back at it

Well, hello there! I haven't fallen off the face of the earth. (Thanks to those of you who checked in on me....I appreciate it!) I didn't intend to be away from this space for the entire summer, but it was a lovely break. My one goal this summer was to enjoy my kids while they were home and I was able to do just that. I'm so thankful! (Some days that is a miracle, you know?) They headed back to school today, which is bittersweet. They are in grades 7, 10 and 12 this year!!! (I have a feeling there will be a lot of tears in the next 9 months, with a senior in the house....) Anyway, I'm excited for this year and I'm thankful to watch my kids grow up into great young adults.

I'm also excited to get back into the routine of sewing on a regular basis. I have a lot of things to finish (ooof!) and more ideas in my head than I can ever execute, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

I'm super excited to say it again....Happy Monday to you! xoxoxo

visible mending

I've seen a lot of people sharing their visible mending projects on Instagram and we even had a demo about it at quilt guild a few years back, but until recently I haven't given it a try. I mean, we patched our clothes growing up, but believe me, it wasn't pretty. Ha! A few weeks ago, I finally dipped my toes in the water of visible mending and I'm so glad that I did! It makes my frugal heart happy.

These are my younger son's jeans. He wore a hole in the pocket area from carrying his phone around. The pocket lining started peeking out from the hole and it was just awkward. I used a piece of denim from an old pair of jeans and thin polyester black thread for the stitching. I didn't want to use perle cotton because it would be too visible for his tastes. I went with poly thread because I figured it would be stronger and withstand more wear.

One of the knees had a hole in as well. Thankfully I patched it before it split the entire way, side to side. (I have another pair of his jeans in the mending queue where that happened.....)

I was surprised that the mending turned out as well as it did, honestly. It felt GREAT to give new life to my son's favorite jeans. He wears them a lot since I patched them and he thanked me multiple times for mending them. Isn't that the best?

A few weeks ago, my daughter discovered one of our puppies chewing on a quilt. It was NOT a happy day, let me tell you! The good thing is, of all the quilts that the pup could have chosen to chew on, this is about the best case scenario. (f there is such a thing....)

Last evening, I added a patch of contrasting solid fabric to each side of the quilt and did some big stitch quilting with perle cotton.

The stitching is pretty rustic, especially on the back, but I think that's ok! I'm glad I was able to fix it. Like a friend said, now that's part of this quilt's story. It definitely adds character!

 

Have you given visible mending a try? If you haven't yet, I would encourage you to do so...but hopefully you won't need to do it on any of your quilts! :)

gluing, pounding and shrinking (oh my!)

This is kind of a mish mash post, but I wanted to cover a few random things, so we will file this post under tips, tricks and miscellaneous information. How does that sound?

Last week I mentioned that I lined up the stripes on my binding by glue basting. I don't do a lot of glue basting, but there are times when it's quite helpful. Last year a woman came to quilt guild and did a whole demo on this subject, and that's when I bought this super fine tip. It dispenses a very fine line of glue, which you then need to set with a hot iron. Only use washable white school glue for this! It's basically glorified starch....which will come out in the wash. If you want more information, you can google "glue basting" which will yield enough reading information for days! I've also used glue to baste my quilt backing fabric together to line up the repeat. I have to say, the binding strips were much easier...they are much smaller! The super fine tips can also be purchased here. (No affiliation whatsoever, just for your information.)

I'm in a quilt bee with my lovely friends that I retreat with at Gruber's every year. Last month, Michelle asked for a solids version of this bowie block. I don't mind paper piecing, but this one was tricky for me! My friend Cindy counted and there are 14 layers of fabric to sew through in certain points. Well, no wonder I was having problems. Ha! I've seen photos on Instagram of people pounding bulky seams flat with a hammer, so I gave it a try. The block lies much flatter now and it was also good for releasing some frustration. Hahahaha! Someone asked if it damages the fabric, which didn't even occur to me. The integrity of the fabric seemed just fine after the pounding. Weird technique, but it's a good trick for ultra bulky seams.

Before I gifted this quilt to my neighbor, I washed it. I measured it after washing, and it shrunk 5" in the width and 6" in the length. I thought that was a lot!!! I'm glad I made it oversized...and I was relieved that it still finished at 66" x 88"...about a perfect twin size! Yay!

That got me thinking, though....did it shrink extra because of the Essex linen that I used? Or is that normal? I don't often measure my quilts before and after, but I became very curious. So, I quickly washed and dried my scrapalicious quilt to compare. This quilt shrunk by almost the same rate....5 1/2"in the width and 7" in the length. (Before washing the quilt was 66" x 86". After washing, the quilt was 60 1/2" x 79".) Both quilts have Quilters Dream batting inside. I thought that was an interesting experiment. It also reminds me that if I want to make a quilt large enough to fit a bed, I need to add an extra row or so!

trying to catch up

Hello there! This is mainly a catch up post...so many little things to say!

