Freda's Hive

Fabric Friday - New Finds

2012-01-27T07:16:00.000-07:00

It is Fabric Friday again today. I have 5 prints to show that are fairly new to the market. They are all great prints and have that vintage/modern flair.
The first 2 prints are from Melody Miller. They are thicker linen/cotton blends that would work great in making bags. I love the 60's kitchen/flower/home feel.
Out of all Melody's newest line this clock piece is my favorite. I do love old clocks. The one in the bottom right hand corner is the exact clock I had in my bedroom growing up. I remember when it broke and had to be tossed. I wish I still had it!
The next 3 fabrics are Michael Miller prints. I adore strawberries. And I love dots. This color green is a great shade, too. I really wish I had yards and yards of this one.
This is another Michael Miller strawberry print. I think it's super cute and the perfect size berry to fussy cut.
This kitchen print is a little bit '60s. I actually have a real vintage print that reminds me of this retro print. I'm not sure when or how I will use this novelty fabric, but it is certainly one that makes me smile.

-nanette

A few of my current blog obsessions

2012-01-25T06:30:00.000-07:00

I have dozens and dozens of blogs I (try) to read regularly in my Google Reader. I like to read blogs several times a week but I rarely zero out my Reader in my quest to see what everyone is making.

I have so many favorite blogs but currently I have a few that I am dying over. Sometimes I find these blogs so fantastic that I love to hate them. Well, not really, but I do envy the beauty and creativity there just a bit.

I've been wanting to blog about these blogs for a while now so today I'm going to pass on a few links that I'm obsessing over.
Nana Company. Holy Cow. Amy is amazing and her style and technique is perfect. There are so many of her projects I'm wanting to copy that I couldn't list them all.
Barbara from Oodles and Oodles is my guilty pleasure. If you have the time, go back and look at the Christmas items on her blog. Her vintage treasures are like stepping back into a perfect time. I would love to shop just one day with her.
Serena at The Farm Chicks really makes me go green (with envy). She has built a beautiful new home that is the perfect blend of vintage and modern. She sews, she crafts, she cooks, she has a vintage shop, she's a business woman and she writes books. There I said it - she does it all.
Kerry at VeryKerryBerry is makes fabulous things. I love her fabrics and her projects. Everything she makes is just so darling.

Many of these women have free patterns and tutorials on their blogs. They also have etsy shops. They are all beautiful women with so much talent. Bookmark those links and you will see why I love to read them (and hate them just a teeny bit).

-Nanette

Weekend Report

2012-01-23T07:50:00.000-07:00

Our lives are all so busy aren't they? Because I work outside my home, weekends are a very important part of my life balance. Weekends are usually full of family visits, sewing and house duties. I do enjoy my "off" time and guard it closely.
Shelbie, Whitney and I went to a cooking class at my good friend and neighbor, Laura's. It was a sauce class with both sweet and savory sauces. Specifically Laura made a pork loin with meat sauce, mac and cheese, Bearnaise sauce over asparagus with caramel, chocolate, raspberry and vanilla sauce. It was all delicious and we tried out some of the recipes over the weekend at our house.While we were at the class, Mason texted me this photo of Allison cooking up her own mess in my kitchen. Whitney, Allison's mom, isn't really feeling well at 7 months pregnant so they stayed here for the weekend.
Mason had a date to the Preference Prom (girls ask guys). He had a great time. But he always does. At nearly 17, Mason lives a very social (and spoiled) life.
I did a little bit of sewing and pattern writing. I didn't mean to cut off the bird heads in this block but I don't know that I will unpick so I'll have to pretend it doesn't matter.
I always like to unwind on the weekend with a good video. I'm really enjoying watching seasons of BBC Foyle's War on my Kindle Fire. I do love a great British period type show. This one is especially good since I like to learn about WWII.

I hope you all had a nice weekend.

-nanette

Fabric Friday - House and Home

2012-01-20T10:41:00.003-07:00

I don't remember if I showed this little group of fabrics before on the blog but since I'm working with them they are close at hand.
This is a line by Benartex that has been out for a little while. It is called House and Home. It also comes in pastels, which I didn't care for. Anyway, it is a happy line that I really need to put to good use.
I'm proofing my pattern by making new blocks for my Row by Row quilt. and it seems to be working out so far.
I really do like this border type print in the line and I'm going to use this to frame my blocks. I think it gives a Spring feeling and I'm excited to use it since Spring really is just around the corner. The sun is out today shining in my window but in Utah it feels like we haven't had Winter yet so maybe Spring will be late. When it comes I'll be ready for it.

-nanette

Pattern Proofing

2012-01-18T08:03:00.000-07:00

I'm photographing and writing instructions for my row-by-row quilt. I wanted to show that the pattern could be used with different fabrics and in a smaller sized project like a wall hanging. So I'm making each block again and writing instructions as I go. It is always amazing to me how using different fabric makes such a huge difference.

Busy Busy.

-nanette

Fun Project from Lori

2012-01-16T06:00:00.000-07:00

Right before Christmas Lori Holt and I had lunch at our favorite spot, Food For Thought, in Draper, Utah. It was a crazy day and Lori was gracious enough to reschedule the time after I no-showed her (like I said, crazy day).
Lori ALWAYS gives the best gifts. She gave me this darling project bag and her pattern for the crochet edged pillowcase. The fabric used is from her Daisy Cottage line and the pattern is one of her very latest.
Inside the project bag was this great kit with everything to make a pillowcase along with the prettiest scissors and some of my favorite candy. I have really been wanting to make this pillowcase since Christmas and I finally set aside some time Saturday afternoon for this.
The pillowcase part came together perfectly. Lori thought of everything in her pattern and instructions. Sewing the cotton lace trim onto the end of the pillowcase opening makes the most clever way to crochet the edge onto the pillowcase.
I had a meeting Saturday night and I put the pillowcase and everything into Lori's project bag and took it all along to crochet while I sat listening.I was finished crocheting before the meeting even finished. It was a perfect project for a winter day.
The pillowcase is a 1 yard wonder. It is so cute I just can't wait to make more. Thanks so much Lori. You are just the smartest. This was the best gift.

-nanette

I Love Fat Quarters - Fabric Friday

2012-01-13T09:18:00.004-07:00

I have, what could be, a dangerous past time. I like to window shop at Fat Quarter Shop. I discovered Kimberly's store years ago when I was trying to find fat quarters online. At that time most online fabric stores wouldn't sell less than 1/2 yard. So I was very happy to find that I could shop online for those little cuts of fabric I like so much. Of course I also like to obtain fat quarters from local shops as well. It is hard to walk into a fabric store and not come out with 1 or 2 fats.
I have been waiting and waiting for FQS to get in Lecien's latest line, the Flower Sugar Fall 2011. Of course there are several colorways and I thought I would show one of them. I want every single piece of this line and fat quarters are the only way I can do that.
I'm really into the gray right now. And I'm always always into roses. I am loving the return of this neutral shade of gray above. I'm seeing gray in so many new lines. The gray flower is my favorite in the line. I photoed it with the green stripe above. I always like stripes in a line and what is better than a stripe? A stripe with roses inside, of course.
Yellow is always a favorite of mine in a quilt. These 2 yellows with roses are so pretty and would go with most any of my stash fabrics.
The top quilt on my bed is my mosaic quilt with lots of different fabrics squares sashed with white. As I was making my bed today the dot fabrics in the quilt caught my eye and I was thinking how much I love bigger dots on fabric. Again, what is better than a nice sized dot? A dot paired with roses!
I do also like these circles of roses. Last night I dreamed about blue fabric (I really did). And of course I got up this morning wanted to make something with blue in it (I just finished binding my PKM Row quilt with lots of blue). This blue in the middle fabric is a stunning shade and so unusual paired with the shade of green.

I am going to work on my pattern for the Row-By-Row quilt this weekend. I hope I get a lot done. I'm running behind schedule. Wishing us all a nice weekend.

-nanette

A Few Fun Things

2012-01-11T08:06:00.000-07:00

You know I'm such a Scrooge and I'm so glad Christmas 2011 is over. So on with the challenges of a new year. 2012 has kind of started off rough with broken cars, broken furnace and a stubborn infection for me. But that is life. We wouldn't know happiness if we didn't have problems for comparison.
True to form, Allison played with a box after opening her gifts. Shadow is very interested in her new Grover from Nanny and Pa.

I did want to show a few fun things even this old Scrooge enjoyed.Here is Allison's kitty quilt I made for her. Pam's panel is perfect and all I had to do was attach a small outer border around the panel block to make a darling quilt. My quilter did a very open machine quilting design because I put eyelash Minkee on the back. Keeping a vacuum handy is a must for working with this stuff. What a mess! And I put my binding on backwards so the hand stitching was in the front to make stitching easy. Allison hasn't taken it home yet. I hope she enjoys it.
I really love my new phone case. It looks like vintage fabric and it has my name on it. Pretty snazzy.
My friend Laura gave me this book. It is such a perfect gift for me. I enjoyed browsing through it over the holidays and I'm going to put it to use next Christmas season.
My family always comes through for me. I did get several really nice things but the star is this bag that I looked at online at least weekly for the past 6 months. It is so pretty. And of course I love the color. It's an incredibly ritzy gift for this old Scrooge.

-nanette

Giveaway Winner Sew Scraps Along

2012-01-09T07:15:00.000-07:00

I was really happy to join Jodi in her month of scrap ideas. I know for me, scrap quilts are the heart and soul of quilting. Managing our scraps is something all fabric lovers have to deal with.
Thank you to everyone that is a devoted blog reader and also to my new readers. I appreciate your participation in the giveaway and for all the sweet comments. Today I'm really excited to announce the winner of last week's giveaway.

The winner is "Heartsdesire" She said:

"Count me in, for sure. I love scrap quilts and I know what a wonderful way it is to use up those leftovers. I participated in Jodi's scrap-a-long last time and used up all my 30s scraps. And what a lovely quilt it made. Winning your scraps would really get me going. Thanks for being so generous."

Congratulations to Heartsdesire. I'll get your prize off to you right away.
I hope you're inspired to get out those scraps in your sewing room and use some of the ideas Jodi has shown or to make my easy picnic quilt.
I received this photo from my niece Tricia last week. Tricia finished her picnic quilt we started at our family retreat in October and she hand quilted it herself. I am so proud of my sisters and nieces for taking on the tradition of sewing and creating and I'm very happy to pass on the traditions learned from Freda, my mother. She would be so proud of Tricia.

-nanette

Happy New Year Scrap Busting Give Away

2012-01-03T06:36:00.000-07:00

Have you heard about the 2012 Sew Scraps Along at Jodi's Pleasant Home blog? Today Jodi is kicking off her month long of giveaways, tutorials, ideas and more and I'm her first guest designer using my tutorial for a Picnic Quilt.
If you are a regular reader you will be familiar with my scrap busting Picnic Quilt tutorial. We used this tutorial for my family quilt retreat last year. If you are a new reader, my free tutorials are on the right sidebar. January is a great time to clean out your scraps and make a quilt for summer.I keep my scraps in a (clean) trash bin under my cutting table. When I have scraps I just throw them in the trash bin and then recycle them in other quilts or give them away.
If you want to participate in the scrap giveaway here or at Jodi's blog, leave a short message and make sure your name and contact info are included.
I've loaded up a scrap bag for giveaway with some very recent and some distant scraps/pieces.
I've even included some of the scraps from my Row by Row PKM quilt.
I'm also including a Japanese Quilt book by Suzuko Koseki with my bundle of scraps. If you are interested in receiving my scrap bag and the book, head over to Jodi's blog for instructions and leave a comment here with this post.

This post will run through the entire week. Saturday January 7 at midnight MDT is the deadline to leave a comment. I will post the winner for the giveaway Monday January 9.

It is a new year people and time to clean things out and use up those scraps and good intentions.

-nanette

Merry Christmas

2011-12-21T21:37:00.003-07:00

I am wishing everyone a pleasant and happy Christmas. I hope we all find the New Year safe and well.

