Applique Dazzling Dogs Quilt

Since I am side-tracked with my injury I've set aside my Rattlesnake quilt for awhile. I've gone back to working on the applique Dazzling Dogs quilt. I started this some time ago and have all the pieces drawn on fusible web. Now I'm ready to look through my stash to find all the various fabrics that make up the images. That's going to be my goal over the weekend.

Here's a quick peek at the fabrics I chose for the backgrounds of my dog blocks. I wanted to go with something that would coordinate with the living room so I could throw this across the back of the couch. The brights shown on the pattern photos would have been nice, but we don't have much in the way of brights in the house. Here's hoping for more of a cabin/country look to my dog quilt. I've got lots of fabrics that should fit this kind of a relaxed, cabin category. Maybe one day when I am able to get a vintage trailer I can use it there to take it out on campouts. I'm looking forward to getting this one going.

The plan is to decide on all the fabric pieces for all the blocks. Then heat up the iron and fuse them all down in place as the pattern pieces direct. And last will be the stitching on all the blocks. I think doing all the sewing of the blocks together will save time in the long run and keep from having to make so many thread changes.

Here's the best advice I can give to anyone in blogland who is a quilter. Be sure to adhere these safety guards to your rulers. They will go a long way toward helping you stay safe. They will definitely help to avoid the type of accident I just had last week. We had them on the rulers at the sewing/quilting store where I used to work so I can't use the excuse of not knowing about them. I just always thought I wouldn't be so careless as to ever really need them. I assumed because I had gone for years (lots of years!) without them and without any accidents, that it wouldn't happen to me. But the whole definition of accident leaves the possibility that something like this could happen to anyone. Accidents aren't planned, they just happen. Okay, enough of the safety speech. Just wanted to pass on some good precautionary info. Plus, they're easy and quick to apply. Do it once and they're always there keeping you safe from accidents without you even having to think about it. And they make a good handle grip to grab your ruler just a bit faster. Can't beat that!

Ouch! A Quilting Injury

I have a boo-boo! Yesterday I was sewing with a friend, working on my Rattlesnake quilt, when I had a rotary cutter accident. I feel really dumb for having this happen. I know how to use a rotary cutter. In fact I've been using them for years with no problems . . . until yesterday. It took only a split second to happen. I ended up slicing half of my fingernail and the tip of my middle finger off of my right hand. Ouch!! What hurt worse than the actual cut was the huge needle jabbed into my finger when the doctor shot lidocaine in it to numb it. It took five stitches to help close up the wound before it would quit bleeding. The doctor said when the nail grows back it should help hide the scar that will be there.

Needless to say this will keep me from sewing and doing much with my hand for awhile. It's pretty tender even with the pain meds prescribed for me. I don't like to take too much of that because it makes me loopy, nauseous and sleepy. I'm going to be kicking back, taking it easy for the next several days.

Ouch, even typing to my blog is affected.

Making Zines and Quilting

I signed up on a couple on-line sites to make some zines. For those who are unaware of zines, they are self-published (maga)zines or any small self-published book or booklet. Etsy has a whole category for selling and purchasing zines. I've purchased a few from artists that fall in the art zine or craft zine category. Those are the most interesting ones to me.

I joined Alma Stoller's 'I Heart Zines' swap and also a swap on The GleanerZine yahoo site. The zines I'll be swapping are due in July. So that is what I've been working on recently. That as well as some sewing on my Black and White Rattlesnake quilt.

Alma's zine swap theme is an Art focused theme and is supposed to include an art or craft project with instructions as well as anything else we might want to include. The other swap, GleanerZine, is an open theme. I chose 'Dakota' as my theme. This group includes extras like ephemera and bits and pieces of things you might have 'gleaned' from around you. These artists are often collage or mixed-media artists who incorporate the additional things in their art. I'm planning on making up some extra zines to sell on Etsy.

As far as the quilting goes . . . progress continues on the Rattlesnake quilt. I got a few more of the 'football' shaped paper piecing done. A little bit more each time - it adds up. Nearly a third of them are pieced now.

