Happy Holiday

Fininshing some last minute gifts this week, looking forwards to Christmas dinner with family and relaxing with a movie ir two.

Down to the quilting, came out 80 x 122' largest I have done so far, think I will be FMQ to look like wood planks.  

Off to sew, 

Happy Holidays everyone

Pam

Bella & Izzie

Christmas mood?

Warning- no sewing on todays blog

I don't know what it is about this year but here it is a week before my most favorite holiday and I'm not feeling it. I have done some shopping, made some cookies, have one of my Christmas trees started, we had record snowfall already in the Buffalo area... yet not feeling it.

So over the weekend I traveled to NJ to see my baby girls first home purchase with her fella, it is so adorable and decorated for the holidays.  I am so proud of them, such a cute first home and she gave me an idea of something I can make for her.

 

Lunch in Montclair and a little window shopping, yes those are knitted hats in fun shapes.

 

Saturday morning we set off by train into NYC to see the the sites, a train full of Santas so much fun.  It was Santa.con day in the city- I will say we encountered the largest bunch very early so no drunk santas, just jolly happy ones. 

 

Our first stop was the Etsy Holiday shop set up in Chelsea Market, it was interesting.  I purchased a few cards not much else, it was crowded with barely wide aisles and way too warm.  I hope the shop owners did well, the space should have been bigger.

We saw Cinderella, I always plan a show when in NYC, they are better.  Somehow the storylines are more playful. Very enjoyable.

 

Then there was the tree, my favorite tree.  I dont care how crowded it is or how far we had to walk its worth it every time.

 

Sunday morning after a picture perfect breakfast at Normas, last on the "get you in the holiday mood" are the windows at Macy's, with some shopping in the Christmas department (60% off)

 

After a little break for my knees baby girl took her mama from NYC to the EWR airport by train so I didnt get lost, yes I was conserned about that. Thank goodness she knows the ins and outs of the NYC trains and subway system.

Thank you for a great weekend, see you at home next week!

 

I had a wonderful time with my daughter, great food as usual and then I was back home getting double puppy kisses in the car like I was gone for weeks instead of 2 days.  

 

Kinda caught up on my holiday sewing, off to watch "It's a Wonderful Life" that should do it, right?

Feathers ~ My way tutorial

As you know I am in several bees and our queen for NQB Bee asked for Anna Marie Horners feathers. Stephanie of Late Night Quilters requested them without backing so she can applique them, I can not wait to see her quilt when its done.

After doing so many for my quilt I found a better way without using paper 

 

First when I get new fabric I cut off the edges and save the salvages, sometimes as much as two inches.  I start by picking colors I like to start.

 

 

Then I fold them in half wrong sides together with the idea that the longer ones will be at the base of the feather. 

 

Then I cut the open end (not the folded) at a 45 degree angle

Cut the other end to make it into two pieces

This gives you both sides of the feather at the proper angle, this is where I decide on the fabric colors and order

 

Time to chain piece them one side at a time

Sew together overlapping 1/4" for less waste

After pressing, fresh cut the stem side of the feather

 

 

The stem is actually designed to show 1/4" between colors.  When I sew my stem I use whatever width scrap I have. It is easier for me to control wider widths than narrow.

After pressing, trim to 1/2" showing

(3/4" total)

Attach the other side

 

Press

After trimming the first side to your desired shape, mark the other side to balance your feather.  Use the stems straight line for a starting point

 

 

If you are doing a feather with a background you would start with your background piece before starting the feather.  At this point you would add top and sides of the background.

 

 

 

This is one of the feathers with white backgrounds from my other quilt.  I blue dotted where I attached the white if you need your feather to be a block

 

 

Here are the two I did for Stephanie ~ yay ta-done!

 

Off to make arrows for my Do Good Stitches bee

Pam

http://latenightquilter.com/longarm-services/

Rag Quilt ~ Sew Cute!

Last week our local chain fabric / craft store ran a black Friday sale starting on Wednesday, good thing because I don't leave the house to shop on black Friday.  They really only had one thing I wanted, 75% off flannel making it $1.74.  I had making a rag quilt on my wish list and figured since this was a test and would be for me the chain store purchase was ok.  I also have been saving smaller pieces of batting that would work for this project.  I am thrilled I didn't use any "new" batting for this project.

