Simple Sampler Quilt Along

Amy (Park City Girl) is hosting a Quilt-Along. It's made up of sixteen 12" simple blocks. I always love a Quilt-Along and I can certainly use the practice!

Every week she presents two new blocks of increasing difficulty. I made the first two week's blocks tonight.  The fabric is Moda's French General "Rural Jardin". I am really enchanted by this fabric. Here they are:

Block 1:

Block 2:

Block 3:

Block 4:

I'm also doing some simple applique using this fabric line and some "Piece O' Cake" applique patterns.

Have a nice evening.

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Picking up the Pieces...

Excuse the pun!

I've recovered from the family reunion (great fun had by all), recovered from bronchitis and sinusitis (generously shared by my grandson) and recovered from a colonoscopy (enough said!)

I have found time to quilt and have been playing with paper piecing and hand piecing. Great fun if you want to try them. I purchased Jennifer Chiaverini's book Sylvia's Bridal Sampler

It's a sampler with some lovely blocks. So far I've made three by hand:

Autumn Leaf

Crossed Canoes

Bride's Bouquet

I'm using French General's Rural Jardin fabric collection. I'm learning a lot and having fun with it. 

Hope you're having a great afternoon!

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Drawstring Shoe Bag Tutorial

Good Morning.

As you may recall, we are hosting my husband's family reunion. Just an intimate group of 40! LOL! One of the primary activities is a golf tournament. Much teasing and ribbing makes for a lot of fun. There is even a trophy with each year's winners engraved on it.

At the golf tourney it is customary for the hosting family to provide a sack of some goodies. I decided to make something that could be useful and reused. A drawstring shoe bag. So while the pictures below are for a golf shoe bag, just downsize to fit regular shoes. Then you can pop your shoes in it while traveling and protect your clothes. Or you can adjust the size and use the pattern as a drawstring bag for lunch, gifts, jewelry etc. If you desire you can french seam the sides. I considered this briefly and ran screaming from the room. While this is a quick, easy project, making 40 with french seams isn't in the plans.

1.  Cut a piece of fabric 16" by width of fabric (WOF). The folded edge is at the bottom, selvage at the top. Trim selvage off.

2. Measure down 3" from the top right edge. Using scissors, snip 1/4" into fabric toward center. (note arrow). Repeat for left side. Snip will go through both layers of fabric.
 

3. Using your iron, press all four top edges in.

4. Here is a photo showing two sides pressed.

5. Now sew all four edges down. (sorry about the glare)

6. This is what it will look like...

7.  Now fold th top raw edges down 1/4 an inch and iron. (Ironing saves time pinning)

8. Fold the edges down again about 2 1/2" or whatever it takes to meet edge of snip you made earlier.

9. Sew this seam down, close to the folded edge.

This is how it should look...

10. Now it's time to put right sides together and sew the two sides. Start even with the previously stitched  edge. (see arrow)

11. Time to trim edges if desired and turn inside out.

12.  Now you can lace your tie through the channel you have sewn. I like to use a large safety pin to guide the ribbon through. (I used grosgrain ribbon). I found it smart, after threading the ribbon through the channel to then knot the two ribbon ends together. This protects you from losing an end in the channel and having to keep re-threading.

13. Wa-La, finished product. Easy peasy, don't you think?

Have a great day!

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Ready for the Onslaught!

Greetings from hot Florida!


For the past six months I've cleaned, weeded, planted, re-planted, polished, thrown out, quilted and purchased. All getting ready for my husband's family reunion we're hosting. Starting TOMORROW!

"Am I ready?" you ask.  YES! Yea!

Here are some photos of our home. This is the entrance (garage to left). I had originally planted seven flats of petunia in these beds. Within four days they wilted and died. I was horrified. What a waste of money and sweat! The only thing I could figure was the overhang prevented them from getting enough sunshine. So, I went conservative and planted caladiums, a shade loving plant. Very low maintenance. So far they've survived my black thumb! You may see the marigolds in front of the caladiums. Notice how the ones on the far right are blooming. They get more sun!

The house extends to the back and right in an "L" shape.

Here is my favorite part, the backyard. I love our trees. They are live oaks, which is a bit unusual in this area. I love their limbs and the wild directions they take. We have about two acres and around the trees you will see native ferns, palms and various plants. (very little grass!). Oh, there are also some wild beasts roaming around (see second backyard photo).

 And here is our Living Room. To the left is the kitchen. The house wraps around the pool. (look, more wild beasties).

As I type this, cookies are baking in the oven. Delicious chocolate chip cookies. With my secret ingredient. Yum!

Oh, I almost forgot. This is a quilting blog! I'd better add a little something to entertain those serious readers....

I have been playing with paper piecing and hand piecing the last few weeks. I made this sampler using hand piecing on half of the blocks and half machine made. I found the hand piecing was much more accurate. For small projects I'm definitely going to hand piece. Now I'm going to hand quilt the sampler.  Which I've never done before! (Hopefully I won't ruin it!)

Have a nice weekend!

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