Tidying up -

 

 

Before I play with the backing - 

 

And layering -

 

My Antique Squirrel - BIG BROTHER version - 

 

 

I thought I would tidy up some loose ends - 

 

So I made the label for Ladies - 

 

And for No Rules - 

 

And for my FMQ Essentials -Practice Quilt - Craftsy Class - Christina Cameli -

 

 

Then I made the Label and Scrap Card and Heart - 

 

For "I Used to Be Placemats" - 

 

Which is in the pile to be quilted - 

 

Then I made the label for Colorwash 360 - 

 

I still have to make the Heart and Scrap Card for that - 

 

But I decided to work on the Heart and Scrap Card - 

 

For my FMQ Essentials -  Practice Quilt first - 

 

And finished those up - 

It's a nice break from my Antique Squirrel - 

 

And is easier than trying to layer a large quilt - 

 

Which I will try to do tomorrow - 

 

After I actually sew the labels on the quilts - LOL -;))

 

 

 

Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew - 

 

 

My practice quilt -

 

 

From Christina Cameli's Craftsy class - 

Free-Motion Quilting Essentials - 

 

Is bound - finally! - 

 

Ta Dah! - ;))

 

 

It was an EXCELLENT class - 

 

And I HIGHLY recommend it -

 

Now I'm off to chase another SQUIRREL - LOL - ;))

 

 

 

Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew - 

 

 

 

Squirrel -

 

 

My daughter found this on Facebook - 

Photo credit - boredpanda - dot - com - 

 

And it pretty much says it all - 

 

So I became the Squirrel - LOL - 

And dug out a quilt that needs binding - 

A practice quilt from Christina Cameli's Craftsy class - 

Free-Motion Quilting Essentials - 

 

 

I couldn't find my left-over bolt of YELLOW fabric - 

 

To use to make the binding - 

 

But I did find some OLD "quilt binding" in a drawer - 

 

Wrights - Double-Fold Quilt Binding - 

3 yd package - $2.40 - 

Available at JoAnns - $3.99 on sale for $2.39 - 

 

It comes in 3yd packages - 

 

And I need over 7 yards - 

 

So I had some "joining" to do -

 

And I found another use for my LEFT-EZE Rule™ - 

The dashed line on the diagonal is the 1/4" seam line - 

So - I lined that up on the seam that I sewed - 

And trimmed it -

 

And a couple of dog-ears - 

Re-pressed the "folds" - 

 

And wound it up a little - 

 

And it's ready to go - 

 

Tomorrow - 

 

I should be able to actually SEW it down - LOL - ;))

 

 

 

Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew - 

 

 

The first day -

Of any New Year is always fun -

A continuation of things done before -

But also -

A day of new beginnings -

And meeting up with some old friends - ;))

I was on a roll -

Got all of the columns sewn together on the Dear William Interweave -

And took a quick photo for this post -

I'll give it a good press tomorrow -

Before I take the "glamour" shots -

Then I pulled out an "old friend" -

A FMQ practice quilt from a Craftsy class by Christina Cameli -
Free-Motion Quilting Essentials - HERE -

I still have the border sections to play with -

So I went to grab the chalk to mark off a section -

And found the basket with the border pieces for Dear William -

No wonder it looked a tad bit skinny -

I still need to make and add the borders - LOL -

Oh, well - I can do that tomorrow - ;))

I had a couple of others things that I wanted to do before the end of the day -

So I stitched some pebbles -

Which obviously need some work - LOL -

But it's a practice piece - emphasis on PRACTICE -

And I'm OK with that - ;))

Another thing that I want to work into my routine this new year -

Is more time to read -

Which I COULD/SHOULD do - instead of playing games on my tablet - LOL -

I have a Kindle with more books on it than I can read in one lifetime -

But I still like the smell and feel of a good old-fashioned PAPER book -

One that I can tag with post-its on the pages that have good lines -

I know you can bookmark pages on the Kindle -

But - it's not the same - at least for me -

Anyway -

I found another "old friend" -

That I want to read again -

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society -
by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows -

One of the pages that I bookmarked has this line -

Reading good books ruins you for enjoying bad books.