First off, I've gone back and added links to the tutorials in my posts from Monday and Friday. If you've asked about a source, I've added links. I've answered the questions from Monday's post as well.

I've finally sifted through and responded to the questions from my most recent machine quilting post. (That took awhile!) Some of them are so hard to explain in print, but I did my best! It's clear that I need to write an entire post about consistent stitch length, because that topic came up several times. I am not making any promises, but I will TRY to make a video to explain it. (Please don't hold your breath, though.) :)

We have another Quilt Along update...

The next 20 quilts for Margaret's Hope Chest are in! Quilts have been received from:

Debbie B.
Pat P.
Valerie R.
Jeanmarie S.
Judith H.
M. Kennison
Lisa E.
Pat F.
Susanne R.
B. Stanley
Denise W.
Lisa T.

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU! Seriously, we are amazed and thankful for your generous response! The winner of this round of entries is Valerie Root.

OH! And the winner of the Olfa prize is Adrienne. Congratulations to you, Adrienne. Thanks to the rest of you for commenting. It was SO fun to read about your sewing experience.

And because I can't do a picture-less blog post....

I'm trying to take the time to pass along my love of sewing to my daughter. It's difficult, because I'm selfish and I want to sew ALL of the things. I'm trying really hard to be intentional about it, so today we had a sewing session. It went really well! Here's to the next generation of quilters!

Have a fantastic day. xo

scrap management (and some stash additions)

Last week was a crazy one! I started off the week in Iowa, where I taught scrap 2 management classes and did a trunk show at the Old Capital Quilter's Guild. It was great fun! I love meeting quilters. I love helping them use their scraps. More importantly, I love enabling them to keep even smaller scraps. I'm kind of a stinker that way....what can I say?

It's inspiring to see what the students come up with. The transformation of humble piles of scraps to quilt tops never gets old. So many scraps are well on their way to becoming beautiful quilts. Hurray!

On Tuesday I taught at Inspirations in Hills, Iowa. It's a super cute quilt shop that was formerly a general store. It has a great upstairs class room. (I wanted to move in.) The owner and her daughter were so hospitable. Thanks Nancy and Cassie!

The students did a great job of using their scraps here, too! A big thank you to all of the ladies who took my classes. I enjoyed it very much!

Oh! I'd be remiss if I didn't share this fabulous storage idea. One of the students stores her color coded scraps in decorative birdcages. Isn't that fantastic?

Of course I didn't come home empty handed.....

This pile was from Inspirations. I'm pretty sure Riley Blake is going to make me go broke. I can't resist their cuteness!

This pile was from Ben Franklin...if you can believe that. I love blue and green. And gray. SO hard to resist. I usually walk out of a store with a color coordinated pile. Do you do that, too?

So, as nice as it was to be out of the office (ha!) last week, I'm so happy to be home! The sewing machine has been humming this week. That's a very good thing.

settling in

School is out and summer vacation (heh) is here. We are trying to find our summer groove, which always takes awhile. As if that weren't enough, we are working very hard to settle into our house and make it feel like ours. We've made some headway...it's good to celebrate the progress rather than to focus on how much needs to be done.

Our living room was the first room to come together. I love the fireplace! Our IKEA bookshelves and leather chairs look pretty good in the space. This might be my favorite room in the house at the moment. The view out the window is pretty amazing.

It's like living in a tree house! It feels like we have our very own park in the back yard, too. I'm loving all the GREEN! It's quite different from just a few weeks ago. Spring has finally sprung! It took a long time this year, so we are enjoying every minute of it. The kids are loving their new big back yard! Consequently, so am I. :)

Our bedroom is set up, but it still needs artwork. And paint! On the foot board, my apple cake quilt. One of my very, very favorites! It's nice to have this one out and in use again. I love rotating quilts throughout the house.

We've actually hung things on some of the walls already. That must be a new record! On the left, ticker tape on canvas, 24" x 36" (tutorial here). I LOVE that piece! On the right, my snippets wall quilt. It's nice to have some color on the walls!

 

The sewing area is a complete disaster, so no photos on that front yet. I don't want that mess documented! I may need to seek outside help. It's completely overwhelming.

I have NOT had much time to sew and boy do I miss it! I managed to indulge in a little bit of scrap therapy yesterday. Somehow sewing little bits of color together has a way of soothing the frazzled nerves. I'm not sure why, but I'll take it!

catching up

Oh, mylanta! So much has been going on, I think a catch up post is in order.

