Maple Leaf finish

 I am so excited to have the maple leaf quilt all done. Thursday night it went on the frame, the quilting was my Friday and some on Saturday along with getting it bound. I'm absolutely loving how it came together. 

The piecing on this was done over the last two winters other than the last two borders which were in the last couple weeks. Luckily I had fabric for the backing in my stash! Not sure if that was set aside for this quilt or another, but the size worked so I went with it;) It finished at 54"x 75"

Free motion swirl hook quilting resembles the leaves blowing in the wind. The fabric for the leaves was bought as a fat quarter pack, I knew it would make great leaves when I bought it. I still have some left, not sure if enough to make another quilt should I need to.  This quilt is now in my Etsy shop and I will keep my fingers crossed that it sells. 

Another finish is a small one but oh so cute! It was a freebie from our generous friend Melisa  . I love how she has been finishing some of her little ones, so I channeled my inner Melisa. As I was reorganizing my sewing room recently I ran across white yarn that I had twisted to look like rope. It resembles some trim Melisa uses for her little stitchings. Thank you Melisa for cute designs and ideas!

Hope to see you at our favorite Monday linky parties... Design Wall Monday, Monday Musings and Sew and Tell Monday.

Two finishes

 Do you ever feel like you should have gotten more done for the week? Even though I have two finishes I felt like I didn't have the energy/motivation that I usually do. I can't even blame it on the heat as we had a couple of really nice days. Granted these two finishes are larger than I normally do. 

First was this scrappy orange pineapple quilt which I pieced over the winter. Quilted it on Saturday and bound it Tuesday, by machine of course. This will be put aside until fall when we see our son and DIL and I will give to her for her church group to hand out to someone in need in their community. This marks the second donation quilt done for the year.

When searching through my donation fabrics I had a hard time finding anything that would go with orange. This one has gold/orange fruit and that was as close as I could get. 

A quick meander seemed right, get it done and with a larger design the quilt remains more cuddly. I used a poly batting on the thinner side so it didn't get to poofy. 

Sunday I pinned this quilt on the frame and quilted it with a freehand feather design on Sunday morning and Monday in between doing other things. We went for a bike ride on Sunday afternoon, after that I didn't do anything! Wednesday I got the binding on and had it's photo shoot on Thursday. 

Also pieced over the winter using a Jelly Roll that I had won a while back. I used a brown for the binding

Picked up that backing from Hobby Lobby when it was on sale. The pattern for the quilt is from Missouri Star called Sticks and Stones. I was inspired to make this quilt after seeing one Melva had made. Mine has made it's way into my Etsy shop.

There are so many fall things I want to get made in the next two weeks and get them listed in my Etsy shop.  So I need to get motivated somehow and soon! The first thing is to see if I have a backing for that leaf quilt or can make a scrappy one.

Here are a few peeks of pretty blooms in our yard. Garden Phlox in different shades of purple and a white peeking out here and there. They are in the fenced garden area. 

These are in a pot on the deck. Aren't the reddish orange and yellows so pretty. I forget their name. And the purples are so dainty.

Can't forget the purple coneflowers on the south side of the house. 

Linking with the Friday parties-TGIFF, Beauties Pageant, Finished or Not Friday, Off The Wall, I Quilted This and Oh! Scrap

Catching up

 Do you ever make something and then forget to post it? Seems I have, LOL.  Well it wasn't that long ago but other items made their way here first.  If you are a follower you have seen me make these first two before so mainly I am posting them for my own knowledge in the future;) 

In smaller wall hangings I sometimes use triangles made from folding a square for the hanging sleeve. That way you only have to hand sew three stitches at the tip of each triangle. 

This is a pattern by Karen Walker of Laugh yourself into stitches.

Next up is this Halloween wall hanging. Who doesn't love gingham pumpkins!

Cute polka dots for the backing. This pattern is a Primrose Cottage design.

And I pulled out the maple leaf quilt I was working on this past winter. All I needed was the border. Well actually two borders. I decided to do a 1.5" black w/orange dots first, the same as in the four patch sashings. And then a wider gold print for the last border. It's already for quilting, maybe this week!

In between projects I decided to try doing leader enders again. It has not worked well for me in the past as I tend to forget to use them as it is so easy to hit the scissors button on my sewing machine! But this time it worked well for several days. These squares have been cut in the last 2-3 years and waiting their turn to be turned into a lap quilt for donation. Some were sewn into pairs already so that helped speed things up a bit. The plan is to do a tan solid rectangle in between the homespun blocks. I added a few more blocks since I snapped this photo.

Maybe I'll be back on Wednesday with another finish of something new;) I have lots I want to get done this week!

Linking up with Monday Musings, Sew and Tell Monday and Design Wall Monday. 

More Halloween

I have been enjoying my new space, however I was only in it long enough to get the backing prepared so I could get this one quilted. And then long enough to bind it.

The piecing of this one and it's twin (which I hope I need to quilt at a later date) was pieced last winter.

This is a pattern from Jedi Craft Girl.  I had been saving that backing fabric for a while. It has metallic gray dots and I thought it looked kinda fancy so I was waiting for something special to make. But the special never showed itself so recently I said I am just gonna use it for the back. It goes perfectly as the background of the front is gray and white.

Next up was another black cat Halloween runner, yes the first one sold. And tonight this second one sold too! You guessed it there is another one in my future;) I have more of the cut off parts for the star points left and sewn so the rest of the runner won't take long to piece. 

