Starting April 1st, no foolin’, you can find these fellow bloggers/designers showcasing a project they’ve made using one of Carla’s (Creatin in the Sticks) 30 Blocks in 30 Days designs from December.
Welcome to the Modern Plus Sign Quilts Book Blog Hop
I’ve always had a fascination with buttons. When I was young, I remember sorting my mama’s button box into piles of colors and then using a needle and thread to string them into long strings. I’m sure my mama did it to keep me busy. Little did she know it would lead me to collecting buttons. You’ll find the buttons pictured below residing inside blue vintage Ball jars on a shelf above my window in my sewing room in my summer house.
Welcome to Quilt Qwazy Queens Blog Hop hosted by Marian at Seams to Be Sew. You’ll find the list of other participants at the end of my post who are also offering daily giveaways. Thank you, Marian, and thank you to our sponsors listed below.
There’s a new book on the shelf – Modern Plus Quilts by Cheryl Brickey and Paige Alexander.
Marian at Seams to Be Sew is hosting the Quilt Qwazy Queens Blog Hop this week. The topic is UFOs — the project variety not the alien kind.
I’ve tried them all: lists, deadlines, motivators, organization strategies, and goal setting. Somehow, making time to sew eludes me. I’m finding myself pushing back the deadlines more and more. After all, I’m living the retirement dream in a 55+ Active Adult Community that has 92 clubs and activities in sunny and warm Arizona during the winter. That in itself is a lot to keep me busy.
I’m hoping to gain ideas from this Sew Much Fun Blog Hop to help nudge me back into my sewing room. In the meantime, here’s a few ideas that at times have helped me stay or get focused and maybe they will help you, too.![Sew-Much-Fun-Blog-Hop-1000x1000[1]](https://tunaquilts.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/sew-much-fun-blog-hop-1000x100011.jpg?w=300&h=300)
Some sewists strive to sew for at least 15 minutes a day. There’s even a blog, Life in Pieces, where you can link a post with your time accomplishment each Sunday. If this is for you, start keeping track of your daily sewing times.
I started. It lasted 3 days. While I haven’t joined the linky party there yet, I thought you might like to know of that resource. You just never know, I might show up there one of these weeks.
Some days, I’ll sew for hours and hours and deep into the night. Some days, I don’t even touch my machine. I enjoy reading quilting blogs and am often amazed at how much some of my favorite bloggers get done. For example: Karen at Quilts…etc., Julie at Pink Doxies, and Sally at The Objects of Design, whose clocks all seem to have more hours on them than mine.
I’m starting to realize that it’s not so much about setting aside time to sew as it is about creating a balanced life and not wasting the time I have in order to do all the things I want.
I’m finding that I need more than just the effort of making time to sew in order to move projects along. I need acountability partners. There’s a number of blogs that offer weekly or monthly linky parties. Some sewists find linking their WIPs or UFOs or goals helpful to keep them on track towards a finish. Here’s just a few of my favorites that I visit regularly even if I don’t link:
Main Crush Monday at Cooking Up Quilts every Monday
Wednesday Wait Loss at The Inquiring Quilter every Wednesday
UFOs at Tish’s Adventures in Wonderland every Saturday
Can I Get a Whoop Whoop? at Confessions of a Fabric Addict every Friday
One Monthly Goal at Elm Street Quilts link your one goal for the month in the first week then return at the end of the month to link your completed goal
Yearly Finish-A-Long is sponsored by a number of bloggers. Write a blog post with your quarterly goals and link to one of the blogs each quarter. Then at the end of the quarter, link a blog post with your completed goals. You can find more info here.
No matter how often I create with fabric, I am more willing to spend time and happily return to it each day if I am making something I enjoy or like. I love fabric and I love sewing. Oftentimes, those two don’t meet.
I recently made this fun block. It was difficult and I spent a good part of 3 days working on it. You can read more about it here and find the free pattern here.
Whether I am thinking of the size of my project or tidying up my workspace at the end of each day or a project, I try to be realistic. If I only have a week to make a quilt, a lap size might be doable, a king size is not. I learned that the hard way. If I have no room on my cutting table to cut fabric, I try to take a few minutes to tidy up before continuing.
I am a messy cook and a messy sewist. I need to heed my own advice.
I like my blocks to be perfect. No matter how hard I try, they often are not. I am now striving for making them good or better. I make a lot of “good” blocks, and many “better” blocks and even a few accidently have fallen into the “best” category.
Good blocks will still make a wonderful quilt that someone will love and snuggle with. Better blocks still make a wonderful quilt that someone will love and snuggle with. Best blocks get hung on the wall as no one should touch those masterpieces. Who’s judging them? Me, of course. I’d rather have my blocks sewn into quilts to be used and loved than hung on my wall for only me to see and admire.
