Snowy Day Sewing… Teeny Tiny Dresden Ornaments

Just another dreary, snowy day here…

You’d think it was January, not early December with the amount of snowy days here.

I think today was #7 already, with the first snowfall about month ago.

C-R-A-Z-Y

So, what better to do than sew?

I found 8 of these adorable frames at an antique mall in Arkansas,

on our way home from Houston.

I knew they’d make perfect gifts for friends.

They are what prompted me to make use of the acorn frame that I showed you here.

Well, after making that Teeny Tiny Dresden plate

I knew there was NO WAY that I was going to make an even smaller Dresden plate!

X 8!!!

This opening is just 1 1/2″ compared to the 2″ opening that was already too small.

So, I decided on a different strategy for these.

A bit of deciphering & cutting…

sewing…

trimming… turning…

more sewing…

& then what? lol…

While fetching the holly buttons I noticed the teeny button packs.

Perfect opportunity to use them too.

These buttons are really just paper crafted to look like buttons.

They remind me of the buttons that Mrs. Claus sewed onto

my Barbie clothes from Christmas (way) past.

I think Mrs. Claus must have been nuts!

Those were actually buttons that had to be sewn on.

The love of a mother…

Now I have 8 unique little ornaments using teeny Tiny Dresden petals.

Some with blue carded button pack,

some with red buttons,

and some with teeny gold buttons.

I don’t need them all for gifts so I thought I’d offer the extras for sale.

You can find them for sale in my Etsy shop.

Happy Christmas prep!

Just Keep Sewing…

Susan

 

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Dresden Quilt Workshop Quilt-Along Week #18

Week # 18

Please keep posting & sending me pics of your blocks!

If you’re not part of my Facebook group, Dresden Quilt Workshop,

head over there & sign up so you too can share & see all the progress.

Wow, look how few numbers are left outside the bottle this week!

This week we will again refer to

All Roads Lead to Dresden page 80.

We will start my very favorite portion

of the Dresden Quilt Workshop Sampler Quilt.

(Don’t tell anyone, but this is actually where I

started with my Dresden Quilt Workshop Sampler!)

I did start the fabric selection with the “Quilts” block,

but then I started choosing fabrics & actually sewing this portion first.

I absolutely love this big block or portion of the quilt.

It has SO MUCH MOTION, that it’s hard for me to stop looking at it!

If you look closely,

you’ll notice that I used nearly every fabric from the collection is this block!

OK, not really, but yes, really!

Each pair of large flying geese points is a different pink or green fabric.

You have to look close because the green background prints have both the gray and black “warped circles” & the opposite “pink” pairs of points are either the hot pink print or the salmon.

Not the same fabrics as they initially appear.

FUN (for me anyway!)

The smaller flying geese “teal” background print is actually more than one fabric

& the black/gray fabric is really 4 different fabrics.

Necessity is the mother of invention… as they say.

It’s not like I set out to add so many fabrics,

but when I started this quilt I was going to use just 1/2 yard of each stripe print.

There wasn’t enough of 1 pink or 1 green to make all 4 points of the huge flying geese,

so I improvised with what I thought would work well.

As I got further into the quilt I decided I would need to use a whole yard.

This quilt is bigger than it seems and uses a lot of fabrics, yay!

Anyway, I’m so glad that I started out that way.

If I hadn’t, this quilt wouldn’t have nearly as much movement or character.

Fate?

I think so!

It was really fun to design the initial “All Roads Lead To Dresden” Quilt,

& even more fun to redesign it in the Circulus & Lollies Sweet collection!

BTW, I still have a few

kits available with the Circulus & Lollies Sweet collection on my website.

So, back to this week’s task…

We’ll just be making 4 Tiny Dresden plates

& 1 Mini Dresden plate.

That’s it!

No need to even applique them to their backgrounds until next week.

When I was setting up the schedule for this quilt-along

I knew we’d be busy with the holidays

& didn’t want anyone to get overwhelmed with something that should be fun!

Suzanne…

Don’t stress over this too!

I hope you can enjoy a sidebar to your sewing machine

& play with some fabric in between the shopping,

partying & caroling or whatever you do to get into the holiday spirit.

Just Keep Sewing…

Susan

 

Mug Rug Swap

Do you need a little something for a gift?

Do you have any fabric scraps???

I may have the idea you’re looking for!

One of the quilt clubs that I attend

decided to have a mug rug exchange this year

& I decided to join in the fun.

I’m so glad that I did!

Look at my adorable mug rug that was made by Suzanne H. :

It’s perfect for me!

Even the hot cocoa mix inside is my favorite!

Pretty cool considering our names all went into a drawing

then we had to wait until our name was pulled

to choose a mug rug that was wrapped inconspicuously.

Probably 3/4 the ladies (& 1 gentleman) got to choose before I did.

I came right home,

gave it a hanger

& hung it in a place of honor in my sewing atelier.

It now has a home amidst other treasures in and around my new cabinet.

(- the hot cocoa of course.)

It won’t take me very long to think of something to store in that pocket.

Since I spent the entire weekend working on the bazaar for our church’s annual smorgasbord,

which turned out very well thanks to many parishioners,

& our faithful supporters (including some of you, thanks!),

it was Sunday night before I finally had the great idea for my mug rug.

Well, not that I wait until the last minute, but…

1. I’ve been very busy working on 6 new patterns,

who’s covers finally got sent to the printer last week, yay!

&

2. No great ideas would come to me…

…until Sunday night.