-nanette

Gift Giving

2011-12-19T08:08:00.001-07:00

We are counting down to the last days before the Big Day. Am I ready? Nah. But I am getting close. I get some of my best ideas from other blogs. I've had several good ideas this year from Serena at Farm Chicks Blog. So I thought I would "steal" one more idea. Look at Serena's good idea here.
Serena used syrup dispensers. I was thinking sweet but not quite so sticky. I purchased these sugar dispensers online for $1.49/each with no shipping. Good deal right? We filled them with colorful Christmas chocolates. Then we put a sticker with "Wishing you a Holiday Season as sweet as Sugar". Mine aren't as colorful as Serena's syrup containers but somewhat more useful and they were less money. Done! Well not quite done. Now they have to be delivered (calling...Mason..haha).
I finished edging the rest of my 2012 Spoonflower calendars. Here is the little blue house. Very cute.Next is the 2012 kitchen shelf tea towel. This may be my favorite.
I love dishes and it is vintage inspired. The last one is my beehive/bee tea towel. So perfect for me.
Don't we all remember these yearly calendar towels hanging on walls in the kitchens of our mother or grandmother?
I am really thinking I must make my own in Spoonflower for next year. I like this calendar from 1960 I have in my vintage collection. It is a gift to use throughout the year. Perfect.

-nanette

Fabric Friday Oldies but Goodies

2011-12-16T09:52:00.003-07:00

Everyone, including me, is busy with last minute Christmas preparations. Who has time to blog and read blogs? But it is fabric Friday. So for those who care I thought I would post some fabrics I recently pulled off my shelf. Shelbie did some rearranging for me and washed and pressed some of my vintage pieces. So why not show them before I put them in their place? These above I've fussy cut here and there to add in some of my quilts.
I love the pink, black, green and gray. This theme with the daisies would make a great project with the addition of just a few complimentary fabrics. You know I love windows.
This vintage piece reminds me so much of my mother. She used to collect fabrics she could use when making projects for the grandkids.
This is perhaps one of my top 10 vintage fabrics. It is crisp and new just like it would have been off the bolt to make into curtains 50 years ago.
Shelbie washed and ironed this favorite table cloth. Yeah it has that odd gravy stain in the corner but I lay it out to hide that. It combines dishes with a PA Dutch flair.
I have this vintage curtain fabric in several yards. I could fussy cut it because I have so much of it but someday I will make a quilt or curtains with it. It isn't easy to find vintage fabric pieces with multiple yardage.
This is another fabric that reminds me of my mother (Freda). She had this on her shelf and made things for the grandkids out of it. Who doesn't love a little Holly Hobbie? I do.

I hope you have a great weekend as we plunge into very very last minute Christmas preparations. Monday I will show you my gift to neighbors and coworkers.

-nanette

Oh my gosh only 11 days left

2011-12-14T08:16:00.000-07:00

I really hate when people tell how many days left to shop for Christmas. It always makes me panic slightly. So I'm just spreading the love with the title to this post. I'm a grinch at heart.
I got something in the mail that melted my Grinchy heart. My sister Michelle sent us Tastykakes for Christmas. Oh my gosh. It is like being a kid again eating these. Delish. Thanks so much Michelle.
I hope I get my quilt back for Allison in time to give her for Christmas. If not, she'll be in Hawaii for Christmas anyway. She's 2 and has been there twice. I'm 54 and have never been there. Not that I really want to go. I'm just saying. I don't feel very sorry for her if the quilt isn't bound by the time they leave on vacation. (see only a Grinch would say that)
This is the back for the quilt. It is eyelash minky. I'm pretty sure my machine quilter will hate me for this. You can't really improve on perfection. The kitty panel is so sweet and delightful I really didn't mess with it for Allison's quilt. I just put the border on it and called it good. Like I said, if my husband would let me, I'd put this on my own bed. So darling. This is how famous Pam is: if you google "PKM", Pam's blog comes up. Crazy. She's a legend. Speaking of legend...Mason was holding up my quilt top to help me photograph it. When the doorbell rang.
His date to the Christmas dance gave him her answer. And then the door bell rang again.
And he got the 2nd half of his answer. Kids are so creative now. In my day we simply said "yes". He said the answer was in reference to a TV show episode. Whatever. After all, I'm just an old Grinch. What do I know anyway?

-nanette

Binding Tea Towels

2011-12-12T07:19:00.000-07:00

Friday I showed the linen/cotton blend fabric from Spoonflower. Saturday I had some time to bind the fabric and make the 2012 calendar tea towels.
Working with the linen cotton is nice because it has such a nice crisp body to work with. I cut some 2 1/2" strips for binding the edges out of fabric in my stash.
I bound the towels just like a quilt. Pressing the binding is the key to getting a nice, even look. I pressed the binding several times to get it to lay just right and then stitched in the ditch to catch the back edge.
It made a nice finish both on the top side of the towel and the back. If I made a little error, I just unpicked that part and restitched.
I love this simple blue, white and black towel. I used fabric from PKM's line to bind it.
I do like a gingham binding. This black and white complimented this modern/vintage design. There is so much color going on in this towel that I thought the black and white fit best.
They are all ready now to give as gifts. I have several more I need to do though. But for now I have 5 done.

Speaking of "done". I hate that "Done" Target commercial. I am never done with Christmas until 6:00 on Christmas eve. At least it seems that way.

-nanette

Fabric Friday - Spoonflower

2011-12-09T09:21:00.003-07:00

Have you discovered Spoonflower? Spoonflower is a fabric company that started a few years ago. You can upload designs to their website and have your patterns made into custom fabric. Others can buy your fabric there as well. I've have some custom designs tucked away that I really would like to make into fabric but haven't tried this myself, yet.
This year for Christmas gifts I decided to use Spoonflower. I ordered 2012 tea towel calendars. Spoonflower had a contest and designers entered 2012 fabric calendar ideas. There were so many cute designs to choose from.
I loved browsing through the pages of calendars. The fabric is available in quilt weight and linen/cotton. I chose the linen/cotton. But I waited until they had a 2 for 1 sale.
I'm going to edge the calendars with fabric binding. My order is just arriving (there is one other design I haven't recieved yet) so I need to get going this weekend on finishing the edges of the calendars.

-nanette

Row by Row Flimsy

2011-12-07T13:33:00.007-07:00

My PKM fabric row by row quilt flimsy is finished. I'm really excited to take it to the machine quilter tomorrow. I am going to have her quilt a strawberry design. I think that will be perfect.
With a few exceptions my math did work out when I joined my rows together.
However, for the drafting my pattern and writing directions, it will be a little difficult since everyone's 1/4" seam is slightly different and since each row is unique, there are really no seams to match.
I do like my border but I think tonight I'll add a small outer border. I have debated back and forth if this is what I want to do.
I will be excited to get it back before Christmas and bind it over the holidays. Now I need to get going on other projects.

-nanette

Monday

2011-12-05T07:20:00.001-07:00

Mary from Sea Quilts sent me a great little package from her giveaway. She's got a great blog and lots of talent. It was packaged so cute. You should check her out. She's made some darling things.
This is Mary's little Christmas quilt she made. I really admired it. Doesn't it look like the perfect Christmas wall quilt? It is just so cute I want to make it right this second.
Mary sent me a kit to make a wall hanging just like hers. I don't know that I will get it finished in time this year but for sure by next Christmas this will hang on my wall. Thanks so much Mary.
My sister Michelle made this cute coloring bag for Allison. I forgot to post pictures before but when Allison was staying with us I got our her coloring bag for her to use and take to church. I think it is a great idea and would make a great Christmas gift for that little person on your list.
Allison really likes playing with it. And because it is a bag, other little toys can fit inside to hold or take along. I really like the crayola pencil crayons because little hands like Allison's can't break them. Thanks Michelle. This is getting good use. After 4 days of staying at our house, my daughter's power was finally restored and they went home last night. Now they get to clean up whatever damage they have from the storm.

-nanette

Fabric Friday today is Vintage Friday

2011-12-02T08:49:00.007-07:00

Have you heard about the incredibly destructive winds in the western US? It specifically hit northern Utah with a vengeance. My daughter lives north of Salt Lake and although damage to her home was minimal, her neighborhood and the surrounding areas have incredible damage (akin to the horrible season of my Philadelphia Eagles this year). Power is still off to my daughter's (Allison's mommy) home. They are staying with us right now. They have not been told when there power will be restored. You can read about some of the damage here. So Allison has been at our house almost all the week. Not just because the power was out but because we had been babysitting Allison during the week previous to the big storm. Consequently I don't really have much to show today. But I did think I would show you a little vintage fun from around my house. Of course these are off limits to Miss Allison!
Do any of you remember these tiny 10 cent nativities? I can remember getting one at a party when I was a child and also remember them covering shelves in Kresge and Woolworth. They are such good memory makers.
Speaking of memories, Notice the aluminum bell and the bubble light above. The bell feels and looks just like those aluminum drinking tumblers. We had dozens of those bubble lights on our tree when I was a kid. Every Christmas I would get burns from touching the lights. What kid could resist one touch? Dangerous by today's standards, though.
I thought I would lay out my vintage ornaments and take a photo. As I said previously, I do not decorate the tree with them. They are too fragile. But I love having them in jars and bowls to look at and admire.
This is a much safer way to keep my little vintage ornament collection even without Allison. Vintage Christmas is such a treasured childhood memory. I know it was stressful for my parents to afford and arrange every year but all I have is great memories of those times, thanks to loving parents.

-nanette

PKM Row by Rows

2011-11-30T07:56:00.001-07:00

Over Thanksgiving I had a chance to work on my row by row quilt with PKM fabric. My math turned out okay (so far) in joining my blocks into rows.
Next step will be joining the rows together. I have a couple filler rows to add in, too. I am hoping it comes together as I've outlined. I loved making all the blocks and it was a perfect project to use with Pam's fabric.
You can see that the log cabin blocks are making up the border. Because I had an odd number of blocks in the top and bottom rows I made a solid color (blue) center keystone block. I wanted the border to look like a wave all around the edges.

I plan on getting the top quilted before Christmas so I need to wrap it up soon. Happy quilt with happy fabric.

Speaking of happy...Happy Birthday to my sister, Michelle.

-nanette

Bring on December

2011-11-28T06:33:00.000-07:00

Are you sick of turkey and pie? We had a really nice Thanksgiving. I hope you did too.
A few weeks ago we took the pie class at my friend Laura's. (she has recipes posted BTW) We used Laura's pie crust recipe and method. It worked perfectly, except that Shelbie ripped open her thumb on the food processor blade. But that aside, the pies were great. I told you I've never made great pie crust. Well I hope that is all in the past. My father-in-law always makes pumpkin pie for us. His is great. But I finally made really good pumpkin pie. I tried a trick I want to pass on. Use your favorite pumpkin pie recipe. Before putting the ingredients together, cook your canned or fresh pumpkin in a sauce pan for 10 minutes. That will make sure your pie sets up in the center with no mushy texture. I still baked the pie for nearly 40 minutes and it turned out wonderfully and cut into a perfect slice.
We got our Christmas decorations up, too. It was really a productive weekend. I love having Christmas in my entry way. Here is (again) my Christmas Cottage exchange block quilt. It is really special to me.
I have my favorite Christmas things set out on the side board. New this year is the gold dear from Barbara's etsy. You can't beat Oodles and Oodles for a great vintage Christmas.
I have my vintage ornaments in a glass bowl under my beehive cake keeper and in a pretty glass jar.I set out things I made and gifts from friends in my favorite holiday collection. I put some foil covered chocolate balls in the beehive pot. Now if I could keep Allison from getting everyone to unwrap a chocolate ball for her!
Of course I hung my kitchy Christmas wreath I made last year. I wish it was twice as big. But it makes me smile every time I see it.
Mason went by himself and picked out the most beautiful (real) tree and got it at a great price. It is about 9' tall and smells fantastic. He always helps me trim the tree. It feels so good to have this all completed before busy December starts.

-nanette

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T06:46:00.002-07:00

Wishing you a sweet day with food and family.

-nanette

At the Machine

2011-11-23T06:31:00.002-07:00

Don't you love vintage Fisher Price toys? Shelbie has been making a collection of FP toys and recently acquired this darling sewing machine on Ebay. Isn't it so cute. I'll have to photograph some of her other fun things to show you sometime. Toys from childhood are so fun to have again.
I've got nothing new to show you. It is Thanksgiving week and we are all super busy. I hope to carve out some time in between the kitchen and spending time with family to do some sewing and get my row by row quilt put together (cross your fingers for me).

Today I'll be making pies with Allison. I hope I can apply what I learned at Laura's class. If things work out I'll snag a few pictures.

-nanette

PKM Log Cabin Blocks

2011-11-21T08:13:00.000-07:00

These log cabins out of Pam's fabric are a joy to make. It may look like I'm making an entire log cabin quilt from the photo lay out above but I'm actually working on my row by row quilt border and it was just plain fun to see the blocks placed together.

