Are You Ready?

And I'm not talking about the Super Bowl, either!! No! What I want to know is are you ready for February's Lone Star Quilt Along update?

Yessirree, it's been a month since Sue over at Quilt Times and I kicked off our little quilt along, and tomorrow is the big day for checking in with each other. Will you be sharing your progress with us? There'll be a Mister Linky to help you along. I do hope you'll all stop by tomorrow and also at Quilt Times to share in the progress and the pitfalls we've encountered.

I've heard throughout the month that we have several following us, but are just not quite ready to dive in and make one of these beauties. Others who have taken the plunge have hinted at some need for helpful sewing tips or strategies, especially matching up the points with all the bias edges at play. It is my hope that all who are stitching a Lone Star will feel free to offer their helpful hints to those who are either unsure or reluctant.

I'm having a particularly trying time with Y-seams. I plan to work specifically on that today, with the hope that practice will make perfect, and I can show everyone a well-executed 90-degree angle with no puckers!! (Can you picture my mess??)

I see that Sue has her cutting underway, and has already encountered her first (small) hurdle - not enough fabric for one of the colors. Check her out here to see how she solved the dilemma. A woman of action!! I like that!!

So come on along and join the Lone Star fun, okay??

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Where Did January Go?

I blinked, apparently. But January is gone already, and here we are looking at 29 days of February! How on Earth does time fly so fast?

In the last post, I mentioned that I'd been to cash in my gift certificates at our new quilt shop. The first time I stopped in there, I was using my old, dying camera and had very inferior pictures to share. I think I can do better this time!

The shop's name is Old Town Fabric Shop in historic downtown Chillicothe, Ohio. The owners/operators are mother-daughter team, Cindy and Kelly Henderson. Look at how spacious and well-lit the store is, with plenty of room to grow! Cindy was working away at the front desk with a huge shipment of new fabrics she was prepping to go out on the shelves. The shop is carrying a huge array of Kaffe Fassett fabrics, batiks, reproductions, and 1930s. Other types/styles are available, too, but these are predominant. Because the shop is so new, parts of its website are still under construction. In April (maybe sooner), they will begin selling and servicing Bernina sewing machines. When I was in the shop last week, Kelly was in Chicago at Bernina school, learning about all the machines and using them, too, from what I see on the shop's facebook page!

Here's a pic I grabbed from their website. Isn't the building gorgeous? The fabric shop is actually in the back section of this old historic house; there's plenty of parking back there, too. Second Street is a one way street, and parking on the street is possible, but it will be limited. In addition to the parking in their rear lot, there are about 8 more parking spots off the alley behind that, so no need to worry about having parking issues with this downtown business!

I am so excited to have more quilting options right here in my own backyard! Quilters around southern and central Ohio can now make Chillicothe a destination for fabric shopping! This is our second quilt shop, and we have a JoAnn's Fabrics. It will be nice to see this new business grow!

[Did I mention that I had Kelly as a student "back in the day"? Early to mid-90s, I think. ;-) ]

In a future post, I will highlight our other quilt shop, Creations. It's been a staple here for over 20 years. Stay tuned!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Baby Quilts and Stash Enhancing

On Friday, we Frankfort quilters met at Sheryll's for our regular session. We were missing JoAnn. Terry had 2 quilt tops to show us. Friends of hers are grandparents for the 2nd time, and Terry has these two darling quilts for the lucky little girls.  Pretty cute, aren't they?

I got a couple of gift certificates for Christmas to the new quilt shop in Chillicothe; about a week ago, I had the chance to go in and use them!

I know, I have enough Kaffe Fassett fabric! And I know, I have promised to use my stash and limit my fabric purchasing! I just couldn't resist, you know??

Happy Quilting!

My Sister's Bar Stools!

Sandy, my sister of "get the ripper" fame, is boasting yet another reupholstering project - and this one she did all by herself!

Here is a before barstool.

Remove the seat; these are screwed on for easy removal.

Purchase the foam rubber; Sandy's came from JoAnn Fabrics.

The steps are easy enough; just follow the pictures she sent me.

She stapled the new fabric under the seat, reattached the seat to the stool, and there you go!

This stool has the same fabric as her desk chair that we did a few weeks ago.

A no-sewing project by my sister. Thanks, Sandy, for providing the material for today's post!

Bartering

I went over to Terry's on Thursday for a couple of hours to help her get started on a t-shirt quilt. She'd never made one before, and since I've made several, she thought I could coach her through the process.

If you've never made a t-shirt quilt, it is absolutely the easiest, fastest quilt in the world to make. The blocks are big and because it's made of t-shirts, it's generally not going to be an heirloom or anything, so being super exact about everything is optional. (YAY!)

