Foodie Blog Hop - My Day!

Welcome blog hoppers!  I am thrilled to be participating in a blog hop again after 3 years, oh holy cow that went by quickly.  Thank you so much Carla for letting me join in again!

I absolutely love to quilt but when I'm not quilting, I am in the kitchen baking and occasionally cooking too.

John and I celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary by cooking together this year, it was great!

This last weekend I made some specially decorated sugar cookies for my aunt's bridal shower, they were Strawberry Lemonade flavored with lemon royal icing and were a big hit.  I absolutely love the joy I get from seeing people enjoy eating something I have made.

I also really love aprons, and as you can see I have a couple here:

L to R: Easter apron from mom, houndstooth apron I made in high school home ec 18 years ago, 2 Pampered Chef aprons I earned when I was a consultant, summer/fall double sided apron mom made me, and Christmas/blue backed apron Grandma Linda made me.  I rotate through them all throughout the year!

Then I came across this incredible kitchen-themed fabric at our LQS about a month ago (Kiss the Cook by Michael Miller) and I just knew it would be perfect to make another apron to add to my collection, and I am really excited with how it turned out!  I love that it's double sided too.

I made my apron as a large nine-patch made with 10" squares, then changed my mind and cut the side squares in half to make it closer to the usual apron shape.  We made a similar one for my mom a few years ago but with 9" squares but left the pieces whole and she loves how it wraps around her. The pieced blocks I used are Colored Wheel blocks from the Quilter's Cache website.

If you've never made an apron before, there are a couple ways to go about it.  The method I used for this one creates a double-sided apron, which you CAN add pockets to before sewing the two sides together, but I completely forgot on this one.  I can always add some after the fact if I decide I need to, but I rarely use them.  Here are some photos of me pinning the pieces together before sewing:

Remember to pin the ends of your apron strings to the center before trying to sew around the edges!  I also baste the apron strings in place by sewing back and forth across the strings 2-3 times inside the 1/4" seam allowance.

I found that by taping my solid piece of fabric to my cutting table I eliminated shift while I was pinning them together, which was amazing for when I went to sew around the outside edges.  And I pinned about 3/4" in from the edges so I could leave the pins in until I was finished sewing.  Then just turn it inside out and topstitch 1/8" around the outside edge to close the hole you turn through and give it that finishing touch!

Cookies anyone?

I had a few scraps leftover from piecing my blocks for the apron so I also put together a cute little hotpad!  I may have a hard time using it though, it's so pretty...

Thomas kept a watchful eye over all the activity until I took notice of him, then he fell asleep.  He also enjoys keeping tabs as we cook, you know, in case wayward chicken pieces find there way into his mouth.

Thank you so much for stopping by!  I hope you feel inspired to go out and make yourself a new happy apron to wear in the kitchen while creating goodness to share with others!

Please be sure to visit the other bloggers posting today and see my previous post for the list of the whole week's worth of bloggers.

Thursday, May 26th

MooseStashQuilting

Beckys Adventures in Quilting and Travel 

Ms P Designs USA

Pampered Pettit

Homespun Hannah's Blog

Beaquilter

Have a wonderful day!

Stitch It and Gift It Blog Hop - Hotpads

Hello and welcome to my stop on the Stitch It and Gift It Blog Hop!  I am so excited to see all the great ideas that everyone is sharing with us this week, and I hope you enjoy seeing my projects.  Thank you Carla for the opportunity to participate!  I encourage you all to visit Carla's website by clicking on the image above, and enter into the drawing for a gift certificate to Fat Quarter Shop and be sure to visit the others today too!

Wednesday, November 13th

MooseStashQuilting

Pampered Pettit
Mary Mack Made Mine
The Quilted Snail
Days Filled With Joy
Melva Loves Scraps

Limeleaves

I created/finished up a couple hotpads that will be gifted on Christmas Eve to an unknown recipient.  We do a form of White Elephant gift exchange in our family, the only rule for the item is the item can't cost more than $15.  So I am pairing my two potholders with a big bag of monster cookies and apparently my sister has already decided she will fight for these.  She actually tried to sneak one out of the room earlier this week, LOL!

