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Notice the little button to the left?
....stayed tuned for some really yummy things coming your way
And I'm going to have a little give-away to go along with this party...it's a surprise for now, but look for the party to start in a bit.
Hugs and Stitches!
Megan
Oh, so excited!! I got really great input on my house quilt, I will audition some of your suggestions and post them soon. I would rather rip a few stitches than fret over a finished quilt that I'm not happy with.
In the meantime, if you find some time trying for that last ditch effort to have a relaxing summer weekend....find a good book, I just finished this one....
short stories and pictures about different crafters and their inspirations, workspaces, and more.
And if you are looking for me.....
Traveling west, stopping at every quilt/museum/antique shop I can find----don't tell my family, they think we're hiking and fishing!
Have fun this last weekend of summer.....
Hugs and stitches!
Megan
I was not entirely successful, this weekend, at convincing some younger members of the household that Saturday was the National Day of Cleaning. So with a very small twist of the arm, I gave up on having clutter-free bedrooms and headed back to the sewing machine.
I put together some blocks for a BOM, by the lovely ladies at The Quilt Company, that I am teaching at the LQS, and now I'm stuck. See, I added the sashing and it just doesn't seem right to me....maybe too wide, maybe too dark, something is not right and I hate to sew anymore til I figure this out.
I'd love to hear what you think....
Hugs and Stitches!
Megan
It's peach season here and here's my 2 favorite things to do:
Slice them in half, sprinkle with a little raw sugar and put under the broiler.....
top with a little vanilla yogurt for a yummy desert.
my other favorite thing to do is sing really loud the "Millions of Peaches" song when I put them on the table. Of course, the hands immediately go to cover the ears of the junior members of the household followed by shouts of "DON'T SING". But I feel very strongly about teaching thru example. And so, if the only thing my kids learn is to not take themselves too seriously, I'd be happy.
Hope you can find some time this weekend for something sweet and something silly.
Hugs and Stitches!
Megan
We are getting ready for the family vacation....the tickets are purchased, the hotels are booked, the car service lined up and of course the next order of business, what project will I work on during plane/train and automobile rides??? (don't worry, I mapped out all the quilt shops within a 100 miles of our destination)
My recent visit to the Not Quite Finished drawer gave me the perfect project to work on.
Ok, with only 3 of these finished, it teeters on the edge of Not Quite Started, but hopefully after a week "on the road" it will become more of a NQF'd.
And speaking of being on the road....my prodigal stars have returned home. After Fall Market last year, this little one has visited many wonderful shops, and now my Twinkle quilt has made it's way home.
I just love this letter fabric ....think of the possibilities (I just hope I'm in a good mood when I use this again, otherwise who knows what my quilt will have to say....)
This is a pattern that Holly and I worked on together get "just right"---that controlled scrappy look is HARD!
All the stars are paper-pieced and then set on a wonky angle.
Don't you just love paper-piecing and all those "perfect" points you can achieve?
Hope you have a perfect day...
Hugs and Stitches!
Megan
Mother Nature was so nice to cooperate today and give me a cool, overcast day to work on a project----it would be torture if we have 80 degrees and sunny.
I'm trying a class using Penny's Little Charmer tote, so today I worked on a sample of the tote.
This is a great quick and cute tote that uses 17 Charm Squares and a piece for lining/handles. Lucky for me I have a few leftover charm squares from the La Belle Rose collection that I used for my samples. And Penny's patterns are written like she's speaking to me, a friendly, conversation feel to them, so she makes it easy to actually read the instructions.
So, the tote got finished and I'm really excited to teach this one.
Here's a few of my tips for making this bag....
-use Pellon 987 Fusible Fleece as Penny suggests, it's a little harder to find than batting, but so worth it for a stable bag that will stand on it's own.
- measure, measure , measure when you put the front pocket on. My first attempt was a little off from side to side and it really shows. So I took it off and adjusted and I'm really glad I did. Oops....I let you in on one of my deep dark secrets...I make mistakes my first time out too!
- use a pressing cloth, in case you try to fuse to the wrong side of the fleece (refer to deep dark secret above).
Thanks Penny for a great pattern!
