Adventures of a SAHASQ ~ Stay-At-Home-and Sew-Quilter

I am a SAHASQ  - Stay-At-Home-and-Sew-Quilter.
I live in a Scrapatch.

Yesterday, National Quilting Day here was a stay at home and  sew day,

which is a typical day for me.

It was also a stay at home and search my stash day

to find just the right fabrics for a new quilty project.

After auditioning several different colors and backgrounds ... 

all of which Quilty Kitty Maestro did not approve ... 

I decided it had to be yellow.

Maestro must have agreed because she decided to go watch birdievision 

at the feeders outside the open south facing window.

The Clothworks Sunflowers fabrics,  which is out of print, have been in my stash many years 

and were purchased at my favorite local quilt shop when they went on clearance.

The shop owner actually alerted me they were going into the sale section

because she knew how much I liked the fabric line and had made a quilt with them.

This was my new summer wall quilt in August 2012

There was no yardage of either of the gorgeous  yellows in that fabric line  by that time

so I had to do some serious stash spelunking in the darkest regions 

of my fabric closet to find a yellow that was just the right color
and would play nice with the other fabrics.
I did have a few to choose from as this warm golden yellow is my favorite color.
The yellow fabric is an old line,  Kaufmann Fusions  5573 and is also out of print.

The time has come to sew this stash fabric. 

My quilty muse and kitties are now happy with my choices

and I am sewing.

More photos of my new quilt in progress coming soon.

Happy Stay-At-Home-Quilting

Stay well and safe. 

WIP ... My New Sewing Room!

One wall and one closet done!

At the moment, my biggest WIP is getting *My New Sewing Room* up and organized.  While we are painting and such, I am still sewing in my little corner of the dining room and I am working on some blocks for a swap and some group quilts.  I am really looking forward to having my own sewing space where I will not have to pack everything away for company coming and the long holiday season.

This is the design seed palette I chose for my sewing room ...

I found this on I Heart Linen's Blog through Pinterest

I love this blog!

 I really like these colors and they work well with the wood tones and browns that exist in the room.

Here are the paint colors I picked ...

"Shimmering Blue Pool" on the walls ..."French Buttercup Petal" for accents ... "Classic Rice Paper" for the trim.  The slight off-white is our standard inside trim color throughout our house. These are inexpensive Walmart "Color Place" paints, which we have always found easy to work with,  cover well and are durable.  We are scraping the trim, lightly sanding the wood and panelling and priming all the walls first.

Here are a few more pictures ...

Before

Priming the big built-in closet

first paint coat, closet and walls

I am really liking the aqua blue on the walls!

The bright sunflower quilt is one of my favorites.  I put it up only for this photo op.  It is now safely tucked away in another room and may or may not find a permanent home in my sew sewing room.

This is our short term plan to get me into my own sewing room before the holiday season is upon us.  Since we are doing this on a budget, we are painting just over the "fake knotty pine" paneling that is almost 40 years old. Long range plans are to eventually replace the old drywalling and the dropped ceiling in this room, but that is the long-term plan.

I will not be buying any furniture for this room yet, either. Instead I will be making use of the existing closets and shelving, some plastic storage drawer units, tables that we already have and one storage type piece of furniture which my daughter left behind for now as there was no room in her apartment.  It will soon be home to lots of fabric and sewing stuff.

I have a  few "must haves" on my short term list.  A design wall of some sort is up near the top of the list. I have a few ideas of how I want to make this. 

Time to get some work done.

Have a happy quilty day!

:-)

When Life Gives You Scraps

My Sunflower Table Topper is finally done!

This top was Made From Scraps from my Sunflower wall quilt.

The piecing method called for sewing corner squares on the Kansas Dugout blocks and cutting off the extra triangles.  These were very large triangles so I sewed an extra seam as I went and cut off the HSTs and used them to make this smaller quilt which is my own layout.

I put the last of the binding stitches on the table runner yesterday.  With the birthdays and such, it was a busy weekend.  Yesterday was My Girl's Birthday and she spent part of her day with me and brought her puppy.  So I had a great day but did not get much sewing done.

On Sunday Charlie and I made our first trip to our favorite orchard to pick early apples, late blueberries and get our first gallons of apple cider for the season. We like Carlson Orchards on their beautiful hilltop in Harvard for our fall harvesting.  They also make yummy apple crisp and have now added apple cider donuts to their shop sampling.  We think the Carlson Orchards Premium Blend Cider that they sell in their shop is the best we have ever tasted.  Sometimes you can find their cider in stores in the area, but the stuff they sell in their own store is the best.

Since we had big bags of beautiful Cortlands, MacIntosh and Royal Gala apples, of course, i had to bake pie.  On late Sunday night, my hubby and our oldest son, Jon, could not sleep until I cut into that first pie of the season.  This one is ...

