Sewing Goals for May

If you want to join in the Stocking Swap it's not too late!!!  You just have to have everything finished and ready to mail by the first week in December.  This is a good thing since I haven't even started on January's mug and mug rug much less anything else.  I am so far behind!!!  I think I will try to make one thing every week or every two weeks if I am being practical, to try and catch up.  Maybe by July I will be caught up and can continue on with making on item a month.  Let's see, besides January's mug and mug rug, I need to make February's pillow cover for a 14" pillow form, March's - 2 matching pillow cases.  Hmmm, I just made two, but I am not sure I could give them up.  (they are Alexander Henry's men of Halloween.  I also recently made the men of Christmas and blogged a picture of them), I think I will make other ones to give away.  Since I don't know who my box will go to, I am not sure they would appreciate my men pillow cases.  Plus, I want to keep them for myself. LOL  Okay, April's  pin cushion and a set of pins will almost get me there - I will also need to add in May's 4 placemats since tomorrow is the beginning of May.  What happened to April?  What??? We only have 5 weeks of school left?  This is crazy!  Really, can someone tell me where April went?  I think it blew out of here with all the dust and wind we have been experiencing lately.  (58 mph on Sunday and 25 - 30 everyday since.  That doesn't include the gusts!)

The good thing is, I think I have two placemats finished and all I need to do to the other two in that set is to hand stitch the binding.  That one can almost be marked off.  Yea!!  That is all I have to concentrate on for now to catch up in the swap, so I guess this weekend I will crank out the easiest thing for me, pillow cases.  I have a few sets made (not just my men) and I could and may give one of those sets, but I have purchased fabric in the past year just to make into  pillow cases so I need to make at least one set and maybe 4 or 5 sets.  Now I have a sewing goal for this weekend.  Okay, I know, the binding thing - I sewed all my black strips and trimmed them, but they are not pressed or ready to be used yet.  That is another thing that needs to be done this weekend.  One thing at a time, but those are at the top of my to do list.  Do you have a to do list? I am going to have to put several things on mine to keep me focused in my studio or else I will go off on a tangent and make fabric or start a new quilt.  I almost did that tonight and didn't get the binding done.  But I did get it sewn and I also went through a ton of mail and threw away and shredded 2/3 of my stack.  That always feels good.  Do you let junk mail and magazines just pile up?  I usually pick my mail up in the morning on the way to school, sift through it quickly when I get back in the car, pull out and read the personal letters and then put the rest in my school bag.  Then when my bag gets heavy, I take it all out and stack it together.  That is what I went through tonight, one of those stacks.  Solicitations from credit card companies and insurance companies, advertisements from local stores and churches for special services or guest speakers, all those political flyers that the majority of the universe doesn't read (what a waste of money) and last but not least and one of my favorites, coupons from local eateries.   Now, those, most of them, I will use.  Well, not all of them, but at least one or two from each of my favorite places.  I will sometimes take the rest up to school and share with my students. 

Weekend Workings while Wallowing in the Wasteland

We had our second - well, officially, second - quilt-in of the year.  (remember we snuck one in during spring  break so that one doesn't officially count) I had a lot to work on this time.  Not that I got everything done, but there was quite a bit that got finished on Thursday night.  I made the peach color challenge bits and pieces to go toward putting that quilt together.  I may have changed my mind once again on how I want that quilt to go - I am thinking about putting the blocks on point with some sashing of made fabric.  That would be really beautiful, but let me get a few more weeks behind me before I make that final decision.  That is why I am just making the parts and not putting them together yet. 

Since the 25th was during this week, I also got the new Blogger's Block of the Month pattern and made my two blocks for that quilt.  I am really enjoying my process for making these blocks and can't wait until the 25th of May for the next installment.  I think we are up to block 8 in that series. 

The next thing I worked on was mentioned in one of my recent postings - the Modern 8 Create challenge for April - at least I think it's for April, it could be for May. Taking a picture of something normal around your house and then distorting it or zeroing in on something to make it not what it was. I first took a picture of my modern picture frame.



 I focused in on the dots and tried to make them elongate and the more I played with it, the more I didn't really like that idea.  So, I took a picture of my hot pink wire shelving.

While that is a fun piece in my office, it would be totally boring for me to replicate as a quilt.  Doable, but boring!  So, the next item that caught my eye, was the cool flowers on my Puff's tissue box.  Hmm, that might be fun.  Click.

Interesting.  I especially like the laughing pig in the pyramid shelving caught in the edge of that picture, but that is not what I want to work on right now.  Okay, let's put this in paint and AHHHGGG - totally frustrating!  I can't make it do anything I want it to do.  What if I put it in a word document?  Yes, that is the trick.  Now I can stretch it and squish it and totally distort the picture.  Just what I wanted.  OOPS.  The picture below isn't the finished saved version.  It is a blown up version, but not a stretched and distorted one.  Let me go on a hunt and find that one.  Just a second.

Okay, it won't let me pull it over to here without a major headache so just pretend that I did and below is the quilt I am making based on that picture.  I haven't decided on the borders yet, but this is a start.  It has been a lot of fun and everyone at Bee was interested in what I was making.  Maybe we will have a few more making an art quilt based on an everyday picture.  We will just have to wait and see. 