This hotpad was actually a 6 year old UFO!  It is also the very first thing I ever quilted feathers on, and it was quilted on my Bernina.

This block was really fun to make, so much so that I actually made 2 blocks, but one is going into a future Christmas sampler.  (I like to make sample blocks with Christmas fabric when testing a block, eventually I will have a king size Christmas quilt!)  This is also the first time I have purchased a book and actually made a block out of it!  I had pre-ordered Lori Holt's Farm Girl Vintage 2 from Fat Quarter Shop earlier this year because I felt like I would definitely use it, and see, I was right.

The block in the book is the Evening Star, isn't just amazing how the colors make a block so different?  Also, look at how many other blocks I have marked in here, they will all make awesome potholders...

Isn't this little tag super cute?  One of our LQS (Stash of Walla Walla) has them and I just love the added little sentiment!  Also, I obviously was not going to hand stitch the binding down on this LOL.

You might notice how puffy my hotpad is, I like to use 2 layers of Insulbrite, or one layer of Insulbrite and a layer of cotton or 80/20, which ever is more available at the moment.  I also find that I prefer to use the couple of 12 inch hotpads that are in my kitchen drawer over the smaller ones since most of my pans are pretty large, so I figure the bakers in my family will also enjoy larger ones.  Or, you know, my sister will, since apparently she is willing to take on the family for these... (I am making extras for her Christmas stocking so she will have some no matter what).

 Thomas says to remind you how wonderful and comfy pillows are too. (Football block from Cluck Cluck Sew's Touchdown pattern.)

Belle learned the beauty of a tied fleece blanket this last weekend, so quick and cozy!

And finally I leave you with a little parcel that I am gifting to my longarm quilting clients this year.  I am so thankful for the people who are supporting my business (Blue Spool Sewing Room) and look forward to giving them their little gifts!  I will share later what I am gifting them, it's not a sewn item and it's a surprise.   But I am making the bags to put their gift into!  Selina shared some cute bag ideas on Monday, in case you missed them definitely go check her's out.

Thank you so much for visiting today, I hope you all have a wonderful time exploring all these great gift ideas and have fun making gifts for the holidays!

~Brandy

🎄12 Days of Christmas in July 🎁 with *2* Giveaways!

*giveaways are now closed*

Hello friends, Merry Christmas in July!

Since the last time I was on the blog the temperature has turned a 180 on us, it is blazing outside now!  Which makes it nice to sit and sew and think of cooler days to come.  😁  I was super excited when Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict invited me to participate in the blog hop again because I had some projects to get done.  Thank you Sarah for organizing all this goodness!  In addition to all the inspiration you will see on this hop there is a giveaway sponsored by FIGO Fabrics that you can enter to win on each participating blog, and I am also having a celebratory giveaway!  The giveaway links are near the end of my post.

First, I completed a couple pillowcases for my nieces.  I love the "burrito" method with French seams, it makes such a nice gift.

Secondly I completed this quilt!  A bit of back story on this:  I was picked by Henry Glass for the Desire to Inspire Challenge in May 2019, and got to work with this beautiful collection of fabric called Jolly Ole Soul by Barb Tourtillotte (visit here for pictures of my projects) and origionally planned to use this as the backing of the quilt I made.  I ended up liking it too much to part with, so instead made it even larger and quilted it up for John and I to snuggle under!
I made this quilt with the panel that is part of the line and then made some simple present blocks using flying geese for the bows.  I made my "presents" different sizes and alternated the background for added interest!  I also used a couple prints from last year's Challenge with the Just Beachy fabric.  And I decided to quilt an edge to edge pattern with the swirls as they mimic the swirls in the white around Santa, and it was relatively quick to stitch out.  Sometimes you just need your project to be finished!

I backed it with flannel, fyi
RED FLANNEL BLEEDS
and you should wash it before doing anything else with it.  I washed mine twice with 3 color catchers each time, and I think I will be comfortable sleeping under it now.

I had to get John to take a photo of how much taller the quilt is than I am, I'm so excited to have it cover my toes and nose at the same time!

