2017 Liebster Award - Discover New Bloggers

I have been nominated by Rose Mikulski who blogs at Something Rose Made.  I am grateful to Rose for nominating me and grateful, too, for our cyberfriendship that developed during the 2017 New Quilt Bloggers.  You can read more about the Liebster Award here.

My favorite blog is by Mary at Making Quilts From Stash.  Her style and pace drew me into the blog world and I still love watching what she does and how her family is.  



Rose asked me to answer a few questions so, here they are:

Who inspired you to quilt/sew?I was inspired by the beautiful quilts the Amish made.  I grew up in Berks County PA where there were many Amish.  I always admired their handwork and the gorgeous quilts they made.  

If you could meet one Quilt Personality, who would it be?Right now I am obsessed with machine quilting and would love to meet Christa Watson or Angela Walters.   Both are inspiring me now to look at new things when I quilt.  

Your preference while quilting: Mostly I quilt in silence, but sometimes I will put on a book on tape or a TV show. 

Do you have a favorite snack/munch while quilting?Lately its Trader  Joe's kettle popcorn.

Do you look for quilts while watching a movie?I always notice them in a movie

What comes first when you make a quilt?For me, it is often buying stash and then I look for a pattern.  It is rare that I do it the other way right now, as I am on the 2nd year of a finishing up UFOs which include stash collections that need a quilt!

What is your favorite quilt/sewn project/craft?It varies.  Sometimes it is the one I am working on and other times I go back to my hand appliquéd and hand quilted quilt, Not Quite My Baltimore Album.  

 

Hand Quilt or Machine Quilt?Machine quilt almost always.  No time for hand quilting right now, but I do love it and hope to get into it again next winter when there it more time

Favorite Color?  Purple

Favorite Quilting/Crafting Item?My Bernina 440QE

Do you work on one project or many?Too many at a time!

Another fun part of this award is nominating other bloggers; here are my nominees, all participants in the 2017 New Quilt Bloggers:

• Gail @Quilting Gail 

• Jennifer @ Dizzy Quilter

• Vanda @Quilt in Piece

• Yanicka @Finding Myself as an Artist

Please visit them and watch for their posts in a few days.

Tutorial: Pressing long hems for curtains, tablecloths, etc

 A few weeks ago I purchased this lovely woven cotton from Alewives in Damariscotta, ME.  

I promised a tutorial/hint on how to do a long hem so here it is.  The basic tools needed are:

• Rotary cutter
• Cutting mat
• Ruler 
• Sharpie 
• Iron
• Sewing machine and
• A manila folder (piece of long cardboard).

Yup, the manila folder is your secret weapon/tool for making this onerous task very easy.  Here's a folder I had used before; it only had a few ruler markings on it.  These were for curtain hems.

For this purpose I wanted 1" hems.  I decided it would be nice to make some notations on the folder so I would know what the lines measured for the next project.  This simply required marking the folder with the ruler and the sharpie.  Now you are ready to work with your fabric.

1.  Press your fabric. 

2. Bring to your mat and work on straightening your fabric edges, with your ruler and rotary cutter.

This fabric was a heavier woven and rather easy to straighten.  I kept the selvedges on.   Yes, I know the scary quilter rule about them shrinking and distorting but I didn't want to trim it off this fabric.  I have violated this rule many times for sewing clothing in my youth and in making curtains and never noticed it.  For my quilts, I rarely keep it in.

Now, the magic begins!

3.  Bring your fabric to the ironing board.   Fold over to the desired hem length.  For the tablecloth I decided to press 1" twice to create the hem.  This is folding for the first hem. 

4.  Continue to the end of the length of fabric.

5.  Now, fold a second time and press again, all the way to the end.

6.  Bring that side to the sewing machine and hem.  

I sometimes use a blind hem stitch, but for the tablecloth I just used a straight stitch.  I sewed on the back, checking my stitches to be sure I liked the way it looked on the front. I didn't pin; this fabric was uber-cooperative.

7.  Press the next side and hem.

I usually press one side, hem, repeat until done.  You could press and pin two sides then hem two sides.   I usually do the two long sides first (most boring) and then the shorter sides.  

8.  Repeat until finished.  

I can't tell you how much easier this is than drawing lines and press against or two them!  I use this anytime I have to press a length longer than a few inches.

Too much stuff...and too many quilts to quilt!

I have been busy lately and away from a bit of my sewing.  We have made the decision to sell the house we have been in for nearly 24 years and move to a smaller apartment.  My son and his frat brother/brewing partner will get an apartment and we will all be quite happy in the end.  In the interim, it feels like a bit of work.

I am feeling like this is where the biggest problem in the house is for me:

Yes, this is the current state of my study.

