Designing Monday

I received an email this week ( I think it was All People Quilt ) that had a free pattern attached.  I downloaded it and decided to make it.  The name of the pattern is Wish Upon a Star by Gyleen X. Fitzgerald.  The photo of the quilt was really sweet -- made in 30's feedback prints and very girly.  I printed out the pattern pieces - only 3, How hard can this be?  Made my templates, scrounged through my stash and got busy.  I made the center stars for 7 or 8 blocks on Saturday.

Then Sunday made a run to Joann's for some bleached muslin for the background.  I decided to make one test block before cutting out all the background pieces and it is a good thing I did.

This is a quilt of @#$!!# SET IN SEAMS @#$!!#!   Oh my.  That was some bad language I just used.       I hope I didn't offend anybody.  I managed to get the background sewn onto the first star with a lot of gentle pulling and pinning and stretching.  After ironing the finished block I laid it out on my cutting mat to measure.  9 1/2".  I could swear the pattern said 10".  Let me double check that.  Yep- 10".  Oh yes, and that is the finished block!  Say what?

So I went back and remade the template for the background and added an inch to the outside edges.  I made another test block and Voila!  They now measure 12" unfinished.  Plenty of extra to trim off and  oh! those set in seams are just a breeze now.  I am liking how these blocks look and the beauty is when they come together.  Stay tuned for next week and I should have the center finished.

Hope you have a yummy Thanksgiving and lots of leftovers.  I am definitely thankful I solved the mystery of this quilt before I made all 12 blocks incorrectly.  Hop on over to Judy's blog to see some more yummy sewing.

Me? An Artist?

A chance meeting at church on Sunday led to a fun class on Monday.  The class was painting silk scarves.  I am the first to admit I am not an artist - can't color, can't paint, can't sculpt or draw.  If you give me a quilt pattern, I can usually follow it and I'm pretty good at picking out colors that go together.  The teacher of this class said NO Sewing, so I knew I was out of my element.  She gave us a brief explanation and demo of the process and showed us many samples of her gorgeous work.  Since I was a beginner (and not an artist, remember?), she recommended that I try the simplest technique and design.  Works for me!

We each received a blank white silk scarf which we ironed to freezer paper to keep it from wrinkling. We picked colors and painted on a paper towel first, then a silk swatch, and finally we were ready to create.  I started by putting some black and silver lines using a resist type paint, then went to town with the fabric paints.  To get some watery special effects, I used two sizes of salt.  We dried our scarves, ironed them to set the paint, washed them in a fixative, and ironed once more. And

TA DA!  Here is my gorgeous scarf!

The most fun part was painting the fringe.  Isn't it fun?  Now I want to make more, more, more!  Maybe I CAN do art!  I'm wearing it out today for lunch.  Can't wait.

I also saved my little swatch.  It's about 12 inches square.  I am thinking I might be able to make a little rosette pin if I can figure out how.


 We had company for the weekend and they left us this beautiful bouquet and a bottle of wine as a thank you gift.

You probably didn't know I have my own vineyard and wine label, did you?

Well I do have a vineyard that consists of two grapevines, but no, this I haven't tried winemaking yet.  I do think it is pretty cool to have a wine named for me!  LOL!

Designing Monday

I have been making more hexagons.  I started this as a hand project to do at my monthly stitching group, but I could see there is way too much yakking and not enough sewing to make much progress.  So I decided that I would work on it during TV time.  I know lots of you have been through the hexagon craze already, but I seem to wander in and out of it.  I have other shapes in my collection and hope to get around to those one of these days.

I got this little leaf runner bound and hung for the month of November.

Enjoy a day of stitching and hop on over to Judy's blog  to see some beautiful designs.