A sunny saturday afternoon

Hi all!

I had a lovely morning sewing(while emptying the dishwasher and other nasty things like that!), and am at the halfway point on the fabric boxes tutorial I shared with you last week(link on Cute Tutes page).

These are the two fabrics I've chosen, as well as some buttons I am auditioning. Not sure which ones I'll go with yet...

One of the fatties had the designer's name printed on it, but the other did not. Love my little vintage fruit nappy, perfect for holding tidbits!

Can you see my shadow on the turquoisey-green fabric??? 

I wanted the quilting to show up a little, so I chose some Antique Gold-coloured thread. I hope to finish them up tomorrow(best laid plans... *wink*).

I was a naughty girl and did a little online retail therapy at Fabricworm. It arrived on my doorstep Friday. Happy Mail!!! I have plans for the black print, bias plaid and the teal, but bought the remaining 4 yards of the oh-so-colourful block print just because! It is in all my go-to colours, so it will be used! I am thinking maybe a scrappy BOM??? All the fabric arrived enclosed in a large, sturdy ziplock-style bag. That will be re-purposed as soon as I get the fabric into my stash. No, sorry, no pictures of the stash…it's embarrassing to say the least! hee hee hee

So I decided to jump on the blogosphere bandwagon and got the Sew Together Bag pattern by Michelle Tucker of Sew Demented. I just had to have that pattern! It is a great little zip-up organizer…perfect for my paper piecing supplies. I first heard about it on several of the blogs I follow and then again during the Sew Mama Sew semi-annual giveaway. I am a little concerned about installing all those zippers, but the 14 page pattern(it's a PDF) has loads of info. You can get your copy here.

Here's another sneak preview of the giant hexie quilt(I have to wait for the hubs' help to photograph the entire quilt):

You can see the border fabric in this one. I decided to sew the border on by hand as well, so now I can say it is pieced entirely by hand.

And this is the backing fabric. The gingham check is 1/4". 

Initially, I bought 6 yards(it is 57" wide), but by the time I finished the quilt, I realized that I needed much more. The Lord was in my corner, as I found the online store I'd bought the original piece from(they had moved their store to Etsy) and they had some left! Can you believe that? I bought what they had and now have enough! Happy story!

That's all for me folks!

Happy sewing,

Jacqueline

A new addition...

Hi all! 
I'd like to welcome my new followers! Feel free to share with your friends.

Soooo….guess what the UPS lady brought me last night??? Woo-hoo!!!! My purple camera has arrived!!! I have finally joined the 21st century! 
Thanks, hubs!

Now I can show you a few things…

This is my shoe box, get it? S.H.O.E. B.O.X. (*wink*). This is where I keep my pre-cut fabric for hexies.

 This is a view of what's inside.

These are my new quilting and embroidery books that my guys gave me for Mother's Day! Aren't I spoiled???

Last night before bed I decided to do a little rummaging through my fat quarters. I wanted to pick 2 coordinating ones to make the quilted fabric box mentioned the other day. Found them and then started playing in my huge glass button jar(it used to be a Biscotti jar, I love to re-purpose!)…well, the hubs gets out of bed and comes roaring into my sewing room, hollering "do you know how loud you are being?". It never occurred to me that my mindless fondling of all and sundry buttons was irritating the poor man! What could I do? I had to find some matching buttons, and yes, I did have to do it at that moment! He was not amused….

This is sneak preview #1 of the giant hexie quilt. Little blurry I know, I must learn to not breathe when I take pics!

This is sneak preview #2 of the giant hexie quilt! I love those blocks with the kitty cat faces and the one with the cactus.

Had my appointment with the orthopaedic surgeon yesterday. Turns out I have 'early' Arthritis in my knee and nothing can be done about it, surgery-wise. He gave me a physiotherapy exercise to do and told me to lose weight. Not so helpful, but I will do the exercise and cut back on the sweets. Groan…

The kid got called back for a second interview at the cinema, so he is quite excited and so are we!

It is a beautiful day, so I am going to have the hubs unearth my lounger and have a rest under the tree with my new quilting books.

Has anyone got any new books lately? I'd love to hear about them!

Thanks for reading and have a great one,

Jacqueline

Next small project

Hi all! Thanks for stopping by!

This is what's up next for me. Tina, of Seaside Stitches, has shared a great tutorial for these cute little fabric boxes. You can make them in lots of sizes and they are great for holding all sorts of goodies! I will be making at least one, cuz I really need to tidy my sewing areas…as Mr. Quilt, Sew Happy can attest!

Here is the link: Fabric Box Tutorial. This will take you to the page of the tutorial, but do stick around and have a look at the blog!

A person, who shall remain nameless, is selling the pattern for this tutorial on Craftsy, for $6. I am mentioning this as her photos and finished project are the same as Tina's tutorial, yet make no mention of Tina or her blog, Seaside Stitches. Craftsy won't do anything to help her. Just wanting to get this out there, so people know!

