Sewing Desk Makeover

Have you ever made up a project to keep one (or more) of your kids busy??? This one worked in my favor. My oldest has decided she likes to paint. These are our stools I let her paint not too long ago.

 

 

A couple days ago I was sitting at my old, drab sewing desk and a lightbulb came on in my head! I could let my daughter paint this desk! It would give it new life, and I wouldn't mind some color in my sewing room! In the rest of the house, I am pretty conservative with my color palatte because I don't have much sense of style when it comes to decorating a living space.

 

The secret to painting for me is to go to the mis-tints at my local paint shop. I have never not liked their paint. I have, however, often not like paint that I have spent hours picking the color.

 

Today I found this fun blue color, "Blue Mine" in the mis-tints. It was perfect!

 

One drawer was broken in the process. It is an old desk that I picked up at a second hand store years ago. We should be able to fix it.

 

Side note - I recently noticed that the drawers of the desk smell old. They have always smelled, but I had become accustomed to the smell. A few weeks ago, I put a bar of soap in each of the drawers, and they are smelling better already!

 

I can't wait until this dries enough to put it back in the corner of my sewing room!

Snow Kissed Star

I have received quite a few emails about my pattern Snow-Kissed Star that was on the cover of the Nov/Dec 2011 McCall's Quilting Magazine.

 

 

I think the reason is because of this fabulous recent Moda Bake Shop recipe:

http://www.modabakeshop.com/2013/09/bake-shop-basics-quilt-borders.html

 

I have recently made this quilt available to purchase as a single pattern!

 

 

I am in the middle of completely redoing my website (which is taking way to long because I only half know what I am doing). The pattern is not on my website yet.

 

If you want to purchase this pattern, you can send $8.95 to orders@moosequilts.com through PayPal. You do not need to have a PayPal account in order to do this. Just make sure you note that it is for this pattern and that your address in included. I will mail it to you.

 

This quilt was made with a jelly roll of Kate Spain's Christmas line Flurry. It isn't just for Christmas though. Here it is in Bonnie and Camille's Happy Go Lucky.

 

My local quilt shop made it up in American Jane. Here's her latest, Potluck:

 

 

I would love to make it in Lily Ashbury's High Street!

 

The other great thing about this pattern is that if you are careful, it only uses half of a jelly roll. That means you can make two quilts from one jelly roll! Or you can make it from a set of 2 1/2" strips from another manufacturer who makes them smaller!

 

I still love this pattern. Thank you for all the recent inquiries!

 

More of Grandpa's Treasures

After going back to my Grandpa's house a couple more times, I have no more guilt (see  http://moosequilts.blogspot.com/2013/09/family-heirlooms.html) about keeping the quilts that I have. There were more than enough quilts to go around. I found enough that each of my children have a quilt and then found one more. I gave it to my sister. My sister loves red. This quilt has a red backing and is tied in red yarn.

 

 

It is big. It is also newer than the others which I have yet to take photos of.

 

I love this quilt! Isn't it fun to see how great just squares look!

 

Problem is, I don't know who made the quilt. It doesn't look like the quilts I know were made by the great grandmother who I knew. It may have been made by another great grandmother who I did not know. My aunts told me she sewed clothes for people and may have made quilts from the scraps. This quilt looks like clothing scraps to me. But it could easily have been given as a gift by someone I don't know. Another case for labeling quilts!

 

Fun Mail Day - Soap!

Not too long ago, I received a fun package in the mail. It contained soap!

 

I recently came back into contact with an old friend of mine. She is raising her family of seven children on the other side of the country making soap! Her soap is absolutely gorgeous! One of the soaps she sent me was called Clean Cotton. I took a picture of it, but I can't find the picture I took. I thought having picture on the computer would mean it wouldn't get lost. This picture is from Carrie's website:

http://simply7skincare.com//

 

 

I couldn't wait to try the soap, but at the same time, it was so nice it took me a couple days to open it. It felt luxurious being able to use something hand made so beautifully. Reading about the way she makes soap on her website and on facebook reminds me of making quilts. It is a creative process.

