Sewing

With all of the traveling,  I have found some time for sewing.

I did get another tuffet done.

Princess gave it her approval!

I had the makings for 3 more. My friend Jo wanted to make one, too.

It took us about 3 Thursday's of sewing putting together.

I am sorry I don't have a picture of Jo's. Her's got out of my house before

I could take one.  She did her's scrappy in Civil War fabrics. It turned out

so neat.  I had this Jelly Roll by American Jane.  I think the fabric line is 

"Pot Luck".  I love how mine turned out.

I have to say Ron still likes the batik one that I made first!

I have the makings of still one more.  This time it will be in blue, and

scrappy. Actually, I have the top sewn together, but the stool is not put

together yet.  

Princess on her throne!

The other thing I have gotten into is making mug rugs.
I will be going up to Racine, to the Siena Retreat Center the beginning of
October for another quilt retreat.  Kathy and I decided it would be
a nice gesture to make mug rugs for the Sisters.

It happened that I had several already made, you know that "just in case".

I also had several paper pieced blocks made, so just had to finish them
up into rugs.

I love to do handwork, so made up a few partial Dresden Plates, sewed
them down then hand quilted.
I also found some orphan blocks that would make up into the right
size mug rugs with a little added fabrics.

To date I have 60 completed.
These all still need binding hand sewn down.

I do have 18 more to finish up.  When I called  Siena I found out we would
need 78 for the Sisters and the staff.  As of right now, I have all I need.
But, you may remember, I always make more.  I would like to have a total
of 100.  That way there will be a variety for them to choose from. Oh, I
did have to get some Brewer's fabric.  There are a few avid Milwaukee
Brewer's fans among the Sisters.

I will say this has been a wonderful way to pay it forward, and
use up more scraps from my stash.  Once I got started, I came up
with all sorts of ideas for the mug rugs.  It is fun making them.
Once I get them done, I will take more pictures to show you some of
the other ideas I came up with.

Hope you will have a great weekend.
Happy Sewing.
Mary

Busy Busy

Seems like a lot of time has gone again between posts.

This is not to say I have not been busy.

Have made two trips to Michigan for various reasons, decided to move my sewing things

 from one room to another, have finished 5 more quilt tops, and sent them off to be 

quilted, been sewing more, and found a lovely group of ladies

that like to work on scrapbooking and cards.

Since our son bought his home last September, his former room has been empty.
I got to thinking, why not move my sewing things to that room.
There is more space, more light, and as you can see I have a ton of things.

I decided that in the process, I would touch everything.  The process of doing so makes
me go though it all to decide, do I want to continue with a project or abandon it because
I am no longer interested in it.

This is making me go through patterns I have purchased, (found doubles), all the ones
I have gotten from the internet, as well as books.  Haven't even touched my quilt
book library yet.  I have gone through magazines and will donate them to our quilt show for
a fund raiser, along with patterns and books. 

Went through fabric, and donated yards and yards to an organization,
"Quilts for Kids". As you can see, I still have yards and yards!
Going through every container also yielded some projects I wanted to complete,
and had forgotten about.

I still have a lot of things to go through.
Organizing and putting things away takes a lot of time, :)
I am setting up boxes with a whole project in it, so when I go on a retreat, or a sew day,
I have it all there to work on.  It will eliminate a lot of time and energy getting ready.
Can't believe how many plastic bags of projects that one or two items just
need to be finished up.  There are even things that needed to be hand sewn, and they
would be finished.

I am working on one of two tuffets.
I have all the hardware and pattern, just need to sew the tops, and put together. One is sewn, now on
to the second one.  It means another area will be cleaned out!
There was a stack of quilts in the new sewing room that I went through as well.
Some were antique, and the other pile was wall hangings, I had hand quilted many years ago.
Washed and sorted them all out as well.  Time to let them be used and enjoyed by others. 

The new group of ladies has let me join them and I can work on cards.  These
are just a few that are in the works. I am having fun. Instead of only one
a year, I now am getting out twice a month.  I taught a couple of ladies
how to do the iris folding, and they are teaching me to use my scrap papers for other
types of cards.  You can never have too many cards ready for use.
Working on my Christmas card designs as well.

Then to add more things to work on, I have been making mug rugs that we will give to
a special group of ladies in Racine.  I already have 50 in the works or done.
While on the trips to Michigan, I got a lot of hand work done.

As I said we also made two trips to Michigan. One in May and one in June.
Those are for another time.
I have tried to get some birding time in, plus photographing wild flowers.
My little vegetable garden has been a challenge, as the critters have found it tasty.
They days are full and flying by, as always keeping busy.