I’m getting better at overlooking and then forgetting about those minor little imperfections as well as embracing those unmatched seams and chopped off points as things that give my quilts character.
Oftentimes, pressure is self-induced.
However, this Bee block I finished earlier this month turned out beautifully. I sent it to Emily of The Darling Dogwood to include in her bookshelf quilt. She asked for a shelf of books from 13-16.5″ long but would take whatever we sent. This one turned out 29″ in length. I wrote more about it on the Bee Inspired Blog here.
The block above is a perfect example of why it takes me a long time to accomplish things. I complicated a very simple block by making it larger than necessary and including a very interesting but complicated extra item. But I had so much fun doing it!
Admission to having DSD—Distracted Sewing Disease—leads to coming to grips with it and working with it. The only known cure for it is stopping to quilt altogether. For me, that’s not an option. So I will just have to learn to cope and live with it.
I work on multiple projects. This is normal for me. Do you do the same? To help me keep organized, I put all items for one project in it’s own plastic bin with a cover that snaps shut.
Here’s just one of my many bins.
This includes the pattern, fabric, AND notes as what needs to be done or purchased, where I am in the process, ideas I have, etc. This way when I feel in the mood to move that particular project along, I can grab the bin, read my notes and know exactly where I’m at.
In the event, my DSD surfaces at a moment’s notice and I find myself starting yet another new project, I usually just go with it making sure I have a bin to put it into. After all, I don’t want to stifle my creativity but I want to stay organized in the process.
This is a class project with my AZ group. I’ve included all the fabric and thread I need for this project.
For those of you who also suffer from this disease, you can join others and link up your distracted sewing projects, also called squirrels, or Drop Everything and Make It Moments (DrEAMi Moments) at Musings of a Menopausal Melon – mmm quilts! on the last Saturday of each month. But be warned; you might find more projects there making you drop everything and make them!
Check out these other bloggers to see how they Make Time to Sew.
Faith and Fabric (our hostess) Thanks, Jen
Tu-Na Quilts, Travels, and Eats You are here. Thanks for stopping by.
What I Learned Today:
Question: Do you prefer to sew in the morning, afternoon, or evening? Do you find yourself spending more time at your sewing machine in the summer, fall, winter, or spring? I like evening sewing but it comes with the problem of needing really good light. I used to sew a lot during the winter until we moved to Arizona during the colder months. Now I find it hard to sit inside and sew on a nice sunny day and we have a lot of those.
Thanks for stopping by and do come again.
Karen,
Tu-Na Quilts
Linking to:
Main Crush Monday at Cooking Up Quilts
Linky Tuesday at Freemotion by the River
Wednesday Wait Loss at The Inquiring Quilter
Can I Get a Whoop Whoop? at Confessions of a Fabric Addict
In the spirit of giving, we give you another free pattern today. But don’t delay in downloading your patterns, as they are free only as long as the quilt-a-long is going on.
This block may look challenging to some of you. But it goes together easily just follow the directions. I used the pictures a lot to tell me if I was on the right course or not.
Sola, at Alice Samuel’s Quilt Co., created this super cute pattern. You can find the pattern on her blog here. Don’t be overly worried about it. I’ve got a couple of construction tips for you to help you along your way and so do my fellow hosts listed below.
First, the pattern makes two identical present blocks within the block. At first, I thought I’d only make one present for my square. I should have done that and once finished I would have realized how easy they were and then gone on and made the second. Instead, I cut out for both presents and tried sewing them up together. I highly suggest cutting out and sewing up only one at a time. Why you ask?
I accidently cut two of those white with red pieces that were to be set aside. This meant that the remaining piece would now be short and I would have to start over.
Next, when sewing the angled edges together, baste them in place along the seam line and then check. If the ribbons don’t match, you can easily remove the basting and try again. Why you ask?
I machine basted just thru the ribbon seams to see how they lined up. It took me about six tries on each present before I got it right. Ripping out only this much saved me a lot of time. I use this technique a lot when matching angles.
I will add the ric rack bows and gift tags after the top is finished and quilted.
I’ll use fray check on the ends of the ric rac. I had to find a way to sneak some ric rack into this block.
I think the bows and tags really dress up this gift and also help create the 3-D effect.
I hope I’ve inspired you to grab your fabric and sew up a couple of presents today.
Then post the picture on either Sola’s party link on her blog or on the I Wish You a Merry Quilt-A-Long Facebook page or tag # #iwishyouamerryqal on Instagram to win some prizes. Remember you have until October 23rd at 11.59 PM to link or post your pic to be entered to win.
