Santa & Sew Parties

Do you have any fun Christmas or holiday traditions? I thought I would share a few of the fun things we did this weekend and a little about how WIP Week wrapped up. 



Over the weekend we had our good friends come over and we went to see Santa, ate dinner together, and even made it to see Christmas lights. There is a place in town that decorates with thousands of Christmas lights, and it is a common tradition to go walk through the lights some time in December. Of course, we picked a pretty cold night. A and I quickly learned it was warmer if we piggy-backed than if we walked alone. 









Having a best friend who doesn’t live in the same town is rough. Recently we have both been so busy that this was our first visit in quite a while. Thankfully, we have planned a longer get together around the New Year with movies, fort-building, and popcorn. I’m looking forward to it. 



After they left to head home, I scurried off to the sewing room desperate to finish up a couple projects. I knew my Saturday was booked, so my only chance to get things knocked off the list was late Friday night. Thankfully, I got quite a bit done burning the midnight oil, and I was able to wake up early and finish it the rest of the way on Saturday morning.





Earlier in the week an SOS had been issued. A friend needed to get a t-shirt quilt done fairly quickly and a group had pulled together to help. I told you I might show up and help you finish projects during WIP Week. You never know, you might be next!



Anyways, Saturday I knew would be filled with her t-shirt quilt and it was. We were able to cut, sew, and quilt it all in one day. I even heard that the binding was sewn on and it had been through the wash before the weekend ended. That is a pretty successful sewing party. 





It was too funny. Two were sewing frantically, two were pressing, and one was handing pieces out to sew and cutting away at the sashing, borders, blocks, and binding. Things were crazy. We kept the quilt laid out on the dining room table, but there were times where pieces were at each station and nothing was on the table. Sewing started around noon and by 5pm we were loading it on Millie. A simple meandering pattern was chosen and Millie got to work. 







Be careful when you issue an SOS, things will start flying and projects will get finished. 





After quilting and attaching the binding, they left to start sewing down the binding, and I got to work on another quilt. I was determined to quilt the quilt I had finished that morning. I couldn’t decide on a pattern, but Mom said I should go with Meandering Feathers to help smooth out the geometric pattern in the quilt. I wasn’t sure at first, but I have been loving Meandering Feathers, so I went with it. The quilt turned out perfect. I really like this one and might have to remake one for myself. 

I’m a huge fan of half square triangles and all the things you can do with them. I think they have been appearing in every quilt I have sewn this year with few exceptions. Do you ever get caught up on one specific pattern or block?

Although last week was WIP Week, I think this will be another week of finishing up a few Christmas projects before I drag out anything new. There will be plenty of quilting, sewing, and rambling in the near future. Stick around.

See you at the machine,

•Care

Can You Watch TV & Sew?

Fun fact: I sew in silence. Occasionally I’ll listen to music, but mostly I sew without any noise except for the sewing machine. It’s my favorite way of losing myself and diving into a project. 

Last night while working on finishing up a table runner, My Love decided I needed to watch a movie, the new Dolly movie, on the tv. It wasn’t even 5 minutes later before I found myself sitting on the floor staring at the tv. Not much of anything was accomplished as soon as the tv was turned on. 
Now I know why I sew in silence, without distractions. 

Thankfully I only get this reaction with the tv. I can sew with friends and have music playing but goodness there is something up with the tv. 

I have come to the realization that it is DECEMBER first. Is anyone else freaking out? How can this be? 

My to do list is a mile long, but I’m chugging onwards and slowly marking things off. The problem is, I mark one thing off and add three more. 

Is anyone else in the same place? Piled high with Christmas projects and always adding more. I wouldn’t want it any other way though. I love making handmade gifts and there is nothing like laying on the couch under a quilt. 

Well, I better get back to sewing. Soon we will be having sew nights and parties at QH where all we will be able to hear is chatter and machines. It will be lovely, I cannot wait! 

See you at the machine, 

• Care

Quilter’s Hideaway Has Furniture!

Hi there everyone! It is raining outside and we are supposed to be decorating our house for Christmas, but instead I am sitting here with a half-assembled tree thinking about how wonderful this past weekend was and writing this blog. I sure hope no one realizes I’m slacking ;).

 

Did you have a fantastic Thanksgiving? We had everyone at our house for a late lunch/early dinner that was yummy. There was more food than we could finish, lots of laughter, and the kitchen was clean by the end of the day. I couldn’t ask for anything more. I love how both of our families (my husband’s and mine) get along so well.  It makes holidays easier and life greater.

After dinner we went out to a few shops to see what the big sales were. We didn’t purchase much at all, but we saw quite a few baskets piled high.

