Monday, June 30, 2014

Mystery Quilt - DONE!

Just finished the "Mystery Quilt."  What's a mystery quilt you ask? 

Well, First of all, you have to TRUST the person who is hosting the mystery quilt that you will just LOVE it after its all done.

Secondly, you obtain the necessary fabric, and cut each length according to the guidelines.

THEN, you get a clue each week or month, depending on the rules of the mystery.

And the last clue is how to assemble the entire quilt together.  SO, here is my mystery quilt all assembled... 
 
I was happy with how it turned out.  I kept making these crazy blocks, and wondering.... am I really going to like this?????  But after it was completed, I really LOVE iT!  It was a lot of fun. I know that they are starting this quilt again, but if you are interested, click [here]

Several weeks ago, I became certified to use this big, beautiful machine...
                                                    


Sew Pretty, isn't she??

It's Babylock's Crown Jewel long-arm quilting machine. 

Oh Santa, I've BEEN GOOD!!!  :D

Set up time was about 45 minutes by the time I FINALLY figured out why the thread kept breaking!  Once I got started, it really only took about an hour to quilt my mystery quilt.  It's not a huge quilt (only 54 x 60), but now I am certified to go and use the machine for some of my bigger sized quilts.  Quilting on a long-arm is WAY different than on my Espire.  It would take me TONS of practice before I would ever commit to quilting on someone else's quilt.

As soon as I add the binding, I will post a finished picture. 

Until then,
Always in stitches,

Carol

Sunday, June 22, 2014

Mani/Pedi Purse

The perfect little project to complete in ONE day.  YEP!  One day!
(providing you have all the stuff)
    Aren't these CUTE???   

So, this cute little purse has a free pattern.. [HERE] and I found this little beauty while I was visiting Noodlehead's blog.

I told Jaimee to pick out some nice colors that go well together.  I think she did a pretty good job!!

So, I was a little on the lazy side, and didn't print out the pattern on the instructions, I just took a small glass, and used that to round my corners.


Yep!  easy peasy!!
Here's a picture of the inside! 


Now, go and sew something!!

Always in stitches,
Carol

Saturday, June 21, 2014

Prom Dresses & Bow ties - searching for "The Perfect Color"

Searching for the perfect color bow tie was my daughter's quest right before prom.  Since I ended up cutting ten inches off the bottom of her dress, I had plenty of fabric to make the perfect match!

Here's the bow tie that I made for my daughter's boyfriend for their prom. 




Ok, so THIS isn't her boyfriend, but it WAS my first attempt at the bow tie.  This was my first attempt, and was WAY too small.  So, sometimes you have to make prototypes before you get to the finished product. 

 (Stay tuned, I'll show you the finished product..)








If you are interested, here's how I created it.  It was kind of easy once I finally figured out HOW to make one, let alone TIE one!  :)





I couldn't find a free pattern anywhere on the internet, or at least one that I liked, so I created one of my own.  

I sketched it out on graph paper so I could make sure that it was symmetrically equal on both sides.














Cut it out, leaving 1/4 inch for your seam allowance. 















Pin the pattern to both layers of fabric and cut out.














Also cut out your stabilizer fabric. 






















Put right sides of fabric together, add stabilizer material on top of fabric and sew all layers together all the way around using 1/4 inch seam allowance.

** IMPORTANT, leave a small space of unsewn area in the long













After sewing all layers, trim stabilizer fabric within 1/8 inch of stitching, and cut fabric around curves and dips to help when fabric is turned right sides out. 










Turning the entire thing right side out was time consuming, but, I found using a long "poky stick" or a "chopstick" was helpful to push all of that fabric through the small opening.  Difficult, but possible.

Iron the entire tie nice and flat, and sew up the small turn hole.






So here is the final product:

 
Sew, there ya go!  Easy peasy!!  Go make a bow tie.


Always in stitches,
Carol

More creative things from my "BabyLock"

Ok... as promised... more pics from my sewing corner:
 

This is Jaimee's quilt.
I finally finished the top, it's called Card Trick.  It kind of reminds me of stained glass.  Almost mesmerizing!

I'm really looking forward to Free-motion quilting it myself.  Been taking some classes to learn how to FMQ on my own sewing machine, AND I JUST got certified on a BabyLock Crown Jewel long-arm machine.  As soon as I feel that I'm ready... I'll be putting my skills to the test!!



Here's another quilt top that I just finished.  This one is called Mason's Lilly.  I took this class in March at the AQS quilt week in Lancaster, PA.  I just finished it recently.  I love the way the green stems pops on the black background.
 














Here's an on-going project of mine.  I use my quilt scraps, sew them together, and use a template to cut out some tea (or coffee) cozies.   Kind of cute, and in big demand right now.  I've given so many as gifts, and its great because I get to use up a lot of my scraps that would have been otherwise tossed out.  Actually, it's very hard to toss out fabric scraps because I always think that I SHOULD be able to make something else with them.  So, for now, these are where my scraps go.  Maybe someday, I will try my hand at landscape quilting.  



Sew for now... 
I will always be in stitches!!

Hugs,
Carol