I Started To Make A Pillow

I started to make a pillow, really I did, and the next thing I knew I had a Valentine table runner.

What the heck! Do you veer off and have that kind of thing happen to you, too?

Here's the story of the pillow turned runner:

A couple of days ago...

As I was snuggled under a warm quilt looking at a couple of blogs on my computer, I saw a really 

cool pillow at  5 Little Monsters. It had a glittery heart on black and white striped fabric.

I had black and white striped fabric and Deco Foil for the heart. I could make this!

Yesterday...

I realized that, yes, I did have black and white striped fabric, but not enough.

No problem! I'll just border it with some other fabric to make it the right size.

But, I needed to run to town before I started sewing.

There was a store next to the store I was shopping at. 

Are those shiny objects in the window? Yep!

There IT was, calling my name.

It was red like my couch, about 2 feet long, and made of heavy wood.

My coffee table needed this, I'm sure of it. 

Back home...

Poor thing looks a little pathetic and lonely on my black table. 

Decision made...no heart pillow, I'm making a table runner!

Today...

Finished the runner this morning by stitching in the ditch and around the hearts.
Quick and easy!

A day trip with the hubby to take photos...fun!

The hearts are really, really shiny, but the camera didn't want to see it.

This photo kind of picks up the shine.

I ran my ThermOWeb Hot Melt Adhesive and Deco Foil through my laminator to make the hearts. 

It happily connected that shiny red foil to my fabric. Loved it!

No photos of that process, sorry, but here's a cute video to watch using an iron, not a laminator.

The daughter of Amy at Sew Incredibly Crazy made it...adorable and informative!

Of course, my red long bowl needed a photo shoot, too. Now it just needs to be

filled with something and set out on my new table runner that was meant to be a pillow.

Happy sewing to you!

I'm Nuts About The Dreaded Dresden

Marian at Seams To Be Sew created a blog hop called Nuts About ? 

We had to replace the "?" with something we were nuts about and show it on our big day.

Since I'm nuts about a lot of things it was tough, but I narrowed it down to

THE DREADED DRESDEN!

The first time I made a Dresden was for a blog hop. I totally freaked out about making it.

Then I realized how easy they are to make and I fell in love with them!

Using Missouri Star Quilt Company's Sunburst Dresden idea, I made this quilt.

The Dresden Love Quilt

The fabrics are First Crush by Sweetwater for Moda.

It measures 39" x 39" and is perfect for a lap quilt, table top, or as a wall hanging.

Or, it could cover a big rock if you wanted it to!

The other thing I'm nuts about is creating a center block (which is the Dresden in this case) and

then adding different sized borders until it's a size I like. No pattern, just sew those borders on!

I used Spray N Bond Basting Adhesive to place the Dresden on the fabric so I could stitch it in place.

The spray also sandwiched my quilt to prepare it for some quilting. So easy and no pins!

I used my favorite iron-on adhesive, Heat N Bond Lite, to make those hearts stick to the 
center so I could sew them down with a blanket stitch.

Oh, and did I mention I'm nuts about giveaways? Well, I am!

a Rafflecopter giveaway 

There's two more sweet giveaways at AnyPattern.com...I love these flowers!

Click HERE to go to AnyPattern.com for their giveaway.

There's more of us "nuts" out there during this hop...check them out!

A big nutty THANKS to Marian for organizing this hop and getting some incredible sponsors!

February 4, 2016

Words & Stitches
Moose Stash
Vroomans Quilts
Quilt In Piece

February 5, 2016 - Today!

Just Let Me Quilt
DesertSky
Lulu & Celeste
Marjorie's Busy Corner
Tea Time Creations

February 8, 2016

Batts In The Attic
Life In The Scrapatch
Quilting Affection
Ravelly's
In The Boon Docks

February 9, 2016

Quilting Queen Online
Elizabeth Coughlin
Bumbleberry Cottage
All Things Sewn

February 10, 2016

MeadowBrook
Sew Many Yarns
From This To That
Seams To Be Sew

Nuts About ? Begins Today

We're all a little nuts about something, so check out this blog hop to see

who is nuts about scraps, applique, row quilts, or whatever!