 

 

Friday morning I went to one store and spent over an hour in line. After that, I decided I was finished with Black Fridayshopping, and we headed to IKEA with an empty trailer.

 

We spent about an hour walking through the store seeking out different items and options. Then, we found a spot to sit and regroup. We wrote down what we needed to look for in the self service area.  We realized a few of our items were not in the self service area, and there were a couple things we wanted to look at again.

 

With our list organized and our plan set we marched through the showcase floor once more and found a lady named Rachel to help with our items that were not in the self-service area. She turned out to be an amazing help and organized our entire list for us based on aisles and checked inventory. This is when we realized a few things were out of stock. She walked with us to find other options and once again helped us to get a plan in place. She was fantastic!

 

This time, with our list in hand we scooted down to the first floor-the self service area. If you have never been to IKEA, almost all of their items come in flat packs. When you arrive at the store you walk around the second floor to see different rooms assembled with their furniture. Each item has a tag with an aisle number and bin number. You write down the information and when you finish you head down to the first floor and pull all of the furniture yourself. There are few exceptions where the staff will have items pulled for you to pick up after checking out (Rachel did this for us).

 

 

So with our LONG list, we found the elevator and headed downstairs. My parents laughed when I told them we would each need a cart, but it turns out we needed a total of 5 carts. It was crazy, but so fun and exciting.

 

We stuck to plan until we got to the chair aisle and my dad decided to mix it up. A last minute decision meant we had three different chairs on our cart. We also couldn’t find three of our originally planned chairs but it worked out for the best and we found an even better chair (in my opinion).

 

Loaded down and struggling to push the carts we headed to check out.

 

 

 

**I just got caught!! A certain someone just walked in and realized my tree is still only half assembled.**

 

After checking out, we waited on the last two carts with 11 more boxes then we headed for the elevator.

 

My dad decided we could fit everything into the elevator at once so it became a game and we won! We loaded the trailer and headed home.

 

When we arrived back in Bartlesville my husband and his family met us to help unload and start building. It was pretty late but we couldn’t wait.

 

Saturday morning I finished quilting another quilt just in time to head to the shop and finish assembling all of our IKEA items.

The shop is coming together and we cannot wait. It won’t be long before our doors will be open.

Remember, if you want to be the first with a calendar of classes, come see us at Gifts Marketplace on December 6th at Tri County Technology (Bartlesville, OK).

 

 

See you at the machine (but first I must finish this tree),

 

•Care

Flying Away On Fabric

Does life seem like it is flying away without you? I sure feel that way some days. 

I’ve been working on a new quilt and pattern that has me flying with the fabric. It is an airplane block that I have been messing with different sizing, trying to come up with the “perfect” size of each section in the block. I have a certain little one in mind for an airplane quilt, so hopefully I am able to finish this up quickly. 

For now, I have been practicing and playing with scrap fabric. I never really understood the desire for mini quilts, but I am beginning to jump on board. Some of these trial blocks are just too cute to adios. I’m thinking they might get quilted up and turn into minis. I’m sure I can find a few homes for them.

What have you been working on?
Ever since we unboxed Millie, I have been dying to get my hands on her at every available moment. Keep in mind, Millie is at my parent’s house which is a little under an hour away from where I live. That doesn’t stop me. I spent most of last weekend standing behind her, and I even went up last night to get in a couple hours of playtime. 

This weekend, my mom and I are taking a two day quilt path class. Quilt Path is the computer system that APQS offers for their longarm machines. I expect to walk away with my mind blown. Hopefully I will be able to pick up the pieces and learn everything I can. Gosh I just cannot wait.

I will be sure to share different tricks and tips we learn. Sharing this journey from cutting the tape on the box to learning how to use Millie is something I plan to do.  I am planning on posting the good, the bad, and the ugly and dragging you along with me. Strap on that seatbelt, things could get crazy around here.
For now I will dream of flying away to a land of no clocks, no commitments, happy sewing machines, and full bobbins. Care to join me?

See you at the machine,

•Care

Traveling With My Needle & Thread

Hand sewing is happening.
We were up and at the airport by 4:00am this morning, but we are heading to our favorite place on earth-Disney World. 

Last year I started an English Paper Piecing (EPP) project. My Momma-In-Law gave me a pattern for the first row of a row quilt using EPP, and I dove in. It was a learning curve but not too difficult to figure out (you could definitely figure it out!). 

I was doing a decent job of staying on top of things with the first row and even the second row. However I quickly fell behind. Then, our rental lease ended, we frantically searched for our first home to purchase and we moved. I’m still trying to find everything again and really dig back in to my slower projects. 

This week happens to be WIP Week, and a travel week so I dug this quilt out and have started it again. 

