Month: March 2018

My Life, New Pattern Sample

More Rainbow Progress

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Since I last posted,

I’ve spent more hours at my sewing machine

with my Grunge Seeing Stars fabric.

Remember the Tiny Dresden blocks?

They’re each now the center of a star block.

How appropriate that the fabric collection I chose for this design also has stars?

The sewing went quickly since I did all of the cutting at the beginning,

as shown to you earlier this week:

Here are all of the tiny Dresden blocks sewn into star blocks:

Do you like my colorful new rug (& cute booties)?

I couldn’t resist leaving them in the pic!

Next, I quickly added the pre-cut sashing.

Originally I designed a simple white border,

but while I sewed the star blocks,

the colorful stack of leftover corners

trimmed from the flying geese blocks

kept speaking to me!

I couldn’t resist using the leftover rainbow…

So, back to the computer I went

to see what kind of border I could make using the

8 half square triangles of each of the 16 star fabrics………….

This is what I decided on,

and quickly sewed BEFORE I CHANGED MY MIND!!!

The possibilities are practically endless, right?

This was a quick, painless & pretty clever addition to the quilt

(if I must say so myself, Lol)

and I feel good about using most all of those triangles!

I next cut the backing & batting,

then took it to my quilter, Tamara, yesterday so she can do her magic.

On to the next thing!

(which has been cooking for my family’s Easter breakfast & dinner)

I hope you’ve enjoyed my rainbow journey this week.

Hopefully the pattern (which remains nameless at this time) will be ready mid-May.

Just Keep Sewing…

Susan

Dresden Plates, My Life, New Pattern Sample

My Rainbow Progress

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It has been fun sewing my Grunge, Seeing Stars rainbow these past two days.

I finished the plates, then made the centers at our guild meeting yesterday.

When I got home I appliqued the centers in place

(after I replaced Mr. Too Dark Blue… he’ll have to wait for a different project)

You can see for yourself that there was no contrast between him & the pretty black center fabric.

So, I replaced him with a grey plate,

then I stitched the centers in place & dampened the centers to remove the paper templates.

During dinner we got to watch them dry.

I put them on our kitchen table & turn on the ceiling fan.

It makes the drying time quick!

(An advantage of the kids growing up & moving on is that

we don’t need the whole kitchen table for dinner anymore.

I also spend less money on food… but at times the quiet is deafening!)

After our dinner was cleaned up I glued the plates to the background squares

then got out my box of Sulky threads & played the matching game.

That was fun!

Typically I use one spool of thread, Sulky Medium Taupe #1180.

It blends with all of my “muddy” colors so well,

but these bright fabrics read as solids & all 12 petals are the same

so I wanted to match them as closely as possible.

Did you know that if your thread color is a little darker than your fabric that it actually matches better?

Try it!

Next, I stitched the plates in place.

Theresa asked about my applique stitch,

so I’ve added a couple of close-up pics here:

It’s a tiny blind hem stitch.

It takes a few straight stitches, then a zag to the left.

I adjust the stitch length really short & the width really narrow.

I had a hard time getting a pic where you could actually see the stitches

because they’re so small & the thread matches so well.

That’s the reason I use this stitch.

In my opinion it resembles a hand stitch.

In fact I’ve had multiple quilters with their noses close to my quilt adamant that I’d done the stitching by hand!

(Obviously they don’t know me at all! They just see my work!)

The stitch shows up better on this aqua plate

where the color of the fabric changes to a lighter shade.

BTW, the Sulky thread is 30 wt. cotton.

Now this morning I’m ready to assemble the rest of the blocks.

I can’t wait to see them all come together.

Must get off computer & go sew lol!!!

I hope you’re doing some stitching today too.

Just Keep Sewing…

Susan

My Life, new fabric collection, New Pattern Sample

Today I’m Cutting A Rainbow

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Here’s just a bit of the rainbow that I’ve been cutting this morning.

Meet the new Grunge Seeing Stars by BASICGREY for Moda Fabrics.

In case you’ve not noticed,

it’s a another Tiny Dresden Pattern, duh!

I was smart and put a new blade in my rotary cutter BEFORE I started cutting!

I forget how much use these things get and how they dull over time because,

  1. I get busy
  2. It happens so slowly
  3. I don’t pay attention to my blade unless it starts skipping threads & ticks me off!!!

I’m glad I thought ahead this time,

because my cutting went so much faster because of the new blade.

A new sharp blade also keeps the blade from kind of scooting the fabric.

It slices right through it instead.

So, I cut a whole quilt this morning in about an hour!

Now I’m set to chain piece.

Gotta go get a movie picked out to listen to while I work.

I also just remembered that I need to heat up my new Mighty Steam Iron.

Remember me telling you about it here?

I love that cute little thing!

What are you doing on this (rainy) spring day?

Just Keep Sewing…

Susan

My Life, Quilt Show

It’s Tomorrow! It’s Tomorrow!

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Whenever I think about something happening “today”

I’m ALWAYS reminded of Stuart Little!

This movie is so cute!

Anyway, it’s not today until tomorrow,

but I want to remind you today that

T-O-M-O-R-R-O-W

is Villa Rose’s quilt show.

I will be there with my little Dresden plate quilts,

patterns,

templates,

new book

& all of my

favorite notions.

It’s free to the public & it’s just 9-noon, so don’t delay & don’t forget to come see me

& the intimate quilt show that they’ve put together for you & their residents.

Bring your friends too!

Until tomorrow,

Just Keep Sewing…

Susan