New Sew Along and an Old Project

School starts next week so that will be the end of my summer vacation. Officially it ended today as I had an all district meeting to attend and tomorrow I have a day long math training.  Even though I am considered a paraprofessional, aka aide, I teach Kindergarten and First Grade.  Per district requirements we are adding all day Kindergarten and now my hours will be extended.  Not sure how that is going to work out as I am used to most afternoons off, so we shall see.

I spent two days last week cleaning and reorganizing my sewing room. I didn't have time for a full gut job of getting rid of stuff, although I did get rid of a few things and some "yucky" feeling fabric.  I need to sort through my vast collection of books as I know there are some I will never ever use.  I am working on the tree skirt I need to get done, overwhelmed by it's sheer size, but I am doing it in panels.  Hopefully I will have some of it to show by next week.

One project I found was in a pizza box and had belonged to one of my best friends who passed away in 2010.  I acquired a lot of her stuff including a sewing machine, quilts and fabric.  She had shown me this project on a visit and I knew her intention.  The blue and white print in the cornerstones belonged to her grandmother.  There was a chunk in the box for backing and it said General Fabrics.  The weave is nice but the feel of the fabric is coarse.  I looked at it during my clean out and thought wow, only three dimensional flowers need appliqued down and the strips were all cut for a piano key border.  So I did that.  There wasn't anything for flower centers, so I added some buttons I had on hand.  Now it's a 22" wallhanging ready for quilting!  

Deb's Flower Basket with Memories of Grandma

I joined another sew along.  In a post in March I mentioned purchasing Fabric for Tula Pink's Modern City Sampler.  A sew along started on the 17th and I thought wow, I can do this!  The blocks are being sewn in order and you can follow along on Instagram at #100blocks100days or check out the directions.  I am julie.huffman on Instagram.  Catchy I know!

First Six blocks from Modern City Sampler 100 blocks in 100 days SAL

I am in a small group swap of 6" 9 patch blocks with 6" friendship star blocks.  I made a few extra, but will be sending one of each block to the other swappers.  I have LOTS of Christmas scraps!

Check out other fun projects at Patchwork Times.

Row by Row and Shop Hop

Last week I turned in my 2016 Row by Row quilt to Material Girls Quilting, Etc. I received my gifts and got lots of oohs and aahs from customers and other quilters there for an open sew day.  The quilt is on the  Idaho Row Experience Facebook page.

Finished 2016 Row by Row Quilt

The shops I visited were all in northern Idaho except one across the border in Washington.  I purchased all the shop kits to support the shops and while making the rows I cut up the leftovers into 2 1/2" squares with the intent of doing a scrappy border on the sides to make it a bit wider.  Stupidly I did not have the sashing done yet and hung the borders up beside the rows and thought YUCK!!!  So I found a fabric in my stash and used it and then thought how dull.  So I pinned the pieced borders over the top and thought yes.  I was talking to a friend in CO at the time and kept walking by my design wall.  I ended up taking out the green border as you can see above but had to cut down the scrappy border a bit to fit because I didn't want to redo the top and bottom borders!

with green border

with pieced border pinned on top

This past weekend we had the Crazy 8 shop hop in Idaho and Washington.  I went with 4 friends and had a great time.  I bought quite a few odds and ends including Terial Magic.  I had never heard of it, but I'm anxious to try it.  I also bought a Trolley Needle Thread Controller.  I hadn't seen one of those either.  I just have to get used to using it!  

I am making a giant tree skirt and chose these fabrics.  I need to add a red, I'm not sure why I didn't think of that, but I need a garnet red since Idaho produces garnets and I have been to a garnet mine.  The tree skirt will be representing Idaho.  I have a plan, just have to get going on it!

I also bought a bag pattern and these fabrics.  These are my all time favorite colors, so rich and deep.

I also decided to do the Magic of Christmas sew along from Lisa Bongean.  I had this leaf fabric in my stash for YEARS!  I found a couple Fairy Frost blues and they looked great and on the shop hop I purchased the silver and lavender Fairy Frost fabrics and made the first block.  I am thinking I will just use blue as the accent, perhaps a star setting, but I will see how this progresses.

Magic of Christmas sew along

Magic of Christmas block 1

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