Life Just Has A Way Of Moving You On….

So now I’m in the custom embroidery, iPad, iPhone, Totebag, Sandwich Bag business….Things change & the quilts I’ve been working on, or planning are going to be staying put for the next while. I’ve opened an Etsy shop – GetPersonalEtc.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/GetPersonalEtc

I have a modest collection of nice things you may like…they’re certainly not in the quilty world I was entering, but you might find useful or fun or a nice gift for someone.

I am happy to do custom work, and you can feel free to ‘convo’ me on Etsy.

So, until I get back here with some quilty goodness, I’ll look forward to seeing you on Etsy!

 

Look What Arrived In The Post!

I commented on kellymcmichael.wordpress.com/ blog the other day & won the freebie she was offering. Today the postman delivered this….

Living The Creative Life

The slender volume is ‘Living The Creative Life’ by Rice Freeman-Zachery. It’s packed with photos of various artist’s work, quotes & interviews, tips & a whole lot more. It’s a book to read in snippets, and savor like a nice box of chocolates!

Not only was she nice enough to send this entertaining & thought-provoking book, but she ‘jazzed up’ the functional but plain manila envelope she sent it in!!  Thank you so much, Kelly, for your inspirational gift!

Sewing In My Jammy Pants…The BEST!

Friday I went down to the boat, intending on being productive. Well, that was just not to be. It was cold & looked like rain. I hosed down the decks & the cockpit, and then went down below, put on my Jammy Pants & vegged with a book. Dinner & some TV &  a read in bed was it for the night.

Hawaiian Floral Quilt

Saturday dawned cold & windy, so still in those snuggy fleece Jammy Pants, I spent the day working on this summery, Hawaiian flowered quilt.

Jammy Pants

I have just one more row to do for the main squares (ran short of the dark green). Then I’ll figure how to border it, perhaps increasing the length somewhat.

As you can see, my little mates were not big on active helping either…snoozing was  pretty much it for them.

Bos'n Lucy

1st Mate Molly

That’s about it for now…Happy Sewing!

Yep..Recycling Is The ‘IN’ Thing

Our mothers and grandmothers always looked for ways to recycle. It wasn’t that it was an ‘in’ thing…it was just a way of life…’making ends meet’.

Recycling

‘Making do’.  We’ve become such a disposable society here that for a good long while, no one thought much of recycling. Then a number of years ago, folks decided that the landfills were getting filled up. And the oceans are being ruined with non biodegradable  products.  So recycling has once again started to become a way of life for many. 

Now, when George brought down a shirt that he decided he no longer wanted, my 1st response was to put it in a bag to donate. Yes, that’s a good thing to do, but then I thought. I’d had in the back of my mind to pick up some very inexpensive fabric that I could use for the backing squares for a string quilt and/or a crazy quilt (I’ve been accumulating selvage strips & lots of small pieces). Then I thought…heh, his off-white broadcloth shirt would cut up NICE for backing squares!! So, off it went to the sewing room & was quickly cut up into 8″ squares.  I appease myself for not donating it by the fact that it WAS fairly worn and there may have been a stain or 2 on it.

At any rate, I now have my backing squares at no cost. Gramma knew best…make do.

A New GiveAway!!!

Lana, over at at ‘It Seams To Be Sew’ is having a giveaway for a

HONEY BUN

 from Blackbird Designs

called

BEACH HOUSE

for Moda…

 

The drawing

is

Monday,
September 27th!!! 

you can enter here:

http://itseamstobesew.blogspot.com/search/label/giveaway

Organizing My Stash

I have come to the conclusion that clear bins are NOT the way to store your stash. You have to unstack them off the shelves, open them, remove the contents, REPEAT for all bins, to go thru what you have, what might look good together, etc.  in order to utilize what you have. It’s just easier to go out & buy more!!!   

