Sew Sunshine

This day was sort of a birthday wish I had that my sisters would help me sew some of my fabric up for outreach quilts. One sister thought it would be fun to give out scratch off tickets but she guessed they were duds...I won $25!! We finished 5 quilt tops that day and I went home and quilted them. One of my sisters took some blocks home too and has another top done for me. I still need to get that done but I have been dealing with a broken bone in my foot and now some realignment therapy for some toes. It sort of makes it hard to get a lot done as my sewing area is both upstairs and down.   A little bit every day.....

38" x 48" Serpentine quilting with walking foot.  All stash fabrics (should win for use of oldest pieces of fabric...guessing over 20 years on easter eggs and backing fabric) Yep that is indeed Easter Eggs! I can not tell you how old this piece of fabric is but it has been in my stash a very long time. I remember I bought it specifically for making a kaleidoscope quilt.  When I started looking at it closer I remembered why I did not end up making it all those years ago. The problem? The print is very close. By that I mean the shapes are very similar and the colors are pretty similar and it really doesn't make for a dynamic kaleidoscope. However, it does make a very soft babyish one and so I finished this up to give to my pet project Quilts for Kids again! I played around with several solids to sort of modernize the piece but really it was never really going to go modern.  I do like the solid colors I ended up with though.  Honeydew, melon, blue and gold.  You ca...

I decided to keep the momentum going after last weeks P.Q. season 12 one week challenge. If you don't know about Project Quilting you can see my entry  HERE I make outreach quilts for a group I have mentioned many times over the years...Quilts for Kids. I try to make at least one a month if I can. Last year I was sidelined but luckily had many to give before I had to take a break from quilting.    These two heart quilts are from a pattern by Caroline at SewCanShe and the pattern is free  HERE I get her newsletters and it came up the other day in my mail and the size was right for QFKs.  I started cutting up my stash and realized it might be just as easy and fast to make 2 at one time.  Quickly and I mean quickly I had to tops done.   They measure approximately 42" x 42"  I have not quilted anything that big in quite a while and sort of forgot how to use my domestic machine and even how to sandwich a quilt. The first one I used a serpentine di...

I am not even sure when this little quilt was started. I know I had access to an Accuquilt machine at a local sewday. I cut out the circles and fusible circles too. I got home and started using some fancy stitches on my sewing machine to go around the edges.  I also remember taking them to a sew day at our county fair to sew on while being in the Quilts for Kids booth. The year? I am not sure.  I am pretty sure this quilt did not want to be finished. I found the blocks when looking for materials to make masks out of.  I thought, I can sew this up quickly. I did, and then I pressed it and then had to sew the whole thing again because my antique iron melted the thread in about 75% of it. Yes melted. I could see the thread go from shiny to dull and then I rubbed it. The thread actually came up from one side like tiny beads on a strand. So very odd. I have used that thread since and the same iron and nothing?? My sewing room in disaster mode!!! ha An...

Saturday June 16th is a celebration of the 8th year of the local chapter of Quilts for Kids Lincoln.   We have a small group that meets at the International Quilt Study Center and Museum on the 3rd Saturday of each month. It is a lovely location open to the public that visit the quilt house.  I am doing a short demo on the tutorial by  Cluck Cluck Sew  on Easy stack cut and sew blocks. The above piece is a sample I made up for a boy quilt. Those are sometimes hard to come by.  Organic wavy line quilting goes fast and easy. Quilts for kids label...check! pieced back with a few left over strips. Sadly it was super hot out and I have a hurt foot so I didn't go scouting for a good photo area. I stuck to the shade in the front yard.  eh.. So to get ready for the demo and sew day I took to my stash pile and decided to cut out squares for a variety of blocks. I think this tutorial will work well as a scrap quilt so any...

  One of my local quilt guilds had a group of lovely ladies come and talk about various charity and out reach programs last month. At the end of the talk I sent out a challenge to design a small quilt for one of them.  I handed out graph paper with the optional sizes on it and told them to keep it modern and simple.  We hope to have them turned in by next meeting and with a little luck and some volunteers, I hope to turn at least one of the designs into a kit-able quilt kit for others to sew up.  I thought I better give it a go so here is one of my simple modern designs. This went together really quick and didn't waste much fabric. I was able to grab fabrics I had on hand to go with the cute butterfly center fabric.   Since the design was so simple I took the time to free motion mums all over in Aurifil gray.  I am getting better at free motion but still not great. I could make several more of these before I will say good. :) I thought a ...