I also found this pear pincushion pattern out in blogger land and as soon as I find the place, I will link up so you can make one, also.  I thought the pattern was a bit on the slender/small side so I fattened it up some and now, I am not sure - even though this is totally cute, I am not sure if the slender one might have been better.  I do know that it would have been harder to sew together on my machine - not impossible - just a little tougher.  I might have to make the apple pin cushion (from the same person) using that small 1 1/4" X 3" pattern just to see if I like it.  By the way, the original pear was only 1 1/8" X 3 1/2" with dips and curves down to 1/8" at the smallest width.  (that is without the seam allowance - not to scare anyone)  I might have to sew another one by hand.  Oh, one other thing, actually two other things.  The stem is a piece of brown strip - about 1" wide and 10" long rolled tightly and then the end tucked back on itself and hand stitched down.  Then I took two pieces of fabric and fused them wrong sides together and cut out a leaf shape.  I stitched all that to the top by hand.  The stem is a little tricky, but I got it to stay on there really well.  If you try it and can't figure out how to attach the stem, e-mail me and I will give you my technique. 

My friend Kathy made these adorable owl pin cushions - one is for her Stocking swap box!!  I may have to swipe her pattern and make me a few, also.  They are adorable and I don't know if you can see the middle one or not.  According to our friend, Gerrie, he has a massive headache. 

Thank goodness his headache was all gone by the time he left for home! 

Stocking Swap for April

The April Stocking swap is a pin cushion and a package of your favorite pins.  Have you started on your pin cushion yet?  I made one the other day, but didn't get a picture downloaded of it, so here is one I made earlier this year.  It is from a pattern on Bari J's blog.  It's a bit tricky, but turns out beautifully.  The pins that I have in there are to hold the seam shut so I can sew it up by hand, which I have already done, but don't have a picture of that either.  What a slacker I am. 

Wait, hold the phone, I found the other picture!!  NOT A SLACKER after all.  LOL!    The one below is from a pattern my friend Molly taught me one day at a quilt in.  I have made four of these and they are fun and easy - really - but I think I like them better with a patchwork of fabric instead of just one fabric on top an bottom.  I am going to make a few more of these because they are so much fun and a little bit addictive. 

Now that I have some time on my hands, I will scour the internet for other pin cushion patterns.  What have you come up with?  Have you even made your pin cushion yet?  Not much time left in April and we are 1/3 the way through the swap challenge.  (still not too late for others to join in if you want)



Weekend Works

Remember a couple of weeks ago when I posted this quilt top.  It was to be the background for my Ogallala retreat quilt.  I put up some of my elements on the wall and decided that I really didn't like it.  The background, which I was trying to make subtle, was just overwhelming the top completely.  I left it all on my wall and walked away.  I didn't know what else I was going to do.  Tonight, I put up the rest of the orange curly cues and some yellow dots and I think it has come together. 

It definitely needs more yellow dots, but I didn't want to put them up there yet.  All of it is just pinned and I am not sure if I can get it down in one piece to iron everything on there.  I used steam-a-seam 2 and I should be able to just press them on there, but I ironed it to my fabric before I cut it out and I think I took all the sticky away.  I really need to read the package directions before I use a product.   Tell me what you think.  All of the symbols have a different meaning and some of them I can only have a set amount.  I am going to move the third "flower" from the top left up a little bit, I think that's the one that fell off and I just slapped it back up right before I took the picture.  I may need to make one more open leaf for the bottom left, for some balance, maybe.   This is definitely a work in progress. 

What else have I been working on this weekend?  I made 5 more bags using Jenni's tutorial .  If you haven't had a chance to check it out, click on the highlighted words and it will take you to her website.  I also made this pin cushion from Bari J.  Click on her name and it will take you to her blog.  Scroll down and look on the right side for the pin cushion tutorial.  I don't  have it completely finished in this picture as you can tell by the pins sticking out the side, because I want to stuff it a little bit fatter.  I don't have any more stuffing here at the house, so I will have to pick some up tomorrow after school.  This is a large pin cushion.  It measures about 4 1/2" X 4 1/2" X 2 1/2".  I will add a button in the middle when I get it all stuffed.  I copied down how to make this pincushion several months ago and finally got around to making one.  I thought it was going to be harder to make than it was.   It went together rather quickly and easily.  I can't wait to try this one again. 

What else have I gotten into this weekend?  Well, since I am still trying to work through the quilt at the first of this blog, I don't want to start anything new, so I found this partially quilted top and finished quilting it.  Well, I thought I was finished, but I think I want to add some more quilting to the middle of the hearts.  I had previously quilted in a shiny purple metallic thread, the rays coming from the hearts.  I just remember the thread breaking over and over again.  I didn't want to machine quilt anything else it was soooo frustrating.  I will show the rest of this quilt when I have it all finished.  If I remember correctly, these hearts were leftovers from an online block exchange that were just laying around and I made this top with them. 

The rest of the weekend accomplishments will have to wait to be shown until I take down the retreat quilt from the design wall.