The Bitty Baby Patterns are done!

The baby doll patterns are finally finished, printed, packed and ready for shipment! Whew! What a busy month it has been. As most who read my blog are aware, I have an etsy shop where I sell my patterns. Through this blog and the etsy shop I have recieved numerous requests to create pattens that match my toddler pattern series for the Bitty Baby and 15 inch baby dolls. It's been quite a journey because the proportions of these dolls are very different from that of a real child (to say the least!). My goodess, what a journey it has been! At any rate we have completed the patterns and they are ready to go.

My First Brown Bag Challenge - DONE!

My quilt guild, The Procrastinating Quilters of Clearwater, has a yearly challenge called the "Brown Bag Challenge." This is my first full year in the guild so it is the first time I was able to participate. What fun it is. What you see above is what I created.
SIDE NOTE: The wall hanging really isn't wonky. It just looks it because it was blowing in the wind.

Here is how the guild describes the challenge to us:

"What is a Brown Bag Challenge?" It is a time for you step out of your comfort zone to do something fun and receive something wonderful in return. The following outlines what you need to know in order to participate:
1. 3 COORDINATING FAT QUARTERS
2. Place the 3 COORDINATING FAT QUARTERS in a brown lunch bag with no markings (I will have extra bags if you don't have one); please no notes requesting a particular item to be made - that takes away from the challenge.
3. Bring your bag to the guild Summer Party
4. Hand it in
5. Near the end of the Summer Party, you will select a brown bag that is not yours for the challenge. From these three fat quarters we are instructed to do the following:


Use the 3 COORDINATING FAT QUARTERS on the front/outside of your project.
Please use at least 75% of the fabric provided on the project.
You made add as many other fabrics your heart desires - quilt store quality please.
The project MUST be QUILTED - machine or hand.
The project MUST be FINISHED.
The project should be no larger than a lap size.
Please put a label on your project.


We call the party that we have in November, "The Big Reveal" because that is where we reveal and give what we have made to the person who owns those three fat quarters. I didn't set this blog to post until after "The Big Reveal" because the surprise is such a big part of the fun.

There is my label and the three scraps that were left over from making the project - it's nice to include a piece of each color (if you can) because many of us forget what we put in the bags seven months ago! It's OK if we forget, thank goodness, because the person in charge of the challenge records each bag handed in.

A Cautionary Tale...

This is my newest completed quilt. I'm going to call it "A Cautionary Tale." Really, I am.

The definition of a Cautionary Tale is as follows: A traditional narrative (e.g., a fable, proverb, urban legend, or quilt) with a moral message warning of the consequences of certain actions or character flaws.
Character flaw: Self confidence and arrogance so high as to encourage my NOT following the pattern designer’s directions
Consequence: Bias issues
The quilt you see here is made from the Jelly Patch pattern. It's one of the patterns from the "Straight to the Point" series, published by Make It Easy which is a QuiltWoman.com Company. When I saw this quilt hanging in my local quilt shop, Country Quilts and Bears, I knew instantly I had to make it. A dear friend, Carol McPherson Hemmingsen was going to be teaching it. She did a marvelous job teaching and the class was one of the most enjoyable I have ever attended. Sadly, I was only able to attend day one of the two day class. That left me to finish the quilt myself. No problem, right?

I must state, before I go any further with this tale, that I have made many, many quilts through the years and I have never had any bias issues with a finished quilt. Honestly, not even one wonky quilt. Oh, the arrogance this omission of tragedy can breed.... The creation of this wonderful on-point quilt is amazingly simple. The blocks are constructed using Jelly Roll strips and then the completed blocks are sewn into rows. Once this is completed, the quilt top is cut into three sections and re-sewn, resulting in an on-point setting. The directions in the pattern offer two VERY SIMPLE options for stabilizing the bias edges before cutting. I opted for neither. "Why would you do that," you ask? In short, I trace the roots of that decision to an over inflated sense of confidence and arrogance. Me? Bias issues? Never happen. HA! When I received "The Call" from my quilter, I was instantly humbled. I could feel my face flush, and knew instantly what had happened.

Because I have a fabulous quilter, Marlene Hooten of Lucky Sew and Sew, my Cautionary Tale looks (nearly) perfect! Marlene worked the wonkiness smooth by steaming and stretching until it is nearly invisible. Needless to say I am eternally grateful to her and I will be turning this into a teaching moment when I teach the Jelly Patch class next weekend in Key West at the Seam Shoppe....

And here is a shot of Carol holding up one of her finished Jelly Patch quilts. They really are gorgeous quilts!

