One Piece at a Time

Design Wall Monday

Just wanted to share the finished picture with everyone. More info to come.

Be sure to check out Judy's blog for more inspiration.

Notice: Sporadic Blogging Ahead

Hello dear blog friends. I’m checking in today to tell you that I am going to be very sporadic at blogging in the next few weeks. Today when I was looking at my calendar I realized that my son turns 18 this Thursday…as in THIS THURSDAY!!!!!!! For some reason I mistakenly thought that this event was weeks away. Then I came to the even more frightening realization that…my kids both move into the dorms at their college three weeks later….eeeepppp!

That plus some unexpected developments, albeit good ones, have cropped up. These include lots of paper work and hair pulling as well as more mortar and grout but in the end everything is hopefully going to work out for the best for us.

And, of course there is work…..

Hopefully I will be back to my usual wordy self by August 24…in the mean time please excuse the sporadic blogging.

Custom Fabric Buttons

I wanted my cute flowers to have a button for the center but I just couldn’t find the right ones. Well, actually I did find the right ones but they were EXPENSIVE. So, I thought why not try to make my own. If you have been following this blog at all you know that I use circles in my appliqués all the time. I figured you could just use the same technique but instead of pressing at the end just pop a button in there. Here’s how I did it.

I found these inexpensive buttons at the craft store.

I cut a circle of fabric slightly less than twice the size.

Here I am taking a running stitch around the edge.

Now place the button in the center.

And pull tight…ta da!!! A custom button!

Button Flowers for my tree

I haven’t done any dimensional flowers for a while so I thought I would add a few to my tree quilt just for fun. These flowers are super dimple and fun to make. Here’s how I did it.

First I cut out 5 circles of fabric…each is 2”.

Then I pressed them in half.

I stitched a running stitch 1/4” from the raw edges around the half circle.

Pulled tight

Added 4 more petals, pulled really tight and tied a knot.

Here I have a 2 circles, each 1”, fused wrong sides together.

I use a little fabric glue to glue the flower down so I can sew on a button….

I was having a real hard time figuring out which buttons to use when I had this brainstorm idea. Why not make my own? Tutorial on that step tomorrow.

Design Wall Monday

Things are a little scary here. I was just gearing up to work on this new little project for the blog when the terrible news of ANOTHER mass shooting in Colorado hit. This one really hit close to home. My daughter was at a different movie theater with her friends at the same time. I remember waking up at 3:15am and realizing she wasn’t there. Thank God for cell phones because she answered right away when I called her and told me she was on her way home. None of us knew the news of the shooting yet. Needless to say, we are all grief stricken here in Colorado.

So, today’s Design Wall Monday is more of a little preview and progress report. Here is the beginning of a project with that yummy fabric from last week. I am in the process of machine quilting it.

Here is what’s going to get added. These little dimensional flowers are fun to make and I have tutorials on how to do that. Also, that is a custom fabric covered button that I will show you how to do…no kit or anything.

Finally, I have a little tutorial planned on how I am quilting that gorgeous large scale floral in the border.

I sure hope I can get to it all this week but right now the top of the pile is some freelance work.

Head on over to Judy's blog and see what everyone else is up to.

Mimi's Bloomers Block 7

Here it is folks...Block 7. Now we are all caught up!

Download Block 7

 

Scenes from around town

Today I am completely tied up with freelance work so I thought I would share a few shots from Lovely Boulder Colorado with you. Enjoy.

I will be back on Friday with…wait for it…..Block 7 of Mimi’s Bloomers. I thought I would do double duty blocks this month so we can finish in December.

I am NERVOUS

Today I am doing something I have never ever done before. I’m shooting a professional video on how to make these fabric covered journals. I have visions of the Broadcast News flop sweat scene stuck in my head. By the way, if you haven’t seen Broadcast News, the flop sweat scene is totally HILARIOUS.

My other fear is that I start giggling uncontrollably. You see, when I was in college my cousin and I signed ourselves up to be zombie voices in a Day of the Dead movie…I’m not making this up, really. Apparently when they make a zombie movie none of the actors are groaning and making zombie sounds when they film. They add those later. Basically to do this they put a large group of people in a sound stage and show the zombie scenes. The people are supposed to groan and make zombie noises while watching the movie. Long story short, I was a miserable failure. They had to stop recording multiple times because I would start laughing so hard. Finally this loud voice came out of a speaker saying,

“Would the girl in the red sweater PLEASE exit the premises”

So I left….I’m not zombie material apparently.

Design Wall Monday

Oh dear….I went fabric shopping. Here is a glimpse of one fabric combo. I can’t wait to show you what I am going to do with this.

 More to come.

Head on over to Judy’s blog for more inspiration.

Miss Kay shop problem fixed

Many thanks to alert reader Linda. I accidently had Miss Kay for sale in the US only. Now it is available everywhere.

Thanks Linda