Tag: Sew Day

We had another fun Sew Day on Saturday! It was super lively. We had a new member join and another new member join her first Sew Day.

Amy showed two quilts she has recently finished. The flower quilt has a great block. I really like the rectangular block format.

Amy also  showed the lime and teal quilt. She called it  her Halloween quilt. I couldn’t really understand that and didn’t hear the explanation, but I like the fabric. I think maybe the fabric, with its bell jars, test tubes and poison jars and flasks of eyeballs might be the reason. 

Mom finished the binding on the White Strips #2. Tim held it up for me and then it got turned in. 

I cut up most of the leftover Half Hexie strips for the Four Patch Fun blocks. I am pleased about that, except that I have a boatload of pieces and need to cut some backgrounds for them. I keep reminding myself I don’t have to do it all at once.

I also cut out an apron I have been planning for the AirBnB house I rent when I go to Portland. 

WOW! Sew Day was a mob scene on Saturday. It was great, but very busy. I thought there wouldn’t be very many attendees, because of the holiday weekend, but I was wrong. 

We even had a person Julie and I met at the Fair come and visit. I only got to talk to her a little bit, but I hope she joins. The more the merrier!

After reading several installments of the Jenny Starling series** (The Castle Mystery** was the one I really remember the cake playing a part) and hearing about her delicious walnut cake, I decided to make one. I looked at a few recipes and decided on one by Nigella Lawson. I had everything except Caster sugar, so was pretty much set. 

Sew Day is a great way to try new recipes as I have a lot of good tasters available. Also, usually I only want a piece, or two, so a whole cake is too much for the two of us. I came home with one large piece left, which tells me it was a success. I think I will add a little more of the coffee flavor to the batter next time I make it. I posted about it on IG and like to think it was the lure of cake that brought some many people out to Sew Day.

I got a lot done. I cut out the final Triumphant border.It was a struggle, but I did it. I felt like I had totally forgotten how to use the HuRTy rulers since the last time I worked on the quilt. 🙁 I got a free HuRTy PuRTy quilt pattern and may make it just to cement the use of the rulers in my mind.

I cut a few pieces for a Hackney pouch that I have been working on since I visited Birch Fabrics.  This was sort of an in between project while I waited for Lynette to be free to work on my lesson.

I brought the 6 Open Wide pouches I had prepared and we went through anchoring the lining to the exterior. 

I have done the technique before, but needed a refresher and this was a great one. It all came back to me as we worked together.

I also showed Lynette what I was doing with the zipper tabs. I was able to 

After I got home, I did a yoga session and saw some fabrics I can use for more zipper pouches. 

All in all a good day!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**N. B. : Obviously, you should shop at local quilt shops and small businesses. However, if you are too busy or can’t find what you need there, I use Amazon affiliate links and may be paid for your purchase of an item when you click on an item’s link in my post. There is no additional cost to you for clicking or purchasing items I recommend. I appreciate your clicks and purchases as it helps support this website.

I was able to accomplish A LOT at Sew Day. I trimmed all the Triumphant block 2 pieces that I sewed sometime. I also cut out all of the block 3 pieces. I felt like I was on a roll.

In general, Sew Day was not that well attended. We didn’t even fill up two tables this time. We did have a new potential member, which was good.

Amy always finds the best stuff! This time she brought her new wagon, which is awesome and oh so pretty! It is so much more fun than the regular solid (grey and navy blue) Costco versions.

She got it from Natural Life and it is perfect for quiltmakers. They have a lot of great stuff. I was tempted to get a wagon, but I held off. I really liked their Mimi utility tote and almost bought a car trunk organizer. I need to measure my cargo space. They show it carrying groceries, but I would use it for the random stuff (paper towels, umbrella, blanket, first aid kit, etc) that I keep in the back of my car in case of emergencies.

AngelaB showed a super fun baby quilt on which she is working. She mapped out the design herself using graph paper! Each square is 5 inches, a pretty standard size. Floral dinosaur anyone?

The dinosaur is really cute. I also like how she used some florals and plant-like fabrics to depict the natural environment. 

I am pleased I went and even more pleased that I accomplished my goals.

Sew Day turned out better than I expected. I threw a bunch of different projects into my large Chubby Charmers and went to Sew Day. Everything I brought would at least be a start to something.

First, I got out the Old Town instructions and worked out what I needed to do for the border. I am glad I did! I thought there was a Sawtooth border and I was in for hours of pressing and trimming HSTs. Nope. There is no Sawtooth border. It is all squares and I have pretty much made all the pieces. Yay!

After that the real work got started.

I decided that for the July Organizer swap, I am going to make a pencil roll. I also decided that I would use the fabric I bought at Family Threads for the pencil roll. In addition, I will use more of that same fat quarter pack for the Morning Flower Patch quilt. Cyndi showed me her version and it caught my eye, so I decided to look up the pattern and make one. I was able to cut the 2.5 inch colored squares for that quilt along with the strips I need for the pencil roll. It took me awhile, but that accomplishment got me off to a great start.

Mary was working on her Tara Faughnan project and really got a lot done. I took a picture from the last Sew Day, but never posted it. The colors she used are very Southwest feeling.

This will be a quilt for her daughter’s birthday. I really like the strong diagonal motifs.

