No News

No sewing news to report this week. I have been working on the backing for my Craftsy BOM quilt but nothing is complete as of yet. 

I have also been going through my patterns and fabric in order to sort out things that I want to give the quilt guild for the 'community store' at the quilt show this year. I have found a few patterns that I know I won't use and I have some fabric that was gifted to me that might make it there too. It is really hard to work with fabric that you a) don't think is good quality and b) don't like the look of! Some things have just ended up in my closet and I don't think I will ever use them. Best to clear out room for things that I do like ;)

It looks like it may be a rainy weekend again so I may get to stay inside and sew. I hope you get some sewing time too!

Angela S.

Donation Quilt Tops

Hello all!


I finished up a few quilt tops this weekend. Both of these were made from blocks that were gifted to me. The blocks were all finished and just needed to be put together in some way.

 

I really like how the purple one turned out. I don't know what the block name is but it ended up really cool anyway.

I thought that the red/blue quilt needed a border so I found something that matched the inner red blocks and put that around. I think that this could pass for a Quilt of Valor so I'm going to do some checking around. If its not quite big enough yet I will get another border or two going :)

This week I am working on the backing for my Craftsy BOM top....I am piecing together my scraps and here is what I have put together so far. 

I cut my own 'layer cakes' from my scraps and this is what I came up with. This section is about 39x39 and the backing for my quilt should be about 70x70 so I have a lot of work to do. I think that this is a great start though and can't wait to finally get that quilt to a long-arm quilter!

Have a great week - Angela S.

Beginner’s Quilt-Along Quilt - Tops Finished

Hello all!

I finished up a few quilt tops this weekend and it was great!! I had completed these blocks a long time ago and needed to get something done with them. I could have just put together all 12 blocks and called it a day but I saw this as an opportunity to make two child-sized quilt tops. The blocks and sashing themselves weren't quite big enough for my liking so I added on a 5 inch border around the whole thing. 

So here are the finished tops ready for donation to Project Linus!

I am working on a few other tops from past projects so hopefully those will be done after the upcoming three day weekend. 

Have a great holiday weekend!

Angela S. 

Another bright bag

Hello all!!

I spent my time this weekend finishing up another Half Moon Bay 6-pack Bag. I previously posted about this bag pattern here. These bags are going to the same house so I wanted to make them the same but different. 

For the first bag, I used 6 fat quarters with the 2 background fabrics being the same. For this bag, I used 6 fat quarters with 2 of the block fabrics being the same. 

I'm not sure which bag I like better but I do know that the 'blocks' stand out on these background fabrics better. I had initially purchased two 6-packs of fat quarters to use for this project and thought that the solids would work awesome for young girls.

I also must have made a mistake cutting somewhere in the process but I cut this so long ago I have no idea...I just ended up making the middle of each side of the back the same color as the background and that will have to work :)

 

I don't think that either girl that is getting a bag sews - so hopefully they will appreciate them. At any rate I am going to fill them up with some handy items that new-grads need. 

This is the second time that I have made a bag with this pattern and I don't think it will be the last. If I make the bag for myself I think i will figure out how to add a zipper to the top and to at least one of the inside pockets.

I showed the bag off at Sewtopia last night and many people made comments about the nice bright colors. I think solids are really started to take off in that group :)

All for now -- Angela S.

A few Quilt of Valor blocks

Hello All!

This week I spent some time on Quilts of Valor blocks. The Sioux Falls Quilt Guilt provides a main color for the block and members provide the rest for as many blocks as they would like to make. Here is the first block. I think it looks boring all by itself....

 but when you put 4 of them together...you get this awesome pinwheel!!

I made 2 of the 'party hat' blocks and I really like how they both turned out. These blocks are 12 inches where the pinwheel blocks are 8.5 inches.

If you would like more information on Quilts of Valor you can visit them here. I love working on these blocks because if each member does just a few blocks we can have a quilt top pieced in no time!!

The guild meeting this month should be interesting since the April meeting was cancelled due to weather. I am expecting that we will have lots of giveaways and news to attend to due to the missed meeting. 