I joined Facebook this week. Thanks Dorothy for the invite. I've spent a bit of time looking around the site to check things out. It will take a bit to get used to it. It's been kind of fun peeking in on what everyone is sharing.

Pops of Color

I've been enjoying this colorful potted Gerber Daisy that's now brightening up our front room. Thanks to a thoughtful friend who brought it to cheer me up during my recovery. Everytime I look at it, it cheers me. These are such fun flowers I just wanted to share it with all my blog peeps. I love the extra pop of color it brings to the living room.

The nice warm weather has really made headway with melting the snow around here. You can see there's just a bit left in the front yard. There's more than this in the back, but at this rate it won't last long. Lot's a wind today means some of the moisture of the wet, soggy ground will dry up also. I'm loving it! Did you notice the decidedly greenish cast to the ground? It's not just all browns and grays - that beautiful green is starting to pop up!

Here's an update on my progress on the 'Squares' quilt. I am starting to sew the blocks together. So far they are attached in pairs. I tried to mix them up as far as colors go as I was sewing the pairs together. Looking at the color distribution, I think I may need to still do a little more shuffling. I love the random pop of colors from pinks, purples, aqua, orange, greens, etc. There's a lot of color here. They are all black center squares to anchor each block and give some sense of unity to all that randomness.

I am pleased with the overall look of this project. It is made from 2 1/2" strips cut from scraps. They are mostly small prints, tone-on-tones or solids with just a few bold pops of color from that large daisy print. There are enough squares here to make it a full size quilt - 64 squares all total. At this point I'm considering a black border around the perimeter with another bright, colorful border just beyond the black. I'll make my final border decisions once I get all the squares together. If you're curious, check out some earlier photos of this quilt's progress here, here, and here.

Word Clouds

I found out about this cool site the other day. It's called Wordle. You can enter in any written information, link to a blog or any other web site, and the program creates a word cloud. It calculates the frequency specific words are used then displays them in varying sizes and orientations to offer you a visual image of the written words. It's kind of cool.

I'm feeling quite a bit closer to normal now. Most of my symptoms of the passing sinus infection have subsided or are minimal. I am working on the energy part of the equation. Can't say that has reached full maximum yet. I'm thankful it is considerably better.

Tomorrow I will be quilting/sewing with a friend. I am looking forward to that. I've been away from any socializing long enough. It'll be fun to get in some sewing time as well.

Square Strip Quilt

Here's a view of what I've been up to the last few days. I went to sew with a friend on Monday. This is the clear see-thru tote I took along with my materials to work on that day. I've been sewing on a strip quilt. It is based upon a quilt I saw in the McCall's QuickQuilts magazine January 2009, page 57, Cozy Cabins quilt. It's a series of squares sewn around a black center square. I've been using up some scraps that I've had sitting around for a long time. There are a variety of bright colorful fabrics as well as some other more muted tones in this quilt. It should make an interesting mix.

When I think about it, the reason I like strip quilts lately is they seem so easy to do with lots of mindless sewing and a time to download and de-stress. It's been fun getting together with a friend and chat while passing the morning sewing. I've enjoyed our times together without having to stress with trying to read a pattern and follow specified cutting directions and other instructions. It's been fun to just sew and see what develops.

This quilt is nearly done. I will be laying all the squares out to arrange them in preparation for sewing them together. I've yet to get a quilt top aligned on my quilting frame. Perhaps this will be the one to have that honor of being the first.

Charming Quilts

This past week I started sewing on a Sweetheart Charm quilt. I purchased 2 packs of 5" squares (a charm pack) of Benartex Sweethearts sampler fabric squares a short time ago. The blue and green companion fabric is from a line called Clara by P&B Textiles. I thought it made a good match with the color combination.

I absolutely love the colors in these fabrics. They seem so refreshing to me with the blues, greens, and browns. Plus the addition of spots of color with pinks, yellows, deep berry reds and other colors makes it seem so lively.