This is about all I got done this weekend. Time went by so fast. I do admit to playing with my Kindle Fire a bit. But I did get quite a few log cabin blocks constructed. They are just so pretty together.

Super busy week ahead people.

-nanette

Fabric Friday - Snipes, Scraps, and bits of Vintage Lovliness

2011-11-18T06:09:00.001-07:00

It is no secret that I love vintage fabric. I really like putting even just a bit of vintage fabric in most all my quilts. I'm such a fan of Donna Flower's vintage fabrics and her blog. I enjoy browsing and looking at her lovely fabrics and notions.

I don't like to pass up a good grab bag. When I was a kid that illusive brown bag of penny candy or the grab bag at the 5 and Dime always made me beg my mother for change.

When Donna offered the Snippets, Scraps and bits of Vintage Loveliness bags I was pulled right in.
Look how lovely the vintage bits are packaged. They are so inviting.
Donna sent me a fabric gift along with my fabric grab bag. It is so beautiful. Doesn't it remind you of PKM fabric?
The pieces are all very sweet and I will put them in my fabric box with other lovely vintage scraps to use.
Even just a touch of vintage fabric in a scrap quilt adds life.
The prints are all very sweet.
I may even put a bit of vintage into my current row by row quilt I'm making.

It is such a busy time of year. I'm now over my little flu and ready to prep for Thanksgiving Day. Next week will be kind of crazy. I'm sure it will be busy at your house, too. Maybe I will get some time to sew over the weekend, though. Or should I put my Christmas things out?

-nanette

P.S. Happy Birthday to my sis Paula.

Weekend

2011-11-14T07:38:00.000-07:00

How was your weekend? I had high sewing hopes for my weekend after a very stressful and long week. However, my hopes weren't exactly realized. But that is okay. I've got a new week ahead, after all.
My Pam Kitty Morning came from Fat Quarter Shop so I was excited to get going on my last couple sets of blocks for my row by row quilt and I hoped to even start sashing over the weekend. But I was slightly derailed. Friday night Shelbie, Whitney and I went to my neighbor Laura's for a pie making class. It was very enlightening and helpful (also delicious). I have never made a good pie crust. Ever. I hope to change that during the Thanksgiving and Christmas season. No. I didn't make this pie above, Laura did. It is a caramel banana cream.
Allison came to stay for a couple days. Of course that was a happy derail. Shelbie made Allison this super cute sweater and cap with her very talented knitting needles. The sticky candy face is courtesy left over Halloween candy. She looks pretty happy with herself.
I did manage a bit of sewing on Saturday. I cut out the 1.5" strips for my log cabin blocks in my row by row quilt. Can you just see that it doesn't matter what the block design is used, the PKM fabric is incredibly cute?
I used the strawberries for the center block. I couldn't be happier with how they are coming together. Unfortunately this is all I got done. But I love it.

I had been chasing a cold all week last week and it finally hit Friday. It really slowed me down over the weekend and hit hard on Sunday. I hope it doesn't last long. I just loving using this fabric too much to let a cold get me down.

-nanette

Christmas Fabric Friday

2011-11-11T07:34:00.000-07:00

Thanks to you gals who responded to my questions about what to make for the Christmas season this year. Read the comments from readers of my last post. They are funny, and some good ideas. I love you guys.

I'm such a fan of Anna Griffin's fabric. Her Christmas fabric is always beautiful. Well all her fabric is amazing. I have a few pieces from the Anna Griffin Isabelle line to show today. I think this is last year's line. Her new line is called Twinkle Bright, equally lovely.
I really love the balls hanging on the tree. They look like crochet or hex signs. I always think black is a classic Christmas color - the color of night.
This is perhaps my favorite from the Isabelle line. It is very vintage with the hanging bells and the trees with candles. I really love it. And the border repeats.
The lettering is very 50's and it is all set so perfect, kind of like the front of a vintage Christmas card.
After complaining about stuffing I have to show you 2 ornaments I acquired through etsy. We won't rehearse my stuffing issue. But if someone else stuffs, I'm perfectly happy to use them.

So what do I make with my Christmas fabric? I haven't decided, but again, I love all the suggestions. And who knows? This fabric just might sit on my shelf until next Christmas. I hope not but fabric this lovely never goes out of style.

-nanette

Christmas . . . there I said it

2011-11-09T08:08:00.001-07:00

Even though it is early November, Christmas is coming like a runaway train. I finally admitted yesterday that I really don't like fall. It felt so freeing to admit that. And I've admitted here before that Christmas isn't my favorite holiday. So basically I'm a Grinch and I just like February to August. But that said, Christmas follows fall and it is coming at me (us). And I'm thinking of projects to make.

I also hate to stuff. HATE it. I do like Thanksgiving stuffing but I hate stuffing with batting.
I made these house ornaments a couple years ago. And I loved sewing them but I really didn't like the stuffing part.
Last year I made these carolers. And the stuffing was really awful. Stitching popped and it seemed like each one held a bag of stuffing.

But I see so many cute things around that are stuffed. This tutorial is really making me want to make house ornaments again. Go see this tutorial HERE. Go. Do it. And then come back. Aren't they incredibly cute! I am almost ready to make more house ornaments using this tutorial. But, there is the stuffing!

I also hate glue guns. I have permanent scars from a past glue messes. But THESE trees are so so incredibly cute! I just tell myself thatI have no talent to make them.
I made these fabric trees a couple years ago and then we made more this past summer with my sisters. So I do want to do something involving fabric, I think. But I've made these a couple times so I'm not wanting to repeat.
And speaking of repeats, I made Christmas banners from vintage tablecloths in the past. So, yeah...not wanting to repeat this either. Even though I liked making them.

I love Sew Mama Sew tutorials and they always have some great things for Christmas. So maybe I'll spend some time in Pinterest and at SMS browsing.

What are YOU making for Christmas this year? I want to know! I'm looking for just a couple good ideas. If your idea doesn't help me, maybe it will help someone else. So share, please.

-nanette

Daisy Cottage Blocks

2011-11-07T07:09:00.002-07:00

Have you seen Lori's new fabric? Since I've been able to see early peeks and bits from her line I've had several ideas for how to use Lori's new line called Daisy Cottage. It is funny how some of my ideas are exactly like Lori's, but I always want to do something that is my own so I came up with an idea to use the Riley Blake 5" stacker (double) in my own way. (apologies to Lori for my not true to color photos)
My squares are 5" unfinished and they are of 3 different window designs and 1 little house. This is the valance window.
This is the swag window.
This is the pullback curtain window.And this is the roller shade window.
This is the mini house block. The blocks went together so quickly. I made them all including applique in 1 day. Of course I need to make more of them since they are 4.5" finished but it is a fun sized block and making all the blocks is full of creative enjoyment. I have a few other ideas for other blocks. We'll see how it goes.

-nanette

P.S. My friend and neighbor Laura is teaching cooking classes again. I'm taking her pie crust class on Friday. I can't wait. If you're interested, see Laura's blog for details.

Fabric Friday Flowers

2011-11-04T07:25:00.000-06:00

It is Friday. I can't believe it. It is the end to another busy week and the beginning of a new month. We are entering a crazy time of the year. Snatching bits of time to sew keeps me sane even when life is off kilter.
I like this vintage inspired fabric with daisies in a grid. I got them on sale. Red and blue are such a basic to my fabric stash.Speaking of daisies. Lori's Daisy Cottage fabric is coming out this week into stores. I don't have any in my hands yet, but will soon. In the spirit of Daisy Cottage I thought I would show a couple vintage daisy fabrics I have. I love flowers in fabric.This is another daisy in a 70's vintage fabric. Blue and rust/brown were always paired together back in my high school and college days. I went through a time of hating 70's fabric but I love it now.
This floral rose fabric was given to me by my sweet friend in Texas, Elaine. Elaine's blog is Muddling Through. We have a lot in common and sometimes we muddle through together. Elaine knows I've been searching for the dress fabric shown in the photo below.
It is absolutely reminiscent of the blue fabric I was wearing. What a thoughtful treat for me. Elaine knew she had something in her stash similar and mailed it to me as a surprise. Thank you Elaine.

So many new fabrics will be bursting into the stores since Quilt Market is over now. It is exciting to see what is coming out. Happy Weekend everyone. Fall back to an extra hour of sleep. Yayy.

-nanette

More progress Row by Row

2011-11-02T07:31:00.000-06:00

I took some time off to be with my family. I didn't spend much time in my sewing room but I still have a tiny bit of progress to show on my row-by-row quilt featuring Pam's fabric.
I finished all the applique in my strawberry patches blocks.
I changed up which corner in the patchwork the strawberries are placed in.
I thought it would make it fun to have the strawberries popping up all over in the patchwork.
My next block is strawberry star flowers. I used a pre-made strawberry applique inside each star flower center. That made them go really quickly. The little strawberry appliques I found on etsy. I got them from this shop. I just top stitched the strawberries in place. But really, it would be easy to make them and hand applique them just by downsizing my bigger strawberry applique.

-nanette

Happy Halloween 2011

2011-10-31T08:37:00.000-06:00

I confess I really don't like Halloween but I do like Halloween fabric. And I like orange. So I usually make some kind of fall related project most years. This year it didn't happen. So I thought I would show you some Halloween projects from years past.
Fall pumpkin themed flag flying outside my front door. I think I made this 10 years ago. I still like it.
Cottage block made with fun Halloween fabric by Sheri Berry.
Halloween cottage blocks sewn into a wall hanging/table topper. I gave this to my sister.
Halloween place-mat made with Sarah's pattern.
It isn't just Halloween here. It is also my daughter Shelbie's birthday. Happy Birthday Shelbie Have a safe and happy Halloween everyone. And I hope everyone makes it back home from fall Quilt Market having much success.

-nanette

Busy Buzzy

2011-10-24T08:14:00.000-06:00

I have nothing to show for the weekend people. Really, nothing. Between October 22 and Halloween, 4 of my children plus my only granddaughter have birthdays. It is a busy busy time at my house right now. My daughter from Oklahoma is here and so I'm spending as much time as possible with her and my family that live in Utah.
I did get a new front door mat so I can show. I usually get something bee related for my daughter Whitney for birthday or Christmas so I bought one of these for both of us.

I have some applique cut out for my row-by-row quilt. I may get some time to work on that this week.

-nanette

And Even More Row-by-Row Blocks

2011-10-20T07:54:00.000-06:00

I want to show you the progress on my Row-by-Row Quilt. Before my family retreat I had had a few finished blocks ready to show you.
This block I call strawberry patches. My strawberry tops are green felted wool. I used sketch machine embroidery to stitch details in the leaf and top in the strawberry.
I also made mirror image stars. I almost want to call these Victor/Victoria blocks. They are fun to make but I must have quilters dyslexia or something. Every single star I had something to pick out.
I really like this block and I enjoyed taking advantage of the different colorways in Pam's fabric to create the stars. I'm dying for the yardage to come out. I need to get sashing fabric to start putting my rows together. I can't wait.

-nanette

Breton Family Quilt Retreat

2011-10-17T08:15:00.000-06:00

Friday and Saturday last week were spent with family sewing at my home. It was fun and sweet and everything it should be when family gets together to spend quality time.
We moved the furniture out of my living room and replaced it with portable tables and chairs. My living room is separated from my sewing studio by doors. So I was able to open up the space to use the 2 rooms together. It worked pretty well.
Sewing and talking. Isn't that the best!?Most of the girls worked on making a Picnic Quilt like mine draped over the piano in the corner of the room. My sister Teri worked on my In the Leafy Treetops quilt.
Here we are standing in my entry way. Next year we are going to make the beehive quilt hanging behind us.My niece Tricia got her quilt top completed.My sister Michelle actually finished 2 quilt tops. It helps when you have blocks ready and the quilt partially made before arriving to the retreat.My niece Tana got her picnic quilt top done except for the borders. She's going to hand quilt hers. I didn't get a photo of my sister Paula's top. She had hers packed away by the time photos were taken. Darn.
I worked on appliqueing strawberries during the retreat. I didn't want to lose focus for my PKM Happy Row By Row quilt.
Right before lunch on Saturday my kitchen faucet broke. But by the end of Saturday Mr. Hive had me fixed back up (without some stress!). I really like the new faucet.

I had a great weekend and so much fun. I'm so glad we can get together to sew as family. I wish you could have joined us.

