Prepare to Be Amazed!

Ok fellow sewing buddies, prepare to be amazed as to what I just discovered!  Quilt-as-you-go Dear Jane blocks!  Yippee!  I've been kicking around this idea as I'm making my Dear Jane quilt and then I saw a blogger on Pinterest with directions on this awesome idea.

First, square up your blocks.

Quilt block, then square off.

Make two sets of strips the height of the block for sashing.  Front sashing is one inch and the back is 1 3/4 inches.  Fold and press the 1 3/4 inch strip wrong sides together.

 Place one inch strip right sides together on front.  The back strip is placed raw edges out, folded side in.  Sew 1/4 inch seam.

 I forgot to take a picture on adding the second block.  Sew the second block right sides together to the front strip only.

The back strip then gets hand sewed down.

First row front:

First row back:

 Then sew the rows together using the same method.

 It's better to sew the strips down before you sew row together.  I was too excited to see how it works.  

Now bind as usual.  Isn't it just an awesome idea?  I'm going to do this on my Dear Jane quilt.  I think I might use different backing blocks so it'll look like a patchwork quilt on the back.  I simply love it!

 Oh Lisa, I hope you are proud of me!  

It's Been a While

It's been a while since I last posted because I really didn't think I had much to share.  I have absolutely no plans on going anywhere for the next two weeks so I am taking this opportunity to organize, (ha), and focus.

First, look at my twinkly lights!  

I don't have any Christmas decorations up but yesterday I put little twinkly lights up in the kitchen.  I turned them on at dusk and when I came back into the kitchen an hour or so later - ohhhhh, I felt a little nostalgic.  My dear sewing friends, please don't judge my curtain.  I take it down during the day. I'll get to making a neat one soon.

My amaryllis' are springing to life!

I bought a second one because the first one didn't seem to be doing anything and then viola!  I swear, they grow about two inches a day!  I love, love, love the anticipation.

My kitchen gets a lot of sunlight.  I wish it were big enough to have a kitchen table in there so I can spend my time in glorious sunlight.  

Look - my geraniums from the summer have little buds!  Yes, I'm excited that I may have little red geranium flowers in December.

Isabelle is watching over them.  Actually, she chomps on my begonia blossoms so I'm hoping she will leave these alone.  I bought some catnip yesterday.  I'll make a couple of catnip sachets for my girls to roll in.

It is beginning to look like this new year will bring new creative challenges for me.  I never was much of a knitter, but all of a sudden, I feel like knitting.  I went to the library and took out a bunch of books and this one so far is my favorite:

I love the simple, straight out directions of different stitches.  I've decided to try out each and everyone of them, (yeah, sure), by making sampler blocks.  Oh sometimes I just wonder about my enthusiasm.  Who knows.  It may be a long winter so there is a chance I may just do it!  We'll see...

I do have a couple so far.

Just the fact I'm happy knitting surprises me so I'm already ahead of the game.  

My scrappy rug is coming along slowly.

I also learned to make project bags.  I don't like the colors, but I like the idea. I bought more screen from a local hardware store, (black of course).  A guy had to go in the basement to get it.  What I like about these is there is really no set size. 

So I'm off.  I'm going to clean up my sewing room.  Pick out my next projects, organize and put them in a proper place for easy access.  Whew, tired already.  I need a cup of coffee.  

This is the view from my sewing table.  

It may overlook the parking lot, but it's a window, (I only have two - oh, and a slider door).  Still, I'll take it.  I so a couple of teeny tiny snow flakes floating around.

Ok, two more photos.  I guess I'm in a photo sharing mood.  I'm procrastinating.  I do this sometimes.  I bet no one else out there knows what I'm talking about.  Anyway, this is a squirrel eating from my squirrel-proof bird feeder:

One more picture of my neato plants in my kitchen:

Ok, I'm out-of-here.  Time to get serious.  Oh yeah, and have fun!

Thanks for looking!

Getting there...

I spent the day today working on my kaleidoscope quilt.  The components of the wedges are put together.  No matter how careful I was, my wedges aren't all uniform.  One or two will have trouble with the 1/4 inch seam.  This is why I prefer wonky stuff.  I'm not very good at being precise.  This is what I have so far, the wedges aren't sew together yet.

The middle star is from my first attempt, which of course, I didn't like.  It does look pretty good here though.  I think I need to step away for awhile.  My normal self would just put it together haphazardly and maybe not finish it.  I'm determined to not let this happen.  I want to like it.  I'm thinking maybe the outer edges should be yellow instead of blue to lighten it up a bit.  Or black... More thinking...

Tomorrow I'm taking a locker hooking class.  It's sort of a weaving with strips of fabric.  It'll be a good break.

I haven't even looked at my Dear Jane blocks!  Oh no!  Maybe this week at open sew.

Thanks for looking and listening to me whine.

Kaleidoscope Quilt

Hi!  I've started a kaleidoscope quilt.  Well actually, I went to a class last Sunday at Lisa's Clover Hill Quilts in Kensington, (love that place by the way).

Sewing the pieces that make up a "wedge" was almost like crazy quilting.  Placing the pieces on the design wall, took two or three times before I got it right.

