What's a Grandma to Do?

I am very excited because my two granddaughters (and their parents) are coming to Clearwater from New York for a visit tomorrow! So what's a Grandmother to do but get busy and make their visit as special as she can. Here is one of the things I came up with. First off, I got this table second hand dirt cheap (nothing!!). It is solid wood and in my opinion it is gorgeous. It could use a bit of oil, but I didn't get to that. That will occur before the next visit... I decided that my little princesses needed placemats for their "new" table. I started digging through my stash and what you see below is what my stash told me to make. Yes, I sometimes hear voices... but that's another post! I love purple and lime green together, and I love pink and green together, so I thought (or the voices told me) why not use all three? So I grabbed a bit of each, and then remembered my Hoopsisters design CD and the rest, as they say, is history.

For the names that I embroidered onto the placemats I used a font from the Embird alphabets. I made the bias vine using my wonderful Simplicity Bias Tape Machine, and the whole project was done in no time at all. Or so I thought.... When I set the table I thought, "Geeze, wouldn't it be nice if I had some pink napkins...." Back to the stash I went and sure enough I had enough pink fabric from the binding left over to make coordinating cloth napkins. Then I was sure I was done, right? Nope. The table needed flowers. After considerable digging I found, hiding in my linen closet, this vase and I couldn't believe my luck. A perfect match! Now I am ready for my Princess Granddaughters to come and visit...

And so is Baby Sally. She can't wait until the party begins...

In the meantime, Go USA!! Don't cha just love the Olympics?

Quilter's License Plate Search

I have been searching like crazy for a vanity license plate that says something cute about quilting. I don't need a frame. I have that. I need a cute plate to go inside the frame on the front of my car. See, when I attached the current plate to my car, I made a few mistakes (to say the least) and now I need to have a plate there to cover up the extra holes.... I am astonished but I can not find one to purchase! I would have thought that there would be a multitude of quilter's license plates to purchase. Is Florida the only state that uses only one plate on the car anymore? I don't get it, but either way, does anyone know of a place to purchase a Quilter's vanity plate? Post a comment with the link if you do!

Way Tooooo Long!

I have been very busy lately - though that is no excuse for not posting new blogs. THAT, I promise, will not happen again. I have stuck to all my resolutions this year except that one and the time has come to make that last resolution good, too.

So that gorgeous bag above is what Dora made at her One on One Machine class last Saturday at Country Quilts and Bears in Clearwater. After I started teaching quilting classes, I quickly discovered that some of my burgeoning quilters hadn't had the time or the opportunity to take classes at the shops they bought their machines at, thus they weren't as comfortable with their machines as they could be. I saw a need, threw out a notice in the shop newsletter, and I was amazed at the response. I am doing machine embroidery classes and regular machine classes and I have had such fun with them all. How can you not have fun when you see someones face light up when they become comfortable with their machines and create such beautiful projects?
Dora has the Janome/Memory Craft 6600 Professional. What a fabulous machine that is. Next Saturday I am in Key West at the Seam Shoppe teaching a Jelly Patch Quilt Class and then the weekend after that I am back at Country Quilts and Bears teaching a Janome/Memory Craft 10000 class. I really love what I do!

Here is a link to a story about the class I am teaching this weekend. It's called A Cautionary Tale...

Free Pattern Section on my Website

Here's a photo of our Bitty Baby sitting so nice in her new cloth diaper. I just uploaded the free Bitty Baby cloth diaper pattern to my website and you can head right over there and get your copy today! I have received many emails asking for free patterns and I finally found the time to get them up there. This pattern fits the American Girl Bitty Baby and other 15 inch baby dolls. It is a great stash buster and can also be made from repurposed clothing. Let your imaginations run wild and have some fun!

I also uploaded a tote bag pattern to the free patterns section. It's a very simple sewing pattern, with fabulous illustrations, to help the beginning sewer. These totes make great grocery or all purpose totes as well as wonderful gifts. I like to embellish mine with machine embroidery, but they are just as nice without embellishments.

Enjoy the patterns and Merry Christmas!

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.