Apron is done!

I finished my apron tonight and it was super simple! I love this pattern and it went together so fast. It's called Pocket Apron by Vanilla House Designs. I made the one with the sunflowers, but didn't put the little loops on it and only made 3 pockets so that I wouldn't disturb the panel. I used the Sharon Schambers method of binding and I think I'm a new fan! Wow, it was super simple, way cheaper, and turned out wonderfully. I had this done in under 3 hours, start to finish and I hand sewed all the binding down.

October Quilting Accomplishments

October was good to me! I feel like I got a lot accomplished and yet I only had 3 days off workall month, so I was busy too. I quilted 101 hours in October! There was only one day I didn't do any quilting, because I worked and then went to my parents house.

I finished most of the things on my October Quilting list or at least worked on them, so I'm proud of myself.

October Quilting List
Boxers/Pillowcase for Ed - DONE
Pillowcase for FQHR - DONE
2 Crown Royal Pillows for Hunters - DONE
Finish 2 Miranda bags - DONE
~ Turned mini Miranda into another purse - DONE
Finish wall hanging for living room - DONE
~ Ended up making 2 wall hangings - both DONE
Finish backing for happy hour quilt and quilt - working on backing, about half done with piecing!
Make Brown Charm Tote bag - DONE
Finish Molly's bib - DONE
Make Pheasant Wall hanging
Make Apron for Tie One on Day - DONE
Make Wolf Wall hanging - Traced and Ironed on Applique pieces, need to be cut out
Help MIL finish Jungle Fever - DONE!
Make Aunt Eva's Quilt with MIL
Make Crown Royal Quilts - Fabric Purchased and ready to start
Quilt Mom's Garden Lattis Quilt - DONE
Quilt Mom's starry night quilt - not a top priority - need to take out pin basting.

Other Accomplishments:
Wonder Wallets for Demo
Visited Badlands Quilting
Bought New Sewing Machine - Marie a JN3050DC!
Wrote Bias Binding Tutorial
Started My Old Quilts Series
Wonder Wallet, Checkbook cover, and Giftcard Holder
Received more Crown Royal bags from the hunters
Wrote my Christmas gift list - now to get it all done!

My November Goals aren't quite as lofty, but I do hope to get them all done or at least a good start.
- Paul's Wolf Wall Hanging
- Finish backing for Happy Hour, Quilt and Bind
- Pheasant Wall Hanging
- Two Deer Head Pillows
- Courier Bag Class
- Crazy Eights Table Topper Class
- Aunt Eva's Quilt w/MIL
- Two or Three Crown Royal Quilts
- Bounce Ball
- PJ Pants for Little Bro
- Mom and Me Loralie Design Quilts

That should keep me busy through November! Next weekend is Hunter's Widow Weekend and mom and I planning a quilt retreat. We are both making Loralie Design Quilts. We don't have a pattern yet, but we're going to make the tops next weekend. We both have Sun. & Mon. off so it'll be a nice long weekend. Paul will be spending the whole first week of hunting season with my little brother, so I'll have lots of sewing time! I'm really looking forward to this little break and lots of quilting time.

Wonder Wallets

I've made a lot of these wonder wallets over the years. I could probably do them with my eyes closed and they would turn out great. I made these two to show as my finished product and have three more in various stages of completion for my demo this weekend.

I'm creating...

Last night I sewed with the girls again. We had a great time and I was busy getting my Sunday Sewcial demo ready. I have 5 wallets at various stages of completion, so I'll be able to show how to make one start to finish. I was going to work on the Crown Royal quilts, honestly I was... I drug all the stuff there to work on them, but in the end I went out on a whim. I started a really awesome apron with the Bistro by Deb Strain line by Moda. These are the fabrics I'm using. The first is the background, the second the binding and tie, and the third I fussy cut for the pockets.I think it will turn out so cute! I'm hoping to have it done by Saturday, but we'll have to see. Part way through there is binding to be sewn down. So I stopped last night and I'm going to do it at lunch today. I've discovered I really don't mind binding as much as I thought I did. I bought a Nimble Thimble and my middle finger thanks me. I also bought some really sharp Milliners needles which help tremendously. So I'll have part of the binding done and be ready to sew the rest of the apron together tonight.
I had a great visit with a new lady who was at Wind Up last night. She's about my age and we really got along well. She's making her first quilt and doing a great job.

