Practice What?

When you are as old as I am (no, don't ask me.....I'm as old as dirt!) you want to make every minute count 'cause you never know when you'll be called up yonder.

A friend of mine is teaching herself to do Free Motion Quilting  so I sent her a couple links to videos, loaned her a couple books, and CD of patterns.   Last month at our Tied Together Bee meeting, she showed me what she was doing and all the practice pieces she was doing.

mmmmh!  Practice again?  What about my time?  (Read the 1st sentence above again in case you missed it.)  and all those UFO's waiting?

Thought I'd try to do something different and play a little.  These two FMQ practice pieces were made quite a while ago right after I won Leah Day's book, From Daisy to Paisley.   She's the quilter who started the 365 days of FMQ designs.

Yes, they were fun to do.......and time consuming!  (Read the 1st sentence again..)

My friend got me all enthusiastic again, so I quickly made up a couple more quilt practice sandwiches and got going.

When I need to test my tension before quilting a project, I just grab up one of these quilt practice pieces, do a couple swirls.........and away we GO.

Practice?  Why?  Why not just "practice" some FMQ while making a few snack mats?

Front

Back

Okay...so far so good, and it was fun......so let's do a few more.  The stitches show up better on the backs of the snack mats.



There's more of them, (12 of 'em) but I don't want to bore ya'll to death.

So......do you "practice" first or do you just jump in and do it on a project?  Time's a Wastin' folks!

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I have a Question for You??

Today was our monthly Tied Together Quilt Bee.  It seems like I always take too many UFO projects and end up not getting much done.  It couldn't possibly be all the socializing/yakking/laughing/eating......could it?

Oh...you mean we are supposted to be sewing and quilting something??  Ok...just kidding.  I did manage to get something done. 

These quilt tops were already pieced......so I layered and quilted a couple new Batik Table Toppers using 5 inch charm squares.  

I like using charm squares from my ETSY Shop and sewing them together for simple quilts.    It gives my buyers and beginning quilters ideas on what they can do with just the simple 5 inch square and an easy simple border.  Just cut the charm squares in half........sew end to end.   The quilting is elongated straight stitch with variagated thread sewn diagnonally across...both directions.

Here's a shot of the backing too.



Different colors



And the binding is cut, pressed and ready for the quilts.......just have to get it sewn on tonight.

Now to my question for you. 

I'm thinking of offering these table toppers as Quilt Kits in my Etsy shop.   I'm trying to appeal to the beginners so they can sit down with a SEW FUN QUILTS Kit and have some easy, simple sewing fun in a short time frame.   

What do you think? 

The kits could include;  charm squares, borders, corner squares, and binding.  Should the kit have the backing fabric too?   They would measure approximatley 26" square when finished.

Please tell it like it is......I can take it.  I wouldn't have asked you what you think unless I was willing to hear your opinion.  AND..........by the way,   Thanks a bunch.

Thanks for visiting my blog.



Fabric Diet Warning!

Warning!  Never go to a quilt show when you're on a "fabric diet!"   It's worse than going to Baskin Robbins when you are trying to lose some weight.



I really enjoyed seeing the quilts and taking all those pictures, and was actually feeling a little smug about not visiting the vendors booths.  Ahhhhh  haaa!  I can do this.......get out of here without breaking my "fabric diet".......sure!

Then one of our Tied Together Bee members, Connie,  asked me to come with her to a vendor's booth to see a new scrappy template idea to see if she should buy it.  She is totally into doing scrap quilts and using up her stash;  there are foundation string quilts all over her house, and she's even making Christmas fabric ones for 35 Christmas stockings for the Elk's Lodge Christmas party for kids.  She's had a drought of sewing/quilting here lately 'cause they have been laying ceramic tile throughout their house for a couple months now.  I think she's ready to get back to it.

Ok...so we go to that booth, and watch the demo for the scrappy template ruler thingie (I forgot the name of it) and this new gadget is perfect for what she likes to do.  "Get it" I tell her....and "buy the book too".   I walk away.

Well, mmmhh....maybe I'll just make a quick walk around and there will be  some variegated quilting thread on sale.   BIG MISTAKE!

Oh....no....is that 30's reproduction prints fat quarters on sale?   MY FAVORITES!  But, I'm on a 'fabric diet'....... "Walk away"...I tell myself.  But, my feet took me right over to them anyway.   "I'll just get a couple of them".   They were all arranged so pretty....by color.  They looked like a garden of flowers.   My 'buy fabric trance' took over!  That's what I'm doing....picking flowers.

By that time a couple  other Bee members had come over to that booth to see what I was doing.   "Look at these......on sale....and I'm on a 'fabric diet'.   "Just buy a couple of them......that's not too bad",  Marilyn said.   (She bought 3 yards of fabric at the same booth.)


What's a gal who's on a 'fabric diet' to do?  The "buy fabric trance" is in full force!

Buy 12, get 1 free........BUY A COUPLE?  ..........sure!

Here's the 1st four I chose.

Here's the 2nd 4.  Love the yellows.

Last 4..... that makes 12.

