Holiday Wishes Blog Tour

Happy Christmas is July! A great way to beat the heat is sewing of course and that’s just what I’ve been doing. Sherri Falls from This & That has a new book out which features lots of fun project ideas and to help you get excited and creative, Fat Quarter Shop is having a blog tour which I’m super excited to be a part of.

I made the sweet mini quilt from the Holiday Wishes book called ‘Comfort And Joy’. Measuring only 16″x20″, it’s the perfect quick fix to those summertime blues:)

Knowing full well that the smaller your project is the more precise your work needs to be, I took my time. I cut it out one day, and the next I pieced it toghether. My suggestion is get yourself some Alphabitties. These cuties keep track of all the pieces for you. You don’t want to waste time remeasuring while you work.

It went together in a couple of hours and the instructions were easy to follow.I used Tasha Noel’s newest fabric line Pixie Noel. I cannot resist those adorable kissing bunnies💞

After Paige quilted it, I added the sweet crochet trim my mom made for me around the binding to add a little more cuteness to the quilt. It’s all in the details, right?

I’m going to enjoy my mini for the week, then it’s off to someone special who I think deserves some Christmas cheer…

The Holiday Wishes book, Alphabitties & fabric can be found at Fat Quarter Shop and don’t forget to hop on over to the other bloggers today, which can be found HERE, to see what they’ve created from the book. Happy sewing everyone!

Garden Dresden Table Runner

You know what time it is…Christmas in July. Time to get that list made of all the handmade items you’d like to make before Christmas so that you’re not stressed during the season. The Dresden tablerunner was 1st on my list and now it can be on yours too because we’ve made it simple for you by adding it to the shop as a kit and added the easy tutorial for the fat quarter napkins.

This lovely was made from Lecien’s Flower Sugar Holiday line. The Flower Sugar lines are consistently beautiful if you ask me and I think Lecien has once again out done themselves with the large florals and poinsettias, tossed candies and swirling ornaments. The Dresden centers are set on an aqua dot which is then carried to the flange around the binding to tie the fabrics together.

Your Christmas table will not get any prettier than this!

And didn’t Paige do a beautiful job quilting it? Makes me wish it was Christmas now 🎄❄️

We have the KIT available as well as the pattern. Kit comes complete with all of the fabrics, including the backing. Batting and the fat quarters to make the napkins are NOT included. Runner measures approx. 21″ x 67″.

Get a jump start on your holiday sewing!

Moda Bake Shop’s Bee-utiful Quilt Along

Buzz on over to Moda Bake Shop and quilt along with me and many, many others as we stitch up some of these adorable embroidery blocks from Pamela Morgan from My Sweet Little Stitches.

She’s the newest baker on the block and she’ll be releasing 20 blocks over the course of the summer until late August. Each block includes a sweet Bee and a cute theme. I was sold on this idea when I saw the bicycle with a basket of flowers block. I’ve already finished 4 of my blocks so far.

My CLMQG friend, Sharon, got me all excited about these blocks! Isn’t that exactly what good quilty friends do!?!

I’m using Riley Blake’s Backyard Roses fabric for my blocks. I haven’t exactly cut the fabrics yet but I’m auditioning them as I go along by photographing my stitchery on pressed fat quarters. It’s lookin’ pretty sweet so far!

If you decide to join in on the summer fun, be sure to post your blocks on the Bee-utiful Quilt-A-Long FB group and on Instagram with the hashtags #beeutifulQAL.

Block 1 Bee-Curious

Block 2 Bee-Productive

Block 3 Bee-Lovely

Block 4 Bee-Humble

Stay with me this summer while I Bee-creative🐝🐝🐝!!

CLMQG Medallion Border Challenge Finish

well…an almost finish. It still needs to be quilted by the talented PaigeAlaine and binding added. And let’s not forget any embellishments and embroidery I see fit.

All of my borders are finished and on time. I’m really proud of myself. With everything I’ve got going on with work, family & guild commitments, I stayed on track and did it!

I worked until midnight the night before to get all of my embroidery work finished.

