included - well not the outer two borders.

I need to mention here the biggest reason why there was such a delay in actually working on this quilt. I ended up with 11 blocks - one block some how disappeared. And then one of the blocks did not seem to even fit into the quilt(if you want to see the block- in the photo below look at the block laying on top of that little cabinet- see if just does not fit?!) So that meant that I only had 10 blocks. Well in order to make this quilt you need 12 blocks. So I just waited thinking that the other block would show up and then when I figured out that the other block did not work - I knew I would have to some how come up with 2 more blocks for this quilt. Well thanks to my Mother's help - we were able to pull together some fabric from my stash in order to make those last 2 blocks. Can you tell in the photo below - which blocks I made from my stash fabrics?

So once I had my 12 blocks - I put them up on my design board the way I wanted them to be in my quilt.
Next I began to sew the framing fabrics onto the blocks. This is the main reason why I really wanted a design board before I started this quilt - you have to do every other block - a different color and by having them up on the wall, I pulled down the ones I was working on at that time and then put them back up. To make it easier, I worked on one half of the quilt at a time.

So once I sewed my top half of the quilt to the bottom half - I was ready to sew the outer borders on.
Here it is finished. Sorry I had a hard time getting my camera's flash to work to get a good photo. Do you see my cat Stewie at the top right side of photo? Every time I am working with a quilt at least one of my cats has to check things out.

Just in case you were wondering which blocks I made, here they are. I just used the directions of the block that was lost and made them the same. I think they turned out pretty well considering I did not have to buy any fabric to make them.

Well I hope that you take a little time every now and then to be creative - it does the mind and soul good. :o)

Added:

I am planningon using the green fabric for the binding. And after this project - we did find out that when I have more room - I will want a larger design board. Until then I am quite content with using the one I have. :o)

My New Design Wall

About a week ago - I was fixing to start working on making this quilt - well the quilt that I am going to make with these blocks. Because of the way in which I decided to put this quilt together, I am going to need to arrange the blocks and then work with the ones that will get certain color frames - while the other half will get a different color frame. It is suppose to cause there to be a ribbon going through the quilt effect. Since I am visual - I decided that I needed a Design Wall. Well I told my husband basically what I wanted. He began to think through what needed to be done. In the meantime, I worked on deciding where the things that had been on this wall would find their new homes. So this week-end we got those things moved around. Today after work - I went to Hobby Lobby along with my coupon to find some felt for my design wall and some adhesive spray. And my husband went to Home Depot to get the rest of the supplies. And we were able to get it done tonight!

Well I do want to eventually put putty over the screws and then paint the wood with a clear coat of varnish. After the fact - after it was too late did I notice that the bottom right side of the board - I did not do the best job at getting the felt straight. Oh well. I have my Design Wall and it will serve its purpose just fine! I am really loving my sewing room. We have a few things we will be working on later this week to make it an even better place to work. Until next time - Have a great day!! :O)

P.S. By the way - this is not how I am going to arrange the blocks - we just put them up so you could have an idea of how I will benefit from this great design wall!

Redecorating the Sewing

About a year and a half ago, our oldest son moved out. After getting everything out of his old room - we decided to make it into our sewing room. Things fell right into place as we already had some cabinets and a counter top that had no real home. So we put them on one wall and we had some track lighting we were not using so my husband installed those right over the cabinets so we would have a lot of great light in that area of the room. I have loved this feature.

Well after we have moved into this house we wanted to let the boys make their rooms - more their rooms. So we had them pick out comforter sets and let them pick out a border that would match. Well my oldest son did not like very many of the choices and so he ended up with a comforter set about Coke. And so of course got a border that was Coke as well. I found some fabric and made him some curtains for his room.

This top shelf in the room had Coke stuff all the way across it. These are the things that I kept- The bottle of Coke was a 25th year anniversary 0f Walmart - which is where we met and the same time period that we were working there. And I just could not let go of the vintage looking tin and the can - well it is a much older can because of how it was made - we don't know for sure when it was from - maybe we will find out sometime.

Anyway this past week-end JoAnn's Fabric had a 50% off their home decor fabrics so we went to check stuff out. And we found some great fabric for new curtains for the sewing room. And they also had a 40% off sale on the hardware. And when I saw this hardware - I was instantly in love with it!!
So yesterday I worked on making these curtains and my husband put the hardware up. And we were both very pleased with the results.

We also bought some spray stuff that we will use to take the border down with. Don't know if we will find another border to put up or not. Only if we find a border that is as pretty as these curtains. I love the fact that this fabric is like a burgundy but also looks black half the time - depending on how you look at it.

We also got fabric for my husband to reupholster the chairs with in that room a well - to match the color of the curtains.

We also bought some fabric and the hardware to make curtains for our bathroom. It feels good to be creative and to get projects done. Hope you all have a great day!! :o)

In my sewing room-Civil War BOM

Several years ago, my husband schedule worked out that he could go to Block of the Month. Well he made his blocks for the whole year and put his quilt together. Actually he finished his first BOM quilt before I did. It is so much easier for him to pick out fabric, than it is for me.

I think I may have already shared a photo of the quilt he made, but just in case I did not here it is:
So the next year he started out doing a set of blocks. So he made the first 2 maybe 3. Then his schedule got changed and he was not able to go to BOM with me. His packets started piling up. So one time when we went camping - I took my cutting board and rotary cutter and I cut out the pieces for him. A year went by and I had ran out of projects to do so guess what I did?
I started making his blocks. Anyway all those blocks are done and I have ironed them up. I have the fabric that I am going to put it together with out and working on it. I have alot of it already cut into the pieces that I am going to need. And I am hoping to start sewing some of the sashings onto the blocks today. Slowly but sure I am hoping to get this quilt put together.

Picking out the fabric to go with these colors were so hard for me. I like civil war fabrics but it is really hard to get several fabrics together that I liked and also went together.

When I pick out my fabrics - I really like to actually like the fabrics that I am using. I loved the background fabric used for this block - with the little birds that are pink and blue. But by the time I started buying fabrics to put my blocks together - this fabric was gone. Apparently lots of other people liked it as well.

If you were counting, you would have noticed that there are only 11 blocks here. Well some how one of the blocks got lost. I have NO idea where it is. But it is frustrating because I really can not start working on this quilt before I find that block. Just my personality - I need to lay the blocks out and see how I would like it best. How the blocks would be most balanced. Anyway so this project will be on hold for a bit till I find that block - when I do - I will post it -might just run this post again with the missing block.

Good news is that there were some directions for a project that I had lost when we set up my sewing room. So I have looked off and on for these directions. Well today - I was looking for these directions and for the missing block. And lo and behold, I find the directions in the front of my top drawer of the desk that my sewing machine is on. They have been there the whole time and some how I overlooked it ALL that time. I am thankful that I found these directions.

I will probably sew the binding on my Sailboat wall hanging the next time I get some time in the sewing room - I think it will be at least Sunday - Monday before I get to spend any time in there. It will be pretty busy the next couple of day. :o)

In my Sewing Room

Today I as able to spend some time in my sewing room. Earlier this week my Mother was so sweet(Thank you Mom) and quilted my Sailboat Wall Hanging. So I decided to work on finishing up that project. Wouldn't you know it - once I got to working on sewing the binding on - one of my cats decided that it would be the perfect place to take an afternoon siesta. Several hours I was able to get back to work. And have the binding sewn on and flipped over and pinned down.

I will still need to hand sew the binding on. But I wanted to show you my progress.

I hope everyone has had a good day! :O)