Winners of the Inspired LED Lights

Congratulations to Jayne P. and Mary Lou B. on winning an Inspired LED Sewing Machine Light during the Christmas Caroling Row Along at Seams to Be Sew with your comments left at Happy Sewing Room (that's me :-))!

You should have received an email from Marian from Seams to Be Sew with details of receiving your prize.  I hope that you enjoy them!  Thank you so much for hopping!

Today's featured bloggers are:
Thursday, September 21, 2017
Martina Latimer
Quilt Fabrication
Patchwork Breeze
Patti’s Patchwork
Miss Loreen’s Schoolhouse

Happy Sewing,
Jean

Grandma's Kitchen Blocks 9, 10 & 11

Three more blocks done for Grandma's Kitchen! Block 9 The Kitchen Window, Block 10 Recipe Box and Block 11 Peppermint Swirls. 

The kitchen window looked out into the backyard and the side yard. There were always flowers around, so I used a floral fabric for the windows. 

I don't remember my Grandma having a recipe box, but my Mom did. The recipe box was floral with stripes, but in blues and yellows. The light floral print is blue flowers, although the rest is not. 

I remember my Great Grandma having a candy dish, which was a glass chicken sitting on the nest. I loved that thing! However, I do not remember what candy was in it! :-) I made my candy into flowers since I know that my Great Grandma, Grandma and Mom loved flowers. I did use one of my Mom's old buttons for the center of one of the flowers.

On to block 12!

Happy Sewing,
Jean

Project Bags

I just finished making a project bag and a matching small pouch.  I saw on many knitting podcasts that they used these project bags for their knitting.  I really liked them and thought that they would be good for both knitting and sewing or whatever you can think of to use them for.

I like that you can fold it down, since it is a soft bag, and it makes it like a bucket and easier to have your yarn accessible to knit with.

I added a pocket to my lining in the large bag and decided to fully line the smaller pouch, with no raw seams exposed. (Yes, sometimes I get a little crazy 😁)  I didn't quite have enough fabric for the lining, so I added a little bit of the contrast fabric to make it work.

I quilted both bags using the serpentine stitch and did part grid and part straight lines on the larger bag and a full grid on the smaller pouch.  I like the look of this stitch, versus a straight stitch, since it adds some softness to the look.

I checked out many videos of how to's to make this on youtube and I really liked this one by Erica Arndt:

https://youtu.be/VbzEAweKAyM

I did a few modifications to it for my use, but the basic technique is hers.

I think I may be making more of these in the future.

Happy Sewing,

Jean

Christmas Caroling Row A Long - God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen

Hello Everyone!

I hope that you are having a great time doing the Christmas Caroling Row Along Blog Hop! 
Thank you Marian Pena of Seams to be Sew for hosting the hop and for all the work that you have done!  Thank you also to Northcott Fabrics for the lovely fabric that you have donated to us to use in our rows.

I chose the Christmas Carol "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" for my row.  I really loved the chorus - "O Tidings of Comfort and Joy".  In doing research for the Christmas Carol, I found this fifth verse from 1775 which I really liked.

Now to the Lord sing praises,

All you within this place

Like we true loving brethren,

Each other to embrace,

For the merry time of Christmas

Is coming on a-pace.

I pictured Victorian carolers gathering in town singing and spreading love to all who heard them.

I usually use Electric Quilt to do my designing.  This is the first time that I created appliques using this program.  It was both challenging and fun for me.  I hope that you like it.  I did this row using fusible applique, but you could also do it with hand applique or whatever is your favorite method.  I wanted to add some architectural detail to the houses, so I used some of the decorative stitches on my sewing machine.  I added a feather stitch to my holly leaves and hand embroidered a wreath on one of the front doors.  You can have a lot of fun just deciding exactly how you would like to finish this row.  Keep it simple or go wild!

I decided that I would like to finish this row as a wall hanging and put a border on it that kind of looked like a frame, but still keeping a little Victorian feel to it.  This is what I came up with.

Click here for my pattern

This is a real easy border to do.  It just uses squares and rectangles.  I have included this finished border instructions in my pattern. 

This is the fabric that I got from Northcott.  The red, green and white were from the Toscana line. 9020-26, 9020-781 &
9020-10.  The wood grain looking fabric was from Hurry Up Santa 21712-11.
My background was also a Northcott, but it was from last year.  They have one with the same print, but a different blue from the Magic of Christmas 21701-44 which would work well.


There are also giveaways during our Christmas Caroling Row Along!

Inspired LED Sewing Machine Light (2 Lights 2 Winners)

Shipping Is Anywhere / Shipping Cost must be paid by winner. ---- (Need Converter for 220 Volts)
Value $30.00 each / Total $60.00
Description Link: http://www.seamstobesew.com/?p=13539
Links To Actual Products Found On Description Page At Marian's Blog
Starts September 12, 2017 / Ends September 19, 2017
Sponsor URL: http://www.inspiredled.com/
http://www.inspiredled.com/sewing-machine-led-lighting-kit

a Rafflecopter giveaway

You will find additional giveaways that were generously donated by Northcott Fabrics and Calibre Art on Marian's Blog.

Here are the bloggers that are sharing the day with me:

Tuesday, September 12, 2017
Sew Incredibly Crazy
Masterpiece Quilting
Sugarlane Designs

You can find the rules and guidelines for the giveaways here on Marian's blog

Happy Sewing and Happy Hopping

Jean

Two More Blocks Finished for Grandma's Kitchen

 I finished two more blocks for my Grandma's Kitchen quilt that is designed by Pat Sloan.  The first one is Oh My Stars!  which is supposed to represent a saying that my Grandma used to say.  I don't remember my Grandma or Mom having any particular saying.  When my children were growing up, I used to say "cheese and crackers!", which is better than what I say now! 😊

Oh My Stars

 The second block is Grandma's Apron.  I don't really remember my Grandma or Mom wearing an apron, so I chose colors that I thought they would like.  The apron was to be done as a fusible applique, but I decided to needle turn it.  The heart was a little challenging since it is only a half inch in size.  I thank Sarah Fielke for her wonderful needle turn instructions!

Grandma's Apron

 Below is a picture of all of my blocks so far.  They consist of both 5" and 6" blocks.  Pat's directions are for 10" and 12" blocks, but I shrunk mine.  It will be interesting to see how she puts them together when we have finished the 25 blocks that make up the Grandma's Kitchen Quilt.

All of my blocks so far!

I hope you get a chance to do spend some time with loved ones and do some things that you enjoy on this long Labor Day weekend!

Happy Sewing,

Jean