I really appreciate you taking the time to visit my blog today, and guess what?  This is my 100th post and in celebration I am offering a giveaway in addition to the one from FIGO Fabrics (entry form below my drawing)! I am offering a pair of handmade beaded Christmas earrings!  Your choice of either snowmen or Santa earrings if you win.  My giveaway is open until July 27th and I will announce the winner shortly after.
(I have to limit this to US only due to ridiculous international postage rates, but I will figure out an alternate prize if you are overseas!)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

And here is the beautiful fabric from FIGO Fabrics (a fat quarter bundle!):

Make sure to click SUBMIT!

I hope you have lots of fun exploring the posts on this blog hop and get a ton of inspiration!

Brandy

Thomas and Belle say "hello" too!  They really love this rainbow quilt, I am guessing it's the wool batting.

I am also linking to

Sew Fresh Quilts

Turnabout Patchwork Blog Hop

Welcome to my stop on this blog hop celebrating the release of Teresa Mairal Barreu's new book, Turnabout Patckwork!  I have loved seeing all the variations the other bloggers made, be sure to follow their links at the end of this post if you haven't seen them yet.

If you want to see more of Teresa's work follow these links:

Teresa Mairal Barreu
Sewn Up, TeresaDownUnder

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/antipodas1
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/teresadownunder
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/teresadownunder
Blog: http://mypatchwork.wordpress.com
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/antipodas
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/antipodas

Be sure to read to the end of this post to be entered to win a copy of Teresa's book!

The concept of taking simple pieced blocks and slicing them up then turning them every which way was really neat to explore when reading through this book.  I am excited to share this book with all my friends at guild as a good way to make fun baby quilts for our community service project!

I thoroughly enjoyed making a little quilt with blocks from the Coordinated Strips section arranged in the Diamonds and Crosses layout.  I went to Walla Walla Sew and Vac for my stripe and ended up getting all the coordinating fabric about a week later from them as well!  The backing I found at Stash was exactly what I needed to calm down my busy top.

You can see here that I switched up the color placement a little with the "background" fabrics, it felt better putting the colors opposite like this, as if they wanted to be more scrappy.

One of the things mentioned by Teresa in the book is that with these blocks you are dealing with a lot of bias edges.  I made sure to starch (well, I use Best Press) my strip sets before cutting them down and I had no problems with the bias.

When I reached this stage I was really pleased to see how my blocks were turning out and that secondary design was really exciting!  In the picture above you can see the pinwheels pretty clearly, but in the one below I feel like the squares are prominent.  And all I did was add sashing and cornerstones!

 I did a tiny sashing between my blocks, 1/2 inch finished!  But it was enough to keep the secondary pattern looking continuous.

I was hustling to get my quilt loaded on the longarm and finish stitching before the Super Bowl began.  The last stitches went in 2 minutes before the game started!  The Diagonal Plaid pattern from Patricia Ritter stiched out wonderfully (and quickly!) and looks really great with two layers of 80/20 batting.

My quilt ended up finishing at 38 inches square using nine blocks and 4 inch borders, which makes for a great baby quilt or even a driving quilt, I am thinking I will put it in the car for the next few weeks.

I also made my first scrappy binding!  It went really well and I am definitely doing that again.  And look, we finally have winter weather!

This Bandana yardage I found for the backing is really pretty.  They had some orange too, I may need to go pick some up...

 Eek!  Snowflakes that are taking on their snowflaky form!

 I was able to get Thomas to inspect for me in between daily tasks, thanks buddy for taking time out of your busy schedule to check out my latest quilt.

Thank you for stopping by to see my project from this fun book.  Remember to leave a comment to be entered to win a digital copy of it for yourself!  I will draw a winner on February 14th.

Have a wonderful day!

