No room for the Blues!

 

I don't know what got into me this 4th of July weekend. I had the biggest urge to do some mindless sewing. The kind of sewing that you pick up two pieces of fabric, any pieces, and run them through the sewing machine. Mind you, I still have at least 3 quilt tops in progress for work, but those require mind work.

Crumb piecing and strings are perfect for mindless sewing!! The 1.5" strips in the picturse above are from a previous project, Tracks Herringbone Quilt. I pieced a few more blocks to add to that pile.

The crumb pieces practically fell together! Mostly blue, but also a piece of pink, green, purple or red snuck in. 

Lol, I think my camera is playing tricks. I was sure it's mostly blue!

The selvedge from this blue print says "Got the Blues." I had pieced without a plan, posted the above photo to Instagram and Facebook. My co-worker left a comment about seeing what these pieces become. 

And that inspired me to make these pieces into something...

... a fabric box...

... Because these threads need some thing...

... like this ☺️ - a 5.25" x 9.5" fabric box.  It actually turned out bigger than the 6.5" square I had planned, but that's ok. Looks like I need more thread to make it full. Purple and brown threads would fill it out nicely. Of

Here's more pictures of my fabric box. It's really not that bad for my first attempt. 

I might try making another one with stiffer interfacing. And maybe 6.5" that I first thought.

No room for the "Blues."

But always open to inspiration!!

And it's done!

 My challenge quilt for work is done.

We selected 18 fabrics to be put into a Fat Quarter Bundle. Our inspiration for color choices was a sea glass photo.

And then we agreed on an employee challenge to give examples of what can be done with the selection. We used Fat-Eighths instead of Fat-Quarters for our examples.

Susan was the first to get hers done. It's already quilted and bound and ready to go, even though we agreed that just the quilt top was enough.

She used "Diamonds in the Rough" pattern by Stash Labs as a starting point for her quilt.

Doris was also inspired by a quilt pattern. (I'll have to get more information and edit it in soon 🤞.)

She reduced the size of the pieces. These half square triangles are itty-bitty! They are 1" finished!

I had the hardest time settling on a pattern. I thought about doing clamshells. A clamshell quilt has been on my "need to make" list for a long time. I played with a template free curved quarter circles (drunkard's path), but it felt like too much waste after cutting the curves. But I really like the technique and may have to revisit it someday.

I settled on making an underwater current. I used a free form cutting gentle curves sewing technique.

I had no plan beyond this. And my heart sunk as I desperately tried to think of how to incorporate all of the prints into this piece.

Right around this time is when Susan sent me a picture of her finished quilt. That gave me just enough push to move forward.

From the start I had wanted a starfish somewhere on this quilt. Scrolling Pinterest have me lots of sea life ideas. I sat down and drew a sea scene. Wax paper just happened to be the perfect width.

This pic is actually the second draft I have taped to the window so I can trace the shapes onto the applique fabrics.

But it still didn't seem enough. The second starfish wasn't right either. A trip back to Pinterest was the inspiration need for the jellyfish and a sand dollar.

Left over lace hem tape and ruched fabric strips made the jellyfish tentacles and tendrils.

I thought I would continue the sea life into the border.  Maybe coral rounding two corners, or sea shells in the corners with coral stretching asking the sides... I considered seahorses. I even tested out a pieced fish border...

Then the saying "more is just more" kept repeating in my head. And I chose to go with a simple scrappy border.

Almost finished. Still needed to embroider the fish eye and that top right corner felt empty... There was just enough room for a school of fish!

Phew! Finally done and turned in and now on display ☺️.

And the next day, I couldn't resist making this adorable turtle from  a great Tutorial by HandyMum Lin. I love turtles!!!

Thanks for stopping by!!

I wish you happy quilting/ crafting/ creating!! Whatever it is!

Best part of teaching...

Today I had a really good Beginning Hand Quilting class. My students were great! They had lots of questions and were very eager to learn. Their skill levels ranged from never hand quilting before to having a couple years of experience.

Usually, I would have lots of pictures to share. But we had a lot of information to cover and I was quite focused on teaching as much as possible in just 2.5 hours ☺️.

We talked about fabrics, threads, battings, needles, stencils, marking utensils, quilting designs, thimbles, hoops/frames, how to baste, and finally quilting with the rocking stitch. 

It's really very rewarding to see these beginning stitches. I hope I can spread even a little bit of the love and passion I have for working with needle 🪡 and thread🧵! I hope my students come back as they practice more. I'd love to see their progress!!

Speaking of students bringing in their progress... Gail came into the store yesterday with her finished Tree of Life quilt top!!! I love it!! 🥰💕💖

Isn't it gorgeous!! This is the best part of teaching 🥰.