This one uses white with orange dots for the background fabrics. The star points are different fabrics from the first black cat runner. The pumpkin fabrics are also different.

Today I will join other creative souls at Finished or Not, TGIFF, Beauties Pageant and Off The Wall

 

I Love Fall

This is one of the panels I got over at one of the Shipshewana quilt shops in May. I love all the fun things to look at on this panel. 

I added a blue and white polka coping border to bring it up to the size I needed.  Three inch HST's are what I wanted for the next border in orange and teal.  I love all the fun things to look at on this panel. The owl is stealing the show for sure. But the mums are a close second. Add in the butterflies, toadstools and white and teal pumpkins and you have a fun mix of fall items.

I finished this wall hanging off with another blue and white polka dot border before adding the final one in an orange leaf print.

I had to go through my fall decorations to find my teal pumpkin to use as a prop. Yes the wall hanging went right into my Etsy shop.

Linking up with Wednesday Wait Loss

 

Calling it done

This should be the last set of photos for the room redo. The two french doors lead into the formal living room. The two other doors are closets which house more fabric, WIPS, UFOs and quilts ready to quilt. The cube holds some of my Accuquilt dies and the cutter on top. Plus some odds and ends. 

For this view I am standing in front of one of the closets. The new white cabinets are holding fabric, thread, and kits I have cut out. My stereo system on top along with a tub of modern fabrics(I had no other place to store them). You also see the two new lift tables for the sewing machines. The cubes are my cutting station which resumed it's original position and the ruler rack on the wall. 

And lastly I am standing in the kitchen doorway looking at my mini quilt wall, pressing station and design wall. This was a big job giving this room a major facelift but I am loving it and ready to get back into creating full steam ahead;)

Linking with Design Wall Monday, Sew and Tell, and Monday Musings

Green and Blue scrappiness

It all started with charms I cut from my blue scrap stash and green scrappy four patches with a constant white tone on tone. While on the transformation of my sewing room I also needed a couple days of sewing. I decided to work on this WIP which I had cut out last fall and pieced most of the four patches. It was patiently waiting for it's sewing time again. 

It was a plus that I now have a bigger design wall;)  Not much time was involved in laying it all out. Sewing commenced right after. And before long a scrappy flimsy was born! It is a small lap size that is destined to be a donation quilt and will now take it's place in the 'to be quilted' pile. Even though it was only a small pile of fabric used up it felt great to move this WIP along. The pattern was a freebie called Spring Lake Quilt from Tilda's World.

Linking to Oh Scrap!

The bee balm is really showing off this year. 

The dahlia's are off to a good start with promises of many more blooms.

 

Halloween table runners

 I have two finishes for today's post! The first is from a pattern by Primrose Cottage which I have also made in past years.

There are a lot of flip and sew corners with the making of the star. 

I decided to use them up right away and created this. Definitely a Halloween table runner. 

The star points in this one are made using HST's, which are the cut offs from the first table runner stars.

After quilting it I appliqued the black cat and pumpkins which are from Accuquilt dies.

I love the fun backing print!

Linking with Off the Wall, TGIFF, Finished or Not Friday and Beauties Pageant

New design wall

My cutting table made it's way back into the refreshed sewing room. You can see more of the pressing station in this view also. DH took this photo with his new phone and it makes the room look bigger than it really is! It's only 13'x 13'.

And I now have a permanent design wall! It is the largest that this room could provide at 60" wide x 83" tall. We used the pink insulation foam board and covered it with flannel. You can see I really love it as I took a break from organization and moving more stuff in to sew!  

The next day we put the white pegboard up and began filling it with white plastic Dollar Tree baskets to hold scissors, needles and other sewing needs. I like that it is right beside the sewing table. Did you notice another piece on the design wall? Plus the stars are all together and have their borders now.

Linking with other creative souls at Wednesday Wait Loss. 

 

Moving in

 Little by little I am getting moved back in to the refreshed sewing room. First up is the new white cupboards I got from Amazon. They came in four boxes with a gazillion pieces! Remember last winter we put together several items together so we knew what we were getting into, LOL. We took two days to assembled them. each cupboard is in two pieces, a top and a bottom, otherwise it would be to heavy for us. Once in place you attach the top to the bottom.

The next day we brought in the two new lift tables for the sewing machines. Also from Amazon. I should have be an affiliate for all the stuff we buy from there, LOL.  Next we moved the pressing station in, I have been using that for several years and I love it. We made it with a cube unit from Ikea and put rollers on it. You will see a better view of it later on. And my ruler rack is back on the same wall next to the door leading into the kitchen.

Okay please don't judge me by this next photo! Remember my sewing room has been a working sewing room for 32 years. I know I have a LOT of stuff in there, but I also knew pretty much where everything was. But I have been wanting to do something a little cleaner, neater and a little emptier! So I had to show the before and you'll see all of the after in a week or so with a whole new arrangement. When I took this photo I was standing in the French door way of the living room. My sewing room is what would be a formal dining room which we would never have used as we have an eat in kitchen. So when we built the house we agreed this would be my knitting/sewing room. 

Several of you asked if I found things I had forgotten about or lost. The answer is that I pretty much knew everything I had but it was a trip down memory lane in some cases, finding things I hadn't used in years. A very good exercise in realizing I don't need to buy much of anything!! 

Linking with Monday Musings, Design Wall Monday and Sew and Tell