Our final border task was either a cross block or hand applique and the color choices were peach and sunshine yellow. I started out wanting to do the picket fence idea but it was looking a little ‘chunky’ and all of the lines within the ‘cross’ were conflicting with the seperating borders I added. I thought about the hexies I had finished but they were too small and I thought the quilt needed some more curves. So I finally decided on an orange peel hand applique.

And I decided all of that only 1 week before it was due y’all! Yes, I’m a glutton for punishment and my poor fingers hurt but the pain was worth the gain!

I’m completely satisfied with my overall choices in borders and my color scheme.

Hand applique✔️
Sunshine Yellow✔️

We have until the September meeting to be completely bound and ready for display in our local quilt show at Countryside Flower Shop in Crystal Lake. I can’t wait to see all of our quilts proudly displayed.

To see all of the previous border tasks click below:
Border Task 1
Border Task 2
Border Task 3
Border Task 4
Border Task 5

Sassy Strollers

SewMod is revamping all our patterns. Over the next couple of weeks, I’ll be showing off some new samples I made for the covers and the one I’m most excited about is Sassy Strollers. I didn’t think I could find any cuter fabric than the original one I had made but oh how I was wrong.

I’m a huge fan of Elea Lutz’s work and when the news of Strawberry Biscuit hit I was all over that in a heartbeat ❤️. Rarely do I order complete lines of fabric. Let’s face it, I want to, but my budget here at SewMod does not allow it! But I had to do it this time. I just had to. It’s perfect for the Sassy Strollers pattern cover and kits.

I really enjoy anything I can combine my faves into…applique & embroidery. Isn’t this just the sweetest?! Strawberry cake and the cute little bear riding a turtle. Oh my goodness.

Sassy Strollers comes in three different color ways with your choice of borders along with a patchwork backing that coordinates with each print. The pink color way comes with a blue binding shown in the quilt photos and the gray & blue option has a red floral binding.

Hard to choose your favorite right? Whichever one you go with will be gorgeous. No doubt!

Paige did a fab job quilting it for me.👏👏

Complete kit includes all of the fabric to make this bundle of joy except the embroidery floss and batting. Quilt measures 40″ x 40″. You can find the pattern, KIT, select fabrics from the line and fat quarter sets in the SewModDesigns Etsy shop.

Border Task #5…CLMQG Medallion Border Challenge

I have to say I’m pretty proud of myself for keeping up with this commitment. Last month, although, was quite the challenge to get everything finished on time.

Our task was Scrappy Stars, the color orange and incorporate this ‘not so me‘ fabric in somewhere.

Well the fabric is not so much the problem but keeping the stars small was a bit of an issue. Since the majority of my quilt is bitty sized, I didn’t want to add a 6″ star around it. I’m trying to keep with a theme here ya know! And, I didn’t want anything that would come across as ‘chunky’ like a sawtooth star.  So I searched the Internet and found that Quiltmaker has a feature they did on bitty blocks and thank gawd that one of them was a friendship star. It’s perfect for scrappy and it’s only 3″ finished!! Woo hoo win!!

My stars look like they’re twinkling around the border. I love it! I’ve only used two whites in this quilt, a ‘less than bright‘ white tone on tone dot from LakeHouse Fabrics which I hoard and only use on special projects, and a white and aqua dot from Riley Blake. I figured the two different whites would give it a more scrappy and vintage feel. I think that’s working for me…

Wondering where the ‘challenge’ fabric is? Can you find it? It blends in so well. That’s one of the advantages of starting with your medallion in a variety of colors. You don’t end up boxing yourself into one color combo and it’s less stressful when the next color task is picked because you know it can be incorporated into your quilt somewhere.

Scrappy Star✔️
Orange✔️
Challenge fabric ✔️

The next task chosen for us this past Sunday at our guild meeting is hand applique and/or crosses and the color peach and/or yellow. Yes. You heard that right…we get to choose one or both tasks & colors. Hmmm…the possibilities.

Maybe a Cross variation with a picket fence like the one from this Shabby Fabrics block.

Or I could just skip the Cross block altogether and hand applique all of the hexies I’ve been working on for this quilt. Either way I’m guessing it’s the same amount of time for each. Any suggestions?

I’d better get a move on it. I still have to finish the embroidered corners and my last border before our next meeting on June 12th to be eligible to stay in the running.

