Friday Finish: Circle Play Needle Case

Last week I enjoyed a lovely wool appliqué workshop with Sue Spargo.  She was teaching in nearby Stuart, and several Orlando Modern Quilt Guild members signed up to take her Circle Play Needle Case (which is my finish for this week) class.  It was amazing to get away for a day with friends, and I needed that!

Sue's WIP....obviously not mine ;-)))

The class was hosted by Red Thread Studio and held at Ground Floor Farm.  The weather could not have cooperated any better for such a venue.  The class was held inside (in case you were wondering), but the view to the farm itself was right outside the glass doors where we enjoyed a delicious al fresco lunch.

Sue is an amazing teacher!  Eight different stitches were taught, and Sue spent time with each student making sure we all got it.  I have done some embroidery before, but this was my first time stitching on wool.  I would also say half of the stitches she taught were new to me.

You guessed it...this is MY WIP.

Obligatory group photo

As Sue says, you can keep going, stitching and stitching and stitching....  I found myself doing just that.  You have to call a halt at some point though, right?! 

Here is my finished needle case.  My little case could certainly benefit from a few more stitches, but I am pleased to have a finish.  Not to mention, I can now find my needles!  

Surely I am not the only one that uses a headlamp for hand sewing.

 I changed up the binding from what was in my kit and added a bit of embroidery to the spine.

I am enjoying my hand sewing projects so much that I have neglected my sewing machine.  Finding balance is not my strong suit ;-)))

Ending this post with another lovely Sue Spargo artwork!

Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts.  Hope you had a productive week!

Thanks for stopping by.  Happy stitching,

Friday Finish: Pillow for Baby

Now that Kirsten has received her gift, I can show you the sweet pillow I made for Kirsten's virtual baby shower.  There are three ladies in our Wish Circle having babies, and this is Virtual Shower 2!

Patchwork pillow

With permission, I based this pillow on one that Amanda Jean made for her daughter's friend.  It helped having Amanda sewing right across from me at retreat while I made this.  Nothing like having your own personal tutor available for questions ;-)

My pillow is a bit smaller measuring 18"x12".  I used 2.5" scraps from my scrap box, pieced nine blocks across and six down, quilted straight lines on each side of the seam lines going up and down, and finished with an envelope style back.  Voila!

such a sweet name!

I really like the embroidered name to personalize this little gift.  Her brothers won't be able to steal this one away.

Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts!  

Have a wonderful weekend, my friends!

QuiltCon 2015 = New WIPs

It seems I am always on the go which prompted me to take classes at QuiltCon that would provide portable stitching skills.  As a matter of fact, out of the four workshops I attended only one required a sewing machine.

embroidery class project

First up was Embroidery with Alison Glass.  I pretty much knew the stitches taught, but it was a nice refresher and I was inspired to pull out some old embroidery WIPs and plan new embroidery projects.

two sample class projects

Another workshop I took with Alison Glass was Modern Appliqué.  We learned four techniques, but by far my favorite was the reverse appliqué using jersey knit.  I love the nice surprise when the knit is cut away and you see the gorgeous fabric underneath!

this WIP also served as my blanket on the train...super soft!

This inspired a bigger appliqué project that I recently took with me on my daughter's orchestra field trip to NYC by train (23 hours each way!).  I used Deep Dark Ocean for the top, Sahara Sun for the back (both new jersey solids from Art Gallery Fabrics) and Melody Miller's Playful from Cotton+Steel for the middle.  Circles, squares and triangles are traced on the top which will result in a shapes themed blanket for my grandson.

good times!

My sister and I were in class together with Katy Jones learning English Paper Piecing.  We both had a blast in this class...laughing, learning, chatting with our table mates, and of course eating chocolate.

EPP class progress

making hexies

Skills I learned in Katy's class came in handy when making the hexie Flower for Eleni and are nice when I join my friends for Crafty Tuesday.

improv piecing

Basic Improv with the Gee's Bend Quilters was the only workshop I used a machine.  I thoroughly enjoyed listening to the stories of Gee's Bend and did not do much sewing.  That's OK as I can sew at home any time, but the opportunity to listen to the ladies of Gee's Bend is rare!

So there's my latest WIPs added to my existing, long, and always growing list!  

Since I haven't really done a post QuiltCon recap, here are a few more pictures from my workshops:

love Alison's stitching setup

another reverse appliqué project with all quilting cotton

 The stitches learned in Embroidery were useful in Modern Appliqué.

Class photo from Modern Appliqué 

looking and listening - Gee's Bend

Selfie with the sweet Vicki aka America's Best Friend 

Susan and her daughters in Embroidery class with me 

Overachievers in EPP -  Melissa and Kristy

Teacher's pet!

picture with China Pettaway

Linking up with WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.
Thanks for stopping by,

Sewing With Friends

Saturday was our OrlandoMQG Sew Day at the library, and we had an especially large group.  It amazes and impresses me how far members drive to sew together!  Another example of how special our guild is.