I cut 2 1/2" strips of the companion fabric to create sashing between the sweetheart fabric blocks. I am just starting to combine them together so have a ways to go on creating this quilt.

I want to use my Husqvarna Viking endless embroidery hoop to create some lengths of embroidered fabric for some sections of the quilt. I think I'll be adding some strips of embroidery within the quilt. I'm thinking of having some pieced rows of blocks alternating with the embroidered rows of fabric.

Sewing Day

I spent the day sewing with a friend. It was a good day. I didn't do anything extra special or different, just a regular sewing day. I enjoyed the day. My husband came home and commented that I had a smile on my face when he came home. Knowing I spent my Mondays (day off work) sewing he commented that I must have had a good day of Sewing Therapy.

Yep, It was a good day.

I'm working on another scrappy quilt. It's based loosely on a quilt in McCall's Quick Quilts, the January 2009 issue. It's a quilt called "cozy cabins" using the log cabin pattern - courthouse steps. One change though, my strips are 2 1/2" rather than the 1 1/2" strips shown in the magazine. So my quilt will be a bit larger than what is shown.

I took a photo of my progress. It's scrappy, with a lot of black, gold, orange, purple and green. So far I'm liking this color combination. There is one print focal fabric I'm pulling the colors for my fabric from. I still need to add some other fabric colors. There's lots of room for more color since it's a scrappy quilt. I just love Scrappy Quilts. I'll keep you updated with photos as time goes on.

The previous quilt I was sewing on is awaiting the blocks to be squared up and sewn together. Then it goes on my quilting frame. The frame was cleared off a few weeks ago. I need to get that quilt framed up and start the actual quilting process. That should be interesting . . . afterall, it will be my first try at quilting on my own quilt frame.

Yep, there will be photos taken all along the way. Hopefully I catch on to the quilting process quickly with that first quilt.

More to come on that . . .

Crumb Quilt Scrappiness

I have been working on my crumb quilt lately. Now all the blocks are done and I need to decide the orientation of the blocks in the quilt, the size and number of blocks I want to use, and get them sewn together. I cannot wait to get this on my quilt frame and get in some practice on using my quilting frame.

I caught a candid photo of my friend in a class at the store. We've been having fun sewing at her home when I have some time off. I have really been enjoying these times of sewing, chatting and getting to know each other. It would be fun to develop a group of us who get together weekly for our own sewing/quilting time. The scrappy crumb quilt I've been working on these past few weeks is complete up to the point of sewing all the blocks together to form the quilt top. We laid the blocks out on the floor at her house today to get a feel for the final product. It looks pretty good all laid out like we did. It'll be nice to get it all sewn together and on my quilting frame. I want to use this as an opportunity to practice my stippling, meandering, and maybe a few other kinds of free motion sewing with my Pfaff Grand Quilter and frame.

This week has been cold and windy here on the upper plains. I went to Walmart the other day. Since it's at the edge of town (urban sprawl and all with the way they position their stores) the wind was whipping across the open fields. I was seeing tumbleweeds trapped under half the cars parked in their parking lot. The tumbleweeds have been blowing around quite a bit lately. While I was at my friend's house today we were looking out over her back yard to see quite a few tumble weeds had collected along her fence line. That's just another everyday thing this time of year where we live. I can't help but smile though.

Every time I think about tumble weeds I think of a woman I met once who was traveling through our area. She said she and a friend were crossing through this part of the state (from somewhere on the southeast part of the US) and were just fascinated by the tumble weeds (having heard about them from cowboy folklore of old). The woman she was traveling with was really into making crafts and had a wedding coming up. The theme was a cowboy type wedding and she wanted to collect tumble weeds to use as props for the wedding. She was planning to spray paint them gold and have them be part of the western staging for the theme of the wedding. As they were traveling they stopped along the highway whenever they saw a bunch of tumble weeds and were collecting them in the back seat of their car. They tried to jam as many of them in there as they could without damaging them. She was telling me they had their back seat jam packed with tumble weeds.

