Thursday, August 29, 2013

The winner is...

The winner is Patchouli Moon Studio.  #47  I really did put in 139 which shows on my view of the post, however, it only saves it as 1 to 100 when I publish it.  I have got to figure out a better way to do this.  Congrats to our winner and thanks to all of you for commenting.  

True Random Number Generator  47Powered by RANDOM.ORG

Some Finishes

I finally quilted up my Farmer's Wife quilt.  This quilt was my first venture into quilting.  I took a class at Honey Bee, my local quilt store, with the encouragement of a friend at work.  That was January of 2010. I had wanted to learn how to quilt for several years but with my work schedule it was a unreachable goal.  When I moved to Austin and only worked a 40 hour week I did finally have time to quilt.  I jumped in and loved it ever since.  Nothing like piecing 6 inch blocks with teeny pieces of fabric to get you a jump start.  No simple stuff for me to start out with.  Of course it has a lot of pink in it.  Here it is wavy borders, bunched up setting triangles, etc.


I also finished up piecing my log cabin quilt,  I finished the blocks a long time ago.  More pink, of course.  I was trying to use up a lot of my traditional fabric.  I have to come up with some backing fabric so it will join the line up in my wardrobe with the other finished tops.  This was my first try using Quilt Pro.  I resized the log cabin block to 12.5 and started cutting.  When I finished my first block I realized that it was 13".  In Quilt Pro you have to designate the finished size.  This knowledge has come in handy when I have used Quilt Pro block designs for my Block Swap Adventure blocks.


I also finished my hexagon blocks for this month.  Our Queen Bee requested star blossoms.





Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Aiden Designed It.

I was playing with my seven year old grandson in my sewing room when he decided he needed a new blanket. He started going through my boxes of fabric and with a little editing from Grandma we came up with some fabric for his new blanket. I cut the fabric into 8 1/2" squares and let him "design" his own quilt on the design wall. Here is the result:


I faithfully sewed things together in the order he had them on the design wall.  That was it for Saturday.  Sunday morning I pin basted the quilt using some Fairfield 80/20 batting and some DS picnic fabric for the backing.  He wanted to put decorative stitches through the center of each block.  I let him pick.  My Singer has lots of decorative stitches to choose from.  Some work better on three layers of fabric than others.  It is all his quilt though.  I used leftover fabric for binding.

Here is the final result.


The only thing his Mom had to say was:  "Nice colors" and "You used a lot of different stitches".  She did like her blue hexagon pillow though.  My grandson and I had a great time and it is all his quilt from choosing fabric through the quilting.  

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Hexie Queen Blog Hop and Giveaway

Today is my day to be at least a princess for a day.  I have just recently come to love hexies.  It all started when I was doing the 2012 block-a-month quilt on Craftsy with Amy Gibson.  One of her blocks had 1 1/4" hexies that she appliqued to a block.  I had just finished a quilt for my daughter in shades of blue.  I had to use up the extra scraps somehow, right.  I ordered some 1 1/4" hexie paper pieces from paperpieces.com.  I checked out several tutorials and then off I went.  I was planning on making a pillow to match her quilt.  Did I say that my daughter is passionate about blue.



Here is a close-up of the quilting.


You see a lot of Amy Butler Cameo and Jason Yenter Camelot in this pillow.

Here is the quilt that inspired it. 


I am so inspired that I already have another project lined up.  I cut up my small stash of original Flea Market Fancy into large hexagons.  I am going to make the Russian Rubix quilt.


Now for the fun part. The Giveaway.  I had some large polka dot fabric that would make really cute large hexagons.  I have three fat quarters in three different colors.  Please leave a comment and I will pick a winner on August 29.


Hope you are enjoying the blog hop.  Here is a list of the other Hexie Queens for today:


Thursday, August 22    
Sue Mac Seeds   (you are here)
www.sewwequilt.com



Scrap Swap Goodies

I was out of town last week and did not get a chance to post a picture of my scrap swap bounty until today.  I got this terrific mug rug and goodies from Sew4Sanity.

This has got to be the best mug rug ever.  She must have been spying on me and figured out I love texty fabric.


And of course there were scraps and other treats.



Sunday, August 11, 2013

Shop Hop Day 2

I ended up helping my friend Jessica at her shop on day 2 of the shop hop.  Of course that meant I had to buy some more fabric.  I decided I was going to make handbags for my daughters and granddaughters for Christmas.  I have not gotten beyond zipper pouches and fabric baskets yet so I bought sale fabric for bag practice.  I also decided to splurge and get six fat quarters of Anna Maria Horner Hand Drawn and some Cotton Couture solid to make a small quilt.  I certainly got plenty of practice in cutting and folding fabric.  Makes me glad I do not have a fabric store.  It is a lot of work.


I won some goodies from a my friend Barb's blog at  Bejeweled Quilts by Barb.  She had some Heat N' Bond and fusible vinyl to give away.  She is trying out these new products.  She does a lot of applique.  I am excited to try it out.  



Saturday, August 10, 2013

Austin Shop Hop Loot

I went to the Austin Shop Hop today.  Picked up some goodies.  I got some great deals.  Cut fabric was 20% off.  There were six shops on the hop.  I picked up a little something at each shop.  I did not get too carried away except for the Japanese novelty fabric quilt kit.  I picked up some Bella solids in turquoise and pink, a hot pink zipper, some pink thread, cute purple polka dots, a yard of FMF, 3 yards of a cute orange fabric for backing, and three fat quarters.  It was loads of fun even if it was over 100 degrees today.

Austin Shop Hop Goodies




Earlier in the day I finished up one more ruched bag out of the London Calling fabric.  I had some cute Japanese fabric for the focus print on the front.  Got to love the bunny.  I made this for my friend Jessica.  Oops.  I think the handle should have been on the other side.  She will have to deal.  At this rate I am going to have to order more of this fabric.






Monday, August 5, 2013

New Zipper Bag

I tried a new tutorial for a zipper bag.  I am not too sure about it.  It has a curved bottom and it did not come out like I wanted it to.  I don't know if it was the lawn fabric or just no fusible fleece.

I tried out my new Liberty Calling fabric by Robert Kaufman.  It is red, white and blue paisley.  Love it.  I did use some sheer weight fusible by Pellon to back the pieces.

See how pretty they look all ironed and ready to go.

I used some Kaffe blue shot cotton for the liner.  I did not put the handle on this one.  I am going back to my ruched bag for my next lawn bag.  

It is nice and soft on the exterior, however, not so cute at the curved bottom.


The pattern for this bag comes as a free tutorial by http://blog.lulalouise.com/2013/06/diy-tutorial-half-circle-zip-pouch-with.html.  I am sorry I did not do justice to her pattern.  I think it would have turned out better with a heavier fabric.