This will be our last task for this challenge and then it will be time to get this baby quilted and bound for a quilt show. Wish me luck this month!

My quilt now measures 36″.

You can find the previous border tasks here…
Border task 1
Border task 2
Border task 3
Border task 4

Pretty Playtime Sew Along

Have you seen this super cute book by Elea Lutz making its way around social media? Are you just waiting to get your hands on it so that you can make every time a ‘Pretty Playtime’? Well I sure was! So you can imagine my excitement when I was asked to participate in Fat Quarter Shop’s Pretty Playtime Quilt Along! Eeek!

So here’s the scoop and I hope you’ll head over to Fat Quarter Shop to get your book and kit and play along with us. Over the next 16 weeks, several bloggers will be choosing a block from the Garden Fairy Sampler and showcasing it every Monday. So mark your calendars!

Starting first on the tour, May 23rd, is Erin Cox from Why Not Sew. She will be stitching the Dragonfly.

I’ll be showing you my block on August 22nd. I’ll be sewing the ducks. Adorable, right?!?

I’m really excited to be a part of this sew along and share it with you too.

The book, kit & fabric line is available at Fat Quarter Shop. Hurry over to get yours now. You don’t wanna miss playtime!

Quilt Show This Weekend!

Come visit us this weekend. It will be a great show!

Friday, May 13th 2-7 pm and Saturday 9-5 pm
NIU campus in Naperville.
1120 E. Diehl Rd.
Naperville, Il. 60563

Patchwork Glamper Workshop

We had such a great time getting together this past weekend to teach the Patchwork Glamper. Spending the day before Mother’s Day sewing, chatting and crafting. What more could a mom want to start the weekend off.

The Patchwork Glamper is a fun way to incorporate all those trims, buttons and embellishments you’ve been stashing and a great way to learn many skills like English Paper Piecing (EPP) hexagons and embroidery with low commitment.

It’s so fun to see how each persons creativity shines through when we hold workshops or customers send us pics of items they’ve made with our patterns.

This design is so flexible and forgiving. Each of the girls work was unique.  For example…A few of the girls decided to leave out their center hexie and let the flower be the focus and the background fabric shine through.

Or design your own camper to add to the work. Ann wanted her camper to be similar to the one she travels in so she designed her very own and added a little bling.

Or how about how Wendy decided she’d rather have a pillow and tweaked hers to be more square. Check out her cute puppy button in her center hexie!

Jalana had a great idea to repurpose the burlap from a bouquet she received. And check out all the details she added to glamp up her work…her wheel is a adorable!

Jen’s Glamper is so bright and cheery! Her first time at hand sewing hexies and embroidery work. Great job Jen!

Ann finished and framed her Glamper. I think I’m now partial to the tilted letter. It gives it a whimsy feel.

The workshop was so relaxed that us teachers even got in on the action. Paige used her time to refresh her hand sewing skills.

And I finished up my sample while I showed the girls the techniques.

Thanks everyone for participating. We had a great time!

Contact me if you’d like SewMod to come teach a Patchwork Glamper class. You can find all of our workshop info here.

I’m on Staycation

I’m going on a Staycation. Over the past year I’ve been one busy girl, hurriedly finishing up one idea/project and moving straight to the next. I’ve been blessed with lots of new opportunities but to really give 100% of myself and my creative abilities, I need a break! I’ve finshed up my priorities and this seems like a great week to give this a shot.

Which means I’ll roll outta bed when I want, I’ll binge watch all the Real Housewives, and I’ll take Daisy on longer walks.

My house will be clean. My refrigerator (or ice box which is what we call it in Oklahoma) will be spotless and organized. My shower will be squeegeed and free from streaks.

I’ll take my time driving. Hell I might actually go for a drive ‘just cause‘.

I’ll drink when I want and eat what I want. I’ll enjoy the smell of the blossoming trees with my windows open while it lasts. I might nap. I will cook dinner.

I’m definitely going to take my time and flip through every page of these books I’ve collected over the past year. I might even make something from one.

Or I might not…it’s my Staycation and I’ll do what I want!

The shop will still be open and I’ll be answering convos and emails. Your orders will ship on Friday. Thanks friends. I’ll be back next week!