I just have to chuckle now every time I see the tumble weeds blowing across the plains. I always picture them spray painted gold as backdrops for scenery! Talk about an active imagination. I can't help it . . . it makes me chuckle. It makes me happy to think of someone finding something good out of tumbleweeds! What is considered here to be a weed and a hinderance is looked upon with delight by others. Go figure!

Sewing Therapy

My recent sewing included making some pin tucks on the front panel of my new pillow pattern. I just love making pin tucks. It's such a quick and fun technique. And it is so easy. Just insert a 2.0mm twin needle and thread with two threads for this needle. Change to a pin tuck foot and use the pin tuck blade to help the tuck form neatly and easily. Then just sew the number of pin tuck rows you desire. So easy!

My latest pillow also includes the use of twin welting as a border for the pin tuck area. This is also an easy technique. The first time I saw the Pfaff twin welting foot being used I knew I wanted to get one. It is another easy foot to use and gives impressive results for home dec projects. The final effect is pretty cool with just sewing two rows of straight stitches. These two sewing feet are my current favorites.

Today I spent some time at work doing a class. Then later when I left I had the opportunity to spend some time sewing away the afternoon with a friend. I really enjoy sewing as an afternoon pastime. Spending this time with a friend makes the afternoon that much better. I'm still working away on my crumb quilts. I'll have the last log of my log cabins stitched on this week. Then I will be able to piece the blocks together. I'm looking forward to getting this scrappy crumb quilt onto my Grand Quilter frame. This will be the first quilt I actually put on the frame to practice and gain some quilting skills..

Sewing with a Friend

I had the opportunity to spend the day sewing with a friend today. It was great! I went to her house around 9:40 and we sewed till 12:45. Went to grab a bite of lunch at a local restaurant (yummy burgers!) then returned to her home for more sewing. I got back home shortly after four pm in time for my husband to get home from work. It was a perfect way to spend my day off from work. Approximately 5 hours of sewing time with lots of chatting and catching up on stuff. It's a perfect way to pass the time. I recommend it heartily. Obviously I had a lot of fun.

I'm currently working on a scrap quilt. It's actually a quilt following an idea I found on-line called a "crumb" quilt. It's a means of using up scraps. I'm getting close to having all my blocks finished and ready to sew the blocks together.

From the number of blocks I've got started it looks like I might have enough to do two or three quilts. My whole reason for doing this type of quilt was to have something to put onto my Grand Quilter frame and do some experimenting with a scrap quilt before I put on a quilt I really care about. These quilts will be my first "practice" ones to get accustomed to my quilting machine.

I just counted how many blocks are in my stack. Wow! 54 blocks. They're going to be at least 12 inches across (if not a bit larger) so I really do have quite a few quilts on hand to practice techniques with! That will be more than four quilts if I use 12 blocks (plus border) for lap-sized quilts. This would make great gift projects for the boys and their girlfriends. Or it could be three quilts if I use 20 blocks for each quilt and add in a couple more to even the count for some larger quilts. Time will tell what I finally decide upon.

I can say they won't be particularly "pretty" quilts because no thought went into fabric selection or anything like that. They'll be strictly utilitarian type quilts, make-do type quilts, using scraps that were readily on hand. But now the "Make do, Re-Use, Recycle" attitude is so "in" so that'll probably be alright. It's actually getting back to the "roots" of original old fashioned quilt making it its infancy before the advent of modern day quilt making that has become so "matchy-matchy" professional and processed. So it's a mish-mash of fabrics with the "make-do", old fashioned prairie homesteader outlook of it all. And I wonder if the kids and their girl-friends will go for it. If not, they can hide these quilts under another coverlet and still keep extra warm and toasty this winter. If they don't like them (or don't want them) I'll keep them here at home for when the boys periodically come to visit. We can always use extra quilts in the car for winter survival gear or for watching TV in the winter. And if they're really too ugly, I can cut them up for dog blankets. I'm sure the dogs won't care. The dogs always seems to get excited when I change out their bedding and put fresh clean blankets in their kennels - like they're being pampered.