-nanette

Getting Ready for the little Breton Women Retreatl

2011-10-14T08:11:00.000-06:00

We are having our Breton Women sewing retreat this weekend. Today is sewing and snacking. Tomorrow is our luncheon with everyone (even those that don't sew). We really always have such a great time together.
This is one of my favorite photos of "us" Breton girls. With 4 sisters we were always called the Breton Girls and sometimes still are. Front right to left is Susan, Michelle, Teri, Polly and then me in back doing what I do best. I sure wish I still had that blue roses dress or I could find vintage fabric like it. I wore that dress until it was too tight, too short, and showing bare thread.I took the photo of us 5 girls, scanned it and then shrunk the picture to use as a sleeve for the little fat quarter.Just like this I wrapped them. Of course bees, honey and hives are always the big theme.I had these coasters made up from the etsy shop RobotCandy. They turned out cute and we were able to find 2 kids of vintage beehives to represent as a favor.I put the bee fat quarter with the photo in a cellophane bag with the coaster. Then I closed the bags with ruler masking tape.
The tables are up and ready for machines and family. In fact some families are already here. We are going to have a great time sewing together. And there are door prizes! You'll wish your name or maiden name was Breton and then you could sew with us.There are some in the family that can't come this year. My sister Michelle had 4 babies born to her children in 2011. There are the twins Brady and Barrett. I don't know which one is which. but they have the shirts. Baby Kate, the newest baby is in the middle of the boys. On the side is baby Preston. She's the oldest. I will really miss these kids and their mommies. I want them to come next year for sure.
Kate's mom is Jen, my niece and my sister Michelle's granddaughter. Kate is posing next to the quilt I made for her. The white dress and her beauty bring out the simple little bows in the quilt. I'm so glad they like it. I had fun making it. And Kate is simply a darling baby.
This is the happy grandmother to those 4 little ones. Michelle is showing off the mini family heritage quilt that I made for her. That was a fun one.

Busy weekend here. Hope you all have a nice one. I'm going to show progress photos next week.

-nanette

More Happy Row by Row Blocks starring PKM Fabric

2011-10-12T08:39:00.003-06:00

Apologies to PKM Pam for my bad color representation in this post but I took the photos late last night with bad lighting and a tired brain.
Here is another block with my new row by row project. This was a block I've had in my planned some months now. I have a cute pink proof of concept block I made a while back that has been just waiting for Pam's fabric to arrive. This block doesn't use any triangles. I love making blocks over sized and then being able to trim them to the perfect dimension.
The blocks show off Pam's fabric really well I think. I used some neutrals from my own stash to compliment the prints and florals.
My favorite of all these blocks is the green one. I love that color. It reminds me of a shamrock and luck. But I think they all turned out cute.
If you look at my Monday post you can see I had the rick rack at the top of the basket block pointing down against the basket. After playing with the baskets and thinking a bit I decided to repress the blocks to stand the rick rack up against the white handle piece and top stitch in the seam allowance. I think it makes a better statement. What do you think?

-nanette

My PKM Happy Row By Row Quilt

2011-10-10T06:12:00.000-06:00

I've sneaked in some sewing time here and there to keep progress moving in my row by row quilt using Pam's darling fabric.
One row will be these patchwork baskets with hand appliqued handles. They were super fast and the handles came together in a jiffy.Each basket has a hint of rick rack trim at the top of the basket. I really like the diversity of the fabric line with dots, floral, print, gingham and checks. I just can't go wrong using it.
This is the start of another row. I've made the patchwork, which will also include appliqued strawberries. I'm having such fun. Thanks again Pam.

-nanette

Fabric Friday - Linen Prints

2011-10-07T09:23:00.000-06:00

I have a little collection of linen/cotton blend fabrics. Some are solids and some are prints. I thought I would show some prints today because I'm starting to really eye them with a thought to actually doing something with them rather than hoarding them and enjoying how pretty they are on my shelf.
Linen blend has been popular to use in projects and even in quilts for a while now. Some of this is the Zakka influence of Japanese crafters. Zakka roughly defined means 'home made or crafted items for the home or personal use'. There are books, blogs, and lots out there on etsy.com that represent what Zakka means. I'm not much of a crafter, really but I am inspired by all of the above. And making quilts and quilt related projects would be included in the term Zakka.
This is a really great piece of fabric that would be perfect for placemats, a bag, coasters, or any number of Zakka. It reminds me of PA Dutch fabric. I need to use it.
I purposely didn't iron this great piece of linen/cotton because it shows the wrinkling that can occur with a linen blend. I think that the linen softens up after washing and using. But that is something to consider when using a linen blend. How will this look in a finished project? This fabric above is divided into several different prints and perfect to cut and use for a table topper or dish towel.
My daughter Natalie is really trying to steal this linen made like children's lined paper. Each piece of linen blend has a unique weight and feel to it. This one is softer but still does wrinkle a tiny bit. Think how fun this one would be to embroider words in a childish script. I like that idea because my embroidery wouldn't have to be that perfect!
This whimsical fabric is a fussy cutter's dream and where there is so much to look at it is also perfect for projects in a child's room. The bees in this drew it to me.
There is a great number of Zakka projects involving kitchen items and this would make good oven mitts, appliance cozy, or table cloth.
Mushrooms as a theme is a throwback to the '70s has been popular in the last few years. This fabric could make anything from slippers to a pincushion.
The owls especially drew me to this bird and flower linen blend. That blue color against the raw linen color is really striking. I think this would make a great bag.

You can see I have lots of things I could make with these fabrics. And I certainly want to do that. And hopefully will do somethings. But that old "master" time is an issue.

Have a great weekend.

-nanette

Farmer's Wife 3 More Blocks

2011-10-05T07:39:00.000-06:00

Last week I had a few hours to make a few more Farmer's Wife Quilt blocks. I have put the project on the back burner until the next sew day with Lori and the girls. But I thought I'd show you what I added to my FWQ recently.
When I saw this block was called "Contrary Wife" I knew I had to make it. It totally describes me. And the block was fun and easy.
The Friendship Star block is super easy and it went fast.
I also added the Box block to my completed collection. Again, easy. So that is it for now.

Happy Birthday to my sister Teri.

-nanette

Weekend Sewing PKM Blocks

2011-10-03T07:10:00.000-06:00

October is a really busy month at our house. We have five birthdays, a visit from my daughter and son-in-law from Oklahoma, and a Breton (my maiden name) quilting retreat. All of it is really fun so as busy as it gets, it is exciting, too. I may not have much time to sew in the next few weeks so I really took advantage of the time this past weekend.
Friday I showed you the PamKittyMorning fabric by LakeHouse and Pam. I had to cut into it. I just had to and couldn't wait since I've been dreaming about this fabric since first seeing it from Pam. I've had sketches and ideas all set to go. The first block in my quilt is this kitty house. And look in the window.
I love the versatility of the prints, dots, geometric and floral in the line. I wanted the kitty house to be very clean with no scrappy look (this time). I had fun with the block putting the window in different place for versatility.
My next block is a churn dash featuring the strawberries in the center square. I did augment my PKM fabric with a little tiny bit of my own stash.
The letters are so cute. They appear random but hidden inside the letters it says somewhere pam kitty morning.
The strawberries are incredibly sweet. The colors are beautiful.
Everything turned out so pretty I think. I am making a row by row quilt. I am excited to make my next row of blocks.

-nanette

Fabric Friday - The Fabulous and Wonderful PKM Fabric

2011-09-30T07:29:00.000-06:00

I have some fantastic friends and I'm so glad to have the talented and beautiful Pam Kitty Morning be one of them. Pam has a new fabric line coming out in the next few weeks. And I'm so incredibly happy to have the much awaited fabric in my sewing studio. I can't wait to use it.

Pam's line of fabric is from LakeHouse Dry Goods. You can go look at the perfect coloration there. I'm going to show most of the 60+ fabrics in this post today. Can you believe there are that many fabrics in this line? And they are top quality yard goods people. Top.
I love to audition fabric. I think this may stem back to the endless hours spent in fabric stores with my mother when I was a little girl, and maybe also back to my Barbie outfit making days. I spent a long time in the studio putting different combinations of Pam's fabric together in small groups of 5 and 6 dreaming of the blocks I can make.
Each time I grouped pieces together I would think "now THAT is my favorite combo".
But then I'd play some more and find another grouping of colors and styles I loved equally or even more.
Oh gosh, the colors kill. They are really so incredibly pretty. And they go with so much of what I already have on my fabric shelves.
The yellows are buttery and the pinks are perfect. The greens are gorgeous. The prints are a hint of vintage with a lot of romance. Roses, daisies, dots, gingham...all delicious.
My favorite fruit is strawberry and look above - strawberries! I can tell you my first project will have strawberries in them.
I have anticipated Pam's fabric since spring Market. And I've got drawings in my sketch pad just for them. But now I'm like a shy designer. Will what I make show off the prints to their full beauty?The scale is petite and sweet. The selection is vast and full of surprises.I'm pretty impressed with LakeHouse quality and selection. It makes me wonder what Pam might follow this line up with.
My photography isn't fantastic so you might look at all the colorways and prints at FQS. I like how they group their fabric together on their website.
I had so much fun playing with the colors and prints. Now I get to cut and sew. Thanks so much Pam for sending me the fabric. I love it and you've shot it out of the ballpark. You're the best.

-nanette

Farmer's Wife Quilt Blocks

2011-09-28T09:22:00.006-06:00

I want to show you my progress on Farmer's Wife. I think what I like most is the creativity I can put into my blocks by matching fabrics together and putting them in the block structure. It really is fun. I get quilter's ADD if I have to make the same block over and over. You know what I mean. I also have to thank the girls I met with last week on our sew day and Lori in particular for her tutorials. If you want to start this project you have to go to Lori's blog and use her tips to make the Farmer's Wife blocks. She really has the best way to put this project together.
#95 Temperance Tree - There are 2 blocks that look almost the same. And silly me, I think this is the right block. I used Lori's block method to guide my own. This was fun and most of my points are there.
Yes I went for the easy blocks first. (lazy me) This one was great to make - #84 Spool.
This was my first block I made - #56 Maple Leaf. Again, I used Lori's idea to make it scrappy. I love the fabrics in the block.
This is a block I made at home, on my own, I might say! It is - #2 Autumn Tints. I fussy cut some of my vintage fabric to star in this block.
#3 Basket - Well you can see the handle isn't on right. And I made the top part wrong twice. I ran out of fabric so I made it scrappy. I should take the handle off. But I probably won't.
Block #4 Basket Weave - I made this at home, too. And I managed to make it 100% right.
My block is tipped so it doesn't really look like the book block but It is correct, except for the seams being a big off - #6 Big Dipper.
Block #1 Attic Windows - and yes this one is not correct. My blue parts kind of blend into the center square and they are pointed backwards or upside down or something. But seriously, no one should really notice. And I'm not out for perfect. I'm out for enjoying the process and being happy with my finished product.
Block #16 Calico Puzzle - I made this at our sew day. It turned out okay.
Block #54 Kitchen Woodbox - now this one is not correct. I did not put the end corners and left it really square. When I made the block at the sew day at RaeAnn's we thought it looked cute just as is, so I skipped the last step. I like a touch of black in a quilt. That center fussy cut makes it kind of look hex signy.
Block #81 Snowball - turned out cute I think. Again, fussy cutting is the heart of this block. I like that.
Block #12 Broken Sugar Bowl - the first block I made and I forgot that the blocks will be set on point so my corner fussy cut pieces are turned wrong. It doesn't bother me too much. And otherwise the block is perfect. Maybe I should pick those 2 squares out? Nahh
Block #10 Bowtie - super easy and showcases the beautiful fabrics. Such fun to make a block like this.

I'm on my way here people. I am enjoying this project after all. I have other things on my sewing table and other obligations coming up so I'll work on this when I can and keep showing progress. I'm motivated now but when the hard blocks come on, it may get tough.

