OK, sometimes taking a breather works! Here’s proof:
I like it. What do you think?
Until next time,
Susan
Category: New ideas
No, I’m not in Hawaii…
This is my hummingbird feeder! Each year for mother’s day David buys me a new hibiscus to put just outside our glass kitchen door. It gets full sun and is therefore the perfect spot to grow a hibiscus.
The first year we had one it was instantly spotted by area hummingbirds and every year since, we’ve put another one out and it draws them back. If we water it each day it will produce blooms all summer even in the 100+ degree temps.
This morning I was excited to jump into working on my guild patriotic quilt challenge. It’s not due until Monday evening, so I have loads of time! I have the house to myself (a rarity during the summer) and thought I’d start here and then move on to my scheduled quilt in progress.
Our challenge is to use 24, 5″ cream squares, 24, 5″ blue squares and 20, 2-1/2″ x 21″ red strips. I organized a swap with our guild, but didn’t actually participate myself. I didn’t need one more thing on my plate the day before leaving for spring market. Now I’m gathering fabrics to use and I’ve spent a lot of time on my computer drafting ideas…
When I started this morning I had the flower blocks appliqued and started the sewing & unsewing and sewing & unsewing assembly process!
It looks great in my head! If I could just get it to work out in fabric…
Anyone ever read the book about the Wright Brothers? I read and reread that book (at least the first three chapters) to my mom while I was in grade school. Our school library had it and for some reason I was intrigued by it and I remember reading it to my mom out loud. Anyway, Orville and Wilbur’s mom was a dress-maker. She made her own patterns. I see now where the brothers got their inventive minds. Her motto was “if you get it right on paper, it’ll be right when you make it.” That has stuck with me to this day, weird huh? I wish I could find that book! I’d like to read the WHOLE thing now that I’m a bit bigger and have a little bit bigger attention span as well. I’ve got it on paper, but it’s a bit more involved than that when working with triangles…
But I digress, I had to walk away from it this morning. It was getting the better of me. So, to choose another project I just had to look through my kitchen door’s window and there it stood:
My poor hibiscus in its damaged pot. Fortunately it’s the only storm damage that we’ve had from all of these incessant spring-turned-summer storms. One afternoon we went from cloudy with a chance of rain to 70 mph. winds instantly and it took my hibiscus, all 50 lbs. of it and threw it across our deck! Well, the poor pot couldn’t handle it. David bought it a new one a few weeks ago.
This beauty is HUGE and weighs a TON empty! I know it’s going to have to be emptied each fall so it won’t break during the winter. It’s going to take three men and a boy to do that not just me. David said he’d had his eye on the pot at Home Depot for a couple of years and couldn’t justify spending an arm & a leg the money. When I asked him to find a new pot he decided this was his opportunity. He loves this pot!
Well, in my quilting anguish this morning I decided I needed some physical activity to clear my head. I repotted my sad hibiscus tree and how it’s beautiful once again, probably prettier than it’s ever been although it had at least a dozen blooms on it July 4th even in its broken pot!
Now I see I need to get the Goo Gone out and remove that unsightly sticker AND THEN get back to my patriotic quilt challenge!!!
Got any quilting challenges right now? Perhaps you belong to Heartland Quilt Guild too and you’re in the same boat as me? I’m not saying this is going to help my quilting when I get back to it, but at least something else has occupied my thoughts for the past hour!
Until next time,
Susan
Hot Tip Hiatus…
I know it’s been a while since I posted a tip for Hot Tip Tuesday and today is no different! Sorry? No, not really. I’ve been consumed with “other stuff” these past weeks and now that my post-market business is FINALLY caught up, my son’s graduation and party have passed and I have no immediate obligations to tend to except the usual day-to-day family & business stuff, well, I decided to start a new project!
Over the weekend I had a bit of time before needing to go to a graduation party.
I started cutting…
I cut 4 strips and layered them up.
With my new template you can cut 8 petals lickity split!
Cut just 3 stacks & you’ll have enough petals for 2 plates (24).
After cutting, I started to sew…
Just sew, trim, turn, press, sew a bit more…
and before you know it you’ve got some pretty Dresden plates!
***Warning***
This can be addicting!
