Sew Sunshine

"Steppin' in Time"  42" x 42" Project Quilting Season 8 final challenge is Time is Up .  I chose to do a project off of my bucket list and make a large hour glass by way of court house steps. A while ago I bought the Denyse Schmidt book and in there is a lovely courthouse step quilt.  While the concept for this is traditional and pretty simple just sewing strips around the center block it is also difficult to keep from stretching and waffling the longer strips.  The original quilt in her book is finished at about 60" and I had to stop at 42".  I took liberty with the color placements also.  I used simple grid quilting.  I wanted to do simple quilting because it was very hard to keep this quilt flat. In the end I had to spray baste once I squared up the steps. Tricky! In the book that Denyse wrote, she used a small slab of print in one of her outer borders. I loved this idea and decided to use a bit of the I am a Maker fabric...

"I built this city - Lincoln" Project Quilting season 8:4 theme=brighter the better Made in Ne. 34.5" x 20.5 Lincoln Ne skyline pattern designed by Shannon Brinkley I built this city from the tiny bit scraps triangles leftover from making binding. I knew I wanted to make something scrappy for this bright/bold challenge. I already committed my smallish scraps to another random improv piece. I knew for this piece I would have to 'very' small. I decided to make my own fabric.  I randomly laid my tiny bits onto a sheet of heat and bond. I tried to not overlap too much but butt them up against each other.  As you can see there are no straight lines to this just cut and butt. Once I had an area full I pressed them down with a hot iron using a craft sheet over top and below just in case of sticky bits.  Once the fabric was made I cut it into 1" strips and then down to 1" squares. I took the pattern and traced it onto a sheer in...

"Hygge " 12.5 x 37.5 freemotion quilting random designs Hygge - Danish word roughly translates to coziness. I came across a news show one night about a year or so ago that was talking about searching for Hygge. I fell in love with how this little word can be and mean so much.  Hygge pronounced hoo ga, can mean an atmosphere of relaxation and gratitude.  A feeling of contentment or well being, a sanctuary.  Hygge can be the smell of cinnamon buns baking or the warm toasty feel of a fire place on a cold night.  Hygge can be a smile in passing or a tip of the hat in greeting. Hygge can be taking pleasures in the presence of gentle soothing things. That is why I made this word banner to hang in my sewing room.   Linking up with  crazymom quilts and  can I get a whoop whoop

"Woven"  24"x 24" A Nebraska 150 Wall Quilt Challenge entry Theme: "Inspired by Nebraska's Diversity" **warning very wordy ahead This year my state of Nebraska will commemorate its Sesquicentennial (150 years) of statehood.  A challenge went out to make a 24" wall quit with the theme Inspired by Nebraska's Diversity.  Our local modern quilt guild was already working on a project to tie in a charity fund raiser quilt and while I was participating in that I thought it would be fun to try my hand at a personal wall quilt.  My thought process was to present a sort of history woven in fabric.  I started improv piecing scraps, in the lightest fabrics I had, creating a grid of the farm land I grew up with.  The textures of the warp and weft are created by tiny inserts of fabric, some less than 1/2" wide.  Part of the aerial landscape is a bit of my journey. Born near the South Dakota/Nebraska border and slowly making my way sou...

Lily PQ.2 =carolina lily 12"x 12"  made in NE. This weeks challenge was a Carolina Lily. I researched the flower, the quilt block and set out on EQ7 to make my own design.    Not sure what I think of it. If I would finish coloring it in, I think I might like it. I have been wanting to play with my EQ7 program for a long time and I am trying to find ways to do it.  My lqg has group starting the end of the month and I want to play a bit before the class.   So I decided against this quilt as you see from the pic above.  Next on my mental list of things to do this year ...finish watching some of my Craftsy classes that I signed up for.  Is it just me?  I get a class and get all excited about it and then never get around watching it.  Well.......... I now have one under my belt. Carol Ann Waugh's "Slash and stitch" class.  I watched, I found 4 fabrics, ironed, layered, and stitched.  Found a seam ripper and .....le...

