Friday, July 30, 2021

Last Day And My Day For "It's A Guy Thing" Blog Hop

What a week it's been with incredibly inspiration, beautiful projects, and fun times with blog friends! "It's A Guy Thing" was above and beyond anything I imagined. Thanks everyone!

The challenge was: Make something for a guy or tomboy, or in manly-man colors of blues, grays, browns, etc.


I can relate to "It's A Guy Thing" because boys outnumber girls in my family. There's my husband, son, three son-in-laws, and of course, the six Monkey Boys. My daughter definitely holds her own with all those guys!


I went looking for "guy" fabrics in my stash and came upon an UFO I had started in July 2017. It was a kit with Hawaiian shirts...perfect for my son-in-law. I'd made five or six shirts and cut everything up according to the directions. And then I stopped and moved on to other things. I noticed that Brenda from Songbird Designs set her pattern aside until now, too. Check out her cute pillow using this pattern!


It was begging to be finished and this was the perfect hop for it. After all, the pieces were cut out and some of the shirts were finished. What could go wrong! Lots of things. I made a few mistakes when trimming the collars by cutting the wrong directions. Then there was a few missing pieces...how did that happen? 

The lucky part was sewing it together at a retreat with friends and having their help to make the darn thing work into a quilt with what I had. Minus a few shirts, it was just fine!


The fabrics are so pretty!


My son-in-law, who is part Hawaiian and part Filipino, saw this while I was making it and said he'd love a shirt out of some of the fabrics. I don't sew shirts, so he'll  have to settle for a quilt.


It wasn't my favorite pattern to sew because of all the little pieces, but I love how it turned out.


Look who else is sharing "It's A Guy Thing" project!


Check out the Pinterest page for "It's A Guy Thing" HERE.

Thank you for stopping by!

Tuesday, July 27, 2021

Riley Blake Designs "Spotted" Project Tour

You really are seeing spots before your eyes with Riley Blake Designs new fabric, "Spotted", by Kate Blocher of See Kate Sew. There are flowers, butterflies, and leopards with beautiful sparkles in them!

My quilt, "Deep in the Jungle", used four Riley Blake fabrics: RBD Black, RBD Spotted Main Butterscotch Sparkle, RBD Spotted Daisy Fields Black Sparkle, and RBD Spotted Spots Gold Sparkle.

Deep in the Jungle
52" x 52"



I love when I have my little Monkey Boys as helpers. They don't always get the concept of holding the quilt straight, but they are always up for the task!


Well, almost always up for the task. It's hard for a three year old to keep his arms up when holding a heavy quilt!


Look at all the other fabrics in the Spotted line...don't you love them!


Sparkly leopards in a Dresden,



Sparkly leopards in an hourglass block,



and sparkly leopards in the border definitely made this quilt shine!


You can find "Deep in the Jungle" HERE.



Check out more projects using spotted and the Riley Blake Designs blog...so many great ideas there!

7/6 - Sunflower Seams

7/13 - That's Sew Kari

Riley Blake Designs Blog

FYI - There is an amazing event by Riley Blake Designs that will be happening September 15-18, Garden of Quilts. It is being held at Thanksgiving Point in Lehi, Utah. Here's the link for more info: Garden of Quilts. I'm planning on going, are you?


Tuesday, July 20, 2021

Beach Pillow And HeatnBond Liquid Vinyl

Temperatures are definitely telling us that it is summer and time for a trip to the beach. With temperatures in my town reaching 118 degrees and higher, I would love to head to the beach right now! When the time is right, this beach pillow is ready for the trip.

A handle, a zipper pocket on the front, and an open pocket in the back make this pillow ready for almost anything. It’s a great way to carry a few extra things, plus have a place to lay your head and enjoy the sounds of the waves from the beach.
The pillow is water-resistant thanks to HeatnBond Liquid Vinyl. It is amazing! What’s really fun about HeatnBond Liquid Vinyl is how easy it is to use. It even can be painted over applique designs like this one.

There are three ways to use the HeatnBond Liquid Vinyl gel coating:
One coat: Fabric is water and stain-resistant
Two coats: Fabric is waterproof and stain-resistant
Three coats: Waterproof and stain-resistant with a semi-gloss oilcloth finish
Summer Beach Pillow Instructions: 
Step 1: Use a paintbrush to apply a light coat of HeatnBond Liquid Vinyl on the pillow front (don’t apply over the zipper.)
Step 2: Let dry for 30-45 minutes.
Step 3: Preheat iron to medium heat, no steam.
Step 4: Place fabric on top of parchment paper on a firm, protected surface (not an ironing board) and cover with HeatnBond Pressing Paper or non-stick pressing sheet. Press for 45 seconds, moving iron slightly. Let cool.
The Oliso Mini iron is perfect for small projects like this and the purple one is so pretty!
Heat n Bond Lite Iron-on Adhesive or Heat n Bond Lite EZ Print Sheets
HeatnBond Liquid Vinyl
Optional: Heat n Bond Light Weight Non-Woven Interfacing
Fabric Fuse Liquid Adhesive
Zipper Pocket – The zipper pocket on the front of the pillow was so easy to make. Following package directions, iron the 14” x 14” square of Heat n Bond Lite Iron-on Adhesive to the wrong side of the 14″ x 14″ fabric. Remove protective paper and fold square diagonally into a triangle, matching edges. Press.
Using the Heat n Bond Lite Iron-on Adhesive between fabric layers gives it a sturdy feeling and makes adding the zipper much easier.