There are 4, no 5,  quilts to be quilted:

1.  Fancy Forrest version 2

2.  Free Fall QAL

3.  Typewriter quilt

4.  Grandmother's flower garden (antique rescue)
5. String quilt from Spring Fling Remnants in 2016

I am panicking a bit, but know things will work out.  I am looking forward to getting things in better shape and keeping only one quilting and one piecing project going.  It will be awhile until I get there, but I do hope to have projects quilted before the move.  I think this also means thinking about what to keep, sell or give away of my finished projects.  God help me!

Main Crush Monday - new fabric!!!

I ordered some new fabric.

French Table Cloth Fabric

Isn't it gorgeous.  Alewives Fabric was showing this and it is terrific with my colors in my island cottage.  I may even order a shorted length for daily use!  I am so excited.  Can't wait to hem this even though it is not on my UFO list.  It will be a quick job and I'll share my tips for hemming long pieces of fabric.  Its so great and if you ever do curtains, etc. it is a real time saver!

I also ordered this fabric for some napkins and I am so pleased with this choice.

Again, another great match.  I almost bought a rug in that color, but decided to go with the neutral, which will let me throw more colors in the room if I choose to change out the curtains, etc.  I'll make these for company but they too, will be fun to have.

This week I don't have too many other commitments, so I hope that I can attack a few items on this little list.

June UFO or One Monthly Goal(OMG) 

Make and quilt Alewives Rows by Row from last year (table runner)

Ongoing

-finish hand sewing binding  and label M3 Quilt

-pick some colors for La Passacagalia (carry over)

-cut out animal alphabet quilt 

-label a few quilts (carry over)

Linking up with Main Crush Monday.

Catching up and last week's finish

Little time to sew is making me a bit cranky - or could it be this endless wet, cold spring?  Either way here's a few things I have been up to!

I brought my M3 (Meadow Mist Mystery) Quilt to Burlington Electric Quilt Studio. I haven't had time to photograph the quilting so here is a reminder of what the quilt looks like.

And here is a video of it being quilted on a Gamill wth a Statler Sticher.

I finished this Sashiko pillow right before I went to Pennsylvania for my niece's graduation.  It was one of my UFO's for the APQ Resolution.   Its not fancy but, I love it. I learned how quick it was to do Shashiko and it will become a default take along project, when I want something compact. 

April and May UFOs (a little late on April)

Finished Shasiko Pillow!
Quilted and added binding to M3 quilt (binding will make it done for my list)

Ongoing

-bind and label M3 Quilt

-pick some colors for La Passacagalia (carry over from last week)

-begin animal alphabet quilt (ready to cut)

-label a few quilts (carry over from last week)

Linking up:  Cooking up Quilts, Main Crush Monday 

A finished top #FreeFallQAL

My Free Fall Quilt Along project is done, well the top is done.  "Done" is a funny term for quilts, as there are often many stages of done in getting to the the finished quilt.  Here are a few things quilters consider a quilt done:  

1. finishing the blocks, 
2. piecing the blocks together, 
3. sometimes adding borders, 
4. quilting the quilt, 
5. adding the binding,
6. putting the label on - NOW IT IS REALLY DONE! 

I really love the way it turned out.  I hope to get it basted so I can quilt soon, but am traveling this weekend, so it won't happen until next week at the earliest.   I have a few ideas about quilting it, but haven't really settled on the plan just yet.

Thank you, Sandra @ mm quilts for a great QAL.  It was fun to see what others choose and an unexpected project that I really enjoyed - using up my stash/scraps is one of my goals this year - and I love this little quilt.

Linking up to Let's Bee Social

Things I am working on:

April and May UFOs (a little late on April)

-Prepping M3 (Meadow Mist Mystery) Quilt for quilting on 5/23

-finish shashiko block and make pillow cover

Ongoing

-pick some colors for La Passacagalia

-begin animal alphabet quilt

-label a few quilts (I think there are about 4 needing labels)

Finish It Up Friday & FreeFallQAL #4

I finished the 6 blocks for my #freefallqal.  I love they way they come together and most likely it will remain a smallish quilt.  I don't have enough background to float the quilt as I would like (only the equivalent of 3/4" so I don't think it is worth it, but I may try....  That decision will be for next week.

The last three blocks for the #FreeFallQAL

For this week's blocks there were actually 3 different layouts for the blocks.  Two blocks were hard (not paying attention), the next two easy, and the third set I cursed myself by saying to a co-worker, I am nearly done!  Only two seams had to be ripped out but interesting how easy it was for me to mis-sew or misplace a piece.

And here they are on the table ready to be sewn together!

The proposed layout for the blocks

Linking up to Sandra at mmm! quilts and Crazy Mom Quilts.