Sew Sunshine

Trying really hard here ..to get that holiday spirit going. I hurt my back before Thanksgiving and have been watching numerous holiday movies. Normally I don't go there but I found out they are in abundance out there. Since being lade up, it has been kind of nice watching. I know many are sorta sappy but occasionally you find the diamond in the rough.  Anyway I spent quite a bit of time not moving around much. To get me going, I decided to cut some curves and decided to do the QCR Giving Tree pattern by Sew Kind of Wonderful. Cutting is super easy and fast with the mini ruler. I was able to sew a few at a time and then put it all together.    I used a Guterman thread that is not metallic but more holographic. It was perfect. It shines green where it is green and white where it is white. And best of all no breakage like some metallics.  I had hoped to take a pic when the snow was here but I was moving too slow to get it done it time for that.  Still it is done. W...

I set off to take a fun pic of this  Sandhill Sling bag (pattern by noodlehead) Last weekend my husband decided he wanted to run 18.5 miles near his home town and I needed to spot him. So while waiting for him I climbed a ditch and snapped my bag with the pretty goldenrod.  I almost lost my bag and or damaged some limbs climbing that ditch. My shot turned out okay but not great and I had to jump up on a steep incline to get it back..ha It survived and so did I. :) I stopped at the grocery store to admire the pumpkins. Still not a great pic.  Then I talked my friend and fellow quilter/crafter Jen to go pick apples yesterday.  It was sooooo beautiful there! Of course we found apples but I also brought my sling bag and snapped some quickies! back with added phone pocket and sunglass loop I used the pattern for the main part of the bag but I added an extra pocket in the inside that is small for keys. This adventure was a success, fun and nice to get out of the city....

"Dressing Up" Modern Tile Pattern by  Mell Meyer   27"x 27" made from upcycled textiles   hand appliqued shapes on all the blocks hand quilted with big stitch in med gray I used all black or black gray textiles. I have always wanted to do dark on dark and thought by making this pattern smaller I could accomplish it and keep my sanity. Sewing with dark thread on blacks requires lots of natural light for me.  As you can imagine with the different textiles - denim, shirting, slippery shirting, skirt weight and stretch denim it was a challenge. Some areas have really thick seams. I opted to applique all the shapes on my backgrounds by hand. I was able to needle turn all the edges.     I had fun coming up with a quilting pattern of a sorts.  I signed up to do 100 days of WIPS with Leanne on her blog  HERE  and you can find her on Insta too.  First quarter challenge this Modern Tile quilt was finished! woot!! Such a cloudy funny day ...

  Today is the day........My turn on the Scrappy Improv Quilting blog hop for Kelly Young  @My Quilt Infatuation . My quilt is the "Improv Chapel Window" quilt. Very stained glass like improv scraps. Kelly used solids in the book for this quilt and I decided to use whatever was in my scrap bin. I made a sunrise rainbow-like style going from light to dark fabrics. I think it has a sunlight feel!   Measures 22" x 22"     Kelly's book is filled with improv mini quilts with easy to follow instructions. Kelly is a hero of mine when it comes to using up scraps after making beautiful quilts and this book really puts those scraps to good use! If you follow Kelly's blog you will often come across a post where she uses up ALL her remaining scraps from a quilt. I dream of being able to do that some day.  Check out all the blog hop schedule so far:  Scrappy Improv Quilting  Blog Tour Schedule - 8/31-  Intro, Single Block Beauties, and Simple Shapes 9/7-...

"Delectable X 3" 60" x 69" hand quilted big stitch white cotton 30wt thread I finally finished this UFO recently. Several years ago already, I got together with my friend and fellow quilter Jen and we did a batch of indigo and other dyes. I had picked up a thrift old sheet. This sheet was super tightly woven and soft. I tore it in pieces and did some dye folds then didn't know what to do with the different ones. I decided as a background for this easy Delectable Mountain block 3 prong version it would be great. I played around with the traditional 4 prong but liked this bolder 3 version better. I made an easy tutorial  HERE . The sheet has a border of flowers in blue and green so I decided to just use it in this quilt and it is my favorite part! Today my friend and I went down  to the sunken gardens and to the rose garden and took some pics.  I did some big stitch hand quilting in white for this piece. The sheet was a little tight for the bigger thread I used bu...

After my sew day with my sisters a few weeks ago I have been on a mission to go through my fabrics and put in one place all the kids fabrics I have been accumulating.  I discovered fabrics everywhere...ha surprising not!   It happened that the leader of our local quilts for kids had a medical issue come up before their sew day so I offered to make some kits with my fabric to help out.  I pulled out enough fabric to make several kits...no surprise there.  When I was finished with the kits I found I had some simple panels in my stash that I had collected. I decided they needed a little sprucing up so I added some pinwheels.  Took a little bit of figuring to make the pinwheels fit the panels. I didn't want to cut too much off and keep the quilt as big as I could. I think they turned out pretty cute.  When I finished the panels..yeah off my stash pile...I looked to a free baby quilt pattern from a quick internet search.  I used some computer fabric an...