Hope your summer has been full of fun and good weather.

Mary

Sewing

Don't you love it when you feel like sewing for the fun of it?  Over the weekend I was in the mood to sew with nothing really in mind.  I had some purse frames that I wanted to use got busy.  Ginnie had made a machine embroidered piece of a flamingo, and I have been wanting to use it.  It fit perfectly as a front panel on a small change purse.

Usually, I pondered and audition and can't decide. That day, I just pulled and used!  I also had a larger frame and had decided to make another Tammy Bag for the hop that is coming up.  This time I pulled and sewed, I am so pleased with how the new one turned out.  You will get to see it on the 18th of June.

My Thursday sew project is to finish my quilt  "It's Chic to be Shabby".  I have cutting to do for the wedding ring arches. In making this quilt, I have decided to use older fabric that feels like it will stand the test of time.  The arches at the top of the picture are already made, and about the size I am going to need.  They are from fabric packs I have picked up from antique shops.  

The quilt also uses hexagon flowers.  Look what I found in my stash!  Hexies that will fit.  They are made with 3/4 inch hexagons.  I can add to them too with some older fabric. I set up a box with supplies to work on them in the evening.

Tomorrow, at Thursday sew I am going to cut my blocks to prep them for applique.

Finished up 3 mug rugs.  The hexagons were orphans. What better  way to use them. The mug is paper-pieced. It was so nice to play with nothing in mind.

Have a great rest of your week.

Mary

Accessory Bag Swap and more Sewing.

Here are the pretties I received from Mary Grace in the Accessory Bag Swap.  I love the bag she made me.  Mary Grace sent a cute handmade card along with new scissors and 4 fat quarters to make her pattern "Susie's Quilted Cinch Sack".  I can't wait to make it. Check out her blog, she made even more adorable bags.   What fun. 

Last Thursdays sew day I finished these 4 Dresden blocks for Edyta Sitar's pattern Dresden Star.  These were started in a workshop sponsored Prairie Star Quilt Guild.  I am trying to remember when this was started. I am thinking sometime in 2010.

When I opened the sack that had all the Dresden's in it, I found I had cut enough for 12.  I am going to make a wall handing using the for with the little inserts, and use the other 8 to make a lap size quilt. Now to pick out background fabric and shashing for the next steps.  This is the 3 and 4th top I am working on this year.

I came down with a head cold. I think it was starting on Thursday.  By Friday, I decided it would do me good to spend the day in bed.  Sure did sleep a lot.

Saturday I woke up feeling a lot better, and when you feel better what should a girl do?? SEW!!



I am still fooling around with the "Lil Twister" tool, and have been trying to figure out how to make a cute pumpkin.  I decided that appliquing black wool on for the face was the way to go.  I have not put the final borders on. It will still need to be quilted and applique the features on.  As you can see I used the scraps to start the mini one. So far, so good.



I found this pumpkin pattern at Four Twin Sister. It is 10 x 7 3/4.  I think it will make a cute mug rug.  Just need to applique the leaf down.  (my touch)  For some reason I was into pumpkins this weekend.  All three projects are using stash!!

Sunday, I got this little quilt done!! I hand quilted this one.  This was one of the "oldies" that I found in the UFO box.  It may go back to the late 80's.

This is a Dresden table topper I started last summer.  I knew I wanted to hand quilt this one. The last few nights I have been working on it.  I am doing free hand quilting.  It is just echoing the Dresden plate. I am pleased how this one is turning out. Another project almost done!

Until next time, happy quilting. 

Mary

Mug Rugs

Saturday I decided to try making this little quilt that I saw on TheHappyzombie.blogspot.com, Monique Solario-Snow,and Pam at PamKittymorning.blogspot.com. I took the long way around. Talk about unsewing!! I spent most of the afternoon playing with this. All in all I like how it came out. Mine is 9 x 11, a little big to be a mug rug, but just right to be a mini quilt. Forgive me, I am having trouble trying to link back to these two wonderful blogs.

These are the two mug rugs I sent to Australia for the mug rug swap at quiltinggallery.com
These are the two I received from Sue van Leuwen, also from Australia. They are wonderful. She also included a souvenier spoon. Just the right size to stir the flavoring I like in my coffee.

It is time to get back to some sewing. I think I have taken a long enough vacation from it.

Mug Rugs

This weekend I tried my hand at a few more mug rugs. If you have precut 2 inch squares, sew together, and quilt using some of those fancy stitches on your sewing machine. If you have a bunch of premade half square triangles, they too make a quick and easy mug rug.

This one was paper pieced using Christmas fabrics. The cookies were part of 5 batches that I made this weekend too.