~~My Embroidery Blocks~~

I am back today to show you what I did with my embroidered blocks from the Sew Sweet Simplicity BOM sew along.  Remember that I colored a set of the inside part of the blocks?  

It is really easy to do the coloring if you have never tried it. :-)  I traced my pattern onto my background,  using a mechanical pencil because I knew I would be pressing this and didn't want to use any of the disappearing-type pens on the market.  Some of them turn brown when pressed and I sure didn't need that! :-o

Then I colored all the parts with a white crayon (I only use Crayola crayons because they seem less waxy to me).  The white helps the colors to set and not get streaky.  (I learned this little tip from an exhibitor at an expo a few years ago.)  After all the parts were colored in with the white~ with a rather heavy hand. Then I used the colors I wanted in each section.  The white really helped the color to blend in.

Next you want to press your piece with a white paper towel or scrap of muslin over your fabric. Do not use steam.  This sets the colors and you will notice some comes off on your scraps of muslin or paper towel.  That is expected. ;-)  After I pressed until the color no longer came off (moving to a clean part of the towel with each pressing, so you don't transfer any color back), I pressed a light weight interfacing to the back of my squares.  I like to use interfacing, especially with white fabric so no threads show through to the front. ;-)

Then, you just go crazy with your embroidery! Have fun and try new stitches!

I decided to make doll quilts with these squares.  Three squares in each~

This one has two 16-patch blocks joined by a strip~ 

I just had to add in a caterpillar with those flowers!!  :-)

For the second one I kept to my 'trying new stitches' theme and tried all those sewing machine stitches we have on our machines and rarely use. :-)

I used my vintage sheet scraps to make the zig-zag part and then just quilted it with those fancy stitches on my machine.  It is a little bigger than the other one and now I'm trying to decide if it should still be a doll quilt, or should I turn it into a pillow to go with the quilt?  What would you do?

Before you go, don't forget about the giveaways!

You can find mine here~

Blog Hop Giveaway

And our BOM designer, Jacquelynne Steves has a big giveaway here~

Sew Sweet Simplicity Giveaway

And if you have been sewing along with us, but are a bit behind, you might want to get back to finishing your top, or whatever you decide to make as Jacquelynne has a really fantastic giveaway for finishers!

Read all about it here~

Finishing &  Great Big Giveaway
Good luck!! :-)

Sew Sweet Simplicity BOM & Giveaway

Boy has this month ever flown!!  I know if you are stuck in the snow in the eastern US, you probably don't agree with me, but here in the west, time is flying! ;-)

We are coming to the end of the BOM and this time all the blogs involved in the hop will show you their finished tops.  Jacquelynne has a few finishes too!  Before I show you mine, LOL I want to give a shout out to the other bloggers.  Be sure to visit them (not only will you see their lovely BOM tops, but you will get another chance in the giveaway!  Oh, did I forget to mention there is a giveaway? Well, actually there are two! but more about that later....

Here are the hoppers~

Barb @ Garden Path Quilts

Barb @ Mountain Quiltworks

Deanna @ Wedding Dress Blue

Barb @ Bejeweled Quilts

Deonn @ Quiltscapes

Teresa @ A Quilt and a Prayer

Sandy @ Upstairs Hobby Room

Snoodles @ Lily Pad Quilting

And me... right here. :-)

Ok, here is my top...

I chose to hand embroider the blocks and I used my collection of vintage sheets to put it together..

This photo really doesn't do it justice. I will have to try taking some when it is less windy and cloudy. 

I used a Garden Maze sashing that I just made up to finish at 3 inches.  I really wasn't thinking about those 'X' cornerstones when I decided the sizes for the sashing strips and when I got to those, I realized I needed to cut in 16th's of an inch to get the points to fit! :-o  I could have printed out paper pieced patterns from EQ, but I didn't, I just eyeballed the 1/16th's line. LOL   Never again!! :-)

This photo shows the true colors better...

Remember that I was also embroidering a set of blocks that I was coloring in with crayons? 

I will show you what I am doing with those on Wednesday. :-)  Please come back!!

