A Sewing Bug

Okay, a little sewing bug bit me and I had to try out one of the many quilt patterns that I downloaded from the McCall's website. They have lots of fun free patterns that are very nicely written. I like that they have rated them Beginners, Advanced Beginners, and Intermediate and they tell you what the block size is for each. I am going to try just one block of several and see what they inspire me to do with them. This one I made with some Michael Miller Fairy Frost fabric that I bought over the holidays at the Fat Quarter Shop. I increased my stash quite a bit over the last month with the 50% off sales they were having. I thought my stash was needing some solids so I bought a few fat quarter bundles of these in several color ways. They have a fun sheen on them that almost glistens. It faded some after washing, but I think they will make a nice complement to lots of fabrics. I am thinking that if I made a block of this pattern out of several pastel colors it would make a sweet baby blanket. I don't know anyone at the moment who has one or who is expecting but, it would be nice to have one on hand just in case!

Now that I have gotten my sewing mojo going the new year is off to a good start already!

Happy New Year, again!

Ferne

A New Year to Grow

I call today 'Clean Slate Day' it is the day that I give myself a fresh start for a new year. I usually do that by cleaning and organizing. Today I have been packing away Christmas and setting up the grow lights for house plants and to start some seeds that we just ordered from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. I thought I was quite creative when I found that I could set up a 4 foot grow light with a 2 foot grow light under it and then even put a 2 tiered stand under the 2 foot light. Now I am set to grow different things at different stages and everything will have the light it needs. Only problem is that I broke one bulb in the process so I will have to find a new one. It needs to be a full spectrum bulb, but shouldn't be too hard to find. So where the Christmas tree was there now sits a growing station. That is one fresh new clean slate and a place to grow.

Now that things are almost all organized maybe I can get back to sewing again. I haven't really had time to sew much with the holiday activities. I am having a hard time deciding what I want to work on though. I have one unfinished quilt that is all pieced and needs to be quilted. I even have the back pieced and the batting is ready to go, but I am just not feeling motivated to work on it. I got an email from the Quilt Show this morning saying that the new block of the month pattern was up and when I checked it out I immediately felt inspired to work on that block. It is paper pieced which I love doing so I just have to decide on some fabric and give it a whirl.

Well, I am hoping that the new year will bring good things to those near and dear to us this year. The past year seemed to have a lot of difficult times in it and I wouldn't consider it to be one of my favorite years as I look back. I believe though that there is much to learn from difficult times so we must take what we learned and use it to make life better for ourselves and others.

I just realized that this is my 100th post...guess that is another reason to celebrate. It has made me think about why I even started this blog and in reflecting back I think it was because I wanted to have a way to record what kinds of things I was working on. I like to create things, whether that would be sewing, painting, gardening, cooking, mosaics and many more. So I wanted to record what I had done to be able to look back at and hopefully feel a sense of accomplishement. I also found keeping a blog to be a great way to share with my friends and family that don't live nearby just what was going on in my life. In the process I found some new friends that have shared interests and I also found some pretty inspiring blogs of others! Blogging has opened up a whole new way to share and I am loving it.

Here's to a new year of growing (and sewing)!

Ferne

My Christmas Decorating

I had a few days off in a row for a change and have been enjoying decorating for the holidays. It is really fun to pull out the boxes and go through them, kind of like going through boxes of memories. All of them good! I used to try to display everything in the box, but apartment living has kind of put a damper on that so I have to pick and choose. It lets things be a little different each year. Wendy at Ivory Spring decorated her blue transfer ware display and I was so impressed with how well the green, red and blue went together. My transfer ware is all in my cupboard, but she has me thinking of bringing it out. I haven't done it yet, the wheels are still turning on that one. I did do something rather fun based on an idea that Heather gave me at work. She had the guys bring in a huge concrete pot to stick one of the big fake trees in as its base and it looked fabulous and sturdy as all get out. Well, my little stick tree is not that big and I have a large collection of empty pots since nothing plant wise wants to live at this apartment for some unknown reason. I washed out a pretty green one and put the base under the pot with the stem in the hole and it fit perfectly! Thanks Heather! Heather needs a blog to get all of her great ideas in, but with 2 kids and hockey and all the volunteering she does I don't think she has time.

I have sprinkled a few pictures of my collections that I have chosen to display this year in this post. Some things are really old and some I made, all are special to me some way. I painted the nutcracker here many years ago when I was really into tole painting, I took classes for about 2 years and still have a large stash of paint and supplies from that almost as large as my fabric stash. They still come in handy from time to time. I also painted this Santa. He is about 4 feet tall. He was a lot of fun to paint. I used a tool that makes a wood grain pattern for his outfit then embellished him with some roses and little sprigs of green, I'm not sure why his eyes are closed, but he does look happy.

