Are you ready for the eclipse?
I am as ready as I’ll ever be for the eclipse.
Here in Western NC we should be pretty close to THE “Eclipse in Totality”. However, this won’t be my first rodeo OR my first 
solar eclipse 😃. I recall when I was quite young, that my mom closed all the drapes in both our living room and dining room for fear that either I or one of my brothers or sister would peek out at the sun and go blind. This photo is one I saw on the internet the other day. It is from 1963. Let’s see, I would have been in 2nd or 3rd grade at the time of this photo’s eclipse. I bet that’s why I was home with my mom and the drapes drawn tightly closed. She was keeping her babies safe! LOL. Anyhooo, look closely at the photo. WTH is the teacher doing? Watching the eclipse????
Here at our house, we did purchase eclipse-watching glasses back in March but I’m not too sure I’ll trust them. Have I heard this correctly??? I heard that IF your glasses don’t say NASA on them they are probably counterfeit? Really??? I bet those darn counterfeiters could have the word NASA stamped on their glasses in a jiffy …don’t ya think?
OK on to something a bit more sewing and quilting related.
I’m going to be hosting a party (a BIG YEAR birthday party) for my hub. I mean…I’m going all out… a band playing his favorite music and everything!! Now, if you know me, I’m a good idea generator but not so much of a good planner. LUCKILY for me, one of my sisters-in-law LOVES to entertain and cook and ….well, you get the idea. But get this…She has VOLUNTEERED to plan and organize (and cook for) the whole soiree. FYI, I just Googled the word soiree, so that I would spell it correctly and it says: an elegant evening gathering, usually at someone’s home. The jeans and t-shirt you wear to a regular party won’t cut it — a soiree requires far fancier attire.
Oopsie Daisy — MY soiree will not be quite so elegant…jeans WILL BE welcome as will formal attire if you so desire *wink, wink. The band will be dressed in their usual beachy ‘uniforms’ . Click here to see their fabulous song list. Got a request? We’ll have them play it for you!!
Hub’s Coaster in the works (looks better in person)
Road trip to Foust Textiles
The fabric that I am using for the coasters came from a warehouse called Foust Textiles in Kings Mountain, NC. A group of us from our guild took a road trip there last week. TALK about BARGAINS!! The only disadvantage is that you have to buy the whole bolt of fabric. From what I understand, usually a lot more folks from the guild go at the same time so they can share bolts. Didn’t work out that way this time but I got some beauteous fabrics!
The following video gives you a glimpse into the warehouse. Sorry that I held my camera vertically rather than horizontally.
At the end of the video, I show the bolts that I purchased minus the brown brushed corduroy and a bolt of Minnie Mouse fleece and a bolt of Mickey Mouse fleece to make my twin grandbabies a blankie/quilt.
Well, I’ve got to end this. I have so much more to talk about but I’ll save it for next time.
Happy Sewing and Quilting,
PattyAnne
LQS Block of the Month
I can’t believe it!!! I’ve gotten all the projects that I’ve been working on finished! So, I’m going to treat myself by working on the block of the month for my local quilt shop.
The block is called Jacob’s Ladder and we’ve actually done this block before in my video series on YouTube. But for this LQS block I will be using templates
Anyhoo, I really love working on little kits like this because there’s no thinking involved – it’s just FUN sewing!! Everything I need is right here in the ziplock bag!
Happy Sewing!
~PattyAnne
DONE! 🙂
I LOVE EQ7
I really do love EQ7!
For the past two weeks I have been taking a free EQ7 class from Kari Schell. If you’re interested (and I highly recommend it) you can sign up any time.
Kari started her class by showing us how to manipulate EQ7 work tables and how to enable the hidden tools in EQ. When we finished the class, we ended up with a quilt like the one shown. Isn’t is a BEAUTY!? Here is a link to Kari’s class. Please know that I am in no way being compensated for sharing Kari’s link.
The EQStitch* add-on will be arriving in my mailbox tomorrow and I am so excited because I want to continue working on project I’ve had in mind for a LONG time. If (when????) I am successful, this project may help me (AND others) finish our blocks/quilts in a ‘something old is new again’ kind of way. I’ve been using about 3 different pieces of software to develop the idea. I’m not really sure if someone has already figured out how to do this BUT, this old grannie is having a ball trying to figure it out. What’s that they say about keeping our brains active? 🙂
Here’s what I’m working towards:
I LOVE designing and piecing blocks but what the heck do I do with them when they’re done-ISH. I honestly don’t have enough of the stick-to-it gene to make a bunch of big ol’ quilts … I’m more like a wall-hanging, table runner or pillow kind of gal.