-nanette

Farmer's Wife Quilt Day

2011-09-26T08:14:00.000-06:00

I did cave on my decision to pass on the Farmer's Wife project that is sweeping the quilting nation. I'm very glad I decided to join everyone.
In talking with Lori we decided to organize a sewing day so she could help me get going on my Farmer's Wife quest and we thought we would ask some friends to sew, too. Well it almost didn't happen but we persisted. Our sew day was last week. And I took my FW book and trusty grid lined notebook along with me.
The sweet and adorable RaeAnn invited us to her home to sew. And we gladly accepted. (See RaeAnn above with her completed tomato pincushion - more on that later in the post.)
RaeAnn showed me her newly sewn apron (on chair) and her new pattern that she designed and created - a purse quilt. Isn't is so incredible. I love it.
We brought some other projects to share. See Lori hard at work on her applique for one of her fall Quilt Market projects sitting in the background. Kim is sitting at the table and pointing is Judi. I think that is Beth with the hands in motion. Not pictured is Paula and Susann.
RaeAnn had the table set for our Farmer's Wife theme day. We had fat quarter napkins and drank out of mason jars, which was part of our favor. We laughed, cried, dined and stitched.
We had a lovely lunch. See Beth, Judi, Lori and Susann. RaeAnn had prizes and decorations. She went all out.
This is my cute prize from Susann. Thanks Susann. I'm hoarding the gumballs.Lori gave us this cute kit in a container. It is for Lori's tomato pincushions. Packaged so cute.
Here is my finished product. I started it at our sew day and finished it at home. It is darling. She talks about them in THIS blog post. Thanks Lori. I love my tomato.
RaeAnn had filled the top lid of the mason jar we drank from at lunch with buttons and a thimble. Genius, huh. Thanks RaeAnn.Kim gave us all kits to make her sewing lanyards. The button is magnetized so our pins or needle will stick right where we can get to them and our scissors will be right at hand. I couldn't wait to come home and make up my kit. I've already loved using it. Thanks Kim.
Here are 2 of my Farmer's Wife blocks I made during the sew day. I really love using my vintage kitchen and "Nanette" fabrics to make the blocks. It makes the project so much fun. More on those later in the week.

Thanks again girls.

-nanette

Fabric Friday - Colorways II

2011-09-23T06:52:00.001-06:00

Last Friday I told you I was enjoying fabric in different colorways. Which is kind of a change from my extreme scrappy roots. Today indulge me a bit more as I show you some really pretty florals in different beautiful colors.
This is a thicker weight cotton/linen blend. But not too thick to use in a quilt. They remind me of a thicker feed sack type fabric. I think the these are just so pretty.
More fabrics in the same prints but different colors. Out of all 7 fabrics, I really think that green is my favorite.
These little cute cherry/florals remind me so much of Pam's new fabric coming out. I have to wait a bit longer for her fabric. So these lovelies will have to comfort me until I can get my hands on Pam's.
Monday I'll show you pics from my Wednesday friend sew day and my progression of FWQA blocks so far.

-nanette

Farmer's Wife Play Day

2011-09-21T08:10:00.000-06:00

Today is a play sew day with a few friends at RaeAnn's house. We've been trying to play this for a couple months, at least. You know what it is like to fit everyone's schedule. And at one point we weren't sure we could pull it off so close to fall Quilt Market.
I'm going to be making a few Farmer's Wife blocks. This is just for fun sewing. Lori will be there to help and encourage me. Her tutorials for Farmer's Wife are awesome. Lori is busy getting ready for market so I'll try not to hog her time.
You know we like to exchange little treats for each other. These are my little prizes for my friends.
I got these vintage image coasters at Robot Candy's Etsy Shop. They are heat proof and will brighten up any table.
I pulled some fabric to take with me to use for the Farmer's Wife blocks. I decided to use fabric that made me super super duper happy.
And I decided to use some vintage kitchen fabric. I've been complaining that I haven't played enough lately with my vintage kitchen stash. I plan on some fussy cutting, smiling, chatting, sewing, eating and enjoying today. I wish you could all be there.

-nanette

All I Got Done This Weekend Was This Cute Skirt

2011-09-19T08:08:00.000-06:00

We had my granddaughter Allison from Thurs-Sunday. She was so much fun but so busy, too. It is nice to have help from some of my kids and husband. I have to say I don't know how I raised 8.
Saturday I had a few things to do at work so I took Allison with me. Here she is sitting primly at my desk. The expression on her face makes me laugh.
The only thing I got done in 4 days was this little skirt I made for Allison. Shelbie and I purchased the ruffle fabric when we were at quilt market in May. It is sold online, too, at the ruffle fabric website. The skirt was so easy. I measured how long I needed it on Allison and cut it 32" wide. Then I gathered the top and used my double needle to stitch the fabric to the elastic waistband. After that there was just one seam down the back. No hemming. Imagine that.
I have a few different colors of the ruffle fabric. I think little pants for Allison made from ruffle fabric would be cute. I may have to do that next time.
This is usually my view of Allison since as a nearly 2 year old she seems to have unlimited energy. We took her to church with us in her little skirt. That was something!

-nanette

Fabric Friday - Colorways

2011-09-16T08:04:00.003-06:00

I'm pulling fabrics to use for either more of my GaGa eyes or for my new project, Farmer's Wife. You know I had to eventually jump on the bandwagon for Farmer's Wife. As PKM would say "all the cool girls are doing it!". I'm not going to make the mistake I made with the Dear Jane quilt - choosing fabric I don't relate to. My Farmer's Wife will be all Nanette for all blocks with a bit of the farmer thrown in.
I love to collect pieces in all the color options available, when I find a print I like. I love dots and I was really drawn to the colors, the scale of dots and the loose weave, almost feedsack quality of this fabric. Isn't that gold dot great? Well, they all are.
I wish I had the above fabric in yards and yards. It is so pretty in all the colors and the roses are just so 'me'. I totally love the flower-on-check design.
I'm always pulled towards gingham. Sometimes gingham is slick, or has polyester or has a sheen to it I don't like. This is quilt weight gingham with a tiny bit of feedsack thrown in. The colors are really perfect, too.

I'm not exactly sure what project all these will be used in but they will not be sitting on the shelf for long. I acquired them through China and if I could get larger yardage pieces in them, I would. I'll be happy with just a taste of each color for now.

Speaking of color and things I love...Check out the A-Two website of Atskuko Matsuyama. I go pretend shopping there and I would real shop there if I could speak Japanese. I want to jump into the website and get some of everything. In particular, I fell in love with the Rainbow Macaroons. They look kind of hard to make but I'd love to try. I looked on Etsy to see if there were any ready made for sale. No dice. If anyone knows of a pattern to make a zipper macaroon, please let me know.

-nanette

Vintage Quilt

2011-09-14T07:02:00.000-06:00

I have always wanted to make a reproduction vintage butterfly quilt with black blanket stitching. And now I have a real one.
When I was in Wyoming for vacation my sister Michelle gave me a vintage quilt that she found abandoned, forgotten and dirty. Imagine my surprise when Michelle gave me this freshly washed and virtually unused vintage quilt. I love it.
Because it was a flea market item we don't know the history or story behind the sweet butterflies. Each block was made by a different girl. Some of the girls were new to stitching and some look like they had experience.
I love the vintage fabrics. They are all bright and clear, still. And the butterflies have so much character. The quilt is hand quilted but has a range of stitch types so I'm sure there was several different quilters that gathered around the quilt frames many years ago.
If I had to guess I would say the blocks are made by high school girls or young mothers as a block exchange. The names of the stitchers are embroidered on the blocks. They are sweet old fashioned names most popular in the 30s. I love looking at each individual block and wishing I knew more about the history of the makers. Thank you so much for rescuing this gem and giving it to me, Michelle. I will love displaying it in my home.

This really makes me want to get back to using my vintage fabric stash more.

-nanette

Lady GaGa Eyes Revisited

2011-09-12T07:41:00.000-06:00

I pulled out my Material Obsession Two book and opened my box of UFO projects to make progress on my Gypsy Kisses quilt. Lori dubbed the blocks - my GaGa quilt, and you can see why.
I started working again on this during my vacation. and have almost all my black dot middle piece appliqued onto the lashes part of the GaGa eyes of the Gypsy Kisses blocks. At least all the blocks I have made so far.
This type of quilt is not easy for me and the applique dot piece had to be hand stitched into a "hole". When the side lashes are joined to the square blocks it leaves a hole in the center of the block and then appliqueing the piece into the seam allowance of the lashes is a little bit of a trick. But, I got the hang of it. Finally.
I love the combinations of fabric in my blocks.
Some kind of black and white dot fabric is in the center of all the pieces.
And some type of gray fabric makes up the end squares. I kept it really scrappy.
The bottom block above has 2 different pink strips of fabric for the lashes but I don't mind that since that would be typical for a real vintage quilt. When those quilt makers would run out of matching fabric they would just make a substitution. I like adding that quirk to my quilts sometime.
These fabrics all make me happy.
I don't know how big to make this quilt but I am pretty sure mine will be much smaller than the quilt in the book. The next step would be joining blocks together. That scares me! I hope there isn't another big time gap before you see these blocks on my blog again.

-nanette

Fabric Friday - Quilter's Linen and Sale Fabric

2011-09-09T11:05:00.000-06:00

I'm not a very modern quilter but I like a modern edge sometimes. I am really drawn to quilts around blogs that use a linen-look fabric as a plain color choice in sashing. But finding that perfect linen blend or cotton look linen is really tough. I'm just not finding exactly what I'm looking for.
Recently I purchased this Free Spirit Quilters Linen. At 54" wide it is a pretty good value and it comes in some pretty interesting colors. I purchased the gray above. But it really looks more tan with a undertone of green. Hmm. Not exactly what I thought it would look like. And I left in the wrinkles so you can see that a downside of a linen blend is that it wrinkles. The nice part about a quilter's linen is the weight is more like you'd find with a quilt grade cotton - not so thick.
I also recently purchased small quantities of sale fabric. Shops both online and in town are cutting prices to get ready for fall fabrics and Quilt Market is just around the corner, too. Above is a cute little yellow with blue flowers.
These two fabrics above are wallpaper prints from Peacock Lane. I really like them. I took the photos of the sale fabric against the gray quilter's linen. I like how it looks.
I took this photo of 2 of my finished mosaic blocks against the quilter's linen. I think it really looks great with the green in the Denyse fabric. And in fact, a true gray color wouldn't work as well, I think. So for today, I think I just might use this quilter's linen as sashing for the new mosaic quilt. We'll see for sure as things progress.

-nanette

Alpine Days Quilt Show 2011

2011-09-08T07:27:00.000-06:00

Before I left for vacation, my little city had it's yearly celebration including a quilt show. There were dozens and dozens of lovely quilts. I wish you could see them all but below is a little sampling.

Aren't the quilts fantastic. I'm so lucky to be associated with great quilters.

-nanette

My Labor Day

2011-09-05T08:33:00.000-06:00

Every year at the end of summer there is always plenty to do around Labor Day. Our garden is at the peak of harvest the first part of September. Today peaches are making it a true labor filled day.
I love this vintage Labor Day image since it shows the cornucopia full of fruit and vegetables. So true.
We have Red Haven peach trees and they are so delicious this year.
So far I've made peach jam.
And I used Calli's recipe for fresh peach pie. Before I could take a photo of my pie it was completely gone. It was really delicious so I may make another one. The only thing different than Callie's instructions was I used a can of peach nectar instead of water. Go see how pretty Calli's pie is; it's much more beautiful than mine.I also spent this Labor Day weekend cutting some 2.5" squares from my Denyse Schmidt fabrics (and a few others thrown in). This is my cutting table after messing around with those squares.On my design plate I laid out one of the blocks I'm going to sew. I really love patchwork. I guess I'm just a square at heart. I've made several mosaic quilts like this one above. And I thought it would be fun to make a new quilt with the mosaic idea. My new quilt will be sashed with a light gray quilter's linen.
I have 3 mosaic blocks put together so far. This is my first block....
....2nd block....
....and the 3rd block. I'll see if I can squeeze in some non-peach time today and sew up my 4th (the one on the design plate) block and maybe a few more.

I hope you are all having a productive or restful labor day, what ever your plan may be.

-nanette

Fabric Friday = New Denyse

2011-09-02T07:35:00.001-06:00

If you haven't heard, Denyse Schmidt has a new line of fabric called Sugar Creek. It is sold exclusively at Joann's. Joann's isn't my favorite store for customer service so I was lucky my daughter Shelbie stopped by Joann's for me. And it seems this line is selling like hotcakes, just like Denyse's past fabric lines. Thanks Lori for the heads up.
The navy is my least favorite but I realize navy is showing up in lots of fabric this season. I think navy is the new black right now. I have so many ideas of things I could do with these fabrics.
The blue and green are really great together. I like all of the prints. The mix of floral with geometrics are perfect for me because I don't like matchy-matchy lines and just like past lines from Denyse, they look like they were pulled off a shelf from a vintage sewing room.
I purchased more of the green floral (so beautiful) so I can use that as a border. I don't really think these photos do the fabrics justice. They are more lovely in person.
This is my pack of fabric from Denyse's last line. I've used quite a few of them but still have bits and pieces left so I may pull a few of these and mix them with the new line. We'll see if it works out. I just love Denyse Schmidt fabric.

