Tag: fabric

Fidget Blankets and a visit from the Fabric Gnome

So, This past weekend I got barely anything accomplished.  Saturday was the big Ohio State Game.  Go Bucks! then Sunday we were at the rental cleaning since we will be getting new tenants this weekend.  Very little sewing went on.  I did, however manage to complete 2 fidget blankets.   My guild was making them for a doctor who gives them to Alzheimer patients.  We were just asked to complete the fabric portion.  The Doctors office will add all the fidgety items.  They sew on socks and elastic bandages and plastic keys and satin ribbon etc…  Great idea.  I looked them up and they average about $45.00 each.  The back needed to be flannel or fleece so it easily stayed on laps and the front could be any combination of scraps.  Finished size is approximately 18 by 24 inches.  Pretty Simple.

And….The fabric gnome came by again….  Darn that gnome.  This time he left me someWaterMark_2017-10-26-19-40-44_resized (1) southwestern prints and colors.  Okay, truth be told, I got a $20 gift card from Connecting Threads for renewing my American Quilters Society Membership.  Being that renewal was $20 and I got a $20 gift card, how could I go wrong?  I ended up getting 8 yards for $28.00.  IT was on sale.  I can never resist a good sale.  I already have a design in mind.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

 

The 70,237 Project. I had no idea.

The 70,237 project was started by Jeanne Hewell-Chambers.  I encourage you to go to her site and read about this project.  Below is an excerpt (italics).  When you go to her site and look around you will see people all across the world participating.  You will see that these quilts get shown all across the world.  Just glance through all the blog posts.

For some reason with all the craziness going on in our world today, this project struck me as something I needed to do.  Being that quilters are some of the most generous people I know, I wanted to share in case there might be even one more person out there who would like to participate.  On October 14th (see Global Block day Below), Haley and I will make a few more blocks and send them in.

block partyThey are having A #GLOBALBLOCKDAY on October 14th.  The last blog post I read had between 20k and 30k completed.  There is still a lot to be done.

It won’t take much of your time.  I made the 5 above in less than about 45 minutes from scraps.

We (The 70,237 project) are gathering 70,273 blocks of fabric, marked with two red crosses to commemorate the number of physically and mentally disabled men, women and children who were murdered between January 1940 and August 1941 in the Aktion T4 Programme – a largely unrecognized atrocity.  

The two red crosses represent the marks made by the assessing Doctors as to whether the person was deemed ‘unfit’ or an economic burden on Nazi society. It is such a simple symbol, and in this project, the simplicity with which someone could sign someone’s life away is turned into a symbol of love and strength. The white fabric represents the medical records – the only information assessing physicians used in making their life-and-death determinations. Seeing the crosses stitched together sends a powerful message of tolerance, community and love. Its impact comes from the huge variety of these two red marks – each beautiful in their own perfectly imperfect way.
The blocks will be stitched into quilts and wall hangings and will be displayed in Rochester, Lincoln and Durham Cathedrals during January 2018, to mark National Holocaust Memorial Day. After that, these quilts will join others made around the world to appear in exhibits near and far. 

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

#GLOBALBLOCKDAY

 

Surprising that my mess turned into this…

I was not sure that I had a whole lot of hope for this piece.   I thought it might be pretty, 20171001_195117_resized (1) but getting it laid out so the iron on bias tape would cover properly was quite a trick.  It took me more time to lay it out than to sew and bind.

I am pretty sure I had the iron on binding tape for about 15 years.  surprisingly it still worked and stuck when I ironed it on.  It would have looked better with gold metallic but I did not have any.  Seems like there is not much of this stuff around.  Only found a couple of colors at joann.com.  Oddly one of them was gold.  Still looks nice with the yellow.

If Mom was here, I would have finished this into a table topper and taken it to her.  She loved Poinsettia’s.  Each year around the holidays I would always take her the biggest one I could find.  This is going to hang on my front door and every time I look at it, I will think of her.