The pattern is by Mickey Depre and I could not recommend her work more. If you are a fan of English Paper Piecing, she is a fabulous resource. She also has many other patterns outside of the English Paper Piecing world and all are spectacular!! Be sure to hop over to her page on Instagram (mdquilts), Facebook (MDQuilts) or her site. You won’t be disappointed! 

A fun little back story- After I started working on my first block I wanted to find the designer on Facebook (nothing is official until it is Facebook official-or something like that). When I began my search her last name was awfully familiar, and when I found her page, MDQuilts, I instantly realized I roomed with her daughter in college! Small world! Mickey is in Chicago, the college was in Arkansas, and I’m from Oklahoma. I love how things work. 

Enough of the jabber, here are some of the blocks I have finished. 

Everything always works out perfectly. As I dug for my EPP box last night, I hopped over to MDQUILTS and was greeted with a super exciting live video that Mickey has just released a Basic Hand Piecing Acrylic Template Set! You can read more about it or even purchase it here. 
That’s all for now friends. It is time to lay my phone down and pick my needle up. 

See you at the machine (or maybe the comfy chair with a needle and thread?) 

•Care 

Supernova Sunset

Any chance you were wondering what I was sewing while sitting outside on the porch in Kentucky?

Well lucky you, read on to find out. 

We were learning how to make a Bargello quilt. A certain little sister said something along the lines of “you can make it in one weekend” and we were sold. Of course, this would require possibly reading the size of the quilt before deciding you could make it in one weekend. As it turns out, the quilt I started is a king size quilt (Actually a king size, not just something that feels ginormous. I promise, it is.). Obviously it was not finished in one weekend. It is far from finished. 

 
When I started pulling my fabric for this quilt I chose to use colors from Oklahoma sunsets and sunrises. I’ve always been enamored by the bright, brilliant colors that appear morning and night so I am mixing them into a quilt. 

 Once I had my fabric, I cut 2.5” strips of each. 

 

After all the strips were cut I lined them up using a drying rack and started piecing together my panel or strata. By midnight on Friday all my panels were ready to press. 

That is until I decided I didn’t like the way I had sewn on my three yellows. Another date with my handy-dandy seam ripper and I was back on track. Pressing happened and then I started the long, tedious process of cutting different widths to follow along the pattern grid. 

Once you have various strips cut, you take the rows at different points and reattach them or use different rows to create the pattern shown on the template. 

 A few strips in, I realized something was off with the bottom half pattern template. I have decided to focus only on the top half and then repeat the top half again since they are mirror image patterns (or should be). These things happen and it is still a wonderful pattern. I cannot wait to see the finished product. 

 

This was when I finally noticed my quilt was in fact going to be a king size quilt (notice the painters tape holding up rows outside of the design board I was using). I had a brief freak out moment and I thought I was going to stop or at least shorten my quilt, but I had made it this far, I might as well keep plowing through. 

When the weekend came to an end, I had all of my top half strips cut apart and resewn. Now, I just need to sew these strips together-that sounds easy enough. 

I am hoping I can finish this quilt soon and that it does not become one of my infinite number of my work in progress projects. 

Wish me luck, or better yet, want to come sew? 

See you at the machine,

•Care

**If you like this quilt, the pattern is called SUPERNOVA and is available in Eileen Wright’s book Twist and Turn Bargello Quilts available here.**

Wishing for Weekends

Last weekend was one for the memory books. 

Thursday after work I raced home, grabbed my bag and sewing machine, then jumped in my mom’s car. Off we were to drive late into the night. The most worrisome part were the two bridges I knew we would be crossing an hour from Paducah (really, a small town around Paducah). I hate these bridges. There are two skinny, skinny lanes, no shoulders, RVs and semis can’t seem to stay on their side, and you are way up high in the air. If you have ever driven over them, you won’t forget it. My mom always tries to tell me to look at the barges and whatever is crossing under the bridge, but she doesn’t seem to understand if I look anywhere we will be swimming. 
 
Anyways, we obviously made it over the bridges- barely.

After midnight sometime we pulled into my sisters’ driveway and we were exhausted.

Friday was a sewing-on-the-porch day. Fabric was cut, machines were set up, and we were ready. Whenever we have sewing-on-the-porch days I feel like we are sitting in a magazine photo or in a movie. Their land is gorgeous with free range chickens, a duck named “Quackers” and a wraparound porch. It is quite possibly my favorite place to sew. That was until the wind decided to show up and blow our fabric all over the yard. Although the chickens loved it and we found it quite funny, I’m sure we all looked a little crazy running around making sure we found all of our pieces. Well, even with the wind it is still my favorite place to sew.

