Monday, December 31, 2012

Sister's First (and probably only) Quilt

This story starts twenty years ago. My sister, Rhunell, who doesn't quilt, but does sew,  started this t-shirt quilt for my BIL...twenty years ago. The quilt consist of t-shirts he received for races he had run. She hand quilted the squares (kudos to her) and is the first quilt she has ever done. Years ago she put the half completed quilt up and eventually forgot about it. She found it again this summer and decided to finish it and gift it to her husband this Christmas. Rhunell did a great job on the quilt, especially on the hand quilting.


The moral of the story is..no matter how old your UFO is, there will always be a right time to finish it. 

My New Year's Quilting resolution is to finish at least one UFO project each month as listed on my side menu (Gotta update that tomorrow). 

What is your quilting New Year's resolution?

Thanks for visiting and Happy New Year

Happy Quilting! Happy Living!






Tuesday, December 25, 2012

A Visit to Mama's Quilt Shop

 Saturday, after my sister (Sew Much and More) and I converged at my mother's home in Hammond, La. for the Christmas holidays, we made a trip to Mama's Quilt Shop in Independence, La., a country drive 30 minutes east of Baton Rouge, and 45 minutes north of New Orleans.  


Its a quaint little shop nestled behind live oak trees and sits in front of a large peaceful pond. Entering the quilt shop is like coming home. You are greeted with warm welcomes and an array of bolts in current trends of fabric design.



Ms. Martha from Living Life was working on finishing up these cute "twister" wreaths. These were made using the medium size twister ruler. These beautiful projects measured about 14 or 16 in square from my "eyeing" estimation... correct me if I'm wrong Ms. Martha. I have the twister ruler but I've never used it...I think I should use it. 





Ms. Martha was also working on this faux red-work rag quilt. You had to touch the fabric to feel that it was actually stamped on the panel. 



Here are two quilts that were hanging in the shop classroom. The camera does not do them justice. They were very eye-catching hanging in the store.


I love the star border on this one. The contrasting colors really gave the quilt depth.


Patty was working on this cute applique' for her 4-year old grandson. She was doing an excellent job. Applique' is a technique that I've not tried yet...another technique that is on my "To Do" list.



I thought that her choice of colors were great!



There is so much detail in applique'.



My sister, mother, and I had a nice time at the quilt shop. Visit my sister at Sew Much and More and check out all the fabric goodness the store has to offer!

Thanks for visiting!

Happy Quilting! Happy Living!




Sunday, December 23, 2012

Travel Sewing Pouch

Merry Christmas to all!. 

I'm sure you all have been as busy as I have in getting your Christmas sewing projects completed. It has been a wild and busy month. Why can't I start on my projects in January and not be so stressed out during this joyful time of year. Who else does that?

My niece requested a travel sewing pouch for Christmas and I came up with this. I sewed it together on my serger and used my embroidery machine to make the pretty front pocket and back design. It was a fun and quick project.


The pouch was too small to hold a pin cushion so I stuffed batting between the outside canvas and the lining and made a pin cushion next to the outside pocket.


My niece likes blue and I found this pretty blue and brown fabric in my stash for the lining.

And the back... I love this jacobean design and have been wanting to use it on something. It is an Anita Goodesign from their Jacobean collection.



Here are the items I bought to put into the pouch. It's more then what can fit but I figured she could pick and choose from these items and it would give her a good start. 


I collect chicken figurines and some roost on my mantle. I was voicing to my husband that I was not looking forward to removing all my chickens and finding a temporary place for them so that I could put out my mantle Christmas decorations. He came up with the idea for me to make Christmas hats for the chickens and at the end of the season all I needed to do was take the hats off the chickens and store them for next year.  How ingenious is that? I then went around the house looking for other items that could use hats...but that will have to be a project for next Christmas that I guess I need to start in January. 


I hope everyone has a Joyful and Merry Christmas and treasure this special time spent with loved ones. 

Thanks for visiting.

Happy Quilting! Happy Living!