I Won!

Last week I signed up for a drawing for a new pattern from Anka's Treasures by Heather Mulder Peterson. I found out I won and yesterday in the mail I got it. I won the Little Charmers 5 pattern. It has several tablerunners on it. I look forward to making one of these some day. Thanks Heather!

Uncle Tom's Wall Hanging

For Christmas 2005 I made everyone something. My uncle received this quilted wall hanging made from scraps of Paul's quilt. I finished it before I finished the quilt. I made this in December 2005. It's fairly small so they could hang it in their camper when they go fishing.

My "Beginning Quilting" Class

In September 2005 I finally settled into my new home in Black Hawk, my new job, and finally felt a little stablility in my life after three months of living out of a suitcase. I took a beginning quilt class at the Sewing Center taught by Tammy. As stubborn as I am, I still learned a ton during this class. She's very flexible and doesn't say you can't do something. She teaches the way she does stuff and then various other ways to accomplish the same task. This was 5 week class to make the Double Irish Chain. I had the fabric from my high school days when I was going to redecorate my room in turquoise and pink, so I used the fabric to make this twin size quilt. I'm still very pleased with how it turned out. My MIL would love to have this quilt, but since it's my first quilt class quilt, I don't want to part with it.

A close up shows how I quilted through the pink and in the blocks.

The border and binding:

Jon & Nich's Wedding Present

My college roommate Nich got married on Oct. 1, 2005 to Jon another friend from college. I was a bridesmaid in their wedding. She absolutely loves the fall so their colors were reflective of autumn. I used a marroon (wedding color) and a silver lame. I put black interfacing on the lame and it worked great. I used their engagement picture and printed the name and date.

Nothing to show for all that work!

I have nothing to show for all the sewing I've done since I finished the bag on Fri. night. Sat. I worked and was pretty exhausted, so I vegged on the couch and watched TV. Sunday the wind was blowing 70 MPH so it was a good day to stay home and sew. Instead I cleaned out my closet and did a bunch of cleaning. I finally got down to my studio and started working on piecing a back for my happy hour quilt. I need to piece enough pieces to make about 45"x110" worth of backing. I think I got 5 5"x110: strips done before I quit for the night. I have two more almost done, but I was too tired to sew them together. That only gives me about 25" more to go. It's just so boring to sew these leftover purple pieces together to make the quilt backing, but I will get it done! I would really like to be able to put the quilt on the frame this coming weekend.
Last night hubby and I watched Dancing with the Stars, but I like to have something to do while I watch, so I finished tracing out the pieces of the wolf wall hanging I'm making for Paul. I'm sure it will turn out really cool, but it's a ton of tiny pieces to trace and then when I finished tracing, I decided to start ironing them to fabric. Once I started I didn't want to stop, but it was really late. I can tell this wall hanging will be a test of my patience. I have all the little pieces spread out all over the ironing board. I should have finished one project before starting another!

SDSU Commission T-Shirt Quilt

One of my friends had seen the 4-H quilt I made for another friend and she wanted one of her SDSU t-shirts, so her parents had me make it for her wedding. I was also making her something for the wedding and I was in the wedding, so I had to work really hard to get this one done. I chose yellow and blue fabrics as those were SDSU's colors. I really wish I had gone with a more golden yellow as the yellow I used was a little bright. I also wish I had done a blue border before the yellow to kind of separate the yellow, but every quilt is an experience and I learned from it. I quilted X's in the squares and decorative stitch in the border. (Are you starting to see how much I love decorative stitches??)

Collegiate 4-H Quilt

During the summer of 2005, in the small confines of my dorm room at Mt. Rushmore I made this t-shirt quilt from the leftover scraps of my commission quilt. I had a bunch of t-shirts that I had collected while I was in Collegiate 4-H and I put them into a quilt. It turned out twin size as that was all the fabric that I had. Below are a couple different angles on it. I quilted it with lines through the center of each block and a decorative stitch around the border.

