Sewing Lesson #1 - Pillow

I guess her official start was a while back when I let her sew some lines on paper without thread.  She first sewed straight lines that I drew on a paper.

Then she sewed along curved lines and other shapes.

After some time, she showed some interest again.

She's nine now, and she asked me to teach her how to sew.

I was delighted, of course, to see her interested in something I find so much pleasure in.

I asked her to make a list of things she would like to sew.

Then I looked it over and chose what I thought would be the easiest to start with.

We started with a pillow.

She chose some fabric from my stash, and we got to work.

We talked about: cutting, right-sides-together, seam allowances,

turning right-side out, etc.

She did a fantastic job!

I'm so proud of her and she loves it.

I hope she continues to love it like I do.

Black, White and Blue All Over

It doesn't happen nearly often enough.

I have finished a quilt!!

 This one started as the block swap we did last year in PQA.

I chose the block pattern and the color scheme.

Then, each month someone else in the group would make me a block to add to the collection.

That gave me 12 and then I made 12 more so I could have a bigger quilt.

 It ended up measuring about 68 x 92.

Big enough for one of the kid's beds.

I'm a kinda sucker for secondary patterns and this one has some great patterns.

I quilted it myself with the new walking foot my husband gave me for my birthday.

(He's so great about knowing exactly what a girl needs - could have something to do with the running wish list I have....)  ;)

Happy Stitching!

Karyli

Elephant Swoon #3

Here's number 3!!

I'm loving each one more and more.

Elephant Swoon #2

Another one done!

A friend suggested the orange elephant for the center.

I think it's a great contrast.

Beautiful, huh!

Swoon Elephant #1

A select few of the 33 little elephants get a 

place of honor in the center of a Swoon block.

Here's the first one finished!!

What do you think?

I think it's pretty darn awesome!

Can't wait to show you the next one...

33 Elephants

How do you eat an elephant?

One bite at a time.

How do you sew 33 paper pieced elephants?

One piece at a time.

These cute guys are 4" each and made of gorgeous batiks.

The pattern came from A Quilter's Arc .

They will all be a part of an amazing quilt in the near future.

Now, I've got some serious paper to pick off the backs while I watch some movies...

Code Name: SQ

This has been a secret for months... known as "SQ."

I can finally reveal it to the world!

I have a dear friend named Stacey.  Her husband came to me early in the year - maybe February! - and asked me to make a quilt for her birthday - in November!

The problem was that Stacey is not really a patchwork quilty kind of person... 

more of a lacy, elegant type.

I searched and searched for the perfect pattern that would fit her personality.  

Nothing seemed right.

She had pinned one similar to this one on Pinterest and it hit me that this had to be IT!

I set out to recreate it.

After months of hand work... Ta Da!

It's made of two king-size sheets sewn together.  Finished size: Queen.  Color: bone.

Each pucker I had to sew by hand.

Then we (my wonderful husband and I) tied the entire thing by hand at each pucker.

(That was a long weekend but I could't have done it without him.  He's my favorite consultant on any project.)

I had to make a throw pillow to go with it.

It is made of two pillowcases.

The quilt was from her husband, but the pillow was from me.

Oh, I just love it!

She did too!

Isn't it lovely!

Happy Birthday, Stacey!

For those in Need

I know, it's been a while since I've been on here.  We had a wonderful summer at scout camp and we all made it back alive.  We returned in time to get ready for school and normal life has had us spinning in circle ever since.

Not so much though that I haven't squeezed in some sewing, of course.

In our Parma Quilter's group, we decided to work on some charity quilts together.  Our church is donating about 70 quilts and pillowcases to a local shelter.  Here's how I joined in on the fun:

 

First, we did one girl and one boy quilt and we each made about five nine-patches for each one. 

For a girl quilt we decided on black, white and one bright color.  I took the stack of blocks home to put together the quilt top.

I started with all these fun blocks:

 

...And this is how I put them together:

I really like it!!  I think some teenage girl somewhere will love it!!

