{Post #855} Past and Present ~ Piecing Finished

This is 58" x 70".  It might get quilted this year...it might not!  Pattern is called Past and Present.

My heart goes out to my e-friend, Marcie, in the loss of her son.  May God's grace be sufficient, my friend!

~Joan

{Post #854} Catching Up

Susie, Rachel, and I have been in Florida since Friday.  Whew--trying to see 58 people in 4 days (slight exaggeration, but only slight!).  I will save you from the boredom of logging each day.  Since this is a mostly quilty blog, here's the news...I am only 9 quilting motifs away from finishing the hand quilting on my Hearts and Gizzards/A Mother's Heart/Highway Hearts quilt!  I must decide on a final name.  Most of this quilt was made while traveling, hence the Highway Hearts name.

Here is the shape I am hand quilting (I have quilted around and between each heart half on these parts)...

Here is an example of one quilted into my quilt--not easy to see it on a picture...

I copied the heart shape and quilted around it and between all 8 sections for a little extra quiltiness.  Love it!

Here is the whole quilt, just 9 shy of the above motifs from being finished!!

Went to a fantastic antique emporium in FL.  Saw 3 quilt racks that I wanted to get...the most expensive one was $12.50!!  Two problems...1.  no room in the vehicle  2.  no room in the house!  Have plenty of quilts to display!!

~Joan

{Post #853} Photo Shoot of Seeds of Kindness

Well, here it is.  The final pictures of my Seeds of Kindness quilt.  The sun/shadows made it difficult to get a fantastic picture, but these are acceptable.  The second one shows the quiltiness after washing and drying.  It's a keeper!!  There are 525 apple core shapes with only a few repeats.

Have a fantastic Thanksgiving holiday.  Remember to Whom one owes gratitude.  So thankful for my heavenly Father and the many blessings He has bestowed on me.

~Joan

{Post #852} Homemade Tic Tac Toe Bag

I love to make gifts, especially for children to use.  I don't know why I don't do it more.  This is the second set of Tic Tac Toe bags and storage bag I've made out of three $1 pairs of jeans and a remnant of red ticking.  I have at least enough fabric for two more sets.  Oh, and brown rice.  How could I forget the brown rice?

Here is how it's done.  Cut out nine 4-1/2" square pieces of denim.  I used 5 dark and 4 light for this one.  Sew them wrong sides together, press the seams open.  Layer with batting and backing.  I used some decorative stitches to hold the inner seams open and for the outermost seam.

Here are the bags in process.  Four inch squares, applique a circle on 5 and an X on 5.  Sew a bag front to a ticking back, leaving an opening to put in the rice later.

A close-up of the board corner, before de-stringing.  You can see some of the stitches.

Board and bags finished (but empty), ready for a run thru the washer and dryer.

Each bag is de-stringed after drying, filled with 1/4 cup rice, sewn closed by machine, then tossed into my finished bag.

Ready for a game or a hundred.

~Joan

{Post #851} Potholder Top

I wanted to bind this little potholder for my daughter, Emily.  Some of us are driving down to see her on Friday.  This is my only selvage project that has "Superman" fabric in it.  See the emblem just above the center of the potholder?  Her husband was nicknamed Superman when a little kid saw him on a cherry-picker truck or up on scaffolding or something like that.  I used the insulated fabric shown (made for potholders/oven mitts, etc.) to make it heat-proof and backed it with fabric that will match her kitchen.  Won't show it all because it's supposed to be a surprise.  I doubt she reads this.

Finished hand-quilting my Seeds of Kindness quilt today.  What I thought would be a "Big Deal" moment is more of a "Big Whoop" moment.  Very anticlimatic.  It's in the washer now.  It is a special quilt, but probably only to me. 

~Joan

{Post #850} More Selvage Loveliness

I really AM clearing off my cutting table.  But I'm sewing up the scraps and goodies as I go!  I found these cute potholders online, so I made up 6, 4 on the diagonal...