(tutorials can be found on line so I did not set this post up as such- many bloggers and YouTube have tutorials)

 

Materials used

4 yards of backing flannel  cut into 64 pieces (10" squares)

1 yard each of 4 different flannels for the front - each cut into 16 pieces (10" squares)

Scrap batting cut into 7" squares, 64

Aurifil white thread

Spring assist sissors, I used Fiskars micro-tip sissors #5

 

It is an easy project

Place one flannel backing square right side down in the center of the batting and add the last ten inch square right side up on top. 

Add a couple pins and stitch an X on each one corner to corner, I chain pieced mine.

Placing the squares together, back to back sew one inch seams until you have eight squares accross.  Then sew the rows together the same way. (Seams to the front) eight rows down (check a tutorial for better understanding here)

Using the spring assist scissors fringe the one inch raw edges. Definitely need to add the Rag Quilt template to my wish list (Accuquilt)

 

Machine wash and dry to fluff

Tradition holds, I put a pocket on this quilt too only this time it is on the front AND has a zipper closure, sew cute!

 

Look how fluffy snugglie my new all flannel quilt is

 

Ta-done!

Linking up with Sew Fresh Quilts!

Off to sew,

Pam

Multitasking and still calm

Multitasking at my old sales job was the only way to stay on top of everything.  I loved how it made me feel organized. When it came to quilting multitasking made me nervous like I wasn't getting anything done.  I currently have more projects at various points of progress than EVER before and am amazingly calm.

First I made this little guy for my secret Santa swap, some thought is needed but it is started. I love incorporating machine embroidery and quilting.

Next I am going to be queen for ModernInstaBeeHive17 for January2015, since one of our ladies is going to have her first baby in January we were asked to post early.  For my quilt I know I want at least 16 maybe 20 blocks so I am making extra examples now. I asked for 2 prints that coordinate, I would like a variety of colors so I didn't give suggestions. 
 

Last week I received most of my blocks from the WNY MQG, these are the first two quilt tops ready to be sandwiched, I am still missing some blocks for the third one. I put the blocks together with a quarter inch piping around the outside then another three inches.  They will finish at 40 x 40"

I love how these cute fabrics play together

I had so many blue blocks I made one of the quilts just blues.  Look some are froggies, bees and swirls in this one.

 

Finished and mailed my last bee block for Novembers queen, this is also the pattern I picked.  Mine are double prints see how different it looks with a solid.

 

 

Just waiting for the mail delivery to finish the blocks for the patchwork log cabin quilt.  I am eight blocks short of the swirly brown rings. I hate when that happens, Etsy to the rescue.

I think the reason I am so calm about all of this is because November may be busy with all this piecing, that means December will be all about quilting.  I will say it~ quilting is my favorite part, I am going to enjoy December.

You know I am linking up with my two favorites, Sew Fresh Quilts and Freshly Pieced, check them out!

Thanks for visiting
off to sew,
Pam

Pillowcase tube style

While I was deciding what to do about the blank space on my AMH Birds of a Feather quilt I took on a small request for a family member.  To make two pillowcases each out of 3 fabric colors measuring 27", 9" and 3".  I used one of Missouri Star Quilt Company's tutorials with a few tweaks to make these cuties.

The tweaks were mostly due to the fact that the fabric given to me was flannel.  After retrimming the fabric with a rotary cutter I had 27", 9" and 2"

First I opened up then rolled up the 27" fabric and sewed on the folded 2" piece.  I did this to avoid the bulky slide of 5 layers of fabric.  This way the folded 2" fabric stayed put showing a nice straight width of the decorative stripe.  

 

Then I wrapped the 9" fabric piece around the previously stitched piece and sewed the seam (DO NOT SEW THE ENDS)

 

Once it is sewn pull all the fabric out of the tube giving you a piece that is approximately 31" x 43"

Fold it in half right sides together and sew or serge down the side and along the bottom.  This will complete the perfect pillowcase.

Although I always clean my machine then I finish a project I found it necessary to clean it out between pillowcase 1 & 2 due to the flannel lint.

UPDATE

Doing the projects above while all of you fantastic ladies posted suggestions about the way to finish the AMH quilt worked out perfectly.  I loved the idea if the horizontal lines, adding something like birds or words and when one suggested the lines mimic the wind I knew what to do.  

I went with horizontal wavy lines inserting a few individual fallen leaves randomly.  I love it ladies thank you, I may be using some of the other suggestions in a future quilt!

Ta-done just in time for my MQG meeting, yay!

 

Linking up with Sew Fresh Quilts and Freshly Pieced