I want to thank those of you who have become readers and followers of my blog. Please be patient, my new camera is wisking it's way to me as we speak! Believe me, I am more impatient than you all! I wanna show you stuff!

Thanks for reading and please share with your friends!

Jacqueline

Next in line

Hello all! 
Happy Memorial Day weekend to my American friends!

I thought I would show you what is next in line, as far as large projects go. This is Impromptu, by the very sweet Rachel Griffiths of ps. I quilt. She has a great website with lots of free tutorials and her pattern shop. You can get the downloadable pattern here. It uses a layer cake and yardage, but I am planning to use up some of my stash of fat quarters, and yardage from my bolt of Kona-snow.

It is cold and rainy, a perfect day to press my hexie quilt. So I am going to hit the ironing board. Sure wish I had the above iron. I do have a Rowenta, but it is about 13 years old. It still works well, but who could resist such a fabulous racy BLUE iron!!!!

That's all for me today, thanks for reading!

Jacqueline

Just a wee note

Hi all!

Look what I won in the latest SEW MAMA SEW GIVEAWAY!

This is a mug rug, key fob and cute little FPP lapel pin! These were made and offered up for grabs by the lovely Tina @ Seaside Stitches. Have a look at her fun website and tell her I sent you! I can't wait till they arrive!. Now I have 2 things to wait for…

Netflix was on the fritz last night so no binge-watching for us. The hubs found a Criminal Minds marathon, so we watched that until Lewis came on(PBS) at 9.         

Got a bunch more hexies basted. I have to say that I am now used to the(much smaller) seam allowance on the hexie pieces I cut with my AccuQuilt Hexie die.

That's all for me today,

Jacqueline

a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/12282971/?claim=u33xhk7nvpb">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

A job interview...

Hi peeps!

My teenaged son had his first ever job interview last night. It is for the local cinema, which would be awesome as it is a 5 minute walk from home. Please send good thoughts! I will be keeping my fingers and toes crossed!

This is a pic of the almost 4,000 basted hexies that I used in the King hexagon quilt. At this stage, I had already sewn them into 'triplets'. The photo is not the greatest, having being taken on the kiddo's iPad. In the corner is yardage of some really nice white muslin, ordered from Hancock's of Paducah online. Also some jelly roll strips for a Strip Disco quilt, cut them out of my stash.

Connecting Threads is having a great sale…and their wonderful house-brand threads are on sale too @ $1.95(and it's a big spool)! They are backordered on white and red, but those colours are supposed to arrive before the thread sale ends on June 16. I use this thread(it is 50-weight) for most of my piecing and hexie basting. It is very smooth.

I have been ordering from them for years, and they have a great selection and customer service is superb.

You may wonder why I order a lot of things online…we live in a small town and the nearest fabric store is over a hour's drive away, and it is only a chain fabric store at that. The nearest LQS is not local to me at all, so I do most of my purchases online. Due to certain medications I take for my chronic illnesses, I do not drive anymore. So getting to a LQS is almost impossible, at this moment.

I have included the CT sale email for your perusal. Enjoy!

Thanks for reading and follow your star!

For customer service: 1-800-574-6454        Source Code: BE140521         About Us | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy Our records show that EmailAddress is subscribed to this mailing list. If you do not wish to receive our emails, you may unsubscribe at any time. Connecting Threads® and ConnectingThreads.com are registered trademarks of Crafts Americana Group, Inc. ©2002-2014 ConnectingThreads.com. All rights reserved. 13118 NE 4th Street Vancouver, WA 98684

New!!!!

Hi peeps!
Guess what my dear hubs just bought me…

…and it's purple!!!! Yay!!! Now I just have to wait 4-10 days till it arrives.

I am so excited as I have lots of things to show you!

That means I have a week or so to finally press the (unnamed)mammoth hexie quilt. I have been putting off the final press of the flimsy till it was a cool day outside, and well, let's be perfectly honest, I'm just not a fan of pressing. 

A few days ago I decided to tidy the 'forbidden closet', hoping to find the digital camera I got with Airmiles about 3 years ago. Well, the tidy turned into an all-out purge! I ended up getting several garbage bags full of old stuff to send to Value Village(that's Savers, in the USA). The closet looks pretty good, but I totally over-did it. Ended up with a multi-day migraine…but that is how it goes with me.

That's all for me today, thanks for reading!

Holiday Monday

Queen Victoria

Hi all, happy Monday!

Today is a holiday here in Canada, named after the above dour-looking lady. She reigned for many years and is the grandmother of the now-sitting Queen of England. Those of us living in a former British Colony get the day off, paid!

That being said, it also means there are no newspapers…grrrr….

So, I spent my morning-coffee newspaper-reading-time flipping through an old quilting magasine and a new-to-me quilting book.

