Checking in!

Hi there!  How is the week  treating you?  All these sunny warm days we're having have given me senioritis.. or marketitis or whatever it is  that drives you to play hooky!!!  Holy cow,  can't believe anyone still pays attention to me anymore.

 

Anyway when I'm not totally goofing off I'm doing a little sewing here and there.  I'm well into the Farmer's Market Bag process finally, but I am at the point I hate, working with all that fusible.. it's not even hard, I don't get why I'm such a slacker.  Lazy I guess. That's no secret!

 

Ok, what's doing with you guys?  Hope you're having fun! xop

 

 

Pinterst is Sew Fun- The Posey Edition

Hi there! I can't believe it's taken me till today to get back here. I guess I've been busy, but mostly it's boring stuff.   But yesterday I decided to take a few minutes and make something for the heck of it. 

 

Months ago I was on Pinterest and I saw the cutest vintage quilt.  Quick go take a look and come right back, here's the link.  I just loved that quilt. Ok, maybe the layout is kind of funky but I love it, and  what a  cute scallop border. I bet I know where I can get some easy scallops!  I tried a bunch of different ways to get something that had the same visual appeal without the curved piecing for a couple of reasons.  1. I'm pretty lazy and not always the best piecer so that project seemed doomed from the start.  2. I don't want to cut all those pieces out because I have the dexterity of a toddler when it comes to templates. And don't even get me started with my attention span.  Nonexistant.

 

But I had what I thought was a pretty genius idea.  I have a Go! Baby, so I ordered the  Drunkard's Path 3 1/2 inch finished die. I cut 4 squares of blue fabric and put fusible web on the back and then ran them through the cutter.  The die has little notches for matching up to the coordinating pieces for the background, but I just nipped those off with my scissors.  Then I fused it to a square and I had the center of the block!   Of course I used my favorite die for the leaves and circles, the Go! Rose of Sharon.. I use that die a lot.   I know, you think the red circle is too small, it might be, I have to wait to trim down the block to decide. The stem might be too long, the circle too small, there's still tinkering to do, but ohmygosh it's cute.  Ok, to me anyway. 

 

Imagine my surprise when looking through my cool Japanese block book that I found almost same block. I also looked it up in the Barbara Brackman Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns and there are several names for this block and similar blocks, Posies Around the Square, Dandelion Quilt,  The Posey Quilt,  Spice Pinks and Sweetheart Garden. 

 

I found another picture on Pinterest that lead me to Pinkadot Quilt's blog.   You can see a post here where she's working on the quilt and it's adorable in cheerful colors.  You can check out this fun post by Barbara Brackman  about the Posey Quilt! More setting ideas.  I am super thrilled with my block and if I end up making a quilt out of it I'll share my instructions here.  It  won't be the traditional method, but it might be a method the average quilting toddler could make.  Like me.

 

Ok, have a super week friends!!! I hope you're having fun! xop

 

 

Crafty Crap

Hi there Happy Friday!  I hope the week treated you well.  And if it didn't, phew, it's the weekend!  Time to kick up your heels and head into sew, outside in the sun, or just to your comfy chair for a piece of quiet!

 

Frankie helped me out this week with a little organizing.  I confess to having that kid-like overwhelmed feeling when it comes to organizing my own stuff.  I just want to plop myself down and have a kid style tantrum.  She'd given me this cute 'Crafty Crap' tin and it totally inspired me to get busy.  It's like my new glue gun was made for it.  

 

And now it's one thing off my sewing table that didn't belong there.  Maybe this weekend I'll get the rest of the stuff cleared off.

 

 

HAHAHAHAHA.  Who am I kidding?

 

Hope you have a super fun weekend my crafty friends!  You're the greatest. xo

Bow Wow!

It's time for this month's Snapshot Block Puppy Love. So far this might be my favorite, I love that cute dog, even if right now he's without his eyes.  I've always wanted a dog that would ride in my bike basket and I think this just might be as close as I get!

 

In PamKittyVille, all cute dogs are pink.  Nothing wrong with that, right? RIGHT?

 

And look at the cute bow!

 

The whole thing is adorable!!! 

If you haven't heard about the Fat Quarter Shop Snapshots quilt you can click here to get the whole low down, click here to watch a video tutorial on this cute Puppy love block, download the pdf pattern here, and donate to St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital here. 

Just for fun, check out what everyone else is up to this month!

• Camille Roskelley of Thimble Blossoms
• Bonnie Olaveson of Cotton Way
• Pat Sloan of The Voice of Quilting
• Lori Holt of Bee In My Bonnet
• Sherri McConnell of A Quilting Life
• Melissa Corry of Happy Quilting
• Thelma Childers of Cupcakes N Daisies
• Anne Sutton of Bunny Hill Designs
• Stephanie Kendron of The Modern Sewciety
• Natalia Bonner of Piece N Quilt
• Greg Jones of Grey Dogwood Studio
• Jessie Fincham of Messe Jesse
• Sondra Davison of Out of the Blue Quilts
• Angie Wilson of Gnome Angel

Ok, hope you're having a good week! Happy Sewing!