My tried-and-true method requires using a 15" square ruler to cut the front design out of a t-shirt. These would be adult-size shirts with big designs on the front or back. (The picture above is from a previous t-shirt project.) Naturally, for children's shirts or for shirts that have smaller designs, a smaller ruler would be necessary. All of Terry's t-shirts had smaller insignias on the upper left chest of the shirt, so we used an 8" square ruler for her blocks. She will end up with more of a lap quilt than a bed-size quilt. She had 12 shirts in all.

There will be a lot of waste with what is discarded after each shirt is cut. I've seen some really cute things on Pinterest that use t-shirt knit, so the fabric could be repurposed. The knit also recycles nicely as car rags, camping rags, pet rags, etc. - they sky's the limit on uses.

Here is the waste from 12 adult-sized shirts.

Next, cut the fusible lightweight interfacing - the same size as the block. This then is ironed on to the back of each t-shirt block to stabilize it and prevent the stretching and curling that working with knit would naturally have.

These blocks have the interfacing ironed onto the back.

Next, cut the sashing strips. No rules to follow - they can be any width you want! On my Ohio State quilt, I cut 3 1/2" strips to finish out at 3" sashings. Cut as many as you need to do the sides of each block, then sew the rows together.

For the long sashing pieces, I would measure the length of each of my rows, establish an average, and cut them to that length. Another alternative is to do the math: add up the totals of the blocks and sashing strips. It would all come out pretty much the same (ideally). Cut as many strips as you need to this length. 

Then construct the top by sewing long sashing strips to rows, until you have your top. Add borders to your desire, and VOILA!! Your t-shirt quilt top is done! Easy-peasy, right?

So, you may be wondering, why is the title of this post Bartering? What's the connection? Well, Terry did the quilting on my Ohio State t-shirt quilt. Instead of paying her, she wanted me to give her lessons on how to make one! How sweet is that? In just a couple of hours, I paid off my debt, had a wonderful visit with a dear friend, all the while doing something that I love!

Have you every bartered with someone - exchanging one service for another? I think it's pretty cool!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Ditty Bags

Yesterday I was involved in a project that I felt very good about. A friend who is a DAR member invited me to participate with her and others in a service project that would benefit our local VA Hospital - the making of ditty bags. Strange name for a bag, but who am I to question it?

Every patient at the hospital - both those who are recovering there and those who come for appointments - is given a ditty bag that contains certain personal hygiene products (I don't know exactly what those are). The size of the bag is strictly 9" wide by 13" tall. We were given a direction sheet to follow.

We cut long 10" swaths of fabrics, then we cut those down into 33" segments. We folded at the bottom, sewed up 13" on each side. Then we were left with turning down a casing-style top. We did not have to insert a drawstring; we just made the bags.

The morning went pretty fast, and we established a bit of an assembly line of duties. We had stations for cutting, pinning, stitching, and pressing. The beauty of the endeavor - besides the fact that we were performing a service to veterans - was that it's a great way to use up old, out-dated fabric. I know I have a box or two of fabrics that are ancient, but still useful. The hospital had no requirement about the color or even the type of fabric! We were using all manner of fabrics, including t-shirt knit. Previous bags have been made using double-knit - remember that stuff?? So anything goes.

At the end of the day, 50 bags were completed. I did not stay for that entire time, but several ladies did and got a lot accomplished. As I said earlier, I really felt as though it was time well spent, and I am planning to make more bags on my own.

I asked if VA Hospitals nationwide use these ditty bags, but no one knew the answer. If you were so inclined to make ditty bags for the VA in your area, I would suggest first contacting VA offices to see if bags are needed or wanted.

YUM!

Are you hooked on Pinterest? I have described it as being as addictive as "crack." I heard someone else describe it as being similar to looking at magazines. Since I have cancelled or let expire nearly all the magazines I used to get, I can relate to that similarity. Now I can look at the pics I used to look at in my magazines free on Pinterest. Strangely, I never would spend much time looking at pictures of food. I generally enjoyed looking at pictures of homes, decorating, fashions, shoes, etc. On Pinterest, however, I seem to pin an exorbitant number of food pictures. Here's a salad I've recently pinned.

Does that not look like an absolutely scrumptious dish? The main ingredients: spinach, strawberries, feta cheese, candied walnuts and croutons.

Here's my version, which I had for lunch both yesterday and today.

I changed a few of the ingredients, but the spinach and strawberries are still there. The original recipe called for raspberry poppyseed dressing; I had just regular poppyseed dressing on hand, so I went with that. I also added a diced chicken breast. It was quite good, if I do say so myself!

My quilting report: I've finally pressed the last of the half-square triangle blocks for Chantilly. I will begin creating the rows next - except...

I found about a dozen more suitable fabrics that would work nicely in this quilt. So I might cut a few more squares and add them into the stack. I will  have oodles of extra blocks, but I will have nice variety, that's for sure!

Happy Quilting, Friends!