I’ve seen people neatly fold their fabric on shelves, but I know myself & will end up with a disheveled mess.  I’ve seen the Fabric Organizers that several companies offer. But I’m just a bit too frugal to pay for rectangular pieces of plastic or paper board. 

So I’ve been cutting cardboard squares approx 5″x6-1/2″. 

cardboard For Fabric Organizer

 

I then fold the fabric, slide a piece of cardboard into it, fold the fabric around it, and pin it in the corner … rubber bands stretch or get brittle so I decided on a straight pin. 

Making A Mini-Bolt 1

Making A Mini-Bolt 2

Making A Mini-Bolt 3

Making A Mini-Bolt 4

I have a bunch of cardboard bins from the warehouse  to stand the fabric mini-bolts up in on shelves in my closet. (I have a REAL small room..approx 7’x11′) 

Mini-Bolts In Cardboard Bins

So now I can see at a glance what I have…what a nice feeling it is to see it all at once. I’ve gotten 7 bins done, and am almost finished…maybe only 1 or 2 more bins to go.  These are useful for sizes from a fat quarter up to about a yard. The multiple yard fabrics will just have to stay folded in plastic  bins, but I don’t have too many of those. 

Dessert Course

Do you see this ungodly combination of foods?  From top right, going clockwise: 

• Chocolate ice cream, peach ice cream, garnished with pineapple chunks
• Watermelon
• Banana pudding
• Mussels
• Crablegs

This was my dear George’s final course at the Chinese Buffet we ate at last night! It was just so wrong…I HAD to post a pic. 

But he DID get an absolutely great fortune in his fortune cookie: 

Life is not a problem to be solved, but rather a mystery to be lived.

I think this may just be my new personal anthem! It’s a pretty good way to look at life, I think!

Quicky Quilt Donation

Lime Blue Red Patchwork Quilt

The last week before Labor Day weekend I had an idea to make a quilt to donate to our Boat Club to raffle off. Our club was holding a Gyro & Snow Cone sale. And our locale is adjacent to a great little park on the shores of Lake Erie, from which many come to watch the Air Show. 

So I cobbled together a small (46″x48″) quilt from my stash & had it done for the event. I did the cutting & sewing the top on the boat with my Singer Genie and took it home to put together & quilt on my Brother 4500D.

Quilt Back

I hand embroidered on the front corner a little.

Whiskey Island Boat Club 2010

Everyone was pleased with my donation & one of our marina neighbors won the quilt. 

I wasn’t able to get many (or ANY) good pics from the air show. But here’s one of the Blue Angels passing in front of our marina. 

Cleveland Air Show 2010 Whisky Island

So summer is pretty  much officially over for us here in Cleveland. And it’ll be time to close up the boat in the next month or so.  But at least that’ll mean I have more sewing time available!! Life’s always a trade-off!

YOUR IPHONE IS MORE THAN JUST…..

I’ve had my iPhone for a number of monthes & I absolutely LOVE it! I just found some Apps that I’d like to share with those among you who use an iPhone or iTouch or iPad and who are of the crafty quilty type!

Fabric Stash by Blueshift Software is really a cool app for collecting all your stash. I’m planning on getting this one!

FABRIC STASH

I don’t carry a purse, so it’s a hassle to carry around samples of fabrics I’m looking for other fabrics to go with. With this, I’ll be able to have my whole stash right in my pocket!

Description

With FabricStash you can keep your entire stash, no matter how big, in the palm of your hand. It’s easy, just snap a photo of your fabric, enter as many details as you’d like, and you’re ready to go! With fabric stash you can:

-Match old fabrics with new using large, full color photos- no more carrying fabric samples while shop-hopping.

-Create project lists, allowing for easy access to a list of the fabrics you’ve gathered for your next project, or used in past projects.

– Organize and view your stash by color, style, manufacturer, line or project.

-Keep track of exactly how much of a fabric you have.

-Make a wish list of fabrics you’d like to obtain in the future.

