Sewing Up a Storm!

I'm busy as a Bee!  

A sewing bee that is... 

My "Halloween Hoot Owl" wall hanging is finished...finally after I stared at it for several days before I decided to add more quilting lines to the top. 

I guess it is time to get the Fall and Halloween decorations out. 

Yesterday I sewed up a removable exterior no see um fabric screen for our travel van's side door window.

It wasn't difficult...just time consuming to sew all the "pockets" to hold the super magnets in place in the hems. 

Those super magnets are strong!  

Now my Hubby will have air flow upfront in the van on those nice days when AC isn't needed.   It's easy to remove, fold up and store when not in use. 

We can leave this screening up when we are set up at a campground site.   

I'm back to practicing my FMQ (free motion quilting) on my "Merry Christmas Santa" wall hanging.  

It's VERY free motion...my outline stitching is all over the place but I like the looks of it so far.  

Here's our  "Party with Patrick" project for next month.  

A cute birthday wall hanging for a child or for the very young at heart.  

I love adding my own signature touches to Patrick's patterns.   

This is a small wall hanging.  

I'm thinking of adding a border to make it a little larger.   

What do you think of my fabrics? 

I'm off this afternoon for another sewing class.  

This one is all about "Sound Foundations".   

Learning all about the right stabilizers to use with one's sewing projects.  

  P.S.  This is all I crocheted on our trip.  

It will be a multi-colored hexagon throw.  

I may single crochet the hexes together with black yarn.   

Still haven't decided what direction to take.   

Have a lovely day!  

It is beautiful here today.

Hooting About My Owls

With more quilting lines added

I'm 99.9% done with my second "Party with Patrick" wall hanging project...

Halloween Hoot Owl 

Adding black trim piping.

Haven't added the extra quilting lines.

I thought I was done the other night and hung it up the wall to stare at it.  

The more I stared at it the more I thought it may "need" more quilting. 

Without extra  quilting...too plain.

Close up of blacking piping and orange binding

It looked "ok" but it could look even better.  

So back down to the sewing room I went to add more quilting lines.

Back of wall hanging.

I actually enjoy quilting by machine.  

Using my Janome with its special AccuFeed Flex attachments and feet make the job "sew" easy.

I had to do the orange binding twice.  

The first try by machine turned out awful so "frogged" it and sewed it "by hand".    

I like the extra quilt lines.

The quilting lines are done and my label is made.  

I just have to hand stitch my label on the back and it's finished. 

To see all posts related to this project click here.

Our Pleasure Way Excel TS travel van.  

We have been busy here at Teacup Lane.  

Our travel van is packed for our road trip out WEST.  

We're heading out tomorrow early morning on our way to the Colorado Rockies, Yellowstone and Grand Tetons.

I love these flowers!

We haven't been to these western parks since 1975 - as one year newlyweds camping in a tent.  

We were just looking at pictures from that long ago trip...oh, my...we were so young and so skinny.

We spent sometime last week reorganizing the van - tweaking some cabinets that weren't working as well as they could. 

And we took a lot of stuff out that we didn't need.   

The less clutter the better it looks.

Plus driving down the road you can't have anything out loose or it will fly all over the place.  

Everything needs a storage area - an assigned spot where it is put away.  

  

Hope you all had a lovely Labor Day weekend here in the USA!

Strange weather here...sunny, muggy and then rain.  

Very muggy!

As I type this I hear thunder so more rain is on the way!

Boo - Boos!

I'm rushing.  

And making mistakes. 

Well, more like little "BOO - BOOS"! 

Our next "Party with Patrick" project for September.

But I want to get as much done on my second "Party with Patrick" project as I can before we take off on our road trip out WEST. 

I have a confession.

I hate measurements.  

Percise measuring and cutting are soooo NOT me.  

I have to force myself to measure twice...no several times...before cutting.  

So why do you ask did I not precisely cut out my first three five and a half inch squares?  

Because I told myself I could square them up after they were appliqué. 

Used spray adhesive to stick the appliqué pieces together before sewing them down.

Want to know why that theory didn't work?  

Because "dummy" (that's me!) sewed the thick black buttons on for the owl's pupils and then the cutting square wouldn't lie flat on the fabric to measure and cut it precisely.  

What to do?  

I decided to cut out three more six and a half inch squares and appliqué the owl squares to them. 