Sweet gift from my friend Doris!

Members modeling our necklaces.  Thanks Yumi!

Presidents of two nearby MQGs drove over to sew with us, my sister drove down from Georgia and Yumi sent these gorgeous fabric necklaces from Japan.  Too bad Japan is a bit far to travel for a Sew Day!

Michelle's project

My sister worked on her MCM Bee block.  Love the bright florals against the text fabric.

Wish Circle block in progress

I brought fabrics to work on my MCM Bee block too but didn't quite finish with my Wish Circle block.  I blame it on the awkwardness of my walking foot having forgotten to switch feet from my last project.

Fabric gift

Michele was generous in adding to my cowboy fabric for future Leo quilt.

I'm so blessed!

 My sister also hand delivered my Christmas gift!!  She spoils me with her beautiful quilty creations.  Thank you Michelle!  I have spent most of the last few days cuddled underneath.

Pondering options

 Another reason for my sister's visit was a trip to IKEA to purchase furniture for her sewing room.  My daughter went with us as she believes "Ikea is a magical wonderland!"  Michelle did not agree ;-))  She was successful in obtaining her items though.  No need for her to visit Ikea again!

 Yesterday, I enjoyed hand stitching with friends for Crafty Tuesday.  So nice to pull this old WIP out after several years.  I even learned a new embroidery stitch.  At QuiltCon (only 29 more days!) I am taking an embroidery class with Alison Glass.  Will be interesting to see if I add more embroidery WIPs or finish this one sooner because of the class.

Do you get together routinely to sew with friends?

What's Up Wednesday: Quilty Stitching

While I was away I worked on two more Mid-Century Modern Bee blocks - Linda's house block and Carla's churn dash blocks - but couldn't complete them because in each case I was missing just one piece of fabric.  So much for my planning ahead, but at least I am almost finished with them both.  

mini spiderweb quilt

November was my month and spiderweb blocks from my bee mates are cheering up the design wall.   At a recent guild sew day, I took a bunch of background squares and scraps to make additional spiderweb blocks for my quilt.  Well, again so much for planning ahead.  I had cut all my background squares too small.  Doh!  Instead, I took those smaller squares and made a mini quilt.  It's basted and ready for quilting.

triangle scraps

Seems a shame to waste these triangle shapes cut from the web blocks.  I have a plan in mind for these scraps.

working in the airport

The night before we flew home, I made my husband take me to Michael's so I could buy supplies for LMS's  Quilty Stitches Sampler (cross stitch along).  I sat in the airport coloring my block and prepping my fabric.  My daughter got a chuckle at my excitement of pulling out the colored pencils and coloring!  Good thing my folder design was rulers - used that for measuring the starting point.

a little progress

My mom introduced me to cross stitching a long time ago, and I love it!  I have many framed cross stitch projects hidden away in a closet somewhere.  I was so happy to see this stitch along, and a sampler of quilt blocks is just genius!  I haven't made any Swoon quilt blocks, but I am loving the cross stitch version.  I don't have to worry about matching seams and cutting off points!

Thanks for stopping by,

Holy Sewing

Quite a while back my Dad gave me a box of religious vestments that were no longer being used thinking I could use them in my quilting.  I was very excited, looked them through all, photographed them, and then became humbled and intimidated so back in the box they went...until last week.

I selected one particular vestment and went about coming up with an idea of making a table runner to be used at Easter.  As you can see, both sides has gorgeous embroidered designs, and I wanted those to be the focal point.

Taking a pair of scissors and cutting around the embroidery would have been much simpler, but somehow disrespectful I believed, so I went about using a seam ripper instead and separating the two sides.  Even then my daughter was outraged that I was taking apart something sacred ;-)

I guess I didn't take as many pictures as I thought of the process.  I only used one embroidered section for this table runner.  The other sections will be used for a future project.  I added a thin purple border around the center and a wider border of white using solids I had in my stash.  The pieced purple and green border is silk fabric...the purple from the back side of the vestment and the green from my stash.  The backing and binding is a lavender linen.  

This wasn't the project to practice my FMQ so I kept the quilting simple with straight stitching using a lavender thread.  The border was stitched with the machine using a feather stitching design.

My Dad just received this table runner in the mail and thinks it is beautiful!  Of course, he would say that no matter what, but I'd like to believe it's true ;-)  I do know it will be surrounded by gorgeous, yummy food enjoyed by family and friends celebrating together!!!

Have an amazing weekend!  Hope you get to spend it among family and friends!!