That is SO true - ;))

Have you read anything interesting lately? -

Do you have any books that you like to "re-read" occasionally? - ;))



Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew -

A slight adjustment

This afternoon - when I was looking for one particular Squirrel -

I heard this piece hollering at me -

"Pick me!! - Pick me!! - I want to be on the BACK of your potholders!!" - LOL -

So I made a slight adjustment -

And decided to use it for the backing on my potholders - ;))

It's a 1/4 yd cut - so it's 9" wide - and plenty big enough -

Then when I checked my drawer for "potholder parts" -

I found some Insul-Brite® that I had left over from last time -
Already cut in 8" squares -

So I checked my "potholder post" - HERE -

And sure enough - I made the last batch of potholders at 8" square -

So I made another slight adjustment -

And decided to make these 8" -

Using some of the YELLOW as border strips -

To bring them up to size -

But I only got this far before it was time for dinner - ;))

Oh - and the Squirrel that I was looking for that started it all? -

This "not-quite finished - but almost" quilt from a Craftsy FMQ class that I took a couple of years ago - Free-Motion Quilting Essentials - with Christina Cameli -

I really enjoyed the class - and I learned a lot -

I finished quilting all of the blocks -

And quilted all of the sashing strips -

But I still need to finish quilting the outer border areas -

Gene finished his - HERE -

And that was just the nudge I needed to dig mine out -

Now that the weather is getting cooler -

And I'm running out of year -

I thought it might be time to tackle -

All of the Squirrels on The Mountain To Be Quilted -

They are making a LOT of noise -

Hollering - My turn!! - My turn!! - LOL - ;))



Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew -

Playing -

With my fabric doesn't always involve sewing -

Sometimes all I have to do is pet it - or un-sew it - or sort pieces - ;))

The matching Scrap Cards have been put in the Scrapbook -
so these Hearts can be added to the bin for my Memory Quilt -

From left to right -

Top Row - Pinwheel Polka Dot - Christmas Blocks 3x2 and 6x6 -
"Do You See What I See?" -

Second Row - Quarter Log Cabin/Batik - Jelly Beans - Lion/Khaki -

Third Row - Lion/Gold - Lion/Pink-Brown - 9-Patch Pizzazz -

Bottom Row - Muslin Doll/Pink Gingham - FMQ Practice/Cameli -
Five Stars Plus 5 -

I have 9 finished projects that still need Hearts and Scrap Cards made -

But they don't need to be made in any particular order -

Since the Scrapbook pages are already in the book in order -

So I can put them in as I make them - ;))

I thought I would start with this one -

The scraps from the GREEN top -

So I sorted them - hoping that I could salvage enough from the "ends" without having to cut up the extra patches in the baggie -

Un-sewed the "end" strips - and there isn't much usable fabric on most of them - but if I can get about an inch from the larger ones - I can add those "good" pieces to my crumb bin - and put the rest in the "selvage" bin - for someday - LOL -

I'll use the extra patches - they're all the same size - easier to work with -

And what I don't use can get added to my crumb bin - ;))

Maybe I'll play with that after dinner -

I made some YUMMY chicken salad yesterday with some shredded chicken - Miracle Whip™ - diced celery - chopped walnuts - and red grapes (halved) -
and had some left over from dinner last night -

Chicken salad with some flour tortillas - taco-style - YUMMY -

Or did I say that already? - LOL - ;))



Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew -

A little bit of quilting going on -

I'm having so much fun "quilting" that I almost forgot to blog - ;))

The yellow sashes between the blocks and the rows on my practice piece from the Craftsy class - Free-Motion Quilting Essentials with Christina Cameli are done. I tried to quilt a different design in each sash section. I still have the borders to do - but I plan to use them for practice areas for her "Secrets" and "Wild" classes - when I get there - ;))

I also got the grid cross-hatch quilting done on the Christmas embroidered block table topper - 3 x 3. I used my walking foot for that -

And then added some Free-Motion "scribbles" in the background of the embroidered blocks - ;))

Then I trimmed and bound the Blue/Yellow placemat -

It's not perfect -

But it's quilted - ;))

I'm trying to practice my Free-Motion quilting a little each day and find it a bit disruptive to have to take time out to either make a backing and then layer/baste it - or trim up a piece - or make some binding and then attach it -

It's waaaaay more fun to FMQ - so I might have to switch to "batch mode" - ;))

In the past - the largest "batch" was always the one of quilt tops that need backing and quilting -