Dutch Apple Pie

... with a crumb topping.

I enjoyed the fruits of my labors today for a late morning snack ...

mmmmmmm!

Now there is only one piece left.  My hubby just called during his lunch break and asked me when there will be blueberry muffins.  That is on the menu for dessert tonight.  We did pick enough of those small native blues for a pie, too.  I am planning that one for the end of the week when our Matty will be home to enjoy it, too.  Matty and I share a love of berry pies.  Matt likes apple, berry and other fruit pies best.  Marissa likes pumpkin best.  Charlies and Jon like apple and pumpkin pies best.

I like pie ... all pies ... yum!

I am working on my choice of blocks for the Block Exchange at The Quilt and Needle.  I picked The Old Red and Blue block at Quilter's Cache.  There are still openings and time to sign up and join in this quilty fun, so come and swap with us!

Pictures of my blocks ... and blueberry muffins ...  coming soon!

Have a Happy Quilty Day

... live, love, give thanks ... and remember ...

 9/11

Yellow Roses and Sunflowers, Cupcakes and Pie

My yellow roses are blooming! 

My hubby gave me this rose bush last winter and it survived indoors in a pot until I could put it outside and replant it in a larger pot.  It has been blooming again.  I love yellow roses. We used to have roses in our garden but lost most of them to a few harsh winters and other problems. We have been doing work in the yard this summer to put a new garden in close to the house in a sunny spot where I hope they will be better sheltered and will not have to be moved.  I am thinking to try to bring this one back in, though, and try to winter it on my front porch.

I have been quilting the

Sunflower Table Quilt

that I made from scraps from my wall quilt.  I did an easy stitch in the ditch for this one and it went very fast.

Binding Tip

When I make the binding strip, I like to roll it around and empty thread spool and place it on one of my thread holders so it does not twist and flows easily into my feed dogs.

Today I am hand sewing the binding to the back and baking the first pumpkin pies of the season even though it is quite warm and summery here today.  My Girl's birthday is coming and she has requested pumpkin pie rather than cake since she was a 'tween.  I used to have to bake a cake, too, for her friends who did not share her enthusiasm for pumpkin custard. 

mmmmmm ... cupcakes !

We have many cupcakes left from my birthday yesterday for anyone who does not want pie today. 

Personally, I love pumpkin pie.

Guess My Girl may take after me a little ;)

Have a happy quilty day ... and pie! :-)

My New Summer Wall Quilt

My sunflower wall quilt is done!!!

I am calling this quilt "Good-day Sunlight"

"Good-day sunlight
I'd like to say how truly bright you are ..."

While I was quilting it, the song "Who Needs Shelter" " by Jason Mraz kept popping up while my playlist was set on shuffle.  Quilts give me shelter. "Nuff said.

When I figured out that the reason I was having trouble choosing a binding because the quilt top was not quite finished, it all fell in place.

Sew ... I added an extra narrow outer border in yellow ...

Then it was easy to see that the binding for my quilt should be brown ...

Because I went to the edge of the quilt, I had to "stuff" a little extra batting to fill my binding.   As usual, I had a lot of help.

This time my daughter's kitten got into the act when she dropped Pepper off for a "playday" with Katniss. 

Katniss took it upon herself to show Pepper all she needs to know to be a quilty cat. 

And Pepper took right to it ...

I added a label!  This may not seem like much of a quilty accomplishment, but I have only added labels to quilts when "I had to" because someone else asked me to do so.  I finally figured out my "Signature Label" 

I just made a bunch of signature blocks for a swap on the Q&N and a light bulb lit up in a dark quilty corner of my mind. 
Make a simple siggy block for each quilt with fabrics from the top. 
Add pieces of the selvages to identify the fabric ...

Name it ... sign it ... sew it!

I will be "signing" all my quilts this way now.

Easy peasy :)

Opinions Anyone ?

I have finally finished the quilting on the Sunflower Wall Quilt.   It has been a long haul ... broken by frequent breaks for my back ... and constant quilty kitty "help" by Ms Katniss.

Way to take over, cat ...

I have trimmed ... with a lot of helping and inspecting ...

... and am ready to bind!

Problem ...

Yellow ???????

or ...

Teal ????????

The original pattern called for teal and I cut these strips when I cut the quilt.   Now I am not sure it is right for "my" quilt.   I have seen one of these quilts with the teal binding and it was okay.  It does intensify the colors but I am not sure it frames well.  I auditioned brown, too, and my hubby said "brown" but he did comment that it made the quilt look smaller.  So I pulled that out of consideration.  The brown was a good frame.  Hmmmm ???  I am a yellow person so I am leaning toward the yellow.  It does seem to frame it nicely without dulling the colors and it echoes the inner border. Hmmmmm ???

