Sew Sunshine

A new year begins. I am looking forward to what the new year brings but before I dive in I am going to do a quick look back at some favorite posts.  One of the favorite posts was for the Scrappy Glass window quilt I made for the release of Kelly's book "Scrappy Improv Quilting".  You can read about it  HERE Another favorite was the Quick Curve Ruler quilt I called "Grow'n Up" You can read about it and my adventure to get the pictures  HERE I spent some time early in the year working on scrappy challenges to use up lots of scraps. Here are some favorites: Beachy scrap quilt  HERE Scrappydo 2 is  HERE  and I already have some scraps sewn together for another one of these. So fun to make! A couple of my favorites: Dressing Up was all about working with reusable textiles and slow hand sewing. You can read about it   HERE and  And my Easy Delectable Mountains. Background fabric was made from an old sheet I dyed with my friend Jen who also helped me with the photo

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. Well, I had an idea t

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.  before we left I snapp

"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 so hard to see the dark but you g

  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-  Seasonal Sensa

"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