Regardless of the beauty of these quilts, the time spent with my friend has been great. Chatting and quilting - what a great way to spend the day! I am looking forward to more days like today. We've been getting together once a week for a few weeks now and I really look forward to our time together. It really makes for some great sewing therapy.

On the Road - to Fargo

I am on the road today for work, visiting the Fargo store. It's a first time visit for me to this store. Lots of nice things to see. The store displays are set up with a nice arrangement to show off various producs. It I wasn't working there today, I probably would have spent some time looking around. How fortunate for me I had the opportunity to do both, today.

The top-of-the-line Pfaff Creative Vision is located on this sewing cabinet. The Creative Vision is such a wonderful machine. I am really pleased to be an owner of this machine. I haven't taken much time to sew this summer, but certainly look forward to getting back to work on my Crumb Quilt. The Fargo store has theirs set up right in the center of their store.

I love the samples at this display of the needle punch felting machine. They are really bright and colorful - really catch the eye. Here's another area I could be working on so as not to get too rusty. These little machines are pretty easy to operate. Gues that's another thing I should get back to working on when I get back home tomorrow.

The yo-yo's around the perimeter of this table topper certainly enhance its look. I have the yo-yo maker at home already, but have yet to use it. I think this will be something that appeals to me for a future project this fall. I noticed whoever made this example formed the yo-yos to be somewhat fluffy rather than flat. I have always made them to be fairly flat. I enjoy the look and feel of these peices. There are lots of things to see in this shop.

Increasing My Daily Fiber

I've been getting a little extra fiber lately - in the form of fabric with a little sewing therapy. I'm using some of the scraps uncovered in my organizing efforts to make a crumb quilt. I saw the idea of a crumb quilt at this site and also here and here. I came across these sites quite by accident one day when following various links from one blog to another.

Crumb quilts are scrap quilts made from the small cotton scrap left overs from other projects. These scraps are all sewn together, as orderly or as haphazardly as they go together. There is a lot of freedom to just sew without having to follow any specific pattern. Once the scraps are sewn together to form a large enough piece it is then squared up, or trimmed, to whatever size square desired to fit your quilt.

I have also been cutting up some of my larger fabric scraps into 2 1/2" strips. I am planning on using them to go around these 6 1/2" crumb quilt blocks. These will be the 'centers' of a variation of a log cabin-ish block. In my head it looks good. I'll find out how it really looks in real life once I get started sewing those strips to these crumb blocks.

Meanwhile, I've still got a bit more to sew to use up the scrappy crumb blocks I've got going here. I'll keep you posted on my progress. This is a relaxing kind of quilt to make because it's a kind of mindless sewing I can do while watching TV without having to stick to a pattern. You just cannot mess this one up.

The Sewing Studio

I'm not quite as frazzled as this doll looks although I still have lots of work ahead of me to get truly organized. Work on organizing my Sewing Studio is progressing slowly. I seem to be working so slowly because I get sidetracked with other tasks. I did some straightening and organizing of other parts of our home the last few days. Those areas needed it, and I'm glad to have made so much progress elsewhere, but want to continue downstairs now. So this is my task today.

By the way, the doll is from an on-line class I took some time ago from Judi Ward. It is her "Whatever, Whatever" doll. She still needs a face. I have only pinned the head in place for now until I finish the face (in case I mess it up it will be easier to replace). The hair is from one of those scrunchies that was made up of synthetic 'hair' we used to sell at Claire's Boutique years ago when I used to manage one of those stores. I kind of like the 'all over' look of the hair like that. It looks like bed-head when I wake up in the morning. Right now she is just tucked away behind this older Compaq computer watching me as I compute and sew here in my studio. One day I want to set up a better display area for some of my dolls where they can be showcased with more flair. For now she's just a bit shy.

She's holding a stuffed heart filled with sewn-on glass buttons from my old button collection. Years ago I had a sewing machine that stitched out alphabet letters and I sewed up a bunch of fabric strips that said, "I Love Buttons." At that time I made up a lot of these hearts with old buttons and sold them through a craft sale (years ago when the kids were little).