I might make a table topper for myself.  I would have to use different colors because I would have to use up the bias tape that I have.  Maybe Blue or Pink.  Need to see what kind of fabric I can find that would work.  We shall see.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

2017 Q4 Finish Along – Can I do it All?

Well, I this is new to me.  Seems like a really good idea.  I have had much success with the One Monthly Goal.  I am hoping that this one will give some extra incentive to get projects done.  I have ambitiously put 6 projects on here.  Yikes!  I hate to lose, so I hope I can get them all finished along with the 10,000 other projects I will start along the way.  If you are interested in Participating, Please go to She Can Quilt.

So, for Quarter 4 I am going to finish the following:

20170905_203052_resized#1 Flannel Baby Quilt – Needs quilting and Binding.

 

 

 

 

20170813_185057_resized (1)#2 Safari Baby Quilt – Needs quilting finished and Binding

 

 

 

 

20170816_193127_resized.jpg#3 – The Ugly Quilt – Needs quilting and Binding.  Jeez, I hope I can stand it.  still Might have to change something on this in order to tolerate it.

 

 

 

20170702_182615_resized#4 Zipper Quilt – Needs quilted and Binding.

 

 

 

 

20170310_094411#5 The Fourth and Final Dog Bone Dresser scarf.  This is an EPP project and is partly pieced.  I am so tired of these, since it is the fourth one I have done.  Ughhh.  The last one is taking forever.

 

 

20170511_184141#6 – Table Topper that has been laying around for quite some time.  Needs borders, quilting and binding.

 

 

scan q

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

#2017FALQ4QuiltingNeeds

Just a little Scrap Busting with Flannel….Ehh

In the midst of my crankiness, I kept looking at this pile of scrap flannel that was just taking up valuable space (on my pool table AKA quilt project table).  So, I just decided to cut it up and see what I could get.  I had a bunch of blues and some lavender and purple.  This is what I got out of the blues with just a few squares left over for the scrap bin.  It will make an OK gift or donation baby quilt.  Just some weird sized square blocks.  I had to use what I had the best way I could.  Just did some meandering for the quilting.  Nothing special.  This was a thinking quilt, meaning I did a lot of thinking while I was working on it,  not about the quilt, it did not take much thinking, but about my general crankiness.  I came to no real conclusions.  I am still a bit cranky.

So, I often wonder if I am the only one with weird issues.  I don’t really like to make quilts out of flannel.  The weirdness is that I think/feel that the fuzziness of flannel always looks dirty when I am done.  It looks like it has been laying around a while and needs to go into the washer.  I even try to be careful and make sure that my machine table is clean and that I always have clean hands, but the fuzziness of the flannel always looks dirty.  Just wondering if that is Compulsive Lori overthinking or anyone else ever feels that way?

I need to get over it, because at some point in my life I bought a bunch of flannel.  I need to do something with it.  Some of it is actually cute, but it is flannel.  Ugh.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

Something New to try and get out of the Funk and One Monthly Goal

Yes, I know a petal is missing.  This is supposed to be a pointsettia.  I am finding it quite challenging to get it together.  I have laid it out countless tiems today, unsuccesfully.  I a confident that I will get it at some point.  Sometimes challenging things are good.  I have a halloween quilt wall hanging that i want to hang on my front door and I would liek to hang this there too.  However, I need to get it figured out before that can happen.  I will get there.

So, for my One monthly Goal, I need to create a test block for this quilt.  I know it does 20171001_195157_resizednot look like much, but these are such complicated blocks.  I have had the stuff for this quilt for months and I am scared to try and do one of these blocks.

So, this is a special quilt.  All the dogs will be wearing Ohio State Sweaters and I will create a border with Footballs and the block “O”.

For a long time I have been wanting to make someone special to me a quilt, but could not figure out the right design.  It needed the quilt to say Me (crazy Dog Lady) and him, Huge Ohio State Fan.  I think this will come out cute as soon as I can get past my fear of this block with a million pieces.  If it is to difficult, then I am back to ground zero (and I already bought all the fabic).  Hoping it works out.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

Finally got Caught up on my Free Quilt Blocks, but lack inspiration

I really like this quilt.  I think it might be because I love Orange Fabrics.  I never feel like any shop has enough Orange Fabric or it is because Red Rooster Quilts gives me the fabric for free.  One block every two weeks.  It is not just for fall or Halloween.  My daughter Haley actually likes this quilt.  That is a surprise since she usually has something negative to say about my quilts.  This is a quilt I will keep for me and hang up somewhere in the house.