Brandy

 

Full schedule:

January 30 - Quarter Snow Ball

Arrowhead

• Jen Shaffer blog: Patterns by Jen
• Lorinda Davis blog: Laurel, Poppy and Pine

Sweet Bows

• Kate Colleran blog: Seams like a dream
• Sandra Healy blog: Sandra Healy Designs

Tutti-frutti

• Moira de Carvalho blog: Quilt Design Duo
• Lynn Kane blog: Puppy Girl Designs

Sun Dunes

• Sarah Goer blog: Sarah Goer Quilts
• Tammy Silvers  blog: Tamarinis

February 1 - Modern Shoofly

Flying Rainbows

• Gretchen Wylegala blog:  Snug Harbor Quilts

Flying Butterflies

• Anorina Morris blog: Samelia’s mum
• Raewyn Barge blog: Stitching Farmgirl

Flying Flags

• Tammy Silvers blog: Tamarinis
• Becca Fenstermaker blog: Pretty Piney

Flying Confetti

• Laura Piland blog: Slice of π Quilts
• Sarah Ruiz blog: Saroy

February 2 - Half Square Triangles (HSTs) and squares

Rose Garden Star

• Anne Boundy blog:  Said with Love

Swirl

• Joanne Harris blog: Quilts by Joanne
• Sarah Myers blog: The Quilted Diary

Houndstooth

• Becca Fenstermaker blog: Pretty Piney

Diamond Star

• Sarah Vanderburgh blog: Sew Joy Creations
• Sarah Scott blog: Piccolo Studio

February 4 - Striped Fabric Block

Shells

• Gail Sheppard blog: Quilting Gail
• Julie Burton blog: Running Stitch Quilts

Xs and Os

• Linda McLaren blog: The Quilting Biker
• Sarah Scott blog: Piccolo Studio

Jaws

• Cheryl Brown blog: QuilterChic

Arrowhead

• Stephanie Jacobson blog: Steph Jacobson Design

February 6 - Coordinated Strips

Peaks

• Afton Warrick blog: Quilting Mod

Diamond and Crosses

• Linda McLaren blog: The Quilting Biker
• Brandy Pettit blog: Pampered Pettit

Knots and Crosses

• Leanne Parsons blog: Devoted Quilter
• Andy Knowlton blog: A Bright Corner

February 8 - Double Disappearing Nine-Patch

Holiday Trellis

• Sherry Shish blog: Powered by Quilting

Stepping Stones

• Bobbi Bridgeman blog: Snowy Days Quilting
• Anja Clyke blog: anjaquilts

Two for One

• Mania Hatziioannidi blog: Mania for Quilts

Cross

• Sandra Starley blog: Textile Time Travels
• Anjeanette Klinder blog: Anjeanette Klinder

2019 - Back in action

Welcome back!

I just have to laugh at myself, I have been that person with the "best of intentions" when it comes to posting updates and yet I get so busy I just clean forget!  So here is some eye candy:

Rhonda's Elephant Abstractions quilt that I custom quilted for her.  She delivered it in person to her daughter in New York and her daughter loves it!

I had a great time figuring out motifs with Rhonda, we ended up picking out favorites from photos of finished quilts on Instagram and creating a unique design.

This was the first king size quilt I loaded on the longarm and I free-handed loose swirls on it for Anita.  I was really impressed with this quilt, the interlocking chains look so cool, and the simple quilting let the piecing shine.

This beauty made by my cousin Mary V. for her granddaughter was so wonderful to work on, there were new things to experience such as rouched fabric, applique, and dense quilting with a minky backing.

This minky looks and feels wonderful, even with the tighter quilting.

Business is going quite well, I have been able to make the payments on the longarm from money made on quilts for the last 3 payments, so I am beating my goal of making payments by the 2nd year of business!  I have gotten to work on some incredible quilts over the last year and am so thankful for the supportive quilters in my area. 😘 

And I am so happy to have my quilting area more complete, we added a white board (to track projects), a cork board (to hang my rulers), and new lighting which is really helping my eyes as I am in the basement.

I get to start this year off as part of a blog hop featuring a new book from Martingale:

I am excited to share my blocks with you all and to see what everyone else does with all the neat options Teresa has layed out for us.
Teresa can be found at mypatchwork.wordpress.com.

Thomas and Belle are quite attached to this quilt I made this year as part of a jellyroll competition.  It needs it's own post so you can see the quilting, but I will tell you that Hobbs wool batting is awesome.  And that may be why the cats love this one so much.

Have a super sparkly day!

Brandy