this and that

I finally made a decision to try to find more of this
Shamash Brothers fabric online. Unfortunately for me,
they have stopped making collections for fabric
retailers and have sold off old stock. They mainly do
upholstery/ design fabrics now. This print was from
2006- so I was very lucky to find 2 yards on ebay!
I had 2 fat quarters, but could not get a good fussy
cut of the designs for the Arizona Cross quilt.
Having more of this means I can fussy cut the strip
designs and incorporate them into the quilt somehow.


I finally had a break through on my Mom's Everglades
quilt. I had shelved it because it was just so
unbalanced and I could not figure out how to fix it
without opening the middle of it and adding one of
the everglades blocks. I had DoriAnn over last week
and asked her opinion of it and she agreed that
there seemed to be a "hole" where an everglade
block should be. We both had an epiphany at the same
time "Rip it down the middle and flip the bottom up
to the middle section." I sat and ripped seams,
flipped it and it worked! So I was able to get the
borders on today! Wahoo!


I cut the leftover border strips and solid color blocks
into 3" squares and played with them for a while until
I came-up with a pretty good design. This will be fun
to make into a doll sized quilt.

Little Project

I whipped up this little 24 X 30 flimsy today using a
handful of nine patches left over from my quilt groups
swap. I decided to make a little wall hanging for the
Ladies Room at church. Maybe I'll get to quilting it
this week.

Rocking Chairs Project Complete

I finally finished recovering the three rocking chairs
for the church Nursery. I did not know what in the world
I was doing, but with a little info and encouragement
from my Mom and Princess Buttercup- I did it! Thanks
ladies. It is a big load off of my mind to have it done
and out of my sewing area and garage!!! I'm Soo happy!

Accidents Happen

My blog has a whole new look! I was trying to download a
new background this afternoon and accidentally reverted to
a classic template. Oh well. It will take me a while to
replace all the fun stuff that was on the side bar.


update: I found a template that restored all my items, but
it is not one I am going to stick with- I need to figure
this out!

Until next time,
Moorea

Arizona Cross Block

Well, it's a little after one am here, and I just finished a
mock-up of a block I designed that will go into my southwestern
quilt. It may be a very common design and have a name, but I
am going to call it Arizona Cross, as it will go on point
and look somewhat like a Catholic cross from that area. I cannot
believe the points came out so beautifully. This machine has
made my confidence soar! I always thought it was me that could
not get the points to match- but this is the fist time I have
pieced with this new machine and look how it turned out! I did
not have to undo one point to redo it! WOW!


I flanked it with the beautiful fabric Aunty Ruthie sent.
It is so soft and of such quality! I cannot wait to set
it next to the beautiful blocks.


You can see the color looks better with the fabrics.
It is slight, but it sure does make a difference!


The turquoise fabric on the left is the one I will be
using- it is just a tich darker and matches better with
the turquoise found throughout all the other fabrics.
You can see how bright is in the mock-up block. It's
just too bright for my liking. Playing with the half
blocks was so much fun. I had about 5 designs, but
none of them was southwestern enough. This one is perfect!

Surprise!

I received a box in the mail Monday from a dear friend of my
Mom's in Honolulu- Aunty Connie! She generously sent me the
scraps of old sewing projects she and her daughter worked on
in sewing classes. I just lOvE scraps- they make my world go
'round! I part and parceled them out into various projects,
OK- a fEw dOZeN projects, if truth be told. Don't look at me
like tHaT!!! Oh sorry- I now it see it is a look of agreement-
you have a few dozen quilt projects stashed away too!


Oh La La -This one was one of my faves, and there was about
a yard of it- I'll put it into the "purple quilt" stash of
course! There were some tone on tones and some cute yardages
that could become pieced backings. I am going to cut up the
small scraps for my Bonnie's Scrap User System (BSUS):0)

It does my heart good to have new fabric in the stash- there
was a turquoise piece that inspired me to work on my South West Quilt design and I'll post the block I
designed a little later this week.

Decorative Sampler & Heirloom Stitching

It was recommended at my last sewing class that I make a sampler
of all the decorative stitches my machine can do. I had so
much fun making this- and it will definitely come in handy
because some of the stitches do not look like their picture
at all!



We also did something so interesting- heirloom stitching.
All you need is a wing needle and linen or 100% cotton fabric.
I cannot wait to do some little project using this technique.
Here are some links so you can see fabulous examples:
Janice Henning's Heirloom Stitches
Gina Butler


You can see how the needle flares out- that is what makes
the holes so big. order one on ebay here.