 

Friday my mom and I ended up staying awake sewing until after midnight and we were tired Saturday but ready to take on the day. Saturday was our shopping day and a hotdog roast day with family and neighbors. 

 

Backyard Fabrics is my favorite quilt shop in Kentucky. I always make sure to stop by there and this trip was no exception. Of course, we also made a quick stop at Hancocks of Paducah. After these two stops we were loaded and off to sew. 

 

More sewing happened and we paused for a fun night by the fire, riding a hayride, and making s’mores before it was back inside to sew some more. Another late night happened, but we were well on our way to figuring out this quilt. 
 

Sunday was our last day. We spent the morning working on the layouts of our quilts and packing up the car. 

It was a quick, but fun trip and I cannot wait to have a repeat of it soon. 

  

I have been waiting months for the trip that happened this past weekend. A three day weekend, a 8+ hour drive, a hayride, a day on the porch, time with my sisters, and time behind my machine. Count me in, always!

See you at the machine,

•Care

 

WIP Week

It is the first week of a new month and you know what that means- WIP Week!
{WIP = Work In Progress}
WIP Week is a week where we dig out an unfinished project we have hiding away, out of thought, and we try our best to get it done. Or, at the very least, bring it to the forefront of our mind. WIP Week happens during the first full week of every month as a way to get back in and refocus.
My hope is that we can all join force and limit our piles and piles of unfinished projects. It is always better to have a finished quilt than squares of fabric cut lying around. After all, lying under a 6” square of fabric is much too difficult.   
Break out those unfinished projects and let’s get working on them. I am going to try re-tackling my seam ripper, speed bump quilt. Hopefully it will go better this week and I can have something to show in a few days. 

There are only THREE more WIP weeks until Christmas and the end of the year so we better make this one count. What project are you going to work on? I would love to see– share your photos on Instagram or tag Quilting with Care on Facebook. 
See you at the machine,

•Care

 

Sunsets and Well Loved Quilts

Hello, hello!! 

I cannot believe October is here! I feel like September flew past, but so did the rest of the year. Goodness.

I haven’t had much to show recently because life has gotten a tad busy, but stay tuned. This week I’m leaving town for a little, long weekend and there will be sewing! You won’t want to miss it.

I have pulled fabrics for my next quilt (before finishing my last… tell me I’m not alone in this?). I have loosely used Oklahoma sunsets and sunrises as my guide.

I’m up early for work.  When I time it just right, I get to see some spectacular sunrises as I wait to turn out of our neighborhood.  They always make the wait to turn out worth it as our neighborhood is off of a two lane road that is getting busier by the day.

At the same time, I get to enjoy amazingly orchestrated sunrises fairly often. They never disappoint.

For quite awhile, I’ve wanted a quilt to showcase these colors. Although I’ve decided to make this one loosely resemble the sunsets and sunrises, I’m sure I will play with these colors more in the future. They are just too astounding to pass up or only tackle once in a lifetime.

I don’t have many projects to share today, but I do have a clean house that was long overdue ;).

I’m Kentucky bound at the end of the week but my machine is getting packed! I cannot wait to share the trip and hopefully a stop at my favorite little quilt store. For now, I will enjoy movie night with a well loved rag quilt and two of my favorite pups.

See you at the machine,

•Care

Playtime in the Past

Have you ever inherited a project– a pile of half-sewn-together, half-cut, random-pieced project without direction or instructions?
A few months ago I received a box of inherited projects. I could not be happier. Some of the projects were full kits that have never been touched, some were half finished, and others seemed to be pieces left over from finished projects. I think fabric could be my love language so this was like love in a box.

After working on my Christmas Quilt for the better part of the weekend I decided to look at one of the inherited projects I had uncovered. 
This particular project was pinwheels. (You could have guessed that, right?) I do love a good pinwheel quilt. A few of the blocks were sewn together, two blocks were spinning a different way and were larger than the rest, and then there were blocks not yet sewn together. I started by sewing the rest of the pinwheel blocks together, and I made the decision to remove the two larger, wrong-way pinwheels. This left me with 18 finished 6” pinwheel blocks– definitely not enough for a quilt.

Since I didn’t have any of the background fabric I was kind of stuck with the amount of pinwheels already made. I love reproduction fabric, so of course I had quite the collection in my stash. I decide to checkerboard the pinwheels with solid squares. A simple, yet playful quilt emerged and Playtime in the Past was created. 

As I sewed, it was quite fun thinking of what these blocks were intended for and what other quilt they were included in if these were just leftover blocks. My imagination definitely ran wild.
 What projects have you inherited? Were you able to work through them to completion?

See you at the machine,

•Care