Hugs and Stitches!
Megan
I like to think of that drawer of projects in ziploc storage as Not Quite Finished rather than UFO....to me it's a little more optimistic, more hopeful.
I bought this great cabinet at Target and I'm trying my hardest to keep
the NQF'd to one drawer and one drawer only.
Of course, there's also NQS'd---Not Quite Started, but that's another story, and another drawer.
Sometimes you have to visit the NQF drawer....I'm usually looking in there in when I need a break from the current project.
So I opened the drawer and one just popped out at me.....and JOY....a hand project! I made this little quilt top from a Lori Smith pattern that uses 4 FQ's and 1 background. So since I have a little trip planned, I think I'll take this along to hand quilt.
Isn't nice to open the drawer and find a little surprise?
Hugs and Stitches!
Megan
I WISH!!!
Don't you love to try new gadgets? well, I decided to take a break from reality (you know...all those projects I supposed to working on) and try some new gadgets using a 30's charm pack I picked up at VQF.
The first is the tumbler....after seeing my friend Kathie's cover the
the 2008 American Patchwork and Quilting Calendar, I had to try my hand
at tumbling...
and then I strapped on my new #57 foot, thanks to the recommendation of Brenda, and started on a quick little project.
And in no time at all I had a little 30's tumbler. I think this will go off to my little friend....I can't tell you who, cause she reads my blog!
Here's my review of these tools.....
LOVE the tumbler...quick and easy to use, I'm leaving this on my cutting table so I cut up scraps as they come along and sometime (way in the future), I'll have enough for a quilt.
LOVE the #57 foot. The nice thing about this one is that it has a little spring action in it, so it can bounce over the pins (I'm a big pin-ner). It's a shade different than my 1/4" foot, so I'm glad I didn't change feet in the middle of a project.
Makes me wonder....what other wonderful gadgets do I have that I haven't tried out yet? do you?
Hugs and Stitches!
Megan
It's never good when the phone conversation starts with---"it's all your fault"
My quilty friend called to tell me that it was all my fault that she went to the sale at Aardvark Quilt Shop and signed up for my Girlie Girl Tote class and another one as well. And she decided to buy all LakeHouse brights to make the bags with, and practically needed a second mortgage to cover her binge.
But really, I told her, I can only be responsible for fabric purchases made by me.
I have no secret powers that make you buy LakeHouse or to sign up for my classes....cause if I did have secret powers to make people do things they are not otherwise inclined to do, there would never be dirty socks or wet towels on the floor at my house.
Even without secret powers, I was able to get the nice people at Amazon to send me a beautiful book to linger over this weekend.
These antique quilts are truly inspirational ...add this one to your library!
Hugs and Stitches!
Megan
Were you ever on the wrong end of the Might As Well Factor? Some people commented on my barn from last post, so I thought I would tell you about the attack of the Might As Well Factor....
My DH comes to me while I was sewing and says "Aunt Betty and Uncle Herb want to know if we could build a little covering/carport for their trailer." The trailer is not up to the trip from Florida each year, so for the sake of the trailer it needs to be permanently housed on our property in the Adirondacks. And Aunt Betty and Uncle Herb are particularly wonderful people so "sure", I say, and continue sewing....
Well, he says days later....if we're going to make a carport for the trailer, we MIGHT AS WELL (MAW) make it big enough to cover my boat too. Sure, I say, and continue sewing.....
Well, you know, he says weeks later, we MAW enclose this carport so that the precious trailer and boat don't get wrecked from the snow and assorted elements....more sewing....
and If we are putting sides on it we MAW make a pole barn so we get the "bonus room" upstairs....sewing, sewing....
So now we've gone from carport to airport hangar because of MAW... a 28x36 pole barn with 15 foot clearance on the downstairs and a 10x36 "bonus room"---it's not called a sewing room yet, as this lovely structure has no electricity.
So now when he claims that I said "yes" to anything, I ask..."was I sewing at the time?"
Please learn from my mistakes and use MAW for good, not evil...when you are at your LQS, think you need 1 yard of that fabric?....MAW get 2!
Hugs and Stitches!
Megan