-Enter custom category names and notes about your fabrics.

– Save money- no more duplicate purchases.

Fully customizable, FabricStash can be personalized in many ways to fit your individual needs. FabricStash is also smart, if you’ve entered a custom description before, it will remember it for later use.

QUICK N’ EASY BLOCK  TOOL

Description

102 Rotary-Cut Quilt Blocks in 5 Sizes
Simple Cutting Charts
Helpful Reference Tables

C&T Publishing unveils a new era in quiltmaking with the Quick & Easy Quilt Block Tool, an innovative application for planning quilt blocks!

This application features rotary-cutting directions for over 500 options for making traditional quilt blocks, plus bonus reference tables every quilter needs.

The Quick & Easy Quilt Block Tool is so useful, versatile, and portable, you’ll wonder how you ever lived without it!

• 102 most-popular pieced blocks in 5 sizes each, with design details and construction diagrams

• Find cutting instructions at your fingertips with our quick and easy rotary-cutting charts and indexes!

• Helpful reference tables, such as yardage requirements, diagonal measurements, and more

• User-friendly instructions and a complete block index and grid index

• It’s the ultimate no-math reference guide for quilters!

• Create your own index of favorites

• Zoom in on piecing diagrams for crystal clear viewing

QUILT ENVI

Description

A giant collection of cozy quilts, in your pocket! Quilt Envi brings lovely quilt photos straight from the worldwide web to your iPhone, along with in-depth information on patterns, designers and shows. It’s a visual tour of homespun style, expert craftsmanship and gentle living.

From antique 18th century American quilts, to Amish and Mennonite designs, to art quilts and crazy designs you’ve never thought of, Quilt Envi displays Web-based quilt photos the way you would expect on the iPhone: full screen, with multi-touch controls, in automated slide shows or scrolling image arrays. Old-fashioned and modern styles, designers, apparel, silks and wool. Traditional patterns like Baby Blocks, Baskets, Friendship, Hearts and Flowers, Log Cabin, and Wedding Knot, as well as some not-so-traditional ones. Quilt Envi brings them all from the Web to you, organized by age, place of origin and designer.

Quilt Envi is also more than just a bunch of pretty pictures. It includes access to Web-based information on popular patterns, expert designers and an assortment of festivals and shows, as well as the different styles of quilts. And you can add even more in-depth collections on other fun topics from the app itself.

Please also check out our other Envi apps, all based on the acclaimed iEnvision Web-image browser. Classic and modern art and architecture, hot sports cars and motorcycles, cool haircuts, outer space from planet Earth to the furthest reaches of the Hubble, the great outdoors, and lots of just plain fun. There’s an Envi app for that!

QUILT FAB

QuiltFab 3.0 is now available in the App Store and will do even more to help you determine how much fabric you need for some common backing, binding, border, and sashing fabric choices and construction methods for making quilts. The following new features are available.

Borders:
The border feature has been expanded to include a couple new options, including pieced borders and a second border. The borders can be mitered or finished square. A mitered border, with the ends of each strip finished at an angle, requires more fabric. Other border options, including more than 2 borders, are beyond the scope of this tool.

If you are willing to piece the borders, we assume you will cut the border
strips on the crosswise grain, selvage to selvage. If you request unpieced borders, then the strips will be cut from lengths of fabric (parallel to the selvages). If you have directional prints, or want to center or match repeating motifs, additional fabric will be needed.

Blocks:
Plain blocks are often used as alternate blocks, or are used to make setting triangles. Within this tool, the number of blocks and their size do not need to “fit” into the quilt in any way: they are independent of the other details of your quilt project.

Sashing:
A quilt design may use sashing strips to separate the blocks within the quilt. Although these sashing strips may be cut and sewn to the sides of the individual blocks, still the amount of fabric required is only slightly less than if they were used as long strips, running horizontally and vertically across the quilt, up to, but not extending into any borders. This tool will determine the fabric needed for the long strips.

