The Last Take Your Time Tuesday

Soo... what do you think?

I'll add some half flowers on the border and then add a row of solids-scrap hexagons-solids. It will measures 63 by 82 inches then. I ran out of Kona Bone so there will be some reordering and hoping the Kona matches. It is based on a quilt by badskirtAmy.

I will be ending the linky today since there doesn't seem to be that much interest in sharing handwork in progress or not. Thanks for playing along.

So what have you been working on this week? So what have you been up to this week? Do you have some handwork to share? Link up, add the Take Your Time Tuesdays button on the sidebar to your post and be sure to visit and leave comments on each other's posts!

Have a Happy Tuesday!

Patchwork Potholder- Zakka Style

This is completed project number 3 this year. I'll always smile when I pull these out in the kitchen.

Two of the potholders have cute and helpful pockets on the back to protect you from the oven. I figured only two since I would only have at most two hands in the oven at any time.

I used the book Zakka Style compiled by Rashida-Coleman. This particular pattern is from Kim at Retro Mama.

I did not sew the single fold bias ends together and instead folded the raw edge by a 1/4 inch. I tuck the other end, about 2 inches, into these folds. Then I sewed by machine and hand stitched the back.

You can't tell it wasn't sewn either.

Anna pointed out Aneela's Sherbet Pips red dogs in this potholder/hotpad is her favorite. I used at least 1 novelty print in each.

I realize that my kids have found that the stiffness of the Insul-Bright batting and the linen is absolutely perfect for a game of indoor Frisbee. How cheeky, eh? These will be freely throw all over the house before they find their proper use looking beautiful in my kitchen.

I used the last of my linen from the big box store and it is time to graduate to some better 100% linen. I would love to hear what brands you use and who you buy from. I also wonder if anyone has blended a natural linen with Heather Ross's Far Far Away 2 and 3? I have both of some stashed away waiting for the perfect linen. I am itching to dip into it. Help?!

I am enjoying my time today visiting Amy, Sarah and Amanda Jean this week and finding what other finishes are out there.

Take Your Time Tuesday

I was feeling a little color blue with all the rain and clouds. Rain is a rarity out here in the desert so I am always excited when it comes. The kids actually love to run outside and get wet. We hunt for the umbrella that we bought at Disneyland, and we can never find it when it rains. It is broken of course, from playing with it in the sun, but we don't feel the need to repair the few spokes that are in disrepair.

I was suppose to blog on Monday, but I was having too much fun combing doll hair and playing in tents to write on the computer. I think we spent two hours painting on and off during the day. It makes me think about how this time, with the kids at home, is going to go so fast. So my time blogging might lose out other than this Take Your Time Tuesday and that is OK. I am also not making any more new quilts this year either. My heart isn't in it. I don't want to miss out playing Star Wars or Princess or just lay on the floor and put puzzles together. At the very least I don't want to look back and think I missed something.

I think the rain and water made me pick these hand stitched sewing lovies this week. I failed miserably myself, but manage to make a rainbow of some Katie Jump Rope. My pincushion I made for Giveaway Day was lost in the mail. :(

Rainbows...

 Raindrops...

Flickr- barefootsheperdess

Bluebirds...

Flickr- my_studio

Mermaids...

Flickr- isisjem22 (made by Kelsey Creates)

Raining Cats and Dogs...

Raining Cats and Dogs- artist Helen Remick

closeup- artist Helen Remick

The half yo-yos are hand appliqued with small cat and dog figurines hiding in the drops!

So what have you been working on this week? So what have you been up to this week? Do you have some handwork to share? Link up, add the Take Your Time Tuesdays button on the sidebar to your post and be sure to visit and leave comments on each other's posts!

Have a Happy Tuesday!

Swoon or not to swoon?

I thought about a color charm combo for a Swoon quilt, for a day, but the thought of that many separate scraps to cut is too overwhelming for this girl. I really want to try this beautiful quilt pattern!

I really like this color combination of solids, Kona, Bella, Free Spirit, you name it, and Cherie by Masha D'Yans for Clothworks. There are 9 fat quarters

fuzzy phone pic :(

and a tenth that I could fussy cut for the center of the star.

My only problem is the background. The white FQs would disappear into the Kona white background. I could use a light pink background fabric, but I think the whole modern quilt design becomes way too girly?? Ash? I am tired of gray.

I could also cut the whole lot into solids/Cherie HSTs with about 5 or 6 improve log cabin blocks scattered about to frame the fussy cut prints. That would make me happy too.

That's my dilemma. That and how in the world do you cut and sew linen bias binding around curves!!?? I suppose I'll figure out the answer to that question tonight.

Sweet Sixteen

After a few midnights, more than a few coffees, no scissor attacks from short people, a holiday or two of distraction, and running out of Kona Snow by less than a few inches, 16 blocks are done. A completed Supernova top should happen shortly. This will go off to a longarm quilter. I needed to admit I piece better than I quilt.

I am getting much better at HSTs and I am beginning to become friends with them. After this, the Swoon quilt looks doable, but making a small project for the home using this pile instead. (Debating and resisting the urge to make a color charm Swoon.) You'll see the results soon. It's project number 3 on my list to make 52 little pretty things for the home this year.

And... if you're thinking about buying some Pezzy Prints for your stash just do it. They are gorgeous in person.

Linking to WIP Wednesdays.

Take Your Time Tuesday

Have you ever had a week of sewing where you end up with a sore shoulder and it seems like you haven't made a dent in your sewing projects? That's what happened to me. I made a ton more American Jane Wee Play hexagon flowers and have finished the lot of them. I have over 1200 hexagon and counting stitched together. The Cathedral Window seems like it is halfway there, but it is daunting to think about what I have left.

