Joni Hilton

I wanted to spotlight my friend and author and woman of so many talents, Joni Hilton.

Joni was the first person I met at church when I was visiting California, 2 years ago.  When she said her name, I asked her if she was "the" Joni Hilton!  I had read many of her books and admired her penmanship, creativity and sense of humor.

  Guess what, she is "the" Joni Hilton :)

Joni has written all of these books, and more!

She is a playwright, writes for Music and the Spoken Word, Meridian magazine and so much more, too numerous to mention. 

(Google her name....)

Joni's husband Bob is pretty famous too....

He was the voice on the game show "Let's Make a Deal". 

 Monty Hall would say, "Bob, tell them what they won!". 

 He was also the announcer on the game show

Truth or Consequences with Bob Barker.

Joni has a fun blog with some of her thoughts and funny life experiences, it's called Joniopolis.

Currently, Joni has a radio show which is broadcast online as well.

Every Saturday morning, 9 am Pacific time.

I downloaded an app for my iphone/ipad called tunein radio.

I find the station that Joni is on, and set it as my favorite.

I listen to the show as often as I can, but haven't been brave enough to call in yet!  Ha ha!!!

Maybe there is a question you have for Joni :)

iphone and Android Apps

Now and then I will scroll through the App Store.

Have you ever done that, type in a key word and search it?

I typed the word fabric and 163 apps came up!

There is a Stashanize app that helps you organize your fabric!!! , but it costs $2.99.

99% of the apps I download are free, I really hate paying for them.

I will list the ones I found interesting, and they are all free.

 How Much Thread which is sponsored by Superior Threads.  It tells you how much thread you will need to sew a quilt!

 Tear N Burn.  It is 3D virtual cloth you can tear and burn! Weird....

Purex Laundry Help, it has a stain guide, fabric care, clothing label decoder and laundry timer :)

Washing Machine by Wimbledon Sound. It's ridiculous!!!

You watch a front loading washing machine fill up with water and spin the clothes while a rapper is singing about getting your clothes bright and clean in your washing machine.  Ha ha!!! I downloaded it just to try.  It was comical but I would never want to wash I mean watch it again.... LOL.

There are lots of apps for sewing magazines.

I did find an app that I have used a few times when I travel.

It's called Quilty.  It's really simple, it takes you to maps, your current location.  It will pin point all the fabric and quilt shops in your surrounding area.  I used it when I went to Walnut Creek and found two very nice quilt shops.  I also used it in San Francisco.

One of my favorite "fabric" apps is Jo-Ann fabrics.  

When I need to purchase pins, measuring tape, washi tape, buttons, quilt books, fabric, anything that isn't on sale......I open the app and tap on coupons and at least two 40% or 50% or 20% off entire order are there waiting for me to use.  I show the phone with the coupon to the cashier and she scans it and I save a lot of money!

Go to joann.com on your smartphone, there is always a 40% coupon on the front page that you can use in addition to the ones in the app itself.

Have fun shopping in the app store and if you find anything good that I haven't mentioned here, let me know :)

  

Benjamin's Button-On Suit

I can't believe I got it done! 

I am so excited about finishing Benjamin's blessing outfit :)

I love how it turned out, I hope his mom will be happy with it.

I sewed my heart out....

Did I mention that the last time I sewed this pattern, it was for my now 19 year old son?  Lol...He was 3 when I made him his last smocked outfit. 

 We lived in the South so it wasn't uncommon to look like "Little Lord Fontleroy".

The pants are little knickers.  (cute!)

I used six antique buttons to attach the pants to the shirt.

The fabric is Swiss cotton.

I added a little label to the inside of the shirt.

This is a view of the back of the shirt.

I used antique pearl buttons and only two are the same.

I thought it added character to have them all just a little different.

Benjamin's blessing is on Sunday.

I will share photos of Benjamin in his outfit next Wednesday.

I hope it fits him okay, keep your fingers crossed :)

Progress!

It's midnight and I have finished Benjamin's blessing shirt.

I am so excited that I have this much done!

I just have to make the lined knickers and sew about 14 button and buttonholes!!!

I blocked the smocking insert.

I cut the bias strips to sew the piping.

Here is a close up of the shirt.

There is piping around the collar, the top and bottom of the smocked insert, and the sleeve cuffs.

I sewed the buttons under the ducks, aren't they cute?

I really like the knife pleats too, they add a masculine touch.

On Tuesday, I will sew the lined knickers andhopefully sew all the buttonholes.  See you then!

What I'd Rather Be Doing.....

I have been wondering what to post about...

There are so many fun sewing things I want to be doing, but can't right now.

I want to sew "sewing baskets", Row 12 of the Bee in my Bonnet Row Along...

I want to sew the Quilty Barn Along from Bee in my Bonnet.

I want to sew the Scrappy Trip Around the World that I've seen all over Instagram...

I've even been tempted by the Medallion Along I've seen on Instagram.  It's based on a pattern in this book "Liberty Love", by Alexia Abegg.

Di at Random Thoughts blogged about her compulsion to join other's quilt alongs.  I think I have the same problem, I just can't resist!  They are always so attractive!!!

This is the Medallion block.

Instead, I am doing something very important....

something that can't be put on hold...

something that will hopefully be passed down from generation to generation...

I'm sewing a blessing outfit for my grandson, Benjamin :)

I am smocking him an old fashioned button on suit, I posted about it here.  It will be white with off white piping and off white smocking.

I will be constructing it next week, the blessing is March 10.

(I procrastinated a little...)

Then, I will be smocking a blessing gown, bonnet and slip for my grandaughter,  Kylie.

I will make it as old fashioned and luxurious as I can!  

Kylie's gown will be off white with peach silk satin ribbon ties.

I will post more photos next week, thanks for following along :)

The Quilter's Little Helper

I found this app for my iphone and ipad, and it's free!

It's free for android phones as well.

It is a quilt calculator.

It tells you:

Fabric Measurement

Backing and Batting

Piece Count

Pieces to Yardage Area

Binding

Border Yardage

Square-in-a-Square

Set-in and Corner Triangle

I always use the "binding" calculator when I make a quilt. 

I cut my binding 2" wide and this app tells me how much yardage I need to buy for the binding and how many strips I need to cut.

I would recommend that you take a look at it, it's FREE :)

Smocking

I am making my little grandson a blessing outfit.

I'm making the button on suit with the pleated front and knickers.

This is my pleater.

For this project, I threaded 10 needles.

Some of my little dowels that hold the spools of thread have broken over the years, but I can still get it to work :)

I rolled my length of Swiss Cotton onto a dowel and gently pulled it through the pleater.  

It's so easy to break a needle when I do this, so when I say I pull the fabric through gently, I mean it.

If I break a needle, I have to take the whole thing apart and start all over again.  I've done that many times, and it is a pain!

Yay, I didn't break a needle and the pleating is straight.

I smocked 2 rows on the top and 2 rows on the bottom.

I want the pleats to hold their shape in the front, so I had to back smock 4 rows on the back of the inset.

I finished the little ducks.  This is called picture smocking.  

When I pull out the pleating threads, the pleats will hold their shape because of the four rows of smocking I did on the back.

Notice the trellis smocking in between the two top rows and the two bottom rows.

I finished the little pull toy ducks, aren't they cute?

I just have to sew l/4" buttons to the bottom of each duck.  

People are always asking me how long it takes to do a smocking inset like this one.

I counted this time and it took an hour to do each row and each duck, stitching over approximately 250 pleats.

  That comes to a total of 13 hours!!!  

I will be sewing the little blessing outfit this week and will show you the results :)