I purchased some of those stiff boards to wrap fabric around similar to like it comes on boards at a fabric shop. The purchased fabric storage boards worked nicely, but seemed a bit expensive selling at $1.69 for each piece. It occurred to me to cut some foam core I had sitting around my studio to the same dimensions to use for this purpose. The foam core might not be acid free because foam core is made of paper card stock mounted to a rigid plastic foam core, but they are sturdy and serve the purpose well. I had a few pieces sitting around, then went out and got more at a discount store. I decided to wrap some of the larger cuts of yardage like a mini fabric store. It is easy to unwrap to cut off chunks of fabric when needed, and makes it super easy to store fabric while being able to see it all on the shelf. In typing this up and looking for links I see there is foam core available that is acid free. I'm sure the kind available at my local discount store is not this variety, but I'm still okay with it. They look so nice lined up on the shelf this way!

I still have quite a bit of fabric folded and stacked on my shelf, but the larger yardages of fabric are easier to work with when they are wrapped around these foam core boards.

In order to wrap the fabric around the boards (which measure 10" x 14") I took the 45" wide yardage that comes already folded in half, folded it in half again along its entire length. This way it fits the 10" x 14" board better for wrapping and is a manageable size to fit the shelf I store it on. This means there is an additional crease the length of the fabric, but I usually press my fabric as I cut and sew my quilts anyway. So far the additional crease has not posed a problem. I would love to have the big, long fabric boards from the fabric store, but do not have the proper space on my shelves to store fabric that way.

A close up of these fabric boards reveals the first in this row is one of the original corrugated plastic boards I purchased (with nice rounded corners). These are entirely made of plastic. The rest of the boards in this row are made of foam core that I cut to size myself. I am completely pleased with my own boards as a slightly less-expensive alternative to the purchased ones. I was able to cut four fabric boards from one large piece of foam core. I considered just using a couple layers of cardboard from salvaged boxes. The cardboard idea would have been cheaper, but it doesn't look as pretty as the white foam core boards, and cardboard is not acid-free either.

While sorting through my stuff I came across this box of strips I started sewing for a strip quilt. These were started before all the rage of the jelly roll quilts and all the new patterns and books we currently see available. I really like those jelly rolls that have 2 1/2" fabric pre-cut for quilts. It makes it so much easier to just get right to the sewing process.

These are some 2 1/2" fabric strips I currently have sitting on my cutting table. I decided I would cut up all my smaller scraps of fabric into this 2 1/2" jelly roll size strip. I love having pre-cut strips ready to sew when I want to just sit down for some sewing relaxation, some sewing therapy!

Sewing Studio

I'm working on clearing clutter and organizing the studio today. I was here for awhile yesterday starting some work on it, but ran out of steam before I got too far. Here are a few glimpses of what I am seeing: This golden chicken is something I made several years ago. I used it as a sample for a class I taught once. It was about using the decorative stitches available on our machines for a useful project - small, quick and easy to sew together with just a few seams.


These pics are just some of the current fabric stash. I have them stacked right now, somewhat by color. I am going to be working at cutting most of the fabrics into 2 1/2" strips for jelly roll quilts. I'm also planning to cut blocks in 3", 4", 5", 6" sizes. These work right for most quilts.

I have this stack of whites and off-whites to use for lights in quilts, and some to use for backgrounds for machine embroidery. This is pretty much my full stack of lights. Looking quickly through the stash I could probably use more lights to balance so much of the darks.

The third stack is a mix of black and white prints and some assorted colors. This grouping of color pieces are fairly small. They'll likely be cut to 2 1/2" strips as I get time. The scraps of plaid you see are already left overs from other projects. They are not very big, so I'll cut what I am able to from them and see how many blocks I come up with. Again, they will be 3", 4", 5" or 6" blocks.

