All About the Babies

That suns up most of my sewing yesterday! First, I finished this tag blankie for Baby L.

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I didn’t think I had a good enough variety of ribbons but when I went through my trim stash, I found lots of interesting bits! Most of the items had polyester in them so before sewed them into the blanket, I used a lighter to melt the ends. This will keep them from fraying and pulling out. I am pretty happy with how this turned out.

I also started an embroidery project for the grandsons.

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I am making cloth books with shapes and colors. I am no expert at machine embroidery but I thought you might be interested in the simple appliqué process.

First, I downloaded a free embroidery design pack from a web site that sells machine embroidery designs. I like to use sticky back stabilizer for hooping. I just stick it to the back of the hoop and then just lay my fabric on top. Easy peasy.

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Then “block” 1 is stitched to show fabric placement for the appliqué.

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Then fabric is placed to cover the stitching and block 2 is stitched. (This picture is from the “oval” page and the next shots are from the heart page. I got distracted in the process of taking pics. Not terribly surprising!)

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Cut away excess fabric close to the stitching.

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Put the hoop back in the machine and stitch the last block of the embroidery design.

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I use a drop of fray check at the beginning and end of jump stitches and then trim. I have two hoops this size so while one hoop was in the machine, I was removing the finished piece from the other and preparing the next piece.

Not gonna lie, this is a lot slower process than it looks! I have a couple more pages to do and then the covers and assembly.

I did get 5 more blocks for my Paisley album quilt done as well.

Daughter #1 was not feeling well so our quilt date got moved to later in the week.

Linking up with Connie at Free Motion by the River for Linky Tuesday.

Posted in Crafty Things, Embroidery, Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Design Wall Monday

Due to spending the morning at Med Express with Daughter #3 yesterday, not much sewing happened. She has strep. Blech!

As you can see, I am behind on my 4 block a day program with this quilt:

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I hope to get at least 3 blocks done today but I have other goals for the day as well.

Daughter #1 is coming over to quilt this for her friend.

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And I hope to get this tag blanket finished for Baby L.

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I bought the backing for it yesterday and started pulling bits of ribbon and trims from the stash. I really want to finish this today.

I am also hoping to start a little embroidery project for the grand babies. I will share pictures of that tomorrow if I get started.

I am linking up with Judy at Patchwork Times for DWM.

Posted in Crafty Things, Design Wall Monday, Uncategorized | 5 Comments

Sunday

I finished and washed this little quilt last night and took a few pictures this morning. I learned SO MUCH making this one.

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I used a very tight weave bleached muslin for the top and a piece of flannel I had laying around for the back. I would use Kona Snow or something like it for the top next time.

I wish I had put more points in the compass and done the star differently. The anchor still seems to “thick” to me. The frames around the name and anchor are 3/4″ wide. I think I would have preferred a half inch frame. I am really happy with the background quilting. I really like it around the anchor. I used white Glide thread and never had a single tension or breakage issue. Love that stuff!

All in all, a very fun experiment. And here is something else for fun:

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Dear Son sent this shot of Baby L this morning. I so love him!

Posted in Baby Quilts, Finishes, Free Motion Quilting | 8 Comments

Saturday Sewing

I follow a number of blogs by excellent machine quilters. I have come across several things lately that I wanted to try myself. I hate just making a practice piece that will get thrown out so I decided on a cradle quilt for Baby Q due in June.

I printed out letters and taped them to my cutting board so I could trace them onto white fabric.

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Wow! That “I” is not centered! Oh well, didn’t notice that until now. I added a few other motifs as well, a compass, star, and an anchor.

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I used a ruler to help keep my lines straight and quilted all the motifs before going back to fill heavily.

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Those lines took forever! I got the idea for this from a blog called I Dew Quilting.

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Not happy with the star, I should have echoed the shape and done something different in the center.

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The anchor looks to fat to me. I am still thinking about going back and adding some more stitching there. Then it was time for background fill. The idea for this came from another blog I love called, Quilts’N Things Done by Betty Boop.

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I finished the quilting and binding but final pics will have to wait for tomorrow.

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It drives me crazy that the I is off.

