Sweet Home Quilt Co.

Mr. UPS just dropped these off, and I’ve already gone through and picked out several must make projects! If you’re looking for quick and easy projects to make for Christmas gift-giving, this new issue from Better Home & Gardens will fit the bill. These are some of my favorites:

Plenty of Pockets bag by Monica Solorio-Snow (aka The Happy Zombie) has lots of room inside and lots of pockets outside for all those everyday necessities like cell phone, keys, and sunglasses. This one will be perfect for my Mom who needs lots of pockets!

I think I’ll be making the Fit to be Tied bag from designer Sherri Falls of This & That for myself. It’s the perfect size for lugging my laptop and files back and forth – and cute to boot!

This little pillow would make a great friendship gift, or maybe for a Secret Santa exchange. Very easily made with fusible applique, embroidery and my favorite – jumbo rick rack!

There’s still plenty of time to whip up the Christmas-y lap quilt, Spruce It Up, from designer Karen Montgomery. Quick pieced backgrounds and fusible applique trees leave lots of room to get creative with embellishments. Use decorative ribbons or threads for the tree garlands, or use buttons from your collection.

This magazine is just loaded with great projects – there are several table runners, pincushions, and baby and kid’s projects, too – 35 projects in all.  Order your copy today and finish off your gift-giving projects in no time!

What could be better than new flannel pj’s? How about a flannel rag quilt to go with?

Made with the Jingles Christmas flannel collection by Minick and Simpson for Moda, we have pre-cut rag quilt kits for $74.99, and pre-cut batting squares, too, for $18.99 – all you have to do is SEW!  Easily made in an afternoon since we’ve done all the cutting for you. Quilt measures approximately 47×68, a perfect snuggle size for the sofa! Quick to make for Christmas gifts, too!

Notice the little boy’s flannel pj’s in the picture? I do not sew garments, so I asked my mom to sew up a sample of the little boy’s and little girl’s pajamas from Indygo Junction’s Jack and Jill Jammies pattern.  Also made with the Jingles Christmas flannel, they are sized just right for my grandies, Hayden and Haylee, so they’ll get them for Christmas! While not as quick to make as the rag quilt kit, these pj’s would be fun gifts for any kid at Christmas! (click the photo at right to see an enlarged image of the pattern.) Pattern is $14.99 and includes boys and girls sizes 4 thru 12.

It’s not too early to be making those Christmas gifts. Visit the shop soon to see more gift ideas and Christmas fabrics for inspiration!

There were so many new ideas and techniques that I learned last week during the Rags to Riches Shopowner Retreat with Terry Atkinson, I have to get my notes out to even remember them all. But there were a couple of stand-out moments, first:

Everyone, including me, gave a collective groan when Terry announced that we were going to learn to do zippers.  I’ve done zippers, eons ago in Home Ec, and I have gone to great lengths to avoid anything with zippers since! But Terry insisted we could do it, and once the challenge was issued we were off. Her demo looked simple enough, and the projects she had prepared for us to practice on were just too cute to resist. And you know what? She was right! Here are my completed projects to prove it!

The two bags on the right are from Terry’s book, Big Bags Little Bags, and were a snap to make – even with the zipper! We even made our own beaded zipper pulls. I could see another addiction there; as a matter of fact, one of the first things I did when I got home was go to the Bead Shop and grab some tools and a few packages of beads to use on more bags! The drawstring bag on the left was a tutorial that Terry offered on her blog a couple of weeks back. It has a little zippered pocket on the outside. I think she called it a “Sock Sack” and it will be perfect to keep my sock knitting in; I can see more of these in my future, too. Pop on over here for the tutorial to make your own Sock Sack! I still have a couple of small bags from the book that I haven’t finished yet – they are addictive!

The other significant thing I learned from Terry is more of a “what not to do” moment. Terry’s sewing machine was making a “clunky” noise one afternoon and we all know what that means – clean it!

Here’s Terry about to start the task of cleaning her machine. Looks pretty innocent, huh?

Take a look at that mess! Can you see all the lint and threads in that poor machine? No wonder it was clunking!!!

Terry had all the right tools for the job. This is just a very small bit of what came out of her machine. Terry’s comment, after all was said and done, was “Here’s my hint for the day – never clean your sewing machine with an audience!”