Marian at Seams To Be Sew has giveaway information and some cute patterns she's sharing.

Click here to go to her blog: Seams To Be Sew

February 4, 2016 - Today!

Words & Stitches
Moose Stash
Vroomans Quilts
Quilt In Piece

February 5, 2016

Just Let Me Quilt - My day tomorrow!
DesertSky
Lulu & Celeste
Marjorie's Busy Corner
Tea Time Creations

February 8, 2016

Batts In The Attic
Life In The Scrapatch
Quilting Affection
Ravelly's
In The Boon Docks

February 9, 2016

Quilting Queen Online
Elizabeth Coughlin
Bumbleberry Cottage
All Things Sewn

February 10, 2016

MeadowBrook
Sew Many Yarns
From This To That
Seams To Be Sew

In Our Garden Blocks 1 and 2

The In Our Garden blog hop kicked off with Amy's blocks. They were awesome! 

I feel pretty darn good that I've completed blocks #1 and #2...woohoo!

I'm using Riley Blake basic fabrics and totally enjoying working with them. 

I love Amy's frog!

There were several times of changing my mind with fabrics and even now

I'm thinking that leaf needs to be a different color. It may or not get changed.

Sometimes I just have to let it go and stick with what I've made.

The Nuts About ? starts on February 4th. So exciting!

My day is on February 5th...see you then.

It's In Our Garden Blog Hop Time

February 1st is Amy's turn to share her two amazing In Our Garden blog hop blocks.

What a fun way to kick of the month!

Here's the scoop:

This is a Block on the Month (BOM) blog hop.

There will be 11 different bloggers who will share their patterns with 

you for free during the month that the pattern is been released. 

Two blocks will be released on the first day of each month.

One will be an applique pattern and one will be a pieced pattern. 

There will be giveaways, too, from amazing sponsors!

Sounds like fun, doesn't it!

There's even a Facebook group page to share what you make
HERE.

February 1st

Amy – Sew Incredibly Crazy

March 1st

Carol – Just Let Me Quilt

April 1st

Doris – Quilting Queen Online

May 1st

Carla – Creatin’ in the Sticks

June 1st

Sue – Super Mom No Cape

July 1st

Joan – Moosestash Quilting

August 1st

Kris – Kris Loves Fabric

September 1st

Pat – Life in the Scrappatch

October 1st

Vicki – More Stars in Comanche

November 1st

Lana – It Seams to be Sew

December 1st

Jan - Sew and Sow Farm

January 1st

Amy – Sew Incredibly Crazy– Final Blocks and wrap up

The Little Sheep Is Quilted

I love when I get the phone call from Quilted Works letting me know one of my quilts is ready

for pick-up. Yesterday was the "Little Sheep" is quilted phone call...yay!

It still needs binding, but I love, love, love the quilting on this one...looks like fluffy clouds!

That bright green minky was perfect for this, too.

It always amazes me how much some beautiful quilting can add dimension to a quilt.

Thanks to Cathy and Julie for helping choose the quilt pattern and doing all the hard work! 

I love it! They always know just the right design and thread to make my quilts look amazing.

Thanks to Deonn for this cute pattern!

Creating An Instagram Photo Quilt

I know a very sweet girl who is on an adventure of a lifetime and posting her photos on Instagram
has allowed all of us to be a part of her excitement. After creating the friendship pillow with
Therm O Web's Transfer Sheets, I had a BIG idea on how to make her a wonderful memory keeper...

AN INSTAGRAM PHOTO QUILT!

I'm taking her pics from Instagram (with her permission, of course) and making her a quilt with 

the photos of her hanging out with friends like Snow White, Belle, Ariel, Prince Charming,
Cinderella and more. It is so fun putting this together and the transfer sheets are really easy to use.

I've been into hearts a lot, so Heat N Bond Lite came to the rescue for adding all the red lovelies.