Now sewing it together is a bit more challenging. 

No matter how slow and careful I am, I still struggle with angles.  I've ripped out three seams so far, including this one:

As much as I love my dear sweet Molly, she's driving me nuts by sitting on my seat every single time I get up to iron a seam.  

I'm feeling anxious so I think I need to take a break and watch a trashy soap opera with a cup of coffee! 

Check in tomorrow.  I hope to have most of this finished!

Where Have I Been?

I'm not faithfully posting like I thought I would do when I started but I've been busy, busy, busy!

First, every year I buy an amaryllis.  I look forward to watching it grow and finally bloom into something magnificent.  I'm going to post this very exciting process so you too can share my joy.

Day One:

Exciting huh?  Just you wait!  It will get better.

This is my latest tote bag: 

I've made lots and lots of these but this one is fast becoming my favorite.  I decided to try and line it.  

This picture doesn't do it justice, but I simply love how it is coming out.  I pondered and pondered how I'll make the handles.  A friend of mine told me she usually goes to thrift stores and buys purses with real neato handles.  I went to our thrift store in town and didn't quite find anything that hit me.  My favorite handles I made were braided out of jean material.

I found a REALLY big pair of men's jeans, (and I mean REALLY big).  Then I found a green and a brown pair of khakis.  Woo hoo!

Now the challenge is to finish the tote.  I'm already itching to do other things.  Focus, focus.

I'm working on an embroidery project.

There will be two more panels on either side of this one.  There is a product called transfer-ese which is my new favorite thing.  No more light boxes!  You just print the design right on to a sheet of this magical neato stuff and viola!  A perfect image.  Imagine the things you can do!  Somedaaaaay, I'll transfer one of my zentangle designs and stitch that up.  Oh my, my.

Now Dear Jane.  I've got a couple more blocks done.

Now in the spirit of doing things differently than everyone else, I came across these fabric cut outs at an Etsy store.

Oh my goodness!  I love, love, love these.  They are backed with something, (not sure yet what, maybe Wonder-under), and all you do is iron it on your project.  This idea is perfect for my quirky thoughts.  They will also soften and/or, more importantly, cover up mistakes.

Oh the possibilities!!!  We've got the instructions for the first two rows of the Dear Jane quilt and won't meet until January.  I have another neat idea that is out of the box.  I'll work on it a bit before I post.  

So today is Saturday and I don't need to go anywhere major until Tuesday.  Will I be finishing my tote bag?  Work on some Dear Jane blocks?  My embroidery project?  Oh no, no, no.  I have another project in mind.  Anyone who says they are bored in life never discovered the world of creativity.  It's awesome!

Thanks for looking!

Stars

I spent the day today making crocheted stars.  I'm experimenting with different types of yarn.  They are double sided and kinda big.  

Yesterday I went to piping class at Lisa's Clover Hill Quilts.  It was great!  Piping adds pop to a project.  I love it!

I thought I'd add a picture of my lovely, elusive Molly.  She's so cute.

Tomorrow's election day.  Don't forget to vote!

Dream Space

Look at this most wonderful room.  I would never, ever leave it.  Look at all the light!  Look at the cutting table!  Look at the ironing board!  Oh and look at the sewing machine!  The windows!  Oh the windows!  Wonderful.  Just wonderful.

My iron crapped out today so I went to Kmart.  I haven't been to Kmart in years.  It was kind of a neat store.  I bought a Sunbeam iron that I don't know how I lived without it and I discovered an over-the-door ironing board.  It's so cool!  My studio is just a bit more spacey now.  Neat.

Tomorrow I'm going to a class on piping.  Can't wait!

Thanks for checking in.

Name Change!!!

 I have a new blog name.  I felt like I needed to change it because there is a very talented lady who has a website titled lynnmariedesigns.  My blog is really just about all my crazy ideas and stuff I'm working on so my new blog name is:  everythinglynn.blogspot.com. 

Soooo, I joined a monthly fiber journal club. The title of this month's task was "What Was I Thinking."  After some thought, I narrowed it down to this:

There was a time in my life when I had five cats!  I loved them all, but seriously, five cats is way to much.  I now have two, which is a lot easier to manage. Isabelle thinks she is the boss of me so I let her think that.

I just finished my first attempt at Monkey Bread.  Being not much of a baker, I discovered that if you want your house to smell HEAVENLY, bake anything danish.  This is my orange sweet roll monkey bread:

Living up to my reputation, I changed my mind on the fabrics I will be using for the Dear Jane quilt.  I found it to be sooooo boring using white fabric for the background so I decided to go BOLD!  Turquoise, brown and red with batiks!  It will be stunning.

I'll be working on redoing row one today and tonight at the open sew with my fellow quilting friends.

On a last note, I didn't lose any power during hurricane Sandy but I was nervous.  When I'm nervous, I using like to pick up a crochet project.

This is Tunisian crochet and will probably become a small tote.  I hope to add a strip of beading and try out that snap bag technique using the retractable tape measure.  I don't know who discovered using a tape measure for a closure but it's so cool.

Thanks for checking in!