-nanette

Vacation

2011-08-31T10:09:00.004-06:00

It was another great week at my sister's family ranch (Stewart Crow Creek Ranch) out of Afton, Wyoming. We had a wonderful time with family. The week went so incredibly fast. And now looking at our photos I realize we took way more movies than still photos and we used my daughter Whitney's camera more so I don't have those photos to post. This will be a very quick vaca photo report.
The lake is always fun. Our family likes to spend time out on the boat, fishing and paddling around in the very very cold water.My nephew Josh, Mason Dave and SIL Christian having a "man dip" here in the lake. Dave said it was bonding time.
While we were at the ranch, a wagon train came through on the old dirt road that goes from Afton into Montpelier, Idaho commemorating how trade used to travel through those towns. The Stewart ranch is right off that road. The wagon train took kids and adults on rides.
We went into Afton a few days for supplies and lunch. We had fun going down main street with Allison. Shadow is in his bag next to Allison and Shelbie. Shadow is easy to take around and is so good in his bag. No one knows when we go into stores that we have a dog.
More main street and Allison. She wasn't sure what that big guy was doing.
We always do a craft or sewing project. We made Christmas Trees from this pattern. You can just see them sitting next to my sister Polly and her sewing machine. That was really fun. We also had a carnival for the grandchildren but I don't have photos of that (darn!).
If you remember I made myself a family history quilt from flags of my heritage. I made mini quilts for my sisters with the same flags. This is my sister Polly standing next to hers after she hung it at her house.

So back to life now. And into fall. Tomorrow is September already. I only have Mason at home and in school now. It is kind of weird but life marches on.

-nanette

I'm back....Vote for me Please

2011-08-28T03:14:00.000-06:00

I'm back people. It is kind of hard to get going again. But I'm working on it. In the mean time, please go to the Riley Blake FaceBook page and vote for my quilt (if you want to). I've entered their contest with my Cherry Cheesecake quilt. If you don't want to vote for me, vote for Robyn. Her's is great.

Thanks!

nanette

Vacation

2011-08-12T08:40:00.000-06:00

I'm going on a much needed and anticipated vacation. I will be back August 29 (I think). I hope you are all having a nice August.
-nanette

More Flag Blocks

2011-08-10T08:14:00.000-06:00

This is a continuation of my project I showed last Friday.
I showed you my Asterisk Union Jack made from the tutorial on Selvage blog found here.
The quilt made by Karen (shown above) was featured in QuiltMaker magazine. Isn't it fabulous. I really love it. I want to make this quilt.In review, I used the tutorial and changed up the size to 6.5"x9" to make the Union Jacks. And I made several of them. I'm making a tiny table top version of my personal flag quilt.
I made mini Slovakian flags in the same 6.5"x9" size. I actually used fusible for the shield, cross and mountain part of the flag. I hardly ever use fusible but for this application it worked perfectly.
I made mini Danish flags.
And I made mini USA flags. They all went together fairly quickly. Now I need to sash them, border them and machine quilt into the mini table toppers I have planned.

Sew Busy!

-nanette

Fun Stuff

2011-08-08T07:24:00.000-06:00

When I saw the covered can project on Farm Chick's blog I really wanted to make some covered cans. Serena used a small coffee can but I'm sure any can would do.
I got these new craft cans online a while ago for buttons small bits of this and that, so I decided to try making a few covered cans. I used Elmer's extra strong spray adhesive that I knew would hold fabric on metal. I used Annie's Farm Stand fabric for the body of the can. And Lori's Sew Cherry red gingham for the top, folded like a seam binding.
Recently I had lunch with Lori and Rae Ann. You know how we always bring treats to share, well I filled the cans with some little fat 16ths, trim and goodies. I think they turned out really sweet. The cans are a great idea for a make-it take-it or a n0 sew craft for friends. Anyone can make these.
Rae Ann brought Lori and me a cute box.
Inside was this big pincushion with home made pins. It is a really sweet Dresden pin design and I love the ruffle. Thanks Rae Ann.
Lori made these really great crochet apple cozies for us. I've never seen anything like it. I love that color with the red apple and the covered button gives it a nice accent. Thanks Lori.
At lunch I brought this box stuffed full of vintage aprons. The box was sent to me by Barbara, a darling blog reader who won a giveaway of market fabric recently and has been a reader of my blog for more than 3 years. It was so nice of her. The aprons are all her mother's aprons. Barbara's mom was the real life June Cleaver and wore aprons everyday (and never wore pants!). Barbara's mom recently passed away and Barbara wanted to share some of the aprons with me, Lori and Rae Ann. Wasn't that so sweet.
After lunch we oohed and ahhed over all the fabrics and the lovely mix of aprons. The aprons are keepsakes of the past made with delightful fabrics. Thank you again, Barbara for thinking of us and sharing with us. We each got to pick and choose and take some of the vintage aprons home.
While I was at lunch I picked out this really cute skirt (on sale) for Allison. I am sure the fabric cost as much as I paid for this skirt so I couldn't pass it by. It is a little big yet but will be cute on her.
Allison spent a few days at our house last week. We had a great time with her. She is obsessed with being outside. I love when she comes. She's growing up so fast.

-nanette

Fabric Friday Faux Union Jack

2011-08-05T07:25:00.001-06:00

Last month I finished my family history flag quilt and the flags were really very simple. The trickiest flag was the Union Jack. And it wasn't hard to make but while I was reading the directions and looking at the diagrams in that particular pattern I kept thinking "there is an easier way to do this". And I've been thinking about that.....

I came across PamKittyMorning's post about her asterisk block here. And she referenced a tutorial found here from Selvage Blog. So I printed off the instructions to make the asterisk block and by changing the dimensions and using some of my red and white striped fabric the asterisk became.......this very simple fussy cut Union Jack in mini flag block.
I fussy cut a red and white striped fabric. This allowed me to eliminate the step from my original Union Jack block of stitching a white fabric next to a red fabric. The instructions said to cut block 6X6". But to make it flag sized I cut the blue fabric 6x9". The intersecting stripe I cut slightly larger than the instructions in the asterisk block stated.
Looking at my red and white striped fabric that I had on hand, I realized that fussing cutting any red and white striped fabric would work to faux the white strip next to the red. (I hope this makes sense.)
I followed the simple instructions from the tutorial for making the block by cutting and then sewing as it went along. I want to make lots more of these little Union Jacks. Sometimes my stash comes in handy when I can just get an idea, go to my shelves, and make something as inspiration hits. Go red and white fabric!

-nanette

L is for Laurie

2011-08-03T07:39:00.000-06:00

Early in June this year my 7th daughter (and 2nd to youngest) Laurie graduated from high school. With ropes no less (is that what they call those?) Yayy. I know, it is August and I'm finally showing graduation pictures. But there is a reason for this.
I love this photo of Laurie mostly because it is one of the only times I've seen her in heels. See that basketball in the background? That is much more descriptive of Laurie's personality than those heels.
Laurie is one of those great kids that I take no pats on the back for. She pretty much came that way. Laurie keeps the family in line and I'm grateful for that.
Here is my reason for finally posting her graduation - I finished her graduation/dorm quilt. Obviously Laurie's name was the inspiration for the quilt.
The Ls are backwards and forwards and sideways, sorta. The border is kind of Nintendo inspired. See, I can do modern! Modern was the biggest stipulation when Laurie told me what she wanted in a dorm quilt.
She wanted modern boxy quilting, too. And she likes purple. She could probably be my complete and total opposite in textiles. And sometimes in personality. I certainly didn't earn a full freshman year tuition scholarship from the University of Utah School of Business when I was in college. (sorry for the bragging) She starts school in 2 weeks! Yipes.
I just get such a kick out of these photos with heels that I had to post another one. It makes me laugh. And see her beautiful hair? She didn't get that thick chestnut hair from my side of the family. But her hair is naturally curly like mine. Can you believe she straightens it? Crazy. I'm really going to miss Laurie, even though she's only going to be 45 min. away.

L is for Laurie.

-nanette

Sew Cherry Cheese Cake Quilt

2011-08-01T07:44:00.001-06:00

I have another finish to show. It feels really good to have finished such a fun quilt with great design with fabric and pattern by my friend Lori Holt.
The fabric is from Lori's line with Riley Blake. I loved making this quilt and can't wait to hang it up in my home.
I am really happy I used the striped fabric for the border. I like these photos of the quilt Shelbie took in our front yard.In the corners of the outside border I used the red gingham squares in the corners and I bound it in the red gingham.
I used a really nice crisp vintage sheet for the back of the quilt. The sheet is in great shape and reminds me of the thick linens of my childhood. The daisies on the sheet are perfect to tie in the daisies appliqued on the front of the quilt.
I really love my quilt and I'm so glad it is all done. I'm going to enter it in the Alpine Days Quilt Show on August 13.

-nanette

Fabric Friday Japanese Gems

2011-07-29T08:28:00.002-06:00

Back to my roots today - my love of Japanese reproduction fabric.
I love strawberries in fabric. This fabric above in 2 colorways is from a line called Very Cotton. It is sweet dotted fabric with ribbons intersecting. Very unique and pretty I think.
This is another fabric from that same line of Very Cotton. The strawberries are very sweet.
This fabric I posted upside down, oh well, is retro kitchen items by Cosmo. I like it in both colorways. If I find a bit of fabric I like very much, then it is that much better in 2 colorways.
This little rose stripe I found in 3 colorways. I love all the colors, too. This line is called Sevenberry.
I've used this little baby matryoshka face fabric in several projects. Most recently I used it in a baby quilt that I'm currently binding. I like everything about this fabric. It makes me feel like I must hoard it because it is hard to find.

It has been kind of a crappy week with a summer cold for me. I'm kind of out of it. Hopefully next week will be better.

-nanette

My Family HIstory Flag Quilt

2011-07-25T08:06:00.002-06:00

I've recently picked up 4 out of 5 latest quilts from the quilter. And now I'm in the process of binding. Binding is "in front of the TV work". Good thing too, because I caught a summer cold and that is about all I've felt like doing the past few days. The first quilt I finished binding was my Family History Personal Flag quilt.I had a swirl/star pattern machine quilted into the quilt. Kind of hard to see in photos.
I really like how it turned out. It is a full sized quilt - just big enough to use or to hang.
I'm really proud to show off my family heritage. I think my parents would both be really proud of the quilt and to have their parents represented in my quilt.
I like the stars in the top and bottom borders, too. It makes me want to make an entire quilt with red and blue stars.
And I like the roses in the blue border. I think it pulls everything together.
I bound it in a red with smaller white dots, in contrast to the sashing of white with large dots. The backing is a blue and white gingham I had on hand.
We had a visit with my daughter Chelsey and granddaughter Allison recently (Allison's mom is my daughter Whitney). Chelsey lives in California. And when she comes to Utah we love to have Whitney bring Allison over, too. This photo was taken right after Aunt Chelsey cut Allison's hair. It turned out really cute.

-nanette

Go! Baby Winner for Friday

2011-07-22T08:29:00.004-06:00

I loved reading all the comments from the Go!Baby giveaway. I know I always say this but it is true: I wish everyone could win. Thank you everyone for entering. I know that the Accuquilt company will continue to have these giveaways from time to time so I hope you keep watching for them. I'm sure the Accuquilt people want you to dive in a get one for yourself somehow. I printed out the names from the comments and randomly picked one.

The winner of the Go! Baby is Kama from the blog Quilteroo. Kama said: " That's awesome! I would love to win! I just registered my e-mail address. Do you get a copy of the people that register because when I pulled up the link, it said Freda's Hive on it. Thought that was cool. Anyway, my fingers are crossed that you'll pick me!! :) "

I'll shoot an email to Kama and the Accuquilt people will send her a brand new little Go! Baby.

Again, thanks everyone for playing along. Next week I'll have finished quilts to show. I'm going to spend my weekend binding, mostly.

