Deadlines

Now that I have a serious deadline, aka baby coming, I'm finding I have a great drive to finish things. I've talked to other quilters and creative types and I've found a common theme. We are all great at starting new projects, but struggle to finish them. Some people thrive in quilting clubs because they must have a block done at every meeting. Some people find that competitions get them in high gear.

To get myself organized, (and less distracted by pinterest.com ideas) I've put together a calendar for the end of this year. I found it when I googled: calendar August to December and picked one I liked. I'm doing great at meeting my sewing deadlines....not so great on my art ones, but this is progress people! I can work on any one of the projects as long as it's moving me toward one of the deadlines.

How do you get yourself to finish a project?

By Cassie Grace

Ps. Do you love my foam monster? He is a lightbulb. Haha.

Valli's First Quilt!!!!

Opening a store filled with quilting fabrics was a dream but not because I was in love with quilting.  I love the fabrics and am always telling the customers, "Kim is the quilter, I am the Interior Designer!" I find good uses for the beautiful fabrics, other than quilts.....is that wrong?  I spent many weeks each Summer growing up, with my Grandma Ruby.  She was a quilter, a beautiful quilter!  I remember her porch was lined with rows of cabinets draped with fabric fronts. The shelves behind were filled with folded quilts, all handmade, all wonderful!  I think I fell in love with the random, mismatched look of scrappy a long time ago.  She also taught me how to sew on her pedal Singer sewing machine.  "Thank you Grandma!"  

That was then and this is now....I'm still all about the fabric.  The quilting industry has so many fabulous designers creating so many beautiful prints, I think that's why I prefer scrappy...because I don't have to choose just a few, I can use them all!  The more mismatched the better! So, after almost two years it's time to quilt. My first quilt has to fit my criteria of easy, easy, easy and places for lots of fabrics. I saw this quilt in one of our books and loved it!  It's basically a "flip and sew" (and iron) Cut your favorite fabrics in assorted widths, randomly place, sew, flip, iron and start over! It's fun and fast. Now I can say I have made a quilt. My quilts will probably always be simple, I'll leave the detailed, more exact quilts to Kim and Robbie!

By Valli Daniel

Quick Announcement

Some of you may have known this, but I am pregnant! And my husband and I just found out on tuesday that we are having a little girl!!!! Because babies are on my mind, there may be one or two more articles than usual on the baby stuffs (baby blankets, dolls, etc.). But I thought you kids might get a kick out of some costumes I've designed for Halloween. I want to take advantage of my baby bump!

Most of the maternity Halloween costumes I found in my google searches were LAME! I am not painting my belly. Period. So, I'm going to put my sewing skills to work. Most of these I can buy a cheap t-shirt and add cotton/notions from Valli & Kim to it. I can't wait to show ya'll the finish!

Do you have a favorite? OH! Before I forget, I'm taking any ideas you have, as well. 

By Cassie Grace

May the Force be with you...

Who doesn't love a bit of Star Wars stitch-geekery?

Have you seen this before? I found it on pinterest.com and it cracked me up!!! The gal who designed it is Carina (here is her website: http://www.feelingstitchy.com). I want to make one of my own and frame it for my sewing area. 

This got me thinking though, some people swear by ironing your seams open and others to one side. Depending on my project I might even do both. EGADS!!! For example:

It made sense for the Hexes to do press both open and to the side, so it would lie flatter. If the center bit had been open seamed, it would have been a folding little mess. 

You may be able to see that I put this together in columns and then sewed the columns together. I took care to iron half the seams north and the south, so that when they came together there would be less bulk. 

How do you press your seams? Open, closed, combination?

By Cassie Grace

Templates

For a while, I thought templates were for weenies. Turns out, TEMPLATES ARE TOTALLY AWESOME!!!!!! My totally sweet mama got me hexagon templates for my "grandmothers flower garden." Templates, as I now know, are for smart people who want to save time.

The templates are clear, so hard to see in a photo, but so
 nice when you're cutting the fabric.

The other tool you see here is for marking 1/4 inch in from your corner, whatever the shape. I used the Hex to mark every corner of every bit of fabric. That sounds tedious, BUT I knew exactly where to start and stop my stitching. No tucks or folds. They all came together beautifully on my machine. I think the traditional way to do this design is by hand with paper cutouts. This method saved me loads of time!! Besides my hand-stitching isn't very straight or even.

Have you used templates before? Did you like them?

By Cassie Grace

Quilting Across Texas

Apparently, we aren't the only ones who like to quilt! The "Quilt Across Texas" Shop Hop is coming! It is going on the whole month of September because... well... TEXAS IS HUGE!!! It would take a whole month to go to every shop. Anyway, when you come to our shop, you enter to win a gift certificate for $50. **You can also enter to win the Grand Prize with $1400 worth of merchandize. The big prize includes:

All the prizes, but the Sewing Machine.

• 2 large thread
• 1 small binding clip
• Bias maker
• Purple thang
• Bobbin bikini
• Window decal
• Add a quarter
• Bloc-loc
• Quilt pins
• Needles
• Fusible bias
• Swatch buddies
• Rotary cutter
• Caddy
• Pins
• Appliqué pressing sheet
• LED light kitMarking pencil
• Pin magnet
• Sewers aid

• Bohin needles
• Turn it all
• Press bar
• Snap n store
• Gypsy gripper
• Gypsy cutting gizmo
• Ruby beholde
• Shop hop kit
• Basting spray
• Best press
• Scissors
• Ripper
• Iron
• Caddy pad
• Cutting edge ruler 6 1/2x12 1/2
• Mat
• Tutto
• Featherweight Machine

**Please check out the website to be sure you understand the rules for the prizes.

http://www.quiltacrosstexas.com/

I don't know about you ladies, but I want that Featherweight Sewing Machine!!! Will you be going to all the shops in our region, or are you shooting for all of Texas?

By Cassie Grace

I'm a fool for my tools!

The right tools can make all the difference. Of course there are "froo-froo" tools that look cool, but you never end up really using, but had fun trying out. Well, we have come across a gadget that can be a huge time saver if you mess up as often as I do. ~wink wink~ 

"The Quick Ripper" 

It's basically a mustache trimmer, but it works great on ripping seams. It biggest brownie-point for me is how fast it is! Raise you hand if you've spent close to an hour picking out something that took you THREE seconds to sew. Yeah, I know you've done it too! Something to be aware of though, it can nip your fabric a bit if your not careful, but I messed up my fabric on occasion just with my seam ripper. I've got a video of how it works here, but you can definitely ask Kim to let you give it a go and test it out on some of your scraps. 

Do you have any tools that you just can't live without now you have them?

By Cassie Grace