I used two layers of batting in this: Warm and White and a layer of Quilters Dream Poly to give it a bit more loft.

I only pieced one album block today so I have some catching up to do there.

Hope you are all having a “pieceful” weekend!

Posted in Baby Quilts, HQ Avante, Machine quilting, Uncategorized | 9 Comments

Finish it up Friday

These two QOVs are my finishes from the National Sew Day. The pictures aren’t great but, hey, I live in Michigan and it is winter.

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You are not seeing double, they are nearly identical. I did use two different pantos to quilt them. Not that you could tell from these pictures!

We have ridiculous wind here today. I sure hope we don’t lose power!

I am linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish it up Friday  and Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Can I Get A Whoop Whoop!

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments

Finally….it’s Friday!

It has felt like a long week around here! Last night I was in the sewing room and someone jumped up into my chair and decided he was quite taken with my featherweight!

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Silly dog! He has never shown any interest before but he sat up there checking it out for about a half hour. Go figure!

Are you sick of these yet?

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I am just a bit but I have kept up with 4 blocks a day all week.

I need to figure out a plan for the HMQS Quilting Treasures QOV challenge. Here are the fabrics:

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I gotta say, I am not in love with these fabrics. Actually, I really don’t like the red. It looks very pink to me. My completed quilt has to be turned in by early April so I hope inspiration hits soon.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments

Baby Steps

I was thinking that I really didn’t have much to post about today. Yesterday was very busy. I had an early work meeting, then I was off for a couple hours, then back to work for my regular shift. Last night our Lifegroup met. All good things that left little time for sewing. I did get three more blocks done.

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This quilt will require many baby steps to get it done. And I just realized that if I hadn’t had my pieces cut and ready to go, I wouldn’t have that much done! People ask me how I get so much done and that really is one if the keys for me. When I have some extended time to sew, I plan and prepare. I wouldn’t have done any sewing yesterday if I didn’t have everything laid out and ready to sew. This is where having multiple projects going can really work to your advantage.

I have been staying away from fabric stores since the first of the year but I broke my streak last week. Then I saw this somewhere and I laughed and laughed!

Quilting

We are supposed to have another storm coming in this afternoon. Hopefully, I will be home from work before it hits. Have a great Thursday!

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Work in Progress Wednesday

I had a long work day yesterday and will have today as well. I got 5 more blocks sewn yesterday.

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And the next one is set out ready to go. After work, we have Life group so I may not get any done today.

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Linking up with Lee at Freshly a pieced for WIP Wednesday.

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Another Snowy Day

Yesterday was filled with errands and chores but I did find a bit of inspiration on Pinterest. I have had a layer cake and some charm packs of Kansas Troubles’ Paisley line for a long time waiting for the perfect idea for a bed quilt for myself. I don’t think I have made a quilt for our bed since the 1990’s! These are the blocks I am making:

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They finish at 8 1/4″. An odd finished size but one that allows me to cut all pieces with my die cutter and makes judicious use of my fabric. I cut all the pieces that I need for my 56 blocks.

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The gold triangles came from a fabric I had in my stash. I plan to use a 1 1/2″ sashing between blocks. There are 29 pieces in each block so this will take a while. It does feel good to finally have a plan.

And this is a picture I took out my back door late yesterday afternoon.

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I think we ended up with another 6″ overnight and many schools are closed again today. However, the library is not so it is back to work for me!

Linking up with Connie at Free Motion by the River for Linky Tuesday.

Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments

Design Wall Monday

Hope you all had a great weekend! I sure did. I got a bit of my fast and slow stitching done yesterday. Here is my “fast” project that wasn’t very fast.

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It was a bit fiddly to do but I am happy with how it turned out. I need to pick up some minky and ribbons to finish it off.

I also got some slow stitching in while watching a very interesting documentary with Mr. Wonderful called Runaway Slave.

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And here is one more reason I love my hubby:

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He started these daffodil bulbs in the garage a couple months ago. We had enough snow today that we needed to shovel again but I had daffodils blooming in my kitchen!

Check out Patchwork Times to see what others have on their design walls.

Posted in Civil War Repro Quilts, Design Wall Monday, Hexagons, Uncategorized | 10 Comments