Thanks, Terry, I’ll keep that in mind!

“Sleepless in Conyers” describes me perfectly these days!  Having been married to me for more than 25 years, Mike is pretty much accustomed to my weird sleep habits; yet even he has begun commenting on my “restlessness,” which is his nice way of saying I’m keeping him awake! For the last week or so I’ve stopped fighting the inevitable and just not going to bed at all, or getting up as soon as my eyes open instead of lying in bed trying to go back to sleep.

Last night I didn’t even bother going to bed because I knew I’d never go to sleep. I thought about doing some cleaning, but was afraid I’d wake Mike (yeah right! That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!) and I wasn’t in the mood to do any computer work or even to read blogs. So I got out the couple of shop models I’d brought home to work on over the weekend and proceeded to sew the night away!

These are a couple of table runners that I made using a pattern from The Quilt Company called Easy Striped Table Runner. The pattern is designed specifically to use striped fabrics and a 60 degree triangle ruler (I used a Creative Grids 8-inch finished 60 degree ruler).  The cherries fabric is a 60″ wide border print, and the neat thing is that once you use the border print for the runner, you’re left with the center portion which is perfect for the backing – no waste at all! The blue snowflake runner was the first one I did and I learned a couple of tricks for matching the design, but it still came out pretty well. Only five seams and the top is done!  Looking at the detail pictures you can see how the 60 degree triangles are used to match up the design so it almost appears seamless. Very quick once you get the hang of it. Neither of these have been quilted yet (I’ll do that tonight if I still can’t sleep!!). The pattern suggests a simple pillowcase finish – no binding – using the design in the fabric to quilt after layering and turning. I think I’d prefer to bind it, but I’ll try it the other way first.  This pattern is very well written with good photos to go along with the instructions, and options for matching placemats. There are also instructions for making your own “stripe” fabric to create a specific design. Lots of possibilities with this one -  I’ll be on the hunt for more striped fabrics to use. (Sorry for the yucky pictures – the light isn’t very good at 4AM so you get what you get!)

I also made a Wine Bag Tote from the Let’s Do Lunch book by Terry Atkinson, using my new favorite fabric line Figgy Pudding by Moda. Two fat quarters and a half hour and this one was done, start to finish! (The wine bottle is empty, by the way, but I didn’t empty it recently!) I’ll be making more of these for gifts – quick, easy and so cute! I “heart” Terry Atkinson’s designs. Her instructions are well written with helpful diagrams that even a beginner can easily follow.

So what did you do with your night?

….or else my sewing machine was possessed by aliens overnight! Yesterday I was wrestling with some thoughts/decisions, and decided a little bonding time with my sewing machine was in order. Usually when I’m besieged by demons or dilemmas, a little quilting therapy works wonders!

I started this VERY simple quilt sample, which was already cut out. All I had to do was sew, which is what I needed – mindless sewing so I could think about other things. The top went together without a hitch, but because I was running up and down the stairs (I sew upstairs in the classroom) all afternoon dealing with issues and helping customers, I didn’t have time to get the borders on before I went home last night. No biggie, I thought, I’ll just come in early and get the borders on, give the top a good pressing and get the backing ready so it can go to the quilter. I estimated a half hour at most – the borders were already measured, cut and ready to stitch on.

Well, that estimated half hour of work turned into almost three hours! I swear I ripped those borders off no less than two times (each one!) and I still wasn’t entirely happy with them when I finally got them all on. It was as if my sewing machine had a mind of its own, and its mind wasn’t on sewing those borders! I couldn’t keep the machine threaded for one thing. You know how sometimes you’re stitching along and then realize you’ve been out of bobbin thread for a while? That’s what would happen only it was the top thread, not the bobbin.  And then the feed dogs were pulling to the left so I had to sew very slowly and pin, pin, pin just to get a reasonably accurate 1/4 inch seam. But it is finally done, now that I’ve used up half the day trying to sew four little seams!  My sewing machine has been admitted to the hospital, but no diagnosis yet. Pat’s advice was to just go buy a new machine! I can assure you that is not going to happen!