Here's a look at how I have chosen to sort some of my smaller scraps. These are mostly odd-ball sized strips narrower than 2 1/2" but I hated to throw them out. They will make a String Quilt - a scrap quilt with randomly sewn narrow strips of fabric scraps. I recently saw some sites on the web that talked about Crumb Quilts. This is somewhat along the same idea, but crumb quilts use tiny pieces, not narrow strips. I had not heard this term before this week, but apparently I have been making Crumb Quilts for awhile not. I've got several blocks pieced like an old crazy quilt using up random small scrap pieces. I like the name Crumb Quilt.

Circle Jeans Quilt Update

I was going to post a link to my instructions to my Circle Jeans Quilt, but it seemed confusing because I thought I originally submitted it to About.com but now see a copy of the instructions on equilter.com. The link in my previous post actually does not take you to About.com, but to the equilter.com site where the instructions can be found. Looking further I found the instructions copied to a number of different sites along with photos of quilts made by other quilters.

How interesting to see so many people have used my instructions to make their own quilts. It seems to be a popular one for recycle enthusiasts. That's part of the reason I wanted to reference it again after so much time - recycling has become so big again now with everyone going "green" for the environment as well as saving money due to high gas prices and increases in other products as a result of those high prices.

I'm glad to see the instructions have been such a hit. Hopefully many others will see it again here on my blog and keep some of that denim out of land fills and find a new life in a recycled quilt.

There are more links I just ran across here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

This site shows some step-by-step pictures of the process.

Here is another site with step-by-step tutorials on the Circle Jeans Quilt.

And another website with photos of the process.

This forum's page discusses my Circle Blue Jeans quilt and using flannel instead of denim. Actually the very first person I showed this quilt pattern prior to submitting it to About.com was for a friend who wanted to use regular quilter's cotton instead of the denim. We spent an afternoon visiting while I showed her the steps. I would suggest using a square of batting inside underneath the "window" square to give it some warmth. The only drawback with using cotton is all the seams are on the bias. If you are not careful you will find they tend to unravel easily and may stretch out of shape when sewing around the circle shapes. That's why I like the denim, it doesn't have that same stretch to it. This might also be fun to do with felt circles. I might try that as a small table topper one of these days.

Here's another forum talking about a program Fons & Porter did calling it a Peek-a-Boo Quilt for Baby. Apparently they made theirs with flannel. There were several other links to various sites and photos of finished quilts from this forum. Have fun perusing the various links.

Have fun sewing one for yourself or a loved one. They make great lap quilts. They're certainly warm! A bit heavy if you make them too big, but certainly warm!

Here are a list of the links I've found so far in the event one of these doesn't work for you, you can copy and past them to your browser for yourself:
http://sockshavenothumbs.blogspot.com/2008_02_01_archive.html

http://shelinascreations.blogspot.com/2006/08/denim-circles-quilt.ht

http://www.equilters.com/library/jeans/jeans_gallmolly.html

http://www.equilters.com/library/jeans/jeans_galldina.html

http://profifrau.blogspot.com/2008/01/circle-jeans-quilt.html

http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/photo/1055577411016078061xKWWgM

http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/photo/1055496403016078061udOtBX

http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/photo/1055496654016078061WAheBu

http://sockshavenothumbs.blogspot.com/2008_02_01_archive.html

http://anitaestes.blogspot.com/2008/01/rob-peter-to-pay-paul.html

http://shelinascreations.blogspot.com/2007/04/denim-circle-memories.html

http://www.quiltinaday.com/community/topic.asp?forum=2&topic=4565

http://boards.hgtv.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/5894011632/m/4631099853

I think that's more than enough links for me to look at tonight. I'm sure you can find more photos of other quilter's Circle Jeans Quilts if you do your own search. That's how I found these. Search "Circle Jeans Quilt" in your own browser and it will take you to lots of references to this quilt and all kinds of variations from it. It's kind of fun to see so many renditions of this.

Rested again

I took the time to sleep a little longer today with a nice long afternoon nap. I have not done that in a long time. What a difference if makes to get some extra sleep!