Because I precisely cut them they are true and square!

First layout I discarded because my brain couldn't figure out how to sew it together.

And if that wasn't enough of a challenge for me. 

I turned the larger squares on an angle.  

Now this first pattern I laid out didn't work (see photo above).  

I couldn't figure out how to sew these pieces together. 

(Of course now that I look at the layout I finally "see" how I could have sewn it together.)  

So I cut up the outer pieces that were giving me trouble (i.e., the four black with green leaves fabric on the corners) and then it all came together nicely and precisely.  

 And after hacking up all my fabrics I didn't have enough of one fabric for a solid fabric back so I pieced together strips of all the fabrics I used on the front for the backing.   

The purple fabric with the black witches was my first choice for the back.

However, the witch fabric didn't work to use for the back.  

I have to start paying attention to how designs run on fabrics because when I got home I discovered the witches ran up and down the fabric not across.  

I didn't have enough witch fabric to run the design the correct way.

Anyway... I kind of like the different fabric strips for the back. 

The next step is to layer it all together:  the back, batting and front and quilt it.

  

Front panel of the wall hanging and under it on the right is stripy back panel.

It's a "wonky" Halloween Hoot Owl because not all the owls are straight and one owl has his wings touching the outer square (bad owl!).  

Even with my Boo-Boos mistakes I'm surprised it looks as good as it does.  

It's going to be beaut-i-ful when it's done.  

BOO - HOO!

Presenting "Winter Redwork"

Fabric binding machine sewn on top of runner.

You know when you crochet you have yarn ends everywhere?  

Well...it's even worst with sewing!  

You have threads ends everywhere. 

 On the floor, on your clothes, all over your surfaces.   

Clinging, clinging....

Practicing decorative font writing for my label.

So I'm glad we have outlets in our basement for our central vacuum system.   

I sucked up all those threads.  

But it's sort of like dog fur.  

No matter how much you vacuum there's always more.  

I was smart and practiced some stitches for my binding.

Today I finished my first ever quilted piece, a table runner, which I have named...

 "Winter Redwork" 

Remember my inspiration?

Inspiration and my handwritten design plan.

I chose Redwork designs that could be viewed from any angle.  

So out the door went my first redwork choices... Santa Claus, Mrs. Claus and my Reindeer. 

Five and 1/2 inch squares - ten of redwork and twenty fabric squares...a total of thirty squares.

I prewashed all of the fabrics and bought some cotton batting.

The back with binding finished.

The fabrics came from Joann's...100% cotton fat quarters for the 5 1/2 inch squares and extra fabric yarnage for the back and binding.  

Quilt runner label.

I tried out several new sewing attachments...including the AccuFeed feet (dual feed) and the 'Stitch in the Ditch' foot.  

I love Janome's AccuFeed system - all layers fed beautifully and there were no puckers on the top or the back!

Yippee!

I also bought a neat new foot ~ the Border Guide Foot ~ for sewing decorative stitches in parallel rows.

I used this foot for lining up the rows on my quilt runner label.

I love it.  

  

Winter Redwork Table Runner

All in all I'm very pleased with the results. 

It's my first quilted project.  

And only the second time I have sewn on a binding.  

I know many serious quilters wouldn't think of machine sewing on a binding but I dislike hand sewing.  

Plus I wanted the binding to be solid so this runner can go through the wash. 

I used iron on tape to set the binding in place and then 'stitched in the ditch' on top of the binding. 

It was "sew" easy with the special 'Stitch in the Ditch' foot!!!

Final size is 19 and 1/4 inches by 53 inches. 

Click (here) to see all previous posts related to my "Winter Redwork Table Runner".  

All done!

Now on to my September 'Party with Patrick' sewing project. 

Yep...it's going to be a Halloween Wall Hanging!

HALLOWEEN HOOT OWL

I had fun picking out the fabrics for it.

(To see my finished October's "Party with Patrick" project ~ a Christmas Stocking ~ click here)

Last night I picked up my hook {{{{FINALLY}}}} and started crocheting hexagons in solid colors using yarn from my stash.

My inspiration... "Crochet in Color" Hexagon Pattern (here).  

Maybe it will be a little laptop quilt.

You'll have to wait and see.

It will be going with me on our road trip out WEST in September. 

Have a lovely day and thanks for stopping by!