Summer’s Here!!! YIPPEEEEEE

It’s about that time when I seem to disappear from my blog.  I’m still around, just sucking up life in Michigan while the livin’s good.

We’ve been having fun (camping,) and working hard (around the yard.)

We constructed a patio in the first part of spring and boy I tell ya, I’ll need a break before we ever do that again!  It’s pretty small, but it keeps me out of the dirt and mud in my favorite place to sit under the trees.  We planted shade grass there for now until we can afford more pavers, and gravel, and sand, and a wet saw. When that happens then we’ll do some fancy curving around the fire pit.  I wanted to do gravel around there, but the brooding genius is adamantly against gravel for some reason??? Men…

Here’s the before with  just the fire pit done.

It’s amazing to me that in just a few short days the naked trees and brown grass exploded with green.

Of course I made a little quilt to match my new patio cushions.

We’re watching and waiting for things to bloom and grow.

Meanwhile inside spring decor is down and patriotic is up for Memorial Day through July 4th! I’ll share more pic’s next time =)

Hope you are enjoying spring into summer.

Later gators,

Melissa

I’m a centerfold!

I’m over the moon to have another quilt design published in the new issue of Primitive Quilts and Projects magazine!

It’s such a thrill and an honor to have your quilt professionally photographed. Since I am a terrible photographer it’s great fun to see it through another persons lens.

Kari Ruedisale did the machine quilting for me. She did an awesome job!

Click on the link in my sidebar if you would like to subscribe to the magazine.  I always love getting my copy in the mail =)

Later Gators,

Melissa

Shasta Love

Are you sick of my Shasta?

I had some fun today playing in my doll house. =)

We finally got our table installed.  Well I should say the BG finally got to it for me.  I might have pestered him yesterday, but he got the job done, so today I will leave him alone. (maybe)

I purchased a really nice new mattress cover, and washed and pressed all my vintage linens for the bed.

Remember the His and Hers vintage pillow cases I shared a while back? A little oxy clean fixed them right up, here’s mine:

Then I made a tiny little bed skirt so we can stash a suitcase under the bed.  I also made a little curtain with bunting to give a canopy effect over the bed. If it bothers us we can just take it down, it’s a spring loaded shower curtain rod.

And now my little fort is just the best place to sit and read.

I stopped while I was out today and got some fresh flowers, artisan bread, wine, strawberries, blue berries, and chicken salad for a little picnic and couldn’t resist taking some pics.

The purple hyacinths are from my yard, they smell SOOOOOO good!

I am content now with the new arrangement and I know it will be MUCH easier to slip into bed without having to make it up.

Enjoy your day!

Melissa

Parade Day Sew Along – Outer Borders

Okay last post for the Parade Day Quilt!!!

Congrats if you have been sewing along and are ready for your borders.

Here is my original quilt on the left using 2 1/2 inch inner borders and 3 1/2 outer borders.  On the right is the sew along quilt using 2 inch inner borders and 6 inch outer borders.

Those border measurements are the cutting size, not the finished size. So depending on how big you want your quilt, or how much of the border fabric you want to see, you can choose your own border sizes.

Thank you to those who have emailed, and shared your Parade Day progress with me! It has been so fun to see your fabric choices and your beautiful quilts!

Have a great weekend!

Melissa

Ready for Glamping!

At least in the luggage category.

After I made my new Weekender, I decided I needed a matching toiletry bag. I just made up my own pattern to resemble the Sophia bag. And voila!

Then I recently purchased the cutest glamping fabric from Moda a couple of weekends ago and was trying to decided what to make out of it.   I made up a backpack pattern and went to town:

And today I am going to attempt a bike basket liner for my beach cruiser.

Too much time on my hands?? LOL maybe.

It’s spring break this week, so today my baby girl wanted to hang out with me in the sewing room. So I got out my old starter machine for her and she  is sewing her first quilt.

I let her go through my scraps and she picked some interesting color combo’s.

We’ll see if she sticks with it. I already made her seam rip a couple of blocks that were no where near 1/4 inch LOL! Poor girl.

Enjoy your weekend!

Melissa

Parade Day Part 4

Hi there friends!

We’re almost done with our Parade Day quilt!!

Today we are going to cut our setting triangles, corner triangles, and applique our buntings.

Cutting for setting triangles.

Cut 2 squares at 11 1/4 inches cut once on the diagonal.

For each setting triangle finger press in half ,

then center the bunting in the middle, pin and applique with your favorite method (machine stitch, blanket stitch, or hand applique.)

I actually love to hand applique and encourage you to try it if you haven’t done it.   I always think of it just like hand sewing the back of your binding on. It’s that simple.

My friend Jane, who taught me how to hand applique gave me these tips when I started: use YLI silk thread because it just melts right in like butter, and use straw needles (11, or 10.)

Once you have all the buntings sewn on to your setting triangles you will then make the center portion of the bunting.

1. Use this template: Parade Day Template and trace it on to the dull side of freezer paper.  (Or if you are machine stitching you can use a fusible, like steam-a-seam)

2. Press with shiny side down onto the BACK of your fabric, cut out leaving a  1/4 inch seam, and baste.

3. Finger press in half

4. Center on your bunting, pin, and applique.

***Edit: I forgot to add that you need to pull out the freezer paper and basting stitches!

Now we can lay our quilt out into rows paying special attention to the direction your flags are facing.

Sew into rows with a 1/4 inch seam. Press toward flag blocks. Here I am pinning my first seam, see where the over hang of the triangle block is:

Here are the rows all sewn up:

Now sew the rows together:

Once the rows are all sewn, it’s time to add the corner triangles,

Cutting the corner triangles:

Cut 2 squares 7 1/4 inches cut once on the diagonal.

Finger press each corner triangle and center on the corner blocks. Pin and sew.

It looks a little wonky when you have it all sewn on, but we are going to trim the corners to square it.

Using your rotary cutting and a large square ruler ( I used a 12 1/2 inch square) Square your corners.

You should now have a 25 inch square quilt center! Whoop whoop!

From here you can add any sized inner and outer borders you want, but we will discuss the sizes I choose next week!

Here is my finished quilt a long quilt:

See ya next week for borders!

Later Gators,

Melissa

Parade Day Sew Along- Part 3

YEAAAAHHHHHHHH!! It’s actually sunny today! My spirit is soaring. It’s amazing what a little sunshine can do for a light deprived Michigander. =)

With the sunshine it is easy to put me in a summery 4th of July mood.

So lets get started making our little parade buntings  made out of dresedens.

Cutting:

If using fat quarters :cut 3 strips of blue 1- 3/4  x  22

                                                 3 strips of red 1- 3/4  x  22

If using yardage: cut 2 strips of blue 1 -3/4 x wof

                                        2 strips of red 1- 3/4 x wof

Sewing

Sew the red strips to the blue strips  using a 1/4 inch seam. Press toward the blue  (we will be pressing half toward the red in later steps.) Your strips should measure 3 inches.

Now using your dresden ruler, line it up on the 3 inch mark.  The 1- 1/2 inch mark on the ruler should be right across the middle where the red and blue meet. Using your rotary cutter,  trim the side off and make your first cut.

Flip your ruler upside down and make your second cut.

Continue cutting your strips until you have a pile of 20 red on the top blue on the bottom , and 20 blue on the top red on the bottom.

Using a quarter inch seam allowance fold your blades in half at the “fat” end and feed them through your machine.

  You can chain stitch these.

Now cut the threads that bind your blades together. For each blade you will trim the corner off with scissors (being careful not to cut into the stitching), finger press the seam open, turn the blade tip inside out, and using a bodkin or something sharp push the tip out.

Now take 10 matching blades to your ironing board and press the point of the blade.

Leave 5 of the blades pressed toward the blue fabric, and press 5 of the blades toward the red fabric.  This will aid in butting up your seams when we sew them together.

Here are my first 10 blades ready to become a bunting!

Take two blades and butt up the seams, you can pin if you like. Sew using a 1/4 inch seam back stitching at the beginning and end. Sew together 5 pairs.

Press the pairs and then sew 2 pairs together, repeating until you have sewn 10 blades together.

Repeat until you have made 2 blue at the top and 2 red at the top buntings.

Aren’t they cute?? Love it!

We now have 4 flags, 1 star, and 4 buntings.

I’ll be back next week for part 4!

Later gators,

Melissa