At this point they remind me of lovely flowers. I don’t know where this is going, so I’ll just keep sewing…
Until next time,
Susan
New Pattern, Santa’s Gift Bags #177
I’m a bit stuck on Christmas and you’re about to see in the upcoming days just how stuck I am. I don’t know why, but I love the colors red & green together. I could put combinations of the colors together all-day-long!
So, show me some Christmas fabrics and I can go overboard for sure. This next pattern, “Santa’s Gift Bags” was created with my wanting projects of every size for this quilt market.
Voila, small:
The pattern consists of bags in two sizes; large for wine bottles & small for other treats. They’re fun and easy, so easy in fact that you won’t hesitate to make one for each of your best friends at Christmas time!
Check back tomorrow for more show & tell of my new patterns.
Until next time,
Susan
New Pattern, Santa’s Pockets #178
Besides my “In Season” series that I’ve been showing you as they’re completed, I have nine new patterns that premiered at Salt Lake City’s Spring International Quilt Market 2011. I love them all, but my favorite is this gem:
As you can see it’s called “Santa’s Pockets” and it’s an advent calendar/Christmas countdown. You can purchase yours here. When my kids and nieces & nephew (9 total) were small I made them each an advent calendar with 24 pockets. I started with a pattern that I purchased and added my own pockets to accommodate a Hershey’s Kiss. The day after Thanksgiving those advent calendars still come out and during my black Friday shopping I buy the bags of Christmas Hershey’s Kisses. Since they were quite small when I made them, that was quite a special treat to eat chocolate BEFORE breakfast each morning. It was a treat for me too as a stay-at-home-mom because it occupied their attention several times throughout the day for almost a month! Waiting for Christmas as a youngster is a hard thing to do without driving mom crazy! Even though they are all three teenagers now, they still fill the pockets & eat the Kisses each morning.
With that said, I’ve been wanting to create “The” Christmas countdown/advent calendar complete with numbers so we could keep track of how many days are left until Christmas. I think I did it. What do you think???
I had a real lightbulb moment last winter when I finally figured out how I was going to make the numbers on the pockets. I discovered I could trace the numbers that I created in just the right scale for the pockets that would accommodate gift cards, Hershey’s Kisses or notes. After tracing, I stitched them on my old Bernina sewing machine with Sulky 12 wt. thread. That’s right and you can too. No embroidery machine required. Another day I will show you just how I did that.
I’m thinking when our local shops get their “Countdown to Christmas” yardage I’m going to have to buy enough to make each of my kids one, this one’s mine!!!
Until next time,
Susan
No rest for the weary
It seems no sooner do I get home from one market and deadlines for the next market are waiting for me in my “in” box! No kidding, I’ve already got my flight booked for Houston the end of October. I’ve booked a hotel to share with pattern designer buddies and I’ve already received a shipment of love from Moda!
Meet Amelia:
Dots, bright pastels and just the right amount of black (my personal favorite) thrown in. I had ideas in my head on our flight home from Salt Lake City, so the first chance I got I went to their website to drool over fabric collections due out this fall for spring designs. It’s a fast paced cycle getting current fabrics to make samples with so shops will hopefully have the fabrics in stock to sell with the patterns. It’s fun to dream with new fabrics that the folks at Moda are generous enough to supply to pesky designers like myself! It’s a win win situation I guess. I can’t tell you how many shop owners came to my booth and fell in love with the fabric collection many of my booth samples were made with, Sweetwater’s “Countdown to Christmas.” Remember my post here? The pre-cuts were just arriving in shops the week of market I heard over and over that weekend, but no shops had the bolts of yardage yet. I’d bet if you tried your local shops that they are receiving them by now.
Now that I have a bit of dreaming time on my hands (before I need to get back to graduation party prep for this weekend) I’m drooling over these pretties!
I know, you want to know when you’ll see the new stuff from this market, right? Tomorrow! I will start those tomorrow, I promise!
Until then I’m going to go back to drooling and dreaming over Amelia!
Until next time,
Susan
Welcome to Quiltmaker’s 100 Blocks vol 3 Blog Hop!
The folks at Quiltmaker have done it again with another great issue filled with beautiful blocks that will inspire! I’m honored to be part of this issue that will be on magazine stands May 10th.
My block, #208 is found on page 29.
I submitted this block for the spring issue because it’s the perfect time for all of you to get started on a patriotic quilt that can be finished in time to hang for your 4th of July celebrations.
I also made the block into a quilt that is featured in this issue’s gallery found on page 82.