So anyhooooo, I want to design blocks AND then design quilting motifs that I can use for said blocks where I combine stencil usage with free motion. The kicker is that I want to design the stencils using free clipart and, like I said, several computer programs because I want to cut my stencils using a ScanNCut. So far I’ve been FAIRLY successful. I’m still ironing out how to make the stencil bridges in appropriate sizes, placement and number. When I get it all ironed out, I’ll share what I’ve learned!
Wouldn’t it be great to be able to create and cut your own stencils of ANY motif, size, rotation etc. etc. etc? Really, look at all the cool FREE images on this website. And, btw, if you go to their ‘about section’ it says: PatternUniverse.com is a collection of 1475 free templates to download and print. The patterns include animals, objects, shapes, and more. Use them for crafts, stencils, and more. I would imagine that you can NOT sell them or use them in patterns your are selling, but for your/our own use!? SCORE!
Well, that’s enough for now. I’ve gotta get back to my testing. Sure am having FUN!!
Happy Quilting and Sewing,
~PattyAnne
*I bought my EQStitch through some folks at Amazon AFTER contacting EQ directly to see why there was such a difference in price. They told me that their resellers can sell the products at whatever price point they’d like AND that I should rest assured that it is exactly the same product and it is fully guaranteed by them.
This is something fun I want to do. I am including it here so I don’t lose it. LOL
Monkeys and Bears and Granny’s Choice Wall-hanging
I created this week’s Block of the Week, Granny’s Choice, in earth tones to coordinate with the bear shower curtain and the MONKEY????
Granny’s Choice was a lot of fun to create and very easy regardless of what my video bloopers may say. LOL Link to the PDF is HERE. GrannysChoiceComplete
Below is my YouTube video in case you missed it.
In this video, I am adding the first leaf motif in the middle of each block. After this was completed, I felt the blocks needed an additional leaf so I simply added a second one to the outside of the first. I do think I still need to stitch in the ditch or something in the center four-square section. Not sure what I’ll do yet.
This video shows how I marked and am sewing subsequent quilting. Prior to what you see here, I stitched in the ditchISH around the outside of all the triangles. What this means is that I actually stitched about 1/4″ from the ditch.
And now….just for fun!!! I sure hope we do NOT have one of these visit our hummingbird feeders! We bring ours in at night because of the raccoons and bears. Never thought there would be a bear at one in what appears to be the middle of the day!!!
YIKES!!
Table Topper #1 Near “Disaster”
This is the EQ7 drawing of the table topper we will be creating. Click here for PDF
Table topper drawing from EQ7
Cut your fabric according to the instructions above. (Not sure how? Send me a comment and I’ll help!)
You will be making 16 blocks. Each of the blocks will have a finished size of 8” x 8”
Mark the squares which are to be half square triangles from corner to corner. Sew and cut.
I like to chain piece my units and then cut them apart. AFTER they are completely sewn and cut, square them to exactly 2.5”
This helps when aligning them later for exact sewing AND it also removes the pesky dog ears.
Cheap Seat Rotating Cutting Mat
When all my blocks are done, I always lay my whole quilt out and pin the blocks together so that I don’t make any mistakes when sewing. Unfortunately, that doesn’t always work.
So far so good.
Here is what each set of FOUR blocks should look like when sewn together.
One down and lookin’ GOOD.
Below is what I THOUGHT was my finished table top.
Honestly, I really like the pattern I created (this is a first for me and Electric Quilt!)
I mean I was H.A.P.P.Y.
I was sooo happy that I was singing, “Ring of Fire” because, my quilt reminded me of a fiery ring……. And THEN, I spotted IT. Not just IT but THEM.
ERRORS!!! OMG…. Whatever should I do?
In the past, I would have seriously considered throwing the whole dang thing into the trash BUT, I liiiked this one. I really did. So, I bit the bullet and got out the dreaded ripper. It was SCARY. I mean, I wasn’t so sure I could remove an internal block, rotate it and sew it back in without it causing me massive GRIEF.
I know, I KNOW… you wanna see the messed-up version. Ok, here it is. Can you see IT… I mean THEM???? (It’s the one on the left if you’re on your desktop computer LOLOLOL)
And on the right is the fixed version. I hope it isn’t too weird of me to say this but dang-git, I’m proud of myself for fixing it. Those of you who know me, know of my reputation of making ‘sewings’. You know, UFOs that will never see the light of day BECAUSE they did not turn out as I had imagined them in my mind’s eye (or maybe I just got bored).
Well that’s about it. Have you ever had a mess-up like mine?
Oh, shhhhh don’t tell anyone but I used to work in a quilt shop and we had a lady who made our quilt samples and did a fabulous job on EVERY quilt except one where she had a block upside-down in the middle of a king sized quilt.
I hope she never noticed because I bet she would be mortified.
Well, thanks for dropping by!! Happy Sewing and Quilting!
~PattyAnne