Thank you to Warm Crochet for offering this prize. In addition, they are also offering a discount code to all QAL participants. Use the code “ChristmasQAL” to get 10%OFF your purchase. Thank you also to Yvonne at Quilting Jetgirl for offering a pattern for this giveaway. You can find her shop here.
At the end of the QAL there will be a link to download a picture of your finished quilt. To be eligible for the grand prize, you must make a quilt top using all twelve of the QAL blocks by January 16th, 2018. Thank you to all these sponsors for prizes.
Here’s all my blocks so far.
Find info on where to get the pattern and see my Block 3-Santa’s Belt here, Block 4-Christmas Memories (ornaments) here, Block 5-Snowman here, and Block 6-Angel here, Block 7-Poinsettia here. As you can see, I am still working on blocks one and two, so you see, there’s still time for you to join along. You can find the pattern for block one-snowflake here and block 2-tree farm here.
I’ve got a start on the tree farm. I’m starting to see a secondary theme emerging. Do you?
Meet the rest of the I Wish You a Merry Quilt-A-Long Hosts as they reveal their version of this block
Look for Block 9 to be released on October 24th.
My Art with Fabric Blog Hop post on Wednesday (I hope you’ll be back to check it out as I’m really excited about it)
A visit to the Quilted Ceiling Quilt Shop in Valley City, ND.
A look at all the Quilt MN Shop Hop loot
What I Learned Today:
Question: What was a unique gift you gave or received? I made a jar of reindeer noses (malted milk balls and sour cherries) and gifted them to our neighbors at our AZ house a couple of years ago. They all enjoyed them. I should do that again.
Thanks for stopping by and do come again.
Karen, Tu-Na Quilts
Linking to:
I Wish You a Merry QAL Linky Party at Alice Samuels Quilt Co.
Linky Tuesday at Freemotion by the River
Let’s Bee Social at Sew Fresh Quilts
Midweek Makers at Quilt Fabrication
Wednesday Wait Loss at The Inquiring Quilter
WIPs at Silly Mama Quilts
Did you know there’s a song about a poinsettia? It starts out:
♪ Percy the puny poinsettia
Is hanging his bloom in dismay
If they had just kept him wetta
He’d be a houseplant today
Folks liked the other plants betta
Now he’s alone on the shelf
Even a plant with no uncle or aunt
Shouldn’t spend Christmas Day by himself ♪
If you’re interested in finding out what happens to Percy, you can listen to it here.
The seventh block in our I Wish You A Merry Quilt-A-Long just happens to be a poinsettia. However, this poinsettia definitely isn’t puny and it sure is cute.
The pattern can be found here at SandyStar Designs.
You will have fun sewing this one. Ohhh, the possibilities! I wanted to use just one color for all of the petals but wanted to make a definition between them. Voila, ric rac to the rescue. I plan to use ric rac in many of these blocks. I liked ric rac as a little girl and still do. I think I’ll start a campaign to promote the use of ric rac again. There used to be so many colors to choose from at the store and now the selection is rather limited. So let’s start using more ric rac.
Adding the ric rac, took a bit of thought. I started by machine basting the ric rack onto the piece that I wanted it to lay flat against.
Then I pressed the seam open.
Check the picture below to see how I easily squared the half square triangle/quarter square triangle pieces.
I aligned the diagonal line on my square ruler along the seam line as noted by the black arrows. I made sure the cutting line on the right side of the ruler would fall exactly at 3.5 inches at the place where the quarter square triangle seams joined as noted by the red arrow. This is very important as it ensures the square will be cut accurately and each quarter square triangle will be the correct size helping tremendously when matching seams.
Sewing all that ric rac in the seams produced quite a clump in the middle. It was so thick when I joined the final two seams that I didn’t even try to sew through it. I didn’t want to break a needle but I tried to get as close as I could to the center.
Once all the seams were sewn and pressed, I cut away the center making sure there would still be plenty of block that would be covered by the appliqued circle.
Reducing this bulk, helped the appliqued center lie flat.
I used a vintage thread spool to trace around for the center part of the poinsettia.
I often look for items to trace around especially round things.
That’s how I made my pretty-but not puny-Poinsettia.
Are you making a Poinsettia this week?
Grab your fabric and sew up a poinsettia today.
Then post the picture on either Sandy’s party link on her blog or on the I Wish You a Merry Quilt-A-Long Facebook page or tag # #iwishyouamerryqal on Instagram to win some prizes. Remember you have until October 23rd at 11.59 PM to link or post your pic to be entered to win.
Special thanks to Jennifer at The Inquiring Quilter for supplying a pattern for the giveaway. You can find her pattern shop here.