Sorry for the yucky photo of the sample - it was cloudy here this morning and the lighting upstairs was really bad. It really is straight, but I just threw it up on the wall to quickly snap the picture. The quilt also looks more mint green in the photo than it is. The fabric line is Kiwi by Timeless Treasures – the slide show below is a better representation of the colors.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

The pattern is “Fresh Vanilla” from the BHG Quilts and More, Summer 2009 issue.  We have the Kiwi fabric collection in stock, as well as a few remaining copies of the magazine. This would be a quick and easy quilt to whip together to send off with a college student to brighten a dorm room. (Without the issues I had, it realistically could be made in 2 or 3 hours!)

After wrestling with the sample, I promptly poured a box of cereal in the floor while fixing my ‘delayed’ breakfast…I think I’ll go back home and crawl into bed and pull the covers over my head until this passes! Hope you’re having a better day!

All of my Christmas shopping has been done for a while, thanks to the convenience of round-the-clock availability of the internet.  If there is one thing I hate it is going out to shop, but put me in front of the computer with a good search engine and I can do some shopping! The only real shopping I do each year is for the grandies, and they always have a very detailed wish list so shopping for them is easy. But I also like to give little tokens to lots of other people and those are usually something handmade. I thought I had everything and everyone on the list covered, but last night I realized there were a couple of people I had forgotten. So first thing this morning I was roaming through the shop looking for quickie projects that I could get made in a hurry. I came up with a couple that I thought I’d share with you, just in case you have a few last minute gift needs, too.

Here’s a quick apron project made from the tablerunner panel of the Moda Merry & Bright fabric line.  The kits ($15.99) will make either a tablerunner (you add backing) or this cute and quick little apron. All you have to do is hem the sides and one long edge, gather the other long edge and apply the waistband ties. The panel comes with a choice of edge colors – red, teal or green.  These kits are available in the shop or online.

 

 

 

 

 Here’s another quickie little gift that I can highly recommend – Potato Baker bags! I was given a set of these as a gift for my birthday, and I have used them over and over since then. If you want the convenience of microwave baked potatoes with the taste of oven-baked, then you need these bags. I use mine at least once a week, and trust me the potatoes taste just like you baked them for an hour in the oven…and it only takes minutes in the microwave.  These will be terrific gifts for teachers, newspaper carriers, your hair dresser or anyone you want to remember with just a little something.

Here’s a download of our instructions for the Potato Bakers.  Hope you enjoy making these, and don’t forget to make some for yourself!  Ummm, I think we’ll have Baked Potatoes for dinner tonight!

Melisa

  Breathe…slow, deep breaths…there’s still plenty of time!

 

We all want to give everyone on our list something special but in today’s economic climate, it just doesn’t seem possible. This year may be different. There’s a feeling of what is really important, bringing us closer to our families and friends. This year give from the heart – and your hands. Handmade gifts mean so much more because you put a part of yourself into each one.

 

The shop is packed with holiday decorating and gift ideas. Table runners, table toppers, small quilts and tote bags are perfect for gift giving. Here are a couple of quick projects that you’ll have plenty of time to make before Christmas.

 

Mini Miranda Bag Pattern $9.00

The Mini Miranda Bag is a purse-sized version of the popular Miranda Day Bag pattern. Six inside pockets and a few places for pens, too. Measures 10 1/2″w  x 9 1/2″h  x 4″d.               

 

Tukaway Tote Pattern $9.00

Tukaway Tote – Make It Easy by Quiltwoman.com

Small when folded into its pocket, yet expands to hold tons of goodies when you need it. So easy to make it and so convenient to have on hand. Make a bunch for yourself and all your friends. We have batik kits made up for the Tukaway Tote in yummy combinations!

Checkbook Cover Pattern $6.00

These checkbook covers take only 2 fat quarters! You can make one for every name on your list, and a one for yourself, too!

 

Table Scraps Pattern $8.00

Quick & easy table runner pattern from Quilting Bea. Pattern includes all four holiday center designs, machine or hand applique. Don’t have time to do the applique? Use a panel or focus fabric for the center instead, and quicly string piece the runner itself. Easy to customize in colors perfect for the gift recipient!

 

I hope these ideas have jump started your gift-making mojo! Come on in the shop and see the many other quick and easy ideas we have for you! Happy Quilting!