Here's a few steps on how I got those photos onto the fabric:

This is what I used for printing the photos:

I used Microsoft Word for printing my pics because it allowed me to flip the pictures before printing,

plus it has a spot where I could make the photos exactly the size I needed them to be.

I ran a transfer sheet through my ink jet printer with the pics I wanted to use.

My pics were 4.5" x 4.5" to fit on the 5" x 5" white fabric squares I was using. 

Making the pics 4.5" x 4.5" made sure I'd have a 1/4" seam allowance for sewing.

Following the package directions, I pressed the transfer sheet pic onto the white fabric square.

I made sure to flip the pics before printing (I had a few "whoops" ones where I forgot.)

After removing the printed transfer sheet liner from the fabric, I used the included 

pressing sheet to finish setting the photo into the fabric. 

I loved how bright this one was!

The quality of the photos makes a big difference on how they look on the fabric.

I darkened a few of the photos to ensure deeper colors.

After letting it cool, I was ready to sew!
Such a beautiful Ariel!

...to be continued.

I have a bit more sewing to do on this quilt and then I'll share it.

Just a little lot excited about it!

Celebrating Friendship With ThermOWeb

I'm over at Therm O Web's blog today sharing what I made using

Heat n Bond EZ Print Transfer Sheets. 

Transfer sheets aren't just for ironing a decal on a t-shirt like we did in the olden days. 

Print off a quote and a graphic and you can personalize almost anything.

They are so fun and easy to use...I loved them and can't wait to use them again!

You can find the instructions HERE in my Craftsy store.

Celebrate Friendship!

"A true friend ignores your weeds and loves your flowers."

My friend, Brenda, has ignored my weeds for over 30 years.

Thanks, Brenda!

Some Valentine Quilt Sewing Happening Here

With the Nuts About ? Blog Hop coming soon, I've been busy creating ideas in my head

and finally sewing something together. I can tell you it will be a Valentine quilt, but I can't tell 

you what I'm nuts about or show you what I'm sewing for the hop. Not until February 5th anyway.

Besides, I'm nuts about too many things to list them all here!

I can show you a little snippet, though.

I'm using First Crush by Sweetwater for Moda fabrics. Such fun fabrics!

I bought them at Quilted Works...one of my favorite local stores.

 Appliqueing those hearts with Therm-O-Web's Heat N Bond Lite adhesive

was just the best ever. I love how the back peels off so easy!

I've also started gathering fabrics for In My Garden Blog Hop. I'll be using fabrics

from the Riley Blake basics. I'm going with some funky colors for this project. Fun!

As for the weather...

We had about 10 flakes of snow here (okay, maybe a few more) but nothing stuck to the ground.

Guess I won't be building a snowman today so I'll go sew. Sounds good to me!

The Little Lamb Is Off To Be Quilted

My little lamb quilt is completed enough to be quilted with cute little daisies. 

The back will be a bright green cuddle fabric...soft and sweet!

It still needs some added hexagon things on top of the hexagons,

but those can be hand sewn on after the quilting is done.

Deonn's pattern offers a second pose of the sheep and a different facial expression.

I chose the second face and used my therm-o-web Heat n Bond to do the applique.
I love how easy it is to use!


You can make Deonn's pattern from Quiltmaker...you can find it HERE in her Etsy shop.

I've been busy getting creating a couple blocks for the "In Our Garden" blog hop.
My turn is February 1st...I'm so excited to share what I created!

A Little Quilt Retreat With Deonn

I've been a bit lazy about sewing lately, but today I went to a quilt retreat where

Deonn from Quiltscapes was teaching. We sewed from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m....I'm exhausted!

Deonn had us sewing half hexies and making some little origami looking things.

She's so patient and was even willing to use the ripper to fix a few a lot of my mistakes!

The class was for Deonn's cute sheep quilt that was published in Quiltmaker.

Cute, cute, cute...just like Deonn!

Phone cameras aren't the best, especially mine, but being with this sweet lady was

worth taking a picture about. She was fun and I learned so many things. Thanks, Deonn!

I still need to finish the quilt, but it's close to being done. Love it!