And here's the one I got for 'Free'.....red, naturally.

I blame Connie and Marilyn for this.....it's their fault, not mine!

Well.......back on the 'fabric diet' again.........until the next show......or the next time I need some quilting thread.



Thanks for visiting!

Texas Quilt Show

Some of the gals from our Tied Together Bee went to a Quilt Show in Kerrville, Tx this weekend.   We had a wonderful time seeing all the gorgeous quilts.  Here's some for you to drool over.........., but I'm warning you.....get a napkin to wipe the drool off your keyboard.  Naturally, the pictures don't do them justice!  Lots of variety.......

They are not in any particular order.....just took a few as I was walking up and down the aisles......wonderful show.  Of course, there were lots of quilts with a Texas flavor!

Need a break?  There's more to come.

Hope you enjoyed the show!

Thanks for visiting.

Annual Christmas Party - Tied Together Bee

Our Tied Together Bee and Red Hat Sew Sassy group joined together for our annual Christmast Luncheon/Party last Tuesday.  There were 9 of us this year; lots of food, fun games, and much laughter. 

We had it at Connie's (the lady standing up) this year in her new addition on her home that her husband built.  This room is perfect for our sewing adventures, lots of electrical outlets, plenty of light, ceiling fans when we need them,  separate tables for each of us, cutting table, ironing board........and a BIG screen TV.    We use it for our Red Hat Sew Sassy sewing days too!   This room was a long covered patio, and Connie's husband converted it.  You can see our tables/chairs set up in the background. 

We like to get to the eatin' part right away..lol, then play games for the rest of the time. No hot turkey dinner this year.....easy, peasy finger foods, snacks, desserts!

We each bring a white elephant gift to trade, and 3-4 wrapped gifts; simple things for prizes.  Here's my loot I took home this year!

A beautiful Quilt Kit (my white elephant triumphant win...wait til you see this one in the next picture), big cone of gold embroidery thread, Red Hat can cozy, a Vanilla candle tin, a purse light clip, a fat quarter, and an embroidered lace tree ornament.

Isn't that fabric just yummy?  It's a Michael Miller print from a few years ago, and was in a kit.  Boy, that's a super White Elephant prize, and I went home with a big smile on my face!   Don't know if I'll use it like the quilt kit pattern picture or not.   I'd like to show off that fabric.....maybe pillows?  What do you think?

Thanks for visiting. 

WHAT FUN W/THIS CAT!

I finished my "secret"  project quilt yesterday at our Tied Together Quilt Bee, but I can't show you the pictures just yet 'cause I've got to type up the directions for it.  I'm GOing to be offering it as one of 

SEW FUN QUILTS Time Saver Kits.  Ahhhhhhhh!  I know you want to see it...just be patient a while longer.

HERE'S SOME FUN FOR RIGHT NOW!

I'm GOing to be playing with these Dr. Seuss fabrics in the next few days and am surely excited about it.  What fun this Cat and I are gonna have!  Yippee!  Sure hope my "quilt inspectors" don't want to help me!  They'll want me to make them new kitty beds and that's not GOing to happen with this fabric.  It's mine........all mine!

This red wiggly striped one just makes me smile when I look at all the silly characters.....timeless pictures....timeless stories......terrific!

The pattern layout or what I'll do with them yet is not a for sure, but I when I saw them at Fabrics N Quilts, I just knew I had to have some.     I actually ordered these on her pre-order discount and saved some money before they were available for shipment.  You can do it too!

GO visit her shop and check out these cute Dr. Seuss fabrics for yourself. 


Thanks for visiting.

More UFO'S.....Is there ever an end to them?

Here's a couple more UFO'S I found  in that same plastic bin from the other day.

These are purses without the removeable/changeable handle.  At one time I was GOing to embroider a different design on  all different colors of this handkerchief linen fabric so I would have lots of choices with different color outfits.  Well, you know about the saying........."The best laid plans......."  AND, I've still got a lot of different colors of this stuff too.  I'm not interested in finishing these now, so back in the bin they went.  I do use my one purse I embroidered my big fancy monogram on one side...out of purple & red fabrics.  I take it every once in a while for a Red Hat luncheon.

These are D9P blocks from another Tied Together Bee exchange we did this year.  We all made 9 patch blocks from our OLD 5" charm squares from a HUGE exhange of them we did  years ago.  (Thank goodness my old squares are about depleted, 'cause some of those were DEFINITELY UGLY fabrics.)  Most of the gals were very organized and color coordinated their squares in their 9 patch blocks.  NOT ME!  I just picked up whatever 5" charm that was next on the pile.  Scrappy is scrappy to me.  Then we cut them in fourths, and exchanged 20 sets, so we all would have some from everyone.  

When we decided to do this bee group project at the beginning of this year, one of the rules was we could only do the sewing on them at our bee meetings.  That was a fun rule 'cause we could see everyone's blocks before they cut them. 

I put this  D9P UFO quilt on my "to finish" list.  It will be a fun one!

Well...........how long has it been since you pulled out some UFO's to evaluate them??


Thanks for stopping by.