Monday

Back in the groove today!  We released mom back to her own habitat over the weekend. Sorry to see her go, but she's back with her own stuff, and her books and knitting.   I know I can lure her back with the promises of tea and cookies and toasted cheese sandwiches for lunch. 

 

I didn't do much in the way of sewing while she was here... just little bits of this and that.  I did prep a purse for quilt market.  I am so in love with these wonderful faux patent leather handles from Emma Creation.  Emma very kindly sent me the pink and  vanilla colored handles to try out.  The pink is a perfect match for my favorite aqua tulip fabric and the vanilla will work perfectly with the Fog City Kitty gray fabrics coming soon.   Emma Creation is a wholesales site, and your local shop can order from them directly, or they can order from a wide variety of distributers.  The handles are by Inazuma  and I love their style and their quality.    And don't you think a nice handle really makes a difference in the look of a bag? 

 

Now what I need is for my friend Keiko to show me how to properly sew those little tabs onto my bag.  I'm really just faking it at this point.   In the meantime I better get busy on this bag, market is creeping up on us faster than we think. 

 

Hope you had a good weekend!  The weather was nice here and that infusion of Vitamin D is just what I needed to boost my spirits.  Fingers crossed we're all in for a great week! xo

Hey PS!  Holly is on Pat Sloan's radio show today!!! Be sure and check it out here!  You can get it live or the recorded version. Exciting! Nerve Wracking! Always fun!

Gone and Back Again

Good morning!  Long time no see!  How was your weekend? Did you celebrate?  Was it fun?  We had an eventful few days, my mom took a tumble on Saturday and she banged up her knee, so we've been had her here where we can keep a watchful eye on her.  She's fine thank goodness! We're spending our time visiting and relaxing and not much else.  We'll release her soon, but for now we're enjoying the company.  (and the good excuse to be lazier than normal!)

 

But in the meantime I thought I'd show you my pictures from Quilter's Cupboard in Atascadero, California!  We had a love visit there  during the retreat, which seems like eons ago! 

 

It's my favorite kind of shop, one with little nooks and crannies where you can find all kinds of treasure.  They have a wide variety of fabrics for their customers, which is great.  There are tons of samples all over which is always inspiring.  And they're nice.  I really like that.  They have a lot of books and patterns, and you could easily find everything you needed for a project there.  I even spied some Pam Kitty Fabric there which always is thrilling to me. 

 

So cheerful! I would really recommend a visit if you were in the area! Tell them I sent you!

 

Pretty soon I need to show you my less than stellar photos of the wonderful show and tell from the retreat.  I just keep getting distracted!  And speaking of distracted, the other evening Bret lackadaisically said "wanna see a raccoon?"  I thought he'd taken a picture of one with his phone. Nope. This guy on the fence. 

 

What the heck?  Luckily he stayed on  Alice-Jane's side of the fence.  Probably not as lucky for her. 

Hope it's good on your side of the screen! xo

Pat Sloan's Teach Me to Appliqué

This morning I'm going to share a little about my friend  Pat Sloan's Teach me to Applique book.  Published by Martingale, it's filled with beautifully styled photos and expert instruction.   I'm lucky that Martingale provide this  e-book for me for review. 

Often people ask me about  fusible appliqué, because they know I love the blanket stitch and would happily sit for hours with tv and my sewing machine.  Finally  I have a reference to suggest to them.  Of course machine applique starts with the application of fusible web and Pat  shows how to create beautiful soft applique with her method.  There's also in-depth instruction about stitching, including inside and outside corners, alternatives to the blanket stitch and ohmygosh a huge section about threads! I tend to go with matching thread these days, back when I got started I used black like so many people did.  I love all the looks and Pat shows you a lot of options.  As any great instructor would do, Pat breaks it all down for  us, including a section on stitching sequence.  So many things that I picked up over years of machine applique are all written down here in this book.  Plus a ton and a half things that I didn't think about!

 

There are a lot of fun projects in this book.  Right off I loved Sweet Bea's Bouquet.  Pat shares her inspiration for the project and I always enjoy reading those stories that include tidbits about family members, in this case Pat's great-Aunt.

 

I traced the shapes and had them fused post haste.  I like to get projects ready to pick up at a moment's notice, so this block will be ready when I am looking for something fun and mindless to work on.  I think it would make a cute pillow, so that's how I will probably finish it! 

 

Do you follow Pat?    You can catch her on her Creative Talk Network radio show, on her blog, on Facebook, on you tube, and in her forum. I know there's a ton of other places too, but you get the idea, Pat Sloan is everywhere! And a lot of times she's traveling to teach, you can catch her schedule here. You can buy an autographed copy of her book here.

 

In other words, Pat is everywhere!  

 

Ok everybody, hope your week is going well!  Can you believe it's April!!! I can't ! 

 

 

 

I do receive Martingale e-books for free, but I only review and recommend books that I like and I think would make a good addition to your quilt library!   Pat's book is definitely one of those books!

 

 

 

Book Photos courtesy of Martingale Publishing

Photos by Brent Kane