So with just one 12″ block you can make this adorable quilt!
Along with the block, you will need:
-
2, 20″ squares of another print, cut in half diagonally for setting triangles
-
4, 3-1/2″ Strips of Blue Print for Border
-
2 Yds. Rickrack
-
12 more stars from template found on page 29
-
Plus Blue Binding Strips
Please subscribe to my blog to follow me as I “quilt my way through life.” Each Tuesday I share with my readers a hot tip. You can submit your own hot tips to me here and if I use your tip, you will receive a free Suzn Quilts’ pattern!
I’ve been working to finish up new designs that I will be introducing at International Quilt Market in Salt Lake City, Utah next week. If you’re there come by and say “hello.”
Join me here too as I show my new designs in the next few days. All of my designs are available at quilt shops as well as on my website.
Thanks for stopping by! I hope you’ve also checked out the other designers on the blog hop.
For a chance to win a free copy of 100 Blocks volume 3, just go back to the top of this post and write me a comment!
Subscribe to my blog and be entered to win a second drawing for a free pattern of your choice! If you’re already a subscriber, let me know in your comment and you’ll be entered too.
Until next time,
Susan
Moda, another word for love!
I’m not much of an on-line or over-the -phone shopper. I like to go, see, feel and then make my decisions. So, hardly ever does the UPS guy show up with something for me. No, it’s usually something from a hunting or fishing catalog that I retrieve when Brown shows up, but today the package looked like this:
That Moda tape was a dead giveaway that today the package was for me! Not only that, it was going to be good! Last week I requested not-yet-released Christmas fabrics for some new ideas that I’m working on for Spring Quilt Market in Salt Lake City, Utah. Moda and other fabric companies generously send us pattern designers fabric to make samples to show off their new collections. This way, when shops are walking the show, they can see new ways to use the fabrics and hopefully buy more fabric and my patterns too. Thanks Moda!!!
Sweetwater had the perfect collection for a new quilt design that I dreamed up.
“Countdown to Christmas” is due out May, 2011. You can see the whole collection here.
It looks even better in person than it did on-line, and it feels great. That’s one of the reasons that I like to buy in person instead of on-line. I know, sometimes it can’t be helped, just sayin’…
Now I need to stop drooling and get back to what I was doing before I was interrupted by that knock on my door! May will be here before I’m even ready.
I’ll keep you posted to this newest design as I get to working on it.
Until next time,
Susan
Those Glorious Reds
Remember I had a plan, sort of, for those Glorious Reds a few days ago? Well, not that the plan was all that much of a plan, but rather an idea that needed a lot more direction. To find that direction I’ve had a lot of fun playing with my Corel program that has turned into this:
Do you know how much fun it is finally having a plan so I can cut all of this? Lots! But let’s not forget how much work, mostly mental, it took me to get here. In case you don’t know, we got a much-needed new computer. That alone has been the cause of anguish that I don’t care to repeat for another seven years, that’s how old our other computer is. The keyboard alone is the culprit of several new gray hairs itself. I can’t seem to type keyboard anymore. The keys are more spread out and smooth and I haven’t quite gotten the hang of it yet. Even now, I’m retyping almost every word, striking the keys with a vengeance. Something with this new keyboard makes it almost impossible for me to make a capital letter. Perhaps I need to strengthen my pinkies? My oldest daughter suggested I go back to the old keyboard. What? I will not surrender to this thing that I’ve been yearning for. I’m going to tackle this thing and win!
Well, that’s what I thought until I wanted to play with Corel a few days ago. I installed my old program a while ago and drew a line to make sure it was installed correctly and then moved on. Well, when I went to work on it this time, after 30 seconds or so, my computer opens a window telling me the program is shutting down. What? After re-opening the program several times with the same results, I went to Corel’s website and downloaded three different patches/upgrades and tried again, guess what? Same results. With a bit more research I learned only their latest version, CorelDraw X5, is compatible with the new Windows 7, of course! I would expect no less. So, now what? It’s not like it would have stopped us from getting a new computer, but it’s a bit annoying. The new program is only $700! I can buy one on eBay though for $69.99, really? I wonder what that really is?
So, guess what? I’ve been back to working on the old computer, wow that monitor is miniscule! But guess what else, the keyboard is awesome!
Until next time,
Susan
Quilting my way through life! 