…until the blog hop.
You’ll want to join in the fun, trust me.
Each participating designer will be giving away one issue of the 100 Blocks vol. 4.
More freebies will be available from Quiltmaker including the original, signed blocks from the issue!!!
Just go to Quiltmaker’s 100 Blocks to join in the fun!
My day is Tuesday.
Don’t forget to come back here then to see the project that I created with my Olde St. Nick block and its instructions.
Until next time,
Susan
I’m so excited to have my patterns ready to go to market! I’m also excited to be able to debut them here on my blog for all you quilters to finally see what I’ve been working so hard on.
So, for the next eight days I will be showing you one a day. I also have two patterns that I’ve updated samples and instructions for that will be following my new patterns.
Without further ado…
In Season for Birthdays
A quick little project that would be great to make for a friend or family member for their birthday, don’t you think?
I now have a dozen patterns in my “In Season” series. I love these fabrics, so Susan. For those of you that don’t know me personally, THESE are “my” colors. Muddy, muted and of course green, black with a bit of pink or red…
The quilts are all 18″ x 22″ with a bit of fusible applique and a bit of hand stitching with no. 8 perle cotton. I like to use Sulky’s 12 wt. cotton thread for my applique stitching. It’s thickness really makes my applique POP! I always use the buttonhole stitch for these.
Look for this and all of my patterns at your local quilt shop, but if you can’t find them there, check out my website.
Until next time,
Susan
I finally have evidence of sewing life here!
Remember my excitement over receiving the beautiful new Amelia fabrics designed by Me & My Sister for Moda?
I have been sewing with them. This is actually the third lap quilt that I’ve made with them, but since the other two are pattern “wanna-bes” (soon to be patterns, but not yet) I will show you this one. It’s already a pattern, remember and it’s available at your local quilt shop or my website.
A(nother) Pretty Package #179
…and it’s not only already a pattern designed and released by me earlier this year, but it has been my best-selling pattern since I introduced it in Salt Lake city in May.
It’s one of my quilt-as-you-go lap quilts that are oh so easy, fast and fun to make. I made this whole quilt yesterday including the cutting, sewing, applique and binding!!! Remember my tutorial here?
Please excuse the lack of beautiful photography. I will have my photographer photograph it soon, but I couldn’t wait to show it to you today!
Besides the new package, and other new Amelia fabric quilts I’ve also made two new “In Season” quilts, one with a birthday theme and the second with a Halloween theme. You’re just going to have to take my word for those two though, I’m not showing them just yet.
Now back to work for me!
Until next time,
Susan
It’s always when because I’m in a hurry that I slow myself down by doing something dumb like running over a pin with my rotary cutter…
I relate it to having to fix a flat tire. Ok not as big a job to replace a rotary cutter’s blade, but it’s still annoying, especially when the whole incident could have been avoided by taking out All of the straight pins before squaring up my table runner. I probably needed to change the blade pretty soon anyway, but I hate it when I do dumb things!
As I cut my binding strips to add to my table runner, it was nice to have my cutter glide smoothly through the double layers of fabric, yes it was due…
What happened next is what made me smile!
I designed 45 degree points at the end of this table runner and decided to guestimate the quantity of binding length that was necessary(I’m in a hurry, remember), and so I judged 3 strips would be ample. Even as I quickly ran the pressed binding around the runner to make sure no seams would land at a corner, I deciphered I had plenty of binding. (I did it quickly so I could get it put on the runner before I ran out!!!) As I rounded the last corner, coming down the home stretch, I started to panic realising I may have cut too little binding and would now need to stop, cut another strip and sew it onto my strip that is already affixed to the runner…
Long story short, and remember this post’s title; …from frustrated to fantastic. Take a look:
Imagine my surprise and merriment as I realized not only was I going to not be short of binding, I didn’t even have to reach for my scissors to trim the binding to the right length. Fate had done it for me!
I’d calculate this as a once in a lifetime occurence. I’ve come close in binding before, but never this close. In my excitement I had to fetch my camera to document it!
Well, you know the next step now. Fetch my binding clips, needle & thread and finish this cute little table runner. I’ll show you the completed project at a later date, it’s a secret for now. You can see from this snippet of a photo though, it has a Christmas theme.
Until next time,
Susan
My mom’s birthday was this week. Since she can buy whatever she needs and wants she seems to enjoy receiving something that I made just for her. For Mother’s Day this year I made her one of my “Mother” lap quilts.
It’s a pattern from my “Best Friends” book.
Speaking of my Best Friends book, guess what I found made up last weekend while on a trip to Branson with my family???
That will be my next post…
Anyway, after some family conferencing, I decided to take Chloe’s suggestion and make my mom some new kitchen towels. I have not made her any in several years and thought they would be a nice gift.
Although it sounds like an easy task, and although I have a nice selection of cotton towels in my basement, the hardest part is trying to decide what to put on the towels. If I make them too detailed mom will not use them. I’ve made her so many towels it’s hard to think of something new…
After thumbing through some old sketches I decided to make these:
It actually took longer to decided what to make than to actually make them! Ever have one of those days???
I used my favorite stitch (buttonhole by machine) with my favorite thread (Sulky’s 12 wt. cotton) in black, ahhh!