I haven't had much time for sewing but, am hoping to squeeze some time in to work on making some Christmas cards. I had a blast at Michael's the other day when I found a dollar bin and lots of supplies to get creative with. If it all comes together as I would like I will do a post about it after I get them in the mail. I have scanned some scrap booking stickers to help cut down costs and with a little cut and pasting I am going to be able to make each card look different. I found some photo cards in the dollar bin that have Laura Ashley prints on them...that got me really excited and motivated. So... I must get to work on these so the recipients will receive them before Christmas.

Today we will be celebrating my youngest son's 23rd birthday. My how time flies! Birthdays have a way of making me reflect on the past. I was remembering the day he was born...he hadn't turned so we knew he would be a cesarean and the delivery date was set a few weeks before. I guess he agreed with the date because by the time I got to the hospital I was having contractions and within 2 hours he was born. He was not an easy baby because he was sick a lot, but as a toddler he was my sunshine! I loved raising my boys and we have some really great memories to cherish. Happy Birthday, Rob!

(Me and my boys! Rob is the tall one in this picture.)

Enjoy your holidays and all the memories that come with them!

Ferne

A Bevy of Pincushions and more...

As I was taking pictures for this post I was looking around at all my sewing stuff and realized that I have actually made all 3 of the pincushions I currently have. The red one I set into a small wooden bowl I got in Hawaii. The heart I was making for a friend. fell in love with it and decided to keep it. I still have to make another one for her. The last one is the one I just made the other day. I have an even bigger collection of pin cushion patterns. I have been collecting a lot of sewing stuff lately. Maybe someday I will have time to use it all!

I have been really busy with work, but still making time to work on a few sewing projects. I would love to be able to make all my Christmas projects, but reality has set in and I know I won't be able to do it. The goal though is to maybe make my Christmas cards and I have a few ideas now I just have to find time to take a trip to Aaron Brothers and get a few supplies. Hmmm...how to fit that in, I'll have to work on that one.

I have however managed to find a little time to make a few things. I made this little pincushion in just about an hour with a pattern I bought from Fig Tree & Co. I had to check out the site after seeing Joanna on The Quilt Show. It was a great episode. I just recently purchased a membership so that I could watch some of these shows and have been really enjoying it. The site was a little overwhelming at first because they offer so much, but now that I have it figured out I just can't stay away. I spent two whole evenings watching all the clips in Alex's Daily Blog. I haven't checked out Ricky's yet. I learned so many things from Alex, I had always thought of her as the person who interviewed quilters and didn't realize how much she actually knows about quilting.

I also had to try out the tutorial I found at Happy Zombie which Monica so generously shared for penny pockets. It is a beautifully written tutorial and the project is so fun and easy. Follow my link and try it out if you haven't already. I am making mine from some fabrics I had in burgundy and green because it will match my Christmas ornaments. I am thinking of making a string of 7 to fill with goodies or candy canes, for a 1 week till Christmas countdown ...more thinking to do on that.

I also spent a good deal of time on this 12" quilt block from the McCall's free patterns. It turned out to be quite complex so I doubt that I will be making any more besides I used a lot of the fabric to make my pennies so it will have to get put with other blocks in the future or maybe made into a pillow. I just loved the pattern and had to give it a try. I have decided that making just one block of something I find interesting is a great way to learn and decide if I want to go further with it. It is also a great way to use up some stash or at least transforms my stash of fabrics into a stash of blocks...

Enjoy creating!

Ferne

Sharing Quilting Inspiration

I have stumble upon a great source of quilting information. I'm sure it was has been there for quite a while, but there is so much available out there that it is sometimes hard to take it all in. As you can see the blog roll on my left column is growing by leaps and bounds and I am loving this new Blogger feature where it lists blogs by the most recently updated. I find I check my own blog everyday just to see which of my favs has something new. Anyway, back to the new information. I wanted to share this just in case someone else may not have stumbled upon it yet and since this is the place to share...

McCalls Quilting website has a great list of free quilt block patterns. The directions are nicely done and easy to follow. I have ran my printer out of ink printing some that I just might need one day. I made a binder with all the different quilt things that 'I just might need someday' and it is getting quite full! After visiting their site for a few minutes I realized that I needed a subscription, of course.

Happy Quilting (or whatever makes your day)!

Ferne