Hi there! It's been a little while since my last update. I guess I haven't found a balance between work stitching and personal stitching. I've been hesitant to blog about work stuff. However, I am kind of coming to the realization that it may be one and the same. 🥰
I don't have anything in particular to blog about today but I don't want to put off an update any longer.
So, I looked through my photos to see what might pics I have there since my last blog update. I was surprised to see quite a bit...
I made up some needle book kits for work, based on the Needlebook tutorial my nanaCompany.
I don't have a picture of the finished needle book from the kit, but here are the needle books I made at home from nanaCompany's tutorial. It's a very easy fast fun little project!
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| Needle book front |
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| Needle book back |
The Old Craft Store is doing Edita Sitar's 6-week Alaska Rainbow Quilt Along...
I joined in with the idea of hand-piecing it... Tomorrow we'll be on week 5, I'm still stitching week 1.😂
I made a Christmas sample for the OCS (the Old Craft Store)
I even enjoyed following the directions and cut ALL the pieces before stitching anything together! That might be a first time for me. Once I start a quilt I usually cut just a few pieces because I can't wait to get to the stitching part!
We made up kits. The pattern is in the "Best of Moda Bake Shop: A Sweet Batch of Quilts Perfect for Precuts" compiled by Lisa Calle.
Halloween came around. Chewie wasn't amused, nor bothered, by the spiders we invited into the house.
Sometime in October, my Tree of Life quilt top moved into the front room at the OCS!
I admit that I quite enjoy hearing customers admiring it 💕
And at the moment, I am putting together another quilt top to be a store sample.
I found the pattern at Connecting Threads. It's called the Subway Quilt Pattern by Sewing Sue.
To be honest, this has been love/hatedislike with this pattern. The design is fantastic!
But there is much too much waste in the stitch and flip method. For me, the stitch and flip method is not really the most accurate, and matching the seams is a challenge now that I'm finally at the part of connecting blocks.
Part of the cause for this was that I switched sewing machines in the middle of completing the blocks. The difference in the presser feet and needle positions makes a difference in seams! even with the stitch and flip technique.
Another cause is that when my flip ended up being too short, I resorted to over-compensating the seam and then trimming the block to the correct size. I knew this would likely cause uneven seams, as shown above, but I was willing to chance it because I just wanted to get done 😉.
However, looking at it from a distance, it is noticeable, but not glaringly so. I can live with SOME seams not matching perfectly....
I also started a sewing group at The Old Craft Store called Scrap Bag Buddies. We decided to work on houses, the pattern is Village - Jumble: a Charm Patch mashup. Some internet places are selling this pattern, but it is available as a free PDF download at Fat Quarter Shop!
At least one more thing that I've been up to. I took over the EPP classes at the OCS. In my search for interesting EPP patterns I came across a blog that caught my eye for several reasons.
It's N.a. blog written by Naomi Alice. (k, do you see the first reason? We have the same first name!! 😍 what's not to like already?!!)
Her sew along used to be called "fussy cutting epp" then she changed it to "focus cutting epp." Her explanation for this change is very compelling! I like it!
And cross blocks have been on my quilting bucket list forever! The 2020 Focus Cutting Sew Along is all about house shapes sewn together to make cross/plus blocks!
I'm not sure how far I'm going to go with these particular pieces. I just had to give it a try. I like to think I'll continue on to making a whole cross/plus sign quilt, but being honest with my self and seeing how many other projects I really want to get back to and finish... It's not very likely that I will coninue.
Also, I just saw somewhere that Naomi will soon be announcing what the "2021 Focus Cutting EPP" theme will be. I'll probably wait to see what that is before continuing here.
Thanks for stopping by! And reading to the end! I enjoy sharing what I do with you!
Until next time, Happy Quilting! or Happy whatever-it-is-you-do 😊!