Last week on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday we packed up our house in Wisconsin. We had movers (thanks to the company relo) to help us out, but it is still a ton of work! It was a little bit sad to see the contents of our house disassembled. On the other hand, it was kind of exciting to finally be at this point. It's been a long time coming!

There were plenty of quilts to move. It was fun to see so many piled up in one spot! Usually they are spread out here, there and everywhere. I had a hard time entrusting the quilts to the movers, so we opted to move them ourselves. They filled the trunk of the car. And that was just a portion of them. Yikes! 

After a few days (and very little sleep) we had the house completely empty. That requires much celebrating by the short people in the house. Lots of shouting, running in circles and twirling. It was fun to watch the kids enjoy the empty rooms and I made sure I let them. I was certain to take it all in. They've been through a lot with this move, too!

It was hard to say good bye to our house. I get so sentimental sometimes! After 4 houses you'd think I'd kind of be used to it. So many memories there and so many friends to say good bye to! It has been a great place to live.

 

EARLY Sunday morning, a day and a half later, I flew out to Pittsburgh. I had the opportunity to speak and teach at a guild there. Yes, right smack dab in the middle of the move. Why not?!?!? 

Actually, the timing was wonderful and I enjoyed my trip very much. It was a break from the reality of the move. Pittsburgh is a lovely city, the guild was wonderful and I was in good hands the entire time I was there! Many thanks to Sally and Diane for showing me around and keeping me company in the down times. It was a delight.

I did a trunk show on Monday night and a scrap management workshop on Tuesday for the guild. During class one of my students snuck an apple on my (borrowed) sewing machine...an apple for the teacher. Isn't that the sweetest thing ever? Thanks Elizabeth! I'm so very thankful that I get to travel, speak and teach about quilting. It's pretty incredible that I am able to work doing something that I love to do!

For the trip I finally broke down and started using my scrap happy purse. It's been sitting around unused for months and this was the perfect opportunity to break it in. I loved the size of it. Great for everyday use AND for traveling. My iPad fit in it well, along with my normal purse contents and I still had room for a snack. My purse also made me recognizable at the airport. Can't ask for more than that! :)

I got home at 2am on Wednesday. At 10 am the moving truck arrived and they unloaded all of our stuff. We are now surrounded in a sea of boxes. Sheesh! We are glad to have all our things in one place again. Speaking of that, I best get unpacking. I've got lots to do! Gotta get it done so I can sew!

tote bag

Welcome to finish it up Friday!

This is a VERY new finish...less than an hour since I sewed the final stitch. My LQS is holding a tote bag challenge and I was happy to join in. I'm excited to have a cute new (BIG) bag for all the quilt toting I do on a weekly basis. The fabric is Odds and Ends by Julie Comstock. I used a layer cake for the front and back panels, which yielded a lot of leftovers for the scrap bins! I used a few pieces from my stash for the handles and sides. I lined it with canvas to add stability and body to the bag. The weight turned out JUST right. I love it when that happens! It measures 20" square, approximately and it's about 6" deep. It's large enough to fit a few lap quilts inside. I'm excited to use it! It feels so good to have a finish to share today!

A bit of exciting news! It's been pretty quiet here on the blog, but that's because we are busy finalizing our moving plans. We have an offer on our house AND we found a house to buy in our new community! We are so thankful to God for answering our many prayers! He is so faithful! The transition is going to be fast and furious, but we are looking forward to finally moving and getting settled into a new place. So, my new project will holding down the fort during our final days here. It's going to be lots of fun! Lots to do, but lots to look forward to, too. I'm reminding myself to breathe. :)

Now it's your turn! Please link up your finishes for the week. And thank you so much for joining me for finish it up Friday! Have a good one!

road trip

Before we jump into the post for today, I want to let you know that Anna from Noodlehead is giving away a copy of Sunday Morning Quilts. Head over and say hi for a chance to win!

Last Saturday my friend Brianne and I were able to take a road trip down to the La Crosse area to visit Olive Juice Quilts. The trip was something that we had talked about doing for a long time, but the details were planned at the very last minute. Thankfully everything worked out and we had a blast! Not to mention that it was the most beautiful day for a road trip.

Tula Pink spoke about her fabric designing process and she also did a trunk show. It was a very neat event to take part in! (We didn't have tickets, but we got in under the wire....with permission. :) It was awesome. Thanks Diane!)

