Quilt As You Go, Simply Done

Simply Done

Just for Fun

Stitch Envy

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Whenever Sarah does a demonstration of our Crazy Shortcut Quilt techniques she mentions “stitch envy”. It happens during class when the students are quilting their squares using the decorative stitches of their sewing machines. They look at the quilters next to them and the stitches they have on their machines, and well, you get the idea.

We teach a lot of ways to get the most from your machine no matter how many stitches it has and I’ve quilted on machines with just 5 or 6 stitches – changing width and stitch length just to get some variety.

Today I got an email from a really cool lady who couldn’t wait to show me what she’d stitched up after reading our book. “We inspired her” she said, “and be sure to look at that crown stitch” she said. So I looked at her photos and now I have stitch envy!

She has crowns!

I want crowns!

Look at those stitches. I am so broke that I just couldn’t ask what machine she has – – I’m afraid to ask! LOL I’ll be dreaming of stitches tonight….thanks to Sandra Wucher of the Stashbusters Group on Yahoo!

Funky Fuzzy Shortcut Quilt

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This baby is my favorite – by far! I wanted to couch down some yarn instead of quilting my squares, and I dug through my stash and found this chunky funky fuzzy yarn – -isn’t it delicious?
I’ve been using a narrow zigzag stitch to couch it down and it’s going slower than I thought it would but that’s just because of the little fuzzy bubbles in the yarn and the fact that I get to sew for only a few hours a week. We are still doing maintenance and work on the boat and putting up fish for winter. If you are following along and want to make the quilt – – I’ll post the whole story on our website when I get the quilt finished. I am using the sizing from the book for “Easy to Go Crazy” and the cutting design from “Think Pink”. I am making a few adjustments as I go so be sure to check back for the final post about this quilt. 🙂

Crazy Shortcake Quilt finds a Home

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While at Spring Quilt Market Sarah and I bumped into Maret from Seams Like Home Quilt Shoppe in Anchorage several times! I love going all the way to Portland, Oregon to meet up with the Alaskans – lol!

We showed her the Shortcake Quilt and offered to let it go live in her newly relocated Shoppe and she took us up on it. I haven’t seen it there yet, I stole this pic from Sarah’s Blog 🙂

We will both be at Seams Like Home on June 21 for a book signing and hugging day. We end up seeing lots of quilters and giving and getting lots of hugs. How nice is that!

Booties Part Three

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I was in Anchorage for a few days and I spent some time with Audrey. I brought up a small bucket of the things she’s used to playing with when she is with me, and here’s how that went:

She dove into the bucket, first after her necklaces and then ended up dumping the whole bucket onto the coffee table. Then she went for the purse – and she knew exactly what she was fishing around for in there – her cell phone. No, she doesn’t have her own phone at the tender age of 1, I just slipped one of non-functioning phones that we have in the house that haven’t been recycled yet.

She grabs that thing every time and flings it right into place and wanders around jabbering at the top of her lungs. It’s hysterical. Especially when she gets her arms going – I can tell that her mother must gesture a lot when she’s on the phone.

I finally talked her into trying on the booties (way too big – what a surprise – lol) and she liked them. After a while she tossed them aside for the bigger version. I am afraid of taking her shoe shopping now….. what have I started?

Booties Part Two

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Using the tracing that I took of Audrey’s feet and some quilted muslin from a machine quilting class, I cut out my estimation of the pieces. I love estimating and I do it all the time 🙂

I pinned the pieces together and I could tell right away that I had overestimated! I could put these things on a moose!

I unpinned and trimmed 3/4″ off the upper – all the way around except for the heel, which I had already sewn.

I re-pinned and then stitched, using a walking foot – which was a bad idea, it didn’t like the bulk, especially at the gathered bulk in the toe area.
I still think that the booties are too big, but I’ll wait and see how they fit on Audrey. I would like to inset some cuff material and make them into pull-on slippers. I have some fake suede for bottoms and maybe fleece for the uppers, with a cuff for snugness?

Booties

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What happens when you try to hold steady a wiggly giggly baby with one hand and trace around her ticklish feet with the other hand? Chaos. And this kind of scribble:

Heather Bailey has a free pattern for baby booties that I want to try. I’ll make a tester first, to see how they fit, and then make a real pair for Audrey. Her feet are quite a bit bigger than the pattern that Heather offers, so I’ll modify as I go, using her basic design and tips for construction.