I spied 2 small orphan blocks in the “rag bag” that both seemed the perfect size!

I didn’t photograph any of this because first of all I was exhausted,

& second of all, it was getting down to the wire!!!

Then,

I noticed one of the blocks coordinated with my two leftover teeny Tiny Dresden plates

that I’d left on my cutting table after making this beauty.

Alas, 2 centers, 1/2″ in diameter,

a smidgen of batting and backing

(also from the rag bag)

and viola:

Oh what fun it is to make a little quilt!

Yes, it was extremely hard for me to part with those 2 teeny plates,

but I wanted to give something that I’d like to receive!

I’m pretty certain the recipient, my new friend, Cathy, will love them as much as I do.

The hard work was done weeks & months ago.

As soon as I get the pattern covers from the printer

I’ll be able to show you how the orphan block came about.

Until then,

Happy holiday prep &

Just Keep Sewing…

Susan

 

Yummy Smorgasbord & Bazaar Today!

Need some help getting into the Christmas spirit?

Today is our church’s annual smorgasbord & bazaar!

Yesterday I made these treats (yes those are my homemade caramel… chocolate dipped pretzel rods with pecans!)

& set up lots of nice crafts & other goodies.

Didn’t think to take a pic before I left…

Some of the one-of-a-kind items are several, beautiful hand crochet baby afghans, dish cloths, scarves & hats.

We have tatted and other Christmas ornaments.

Wreaths, swags, lighted decorations, etc.

If you’re in the area come on over & have a delicious lunch of turkey, mashed potatoes, pigs in a blanket (don’t know what those are? Yummy stuffed cabbage rolls like no other!) salad & delicious desserts!

We serve 11-3 today.

There is also a raffle with beautiful prizes as well.

We’ll be at Our Lady Queen of Peace Church.

132 Butcher St. in Bethalto.

Hope to see you there!

Just Keep Sewing…

Susan

 

 

 

Week #17 Update (fix)

My apologies to you if you’ve started cutting your flying geese pieces.

Week #17 should have you following

All Roads Lead To Dresden, page 80

for the flying geese blocks.

I hope I caught you before you started cutting!

Thanks, Loraine for catching that mistake for me!

Carry on & Just Keep Sewing…

Susan

 

Dresden Quilt Workshop Quilt-Along Week #17

Week # 17

Please keep posting & sending me pics of your blocks!

If you’re not part of my Facebook group, Dresden Quilt Workshop,

head over there & sign up so you too can share & see all the progress.

This week we will refer to

 All Roads Lead to Dresden page 80.

This week we will be making a bunch of flying geese filler blocks.

And look, just one more area of the quilt to make after this week!

Since some of these flying geese segments run into each other,

I’ve given each segment a number.

Then, below I tell you how many flying geese to make for that segment.

For segment 1, you will need to make 6 flying geese.

Segment 2 make 6.

Segment 3 make 10.

Segment 4 make 11.

Segment 5 make 7.

Segment 6 make 10.

That’s it!

No Dresden plates this week.

How is your Christmas shopping & decorating going?

I’ve started my Christmas shopping

& we’re mid-Christmas decorating…

Since I’m still photographing one of my new quilt pattern samples,

my living room is a bit chaotic;

semi-Christmas, semi-photo shoot…

Soon I’ll be done with the photography

& eventually I’ll also have the Christmas decorating finished.

Shopping… I’ll be done by Christmas Eve, for sure.

Thanks for quilting along with me!

Just Keep Sewing…

Susan

 

Happy Thanksgiving 2018

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you’re able to enjoy this day with your loved ones

& also have plenty to be thankful for!

Please enjoy this delightful, fall, TEENY Tiny Dresden plate at my expense…

It’s probably smaller than you first imagined.

I was right, wasn’t I?

And while I was painfully making this teeniest of Tiny Dresden plates,

I was also feeling bad for how I’d treated some of my fellow Tiny Dresden seamstresses these past few months.

REALLY BAD!

I realize now that being out of your comfort zone is hard!

I’ve made so many Tiny & Mini Dresden plates that I can practically make them in my sleep.

These petals are MUCH (MUCH) SMALLER than I’m used to sewing.

Incredibly cute,

but SO…MUCH…SMALLER…

Hard to grasp.

Hard to turn.

The first one turned out so poorly that I decided to try again.

And again.

The 3rd time I decided to elongate the petals so I would have more fabric to hold onto

while they were going through the machine,

then trim them as needed as I sewed them into the plate.

I also tried trimming the seam allowances,

something that I never do while making Tiny Dresden plates.

It’s just not necessary.

At this point it became necessary to trim the center of the plate (the part that I elongated)

and I wasn’t even sure if it was going to come together at all like it should.

The 3rd plate turned out so much better!

While experimenting, I was reminded of several of my TD students from more than one TD workshop.

We would together get that first plate made,

then they’d usually go back to their space & make the second plate by themselves.

It was fun seeing the excitement on their faces as they became more comfortable with the process,

and do a much better job on their second plate, yay!

I now know your frustration and disappointment at not having the success as anticipated.

But with a bit of perseverance,

& the right tools…

thanks to Rosa & her Apliquick Bars,

my 1/2″ diameter center is perfectly round with no trouble at all!

I was finally able to fill this adorable little acorn frame that’s been hanging empty

in my sewing room for more than a decade!

Now I have a new fall decoration, something to display for years to come.

This makes my heart sing.

I hope I’ve inspired you to maybe do something a bit out of your comfort zone too.

Just Keep Sewing…

Susan