Quilt Ingredients: I used the Berry Bliss Hoffman Bali Pops to make mine and Carol used an assortment of 2.5 inch batik strips to make hers. Both are the "throw" size. The only thing we changed was the outer border. The pattern called for a 4" border and Carol made hers 6". I then copied hers.

Ann the Gran picked up my patterns!

I woke up this morning to find the most wonderful of emails! Ann the Gran confirmed that they have picked up, and listed for sale, my patterns on their website! This is a wonderful website that is very well established and offers a wide selection of machine embroidery designs, as well as sewing and quilting related products. They also have a tremendous amount of software, tips and techniques, thread charts, and free stuff. Prior to them carrying my patterns I had purchased many designs from them and love their website. It's needless to say that today I am one very happy quilter!

Halloween Treat Bags - FREE!

It's no secret that I have two beautiful granddaughters and naturally, as Halloween approaches, I start to think of projects I can create for them. Lucy is going to be a little Pumpkin, and Madelyn is going to be a Fairy Princess for the big day. I decided that I wanted to make them treat bags and then got to thinking about how silly it would be to spend a lot of money on that endeavor. After all, they drag them around while they are Trick or Treating and only use them the one night. Besides that, I am really trying to use up some stash. What you see above and below is what I came up with.

First I embroidered the designs - they were free downloads that I already had on my computer. I also used a font that came on my machine. I constructed them from felt using a plain tote bag pattern that I've had forever. I was so surprised, after a bit of digging around in the sewing room, to find that I already had everything I needed to fancy them up and make them worthy of my precious little peanuts!

So, the purpose of this post? I wanted to show how, with a little digging, you can create wonderful things without spending a dime! Don't have felt? Use fabric! Use up those scrap embellishments you've had laying around for years! Dig through those boxes and I bet you'll be surprised at what you find. Get creative and wait until you see how good you feel when you create something wonderful that didn't cost you a penny!

The Magic Number is....

I can not remember the last time I was this excited about something in the quilting world. I think it was when I first read Quilter's Home Magazine and discovered Mark Lipinski. Let me tell ya, Cupcakes, that's saying a lot!

Last night I was working on a quilt project for my guild's Brown Bag Challenge and was doing a bit of designing. This project, which I can't show yet becuase it is always a surprise, required many different sized quarter square triangles. I was a trimming and guessing fool. A BIG light bulb went off after I had to rip one quarter square unit apart. It was laying on my cutting mat and I saw that the original square I had just used to make a three inch finished quarter square triangle was 4¼ inches square! I say to myself, "By George, I think I've got something here...." I quickly whipped up some samples to try this theory out and sure enough, it worked!

So this is what I learned:
The "magic number" for quarter-square triangles is 1¼ inch. All you have to do is add 1¼ inches to the required FINISHED SIZE of your quarter-square triangle unit.

So, for example, if you want a 3" (finished size) quarter-square triangle unit, you need to cut two squares that measure 4¼ inches each. It is perfect every time!

I am sure this is not new news to the majority of quilters, but it sure was news to me. I knew about adding 7/8 of an inch to the finished size to get perfect half square triangle units, but had never made quarter squares for an improvised pattern, and thus I just didn't know this. It's the simple things in life...........

Are there any other Magic Numbers out there I don't know?

Quilted Media Case Is Done!

So this is the pattern that created the need for a new website. I've written how one thing leads to another in the past, and well, this is another perfect example. My red-headed step child came for a visit recently and we did a bit of sewing. She wanted a case for her iPhone. Here is the post I wrote about the one we made for her. Then I decided I needed a case for my beloved iPod Touch. I listen to audio books while I am sewing, cleaning or working in the garden and if I don't have a pocket, then I have no place to tuck the iPod while I am using it. I was constantly standing up to go to the ironing board, and PLOP! Down it would fall to the floor. Not good. Enter necessity, and on to invention.

This is what I came up with. It solved so many problems for me. I can wear it around my neck, or strap it to my arm using the Velcro straps. I have even hooked it through a belt loop.

Then I started making them to fit my moods. I really like flamingos...
When I made this one, I was feeling old, so I used 30's fabric. All kidding aside, it has just been so handy for me. Now when I sew or clean, even when I am in my jammie pants, I have my iPod in my ears so the job goes so much faster and I'm not fussing to hold the iPod while I do it. Even when I am not using my iPod, I keep it in the case without the straps so it stays safe and sound, protected in its very own quilt.

I'm curious: Do you listen to audio books? If so, what are you listening to now? What is your favorite audio book?

I'm listening to Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon

Favorite is probably Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen - best narration ever!