From the online source:

Mine (not quilted or bound yet, obviously):

I cut a "base fabric" (this is read yucky stuff I had a chunk of on my cutting table) into 6" squares and just made sure they were covered, then trimmed them down after sewing the selvages on.  This time I did not take the time to switch thread out every time...I just kept a dark wheat color in and let the stitches fall where they may.

Here is my next cutting-table-clearing project.  I used 10-1/2" square base fabric (the red).  Then I marked a dot 1-1/2" from the same corner and 5" from each side of the opposite corner.  I used a gray pencil to connect the dots from each 1-1/2" mark to a 5" mark on an adjacent side.  Then I drew a line 1/2" in from where the 5" mark side was to create sort of a triangle.  Then I just took a piece big enough to go from one side to the other and started adding selvages. 

I'm sure this is like any other sewing project...everyone has their own way of doing it.  I line up the selvage side of the fabric with a pencil line and sew as close to the edge as I can.  I do two blocks at a time so I can have a leader/ender thing going.  The next fabric is placed facing the same way so that the selvage is on the same side as the first one.  I overlap the previous raw edge only as much as I have to and then stitch closely to the selvage edge again. 

Here is one block that is 10-1/2" square.  Same sewing as the potholders...make sure some is hanging over and then trim to original size when finished.

Even though what I make is nearly always scrappy, I usually have some unwritten rules.  They are written in this case!  I didn't use a red strip for my first one since the center of the block is a red print.  I broke my own rule by using some very small pieces for the last print that don't have words on the selvages.  I repeated a fabric in a block a couple times, but once they are sewn to each other, it will be so busy that it won't matter.

After I got to where I didn't have enough selvages to start another 2 blocks, I moved something on my table and found 3 very long selvages.  After I do some baking for Rachel this evening (and clean up), I am going to do a couple more if I have the energy.  Wish me luck!

Here are all 8 I did this afternoon...each block finishes at 10" square.

Here is where I sort of got my inspiration (from an online picture):

I used a Thimbleberries red, so of course I am not in danger of burning my retinas out.  Isn't that cool?  Instructions for the Red Zinger are here along with lots of other patterns.

~Joan

{Post #849} Sew-y Tote Bag Gift

OK, so this should be on my secret projects blog, but I don't think the recipient will know it is for her.  I am not even sure she reads my blog any more.  A-n-y-w-a-y-s...I am uncharacteristically thinking ahead for some gifts for Christmas, birthdays, Christmas, babies being born soon, Christmas, etc.  I really wanted to sew tonight.  It's been a while since I've spent quality time with my Janome.

I got the bright idea to make this certain person a tote bag.  I was looking at patterns the other day.  I liked different things about different patterns, so I combined all of them into this bag.  It does not look that impressive in the pictures, but you know how sometimes pics just don't do an item justice?  My husband and dear-soon-to-be-17-year-old daughter both really liked it.

For the past few months I've been collecting selvages.  I had seen some cute ideas out there and thought I'd wish I had some if I ever saw a pattern I just had to make.  Being a scrappy quilter just overflows into other scrappiness.  I decided to make a band of selvages to fit at the top of my tote.  Here is a section close up...

I added a few non-Thimbleberries just to see who was paying attention!

For the handles, I took a 4" side piece of fabric x 25" long and ironed it in half lengthwise, wrong sides together.  I then ironed in a piece of (are you ready for this) IRON-ON interfacing 1" x 25" along the fold on the inside (I'm a little loopy tonight...don't know why).  Then I folded both sides in and ironed them.  I ended up with a 4-layer piece with no exposed seams with a piece of interfacing in there somewhere.  I topstitched it with 5 rows of stitching.  Cute.  Durable.  Not extremely stiff.  Matches the bag. 

One other "Joan" feature...I cut a strip from a leg from a pair of jeans from which I made another gift (pics to come) that was laying on my cutting table (are you following this?).  I used that to make the bottom of the tote bag so it would be more durable.  Genius, right??  Hee hee...

The whole shebang (except for the selvages) was meander quilted with a variegated heavy thread in primary colors.  It matches the spool fabric very well.

Here is a picture of the whole thing...

An hour and a half well spent.  Hope she likes it!!

~Joan