January, A Great Month of Sewing!

 We are drying out now, but phewph, what a lot of rain we had!   We are fortunately up in the hills on solid ground so no major damage to us personally but that series of storms did a lot of damage to many places here along the Central Coast of CA!!

For me the up-side of all that rain was a lot of indoor time for sewing.  I tried to make the most of it!  I got two quilt tops quilted,

Simple quilting with squiggly lines on the diagonal.

And this top was a donation to the CZU project but a lot of the small quilts / tops were never distributed

because people really wanted bed size quilts.  So we are finding home for them with hospice and the Vets project 'cause they want Lap size quilts like this one.

I used my favorite doodle- all-over-pattern to quilt this one.

I also Finished this top from my last post.

I know I've said it before but I really do like these row by row quilts.  It makes the math really easy!

And since Valentines day is coming up I made this scrub cap for my Daughter in-law.

I think this is one of the prettiest V-day prints ever!

And of course I made it reversible.

This print is pretty cute too!

I a weak moment I volunteered to make some Door prizes for our Guild's up coming Quilt Show.

I inwardly groaned with the gal in charge of Door prizes asked me to sew these microwave holders.

But when I sewed one up and tested it out in my microwave I have to say they are pretty nifty!

I even sewed 3 extra, 2 as gifts for friends and one for myself!

What a useful Door prize!

Well that all for now.  The sun is out and I gotta go out and clean up the yard!!

Take care, cw

 

Rainy Day Special

Happy New Year!  

We had a pretty low key turning of the Year.  It's been raining a lot so going out is not so enticing but that's just fine by me.

 The good news is lots of rain means lots of sewing!   My personal favorite excuse for staying inside, warm and cozy;  to sew!  Since my last Post (about a week ago) I managed to piece most of that top I started..,  

And Put a binding on the quilt I showed in my last post ...

And  Yesterday I started another new project.   I know, that's more Starts than Finishes!  But the Planning is just so much fun!   Anyway,  I dug deep into my box of Orphan blocks and found this collection of blue blocks and scraps.  It seemed there were enough blocks and scrappy units to make a Vet sized quilt (36" x 48").

   Another thing I love about working with orphan materials is that once you've decided on the layout,  the assembly is soooo much easier!   Half (or more) of the cutting and sewing is already done!

So this morning when I came back to my sewing room I got right to sewing and finished the center before lunch!

It's a little smallish;  26"  x  40".  I need to figure out some borders...

And then just for giggles...

I put up some more orphan blocks; just to play with!

Happy New Year!

take care, cw

A little gifty sewing, a little piecing, a little quilting...

I made a bunch of these simple aprons for holiday gifts.  They are fun and easy to make and my favorite time saving trick is to carefully stack several fabrics and that way I can cut about 5 at once!  Here's more on that technique.

This Holiday fabric is a hoot!   Santa and his reindeer in Scuba gear.  There's probably a lot of ways to finish the raw edges but I generally use one of two ways.  Because of the goofy fabric I made this one reversible.  It's an easy finish to just put right sides together and quick turn, press and sew down the edges.  Here's the reverse side.

Light weight Home dec. fabrics are a good choice for this kind of project.

The other way to finish is the good old narrow hem . As in this one.

I've got lots of cute Food type fabrics in my stash. It's fun to go searching for just the right print to match each person I'm gifting.

Since my last post I've also had time to finish quilting this quilt.

I think this quilt sat on the quilt frame for about two months before I finally got to it.  The silly part is it only took me a couple of hours  to quilt once I got going!  Procrastinate?  just a little!! LOL

I quilted it with all over wavy lines.  I really like the effect of the lines disappearing and reappearing over the light and dark parts of the blocks.

I felt so light headed for making a finish,..

I pinned another quilt on the frame right away.  We'll see how long it takes me to get this one done?!

Of course I had to celebrate all of my accomplishments!

What better way than to start a new project!

I'm really liking these row by row quilts.  They are fun and easy and make great donation quilts.

Well that's all for now.

I hope however you celebrate your Winter Holidays you have a very Merry Time!!!

take care, cw