New Stash and Old Stash

I went and spent a good bit of my piggy bank savings money on some fat quarters, a bit of Christmas yardage, clearance buttons and a roll of patriotic trim.

I was frugal and still have money left over though!

Nothing was tickling my fancy in the cross stitch pile that's labeled "want to stitch" so I dug through my stash and unearthed this great Trilogy kit called Frightfully Fun. It comes with fabric, a 32 count Natural Belfast Linen, Week's threads, and JABCO button. I seldom stitch with overdyed threads so I'm having fun with the changeup. 

The Dresden blocks are now sewn together and waiting for borders to be created.

Lastly, Miss Molly hasn't been featured in a while. We've been spending a lot of time with the undercoat rake, covering the neighborhood in dog hair. Adorably gap-toothed.

Thank you for visiting my blog today!

xox

Chicken

My Stacy Nash Primitives is finished! Can you call this Netty's Sampler Pinkeep when I changed so much?

I could live with the missing "J" but the OCD in me HAD to finish the alphabet. Thankfully the design lent itself to the intuitive charting of the missing letters. Since I didn't stitch Netty's name I didn't use her initials or date. Now, I've chickened out at trying my hand at finishing the drum! I can do it...I know it. I must first complete it in my imagination several times before I can make an attempt. Does that make sense?

Because I'm playing chicken, I cleaned up the studio and brought out another unfinished project. Surprise! It's the Dresden Plate quilt!

The blocks are all ready to be sewn together. Gosh, these are giant blocks! Once I have the body together, I can figure out a border. If it needs a border?  See? This is why it's sat unfinished...

Thank you for visiting my blog today!

xox

Stuff & Thangs

Too much life and not enough sewing...I need more free time! Lots of what free time I do have has been spent watching the Andy Tube channel on YouTube. Andy teaches vintage sewing machines. I am learning so much about my machines and have been gathering supplies needed to take one apart and restore it. Andy is doing a series right now on a Singer 404, step by step, take it apart, clean it and put it back together. It is so interesting!

The other day I stopped by Walmart to get a French bread, ham and Swiss cheese to make sandwiches for dinner. Heading to checkout I passed by the fabric area and discovered it packed full of clearance fabric. I picked up an entire bolt of this navy blue print on white, perfect for the backing on the Dresden plate quilt! Best of all the fabric was $1.50 a yard so I got 8.5 yards for $12.75! I am not kidding! 

How is the Dresden plate coming along? Slowly. It would go faster if I actually sewed on it, right? I tried a few of the scrappy corners and I think I like the look so I am working on the rest of those today.

These blocks are so big! They seem to have taken over my studio. Big blocks will probably make for a lightening fast "putting together" when I get to it.

I need to come up with a border idea for this one. Suggestions?

Thank you for visiting my blog today!

xox

Dresden Fun

I nearly titled this post, "The Dresden Files" but figured that was too nerdy, ha ha! Since returning home from retreat I continued on with the Dresden Plate blocks. These are insanely fun to create. Sewing all the points, snipping corners and turning them out, pressing then sewing again. 

The mini ironing board was invaluable and the little Steamfast iron cannot come more highly recommended! I must remember how handy this set-up is the next time I have blocks requiring a lot of pressing in between sewing. It was so nice to just turn and press instead of gathering everything up and taking it all to the pressing station then carrying it all back to the machine. Plus, I can sew my seam and press it right off instead of waiting and pressing everything at the end.

Once I got all the plates together and stitched to the block it was time to make circles. I found a round jar top that covered my holes neatly and drew circles on the wrong side of my fabric. I used iron-on interfacing, glue side toward the right side of my fabric and stitched right on the drawn line. I cut them out and made a little slit in the interfacing, and turned the fabric making sure it lay smooth and round.

These got ironed onto the centers on the plates.

Then again using the blanket stitch got secured. It's almost invisible but when you do see the sewing it is pretty stitches to see!

Now I have all 16 plates finished. It's quite a pile! I need to decide how I want to put them together. 

I have the idea to sew a folded corner square to each inside corner, giving me an on point square when the blocks are sewn. This would eliminate the large area of blank white space between the plates. I just can't decide how large? Ideas? The white blocks themselves are 21 inches. Decision time. These cry out to be finished! I also need to go run that long arm again before I forget everything!

I have been on a bit of an adventure these past couple of weeks and maybe my next post will tell you about it? I think it's quite exciting and I am looking forward to sharing with you!

Thank you for visiting my blog today!

xox

Thready ORTs

Yesterday was the New Moon but I was so wiped after work I napped instead of blogging! We aren't too late to celebrate the Totally Useless Stitch A Long with piles of ORTs though!

