I am doing a Block of the Month, A Graceful Stitch, with Gathering Fabrics of Woodinville. I just finished the ruched flowers. It was fun to prepare. The flowers are a bit heavy but they look wonderful. I started with a 1 1/2" WOF strip. Folded it in half and basted along the bottom. This basting line is important because your fabric will want to fray.


 
I then basted a scalloped line. As you come to the fold of the fabric your thread loops over the other side and begins the next. It is easiest to baste a couple of scallops and then pull the threads to create the pedals.  Once you have pulled the entire strip into a collective grouping you begin to create the flower.  The flower is created by twisting the pedals in circular rows and sewing at the basting line by hand.

 

 This flower was created with 1 1/2" X 22". The WOF strip is a better way to go with the pattern.

 



I am clinically insane...

So I have been sewing like a crazy person. I am preparing for a quilt retreat and I am setting myself up to do free motion work!! Yea right. I got a little obsessed the other day and decided to recreate my Baby Lock Crescendo machine out of Legos. Can you believe it. I love my machine that much!!!

Here we go again.  I am getting into it now !  I went on retreat in September and started a new quilt.  It is done!  I am excited to say that my husband will now have a quilt.  Created from the heart of all the t-shirts that he has ever collected at his basketball camp.  It is call Hoopaholics and it is a camp that benefits Child Haven.  He has been going for probably 22 years so this is quite a memory quilt for him.
He is not getting this until Christmas so SHHhhhhh.  It is a secret!!  But I am truly excited.  I did GREAT birthday for him this year and I am going to nail Christmas.  He is SO hard to buy for and I think he will truly like this one!

Also I finished Almost Alice's quilt.  It has been 2 years and so really...  It was about time.  I hope she likes it.  Mark bought the Block of the month for me on my 50th birthday.  And now I will give it to her for her 50th birthday.  Looking forward to it!

This Friday I will be going to an sew day and get a chance to work on the charity quilts.  I can really put that new Baby Lock to work!  Cannot wait!!

Let's get on it!

OK this hurricane Sandy has such a far reaching impact.  I bought a new sewing machine and I am going to put it to work.  i am going to bang out beautiful scrappy quilts.  I am going to make the stash disappear. 

That storm was so far reaching that it will take all of us to roll up our sleeves and do what we can.  I can create blankets for families.  I am on it and hopefully will figure out how to get them to there destination.  Anyone who wants to join me in this... let's go. 

It is a Mad Dash Now

Ikes... I just realized that I have 2 1/2 weeks to prep for the retreat.  I have four blissful days to sew and create.  If any of you have ever been on a retreat you know that it goes much more smoothly if you are organized.  So today I layed out the pieces of the T-shirt quilt I was prepping.  Only to find out that I had only prepped 1/3rd of it.  Where are the cutting organizing fairies when you need them.  Now I have to figure out the sashing that I want for this quilt. 

Then I thought of the Christmas pattern and how I never did figure out the border.  Yikes, all my off whites are too creamy or too stark.  What am i going to do... 

I promised my self that i would not buy fabric this year.  I was going to stash bust it all.  That lasted until yesterday.  $140 at the Red Barn in Puyallup.  What fun ladies!! So alas I made it until August 27th.  That is 239 days!  I am feeling proud.  Wait I think I also remember a little white on white to create the Christmas embroidery.  Oh MAN...  Busted...

I have a almost new love.  It is Pinterest.  I say almost because I have only played with it for a minute and can see the potential of never logging off...  But I will be using it to pin things I do not wish to forget!

Ta ta for now

There have been so many wonderful thing going on in my world.  Our family went to Las Vegas for a basketball tournament.  Luke was playing and Eli and I were getting pumped up for an adventure.  We went to Zion and Bracy Canyon.   We rented a sporty convertible and hit the road.  We saw a field of ostrich, a tree covered in ladies bras, a tree of boot...  The surprises were endless!  The Canyons were spectacular and the company was hilarious.

Of course I stitched along the way

this is a design of Pins and Needles which can only be located at Carriage Country Quilts in DesMoines, WA. I love it and will complete it at the Quilt Retreat in September.  Oh I have SO many unfinished things to take to that retreat.  Holy moly I will be busy. 

I have been working diligently on my shabby fabrics blocks. 

I am still finishing up blocks 7 and 8 but am really having fun with the design.

Then there is the fall.  I always work on fall projects.  The pumpkin design makes me smile.  I have made this about six times but keep giving it away.  So I think I will make a pillow and keep it!

This fabric is very heavy so I used Transfer Eze to place down the design.  You can see it on the Giving Thanks piece.  I have not yet soaked it off.  I have a couple words of advice.  Do not use dyed floss, it will run.  If you do then a q-tip and a tiny amount of bleach could help.  The tide stick did not help at all.  Also when you put the Transfer Eze in your printer select the fast draft setting.  It will used less ink and therefore you do not risk the printer ink blending with your lighter flosses.  Just saying. 

AND once last year I totally completed the pumpkin design. I tried to put in water with a little vinegar to desolve the transer Eze and preserve the dyes.  TOTAL DISASTER.  The Transfer Eze to white as Elmer's glue and would stuck to the fabric as well.  I had to scrap the 10 hour project.  So word to the wise, only disolve in water.

Now I have to start designing a t-shirt quilt for my husband.  It has been churning around in my head for months.  It is time to make it real.  Really real...





Working on a few things.  I have been downloading the BOM from Shabby Fabrics.  It is a mystery quilt.  The fun part is Kathy and Colleen (2 of my sisters) are creating the quilt as well.  I am so exceted to see how differently they all turn out.

EXCITING news.  At my Stray Threads quilt guild meeting last week I won a raffle.  We were all givien a piece of focus fabric and told to go home and create a 12" square.  You receive a raffle ticket for each 12" square you have created.  They raffle 9 blocks off at a time.  So I WON.  And so did Bette Kelly the love.  She gave me her blocks when she heard I was going to make a Camp Korey donation quilt with my winnings.  Now I have 18 blocks.  It is awesome.

At the guild meeting as well we have a challenge to create something with the theme "flowers".  We had 4-5 months to work on the projects.  The submissions were beautiful.  I have added  the embroidery work that I submitted.  It was fun to do.  The design from faypaints.blogspot.com.  I love her patterns. 

Now... CRAZY ME... joined a Bunco group.  not because I need to roll dice and visit.  But because these woman are really fun and create an memorable evening.  So I have the month of October to host my event.  I am grabbing a needle and thread and getting started.  This group has gift and prizes.  I would tell you my plan... but it is secret.