Sunkissed Fabric...Nearing the End

About 9 years ago I found the internet quilting world. I also found on line fabric stores. My very first purchase was Sunkissed by Sweetwater. Now, maybe that's the reason why it remains my all time favorite fabric, but whatever the reason, I am still smitten these nine years later.

 I loved this fabric so much that I bought this art piece to hang in my sewing room. It shows 12 of the fabrics from the line, but there were many more. I bought yardage of some and a jelly roll so I could have at least a little of every fabric.

I made this quilt from the Moda Bakeshop to showcase the fabrics. This was my first "modern" quilt that I ever made. I love how cheerful and springy it is. It is still a favorite quilt and has had much use since I finished it in 2011. If you look in my archives for March you can see the beginnings of this quilt. I finished it in September, so there are more posts about that.

 Fast forward to today. I am making a 36 patch quilt and have decided to use ALL my most favorite fabrics and designers so I will always have a bit of them. It makes it easier to let some of this fabric go into other projects.

These are the two blocks that represent my Sunkissed crush that I have been nurturing for these many years. I don't think I have enough to do one more, but I might.

 So with my whole 'letting go' process I decided to make a new dress for Miss N. She needs one for spring/summer and this definitely fits the bill. I feel nothing but happy to finally put this fabric into something that will get some use, instead of sitting in my stash.

This pattern is the Geranium Dress by Made by Rae. I have used it countless times to make dresses for my girl. There are lots of variations so it doesn't always look like the same dress.

And now my Sunkissed tale has come to an end. There are still some small scraps that will get used up eventually. I have asked both Sweetwater and Moda if they will ever consider reprinting this line, but so far, no luck. But if they ever do, I will be on the lookout to purchase some again, because it is still my most favorite fabric ever. Tell me, do you have a fabric line you feel that way about?

Have a lovely weekend my friends.

A finish...and Another Swoon Block

I was able to quilt and bind my Hometown Quilt this week, and cross another item off my 2012 project list.  I started this quilt awhile ago.  Just looked and it was back in September.  It was a quilt I saw on Moda Lissa's blog, but the pattern came off of the Moda Bake Shop.  The piecing was fairly quick and easy, and then life got busy so I just folded it up and put it aside.  Part of the reason for that was I couldn't decide how to quilt it.

 I am a bit lazy when it comes to quilting in that I hate the process of marking the quilting pattern.  So I outline, or stitch in the ditch, or do an all over design.  But this quilt needed something else.  So I caved.  I made a template of houses.  It's a pretty small quilt after all, only about 43 x 50.  And I marked the whole thing.

 I used my walking foot and did the bottom lines first, all the way down to anchor the quilt.  Then I used my Bernina Stitch Regulator to free stitch the houses themselves.  The lines aren't too straight, but I don't care.

 I love the effect of the rows of houses...Hometown!  Get it?

 I used the grey scallops from the Ruby line by Bonnie and Camille for the back, with a red boarder.

 And here it is in its just washed crinkly goodness.  A perfect lap size.

                                            Here is the back.

Don't you just love the rows of little houses?  And now, my next accomplishment for the week:

 Swoon block number 7!!! I like this one so much.  It might just end up being the center block in my quilt.  I will audition it there as soon as they are all done.  Only 2 more to go...sew exciting!

Spent most of today helping my oldest daughter to nest.  Looks like baby B will be here sooner than originally expected.  Gotta get that dresser painted and loaded up with cute baby things.
Have a great week.

Progress... 2 by 2 and then some

Wow! What a difference a week makes.  This week I caught up on sleep (a little) I caught up on housework (a lot) and I made great strides in my sewing room.

Now having 2 grandsons 11 months apart in age makes it easy sometimes to think of gift ideas.  But the reverse is sometimes true when you have to then execute those ideas,  imagine...2 of everything.  So I don't do it often.  This time, though I just had to.  This is what I am working on with Christmas in mind:

My mother always made sure to give up PJs for Christmas.  I think the reason was that she wanted us looking good for Christmas morning pictures.  Whatever.  It became a tradition.  It's one I used for all of my girls and now for the grandsons as well.  We have bought Christmas PJs for them most years, and now that they are little men, we (my daughter and I) like this style, but it is hard to find.  I was wishing for a pattern so I could make them and now, BAM! Liesl has done it.  The pattern includes many sizes and I know I will be using it a lot.

For Christmas this year, here is my fabric choice:

Colorful Christmas-My Mind's Eye-Riley Blake

close up of the main fabric

I had to wash and iron all the fabric first

ready to go

I got all this on Stitch Steals for half of the original price.  And you all know flannel isn't cheap!  So I got it all cut out and ready to sew...both pairs.

The other project I am working on for the boys for Christmas is this one, found at the Moda Bake Shop.

It is a bean bag toss game that can be played inside!  Winter can be long people, especially with little ones in the house.

One I am making with a combination of Sherbet Pips and Little Apples by Aneela Hoey and the other will be Cheap Talk by Connecting Threads.  It's a great yellow, orange and red with a bit of blue and green.  Can't wait to see it all sewn up.

I cut out some of the letters just to see this.

Now that I have started these projects, I am really motivated!  I finished piecing this:

My Hometown quilt

And this:

My small quilt for my book/quilting group

And I got this done with 11 days left in the month:

Sew it's been going quite well over here.  I even managed to sew a few yo-yos this past week.  Yes, that project is still chugging along, although slowly.  I just hope I can keep this up.  The plan is to get all the tops done and then quilt my butt off until I finish everything.  Wish me luck.

Hope you all have a great week.

Finished!

