Checkerboard Quilt

 I finished a quilt!  I've only worked on it at my Farm Girls quilt group because it's a Lori Holt quilt and that's what we work on in that quilt group. I think I've been working on it for a year!

This quilt is called Checkerboard and is made entirely out of scraps! 

1 1/2" and 2 1/2" scraps.  It didn't even make a dent! The border is leftover border fabric from another quilt I made a while back. 

This pattern can be found in Lori Holt's book, "The Scrappy Project Planner."  There's a section in the back with quilt patterns.

Here are some closeups of my quilt, you may see some fabric that you have in your stash! Sometimes I like to see scrappy up close :)

I even kept a quilt journal for two of my quilts.  I love what I did, too bad I didn't do that for ALL of my quilts!

Hopefully I've inspired you to make a scrap quilt and journal your finished quilts :)

See you all next week ❤️

Burrito Pillow case and the Crowley Pouch

 My daughter has 3 Dalmatian dogs and one little chihuahua. I usually have a mental note to look for fabric with these dogs on them. I've never had any luck until this last week when I went to Road to California. There was the most beautiful Dalmatian fabric I've ever seen so I bought a yard! I was going to make a pillowcase and wanted a little extra.  With the leftover, I was able to make a medium size Crosley pouch by Center Street quilts, with a little toadstool zipper pull. ❤️

I thought it was incredible that the Dalmation's body matched up on the front of the pouch!

Here's the pillowcase also. I thought that spotted fabric was perfect!

The pillowcase is a burrito style, almost magic the way it goes together and it's sewn with French seams too!

This is the best tutorial I've seen anywhere, for the pillowcase.

I went to Road to California for a quick trip, it's only a 5 l/2 hour car ride. Went with three friends and we had such a fun time together. We went to a lot of cute quilt shops too, bonus!

We bought these shirts for a retreat last year, it's fun to wear them when we get together for a quilt related event :)

I tried on a quilted coat. I thought it was really pretty, but would like a coat with a little more shape to it.

So, so many cool things to look at, and the quilts and the fabric!!!

This is Latifah Safari, she has her own quilt company.  I've loved the fabric she designs.

This is Edyta Sitar from Laundry Basket quilts.  She had a lot of quilts in the quilt show in the exhibition room.

My favorite find at the quilt show, was Kristen Baluch of Little House Cottons.  She designed this fabric, it was the cutest I've ever seen!  I wish I could have bought everything! She designs her own fabric and produces it herself!  She has an organic cotton farm in India.  Kristen is also a storywriter and illustrator. Check her out!

That was a pretty action packed week!  Thanks for following and I'll see you next week ❤️

Lucky Cuff quilt

This "Lucky Cuff" quilt was a block of the month sew along for our Phoenix Modern Quilt Guild.

I didn't like it that much at first, but it grew on me! I bought the Kona solid, it's called Stone and the rest of the fabrics are by Lori Holt.  For the back of the quilt, I would like to piece it from the large pieces I have, of Lori Holt fabrics. 

I think quilts are beautiful before they're quilted, with the light shining from the back. They look like stained glass.

This is my friend Nedra's quilt, I really love the colors.

This is a quilt I found online.  It looks so different with the dark background, and bright colors.

I found this photo online too, it might be by the designer.

I wish I had photos of the other 13 quilts at our guild, each one was so unique.  One person even used scraps of the same color in each of her rows. People are so creative!

Ebenezer Ornament series

 Hi Everyone, I hope you're all doing well!

Today, I'm going to show you something I've been working on for a few years.

This is Scrooge, from mmm crafts.  It's a Christmas tree ornament, standing about 5-6" tall and made of wool felt. This is Marissa's blog, she designs so many beautiful Christmas series ornaments.

As you can see, I made Scrooge in 2022, but finished him at the end of 2023.

https://mmmcrafts.blogspot.com/

This is Mr. Marley, I made him first in 2021.

I don't know why, but the year didn't show up very well on his back. 

Notice his cute ponytail?

Next, I'm going to work on the ghost of Christmas Present. After that, there's the ghost of Christmas Past and the Ghost of Christmas Future which is still in the works.  I follow mmmcrafts on Instagram, and I saw that she even designed Scrooge's tombstone!  So cute!!!

There are the 12 Days of Christmas and the Night Before Christmas.

You'll have to look at her blog, or follow her on Instagram or Facebook.

Have a great week!

Blooming Bunch block of the month

 Happy New Year! I hope you've all got some plans for this next year. Organizing, reading, sewing, trying new recipes. Yes, I want to try some new things in all of these areas.