-nanette

Go Baby Giveaway! Buttons and Bows Quilt

2011-07-18T07:11:00.000-06:00

Hi everyone. Time for a great giveaway. I have been wanting a Go! Baby cutter for a while now and I finally have one. And now it is your chance to get one too. First I'm going to tell you how to enter the giveaway and then I'm going to show you what fun you can have using the Go!Baby.
There are just 2 things you have to do to enter the giveaway. 1. You need to visit the AccuQuilt website and register your email to get their free patterns. Hey, free is great. Go HERE now and then come back for the rest of the post. 2. At the end of the post leave me a comment telling me you want to win a Go!Baby and that you have registered for the free patterns to your email address. If you have already registered your email at AccuQuilt previously then just let me know in your comment.
Before you leave your comment I want to show you what I've done with my Go!Baby. I have 3 of the Go!Baby Dies. The one I chose to use first is the tumbler.
It is so easy to use. You put your fabric on the bottom die cutting plate and then the plastic cover goes on top of the fabric. With a short crank of the handle your fabric is cut into your desired shape. It reminds me of making sugar cookies with the cut out shape and the little bit of left over around it.
I made the tumbler shapes out of my Joann's Denise Schmidt fabric.
I used my design board to lay out my tumblers into a bow tie pattern.
Then I sewed the tumblers into rows vertically. This is my first set of 4 rows. I am not sure yet how big I want to make this project.
To add some fun to the bow tie pattern I wanted to put buttons in the middle. But I used cheater buttons from fabric. I've been wanting to use this Yuwa fabric by Suzuko Koseki for some time now and this seemed the perfect project.
I appliqued the buttons onto the center seam of the tumbler bow ties made with matching fabric.
The buttons look so real but if I decide to use this as a baby quilt it will be child safe. I think it turned out really cute.
There is so much to do with the Go!Baby. I am excited to use it for upcoming projects.

Now leave me a comment telling me you registered for the free patterns through email and that you want to win a Go!Baby. I'll pick a winner with a random number generator on Friday July 22, 2011. Good luck everyone. The giveaway is open to everyone. Check back on Friday.

-nanette

Fabric Friday - Inspiration without Fabric

2011-07-15T07:18:00.001-06:00

It is Friday but I have no fabric to show today. Instead I thought I would show things inside and outside that inspire me.
I have red roses in several areas of my yard. I love the color of a red rose. It is so pure. And red is so beautiful, especially set with green. Red and green don't always have to say Christmas.
I love fabric with flowers on it. Don't we all? My yard is quite busy, just like my quilts. Lots of untamed growth.
My hollyhocks inspired my post theme today. I really love roses but I love hollyhocks more. I got my first hollyhock seeds from Jeanette at Piper's Quilts and Comforts in the Salt Lake area. Jeanette has fantastic hollyhocks growing to the side of the shop. I also got my first Japanese fabric at Piper's.
My lamb's ear flowers cover an area of my front walkway. The frosty green stems are not the most beautiful flowers but I knew I had to plant them after a visit to Temple Square in down town Salt Lake City one year. Being a city girl I had never seen this plant before. The temple grounds are inspiring year round but summer is the most beautiful I think. I find the texture of the lamb's ear most inspiring.Things inside my house inspire me, too. I love fabric with jumbo polka dots. Teapots inspire me. I think they are such a beautiful shape. Old buildings inspire me. This photo was taken years ago while on a visit to my roots in Pennsylvania in front of the old Reading Hospital where I was born. My mom (Freda) is with me in front of the building in the photo.
The teapot cross stitch was given to me by my mom probably 20 years ago or more. This vintage kitchen fabric quilt hangs in my kitchen. Old kitchen fabric and wallpaper inspire me. Obviously.
More teapot/teacups. This apple quilt is in my family room. The apples are from a group block exchange we did several years ago in our Alpine Quilt Group. My friends inspire me. When I look at this quilt it helps me think of the many ways friends inspire me.
More teapots made with Aunt Grace fabric. The rebirth of 30's fabric is one of the reasons I started making quilts with abandon.
I got these bowls at Amazon. They are new but retro. The shape, texture and colors of the bowls inspire me.
Cheaper than the real vintage bowls, these are microwavable and dishwasher safe. I love to put dishes and kitchen things in my quilts.

What inspires you?

Have a nice mid summer weekend. Can you believe we are half through July already? I always think of that on July 15 - Mr. Hive's birthday.

-nanette

Baby Quilt Finishes X 2

2011-07-13T06:11:00.001-06:00

I'm still on a finishing roll with 2 baby quilt tops done and ready for quilting.
If you've been watching Lori's blog you can see she's got a tutorial for mini design boards. What a great idea. Well I have a table design board that is brand new. I've been wanting a frame forever to make a design board like the one that sits by Lori's cutting table. For my birthday Shelbie made me this design board above. And I love it. Thanks Shelbie.
I've been looking at the quilt made by the amazingly talented Kerri at Lovely Little Handmades. You can see her quilt here. Go look at it. Then come back. Ok? I love love Kerri's quilt. I pinned it at pinterest and have printed it out to gaze at while I made my blocks.
I made 2 little borders for my baby quilts. This quilt worked up so fast I made 2 in an afternoon. Seriously. So simple and with such beautiful impact.
I love the soft plain fabrics and the assortment of prints. I made my quilt just slightly different but I used her 4.5" x 4 block size for each color and I quick cornered my blocks with 2.5" squares. I love it so much I want to make a full sized quilt with this idea. I'll show you more when I get them quilted. Can't wait.

You should make one too! It only takes an afternoon. And can make a little dent in your stash.

-nanette

I am a Finisher

2011-07-11T07:44:00.000-06:00

I say I'm a finisher not to brag (Heavens No!) but to make myself feel like I'm accomplishing something in 2011. I have been on a finish roll this month and I have to tell you it feels really good.
I have a difficult time positioning quilt tops for photographing previous to the machine quilting. They are floppy and flimsy (yes, I love that name) and I don't like taking photos of them because of that. I had my daughter Laurie hold this one up for me but it doesn't do it justice because you really can't see the borders well.
This is my Cherry Cheesecake quilt top made from my Lori Holt pattern. I am so excited to be finished and get it sent off to the quilter. I really like the stripes in Lori's line of fabric so i wanted to use that piece for my outer border.
I used the red gingham for the corner pieces and I like how it turned out. I'm going to bind it in the red gingham when I get it home from the quilter. I think the red gingham will make the binding pop. I love this quilt. It was a joy to make. I must say the daisies did take me longer than I thought they would but I adore them.

-nanette

Birds and Bees Fabric Friday

2011-07-08T07:24:00.000-06:00

I love novelty fabrics. Today is Fabric Friday featuring the birds and the bees.
This new retro novelty fabric by Alexander Henry has everything. It is kitchen fabric with letters, flowers and birds. The teapot and rolling pin are great. But of course so are the birds. Above is a chicken and 2 nesting birds.
The owl is really sweet surrounded by vegetables and fruit. The mushrooms are so 60s - 70s.
This fabric called Appleville was seen at market by Lori and me while we walked up and down the aisles. We both wanted some but they didn't have it out at market. However, it came out right afterwards. Appleville is really cute. The cardinal and blue birds in it are very sweet.
This is a new fabric by Free Spirit and Valorie Wells called Wrenly. This is just an image. I'll pick up a fat quarter when I see it. It reminds me of some vintage fabric I have tucked away.
I've been collecting bee fabric for 10+ years now. I have several beehive wall hangings and a full sized beehive quilt. I like to put a bee in my quilts whenever possible too. These bees are very whimsical.
More whimsy. I like bees with that novelty flair that aren't very realistic looking but more story book.
Look at the cute faces on these bees flying inside and around the honeycomb.
This is one of my favorite fabrics. It incorporates some of my fabric likes including strawberries, cherries, gingham, dots, flowers, hexagons and the bees. Hexagons are also fun to put in quilts, I think.

Happy Weekend everyone. Next week I'll show you my next 2 finished flimsies. I am working on the backs for the tops and need to press them before delivering to the quilter. I have my quilting designs all in mind.

-nanette

Personal History Flag Flimsy - Check

2011-07-05T07:58:00.001-06:00

I've been working all year to make my 2011 Personal Flag Quilt that represents me and my family heritage. It's been a joy to explore my family history and the flags from those countries. I was inspired by Amy and her Union Jack blocks and her several flag quilts.
And I'm really happy to have finished my flimsy! I've worked on this project just in the background of other quilts and bags. It has evolved without a clear picture of what I wanted the finished project to look like. Adding the little stars was something I thought of mid project.
I really like how it turned out and now I can't wait to get it quilted. Figuring out what quilting pattern that will compliment the flags and stars is my next step.
The quilt ended up bigger than I thought it would be but I'm happy with the size at this point. It is in between a full and queen sized quilt.
I like all the different colors of red and blue in the quilt. My Union Jack, USA, Danish and Slovakian blocks seem to all work together. I love the dots, too. I used fabrics that really speak about my perspective and that enhances the personality of the quilt for me.
Thanks to Amy for inspiring me. Isn't it great to open up an Internet page and be transported into a project that brings passion and joy.

-nanette

Happy Independence Day

2011-07-01T09:48:00.002-06:00

Taking a couple days off to sew, relax and be with family. Hope you all have a good weekend full of peace and with those you love.

-nanette

June Alpine Quilt Group

2011-06-29T11:27:00.009-06:00

I've been delinquent from our local Quilt Group for so many meetings. It seems something comes up either at the last moment, I'm too tired after work, or I just plain forget. So I really made an effort to get there this time, even though it was tough. And it was great. I was happy to see friends and get a dose of quilt injection.
We always have show-n-tell first. So these first quilts were from group members. Love the flag.
A Jan Patek design in lovely dark colors.
Embroidery placed in a quilt.
A quilt made with hopes to inspire a boy baby.
Love this "Going to Market" quilt. A favorite pattern.
Melissa's quilt. Monkey wrench I think? Not sure. Looks hard.
Aniva's flimsy.
Another Aniva flimsy ready for quilting.
Amber from A Little Bit Biased and her grandmother GiGi presented our trunk show. Amber's quilt pattern company is named after her grandmother. GiGi started out the show.
GiGi lived in Hawaii for 25 years and was the president of the LQG for a few years. She made this wonderful Hawaiian quilt. Fabulous!
She has been featured in a quilt magazine.
And her quilts are ALL HAND QUILTED!
This was my favorite from the show of GiGi's. Look at that hand quilting. It makes the whole design pop. The motion is wonderful. No wonder it was a winner at the Springville Quilt Show.
Amber was next and showed us some of her quilts. Amber lives in Alpine and has a cute family and works at the LQS, Just Sew.
This quilt used all dot fabrics.
This is Amber's first quilt made with GiGi's help.
This is a flimsy of GiGi's. I was talking (my bad) so I didn't hear everything but isn't this amazing.
Amber and GiGi have similar quilts made like this.
This is Amber's zig-zag quilt. Also a rainbow.
Sweet quilt by Amber and I was negligent in my photo taking. You can see I sat in the middle/back. But Amber is far right with white shirt. She's a cutie.
Love the tight snow balls from Amber.
This is a pattern of Amber's made in this colorway.
And then made in this colorway. Both beautiful.
I really like this wall hanging. It is so cute and the fabric enhances the pattern. It is an Amber design.
Another quilt and pattern by Amber. Love love this one.
Another Amber quilt and a pattern.And another Amber design. Looks hard but worth it.
This is my favorite quilt of Amber's. When I went to Quilt Market and visited Amber in her booth I decided I wanted to make this quilt for a boy grandson/grandnephew when and if that happens. And if not, I'll make it anyway.
At the end of the night Amber had a drawing for free patterns. And guess what?! My name was called first. I was lucky enough to get my 3 favorite Amber pattern designs. I really love them. Fabulous. Thanks so much Amber. Loved the trunk show from GiGi and Amber.
Cindy from Riley Blake fabrics was there with the wonderful Riley Blake bike and I was lucky enough to get a Roly Poly of the really cute Christmas Fabric called Christmas Candy. Lucky me. It is July and time to think of Christmas, right? Cindy told our group about the contest going on at Riley Blake for great prizes including the cute bike. Contest rules are here. All you have to do is submit a photo with your favorite quilt made from Riley Blake fabric. I have got to finish Lori's Cherry Cheesecake quilt so I can enter! I am sure I will make the deadline. Speaking of my quilt...I gotta go work on appliqueing those daisies. Have a great day.

-nanette

To Make or to Buy?

2011-06-27T06:56:00.000-06:00

With increasing cost of fabric and materials along with counting my precious time, I've sometimes thought, "should I make this or buy this?" when I see something I feel I want or need.