I love foundation paper piecing as you get such nice, crisp points. Something which is kind of a hit or miss in my sewing room(groan…). This book has a bunch of great patterns to try and the foundation patterns are all to size. She even gives directions on how to re-size the patterns on your printer. Another thing I like about her pattern pieces is that they don't include the seam allowances. I just find that the least bulk possible is the best, when it comes to FPP, and I would cut the excess allowances off anyway, then trim my fabric to 1/4". And, instead of using pins(which can bend and become dull when going through multiple layers of fabric and paper) she suggests you use plastic-coated paper clips to temporarily secure your fabric to your paper. You wouldn't want to do that at intersections that need to be precise, she adds.
I got my copy on Amazon.ca.

Last night the kid was at a guy's games-night-sleepover, so the hubbs and I watched 3 movies on Netflix. The first was The American-George Clooney. Now, usually in my eyes, he can do no wrong, BUT this was a miss in my humble opinion. I guess that is why it wasn't at the theatres for long. We then watched Trespass-Nicolas Cage. Not bad, but I had figured out the twist soon into it. Last was a Pirate feature animation, voice of Hugh Grant, among others. My comic-book-artist husband giggled all the way through, but I was kind of meh…got A LOT of my hexies basted, to say the least.

I have been searching high and low for my digital camera, but have a sinking feeling that DH might have tossed it by accident. No fear, I have things in the works and hope to have a camera and pics on the blog, in the next 2 weeks.

That's all for me today, thanks for reading.

Day 2!

*This is me, at 9 years old!!!

Hi all!!!

Last night, we were watching Netflix(Contraband, starring Mark Walberg), I started basting the hexie fabric I cut with my Accuquilt cutter and new, $80 hexie die. The die has 2 sizes of hexies, one for cutting the actual-sized hexies out of card stock and the other(which is larger by about a scant quarter inch on all sides), for the fabric pieces. Now, before I got my new die, I had always cut my fabric pieces at 2.5" square, which allows for a generous fold over. Not any more!!! I now have to get used to a much smaller fold over. As I had been using up the remained of my 2.5" square pieces from my last hexie quilt, it wasn't until last night that I actually started on the new pre-cut pieces(of which I have already cut about 3,000!). Oh my goodness, what a change. I used to mindlessly baste, but now I have to pay attention as the very last fold/baste stitch is a bit tricky with less fabric to work with. I managed, and by the end of the evening(we also watched Frost on PBS), I had got the hang of it. I did have a scary moment…what if I can't get the hang of it and I have already cut a shoe box full of them???…but, as you now know, that has not come to pass! Whew!

We had to get some groceries, so we walked over to the grocery store. Boy-oh-boy, is it ever muggy today. It is overcast and I thought it was going to be cold, and put on a jacket…big mistake! In 5 minutes I was steaming! We got our groceries and then hit the chain pharmacy as I had some coupons for things that were also on sale. Talk about a double savings…that's my all time favourite way to shop! Got my fave ice cream(BREYER'S Mint Chocolate Chip) on sale and bonus store points too! I am saving up my points, as for one month in the summer you can get extra items(to the tune of an extra $50 worth of free items!!!). Every little bit helps! I wobbled home, and that was it for me and the stairs today(I have a bad knee, waiting for surgery).

Well, gotta put the leg up and hope the swelling isn't too bad...

hello?

knock, knock, knock…
is anybody out there?

So, what can I say???? This is day one and I am flying by the seat of my…well you get the picture!!!

My name is Jacqueline, pronounced Jack-lean and I am in my late 40's. I am a wife of one and mother to two boys, aged 23 and 15. I live on the West coast of Canada, near Vancouver, BC. It is beautiful here, but we, like all Lower Mainlanders, complain bitterly about the weather. It's true, though, that we get more than our fair share of rain!

I have been quilting for over 20 years, and do most of my piecing and quilting by hand. That being said, I have become recently infatuated with English Paper Piecing. I have just finished a king sized 1" hexie quilt, all scrappy, and have now started on another(would you believe it was the 15 yr old son that requested it??!). I also have a 2"(per side) 6-point star 'kit' all cut up and ready to go, if we ever manage to go on a camping trip this year!!!

I have Fibromyalgia and also suffer from Chronic Daily Migraines, so life can be a bit of a strain/drain. I do try to stay positive and quilting helps a LOT with that.

Plans for this blog are; quilty tidbits, some tutorials(if I can get that darn digital camera to work), some guest posts(hopefully), links to personal faves in the tutorial department. I would also like to share some recipes we have enjoyed, though the hubbs is the main family cook. I want to re-learn how to crochet, and possibly have a tutorial or three. In between hand-piecing, I also do embroidery on small things like flour sack towels and wall hangings.

That's all for me today,
I'll catch you on the flip side.