On my day off...

I opened blogger to compose an update and found these photos waiting to be written about.

However, I feel the moment has passed and I'll just let them be photos with minimal explaining.

These are my 3 favorite pincushions. A colorful sewing lady my late Aunt Maria had given to me many years ago. The Owl ornament was a gift from Watana C. from The Wanna Bees. And a Heart I made 25+ years ago!

 

Crumb piecing.

... led to improv piecing...

...and of course, 2.5" crumb squares...

... just proof that some of my fabric does get thrown into the waste bag...

.... now, onto what brought me to blog today...

I am giving sewing lessons to a 10 year old. We meet once a week and sew for a couple hours. We have made many items in the last few months. We started with learning how to care for her sewing machine. The first thing she made was a pillow case, then we did 'jama pants and a top out of flannel. We made a quilt which took much longer than she cared for. She made masks for her brothers. We just finished simple matching dresses for her and her 18" doll.

I have been blessed to have her as a student. To witness a young person eager to create with their own hands is very satisfying. Seeing how much she has learned in her time with me is amazing!

Why do I tell you all this? 

Because a few weeks ago, she asked me, "what do you do when your not here [at the quilt shop]?"

She's not the only person to ever ask me this or similar question.

My reaction seems to be always the same...

I am bewildered by the innocent inquiry, "what do you do for fun?"

Sewing is Fun!!

Hahaha. She and her mom made me laugh with their wide eyed incredulous, "Really!?!" when I said, "after class I go home and sew on my own projects." 

Yes, it's what I do for fun!

This is my view at the moment, on my day off...

Today, as I'm sewing a store sample, I am getting the urge for dimensional or fabric manipulation projects. So, I'm watching YouTube videos on the subject.  I'm hopeful I'll find a new technique I just gotta try!

But I have to share this video on Tucks. To be honest, it's not a new technique to me. I was taken in by the YouTuber's sweet humor and lilting accent. It's so similar to Julie Andrew's nanny voice in Sound of Music or Mary Poppins. Just adorable!! I especially like what she says at around time mark 12:50 about "flips" and "flops."

I think you might enjoy watching, even if you don't care to sew.

Tuck into Texture

"... Presence of wonder..."

"always be on the lookout for the presence of wonder." -e.b. white

If you have been following me, you know that I love crumb piecing.

Several months ago I had a few 2.5" crumb blocks on my design wall.

I thought I had blogged about them but I couldn't find the update. Maybe I had only posted to Instagram and FB...

Ahh... yes. Scrolling through my photos, it seems I had intended to blog about how I decided to proceed with these 2.5" crumb blocks..

ah, well, that was put aside to work on an idea my Sweets had. And THAT was put aside to work on a quilt top for work. That quilt top was completed, displayed in the store, and now back with me waiting to be quilted...

At the moment, I have several projects that are at the top of the list to be working on.

- Bonnie Hunter's 2020 mystery quilt - Grassy Creek. Pictured here is Part 2 and BH has just release Part 4!

- 3rd Thursday BOM that I guess I'm in charge of at work. It starts in March.

I have picked out colors for the first 5 blocks and should get started with the piecing...

- I need to plan my classes for the new year.

first on the list is a workshop for The Tree of Life...

- I have my son's fiance's quilt on the design board...

and a solid plan for finishing!

- and a christmas present that I can't give a picture yet...

so, with all those "priorities," what am I doing??

I'm playing with crumbs! 

But it's even worse than that. 

I'm playing with cast off bits from other quilters!

cast off bits from the garbage bin 🤯

Wait, wait... it's not as bad as that sounds. In the classroom at work there is a basket designated for fabric bits. It's for clipped thread, trimmed batting, trimmed "dog-ears," and extra fabric trimmed from blocks and the piecer considers it too small to bother with. This basket usually goes to someone that makes doggie beds and is used as the filler.

I passed by this basket several days. Averting my eyes. Determined not to rummage through the pile for the bigger pieces.  I have plenty of my own bits to keep me busy for years!

But the colors kept luring me!

I could hear the story these bits were telling. 

They were from at least three different quilters,

 three different projects happening in the classroom.

The golds and greys are probably from the Grassy Creek group.

I am guessing the reds and creams could be from the American Jane Gems and Jewels BOM the store is doing right now. 

The purples, pinks, turquoise are a mystery to me. They must be from a customer working on her own project in a Sew Day group. Maybe she'll read my blog and recognize her fabrics 😊. Wouldn't that be something!?

 All of this in the above photo came from the fabric "waste" basket. 

Strings and triangles that I pieced into something wonderful.

The piecing technique is very improve. 

The piece on the left has a selvage pieced in that has the word "cotton." 

Because of these two things, I am reminded of my Mississippi quilt friend Julia Graber, who took me on my Cotton Adventure and she did a class on improve piecing for our PTQ guild at my request. She's a wonderful, generous, incredible woman and I am blessed to call her friend.

I should say that the light turquoise that frames that piece is from my own stash. It's a perfect size for a small wallhanging. I intend to finish it and hang it in the guest restroom in my house! I'm excited to start using my quilts in my own home decor!

I haven't decided what to do with the other pieces yet. I'll let them speak to me in their own timing. There's no rush to make them into something right now.

But how perfect is it that in the pile of bits there would be a selvage edge with the quote, "always be on the lookout for the presence of wonder." -e.b. white!

It makes me feel like it was all Meant To Be!!

Thanks for visiting. 

Happy Quilting / Creating to you!!

Catching up my blog updates...

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!

Needle book front

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!

https://naomialice.co.uk/focus-cutting-definition-terminology-and-tutorials/

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!

https://naomialice.co.uk/2020-fussycuttingsewalong-the-year-of-the-house/

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 😊!