Barn Charm - At The Buggy Barn

Back in early October, I went on my very first quilt shop shop around North Central Washington. One of my stops was at the Buggy Barn where I spotted this little cutie with the quilt block pattern on the side.

At the Buggy Barn - Reardon, WA

Tricia is the host each week of Barn Charm. Click on picture below to see what others are sharing!

Tuesday's Tip - Thread Management

Being fairly new to quilting, I haven't gotten as organized as I like. With the planned sewing room, I hope to eventually get a grip on my fabrics and supplies. Until then, I took some time this weekend to clean up my mess in my temporary sewing space. I thought I would share what I am doing to keep my spools of thread and bobbins under control.

First, I am using a thread box by ArtBin. I picked it up at Joann Fabrics on sale. They frequently have these boxes on sale at 50% off so wait and buy it then. Trust me! (I just checked online and they are on sale NOW! Regularly $29.99, On Sale $14.99)

ArtBin Thread Box

Last fall, my mom sent me a sandwich baggie full of mini hair scrunchies. I thought "what the heck is she thinking?" Then it dawned on me. You put one of these around your bobbin as a thread keeper. You can pick up a bag of these at your local dollar store for one dollar. I think the bag my mom purchased came with 100 pieces. Cheap and clever! Way to go, Mom!

Mini Hair Scrunchies

Bobbin Before

Bobbin After

Once I got my bobbins neatened up, I put them underneath the matching thread spool. The thread box is deep enough to do this, even with different size spools, and the cover will still close and latch properly.

Thread Spools and Bobbins

No more trying to figure out what bobbin goes with what spool, especially if you have colors that are close in hue. Plus everything is in one place rather than the bobbins in a separate box.

A Sneak Peek with Batiks

A few weeks ago, a bundle of fabric called Bali Pop Watermelon caught my eye at my local quilt shop and said "Buy me!" The pinks, purples and greens were very appealing but I had never worked with batiks before. Could I do this? Sure, I told myself!

Bali Pop Watermelon by Hoffman Fabrics

I came home and started researching quilting with batik fabrics. What were the pros and cons of this type of material? Some people said batiks are prone to colors running in the wash and others said they never had a problem with Bali Pops doing this. There were suggestions on different laundry products to use - Synthrapol in the wash before cutting and sewing or Retayne after the piece is sewn. Or try Shout Color Catchers. But because the Bali Pops are pre-cut 2-1/2" wide strips, I didn't want to pre-wash them. This was gonna be a cross-my-fingers-and-hope-nothing-goes-wrong project because I won't wash it until after I have sewn it all together. I did find the Shout Color Catchers at Wal-mart and will give them a try.

Then I needed to decide on a pattern. I saw a pattern (aka "recipe") on the Moda Bake Shop website that I really liked and thought would work nicely with the Bali Pops. Have I committed an egregious sin by using the pattern from one fabric company with the fabric of another? Oh, I hope not. I love Moda fabrics and they are always one of my first choices but I really wanted to make something with the Bali Pops. Maybe I will use a Moda fabric for the backing. Does that get me out of hot water?

On a post earlier this week, I shared a cutting tip I learned. Here's why I needed an easier and faster way for cutting lots of pieces. If you look at the pattern, there are lots and lots of little squares that need to get cut and sewn together. Each of the bright pink squares are 2" wide and I needed over two hundred of them for this project, not to mention cutting all of the patterned fabric, too.

First Completed Batik Square

Square Number Two

I am really liking the vibrancy of the colors and the designs in the batik fabrics. I still have a lot of work before this project is completed so you'll have to settle for this sneak peek for the time being. It is slow going matching up all of these corners!

Redneck Quilting & A Shortcut

I have been working on a quilt that uses strips which are cut down into a couple hundred smaller pieces. To make things go quicker for me, I measured out my cutting lengths and put pieces of tape with arrows drawn on them down on my cutting mat. The picture below is for the 2-1/2" long cuts I needed to make. No more counting out the inches of where to cut. I just line up my ruler and cut at each mark. And no permanent markings on my mat. Easy-peasy!!

Measure once, cut a gazillion pieces!

Now back to sewing redneck style...

A fellow quilter also named Sally gave me this idea from her blog to take my sewing machine with me when I went camping. So I did! Twice I set my machine up on the picnic table and did a little sewing this past weekend.

Quilting Redneck Style!

Wanna Taste?

You can't go to an apple pie jamboree and not have pie ala mode, right?

Scrumptious!

But first I went to the quilt show and saw my quilt hanging in my very first show!

Seeing Red on the Right

Then I ate pie. And watched a little of the 3-on-3 basketball tournament...

Outta my way, purple shirt!

...and jet skiers practicing for the upcoming races.

Jet Ski Racers in Action

Either these two had too much apple pie, or not enough. I don't know who is sillier on these ATVs...Mr. Viking or the dude on the two-sizes-too-small pink one.

Silly Riders

All of these fun activities (and more) took place at the Apple Pie Jamboree in Pateros, Washington this past Saturday.

American Heroes

Last week I went to Leavenworth, Washington to meet up with my sister, Karen, for a few hours. She is a member of Crystal Quilters who were on a quilting retreat at Quilter's Heaven, a combination bed and breakfast lodging house and quilt shop. After lunch we took the opportunity to browse the fabrics so I could add to my growing stash. While checking out, there was a stack of papers on the counter with a 4" square of patriotic fabric stapled to each page. "What's this about?", I asked. My sister and and I were quickly educated about American Hero Quilts.

The quilts are given to returning wounded service men and women who are being airlifted to safety and medical attention. The fabric shop gives you the starting center block and you supply the fabric to finish out the log cabin block.

Karen and I decided we wanted to make a quilt block to contribute to this worthy endeavor. We picked out a piece of fabric to go with some Karen already had and then got to work on our block. In about twenty minutes (because we were yakking with the other ladies who were working on their own projects), we had our block cut and sewn. It was that simple!

American Hero Quilt Block

Once I got back home, I went to my local quilt shop and bought fabric to go with my 4" center square. Geez, it was so easy to make I told myself  that I couldn't make just ONE! I found a nice little star patterned fabric and decided to use that for my center squares. I ended up making seven quilt blocks that I will send off to Quilter's Heaven so they can add to the others they are collecting for American Hero Quilts.

My American Hero Quilt Blocks

 Who knows? I may decide to make an entire quilt to send!!

And thank you, Karen, for your service our country. I am so glad we never needed a quilt for you! Love ya, sis!

Seeing Red

I started to learn to machine quilt last year after being inspired by my sister and mother, and fellow blogger FabGrandma. I learned to sew when I was a little girl and have continued to make things over the years but never a quilt. I've completed a few projects including this lap-size quilt that I finished today. I was supposed to do this one in a quilt class I signed up and paid for but something came up that needed my attention so I had to do it on my own.

I've called this one Seeing Red. I got the idea to do a red and white themed quilt and it took me a few trips to fabric stores to get enough fabric that I liked and thought would go together. This is a super fast pattern to cut and sew together and great for a beginner like me.

Seeing Red

Wavy Quilting Motif

Quilting is another fun outlet for the creative side of me.

Finished Size: 44" x 62"
Pattern: 5 & Dime by All Washed Up Quilts
Fabrics: Windham, Joann Fabrics