Something tells me that's about to change to the one of quilted quilts that need trimming and binding - ;))



Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew -

Some quilty stuff -

OK - in case you're wondering -

I HAVE been doing some quilty stuff between getting up and down off my soapbox the past couple of weeks - ;))

I finished up the Christmas Pinwheel table runner -

After I made a little stuffed toy for a neighbor's baby grandson - ;))

Found a T-shirt applique "left-over" from a stuffed toy dog project that I made a few years ago -

Cut it out and stitched it - right sides together -
to a brand-new white terry-cloth wash cloth -

Trimmed it - turned it inside out - stuffed it - and sewed up the opening -

For a quick and easy little last minute gift - ;))

The Christmas Pinwheel table runner took me a bit more time - ;))

First - I played with some stencil designs in EQ7 and came up with a plan -

Then I stitched-in-the-ditch (SITD) on every single seam - ;))

I have come to the conclusion that SITD is a total waste of time and thread and I'm not going to bother if I plan to quilt anything using a Free Motion all-over design. The ONLY reason I did it on this one was because I used a fusible batting and "iron-off" markers - so I needed to stabilize it since I wouldn't be able to re-iron it to re-fuse it without removing my marks. And NO - I don't pin baste my quilts - and NO - I didn't Free-Motion quilt it - I used my walking foot - and tried my best to follow the lines I had drawn.

I found the tutorial on "Susie's Magic Binding" - HERE -

Stitched it all to the back side of the runner -

And joined the ends by "snuggling" them inside one another to "nest" them - ;))

Left some tails on each end -

Folded the left one -

Inserted the tail on the right -

Fiddled with it a bit -

And when it was nice and neat - used some pins to keep it in place - ;))

I stitched it - folded it to the front -
Checked the join to see if I liked it - and then cut off the excess tail - ))

Pressed and folded the rest of the binding to the front -
Used clips that I get in the "Hair/Beauty" section of Walmart to hold it in place -
And stitched in the ditch between the red binding and the little print flange - ;))

Ta Dah! - ;))

It came out to be 12" x 26" -
I quilted an "orange peel" design in each block and marked it because the squares were so big that I didn't think that I could "eyeball it" and have it look half-way decent -

I messed up on the top row and did the "hokey-pokey" before I did the "1-2-3" -
(if you took the same Craftsy class - you'll know what I mean) -
But I fixed that by "just reversing it" - haha - ;))

I did the second row correctly -
Then added a couple of echo lines in the border to make it look kinda like a circle -
And I like the way it turned out - ;))

On the back - the binding "stitch-in-the-ditch" shows as a line around the edge -
You can see it - but it fits right in with all of the other "stitch-in-the-ditch" stitching going on - so it doesn't bother me - ;))

I have watched several Craftsy classes - I LOVE the format - just sign up - 24/7 access to the class - post questions and/or projects - reasonably priced and - my fave - a "30-sec repeat" feature for those times I need to "Play it again, Sam." - ;))

And it's funny - there are SO many ways to do the same thing - ;))

I started to watch Christina Cameli's "Secrets" class - got to the "tufts" and realized that it was her "Intermediate" class - so I got the "Essentials" class (Beginner level) and made the blocks and went through that whole class. Then I added the borders to my practice piece so I would have some sections to use for the "Secrets" class and the "Wild" (Advanced) one.

Then they had a sale and I got some other classes on using the walking foot - worked/working on a couple of pieces doing that. I've been watching some others - including the "I don't care" one - and have learned a LOT.

It's amazing - some teachers say to forget stitching in the ditch - some say you MUST do it - some say to start in the middle - one says to start in the bottom right hand corner but doesn't explain WHY she does that - you have to read all of the comments and her responses and she finally addresses the WHY in one of her last lessons. One talked WAAAAY too fast for me - another had good info and a very relaxed style. One was left-handed and "grabbed" the sample - one used her fingertips. Some use gloves - some don't. And they all have different names for the same designs - it's hilarious. Some say "Wishbone" for Christina's "Lazy 8"'.

I know that it sounds like I "took" a dozen classes - but the teachers that I mentioned are all the same ones - they all do stuff differently - so I watch and then pick and choose the parts that I want to try.

I'm having a blast -

If you haven't tried Craftsy classes yet -

I highly recommend them - ;))



Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew -