My Favorite Things 1

Today I wanted to share with you one of my favorite quilting items.  When I received my goody bag from McCalls I was given two gift certificates.  I used my certificate to Stitchin' Heaven to buy this.

It is an applique thread kit, you can find it here.  As you know I love to applique.  I usually use silk thread but I only have a few colors so I usually applique everything in pink.  I know, I should match my thread.  That is why I bought this.

The thread is housed in a bobbin saver and the thread is by Superior Threads.  I have used Superior Threads to machine piece but I have to tell you that I love this product.  It fits in my applique box and I have every color I need.  Plus it just looks so cool!  I have enjoyed picking out just the right color and as a bonus my little A has learned many more colors because she loves to look at it too.  There you go, it is great for applique and as a learning tool.  The kit also came with some needles and Thread Heaven.  If you have never used Thread Heaven you need to give it a try.  Just run your thread through the waxy stuff and it will glide through fabric, knots are not as much of a problem.  It is amazing.  

This is such a great idea I don't know what I will do when I run out, probably just get another one.  

Thanks Stitchin' Heaven for the gift certificate!  

Progress on Pieceful Garden

Remember at the end of July when I showed you this.

Well I am still plugging away at it.  I started with the flowers.  They are finished except for the embroidered vines.  They look pretty much the same as before except now they are appliqued down.  I am really happy with how they turned out.  

After the flowers were done I started on the leaves.  This is where I started having a few headaches.  The leaves are paper pieced, which was not hard.

 I pieced each side separately, cut them down and then joined them together with a skinny stem.  Then the headaches started.  The instructions said to piece each leaf into the block with curved seams.  I hate curved seams!  I guess I just haven't pieced them enough to feel comfortable with it yet.  So I decided to bag the curved seams and just applique them on top.  Oh, that was easier said than done.  I usually starch the seam allowance down, glue it on and then sew.  Well I was afraid the bulkiness of paper piecing wouldn't iron down.  So I drew the  seam allowance line on top and then used the needle turn applique method.  It worked, but it took forever.  It was hard to get a nice curve where there was a lot of fabric to turn under.  Finally it came together to look like this.  

The flowers were added after the leaves and I still may change the centers to a dark green color.  Not sure yet.  I was really hoping to have it completed this weekend and I might since I don't have to go to work today.  

I laid a few pieces out to see what they would look like together.  

I think I will really like it.  I'm worried the background fabrics contrast a little too much.  Hopefully it will look alright when it is finished.  I'm glad it will be done soon.  I have so many other quilts I want to start on, but I told myself I wasn't going to start any new ones until I had one finished.  

First Day of School

We have been in school for a few weeks (reason for my absence) and things are going great!  Getting back to work reminds me how much I love my job.  The kids are so much fun and I could start another blog just with all the funny things they say!  That will have to come later, my plate is full!

My girls had their outfits picked out for days before school started and we had many discussions about how their hair would look.  And then the picture turned out blurry.

K & L on their first day at school 

They had a great first day and looked really cute.  They love their teachers and lunch (thanks lunch ladies!)  Good luck to everyone else that is starting school, I hope you enjoy it as much as we do.  

Cute New Things

Well my oldest daughter celebrated her 10th birthday last week.  Holy cow, I have a 10 year old!  It makes me feel kind of old because I remember turning 10 and thinking I was really big!  Ha, what did I know.  I thought about making her a quilt but with only a week to the big day I knew I wouldn't get that accomplished.  So I made a few things for her bed.  She has this big body pillow that sits on her bed, she loves it but it is ugly!  

So I quickly made a pillowcase out of broadcloth and decorated it with circles out of some funky fabric.  I think in was Terrain by Kate Spain.  It turned out really cute.  At least cuter than the before picture.  

I just cut out circles and then sewed through each one.  Really easy!  Hopefully it will hold up.  

I also found this really cute pattern/kit by Sue Spargo at the Cornwagon Quilt Shop in Springville. It just looked like my daughter so I made it for her birthday too.  

It turned out adorable!  When she opened it her little sister looked at me and said, "mom I want an owl pillow for my birthday too!  

This project is a mix of cotton and wool.  I have never made anything with wool before and it was really fun.  If you look close you can see where I messed up.  I forgot to reverse the branch pattern so it ended up facing the wrong way.  Oh well, it turned out well and she loves it.  Maybe she will get a quilt at another time!  

Last Minute Summer Activity

A few weeks ago our family needed to get out of the house.  We traveled a bit to Cove Fort.  Cove Fort is a little fort built when Utah was first being settled.  They actually have a celebration called "Cove Fort Days."  It was great, free hot dogs, chips and drinks and lots to learn and discover.  There were lots of booths set up where we could walk around and learn about doctors in the 1800's, food, and life in general.  

They had a chicken tied up at one of the booths.  The big girls thought it was very cute.  

Little A had fun trying to make the wooden man jump.  

Big L tried weaving a rug.  I remember my grandmother had a loom just like this one only a little bigger. When she passed away my uncle inherited the loom and made rugs for many of the grandkids.  It is the best rug in my house.  

We went on a wagon ride, which was awesome!  

The sweet lady that was sitting by my girls thought K was going to fall out so halfway through the ride she held onto her shirt, just in case!

We also played "pioneer" games like "fling the wire ring with two sticks," and "try to keep a heavy iron ring rolling with one big stick."  Yup, those are the official names in my book.  I'm sure the correct names are much cooler than mine.   

We even tried to walk on stilts.  My kids really want a set now!  

We had a great time and my kids were grateful to get out of the house!  See you soon, I promise not to be away for as long.  

Soapbox Message

I'm back!  I can't believe it has been so long since I have posted anything, I guess life just gets away from me.  We have been busy getting ready for school to start (next week ahh!)  Since I have been bact at work this was pushed to the back burner for a bit.  

I am happy to say that I am ready for school to start.  I know there are people out there that say being a teacher would be such an easy job because you only have to work 9 months out of the year.  In theory that is true, but many of us go into work during the summer (no pay, go to training (sometimes with no pay) and spend money we will not get reimbursed for.  I know many of my colleagues find summer jobs just to make ends meet.  

But I have to say I have the best job in the world!  What other job can you have where you are greeted by 20 kids that absolutely love you for just being you?  It doesn't matter that I can't draw a turkey because when I tell them it is a turkey they think it is the best.  I can have the worst hair day and someone will whisper to me "teacher, you look pretty today."  Where else can I touch so many lives and help so many children as in a school.  I know there are many people out there who don't believe teaching in an honorable profession.  To those people please think back to your younger years and try to remember someone that touched your life, most likely you will find at least one teacher.  If any of you know a teacher, please take a few seconds and thank them.  We don't hear it enough.  All right, I will step off my soapbox now, thanks for listening!  (And I really love my job!)

Hello!  Yes I am still here in case you were wondering.  I have been enjoying my last few days of summer vacation and starting to think about getting back to work.  I have been hard at work on "Pieceful Garden" for the past week.  The paper piecing portion was about halfway finished when a few of my fingers swelled to the size of sausages.  I don't know why I just woke up one morning and couldn't make a fist, let alone sew very well.  My fabric just sat in piles on my kitchen table for a few days.  I'm almost back to normal and I can even hold a needle now, wahoo!!  I wanted to show you the applique portion I have ready and I have a tutorial on how I made the 1/8" bias stems.  I remember seeing this on a blog somewhere a long time ago and I can't remember where.  If this is your method please let me know so I can give you credit.  

I started with a strip of bias fabric 1/2" wide.

 I ran each piece through my 1/4" Clover Bias Tape Maker.  This is an awesome tool!  You just thread the fabric through one end and iron it as it come out the other, perfect stems with each raw edge turned into the middle!  (I starch the entire piece of fabric before I start.)

Here is what it looked like when I had all the stems made.
I almost didn't post this picture because then you would know how gross my ironing board is.  I should really get a new one.   

Next I take it to the couch!  Yea I do a lot of my applique stuff sitting down, you might say I'm lazy but I say I'm resourceful!  Using my mini iron I ironed the 1/4" stems in half again.    

Tada!!  1/8" stems. 

 When I glued everything onto the block it was really hard to get the stems to lay flat so I glued one side down figuring I would be able to sew the other side down when I actually did the hand work.  You can see in this picture the stem on the left has been sewn on and the others are just glued.

This is what the whole block looks like.  I'm so glad I decided to go with the super skinny stems and it wasn't much more work that what I had to do anyway.  This block is ready for the hand work, don't worry the little dog ears on the ends of the leaves and petals will go away when I get around to sewing them on  

This was my first attempt at skinny stems if you have any suggestions please let me know!  I'm always looking for new ideas.
Have a great day!