Sewing fabric scraps to adding machine foundation paper

This video is part of my Scraps - everyone's got them series over on my YouTube channel.  In this video I show you how I like to sew some of my fabric scraps to adding machine tape. In a later video I'll show you how I use those scraps to make quilt blocks, borders, and other projects.

TTMT #7 A finish

My Talk To Me Tuesday video is a short one this week. After you watch the video scroll down to see some of the pics from my little photo shoot.

I don't remember when I started this Christmas zig-zag quilt but I would bet it's been a wip for over 6 years. I've actually been enjoying working through my pile of wips this year. 

This lap quilt measures about 38" x 46". I started the top way back when everyone was going crazy using HSTs to make zig zag quilts the quick and easy way.

Miss S'mores is checking out how I did the quilting. I knew I wanted some straight line quilting to accent the zig zags bit I didn't want straight lines for the white sections. I went with some simple free motion swirls in the white and 5 straight lines in zig zags.

S'mores loves the pieced back. Part of the Year of WiPs is using what I have so I find myself having to piece backs often. I like an interesting back and this is a good way to rotate stash. Use what you have and you can buy more, right?

close up shot

Most requested baby shower gift

My older two kids have friends and coworkers who are pregnant. I think there are three new babies joining the world soon.  These burp cloths have become a requested item. I don't mind because they are so easy and quick to make.

I saved these two for my future grand-baby hope chest. I love those pirate kitties and the strawberry kiwi fabric just makes me smile.







Once again I just pulled lots of fabrics and went crazy and ended up with 27 burpees. I like to give 5 to the new mommas. That leaves me extras for the next run of babies.

TTMT #6 Flimsy, quilting, sock knitting

This week's episode of Talk To Me Tuesday for Tuesday, August 22, 2017

There were lots of errands and chores last week so I wasn't quite as productive but I am happy with what I accomplished with the little time I had. I am just thrilled that the MQAL I joined is close to wrapping up. If y'all hear me talking about joining another mystery quilt along someone please give me a swift kick in the butt. I'll stick to the one or two blocks a month style of mystery and leave the whole quilt type to the Bonnie Hunter fans. I can't handle the stress lol.

Robbie's graduation quilt

A few weeks before my youngest graduated high school earlier this year I thought how fun would it be to take his old shirts and make him a quilt. I can get it done before he graduates. Sure, you keep thinking that Robin. haha.

Back in middle school Robbie fell in love with plaid shorts and shirts. He wore them year round. Short sleeve shirts and shorts in the warm months and long sleeve with a tshirt and jeans when it got cold. His friends started calling him Plaid in middle school and the nickname just stuck.

Miss Whiskers knows that the quilt is for her boy so she kept laying on it whenever I was working on it. I love the look of diagonal line quilting with rail fence style quilts. This is my first time diagonal quilting and it took forever and used a ton of thread. I don't remember the measurements but I think it's around 84" x 96" give or take a couple inches either way. Robbie is 6' 4" I believe so I wanted it nice and long. Totally worth the trouble though. I figured with the diagonal quilting if any of the shirts started to fray it will be contained.

I made a video while I was cutting up the shirts. For the front I decided to use Mary Quilts Forest Brick pattern. It's a favorite of mine.

For the back I used some of the leftover fabric from the cut up shirts and other scraps that I had laying around. I tried to stick with things that represent Robbie. He loves blue so there's some dark blue strips of fabric back there. I like to add any leftover blocks from the front. The burgundy and gold strip is part shirt and the gold is a fabric that represents some pants that he wore all the time.  Put together it reminds me of Harry Potter and Gryffindor colors. Harry Potter is a part of most kid's lives nowadays.

Here's my helper again. I feel like she's glaring at me and saying something like "don't you dare touch my boy's quilt". Silly kitty.

I found the perfect plaid fabric in my stash for the binding although I did go a little overboard when cutting. That's the leftovers. I didn't bother measuring the quilt and just went ahead and cut up all the fabric. The extra will go in my binding container.

This is the first quilt I used my new binding foot on and it worked rather well. Just like anything else there's a learning curve. It takes a bit of practice so if you try one maybe use it on placemats or wall hangings first.

Fabric storage - the latest edition

Over the years I have stored my fabric in a variety of ways. I've never really found a way that works for me until recently.

Prior to the latest change I was wrapping the fabric around comic boards (too flimsy), or foam core board cut to size (too much work). Then I switched mostly to cardboard. I was cutting up medium flat rate postal boxes and that was working well for the most part. The problem I had was the cardboard took up space on the shelves. Each mini bolt was only a few inches wide so I ended up having to rows of mini bolts on each shelf. Of course I couldn't see what was behind the first row.

Then I came across a video showing how to use your 6" x 24" quilting ruler to fold your fabric. Brilliant! The above picture shows one shelf of double rows neatly folded. That leaves me a lot of breathing room or room to buy more fabric.