It has been overcast and rainy throughout the day, so this was a good day for a nap. There is a chance of snow in our forecast for tonight, but so far it's just been cool and rainy. The grass has really greened up lately. It still feels too cold to put geraniums in my front step flowerpots. Whenever I come and go I think it won't be long now. I love the look of geraniums in pots on my steps. I'm hoping another week will make enough of a difference for some warmer weather to come in. Those pots sure look vacant without flowers.

Between getting my nap for those extra Zs and the cool rainy weather I haven't taken the dogs out on a walk now for two days. They've had to settle for just spending time outside in our fenced backyard. They don't seem to relish the cool windy, rainy weather very much either. It's just in and out, real quick! The two little ones seem content with staying curled up in their kennels on days like this. But I can tell Ginger is a bit antsy to do something different. She probably wouldn't mind the cold and rain so much if it meant getting out for a walk. We'll see if there's a break in this weather tomorrow; maybe she and I can just get out regardless of the weather.


My Sewing Therapy will have to include getting back to organizing my stash. I still have some sorting and purging to do. This pile is definitely staying.

This is a quick peek at just a tiny portion of my fabric stash. These fat quarters, charm packs (a collection of five-inch squares) and jelly roll are a few of my more recent acquisitions. I just love looking at fabric! All the different colors and patterns available are wonderful. The embroidery sewout tucked underneath the charm packs will be turned into a pillow at some point. It is one of the last things I embroidered before I completely dismantled my sewing studio to re-configure the furniture for more room and to get re-organized.
Here's a look at my new Pfaff Creative Vision. I bought it earlier this year, but have not taken very much time to sew on it yet. It's somewhat annoying actually that I'm not making as much use of it as I would like. It seems my time is stretched among so many things. So I try to sneek in a little time here and there.



I satisfied my need for a tiny bit of Sewing Therapy last night before I went to bed by sewing about a dozen seams on a few quilt blocks. It's a scrap quilt. I've got some scraps sorted by color in a few pull-out drawers. That combined with a tremendous urge to "just sew" lead me to sew for a very short bit. Even if it's 15 minutes a day, I think I'll continue working on this scrap quilt a little each day.


The pattern is from this year's March/April issue of Quiltmaker magazine. There are only three size blocks to cut so it's a pretty simple pattern. I like the scrappy look of it.

Free-Motion can be alot of fun to play around with. This was a test sample for a tote bag. It was something I worked of for a class project I was developing. I thought it was a fairly easy project as a basic totebag. The creative fun was in the free-motion for the front side of the bag.

I did this project a short while back. The flower is hand drawn with Fabrico permanent fabric markers onto plain fabric. It was heat-set with an iron then layered with quilt batting and a piece of backing fabric. The black thread is free-motion stitched to set off features of the flower and other elements in the piece. I left the back side plain as a black and white rendition in reverse. This was actually a fun, freeing sort of thing to do.
To do free motion sewing, put on a darning foot and drop your feed dogs. You are moving the fabric manually since the feed dogs are lowered they cannot move the fabric. This means you can move it in any direction, not just forward and back under the needle. I've done other thread painting pieces that are more fully filled with thread in a variety of colors to create the image. This is much easier with just the black thread. In thread painting you use multiple colors of thread to give depth, details and interest to the work.

Circle Jeans Quilt

I ran across this info I submitted years ago for a jeans quilt:
http://www.equilters.com/library/jeans/jeans_gallbaros.html

It was a long time ago I uploaded this Circle Jeans Quilt info. It seems funny it could still be on-line after all these years. I should go through my stuff, I bet I could come up with more jeans to make another one of these quilts. I always thought it made a good quilt to throw in the trunk of the car. Here in the north they say it's a good idea to keep a blanket in your vehicle as part of your winter survival gear in the event you are ever stranded.

I've been thinking about what I will do for one of my class projects. We are supposed to create a site and include instructions on how to make a project or do a task. I'm not sure what I'll do my assignment on, but it will probably be something with sewing, or perhaps cooking a meal. I'm still rolling ideas around in my head about this one. I thought I could revise something I already taught as a sewing class project. I am planning on revamping those ideas and making those designs and patterns available at some point on my website. This could be the start to that process.