Patchwork Pincushion

 new pincushion!  Just can't get enough of those fun, fast, little projects.  I fill the pincushions with crushed walnuts shells and they have such a nice, pincushiony weight and feel.  The bottom photo is from Pinterest, and I tracked down the source, verykerryberry and she talks about it on this blog.  I  made my own version - pretty fun and speedy.  I have a couple of bins of teeny fabric scraps just perfect for this type of application.  The rest of the pincuhion is made from some linen/rayon fabric I bought at Joann's.  It has been my to-go fabric for all the pillows I am making of late.  This would make a good group sewing project, don't you think?  Jerilynn

Pillow Talk

Yes, you are.  

Strip Sticks!

Oh, no!  Have I turned into one of THOSE bloggers who try and convince you to buy products that someone is paying them to do just that?  No, I don't think so.  I am a self-proclaimed pressing aid collector.  Hams, sleeve roll, point presser and clapper...  And, not only do I own these pressing aids,  I actually use them!  So, when daughter Barb gave me two new pressing aids for Mother's Day, I was so thrilled!  She is a relatively new quilter, and saw these at one of her quilting classes.  I had never seen them before, but knew right away that they would come in very handy!  Weeks Ringle, of the Modern Quilt Studio fame, said on a Craftsy class I took (btw, one of the best classes I have taken online), said they ALWAYS press the seams open on the quilts they make.  Their quilts are precise and beautifully created.  The bad thing about pressing seams open, however, that it is not all that easy to do when the seams are 1/4" wide.  Plus, as you press one seam, the others get messed up.  The Strip Sticks that Barb gave me, solve those problems.  They are long fabric covered pressing sticks, in two sizes,  that elevate the seam you are pressing, so that other seams don't get out of whack.  It helps, also, in getting those seams really pressed fully open.  In the Patchwork America quilt I am making, with the over 2000 little squares, the Strip Sticks are being put to very good use.  The top picture is a bit hard to see, but you can sort of make out the seams pressed open on the quilt so far.  The bottom picture is from the Strip Stick web here.  I guess old dogs CAN learn new tricks!  Thanks again, Barb!  Jerilynn

The Perfect Storm Aftermath

I forgot to show you that I finished quilting the quilt that was The Quilting Perfect Storm from blogpost February 9.  I hesitate to refresh your memory, but you can find it here.  After Carl and I unsewed all the previously horrid quilting, I let the quilt just sit for a while, not very excited about starting over.  I finally decided I needed to not let the quilt get the better of me.  I re-pinned the quilt sandwich together, this time with lots of pins.  I stitched in the ditch in every seam.  The center big blocks got a swirly, free motion design, which helped disguise the puffiness.  The colored borders around the centers got a bit of a feather design.  You can't see it too well in the photos, but the light sashings got a free motion big zig-zag, and the corners got an X.  After binding, I threw the quilt in the wash, and was pleased to see it didn't look half bad!  It isn't my favorite quilt (after all, there is not RED in the quilt at all!),  but it looks fine in the Green Room for now.  Jerilynn

Cutting Help

Hmmm, somehow a post I thought I posted is lost. Did The Cloud take it somewhere? What IS exactly the Cloud. Do we really want to know? Anyway, the post started with a question : who do you think is helping me with Patchwork America? Look at the neatly piled and labeled stacked of 2" squares, both with the color number and state initial. Yep! Carl! I gave him a quick rotary cutting lesson, using the ruler markings as a guide. That is the way I rotary cut. Soon, however, he switched to using the markings on the mat, and the ruler as a straight edged cutting tool. Is that his in inner carpenter showing through? Who knows. But, I can say, his squares are very well cut. No surprise here, at all. Jerilynn
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Patchwork America Try 6

Whew!  Busy week!  My main job was to keep food in the house and cookies in the cookie jar.  I have a huge to-do list that got ignored for the Fourth of July week-long party, but today all I had energy for was to fill little squares with color.  This is about the 6th or 7th revision of the Patchwork America quilt idea.  I used all fifty colors of the American Made Brands cotton for the quilt.  I still need to figure out a background grid and do any final revisions of the states.  The fabric has been ordered.  Let the little squares cutting begin!  Jerilynn

Patchwork America

I thought I would include you in a new quilt idea from beginning idea phase to, hopefully, the finished quilt.  My idea is to use 1.5" finished blocks to piece all the states, each in a different color.  I plan to use all fifty of the solid American Made Brands cottons.  I think I want to piece the background, too, to maintain the patchwork feel.  At 1.5" for the blocks, this should turn out to be a twin sized quilt.  I think this shouldn't be too hard, just time consuming.  I will number all the colors and print out a graph, so that I know which colored squares to sew in the rows.  I think I will work on some of the shapes of the states, but this is not intended for navigational purposes, so I think it will be fine.  Jerilynn

Modern America - American Made Brands Fabric Self Promoting Blogpost

Yep, another Modern America post.  Stepahnie, at Clothworks, wrote a blog post on this quilt and the American Made Brands fabrics.  It is a fun post, and I thank her for her kind words.  Go here to read the post.  If the sun ever comes out again, I will take a picture of a quilt I finished quilting.  If it continues to rain, I will take a picture anyway because I need to then move on to building an ark.  Jerilynn