Hear Ye! Hear Ye! A Proclaimation!

I have declared it The Year of Quiltsmart! Seriously, I have so much interfacing that I have purchased or been gifted from the owner, Mattie, over the past 2 years or so and I have a list of projects I have been wanting to do. 

Mattie and my Mom, who owns Bear Thread Designs, have worked together for years, friends almost from the start. As we all do, we help our mom's friends nearly as much as our own moms, so sometimes when I help Mattie she will pass along printed interfacing that was pulled from stock because it was printed wrong, or too light, or other minor imperfections. I guess she thinks I'm too old to reward with ice cream (I'm not Mattie!!)

Anyway, last weekend as I was looking for a particular fabric I decided this year (meaning school year) was going to be Quiltsmart Project Year!! I'm a little excited! 

Wednesday night I was watching reruns with my husband of our favorite show and decided to multi-task and organize some of my craft room stuff, which ended up being organizing and sorting my Quiltsmart printed interfacing ... 

Thursday night, I was able to finish sewing the pieces of the Princess Feather Medallion to their fabric and all except 3 pieces were flipped and ironed. Hope to finish that this weekend so I can get the medallion sewn down and be ready when the Round Robin meets in September.

Last night, I worked on the design and plan for a floral quilt, using Quiltsmart ZigZapps. I even started sewing because  this quilt is one that I am very excited about. It's one that I have wanted to mimic from a quilt my mother has from a class. Since it was applique, I didn't even attempt it, but I found a way to recreate it with Quiltsmart! 

So, um, yeah. Now you know I am a project-hopper. I usually work on about 3 projects at a time, rotating to whatever project hits me when I walk into the room. I actually get projects done.

I'll keep you posted as the projects progress.

Until our next cup of tea ...

Picking Back Up on these Patriotic Projects

This past weekend, life finally slowed down long enough for me to pull my chair up to the sewing machine for a little stress-relieving sewing. First I did a little organizing, my craft stuff is in a pile since we added a third workspace to our office/craft room once I started working from home for the magazine ... but the craft shelf was put on hold when our little guy had one too many tantrums about picking up his toys and Daddy boxed everything up and put it in the office. It didn't affect him at all. It's been three months and he hasn't missed the toys at all. {sigh}

 

So for now, everything craft-related is still in boxes until we can sort through and get rid of the toys and he earns the rest back with helping us around the house, but more on that later.

 

While I was looking through the boxes, trying to find something to work on (trust me there were quite a few half-finished to choose from). I found a small group of triangles made from strips. So I started sewing them together.

 

The stripes were going in various directions and I ended up with three different blocks in the end.

 

I made two of these ...

 

... Six of these ...

 

... And two of these ...

 





 

The way I cut them was random and not by any pattern, rather a passing thought that was apparently interesting enough for me to make a bunch of strips and sewed them together, then cut. Unfortunately, I cannot find the notes I'd made to allow me to make more, so that's why I was left with triangles in a pile. But not to waste them, I decided to sew them together and see what inspiration I would find. After staring at this random group of blocks, I think I've got an idea of what I'd like to with them now.

 

 

This small flag was made around the same time as the strips. I used a star from Quiltsmart, and I think I may make some more of these for a small table topper or something ...

 

Well, I'll keep you posted on the progress of these projects and more ...

 

Until our next cup of tea ...

 

 

Quilting with Quiltsmart

So I just finished the last of the quilts from the Round Robin I participated in this past year (post on that coming tomorrow). But during that time I have been wanting to just saddle up the the sewing machine and get creative with some of the Quiltsmart interfacing I've got in my QS box in my sewing room. It sits there staring at me, begging to be inspiring but with so much on my plate lately and the commitments that I'd made didn't allow me to just be creative at the sewing machine. In fact, sometimes I was stressed trying to get to the projects on my list!

But, the Round Robin quilt that I finished on Tuesday was the final project to be complete! So excited!! Even though I am in the final frenzied weeks of the Fall Quilt Issue at TEAinTEXAS, I did spend my lunch hour "playing". 

I had previously started working on a Princess Feather pattern. The first border is not necessarily a border as much as turning the medallion on point. Something that I am scared to do because of the math involved and the potiental to waste fabric getting it right. But turning it on point using the grid interfacing and 2-in squares. Previously I had cut the squares and ironed them to the interfacing hoping for time to sew them ... but then my sewing machine broke.

But my dear sweet husband surprised me with a Husquvarna Viking Opal 670 in May and now I am in heaven!! So today, I finally had the time to get some stitching done, so off I went, getting started on my waiting Quiltsmart project!

Oh, did I mention it's Christmas themed!?! I have never made a quilt with the holiday theme or colors. I have always been hesitant because it was a little intimidating to make a quilt that was Christmas-y without being childish or "country", I wasn't sure if I could make one that was elegant and holiday-insired. But I am up for the challenge!! 

So let's see where this journey takes us!!

I am also in the early stages of working on a secret Quiltsmart project, something that I'd been thinking of and making notes on for about a year now. I'll post some sneak peeks of it, but am hoping that I can have the full vision complete by Christmas for a big reveal. Fingers crossed! 

Until our next cup of tea ...