My Sewful Retirement

Life – the good, bad and ugly

Happy Wednesday!

The past two weeks have been very busy and stressful!

I spent Memorial Day with my best girlfriend drinking wine, floating in our swimming pool and talking about the joys of being a grandmother.

Three days later she calls to tell me her 34 year old daughter died un-expectantly. Our lives have been so entwined over the past 40 years I felt like I lost my child also. Parents should never outlive their kids.

Thankfully I’ve had orders to work on to keep me busy and focused before the family gets together to celebrate the life of a loving and inspiring young woman.

Another friend welcomed her first grandchild into the world recently. The parents requested anything with animals so I made a couple of my signature chenille sets.

The absolutely easiest baby quilt for me to make is a “strippie” quilt. I got the idea from another blogger, you can find her instructions here.

I didn’t follow her pattern but came up with a design based on the fabrics I had on hand.

Each quilt was a day project and the best part was using only fabrics in my stash.

I made this Easter Egg table runner for a customer earlier this year. I used the quilt as you technique to make it. My wonderful hubby drew the egg shape for me on freezer paper.

My customer gifted the runner to her granddaughter, who contacted me after Easter wanting to know if I could make placemats to match. I was happy with the placemats and I even made the matching napkins — I had to pull out my Serger for those !

After finishing the placemats I used the scraps and made a mini quilt for myself. I’m currently using it a cover on my new embroidery machine. I LOVE the backing fabric, another scrap from a previous baby quilt!

I needed more patriotic table runners in the shop.

I’ve done nothing but sew and pray to keep going.

Happy Sewing!

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!

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!

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.

The rail fence quilt block is another go to choice when I need to make quick runners.

My all time favorite is making mug rugs and potholders for me and my girls!

Finally with the scraps from the braid and heart runner I made myself a pixel heart mini quilt!

Enjoy your day and stay safe!

Happy New Year

Hello 2021! Are you ready for the new year — I know I am!

2020 was undoubtedly a year filled with much pain and sadness for many, I pray for them but to keep my sanity in check I try to focus on the blessings of 2020.

We welcomed a new grandson to family in November. Jaxon is my daughters first baby, he was 91bs 2 oz and 23 inches long at birth. I was fortunate to be there when his parents bought him home and spent 7 heavenly weeks in Houston spending time with them.

It feels wonderful to be emerging from my cave after a long period of blogging hibernation. Although I haven’t been posting I did find time for sewing and crafting.

I want to share a few of my handmade gifts for baby Jaxon.

Of course I had to make Jaxon a quilt! I used the free tutorial Big Baby Bento Box Baby Quilt from Ronda’s Creations. The pattern was very easy to piece. I was super happy to find fabric in my daughter’s color scheme at Hobby Lobby.

I made a matching diaper bag – using a picture I found on Pinterest, I sketched out a pattern. I struggled with the side pockets but eventually figured how to sew them. I added both a slip pocket and zipper pocket on the inside. My original plan was to use a recessed zipper on the top but got frustrated when I couldn’t get my panels even. In the end I used a magnetic snap for the bag closure.

The diaper bag turned out nicely and I’m happy to report my daughter loved it and has used it several times!

Lastly I made a matching diaper clutch and changing pad.

Again happy New Year and I wish you all good fortune and health in 2021.

Until next time Happy Sewing!