My mom loved them and I know she’ll use them too.
Do you have a favorite little gift to make?
Perhaps you can borrow my idea next time you need a little gift.
Happy birthday Mom!
Until next time,
Susan
These days my “work brain” is all about Houston’s Fall Market the end of October. Deciding what to showcase at market is always a hard decision. After the decision is made, things always seem to go a bit smoother.
Fall market is the time of year that shops are purchasing the items that they will supply their shops with in the new year. These items are things to take your mind off of the cold, dreary, wintry days. One of the things that can usually do this is sewing for spring.
Today, after our guild meeting, I was thinking more “Amelia”!
I know I already showed you a sneak peek of my newest creation last week that was also made with “Amelia”, but I decided that I wanted to make some of my “Charm Pack Garland” to hang in my booth too.
It’s one of my “Tiny Treasures” patterns, a fast & fun pattern that makes a cute garland for a Christmas tree, but it also can be made to hang anywhere, anytime.
Last week I noticed Sweet Annie’s, a local shop, had their Amelia pre-cuts already. I decided I’d better get them while I still could. Next month the yardage will be available. I hope to have my samples made by then! This is going to be too cute…
Until next time,
Susan
The beginning of June you might remember me chatting about Celine Perkins of Perkins Dry Goods coming to teach at our guild’s Quilt Away 2011.
While Celine was here we took in a few quilt shops and the Hearts & Hands Quilt Guild’s quilt show. That was a very nice show with lots of vendors! While there we both fell in love with Betty Cummings’ (Village Mercantile in Booneville, IN) Itty Bitty Primitive Pinwheel quilt. She was selling kits so we each bought one to sew the next day. I was lucky enough that Celine stayed a couple extra days and we got to have our own mini retreat. We see each other during International Quilt Market each year, but we’re always so busy we’ve never had a chance just to sew and visit for fun.
I finally got mine quilted this week and finished the binding too.
Isn’t it cute? The pattern and template are by Primitive Gatherings. I added some of my own civil war prints to the kit. It’s fun to do someone else’s patterns once in a while too!
Celine, is yours done yet???
Until next time,
Susan
I have another pattern that uses my new Mini Dresden Plate Template. This one is a Christmas pattern, go figure, huh?
It’s called Bits of Dresden Christmas Stocking:
Do you get the title now? I used bits & pieces of a Dresden plate and appliqued them onto the stocking. This was so fun to create! I had the idea in my head as I was working on other designs for my booth at market and finally, by the time I was ready to work on it, all the pieces came together so to speak. No pun intended, really!
It’s a generous sized stocking, so you can fill it with LOTS of goodies. My kids would tell you there is no reason to make a small Christmas stocking and I would have to agree with them. It is quilted so it is nice and sturdy too. A great usable gift for years to come for sure!
The pattern includes a paper template for the Dresden petals, but as I explained in an earlier post, the Plexiglass template allows you to cut multiple layers quickly and more accurately. You can purchase the pattern & template at your local quilt shop, or if they’re not carrying them yet, you can purchase them here.
One more pattern to go!
Until next time,
Susan
Remember how I said I just can’t get enough red & green, and Christmas too? Along with the Christmas countdown, Santa’s Pockets, that I showed you last week, I’ve also been wanting to make another type of countdown. Since my kids were little we’ve had a little Christmas chalkboard that you change the days with by drawing them in chalk each day. I know there used to be a fabric that you could write on like a chalkboard and maybe it’s still available, but I wasn’t interested in that. I finally thought about buttoning numbers to a small countdown that you could change every day until Christmas comes.
Meet “Counting the days with Santa”:
I know, redundant!
Get over Christmas already!
No more of Sweetwater’s Countdown to Christmas, girl!
But isn’t it adorable??? Another one of my favorites!
I again used my new technique with the numbers using Sulky’s 12 wt. thread that I discussed here last week with “Santa’s Pockets”. The little green “cards” for a lack of better term button off & on to change the number of days ’til Christmas for years to come.
The “Days ’til Christmas” is hand stitched with perle cotton thread. Everything else is fusible web applique. Ahhhhh, I’m in heaven!
The cute little hanger that I used (perfect, huh?) is by Ackfeld Manufacturing. No affiliation, just a happy customer!
Just one more Christmas design to go.
Until next time,
Susan
I’m back with another new pattern that was tied with “A Pretty Package” for my best-selling pattern at market. Meet “Mittens on the Line”.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, quilters want quick & easy patterns and this is it! It starts with a jellyroll plus a bit of yardage and it’s quilt-as-you-go. It’s another quilt made with Sweetwater’s “Countdown to Christmas” by Moda.
What makes this speedy is that a lot of your cutting is done for you with the jellyroll. So, you make the little 9-patches and sew them into strips. You applique the mittens, that by the way can be cut from charm squares, then you sew those strips onto your foundation.
The jumbo rickrack is adorable, and if you’re not into a lap quilt you can get the look with a cute little table runner. What’s not to like?
Look for my new patterns at your local quilt shop or buy them here.
More tomorrow!
Until next time,
Susan
Quilting my way through life! 