Category Archives: inspiration

Corona Quilt WIP

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A few years back my friend Sariah made the cutest mountain quilt. I can’t remember what she called it, but HERE is the pattern. I have wanted to make a scrappy version of it every since. Now that the entire world is quarantined, and many of the quilt shops are closed, I got my chance!

Another lady in my quilt guild had done the pattern in the form of lanterns and it hung in our Peach Days community celebration last year.  I loved how she arranged her blocks, and I was thinking of finishing this one similarly. Then I looked at it and realized it looks like the Corona Virus! Well, after a few weeks of homeschooling, deep cleaning my fridge, reading every book in my house, and worrying about all of my friends and family getting sick I decided a big nope on that pattern for this time frame.

 

IMG-7499(1)I played around with it until I had a bit of a color gradient, and decided on a sunrise pattern. This is a side view, and I’m working on a time lapse of the process to make it.  I still have to do the outer borders, which will also be scrappy.  I can not wait to share it when it is done.

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Quiet Book Start + Pinterest + A Finish

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I have started a quiet book for my kids. I started simple, so I wouldn’t feel overwhelmed and could achieve a sense of accomplishment without actually doing very much.

denim pocket page

This denim pocket page will hold a notebook and pencil for little notes, and I was thinking it would be fun to put a mailbox page next to it, so the kids can write a note and then mail it.

I started a pinboard for quiet book pages, so if anyone has anything fabulous, shoot me a link. (stitchhack at gmail.com) If you are also a pinterest junkie, HERE is my slowly growing spectacular sewing page, too.

under the sea page 1

These fish and the seahorse will be for an Under the Sea themed page. The fish will have velcro. I am still brainstorming on whether there are other ways to make that page interactive or if I should just velcro it all.

flower pot hot pad

In very shocking news, I have actually, finally, miraculously Finished Something! This was actually a UFO for more than a year. When I was president of my local quilt guild I joined the state guild, which included a newsletter. There was a block of the month in the newsletter that included this paper pieced potted flower one month. I love paper piecing because of the scraps it uses up. (We won’t talk about all the wasting. No, we won’t.)

I decided not to make the whole quilt, but this block made a great casserole-size hot pad, which someone on my list has requested for Christmas.

It is so nice to start checking things off of my list this early. Last year my sister had a crazy, horrible accident late in September where she cut her fingers off, and gave birth at the end of the re-attachment surgery. She and I spent the rest of the year working on recovering as she took care of her newborn baby. Also, I was pregnant at the time. And Christmas just sort of took the back-burner, and then got burned on the stove, if we want to take the metaphor way too far.

Anyway, here is to a Happy Holiday Season to all this year!

Stylish Blogger Award

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My awesome friend Lindsay of the esteemed Linz Sews gave me this award. She has all sorts of awesome projects going on right now, so check her out! I am excited about this award because I more often consider myself frumpy than stylish:

Thank you Linz! I love your blog and you and consider this a great honor.

Included in the award is the opportunity to share 7 things about me, and share 6 blogs I also think deserve this award, so here we go!

7 things about me.

1. I have recently had a birthday, and I really enjoyed being wished Happy Birthday every few minutes on facebook for the first few hours and throughout the day because I am something of an email junkie.

2. On my birthday, when my husband asked what was the best thing that happened to me all year. I said, “Giving birth naturally for the first time.”

3. On my birthday, when my husband asked what was the worst thing that happened to me all year. I said, “Giving birth naturally for the first time.”

4. My favorite color is orange. For many years it was blue, but it has changed. Maybe it has to do with being over 30? I don’t know.

5. My nose is crooked, and it drives me crazy.

6. I love the book Jane Eyre, and have read it more times than almost any other book.

7. I have a hard time deciding what my favorite food is, because that is sort of like having to pick a favorite child or sibling when you have many and they are ALL my favorite.

I would like to dub the following blogs as stylish:

I just discovered this one today: How About Orange?  Jessica also likes orange, and designs textiles and graphics. Awesome!

I discovered Elizabeth’s Occasional Piece—Quilt shortly after I started this blog, when I was surfing quilting tags and trying to figure out wordpress. I was initially attracted by her amazing polka dot circle paper pieced wheels quilt. I also enjoy other quilty subjects she writes about.

This is my friend Melissa’s blog: The Yoder’s Four. She makes awesome jewelry, and she also posts about the fun colors she paints her house and various delightful sewing and/or design projects.

Crazy Mom Quilts has many awesome references and tutorials. I like hers and other blogs who have taken the “process pledge,” which means they blog not only completed projects, but things that illuminate the quilting process they use.

Pots and Pins is a quilting and cooking blog, which I have loved for several years.

I don’t remember how I found Greenleaf Goods, but her post today was on bibs and the Hunger Games series, so I know that she must be awesome like Lindsay and me, in that she loves sewing AND reading. I think I may initially have been attracted to her groovy header, but there is a lot to like over there, so I’m not sure.

Under the Sea Crib Bumpers

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under the sea
This is a little blast from my sewing past. When I was pregnant with my oldest, I wanted to make some crib bumpers that would be non-gender specific in order to use it again and again. I didn’t account for a few facts:

* I love to sew
* I was inexperienced and bound to make mistakes when not using a pattern
* After a couple of kids, it’s nice to change things up a little

So I could use a new crib bumper now, even though this under the sea one has served me pretty well. Luckily, since I am too exhausted, my beautiful and talented sister in law will be putting something together to go with the maze quilt, but before Under the Sea retires, I thought I’d share.

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I was immensely pleased with my little sea creatures. I googled coloring pages for a sea horse, and I drew the octopus free-hand and cut them out in felt. I had those tiny buttons in my stash, and they made great eyes. If I did it over again, I would change a few things:

* I would make ties on the top and bottom of each panel, as well as intermittently. The first bumper I made had just one tie at the top corner of each of the four sides. They hung okay, but could have used more support.
* I would buy the good felt instead of the cheap stuff. These have only been washed a few times, and they looked much worse after each washing.
* I might do something more scrappy, because the strong turquoise in this one didn’t ever really match or even remotely mesh with any of the decorations or other quilted things I made for either child.

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I liked the way these little yellow fish turned out. I love texture. I only embellished the side that I would see standing from the side of the crib. The other sides, I overstuffed with doll batting, and quilted in waves:

quilting

I almost liked these sides as much as I liked the one that took all the energy. Almost. 😉

Pants to Skirt re-fashion

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I once found a pair of limey green stretch corduroy pants for $4.50, and they fit, although the waist was a little generous and low for me. I bought them, and just wore a long shirt with them to cover my low-riding. I was thinking the pants would make  a great maternity skirt with that generous waist, so I googled and found this tutorial. I was really happy with the results:

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Since I didn’t use a pair of baggy jeans, I had to improvise in the back. I made a little two layer ruffle to fill the gap where the former pant legs came apart. It made a good mid-maternity skirt. I am now far too fat for it. Still, I’m happy to have only two weeks left until my due date!