Miss Mocha likes this new fabric storage too. The bottom shelf has denim, faux leather, wool, etc. I've since added an old sheet to cover all the fabric on the bottom shelf so it doesn't collect kitty fur. Also, don't look too closely at my floor. This used to be Robbie's bedroom and it had those sticky linoleum tiles and most of them have become unstuck. I'm not 100% sure what I will be doing with the floor but for now I have these garage floor foam padding tiles layed down where I iron and cut. I have an area rug for my sewing area and desk.

Here is the finished bookcase. I have the fabric in groupings like holidays, novelty, solids, and the fabric that is only for projects for me and not the shop or friends. I can easily see what I have and I can find a fabric so fast now. If I want to make a fish quilt I can see at a glance if I have enough fish fabric or if I need to order some. It only took me two days to sort and refold and that wasn't even full days working on it. I think this is going to work for me for the long term. 

Beaded skull brooch

Over the years I have collected beads, buttons, and other little bits and pieces. Sometimes I've used them in projects but mostly I've just collected them. I don't have much, it all mostly fits in one of those Christmas cookie tins but I want more :)

I've always had this idea in my head that I could combine embroidery floss, sequins, and beads to "paint" a picture. Like everything else that we crafters think is "new" it's been done. Search bead embroidery on Google or Pinterest but don't blame me if you get lost in the time suck ;)

A few weeks ago (I have so much to get y'all caught up on) I felt drawn to try bead embroidery. I've been watching as many videos as I could find on YouTube and just had to play.

So I made a black and red beaded brooch with a mini skull accent. I learned a lot with this piece. The main thing is almost anything can be fixed by just stitching on some more beads.  When all the tutorials tell you it is best to add the beads only 2 at a time it's best to listen. I'm one of those people that is willing to do as you tell me but I need to understand why. Nobody said why I should only add two beads at a time until I watched a video yesterday. The reason you only stitch 2 beads at a time is so that they lay flat. BAM! That makes sense and will make my next project even better because there will be more. Many more.  Have you looked at beads and beading  supplies lately? All the colors and variety are just gorgeous. Good thing beads don't take up much space and overall they're not very expensive.

The back is a piece of suede with a pin back. My back is cupped a little so I'll need to figure out why. I didn't pull the beading thread too tight so that's not it. Maybe it's just that I need to put something on top of it while it dries so it flattens out. I guess I'll just have to make more beaded embroidery pieces to figure it out. Darn. lol

Mystery quilt along

Over on Quilting Around the World  I lost my mind and joined a mystery quilt along.  I say I lost my mind because I do not like mystery quilts generally. I already have a hard time choosing colors and fabric placement so when you add in the fact that I don't know what the end quilt will look like it gets very hard for me. For this mystery QAL we are secret agents, I am 006, and we're supposed to interview witnesses (pick fabrics) and arrest suspects (make blocks), etc. So I joined.

So each week I have been cutting fabrics and sewing them together as directed.















We made lots and  lots of 3.5" hsts.

We made lots of 4 patches and these blocks where you stitch 2 rectangles together. Then we were told to stitch some of the hsts to the stacked rectangle mini blocks but not all of them.

The triangle in a square I had to paper piece because there was no way I was going to get those triangles cut and sewn together and have them be the right size. This kind of paper piecing I don't mind. It's only three pieces of fabric so it was easy. I think I made 72 of these.

Then we all got stuck on these blocks. It took a couple blog posts and a video or two to get these figured out.

Mystery quilts are hard enough but I think this was the first time our leader headed up a mystery QAL. Or the blog/website she got the info from didn't do a very good job with the directions. With each clue there seems to be a little bit of info missing that would make things easier. Little things like finished block size. It's helpful to know what size to square up each block. Some I could guess or figure out on my own but the triangle in a square or that square in a hst? I need all the numbers lol. I know how hard it is to keep 50 or 60 quilters corralled so I'm honestly not complaining. I'm just grumbling cuz I know better than to participate in this kind of mystery quilt.  No matter, I'm sure I will love it when it's done.

Hocuspocusville block 9

I finished the main embroidery on block 9 of Hocuspocusville by Crapapple Hill Studios. As you can see I still haven't purchased the glow in the dark thread for the signs and pumpkin eyes. I'll probably wait until the blocks are mostly done before I go out and buy more floss. That way if I need more Halloween colored floss I can pick that up at the same time. The less time I spend in a craft store the less money I can spend, right? I'm still enjoying working on these and that's a good thing since there are 12 blocks and I'm on number three. I like having a long term project like this because there's no pressure to get it finished right now. It's definitely not for Halloween this year and who knows if it will be done for 2018. Creating should be enjoyable and not always full of pressure to finish.