At the end of the QAL there will be a link to download a picture of your finished quilt. To be eligible for the grand prize, you must make a quilt top using all twelve of the QAL blocks by January 16th, 2018. Thank you to all these sponsors for prizes.
Here’s all my blocks.
Find info on where to get the pattern and see my Block 3-Santa’s Belt here, Block 4-Christmas Memories (ornaments) here, Block 5-Snowman here, and Block 6-Angel here. As you can see, I am still working on blocks one and two, so you see, there’s still time for you to join along. You can find the pattern for block one-snowflake here and block 2-tree farm here.
Meet the rest of the I Wish You a Merry Quilt-A-Long Hosts as they reveal their version of this block
Look for block 8 to be released today also! You can find my version of Block 8 here. Block 9 will be released on October 24th.
A visit to the Quilted Ceiling Quilt Shop in Valley City, ND.
A look at all the Quilt MN Shop Hop loot
What I Learned Today?
Question: Does your Christmas decorating include buying Poinsettia plants? Do you use ric rac?
If you want to be notified of my posts when they publish, please subscribe to follow me using one of the three ways; email, WordPress, or Bloglovin, found on my sidebar.
Thanks for stopping by and do come again.
Karen, Tu-Na Quilts
Linking to:
I Wish You a Merry QAL Linky Party at SandyStar Designs
Linky Tuesday at Freemotion by the River
Let’s Bee Social at Sew Fresh Quilts
Midweek Makers at Quilt Fabrication
Wednesday Wait Loss at The Inquiring Quilter
WIPS at Silly Mama Quilts
“Nothing says lovin’ like something from the oven.” Do you remember those words from the TV commercial for Pillsbury? O.K. that may date me but they just don’t make good commercials like that anymore.
Choose fun fabrics for your aprons. This is one side.
And this is the other side.
When my kids were in school, they were always excited for the first days of school. They’d put on their new clothes and come to the breakfast table. I wanted to start them out right, too, with a good breakfast. Even if it was just a bowl of hot or cold cereal, milk, fruit or juice, and maybe some toast. Sometimes, we’d have scrambled eggs, French toast, or pancakes. Usually the more labor intensive breakfasts were saved for the weekends. But I always donned an apron before cooking or baking.
Aprons are easy to sew and there are a wide variety of patterns available.
This pattern ties around the neck.
There’s something about wearing an apron that makes food preparation special. When I put on my apron, and looked at those hungry faces, I sent them a message of love because I was taking the time to make sure they were getting nourished before rushing out the door to meet the bus.
Potatoes and french fries anyone?
The nice part of a reversible apron is that one side can be just as nice as the other.
You can choose any apron pattern you want. I’ve made many aprons through the years. The pattern for these aprons pictured here has become my “go to pattern.” It’s reversible with a couple of pockets on each side and sews up quickly. Years ago, I took a class on making this apron at North Country Arts and Crafts Workshop near Bemidji, MN. I’m planning on writing a tutorial soon. Be sure to follow me (Bloglovin, WordPress, Email, Facebook) by subscribing with one of the ways on my sidebar so you don’t miss it. I bought quite a bit of that novelty food fabric and have made many for gifts, too. The aprons pictured here went to Germany to our exchange daughter’s family.
Aprons last a long time but kids grow up way too fast. If you have children waiting for breakfast, grab an apron, whip up some breakfast, and enjoy this time with them.
I have lots of fabric with fruit too.
And when the kids have left for school or grown and moved away, you can celebrate and switch your apron to something a bit more fun.
These fabrics have wine bottle and wine corks.
Peanuts and beer anyone?
What I Learned Today:
Question: Do you wear an apron? What do you fix for breakfast? Yes, I wear an apron every time I set foot in the kitchen. I feel naked without one. Breakfast now consists of granola, milk, and fruit.
If you are here for the Back to School Hop, Welcome! I just returned from a fantastic trip around Minnesota visiting 66 quilt shops and blogging as I went. You might like to read some of those posts. I still have to post a look at the loot yet. If you enjoy what you’re reading, please follow me by Bloglovin, WordPress, or Email. Links are on my sidebar. I’m now also on Facebook and welcome you to like and follow Tu-Na Quilts, Travels, and Eats there, too.
Please visit the other blogs for the Back to School Hop.
![Sew-Much-Fun-Blog-Hop-1000x1000[1]](https://tunaquilts.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/sew-much-fun-blog-hop-1000x10001.jpg?w=300&h=300)
Thanks for stopping by and do come again.
Karen, Tu-Na Quilts
Linking to:
Main Crush Monday at Cooking up Quilts
Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt
Tu-Na Quilts, Travels, and Eats 