 

After finishing the cutting of the Family Threads fat quarter pack, I started cutting scraps. I know I have done this at the January, February and  March Sew Days, but I still have not finished cutting up my scraps. This time I made really GREAT progress. I took my Desktop Cube and the adjoining zipper bag of scraps and came home with only the Desktop Cube full of scraps! I feel like I accomplished something.

Of course, it was over too soon.

A few fun things came up at Sew Day.

First, I had one entry into my post Y seams demo contest. SueG made an effort to try out Y Seams. She was the only one, so she won the fabulous prize, which was a small gift certificate to The Granary.

She chose a great pattern. I love the split hexies.

You should have seen the back! Those little seam intersections looked gorgeous. Check out my tutorial, if you want to try Y Seams for yourself.

I made some good progress on cutting up scraps. I didn’t cut all of my scraps, sadly, but more of them are organized into shapes I can use. People were kind of amazed at what I was doing, which was weird. I thought everyone processed their scraps.

I also saw a project Christine made from a Sue Spargo pattern. I love Sue Spargo‘s patterns, but have never made anything. Her patterns look so cheerful.

I love the little vase and the striped binding. Really I love the whole thing. Looking at Christine’s version makes me see this as eminently doable.

The inside is also great, but has the issue of not being able to see what is inside the pockets. Still, this is a gorgeous project.

The event was fun and I am glad I got to go.

One of our guild members hosted a special sew day at her house last week. I was deputized to get there early as the hostess ended up having an appointment that day. I got there super early as traffic wasn’t bad, so I had time to stop at the GF bakery near SueS’ house. Sadly, they didn’t have many breakfast items. They had a lot of cupcakes! I bought a blueberry muffin, which was very tasty.

I set up a lot of the chairs, and other things we needed while waiting for SueS to return. The tables ended up being too heavy for me to manage alone, so I set them up when Carrie arrived to help.

The workspace was good. SueS has a very open plan kitchen, so we were able to set up a cutting station on her kitchen island. A few of us worked on the kitchen table.

Tim, Sue and I worked there. Sue worked quite a bit on EQ8 as she is working on a project. She also worked on a Mariner’s Compass quilt that she wanted to finish up. It was all foundation paper pieced on a special printed interfacing. I didn’t hear the brand, but I did hear a discussion of the Midi and Mondo bags. It was similar to this QuiltSmart pattern/kit**, but is actually from a company called EZ Piecing. The pattern is called Ruby’s Star.  SueS made it her own with an added border from the same company.

Tim was working on something with strips. It is called the Dreamlines Project. I missed getting a photo, but it looked very cool.

I started with sewing a pet bed together. I also worked on some Cotton Candy pouches and a block for the Wrap the World in Quilts Sunflower block Ukraine project organized for the guild by Lee Ann.

I decided making this block would be a good use of my time at Sew Day. I went searching for block ideas and found a similar one to this one. I made it because I love Sawtooth Stars and I thought I could make it quickly.

In general, I like the block. I am not 100% happy with my sewing of the block, however. EQ did not print out the instructions for the center and I cut it too large. I ended up cutting off more of the yellow corners than I wanted when I trimmed the center. It isn’t terrible and will work for the project. I may make another one just to make myself feel better. You can make a similar block using my pattern. It works with scraps, except maybe for the center.

The living room gang were laughing up a storm the whole time.

Julie talked about her work on her blog the other day. I love the shapes she is making.

Maria picked up work on a quilt from a Libs Elliot class. I didn’t see what Joelle was working on before she left. I’m sure it was great.

Of course, we had plenty of food. 😉 I made a lemon pound cake. Carrie made some of her excellent chocolate chip cookies. There were chips and banana bread and all sorts of things. Even some fruit!

It was a great day and I really wish I could spend every day sewing with friends.

 

 

 

 

 

 

**N. B. : Obviously, you should shop at local quilt shops and small businesses. However, if you are too busy or can’t find what you need there, I use Amazon affiliate links and may be paid for your purchase of an item when you click on an item’s link in my post. There is no additional cost to you for clicking or purchasing items I recommend. I appreciate your clicks and purchases as it helps support this blog.

 

We had an extended Sew Day again over the weekend. I took Friday off to work on the Oxbow Tote. There was supposed to be a ‘workshop’, but those of us working on the project just worked at our own pace.

Everyone else was working on things I would have rather worked on. I really should have brought some piecing and just done that.

Cyndi has been finishing up projects lately. She brought the pieces of this medallion top and was able to get all the rest of the borders on.

I have to say that I couldn’t see where this was going before all the borders were sewn on, but finished the design is really good. It all comes together. Even the heavy red part in the center works within the whole design.

MaryC helped Gerre work on a quilt for a friend’s daughter who graduated. The pattern is Chain Link from Amy Smart, Diary of a Quilter. I have seen this quilt before, but never up close or in process and I was interested to see that it is a good use of a charm pack (or 2?). The two of them working together made good progress.

I think it must have been pre-cut weekend. ;0

Maria was doing some blocks with a jelly roll, which she arranged in a fun and interesting way. On point the design is so fun and cheerful.

Maria is always thinking outside the box and making interesting quilts. She brings something new every week and I am so impressed with what she comes up with. I kind of want to make these blocks and do something similar.

All in all, despite my bad mood, it was a fun two days.