In other news this week, I was able to pin down the dates for the Quilt Minnesota Shop Hop. I had thought about going to a different section this year but I don't want to have to drive just to get on a bus :) It looks like I will be doing the Southwest section again which is just fine with me. I visited the shop in Sherburn a few weeks ago and they already had their quilt ready for their 'cookbook'!! It was so exciting to see it since it had JUST come back from the quilter. 

That's all for now - have a great rest of the week and enjoy the weather!

Angela S.

May Day Snow

My May Day began with looking out the window and seeing snow! 

I could not believe it...but it is South Dakota so anything goes :)

This week I have been working on a new 'Have It All' Wallet. The fasteners and I were not agreeing so I made a trip to JoAnn's and got a different type to make it work. While in JoAnn's I got distracted by all of the cool licensed fabrics. I ended up getting some Disney Cars fabric to make up some pillowcases. 

Once I got home I started doing some spring cleaning in the sewing room which was scary....and probably more than a Wednesday night project given the huge mess in there right now. Oh well, there is always tomorrow. 

My goals for the weekend are to make my quilt guild blocks, bind my curvy table runner, bind my small quilt and finish up 3-4 pillowcases. 

Happy May!

Angela S. 

No News is Good News

Hi Friends!

I am working on a few gifts this week so nothing to share as of yet :) I am also working on finishing up the blue, batiks table runner that I was working on last week. All that is left is the binding - hurrah!!

More to come next week - enjoy the nice weather!

Angela S.

Snow Day Sewing

I spent the past few weeks finishing up a few of my 'Three Times the Charm' quilts that needed attention. I finished the top for Dora back in December but I wasn't sure what I wanted to use for backing. I finally decided on a lilac minky dot fabric. It is amazing - the cat and I are both really liking this one :) I did add an extra border in order to make it large enough to be a lap quilt for me.

Dora

 I also finished up the Emma quilt that I had started during the same time as Dora. The quilt is flannel, front and back, with no batting. I bought the sashing and borders at a shop when I didn't have the original fabric along...this isn't my favorite quilt ever but I do really like the pattern. I sewed this quilt right-sides together and then flipped it right-side out in order to get myself out of binding it :)

Emma

I also made a quick self-binding baby blanket for a friend this week as well. I had bought a bag of scraps with no plan so this was perfect!

Here is the next project that I am working on...

We'll see how this table runner actually turns out. Right now its pretty questionable! I figure since it's still snowing here in SD I can work with snowflake fabric

Happy sewing!

Angela S.

Ice Day

Hi all - Sioux Falls had a major ice storm roll through this week. It was then followed by snowfall of 6-8 inches depending on where you are in town. We were only without power a few hours of Wednesday and another couple of hours on Thursday but we were thankful to have overnight power to keep us warm. I am so thankful that we do not have large trees on our property like many people in Sioux Falls. The clean-up efforts going on here are just massive.

I will have a regular post out again on Wednesday but until then here are some of the photos that I took from our ice storm. 

Angela S.

2013 Goal Update

Here are the updates from my New Year's goal list :) I have a pretty good start on some things but I really need to kick it in gear with my wheelchair/walker bags. It is so easy to get distracted by shining new fabric and new patterns!

• 13 charity pillowcases for the One Million Pillowcase Challenge - I have finished 5 pillowcases so far
• 13 toiletries bags for Heirloom Creations - zero completed to date
• 13 random sewing projects from Pinterest -three done
• 26 wheelchair/walker bags for the Good Samaritan Society -three done

• 2012 Craftsy Block of the Month quilt - top done
• Beginner's Quilt-Along quilt - top done
• 'Hometown' fabric shower curtain - completely done and hanging up!
  
• Scaredy Cats wall hanging - top done
• Paper pieced Christmas cat wall hanging - these pieces were put into my round robin group for the quilt guild.
• Continue working through the book 'Three Times the Charm' - I have finished up a few tops and I am working on getting backing fabric now.

Happy sewing!

Angela S.