Now for the giveaways!  Jacquelynne has this wonderful e-book, and two pdf patterns for one of my lucky commenters~

 I will leave the drawing open until the last day of the month.  Remember the drawing is open to everyone as it is a pdf book/pattern~~ BUT that means I have to have your email address!  If you are a no comment blogger or if you aren't sure, then please leave your email address in the comments.  If you do it like this-- Sandie at yahoo dot com -- it will be fine.  Tell me how you are coming along with the BOM and if you will get your top together in March. ;-)

Now, hop on over to Jacquelynne's @ The Art of Home and see the wonderful giveaway she has for one of you! Here is a peek! :-)

Now wouldn't that be fun?!!

A Little More Fun~~

There is just something about small projects that sparks my energy to work on larger projects!

This little project came together really fast!

It is a free tutorial/pattern called Color Theory from Silly Mama Quilts.

I had a charm pack of Daily Zen from Benartex that I cut up.

My DS needs a little dresser topper and this fits the bill perfectly. :-)

I hope you are having a little fun in your sewing room too!

Until next time~

Happy Stitchin'!

Playing With Planners~

Surprise! I'm back!! :-)

Jennie @ Clover & Violet did a sweet little tutorial on making a planner cover.  I decided I needed to do one too! Or how about two?  I have friend whose b-day is coming up. ;-)

I found my planners at Barnes & Nobles too~ for 75% off!! Happy!!

This is the outside~

*you will see this fabric again soon. ;-)

Inside~~

I made bias binding, but I should have made it a bit thinner.. this is how I rounded 

the corners to avoid tucks. ;-)

This is the start of #2~

the quilting~~ just a fun stitch on my machine. ;-)

 

I am having a lot of fun playing with these!

I hope you are doing a bit of fun sewing too~

Until next time~

Happy Stitchin'!

Good Intentions~

I had the best of intentions when I thought I would blog more this year. :-o  

Good thing I don't make resolutions!! LOL

A LOT has been going on around here and it just seemed that taking photos fell behind, and with no photos, I couldn't do any posts... well, they wouldn't be interesting! :-)

And just where did January go?!!  I had planned to take that month to re-organize my quilting and home.  Well, on the home front, it worked~ I got my DS to move shelves and hang things for me. :-)  But when you are busy doing one thing, the other has to wait and so my quilting has waited patiently.  Now I am back in the 'saddle' and ready to make things! :-)

The beginning of February I went on a little weekend retreat with friends.  It was rather a comedy of errors.  My friend and I, being the youngest retreaters, got the top of the town house (lots of stairs).  It was really nice, it had a small kitchenette, a little sitting area, little bathroom, and a fold out couch for the bed... well there was the problem.  My friend sat on the bottom of the 'bed' to take off her shoes and fell right in!! :-o  We mistakenly thought that maybe it was just the bottom, so we got in and thunk!  We both had the bar across our back and the mattress disappeared. Yikes!  We got out to look over this situation and discovered there were few springs holding the whole thing together.  By now it was late, so we decided to make the best of it and put the couch back together with its cushions and pushed the sitting area chairs and ottoman together to make a 'single' bed.  I got the chairs and she got the couch. In the morning the entire couch had sunk to the floor!! :-o  She was essentially sleeping in a box.. albeit she did say it was a comfortable box. LOL  The next night we had brand new roll-away beds set up. :-)

As for sewing, well the comedy of errors was evident there too~ I was going to work on a couple Bionic Gear Bags. Haha  I had carefully packed everything but the pattern piece I needed for the sides. Argh!! 

Next I pulled out a bag I wanted to make~~ success!!

One warning if you happen to have this pattern- check the pages!

Luckily I had cut everything out and read through this one ahead of time and found that it was missing a page. :-o  I wrote to the designer and she emailed me the missing page.  :-)

I also got a cute Frozen pillowcase made for my DGD, but I forgot to take a photo before mailing it.  Hopefully she gets it in the mail today. :-)

And this little topper is a pattern from the Red Button Company. I changed it from a snowman topper to Valentine's.  I just need to finish up the binding and add some heart buttons-- it will be ready for tomorrow! Nothing like waiting until the last minute. ;-) LOL

As I finish my Gear Bags and a few other things I had along, I'll be back to show you.  It was a really fun weekend, the memories will have us laughing for years to come! 

Have a happy weekend!

Winner! Winner!

The winner of this beautiful prize package from Jacquelynne Steves is......

Delcia!

Congratulations!!

Thank you all for taking the time to stop and comment.  I still ended up with some 'no-reply' commenters who didn't leave their email addresses in the comments.  I felt really bad having to leave your names out of the hat!!  Please, please make sure your email is linked to your comments next time.

Have a happy day everyone!