 

For our boy quilt, we did the same thing but we used blue and white with one red square in each nine-patch.  It turned out great too.  You'll have to go to our PQA site to see it though.

 

We wanted to do more than that so we decided to do a fabric swap and make some plus-sign quilts.

We each donated a variety of fabric in sets of five blocks (since a plus sign requires five blocks each.)  Then we each put together a quilt top with what we received.

Here's my block collection:

 ...And here's the layout I came up with:

Loved that one too!!

 

What a fun way to share with those in need.  The finished quilts will be delivered to the shelter in early December.  I feel honored to have been a small part of it.

April's Accomplishments

April's finishes are much like the last few months because I'm working a little on each project.  It may seem like reruns to you but to me is baby steps forward.  This may be the last one of these posts for a while... I'll explain later.

Let's start off with my swaps:

BSA:  I received this fantastic block from Barbara S.

This is the block I made for her.  I really like how it came out.  It's going to be part of an amazing quilt. 

For the Inchy Hexagon Flower Swap, I received these from Linda G.

One has bananas and the other has little bees.  Cute!

 These ones I sent to Simona S. in Croatia.  She just asked for bright colors.

In PQA, we decided to do a surprise set of blocks for one of our ladies.  She has had to drop out of our group due to health issues so instead of leaving her behind, we finished her blocks all in one month.  She asked for simple nine-patches with pastels.  These are the three I made for her.

I made these two for my PQA swap partner this month, Sheryl.

 And, these are two more of my own pattern to add to my collection.

On to my on-going projects.

More wonky botany diamonds.

I took all of those crazy mosaic blocks and put them together in a top.

I don't know... kinda makes my eyes go wild.

I just need a back for this one and then I'll quilt it and have it finished.

It might be a good one for the tv room or even the camp trailer...

So, starting in June, our family will be on a summer-long adventure.  We will be working as counselors at a summer camp.  We are so excited about this opportunity.  Especially for the fun we will have with our kids in the mountains.  I will be able to take my sewing machine along (I'm going to need some personal therapy time), and there are some cute little fabric shops in the nearby town.  I plan to continue swapping blocks and doing whatever sewing I can so I'll post here with some of my "sewing in the mountains" adventures.

Happy Stitching,

Karyli

Envelopes for Swapping

Well, yes.  I did make the envelope that I sent your swap block in.

I like doing my own envelopes because, well, it saves some money, I can make them whatever size I need and whatever color I want too.  They're just fun!

Here's my simple method for making envelopes.

I've been using up old 12x12 scrapbook paper that I have sitting around because, well, I'm not a scrapper.  I've made these with old calendars too. Or even from fun magazine pages (obviously not as big).

For a template, I took a piece of thin cardboard and cut it to the size I wanted.  You can cut it to any size you want to use.  Mine is 5x8" which is about the size of a large greeting card.

First, on the back of your paper, place the template so it is about 1.5" from the top and about 2" from each side.  I just eyeball this.  It doesn't have to be exact.  So if you use a papersize different from mine, just make sure you place it something like the photo below.

Use a pencil and make a dot by each corner of the template.

Now, move your template to the edge of the paper. Keep it straight and between the dots.  Make a mark about a 1/2 inch in from the corner of the template.  Once again, I eyeball it.  Do this to the other corner of the template too.  You will do this on all four side of the paper.

Use your nifty template as a straight edge and connect the dots.

You should have lines drawn something like this:

Next, use some paper scissors and cut on those lines you just drew.  This is where I get a bit efficient and stack 3 or 4 papers and cut them all at the same time.

Fold in the side flaps like so:

Fold up the large flap at the bottom and the unfold it.  Smear some craft glue just where it will overlap the side flaps and fold it back up.

It should look like this now.

Fold the top flap down and there's your fantastic envelope!

Just add an address lable and a stamp and it's off!

Pretty easy, huh!

Enjoy!