The quilt shop itself was worth the drive down. Such a great shop! I was impressed! If you ever get the chance, or are in a hundred mile radius from there, I'd recommend that you stop in for a visit. So many great fabrics in one spot. A bit overwhelming, but in the best way possible!

Brianne and I also had the chance to meet up with Anna and Megan. We had lunch together before the Tula event and coffee with them afterwards. It is wonderful to meet up with fellow bloggers and visit in real life. We had fun laughing, enjoyed getting to know each other better and had fun comparing notes. We may have shopped a little, as well!

All in all it was an incredible day. The timing was pretty wonderful, too. My kids are on spring break this week, so it was nice to have a recharge day beforehand. It has helped a lot.

Oh, and I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that I came home with TONS of scraps from Anna. (Thanks, Anna!) There was a very happy scrap party in my living room yesterday. Good times!

staples

I've been thinking....

...having plenty of batting and white Kona in my sewing room is much like having a well stocked flour and sugar supply in the kitchen. I love having a well stocked pantry. A well stocked sewing room could possibly be even better. :)

making memories

Nothing says "Thanksgiving" like a home improvement project or two, don't you think?

Today we are replacing a bathroom floor.

(Good grief! Why couldn't we do this for us?)

We are also taking out the crumbling brick on our front step and replacing it.

With all the work ahead of us, I decided to go all out and make prime rib. 

This is what memories are made of! :)

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!

really random thursday

thanks for all the sweet comments in my last post. i should have mentioned that we are moving back to central MN. we have no idea where we will land specifically yet...still need to figure out that piece. my kids want to go house hunting in the worst way, but i am insistent that we start looking after ours is listed for sale.

i've been painting trim and doors for 7 days and boy am I cranky! there is still so much to do. i feel like i'm in painting purgatory.

last night after my kids went to bed and my husband was at work, i treated myself to some quilting time. (there has been so little quilting time lately, which is making me even more cranky.) this is my super scrap happy quilt. the top is still in several sections that i need to fit together, but i am really loving it! LOTS of time invested in this baby. it's a medium lap size now, so i might keep going and make it a bit bigger. (it's all constructed in slabs, as described in sunday morning quilts.)

i've all but emptied the bowl and bin of scraps that i designated for this project. hurray for progress!

just to clarify, i'm not running out of scraps. not even close! :)

on saturday i will be one of the featured artists on the river falls art crawl. i'll be doing a trunk show at riverside quilting in river falls. i'll also be doing a book signing and selling copies of the book...and perhaps some other goods, too. if you are in the area i'd love it if you would stop in and say hello! the hours are 10am-4pm.

last saturday i went to a quilt show in hastings, mn. 300 quilts were displayed in the sanctuary of St. Luke's. it was absolutely beautiful. both vintage and new quilts were draped over the back of all the pews. it was spectacular.

hands down my favorite quilt at the show was made by Ann Mayhew. it was made of pinwheels and shoo fly blocks that finished at 1.5"! it was absolutely stunning.

it was made from all solids, which i loved. it had a total of 23,808 pieces. wowza. it only took her 3 years! i must meet this woman someday.

i'm linking up with Cindy's really random thursday.

really random Friday

My friend Cindy hosts a really random Thursday link up each week. Isn't that a fun idea? I never seem to hit it on the right day. So, rather than try again next week, I'm chiming in a day late and posting on Friday. (You should check out her super cute selvage box, too.)

Are you ready for some random???

There are still a few spots open for my Scrap Management workshop in November retreat in Fort Collins, CO. This is our 4th year doing a retreat!! Tara and I are working on plans to make it the best one yet. The quilt shown above (my long division quilt) will be one of the prizes this year! You can read more information about the retreat and how to sign up here.

My friend Stephanie wrote up a wonderful review of Sunday Morning Quilts (thanks Stephanie!) and is giving away a copy of the book. If you don't have a copy of the book yet and you want to throw your name in the hat, go check out her post here!

Just this afternoon I finished the tiny stippling on this quilt. I'm so excited I could do a little jig! It WAS well worth it. Now, to pick the perfect binding....

After making about 200 quilts, most of them with warm and natural or warm and white as batting, I'm ready to try something new. (Can you imagine!?!?) I bought a package of Quilter's Dream batting a few weeks ago to try it out. I used it in my most recent quilt and so far I LOVE it. I'm planning on doing a side by side comparison of Quilter's Dream vs. Warm and white after I do a bit more testing. You know...washing, drying and using the quilt a bit.

I did a bit more hand stitching on my tiny liberty quilt and now it's just. right. That's making me so happy!

And last but not least, I'm going to Jacquie's trunk show in Minneapolis tonight. I can't wait! I hope I remember my camera. :)

Happy Friday to you!