My leaf bowl is filled with scraps from sewing the Dresden centers and the corner bits from joining binding strips for En Provence. The little pink cup was begged from my retreat hostess when I unpacked and realized I had arrived with NOTHING to save ORTs in! HORRORS! Doing Dresdens, it started filling up immediately, these are thread wasting blocks! 

My first Dresden at the retreat. Totally worth wasting thread. The mini iron and board came in mighty handy with all the pressing required to create these.

I think my favorite part is doing the Blanket Stitching!

A close second favorite was the blackberry cobbler they fed us for dessert one evening! Yum!

=^..^=

Now it is YOUR turn...we want to see your ORTs! Leave a comment on this post with a link to your April TUSAL post so we can come visit! If I hold a Totally Useless giveaway your comment will earn you an extra entry.

Wondering what a TUSAL is and why all these people are posting pictures of rubbish? Click here to learn more and join the fun!

Thank you for visiting my blog today!

xox 

Try, Try, Try Again

I made some mini Dresden blocks to practice with. These blades get appliqued onto background squares with a blanket stitch. Doing these...It's harder than I thought it would be! Those corners are tricky and if you forget which part of the stitch your machine is at when you turn? Things go really wonky. I am positive after doing 16 blocks, I will have it down pat. 

Once the blades are applied you cover the center hole. Good grief! There are so many different ways of doing these! I decided on fabric and iron-on interfacing.

The top set in the photo above was my first try. I subtracted a quarter inch from my circle and sewed. Too small! Middle set, I did not subtract the quarter and they are the correct size...but I got the interfacing on the inside. BAH! Bottom row, correct size, interfacing going out. Whew! It's a good thing I am patient. However...I see myself doing this same mistake in the future. Often. BAH!

I start sewing them on. 

Eeeek! That's the wrong side! Rip, rip!

That looks better. It's a good thing I'm patient.

Four completed blocks!

Dresden blocks done this way, in five blade sets, are called a Grandmother's Fan. Maybe this will be a little throw pillow to match my quilt?

Thank you for visiting my blog today!

xox

Busy Bee

I've been busy in the studio. I ironed and folded this massive 8.5 yards of fabric to ready it for cutting.

I carefully measured my lengths and cut them out. I pin any fabric this long before sewing. It is so heavy it can easily stretch! I had to maneuver the fold-out table next to me at the machine to hold up the bulk. 

I sewed my three pieces together and ironed the seams open. My backing is complete!

Ready for quilting!

I got nervous of my ability to sew dresdens. Or maybe I was just intimidated to learn how to do it during the retreat...in front of witnesses? Not wanting to make a fool of myself, I sewed a test block. It took a bit of fudging a couple of the seams fatter but it lays flat as a pancake. Beautiful! 

Now, I need to teach myself how to blanket stitch this block on! And how to make the center part. Oh, this is such fun!

Thank you for visiting my blog today!

xox

Uglemor Isn't Crazy After All.

Yesterday, I received a very perplexing comment:

What? TUSAL isn't until next week. This girl is crazy! Then I go check the calendar and see I am a week late. Uglemor, my very abject apologies for my belief you had lost your mind! You seem to be the only one on top of things this month! Thank you for letting me know I forgot the Totally Useless Stitch A Long!

OMG I missed the New Moon! Did you? I was off in la la land with finishing one quilt and starting a new one. That means I cheated! I have added HANDFULS of ORTs into the leaf bowl since last Sunday.  I must say, they are beautiful ORTs:

I am working on cutting the background blocks of Kona Snow for the Dresden quilt. 

=^..^=

Now it is YOUR turn...we want to see your ORTs! Leave a comment on this post with a link to your February TUSAL post so we can come visit! If I hold a Totally Useless giveaway your comment will earn you an extra entry.

Wondering what a TUSAL is and why all these people are posting pictures of rubbish? Click here to learn more and join the fun!

Thank you for visiting my blog today!

xox 

Dresdens Anyone?

I officially started a new project this week but I've been collecting the fabrics for a long time. I have a retreat planned and this is going to be my project for it. Today, I finished cutting the plate fabrics out.

Yes, this is a Dresden Plate! I plan on 16 blocks, all in blues on white Kona Snow with blue borders.

There are 56 different blue fabrics. Whoops! I am NOT done cutting...I still have to cut the white fabric!  Once I get the white cut, I still need to sew the backing fabric for En Provence. 

I found this pink and purple Paris fabric at Hobby Lobby a couple months ago and dithered. When I went back to see if they still had it for sale I found it in the clearance bin, an entire bolt!

While I was busy playing with fabrics, Dash went for a ride on the motorcycle. He stopped by Pops and got me six different sodas. I don't drink soda as a rule but I do like a treat every now and again. I think I'll try the peach one first!

Thank you for visiting my blog today!

xox