Christmas Stitching

I've been getting some Christmas stitching done this week. 

What's more fun than playing with Christmas fabrics?!?

This first picture is of the stocking I made special order for the boyfriend of my Boss' daughter. She's such a sweetheart and I was glad to help her surprise him. He likes trucks so she picked this cute fabric line from Moda called Homegrown Holidays. She requested that I leave out the farm animal prints. Lol! (sorry Moda) I had never made a stocking before, but after watching MANY tutorials I just went for it. 

This next pic is of a table runner I made for my Daughter Savannah. I found the video tutorial by Misouri Star on line for this pattern. You can find it HERE. I just love Jenny and her easy to follow instructions. I fell in love with this discontinued fabric I found at a local fabric shop and knew it had to be the border. Its part of the Snowfall line by Moda. The WHOLE line is beautiful, but VERY hard to find. I let her pick her green fabrics to add a little of her personality to the piece. I think she's got a little hippy in her soul.  

HAPPY STITCHING!!!

 

Happy Fall Y’all!

 Happy Fall Y’all!! After a long, hot Summer it sure is nice now that the cooler weather keeps peeking in to say hello. I have to admit that even though I live on the east coast near the ocean, Fall is my favorite season. Don't get me wrong...I love a good beach day too!

I wanted to pop in and share a couple cute quilty things I made using the new Fig Tree & Co. fabric, All Hallow's Eve. I fell in love with it when I saw it. 

I made a table runner for my little library table using a charm pack that I cut into 2.5" squares. I put them on point to get the diagonal effect and added in some white squares for accent and for the border.

I did straight line machine quilting around the squares and added some binding with my favorite pattern from the  All Hallows Eve collection.

I still had some squares left over so I decided to make a cute pumpkin table topper/mug rug. 

I followed the pumpkin pattern from "Farm Girl Vintage" by Lori Holt of  Bee in my Bonnet. I just added a few snowballed corners to make the little star. (Don't look too closely at my first attempt at free motion quilting...LOL!) Then I added a little black hand quilting. 

Pinwheels & Prairie Points

My first attempt at quilting was a Pinwheel quilt I made last year. 

(That's a post for another day)

I was told that a rag quilt was a nice place to start because the seams were more forgiving. So I came across a rag quilt tutorial on You Tube by Erica Arndt of Confessions of a Home Schooler. She explained things in a way that just clicked with me. Thanks for that Erica!! You can find her video HERE.  I had so much fun making those pinwheels and they quickly became addicting. 

So, when I decided to make a table runner for my Daughter I knew I was going to start with pinwheels. 

She picked out this cute fabric collection by Lori Holt for Riley Blake Designs called "Granny Chic". TOTALLY ADORABLE, right?

I used :

 1 - 5" charm packs of Granny Chic 

1 - 5" charm packs of Moda Solids White

to make the pinwheels. 

After I had them all sewn and squared I laid them out, rearranged and rearranged again until I was happy with the color balance. There, that's how they ended up. Lol! 

After I got the pinwheels put together I decided that they needed a border before I added the prairie points. My Daughter's favorite color is yellow so I went with this older fabric I fount at my local fabric shop. I'm not really sure of the name. I THINK it is a Red Rooster fabric. 

I used part of another "Granny Chic" charm pack to make the little prairie points. I cut each 5" square into 4 - 2.5" squares. I folded each 2.5" square point to point then in half.  Who knew prairie points could be so easy?!? 

Last but not least, I added a pretty blue border out of "Blue Floral Boho Blossom" fabric by Studio E.

The Adventure Begins...

Welcome to my new little corner of Blogland!

I am a crafter at heart but have always been afraid of sewing. 

(Don't ask me why, I do not know)

I come from a family of women who sew beautifully and remember my Mom and Grandmother making the most amazing things on their old Singer sewing machines. I would just watch in awe and wonder how in the world they created such wonderful things. You know how??? They BEGAN!!! Every professional in every field had to start as a beginner. So, that being said, this is my beginning. 

I dabbled in sewing in my early twenties by trying cross stitch. 

That lasted a whole twenty minutes. Lol! 

Last year I broke my ankle and had to do A LOT of sitting with my foot propped up. Hmmmmm...maybe I should try that cross stitch thing again. There is only so much TV a person can take! I think my age (not telling) and patience level helped me appreciate the process and I enjoyed it much more. I found it very therapeutic. 

I did my research first of course. I watched quite a few videos to reintroduce myself to a needle and thread. I was inspired by so many fellow crafty women and set out to find a pattern that spoke to me. 

I chose a pattern by Tralala called Jolie Sorciere.  

I couldn't pass up this cute little witch.

Sew it BEGINS!!!