Fabric Postcards

I became part of a postcard exchange with the theme of "Spring Celebration." Hate to admit it, but I struggled with deciding how to interpret the theme. A couple of false starts were thrown in the trash. One afternoon I took pictures of my blooming lilacs. Then one picture was printed on fabric, cut, and sewn back together as "four-patch" posies. So the cards are named "Lilacs as Four-patch Posies." They go out in the mail today!

Floral Dream Pillowcases

These pillowcases are just fun to make! I received the pattern from my local Bernina store when I attended a sewing group. The original design has three flower designs but I thought the initials would look great and make a nice wedding gift. The directions are from Through the Needle, issue 13 in an article by Kay Lynch Hickman. I may even make a set for each of the grand kids who are married for a Christmas gift.

I have also been busy making pillowcases for my Bernina shop who will give them to charity. The charity pillowcases are not quite so fancy. I am using the "hot dog" method for these pillowcases. It is quick and fun to use. I'll post a picture in the next few days.

Fun Time

Last night I was fortunate to have the opportunity to present the program for the Manhattan evening quilt guild. My program was "Using Your Computer to Enhance Your Quilting". I talked about blogs, yahoo groups, You Tube, and interesting sites for finding information and just for fun. I planned a power point presentation. One of the members said I could use her phone to connect directly to the internet, but the phone ended up in an accident with a floor on Sunday. So it was back to Plan A. We had a good time and I think they enjoyed the ideas and places I presented. Then I showed a few of my quilts, sewn items, and embroidery. I had a great time.

Going "Green"

I have lots of left-over fleece from making Christmas gifts. These are dusters for your Swiffer dusters made from my left-overs. The fuzzy one in back is for your hand duster. I made mine out of fleece but they can be made of any fabric. I think flannel would work especially well. There is a website that explains how to make the hand duster cover.

The one in front is for the floor duster. I simply cut a piece of 5" X 18" fleece for the base. Then I sewed down the middle of six pieces of 2" X 10" fleece. You are finished with your duster cover. Just wrap the ends to the top and poke into the holes. I like both of them because they can just be thrown into the washer.

Yo Yo Easter Egg

This pink Easter egg is made from heart-shaped yo-yos. I originally saw one that was on the site of All People Quilt. I used white glass headed pins and pink beads to attach the yo-yos to a styrofoam base.The original picture used buttons and pins. It really is cute. It took about 50 yo-yos to cover a medium-sized egg.

ABC Quilt

This quilt is also from The Stitch Connection and is called ABC Redwork Quilt. The Overbrook Quilt Connection has many of The Stitch Connection's patterns. The unique feature of these patterns is that they are available in both hand embroidery and machine embroidery. I do not like to "touch the needle" so I make these quilts using machine embroidery.

Yesterday was my class with the quilt titled Holiday Redwork. There were four ladies who were part of the class. We learned so much from each other and had a great time. The class has three sessions, so we are anxious to get together again.

Holiday Redwork

This is the quilt that I am working on. It is from The Stitch Connection. I am teaching this as a class at the Overbrook quilt shop. I made this quilt a couple of years ago and decided I should make it again to refresh my memory about how it constructed. The redwork is machine embroidery and is very quick. I am considering making a couple of these as Christmas gifts.