Sewing Space

My new sewing room is coming along nicely... my husband has put together an ironing board that's 5" bigger each way, a big improvement to me! We just placed an old board on an old sewing cabinet, covered with a wool blanket and cotton batting and stapled it all in place. He put wheels on the bottom so I could pull it out from the wall for ironing yardage and tops.






My biggest excitement is my cutting board! My father in law had an old melamine table top that fit exactly on to an old treadle cabinet...I can now fit an entire 36 x 24 cutting mat on the table, and walk around it!! This to me is a treat...I had to cut my old mats down to 30 x 18 to fit on my table, and the table was surrounded on three sides by a walls and shelf support. I'm in rotary cutting heaven!





I also have two doors now, one for a closet and one for the hall. On each closet I have hung a shoe storage bag, the one showing in this picture has some odd half yards stuffed in the pockets, and a couple of pockets hold various marking pens and tools. The other shoe storage bag holds lots of fat quarters!


I'm starting to quilt Stars and Sprigs, in a layout that gives me a long skinnyish wall hanging, 32" x 56", for a wall in the downstairs family room that is just needing a quilt that size!


I'm trying out something called Pinmoor, for basting the quilt instead of safety pins. So far they have my vote...much easier to remove from the quilt with quilting gloves on (or not), and just as easy or easier to put in than safety pins!

DJ hand sewn blocks

I got sidelined this week, so not much quilting or sewing activity. I did eventually get going on these hand sewn or appliqued Dear Jane blocks...





The two blocks on the left were hand pieced...there's a great deal of satisfaction when you stick with something no matter how frustrating! The block on the bottom left, took me a long time to sew! I was sidelined this week, so I was working a bit slower and a bit more thoughtfully...I started sewing it early one morning and finished it just before dinner the next day! I think in all it took about two hours of actual sewing time! The one at the top right I thought would be more difficult, but that one went together a little quicker. It isn't completely symmetrical, but I'm happy with it. The two blocks on the left were a combination of machine piecing and applique.

An Applique Prep Day

I stitch hand applique and other hand embroidery or sewing for about 15 minutes, two or three times a day. Any more than that and I end up with sore hands, arm, and shoulder! I usually stick to small blocks or simple blocks. I find applique prep to be really messy for my sewing room...bits of fabric to be flung and found, templates drawn or printed, glue, scissors, starch, light box, pencils, oh my! So I tend to do my applique prep in as big bunches as I can, so I have a basket of sewing ready to go when I am.

I'm just about finished the 13th block of a Whimsical Quilt Garden, designed by the ladies of Piece O Cake Designs. This was a really simple block! Also, a picture of the blocks sewn and complete with sashing; these blocks are designed so that some parts overhang onto the sashing, a couple of blocks even have parts that overhang past the sashing to the next block. You'll see that the middle block of the second row have parts that remain to be sewn.





I'm making this quilt as a block of the month; it seems about the only way I can really stick with an applique quilt is to be handed the fabric on a monthly basis so I will sew it! Homestead Hearth offered an option where the quilter gets to pick their background fabric, and the store sends the monthly block fabrics and completer fabrics; although, I have gone ahead and picked my own sashing fabrics. I'm also using a bit of wool on most blocks, just to give a bit of a different look.

Another block of the month I'm working on is called Antique Sampler, by Sue Daley, offered at Quilters Paradise (California). Here are the blocks I've made so far.





Each block has a reverse applique centre, with a very small applique on top. Here's the prep for the reverse applique. I used a double layer of freezer paper for the circle template, and I find a small olfa cutting mat just fine for a hard and kinda sticky surface for tracing templates.



Then, I have the most recent block from Val Laird's Consider the Lilies b.o.m. This is where my new wonder stuff really makes stitching life wonderful! Sulky's Sticky Solvy! It's not cheap, so I am careful to use every last scrap...and to me, it so worth the purchase.



I found this product when I was researching transfer-eze, and I think it might be similar. You can print on it from your printer, or trace out your design on to it. Cut it out, and it sticks Sticks really really well. But, it comes off just as easy when you're done appliqueing, or it washes out when you're done embroidering.

So for this little block, I used it in two places...for the pumpkin applique and itsembroidery embellishment, and for the embroidery directly on the block itself.



And, I'm almost embarrassed to say, I'm working on a third block of the month, a Dear Jane, which happens to be my third attempt at Dear Jane! Tomorrow, more about my adventures with preparing some of those blocks.

Stars for a New Day!

Another top done! This one I'm very happy with, for how my fabrics and colours turned out, for sticking with each border, and for not losing any of the stars for the last border, that were pieced over the course of several months!

Stars for a New Day is designed by Sue Garman, offered as a block of the month by The Quilt Show for 2009. It took me a long time to get up the gumption to take on this quilt...the fabric choices just seemed so overwhelming...there was nothing I didn't like about the original, and I wanted mine to end up pretty close to that! I started my quilt last fall, so it did end up taking me about a year.



This quilt did turn out kinda wonky, unfortunately. I have had the good luck or good sewing skills to always end up with a nice square flat quilt top. I'm not quite sure why this one has a few ripples, I'm hoping to quilt them out.

Roll Roll Cotton Boll

I got the pieced borders sewn together and on to Roll Roll Cotton Boll, designed by Bonnie Hunter, so another top done! I went a little bit crazy in planning quilts while I couldn't do any actual sewing, so I'm busy putting together tops that are almost done, just so I can get to my new projects! Stars for a New Day just needs the final plain borders sewn on, and that's another top. I have to start quilting soon, as my tops are quickly becoming inventory in my sewing room (10 tops to quilt....how did I let that happen!? ... some are not as well liked as others, and have been lurking on the to be quilted list for more than a couple of years). I need to find some large space in my new home, so I can get a top sandwiched, more boxes and stuff to unpack...yuck.


I had been thinking to give Roll Roll Cotton Boll to my nephew, who will be 15 in a few months...but my niece is interested in it too. It would a surprise for my nephew, and I really do think it would suit him better...its large, about 70" x 85". I had better find another quilt, done or almost done, for my niece.