18" pillow Playing with the QCR mini and drunkards path blocks Our weather has been pretty crazy with the ice and cold and warmth the last few days. I decided to work at playing with the Quick Curve Ruler mini that I have. I wanted to make some plain drunkards path blocks and then play with layout.  I decided a pillow was a great way to accomplish something. I chose colors that would work in my living room and set out to play.  I came up with many layouts but our guild is going to focus on circles and curves as we start our new year so I went with this layout.  I was not able to achieve a perfect circle with the mini ruler but I like the sort of organic feel this layout has. I added uneven logs around the edges to keep that feel.  I am going to try something similar with the regular size ruler to help with a demo I will be giving soon. The Quick Curve Ruler by  SewKindofWonderful  is a really easy tool to use if you want to try your ha...

approx 37" x 47"  "Random Logs" finished UFO woohoo I made a quilt with some of this fabric for a charity a few years ago. (below) In keeping with my organizational challenge to not just move things from place to place but to finish things, I decided to just sew. I had 6 small 8" blocks and a bunch of scrap strips cut in a bag with backing fabric tucked in there too. I literally just started sewing strips on to the blocks and made 3 more just from scraps. The most fun was that I didn't once measure the blocks just squared them up after adding each log. I marked on my design wall the desired size I wanted for this crib size quilt and just kept sewing until I got within range. Totally mindless and very enjoyable sewing. Yay!!!  ....another one bites the dust and another one is gone!!   This was on my  2017 UFO challenge  on a secondary list, still, it is a goner!! I made more log cabin blocks but didn't fit them in because...

On the farm  approx 15.5" x 18"  This was a free pattern from Moda that a lqs is doing. I picked building permit #2 to do.  I thought it looked like a barn and a silo but of course my husband says the silo should not have a chimney on it. The pattern calls it a tower. I am going with barn and silo! ha After I took the pic at the top I was out at my recycle center and there was this little bobcat parked. I am sure if anyone saw me they thought I was nuts. I looked all over it for a place to clip my little mini. Luckily I had some clothespins in my car.  The fabric colors are not my usual favs. I had this cute FQ with slogans and text on that a friend gave me. I grew up on a farm and milking cows and caring for the chickens and garden were a big part of early years. This has cute little chicks, a jug of milk and a farm fresh strawberry. Ah the memories...... I used only fabrics that were near by because I am in the process of trying to organize ...

I have a thing about the art of Amedeo Clemente Modigliani. I have been wanting to practice thread sketching some more so decided to try my hand at this little lady.   Proportion is off but I don't even care. This was so fun to do. This is Madame Raynouard 1916.   I am doing an organizational challenge right now too and I found a couching foot that I have never used before so I couched some yarn to the edge. Needs fuller yarn or rattail but for this practice piece it was fine.  She is approx. 8" x 10" and already stuck to my wall.  I also made up a few drool bibs this week to send to my great nephew. I hope they work. They are the bandana style made with flannel and or terry cloth.  Turned out sweet!!! LInking up with Lorna @ Let's Bee Social  HERE

approx 29" x 29" In my quest to clean and organize a bit in my sewing room(s) I plan to see what I can come up with for challenges that I already have.  This 8 sided spider web is for the Project Quilting  season 8 first challenge - "8 is great". I was working on cleaning up the floor in my sewing room and I came across 2 bags of mostly useless selvages. I didn't know what I was doing when I saved them and they were mostly too skinny to even use or there was no wording or color bubbles. Crazy! So I found enough to do this spider web. Drafted a triangle template with newspaper and started laying them out. The inspiration for this piece really came from my friend  Jennifer . Right before the holidays she started a string quilt spiderweb that is so awesome so I knew I wanted to put it on my bucket list. Well, no time like the present.  I took this when it was 2 degrees F out. My hands were a little shaky to say the least. I am so pleased with this piece. N...