My Sewful Retirement

A Quilting Journey

Archive for the month “February, 2021”

26 Feb 2021

Scrappy Starts and Finishes

Happy Friday!

I spent a little time this week working on scrap projects.

I have been reading blog posts and watching You Tube videos on bag/purse making techniques. I wanted to learn more about supplies – hardware and stabilizing fabrics.

For the samples I used both Annies Soft and Stable and Pellon Fusible Foam as the stabilizing fabrics for the exterior of the bags.

I was happy with both products. Pellon Fusible Foam I can purchase locally at JoAnn’s with a coupon which makes it a good buy. The end results were the same but I found the Soft and Stable a little easier to work with.

The bag below I used scrap charm squares from the baby quilt I made here. The denim is from a pair of my hubby’s old jeans. I used the Pellon Fusible Foam with this bag. Inside is a slip pocket and zippered pocket. I used a magnetic snap as the fastener.

Bag measures: 15 inches wide, 12 inches tall, and 4 inches deep

The second bag I tried a little improv piecing! The fabric is batiks, I got a fat quarter bundle from JoAnn’s on clearance when I purchased the Pellon foam. I used the Soft and Stable foam in this bag. Inside the purse is a slip pocket and zippered pocket, with a magnetic snap fastener. This purse I added an adjustable strap using a D-Ring and Swivel Snap Hook in antique brass as the hardware.

Bag measures: 14 inches wide, 12 inches tall and 4 inches deep

Before my mother-in-law passed, she gifted me a bag of African print scraps. My first project with the scraps was a string pieced wall hanging I finished last year.

I started two new projects with more of the scraps.

Happy Sewing!

Posted in New Projects

24 Feb 2021

6 Comments

Quilt Gift Disaster – Almost!

Happy Wednesday!

One of our local shopping malls hosts a craft fair twice a year. Because of Covid-19 they are changing the format this year, I will not be able to participate in the spring event due to travel plans but I’m still offering an item for one of the door prizes.

In the past I have only offered a gift certificate to my Etsy shop, but this year I wanted to do something different.

I have never made an equilateral triangle quilt and thought this would be the perfect opportunity.

I bought a kid friendly junior jelly roll, background fabric and a couple of coordinating fat quarters. Created the strip sets with the jelly roll and started cutting triangles with the background fabric. It was late at night and decided I would cut the strip sets in the morning.

Next morning, I cut the strip sets into triangles and sat down at my machine – when I tried to match the seams – I got ill because realized my mistake ☹

Sorry I did not take a picture of the triangles, but I hope you can tell from the ruler pictures what happened! The Creative Grids ruler (left ) has a blunt tip on top and the Clearview Ruler (right) has a pointed tip! Although both are 60 degree rulers there is a difference in how you sew them.

It was 9 am and I was ready for a drink…but that was not going to help. After several starts and seam ripping, I managed to make it work. Obviously, there are several imperfections, and I am hoping the recipient will not hold it against me.

The triangles that I could not get right I used on the back of the quilt.

With the small fabric purchase, I was able to make a quilt, bib, burp cloth, wash cloth and diaper clutch !

Thanks for listening to my first “almost” quilt disaster of 2021!

Happy Sewing!

Posted in New Projects

19 Feb 2021

4 Comments

Scrappy Finishes

Happy Friday!

Two of my 2021 goals are:

Organize my scraps.
Use my scraps – adding the event “scrap time” to my daily planner.

Unfortunately, I can sadly report that I have not accomplished much in organizing my scraps!

I have several large plastic containers under the bed in one of my guest bedrooms full of Ziploc bags! Those bags contain “leftovers/scraps” from previous projects I’ve made.

Last week I pulled out the Katarina Roccella Ziploc bags from the projects I made here and here, below is what I made….

Crooked Courthouse Pillow

Inspiration from this project came from the scrap queen Bonnie Hunter! I used her tutorial found here.

Boxy Heart Pillow

I love paper piecing…this was a free pattern from the Seasoned Homemaker found here.

Off-Center Half Square Triangle Pillow

I used the bonus triangles from the snowball block from the quilt here to create the layout for the pillow. I had just enough of the black and white fabric for the border to fit the pillow form I had on hand.

Improv Pouch

I made two QAYG improv panels and used them to create a wristlet pouch. It’s a perfect size for my hot rollers or make up the next time I travel.

What are your favorite scrap projects?

Happy Sewing!

Posted in New Projects and tagged scrap quilt ideas

14 Feb 2021

4 Comments

Happy Valentine’s Day

Again I’ve been MIA…I went back to Texas to spend time with my new grandson! The two grandmother’s are taking turns babysitting while the parents work. My daughter is a traveling nurse and works nights so we’re taking turns helping out. It’s been an unbelievable pleasure spending so much time with baby Jaxon ♥

While I was away my sweet hubby covered my hours at the shop and mailed all of my online orders – I am eternally grateful and thankful for his help, unfortunately he can’t do any sewing. I’ve spent the past few weeks marathon sewing to restock the shelves before my next trip in March.

Here are a few of the items I finished in January.

Charming Diamond Table Runner –this simple HST is one of my favorite “go to” table runner layouts. I used the Riley Blake charm pack Sending Love to make the runner.

With the few remaining charm squares I made a set of matching potholders/trivet showcasing the “X & O” quilt blocks.

I keep a journal listing my “someday” projects. I can now check off the Red Braid Table Runner by Anoria Morris of Samelia’s Mum off my list. I used 9 scrap 2.5 inch Kaffee strips from my stash along with a newspaper print low volume fabric. This was definitely a fun and quick to sew runner. Next time I plan to make a longer version using a grunge jelly roll in Halloween colors. If you’d like to make one yourself the pattern tutorial can be found here.

I didn’t participate in the Moda Stitch Pink QAL, but I did purchase the fabric used. I have a serious obsession with Moda’s Grunge fabrics, the bundle was full of luscious pink and red! I cut some of the fat quarters into 2.5 inch strips and made a few strip pieced hearts for another table runner. The inspiration for this runner came from Kristina Brinkerhoff with Center Street Quilts, you can find the tutorial here.

I’m getting better with organizing my scraps so I can use them. I pulled out my valentine scraps to make set of 4 placemats. I used the courthouse step block — again it’s a quick block to construct and adapt into placemats.