Opinions anyone ??????????

I have to put this aside while I decide and make the rest of my signature blocks and get them in the mail.

Pepper is coming for a "play day"  so maybe Katniss will be otherwise occupied and I will get my blocks done. 

Happy Sewing!

<3<3<3

Kitten-Sitting and Quilting

Katniss has her own Quilty Corner now.  This old quilt is her preferred place to sleep and watch the world.

Katniss has a lot ot watch this weekend.  My daughter's 2 month old kitten, Pepper, has come to stay with us while she goes camping.  Pepper is adorable.  Her face is so sweet; her fur is thick and soft; her purr is very loud.  She is very playful.  Our two older cats are looking at her like they do not know what to do or where to hide.  I think by the end of the weekend, Pepper and Katniss, who is also very playful, will be fast friends.  Butterfly, since she is a senior cat now, just wants a quiet place to herself. 

I have the quilting in the center of the Sunflower Quilt done!   I am now almost done with the border on one side.  I ended up putting straight line stitching in the striped tone-on-tone triangles and free form petals in the sunflower triangles.  Difficult to photograph, but here is a close-up:

 I am outling some of the big sunflower motifs in the border.  I hope to have this quilted and bound by the end of the weekend ... kitten permitting. ;)

Have a happy quilty weekend!

<3<3<3

Quilting Sunflowers

I have been quilting the bright summer wallhanging I pieced with the Clothworks Sunfower Kit two summers ago.  With my constant eye problems, it is very slow going.  I am enjoying my slow and steady progress.  These are still some of my favorite fabrics.  I love the colors and design and am trying to use the sunflower motifs and straight line effects in my quilting.

When I take a break from quilting, I have also been sorting through my quilty abundance of fabrics and patterns and books and magazines.  When did all this stuff get here?  I think it has been growing with sponantious quilty combustion of its own in my closets and drawers.  LOL.  ;)

I have enough quilty goodness to keep me busy for many years to come.  Sometime soon I will be setting up my very own sewing room now that the nest is almost empty.  I am spending my computer time looking at sewing rooms and studios and have as many thoughts in my head as I have fat quarters ... which is too say many too many. I am loving the fabric fondling and dreaming of my quilty paradise.

I have also started reading the Cobble Court Quilts series by Marie Bostwick and am enjoying the stories and characters.  I am about halfway through the first book,  A Single Thread. Again, this is slow going because sometimes my eyes just cannot quite focus.

This weekend my guy and I are escaping to the north country to enjoy the beautiful Green Mountains, Lake Champlain and attend the Vermont Quilt Festival and stopping a few quilt shops along the way.  So some more quilty goodies may  somehow follow me home. ;)

Be back soon !

Until then, be safe and happy and healthy and
take time to enjoy the fabric of life.

<3<3<3

Bright Sunflower Quilt Top

Here is my Sunflower Wall Quilt Top ... um ... (almost) done !

I am making plans for the sandwiching and quilting part. I will post a picture again when it is finished. This may be a week or two as I have to catch up with some baby and charity blocks and projects and I am hoping all the 30's swap fabric will be here soon so I can swap them. The swapping will take over all my dining/sewing room space.

There was just barely enough fabric in the kit as called for on the printed pattern to complete this top. This is one of the reasons I seldom buy kits. I just should have bought more of the focal fabric at the time. The pattern called for four 4.5" WOF strips and two 4.5' x 13" rectangles to make the outer border. I found this was not quite enough. I had to add a narrow piece on the short sides to make them long enough. This may have been because I washed my fabrics (which I always do) before cutting and sewing as the quilt shop owner said someone else had already completed her quilt and did not report the same problem. I was able to talk her out of the last 3/4 of a yard of this fabric which she was saving and I am going to rework the outer border on one of the corners. She decided to order another bolt anyway as she has more of the other fabrics and the kit has been very popular. Now that I have the extra fabric washed, I shall have to take it down and make the outer border better. I see that I have misplaced two of the blocks ... can you tell which ones???? Hmmmmmm???? ... It took me over a day to see this error ... lol ... so I shall go "ribbit ... ribbit"" ;-)

In the end I had 112 Half Square Triangles made from the corners which were cut off while making the blocks. That is more than enough for a good-sized table runner!!

Any suggestions as to how to make it better???

I have been playing with these HSTs all morning and this is what I have at the moment for a layout for the runner. I have enough of the yellow or brown TOT stripe for a narrow border and I can make an outer border of the focal fabric with the extra piece I bought. I plan to sew this later today and then clean up my (very messy) sewing space.

I am still thinking of making a bed-sized quilt with some of these fabrics. I just love them!!! ... :-) Pat