BLOCK FAB

BlockFab is a free fabric calculator utility application for the Apple iPhone and iPod touch, available on the Apple App Store as BlockFab [App Store link].

BlockFab is not a quilt design app. However, it will let you quickly see the results of various design, color, and layout possibilities. And if you already have a pattern you like but you want to customize it by changing the size or number of blocks or by adding a pieced border, BlockFab will calculate the fabric required.

Choose from a small library of about 50 grid-based blocks, or from a library of patch shapes commonly used by quilters. Then choose the number and size of blocks or patches. BlockFab will determine the amount of fabric you need to buy, and will give you some hints on cutting out the blocks or patches, based on the cutting assumptions used for calculating the fabric needed. Both English and metric units of measure are supported.

Not ready to make those blocks, but just want to dream and plan? You can play around with the blocks in sample layouts while varying colorways, layout styles, number of blocks, and pairing of blocks. With just a flick, tap, pinch, or twist, you can view thousands of variations. Simply follow the blue arrows.

You can mail a copy of the yardage needs so you will have a record of the fabric for this set of blocks.

When you leave the application, your latest block and fabric choices will be saved, and this information will appear the next time you use the application. Thus you can customize BlockFab to use your own preferred fabric and quilting methods.

If you know of any more quilting apps…let me know!!! I’m always looking for ways to have more fun with my little friend, Mr. iPhone!!

Disclaimer: I haven’t actually used any of these. I was just searching & found them. If they’re good, GREAT, if they’re not to your liking, I’m sorry, but I just wanted to let you know what’s out there.

Fat Quarter Give-Away!!

 

This is a VERY nice giveaway from Jaybird Quilts:

 sponsored giveaway: featuring The Fat Quarter Shop

It’s for a fat quarter bundle of the entire collection of Pure by Sweetwater! That’s 37 fat quarters!!!  How awesome is THAT!!!  Hurry over…deadline is Thursday nite!

Fun With 4 Patch

Saturday, after I got done hosing down the deck on S/V Outrageous & doing ‘bug spot removal’ with bleach in the cockpit, I decided to sew up the 2″ squares I’d purchased recently. I paired them with a small dark blue & just started cutting & sewing.

You’ll notice, I’m sure, that this is not what one might call a big cutting surface. Ergo…itty bitty stuff. Any major cutting I have to do at home & bring along with to sew here. When we finally move aboard, I’ll have larger, but for now, this is fine. I’m here for weekends & usually sew a few hours if it’s rainy or too hot & humid or I just want a quiet moment. So there’s no need for a full set of equipment.

I sew at the salon table, and normally iron on the bed in our cabin.  Flat space & electric outlets are not in abundance.

But since I’d have SOOO many things to iron, I moved my boards out into the galley & ironed there. Lucy is usually on the settee next to me, while Molly prefers to lie on the floor near my feet.

My Cute Little Iron

I love my little iron…it really heats up well. I iron dry & use a spray bottle…I steam my fingers WAY too often. At this point, since it’s such a casual summer situation, I’m using a towel covered wooden board for my ‘ironing board’ & use it’s mate as a flat surface to rest my iron & water bottle upon. (They’re actually sink covers, used to extend my kitchen counter by covering the 2 small sinks in the galley.) When this life becomes a reality, I’ll have a proper cutting surface & ironing board.

This is on the counter in the galley…on top of the top loading refrigerator.  This model also has a door in the front, so you can use the frig and the counter at the same time.

Not real sure what to do with these..saw where someone had used small pateches for a circular center of a quilt…I’m thinkin’ maybe…..we’ll see.

It was just so humid here this weekend. Mid 80’s for both the temp & the humidity index, I do believe. And not near enough wind to go sailing. So we were marina bound. BUT…there was a ‘Toga Party’ hosted by our boat club. No, I didn’t wear a toga. But I DID win the 50/50 raffle…$84!!