Been feeling a little uninspired lately.  I have many many projects started, but don’t feel like working on any of them.  I have like 4 quilts that need quilted, laying on the pool table, multiple other projects started.  Yet, I just stare off into oblivion.  I usually have more time on the weekends to work on my craft, but I always get a pile of things ready for during the week, even if I only have a few minutes, I usually sit down and sew some of these things, so they are ready for the weekend.  The pile is still sitting there untouched and then there is Block #6 for I wish you a Merry Quilt Along.  Need to get that done.  It does not look to hard, some piecing, some applique.  I will get to it, eventually.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

I love seeing this

So the local quilt shop to me, Red Rooster Quilts, is having a tent sale today and tomorrow.  They are selling all their quilt and quilt tops tops and had them displayed along the fence.  It is just a beautiful site.

I bought nothing.  How crazy is that?  I am trying very hard not to buy things I don’t specifically need to complete something.  Although that rarely stops me.  Since I am in the shop a lot because it is about two miles form what I work, I had already seen most of the stuff they were selling at the tent sale in the store.  It had been discounted for a while.  Nothing called to me, so I just picked up my free bi-weekly quilt block and wandered up and down viewing the quilts/quilt tops.

Just wanted to share the beautiful photos and make sure any of my local Columbus friends were aware that there was a Quilting Tent Sale.  Have a great weekend!

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

Bloggers Quilt Festival – How Fun

I found a Bloggers Quilt Festival by reading Susan’s blog at DesertSky Quilting.  She always knows where the good stuff is.

20170813_195432_resizedThis contest is hosted by Amy’s Creative Side.  It is a great place to see a lot of beautiful projects.  There are prizes just for entering.  No pressure.  Prizes are randomly drawn based on entries.

My entry is My “Oma’s Treasure”.  I love this Wall Hanging because it means a lot to me. Brings back a lot of memories of My Oma and my Mom, who I miss.  At 53 I still want my Mom sometimes.  This is also something I dreamed up, so I can claim it for my own design, even though ti is a little Loud.  I had a lot of great advice from my Blog friends on things to do, which I greatly appreciate.

My Oma has been gone since I was a teen-ager.  The embroidery in the middle is from a kit she sent me from Germany.  I found it is a box of stuff I was going through and decided to turn it into something Quilty.  As a teen. I was not to bad at embroidery.

I hope you all enter the Bloggers Quilt Festival.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting.

 

I Wish You a Merry Quilt Along Block #5 Snowman

I am not sure why this block gave me fits, but it certainly did.  I still don’t like how the scarf looks, but I am going to have to live with it.  I have never been interested in making a holiday quilt before.  Not sure why since I was collecting snowflake fabric, but I didn’t have much else.  A few scraps of this and that that I am not even sure where they came from.  I do like these blocks.  I think it will make a cute quilt.  All the tiny pieces certainly did test my patience though.  I had to go back and cut things multipe times becase I lost track  of the pieces.  I now know for sure that one of the quilts I have planned will make me crazy for sure becasue it has a bunch of tiny pieces.  Dredding it already.  Haley gave her seal of approval on the snowman block.  That is a surprise becasue she has something to say about everything.  It does look sort of cute.

Starting to imagine what the other blocks will look like.  I have a couple ideas of things I think we will see.20170916_214220_resized

This past week has not been very production for me from a sewing persepctive.  Lot’s going on in my personal life and then I thought I was catching a cold, which is a no-no when you take biologic drugs for rheumatoid arthiritis.  I think I managed to kill it with Zi-cam, which tastes awful by the way, but it seemed to do the trick.  Hope to get some things done tomorrow.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

I wish You a Merry Quilt Along