Jan's Quilt as You Go Table Runner

Back in the day, okay not that long ago, but July 2005 just seems like so long ago now! I took a class on quilt as you go. My mom taught the class and I just happened to have the night off, so I could go. I was living at the dorms at Mt. Rushmore and was really into RWB. I also sewed in my dorm which was very unheard of with a bunch of college kids. I'm one who likes to go to a class and get the project completed. I don't want UFO's, so I worked my rear off to get this done in the 3 hour class. I got it all the way to the binding stage, but the class was over. I got home about 9:30 and stayed up until the binding was sewn on. I didn't have any particular person I was making it for, just using up my scraps and taking the class. My dorm mom was the greatest and I decided she needed it. She was so pleased that I had made it for her. I still absolutely love the stitch I used on the binding and my 6600 didn't have that one, so I'm thrilled to have my 3050 back so I can use this stitch. I used to have RWB scraps, but I used them all up, so I had to beg and borrow off mom to finish my latest project. It's completely done, label included now, so I just have to get it ready to ship. I'm so thrilled to have it completed.

Moneik's Bias Binding Tutorial

When I first started quilting I made a scalloped edged table topper that required bias binding. At that time my mom taught me how to do bias binding, but I would only do it when she was around to help me. A year ago my brother got married and I needed (wanted) to do a bias binding on their wedding quilt so the strip would go diagonally on the binding, but mom wasn't around and it had to be done, so I did it myself and it turned out great. Now I've done bias binding a few times with her tried and true method and I don't mind it a bit.
Here's how mom and I make bias binding:
We use "The Quilter's Pocket Reference" An Easy Guide to Yardage and More by Peggy Schoolley. We refer to it as the Quilter's Bible because we use it so much. It's the little one with the turquoise cover. On page 24-25 it gives the size of square to make the amount you need. I needed 90" and I used a 2 1/2" binding, so my square was 16" I mark two x's on the top and two on the bottom as you see in the next two photos.



Cut the square diagonally from the upper left hand corner to bottom right.


Then take the bottom piece and fold up to the top. The X's are now together on the inside, right sides together. Offset the bottom piece (now on top) by 1/4" to the right which allows for the seam allowance.

I pin and then sew at a 1/4" to join the two pieces. I've marked where the X's are on the right sides, so you can which side to sew the 1/4" seam.

Then press the seam to one side or open, which ever you prefer. On the longest side, I use the rotary cutter and cut every 2 1/2". In this case I marked the lines, so you can see where I'm cutting. I do have an inch left, but leave it for now. I don't cut to the end, just an inch or so from the end.



Here's my approximately 1/2 to 1" left uncut at the end.

Here's all the binding cut and ready to sew. At this point, cut the extra piece off. (1" in my case"

I then shift if to one side to match up with the next piece. If you are attaching to itself and just have loops, it's wrong. It has to be off set and will cause these twisted loops.

At this point with the 1/4" seam sewn, you can see that there is about 2" to clip. At this point I either use a shears or rotary cutter to cut the little pieces.




I quick cut with the shears and my binding is done.

Here's the binding. You can see how I layed it so you can see the stretch of the bias in it. There are two seams in it which are in a trapezoid shape. Not sure it you can see the seams, but they are there.

Here's my 90" of bias binding.

Here's the binding on the top and bottom of my new bag. I had just enough! It's always better to make more than you need! I love that you can use a fat quarter to get a lot of binding made.


Hopefully someone will benefit from this tutorial. Let me know if you have any questions or want more clarification. Happy Bias Binding!

My project of the week

This has been my project for the last week. I started it last Thurs. night at sewing wind up round up. I had received this awesome charm pack and was looking for the perfect pattern to use them in. I ended up using a buggybarn print for the lining and handles. It's the Pattern My Mom and Me. I made the large size. It's an easy pattern, except for the bottom which is rounded ( I would have just done square corners), but I followed the pattern and it called for bias binding. Since I'm okay doing the bias binding, I decided to use the oval bottom.

This Thursday night I finished putting the bag together, except for the binding. I decided I wanted to do a bias binding tutorial. Last night we stayed in and Paul cooked Manicotti which gave me a couple hours to sew before supper. I made the binding and put it on and then while we watched a movie, I hand sewed it down. It's now finished except for the button to close it, which I haven't picked up now.

It's so big that my Miranda bag fits inside it and there is extra room on top! I love the colors in this and it's super special to me since Jen sent the charms.