Fish applique – Following the package directions, prepare the applique patterns using Heat n Bond Lite Iron-on Adhesive or Heat n Bond Lite EZ Print Sheets.
Using Heat n Bond Lite EZ Print Sheets means no tracing. Just run your designs through an inkjet printer and they are ready to iron on fabrics. Quick and easy!
Iron adhesive pieces to wrong side of applique fabrics. Cut out applique pieces.Peel off paper liner from the backs of fish applique pieces. Place applique, adhesive side down, on right side of zipper pocket. Press according to package directions until entire piece is bonded. Let cool. Sew around edges using a straight, zig-zag, or blanket stitch.
Apply HeatnBond Liquid Vinyl to zipper pocket on both sides. Having it water proofed on both sides makes it a perfect spot to stow anything that’s liquid, like sunscreen.

Apply a thin line of Fabric Fuse Liquid Adhesive along folded edge of pocket. Lay edge of zipper along adhesive and finger press in place. Allow to dry. Stitch close to zipper edge on front side of pocket using a straight or decorative stitch. Slide zipper open near edge to enable sewing if needed.
Line up pocket with raw edges along bottom and sides of pillow front with zipper pointed towards pillow center. Pin/clip zipper pocket to secure in place.  Apply thin line of adhesive to other zipper edge and finger press in place. Allow to dry. Sew along top edge of zipper to secure it to pillow. Baste around pocket’s raw edges to secure in place. Trim off excess zipper – make sure zipper pull is not cut off!

That’s it! The pocket is finished and ready for the rest of the pillow to be assembled.
The Whale


The fish and the nice little zipper pocket!


The Jellyfish


The back pocket


It is about 24″ x 24″ when finished and has a preformed 24″ x 24″ pillow inside.
Are you ready to make a pillow for the beach? You can find the complete instructions for the Beach Pillow in a PDF pattern HERE.

Check out the ThermOWeb blog for more ideas on using the HeatnBond Liquid Vinyl.
Grab your flip flops, swimsuit, towel, and especially the sunscreen, and go have some fun at the beach!

Saturday, July 17, 2021

Applique Class At Sew Yeah Quilting

I can't even put into words how much fun I had the last two days with Joan from Moosestash quilting. She's lucky I didn't tie her up to keep her a few more days. I was so, so sad when I dropped her off at her hotel today. I miss her already!


Ron and I had a great dinner with Joan and her husband on Friday. We went to Lazy Dogs and totally enjoyed their company!

Saturday morning, I picked up Joan and Susan and headed to Sew Yeah, the quilt store. The applique class had 12 students. Thank goodness I had Joan and my other friend, Susan, to help me stay focused. I do tend to talk fast and move around a lot.


Susan promised to stop me from getting a green tea latte from Starbucks, because she knows how wired I can be after drinking one. She saved me from totally jabbering out of control. Thanks, Susan!


Joan is the queen of applique, but beyond that, she made me laugh and kept me entertained. She had great input for the class, too. Thanks for everything, Joan!


This lady didn't want her picture taken, but she was up for her project being photographed.


Seriously, this was such a fun group of ladies to teach. Most of them were new to applique, but they jumped right in and didn't hesitate to learn how to do it.






Did I mention how much I miss Joan already? Well, I do!


After the class was over, I took Joan for a ride. We stopped at my house so she could meet Bruster and Bella, and then off we went for a cold drink and a shared sandwich. We ate in my air conditioned car while watching the Big Horn Sheep. The temperatures outside were 110 degrees...a little warm!

We braved the heat and wind to get closer to the sheep and asked someone to take some photos of us. Some of the pics were okay but some were pretty hilarious! I'm not sharing those.


Such a whirlwind of a trip for Joan, but the best time for me. I was so grateful to have her to hang out! I'm looking forward to teaching another class and/or hanging out with Joan again!

Give It A Whirl Blog Hop Starts Today

It is time to whirl, twirl, and spin with the "Give It A Whirl" blog hop! What was the challenge? Somewhere in or on your project ...