I haven't posted in a while because I haven't been working on any sewing projects. I've just been busy enjoying all the holiday activities.

My Farm Girl quilt group loves and only works on anything Lori Holt.  We usually meet the second and fourth Monday of the month at Quilter's Oasis, a very nice quilt shop in Mesa, Arizona.

We are doing three blocks a month from Lori's books.  Each month, we make a 12" and two 6" blocks of flowers that our "mother hen" chooses.  When the year is over, we put the blocks together however we want and have a huge trunk show!  It's always so much fun and includes lots of laughter and good food.

Here are the blocks I've made so far, I'm using Ruby Star Society fabric and my background is a silvery Christmas print by Gingeber.

As you can see, we have already been doing this for 5 months.

For Christmas my son and his family gave me a nice tripod with a light ring which will brighten my photos when I use my iPhone to take quilt photos.  No shadows anymore! 👍🏻 I used the tripod and ring for this photo and the colors are pretty true.

Our next farm girl meeting in January, will be a retreat.  It will be a whole day and evening of sewing, eating and laughing, lol!

I'll show you my progress with this "Blooming Bunch" block of the month as time goes on.

Thanks for following me!

Christmas Secret sewing progress

 I didn't get much English smocking done last week!  I was hoping to get the stitching completed but life and Christmas planning intervened. I'm a little slower than I used to be and need really good light to see. 

I thought the smocking would show up more too.  

I've been collecting Lella Boutique fabric from the Christmas Eve line.

I am planning to make the pattern Reindeer Xing in the new year. I want to make the version with a little bit of red and green, not just grays. 

I've seen this quilt in person, and the blocks are pretty big.

The pattern calls for 3 yards of gray dot fabric but I haven't been able to find it anywhere.  I searched on Etsy and googled the name of the fabric but no luck. One person on Etsy is selling the fabric for $25/yard, but I don't need it that badly. The fabric is used for the background on the reindeer blocks.

I bought 3 yards of some fabric online that is Lella Boutique (from another line) but when I matched it with my other fabrics, I see that it isn't the same tone of gray. I'm not sure if I should use it, or look for another gray that will match better.

Do any of you follow All People Quilt? They do something fun before the new year.  They make available a wish list for quilts you want to make in the new year. There are 12 lines.  Every month they post a number and you are supposed to make or complete that quilt.  I fill it out but don't follow their numbers, I just pick which project I want to begin or finish.  I already have a wish list for the new year and a lot of them are Halloween quilts 😂

 I also want to learn how to do Adobe Illustrator on the computer.  I've wanted to learn for years, I need to set off schedule for myself.

Thanks for following and reading my blog!  I'll see you next week.

Heirloom sewing

 

I'm doing some secret sewing.  I'm making some English smocked dresses for some of my grand daughters. It's very slow going though, so I'm not sure if I'll have them done in time for Christmas 😬 I'm going to do the best that I can! 

Setting the pleater up was a big deal, because I haven't done it in 8 or more years! I put my quilting thread in this container from Target that I use for storage. I threaded each thread through a hole and then threaded the pleater. The needles in the pleater have a bend in them so that they will go around the rod.

It took me so long to thread all 16 needles.  Then I realized that I only needed 15, so I just didn't thread the last one.  During the pleating, one of my needles broke.  I had to unscrew the rod, take out all the needles and start over again. The second time worked, thank goodness! It took me a whole afternoon though. I have my pleater propped on the chevron tin so the needles don't fall out as I'm threading them.

Success! I did a wheat stitch at the top, and had a really pretty peach thread for the second row.  I had to unstitch it because it didn't show up at all.  Now I'm using yellow which is my grand daughter's favorite color anyway :)

Here are the pleating threads, I tie them together taught against the fabric, two at a time. Then I take them all and tie them together loosely.  If I need to untie them, it's not too difficult as the quilting thread is a little stiff and waxy.

I'm using this pattern, but will have two extra rows because I'm making a size 10 and it requires 13 smocked rows.

In the empty space in the middle, I will have all these embroidered bullion roses. 

I haven't made a dress for my grand daughter Isabel yet, she's 8 years old.  She was telling her mother that she really wants me to make her a dress because she only has her blessing dress that I made for her, and she really wants to have another dress for her own daughter in years to come.  Isn't that adorable?  Yes Isabel, I'll make you a thousand dresses!!! 😂

I love it when they appreciate what I make for them 💗 It fills my journey with joy.

See you next week!