 

My husband now wants to make soap. I don't think so! I'll leave that to Carrie and and stick with quilts! I don't need to wear gloves and safety goggles to make quilts.

 

I wanted to share this because Carrie has agreed to let me give some of her soap away on my blog! It won't be today, but I will be giving away some of this beautiful soap in the near future!

 

Have you ever used home made soap? I hope those who use my quilts enjoy it as much as I enjoy this soap!

New Modern Quilt Guild

This Saturday will be the inagural meeting of a new modern quilt guild in south Utah County! 

Saturday, September 14th

 10:30 am

Gracie Lou's Quilt Shoppe

446 N State Road, Salem, Utah

 

Bring show and tell and ideas for the guild. See you there!

 

Family Heirlooms

Two quilts, family heirlooms, recently came into my possession. For some reason, I have mixed feelings about inheriting them.

 

My father and his siblings were going through their father's affects. My dad brought me these quilts. The first quilt was one I made my grandpa for his 90th birthday. All of the aunts, uncles, cousins, and cousins' families made quilt squares. I sewed them together into a quilt and quilted it. This quilt is big!

 

 

I quilted it with trains. My grandpa liked trains.

 

I am sure my aunts wanted this quilt. They gave it to me because I made it. Someone has to end up with it. I guess it may as well be me. I feel unworthy to have it. For some reason, I don't know what to think.

 

The next quilt was made by my great-grandmother. I felt guilty taking this one until I found out that there were quite a few and my aunts and uncles got quilts too. This is a smaller, throw size quilt.

 

Isn't it fabulous! My dad says he remembers her sewing up scraps on a treadle machine. Don't you love this animal print! My dad and I guessed it was a women's coat. The fabrics are all heavy - wool and heavy poly. It is hand quilted.

 

This is actually the second quilt of my great grandmother's that I own. The other is even more fabulous except it is in terrible condition. This is truely a treasure!

 

Of course, it isn't labeled. I need to do that. This grandmother lived to be over 100. We never lived very close, so I only saw her occasionally. Even at the end, she always knew I was "David's oldest." We always called her "Little Grandma." She wasn't even five feet tall, at least when we knew her. When we went to her house when we were younger, she would pull out a tv tray and little wind up toys. We loved to wind up all the different little toys and watch them hop across the tray.

 

Have any family heirlooms come into your possession? What have you done to honor the trust without feeling guilty?

Auction Quilt

I don't often make auction or raffle quilts. I made an exception recently. My cousin is doing a fundraiser. I donated a quilt. I wanted to try to make something people would be more likely to bid on. I'm not sure it worked or not. When talking to his wife, she thought it would be good to make it red, white, and blue with quotes from President Lincoln.

 

Well, I didn't get started on the quote part right away, so I didn't have time. I have never been able to do iron on very well. Actually, I'm terrible at it. I was going to have the quotes printed at spoonflower.com, but I didn't have time.

 

On to Plan B. I was going to sew the quotes myself. After picking some good quotes, I realized that even the short ones were too long for my inexperience and short amount of time. On to Plan C. I decided to go for words instead of quotes. I picked words from the Republican Platform, something I knew the audience would be drawn to.

 

Then for the red, white and blue. I grabbed two charm packs of Friendship, one of Moda's Collections for a Cause. It is red, white, and blue, sort of. It is more red, tan, and blue. Then I made it brown by adding a brown border and snowball blocks. I like it. I'm sure it wasn't what they were thinking, but I hope people like it.

 

 

Here is a close up of some the words.

 

I used my friend's method to write the words. Here's a link to her tutorial:

http://april-makingendsmeet.blogspot.com/2013/03/raw-edge-free-motionish-applique.html

 

This is the first time I have tried it, so I don't do it as well. I think it turned out all right.

 

I still don't have high hopes for it. Maybe it's because I live in Utah. People around here would rather quilts themselves than buy them. Any of you found what works with auction and raffle quilts? I would love to know!