At Quilt Market Lori Holt had the cutest vinyl shopping bag and I asked her where she got it. She bought it at the check out for $1.00 at TJ Maxx. It was kind of a patchwork pattern vinyl and so cute, especially at that price.When I had some time I went to TJ Maxx and at the check-out area I looked for Lori's vinyl bag. Of course they were out of stock. But they had some similar vinyl bags in other patterns. Again, for $1.00, how could you go wrong? So I picked up a couple bags and have used them for shopping and moving things from place to place.

I don't know if you realize but oil cloth and vinyl coated fabric is becoming more and more popular. In fact, your favorite fabric is likely out or coming in in a vinyl covered version. Jennifer Paganelli has some really cute vinyl covered fabric out right now. All the cool designers are doing it. Riley Blake is coming out with their best lines in a vinyl version. So I've been thinking I want to use some of that laminated fabric and make some bags.
I actually have some laminated fabric and oil cloth I hadn't used on hand. I thought, why not make a shopping bag. And I did. But it was more work than I thought it would be. Anytime I make something new or different it always takes me longer than I think. I purchased cotton webbing for the handles since I really don't like how the synthetic webbing feels on my hands. You can find that on etsy or a google search. And the handles on the TJ Maxx bag were too long. Making a bag let me customize the handles.
Of course I think mine is more stylish than the purchased bag. I used several different patterns and pattern ideas to make my bag and didn't follow 1 single pattern. I had purchased an oilcloth bag pattern but all I really used from that was the size and the idea to baste seams with applique glue.
I created the bottom (with heavy duty interfacing) my own way and constructed it in a similar method to other tote bags I've made. This bag is not lined however, obviously.
I had this premade decorative seam binding for a while now and I've been wanting to use it. I like the accent and how it is similar but different than the bag materials. And of course I really like the green hounds tooth on the sides of the bag.
I will make more similar laminated bags. After all, Lori has laminated fabric coming out and I will want to use that. Next time though, I'll change some things and I think it won't take as long to make my own shopping tote. But, a few $1.00 bags from TJ Maxx can't be a bad thing to have around.

-nanette

Fabric Friday and Floss

2011-06-24T07:43:00.000-06:00

When I was at spring Quilt Market I met lots of fabulous quilters and blog friends. One of them was sweet and talented Sharon, formerly of Red Geranium Cottage and now of Daisy Cottage Quilting. Sharon is loads of fun and those of you familiar with her blog already know that.
Sharon has some great things at her new store. One thing that I really like is this Lecien yarn died fabric. It is like homespun fabric only fabulous. It is smooth and soft and has no wrong side. It is great for making little kitchen towels, embroidering and just where you don't want a wrong side to show. It really works great for any project. I needed some yellow yarn dyed and Sharon sent me this beautiful set of fabrics in delicious colors. Thanks Sharon.
I also expressed interest in some embroidery thread since this is going to be my hobby away from quilting (I've decided). I really am lousy at embroidery but one of my sewing room goals for 2011 was to make stitch embroidery projects and get better. Sharon sent me this really lovely buttery embroidery floss/thread imported from Australia. Don't those Aussies do the best embroidery! I'm excited to use this. Thanks so much Sharon. I believe in good tools. And this Cosmo thread is going to be a great embroidery tool when I get going, right!? Nice colors and it is such good quality. This is not your grandmother's floss.
Little did I know when I started dreaming of my new embroidery hobby that Lori had a custom giftie for me. Look how cute that bucket is. It is a beautiful bucket full of my new embroidery hobby.
Lori thought of everything. She is a queen of embroidery. She put in her favorite flour sack towels, her favorite frame and her favorite needles. A perfect marriage for my new perfect floss.
In the bucket were these rolled up papers.I won't unroll all of them to show you but they are vintage embroidery patterns ready for me to trace and make. I can stitch kitchen towels or even turn the patterns into quilt blocks. Thanks so much Lori. I'm really excited to build my stitching skills. I have a little book of stitching directions I can tuck into my on the go bucket. Fun.
Now for some Allison time. My friend Diane, who has her own super cute little grand-toddler, was saying I could up my nanny brag level on the blog. So here goes. She's in her ball pit that Aunt Tracey gave her looking deceptively tame.
Allison in a moment of angst. Toddlers lead the most stressful lives.
Oh I know how to spoil her. However, she started eating it from the cone side right after taking this photo.
And she's our little dirty faced princess. That is the life of a toddler. Your face is always dirty but everyone is there to spoil and give you attention. Life is good when you are 21 months old.

-nanette

-nanette

Ironing

2011-06-22T06:22:00.000-06:00

I've been a Rowenta iron gal for about 12+ years. I started with a really nice Rowenta my SIL gave me for my birthday. It was a steam generator iron, nice but pricey. It lasted quite a while with alot of abuse but after about 5-6 years it got a huge hole in the water well after one bad fall. And although I loved the well of water and ready steam, it was too big for me to use on my smaller ironing board in my sewing room. So, I chose to replace it with a smaller Rowenta. I always have 2 irons/boards being used. One for the family to iron clothes and 1 in my sewing room. So over the years I've probably gone through about 5 Rowenta irons. I am kind of hard on irons.Right now family Rowenta iron is starting to spit a little but we are dealing with it and using it anyway. However, my sewing room iron (the most crutial) completely stopped working while stunt sewing for Lori just days before Quilt Market. I cannot go without a good iron next to my machine.

Most of us have seen that Yellow Oliso iron on Fons and Porter's TV show. It is pretty beautiful. And I was completely taken in by watching the mesmerizing up and down of the lift. But at between $169-199 that yellow iron is not in my price range.
So I found this iron made by Oliso, too, with the same lift technology, and at a more affordable price. It arrived at my house a couple days before Quilt Market. I didn't have a chance to really try it out before that.When I went to Quilt Market one of the booths I really wanted to visit was the Oliso booth to talk about what the difference was between a $50 blue Oliso and a nearly $200 yellow Oliso, other than the color. I was really disappointed in the sales pitch. The person was more interested in selling Lori the yellow iron than talking to me about advantages of Oliso irons over others on the market. The only thing I came away with was there are different hole placements where steam comes out in the different Oliso models and the sales person said that the blue Oliso steam would distort my quilt blocks. Hmmm. I will say when I iron quilt blocks or seams I don't hold my iron in one place so the holes/steam idea didn't really make sense to me. Maybe I iron completely wrong?
I've been using the blue Oliso for about a month now. It is pretty good. It doesn't spit. The water well is nice and big (bigger than my last Rowenta) and I have to fill it less. I like the steam it generates. I do steam when I sew, even though I know some quilters say it is a no-no. I would even say I like the feel of this iron and steam better than my last Rowenta. The iron heats up really fast. I like that a lot. Of course it auto turns off/on. I give it a 7.5/10.
I'm not 100% sold on the lift idea/mechanism. The lift occurs when you take your hand off the handle. And if you are ironing a long chain of sewing blocks, it is really handy. But that said, there is a lag in when you put your hand on the iron handle and when the mechanism retracts. If you are a fast ironer, it can pull up the fabric into the mechanism. This has happened a couple times to me. But I am getting used to it. So I do like the iron on the whole but I like it at $50. I would not pay $169 or more for the yellow color and the holes for steam positioned differently. But that's just me. Maybe someone else thinks it is worth it?
Recently I made 4 napkins out of a homespun type fabric and some beautiful premade crochet edged seam binding. It required a lot of ironing/pressing. It would be nice to disengage the lift mechanism working on a project like this with a fragile edge.
However, it turned out well. I love little projects like this napkin project above.
If I had to do it over again, I think I would still choose the blue Oliso. I think the pros outweigh the cons at the lower price. Am I too picky?

-nanette

Hives

2011-06-20T07:36:00.002-06:00

Periodically I change my little entryway set-up for seasons and times. Recently I went with a Hive theme. I have such great bee and hive related items. It makes me happy to see some of them out for display. I have quite a collection and below are just a few of my items.
This is how it looks today when you come in my front door.

My in-laws gave me the hive with the drink spout. That will be fun to use. They also gave me the hive canister jars. I put candy in them and now Allison discovered where the candy is kept.
I have the bee cake saver, bee plates and bee vase out, too. You can't see the plates too well in this photo but they are definitely bee and hive related.
I really love this quilt. And I'm going to remake it. I have some bee fabric I'm dying to use.I even changed the quilt hanging on my sewing room wall this weekend. All things Hive!

-nanette

Fabric Friday with Red Rose Farm

2011-06-17T06:21:00.000-06:00

I was lucky enough to spend time with the famous and lovely Elizabeth of The Late Bloomer. Elizabeth is funny and talented and I really enjoyed our time together after quilt market. Elizabeth created a beautiful fabric line called "Red Rose Farm".
I really love roses in fabric and Elizabeth's fabric is romantic and vintage sweet. Elizabeth sent me a fat quarter pack. Above are the blues.
Here are the greens. Great, huh. I really like the green and white print.
I think the pink is my favorite. They are the color of strawberry lemonade.
And these are the yellows. The roses are really vibrant and beautiful in her fabric and remind me of the roses in our tiny little front garden patch of my childhood home.

Thanks Elizabeth.

-nanette

Cherry Cheesecake

2011-06-15T06:37:00.001-06:00

It feels so good to be back to sewing with lots of things going on around market and after market at my house. I've been working little by little on Lori's Cherry Cheesecake quilt pattern. Out of all Lori's new patterns this one is my favorite, although it was really hard to choose.
I started making my quilt when we had our little friend retreat after market. It was nice to get personalized instruction from Lori.
I have all my 12 Dresden's sewn and appliqued. They are so cute. I'm seeing Sew Cherry everywhere!
I have my cherries appliqued. I cut the white squares larger than the circles so I could applique and then size the circle. I like cutting blocks down after they are completed. If you look closely my cherries are not all the same size. I'm not sure how that happened! And a few cherries are a little imperfect but that is okay. Real cherries aren't perfect. I'm not good at embroidery. Lori got me started but some of my applique is "wonky" (yes I said it). I'm really okay with that, too. I got a little better at embroidery as I went on and my confidence increased.
This is the only block finished so far. But I will have more finished by the end of the week.
Sew Cherry is Sew Fun! Which is your favorite new pattern by Lori?

-nanette

P.S. I don't know about everyone else but I am having trouble (again) leaving comments on blogs and even seeing page views. Maybe it is just me. Anyway, hard to blog hop when it gets like this. So hi to you from me.

Baby Banner Quilt

2011-06-13T07:46:00.000-06:00

I told you I had a quilt hanging at Quilt Market made from my latest pattern. It is called "Baby Banner". Banners of all types are really popular right now. I wanted to make a simple design that loosely represented a banner for a baby.
I used a brand new Riley Blake fabric just out by Shari from Doohikey Designs called "Hoo's in the Forest" for the Quilt Market version. I really like Shari's new fabric. It is very sweet with cute graphics of owls, baby deer, hedgehogs, and skunks.
I made the pattern originally for my twin grandnephews a few months back.And I made another version using Flower Sugar for my grandniece. It really is a simple quilt that works up fast.
I wrote "baby" on the Hoo's in the Forrest quilt to show that you can write a name or message on the banners.
I used out a different Riley Blake fabric with letters and fussy cut them to spell out Brady for one of the twins on this version. That was easy.
I have the pattern available now on my etsy shop by email PDF form. Riley Blake will be carrying the pattern in print form.

-nanette

Friday Fabric Winner

2011-06-10T08:26:00.000-06:00

This has been a fun giveaway reading comments from more than 180 of my blog readers. I am really excited to mail these fabulous fabrics off to the lucky girls on Monday. I had my daughter Laurie tell me some random numbers between 1-200 to determine the winners.
Winner of the Riley Blake Trick or Treat fabric is no blog Barbara comment #16. Barbara send me your home mailing address.
Winner of the Robert Kaufman Treasures and Tidbits fabric is Rita at Stitch Days. Rita send me your home address, too.
Winner of the Adorn It Life's a Hoot fabric is Blinkbonniefarm Pat. Pat I dot not have your email, please email me your mailing address.

I have one little goodie that I didn't even show. I wish I could give all you great readers something from market but I do have a 5" charm pack that I would like to send out as well. That lucky gal is Elizabeth from Morning Glory Lane. Send me your address, too Elizabeth.

Thanks everyone for reading me and leaving such fun comments to read. Have a good weekend everyone.

-nanette