I think I started this in March, when the days were still short and barely warm yet.  My daughter still lived with us and every sunny day was a blessing.  I fell in love with the Sunkissed line and found the Moda Bake Shop and the rest, as they say is history.

I bought a jelly roll and some yardage and had actually picked out another Moda Bake Shop quilt to make with my Sunkissed loveliness,  then I saw this one and knew it was the one for me.

When I downloaded the recipe, I found that I didn't have exactly enough of the different fabrics needed to make the quilt exactly as it was.  I really wanted to do it that way.  So I set out to see if I could make it work without buying any more fabric.  What I came up with was this: I had enough to make each of the large, whole squares in the colors called for.  What I did for the four interlocking squares in each quarter of the quilt was to make most of the square from one fabric, but where it visually "passed behind or through" the main square, I made the pattern change, but not the color.

From a distance, in some squares you cannot even tell.  Others are more obvious.  But it worked, and I L-O-V-E it.  The other thing I learned as I began getting into blogging was about pearl cotton.  I decided to use that to outline each square in its matching color of pearl cotton.  I finally got that done, but the quilt wanted more quilting to feel right to me.  So I meandered all over the large open areas and the border.  A cute little thing happened when I spur of the moment decided to do a little sunshine in the crossroads between the squares.

The back is pieced to include a bit of the fabrics from the front.  And now, it needs a label, but I have washed and dried it and it is so pretty I can't begin to convey how much I love how this turned out.  Or maybe you can tell.

Have a great week.

She's Back!

I really missed Nina, my Bernina.  She went in for a check up last week.  I thought I was to a point in all my projects that I had enough hand work to keep me busy.  But instead, the minute she was gone, everything I wanted to do involved Nina.  She was only gone 5 days, but every day brought another idea that needed trying.  Torture I tell you.  But now she's home!

And the sewing has begun again!  Such chaos, such clutter; I am one happy quilter.  But the first thing I need to do is make some pants, a vest and bow tie for V for his mom's wedding in a few weeks.  I got the pattern idea/advice from Dana.  She drafts patterns all the time for her son and they are adorable.  I can do this!

Well, it took several tries with "junk" fabric, but now I think I've got it!

It's a very nice linen and the vest will be the same.  I have drafted the pattern for the vest, but haven't started it yet.  I am having trouble getting my Nina to sew over the elastic in the casing at the back of the pants.  If anyone has advice on how to make this work, I would be grateful.  The needle hits the elastic and won't go through.  It is one inch non-twisting elastic.

So I thought, since I have been so good about working on this must do project, I am going to reward myself with a want to do project.  I am starting my Hometown quilt.  I bought a layer cake of Hometown a while back and was waiting for inspiration.  I found it on Moda Lissa's blog.

This is an easy pattern that will really showcase the fabrics.  Since I really couldn't indulge myself with more of this line, I wanted to make the most of it and this pattern does it for me.  First seen in Moda Bake Shop, it's simple, but fun.

The rest of my weekend was spent helping my husband get some things done in the back yard for the upcoming wedding.  We will have family here with us, and want to spend all our spare time just hanging out and talking and cooking and eating.  So we needed more outdoor space to do this.  He found plans on line and we built a picnic table and are working on a fire pit.

it's nice and sturdy.

needs a few more bricks

We are going to have so much fun!! I can't wait.  Now, back to Nina.  I've got lots to do.
Have a great week.

Procrastination

Procrastinate-verb-to put off or defer (an action) until a later time.  Now we all know this word, and we all procrastinate at one time or another, even the best of us.  Here's another saying for you: a stitch in time saves nine.  What do these two things have in common?  Well, when there is sewing to be done, as in quilting and other creative types of sewing, we are eager to get at it.  When there is mending to be done, it goes into a pile for "later".  I had one of my husband's shirts that needed a button, and a sweater of mine that lost 2 buttons in the wash and needed reattaching.  They have been in my sewing room fer several weeks now, and while that is by no means a record, yesterday it was time to get to them.

As I was stitching the first button on the shirt, I thought 'this is taking like 5 minutes.  What was I waiting for?'  When I got to the sweater, I did the two errant buttons, but noticed 2 more loose ones, which got me to thinking about the 'stitch in time' so I gave them a reinforcing stitch as well.  All told, 15 minutes.

Where am I going with this?  Well, remember these?

Castle Peeps

1001 Peeps

Well I pulled some fabrics to piece the backs for them, and then just kept avoiding them.  Until yesterday.  After my session with the buttons, I pushed myself to get started.  At first I didn't really like the fabrics I had chosen, but I was determined to not buy any more fabric for these guys.  I started playing and stitching and I found myself getting into it.  I switched out a couple of fabrics and it was working!  This is what I came up with:

And I fussy cut some of the Peeps from each collection to applique onto the back.

I was on a roll!  So the next project is to rev up and get onto those napkins.  Yes, napkins.  My daughter is getting married in October and after seeing a couple of napkin tutorials at the Purl, she decided we should make cloth napkins.  Instead of making 100 all the same, she decided we should make sets of 4, 6 and 8 in various fabrics.  This way, after the wedding she would have plenty of reusable napkins for her home.  This was a year ago.  Plenty of time.....right?  We did a few.  Then 4 months ago we got real organized and cut them all out, bagged them according to groups, ready to hem.

Some are done.

Now I have less time in front of me so I need to get busy.  This is my big contribution to this wedding.  Here is what I have so far:

And there is one special set that will be double sided with embroidery:

So I will try not to procrastinate any further.  I need to get these done.  And those two Peeps quilts.  And my Sunkissed Squares quilt.  And I have more ideas than time  right now.  I guess I should make a list for myself.

Happy Sewing.