So in perfect judgment I started a little cross stitch project. This is a freebie from The Workbasket.

30 by 51stitch count, white evenweave, Weeks Dye Works thread

I used to cross stitch a lot, but got sidetracked by all this quilting. I actually intended for the blog to have both. This particular stitchery is made from a variegated thread on a fabric called evenweave. It is not aida or linen, but it is very good if you want to learn to stitch on linen. I will never go back to aida as the holes in the fabric do not appeal to me and linen comes in a very large array of colors and size of weave. I use James John petite tapestry needles to save on thread waste. I am making another hedgehog in brown varigated thread on linen and hope to use one of them on an ipad cover.

I'll leave you with a few pictures that have been inspiring me this week.

You had me at Hello...

Q is for Quilter

Eeep. Look at these trees.

merwing✿little dear at Flickr

Need I say more than handquilted red and white...

Red and White Quilt from Infinite Variety- photo Laura Chau Flickr

Here are hearts for the holiday around the corner.

patterns available here at Carina's Polka & Bloom

As a side note, I've always thought the Hello Kitty would make a great embroidery along!

So what have you been up to this week? Do you have some handwork to share? Link up, add the Take Your Time Tuesday button on the sidebar to your post and be sure to visit and leave comments on each other's posts!

Have a Happy Tuesday!

Take Your Time Tuesday

Rashida's book, Zakka Style, is beautiful. I love linen and I can finish most of the projects in a day.   They are perfect for gifts and just to enjoy in your home. This is project number 2 in my goal to make 52 sewing projects this year. This project is from blogger Theresia who contributed a design from the book. Here is a pincushion and a Sewing Kit to organize all your bits and bobs.

I added some embroidery on the outside as well.

Here's a bigger one for the sewing machine.

It comes in helpful when working on this.

At most I have some beautiful table runners right now and hopefully I will have 4 mini Cathedral Window quilt sections by the end of the month. I will be adding pieces of the border to parts of these. They will be a nice Kona that I would like to match it to the lime green.

I am having some pretty funny computer problems right now. I couldn't edit any of the pictures on Picasa and my period key does not work! Zoe broke off and stole the little rubber contact piece.  So cut and paste is my only option besides using an exclamation mark at the end of every sentence! Forgive me if I miss some punctuation.

So what have you been up to this week? Have a Happy Tuesday!

A Boy And His Fish

Just more bookmark fun around here. I had to make one for Andrew. It may contain my all-time favorite designers' fabrics.

DenyseSchmidt, SandiHenderson, HeatherRoss

 The slanty A was to have more embellishment, but I like the lefty look. Some little bits of stitching and an applique fish in his bubble were added to this one.

It quickly went to reside in his Star Wars Lego Sticker book. It made me think of coordinating threads and how I wish I had a project for these.

I am glad I have a party to go shopping for because the cement mixer truck across the street is really loud! The neighbors are putting in a pool. When I am about town I hope nobody notices the pink neon food coloring that graces my palms and nails. Geesh. I can't believe Anna's 7! She wanted a Hello Kitty Birthday which is why I have the crazed hand look. I invited the entire class of 24, you have to invite everyone to be fair, and I might have them all come including some neighbor kids! Help! See you soon, if I survive!

Take Your Time Tuesday

Whoohoo! I have any official blog button for Take Your Time Tuesdays. You can now share and add something pretty at the same time to your blog's sidebar.


<center><a href="http://sohappytosew.blogspot.com/"><img border="0" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7150/6625805687_cc8623f5fa_m.jpg" width="220" height="170" /> </a></center>

This is a weekly blog meet up for any embroidery, hand-quilting or applique in any step of the process. My hope is you will visit on a regular basis and be inspired!

Did you notice I changed the blog header? Notice the name change popping up on your blog rolls? I decided to change the name since I will be sewing more than anything else here on the blog. Weird, huh? I thought I was a quilter, but... since I like to hand quilt, I collect quilt tops. I have many languishing in a dresser drawers. I know I am not the only one. So I'll make some mini quilts and enjoy that! These are the four large hand-quilted ones that I would like to finish by the end of the year. Maybe I am a quilter after all??

1. Single Girl
2. Kaliedoscope
3. Supernova
4. 30s Cherry quilt
5. American Jane hexagons (pieced only)

I have been working hard on my Cathedral Window and I am absolutely sure that it will be finished by the end of this year. All the blocks are completed for a 65 by 80 inch quilt. They need to be pieced together and I will show you that next week. I love the oranges and lime green that Sandi Henderson designed her fabric in.

I pulled out a stack of books that will be used! It seems that this Christmas was the year of the books. We must have had a stack a foot and a half high between us and the kids! I love that! Kathy at Pink Chalk Fabrics and her One Yard Wonder Sew Along did me in and I am going to tackle some clothing and crafty projects.

My goal this year is weekly small, achievable, hand sewn sewing projects. I see so many possibilities in these books! So many of the projects in these books in my sewing library are easily finished in a day or two. I think Zakka, simple beautiful things for the home, is the way to go this year. Create, create and create!

So I have been making bookmarks for the kids this week. Just crimp and use raw edges. I added red perle cotton embroidery and quilting around the second rectangle. I have more color combinations in the works than just this one.

I'll share more of them finished on Friday. I wonder how small I can make the fish to eek it out of that tiny Heather Ross scrap! My daughter requested these fabrics and I was inspired by Bobbi's.
 
Anna has been reading Diary of Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever during naptime. She really needed this bookmark. I found the reading level online and was blown away. It is definitely not first grade reading and she is doing so well with it. It is really a cute series.

What have you been working on this week or have finished for the holidays? You can link up your blog below. Now you can add the blog button to the bottom of your posts too! Eeep! Happy Tuesday!