Orange Peel Handwork Project

Back in November, I sewed up a bunch of orange peel blocks (see that post) using curve templates from Jen @bettycrockerass. I assembled the quilt top and then put it aside to work on other projects and also because I was debating whether I wanted to make it larger or not.

Debate over, it will stay wall hanging size (42" x 42") so that I can do some hand quilting! We've got a beach trip coming up and I am excited to have a project where I can sit on the deck with a glass of wine or a cup of tea (depending on the time of day!) and stitch.

The color palette is new to me. Last year, I challenged myself to play with new to me colors and purchased a FQ bundled curated by @stringandstory. These are all Painter's Palette solids in the colors Amber, Bisque, Colonial Blue, Daydream, Gold, Golden Brown, Goldenrod, Haze, Jack O'Lantern, Paprika, Portabella, and Redwood.  

Have a wonderful day! Patty

April One Monthly Goal Finish

Ready to link up your finishes?

Don't panic - this link-up is open until April 30 at 11:55 pm ET.

I'm pleased to be sharing hosting duties with Anne-Marie from Stories From the Sewing Room.  You can link up at either of our blogs and your OMG project will show up in the same link party!  

My goal for April was to quilt this adorable bear and racoon quilt top, a UFO from 2016! It was such a fun project - read more about it here.

Now it's your turn to link up!  Please add a link to this OMG post so others can follow where you are linking.   Let's make that easy -  just paste this into your post:  

Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal - April Finish Link-up

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Have a wonderful day! Patty

Bear in The Woods Through a Window

Cary Quilting - my wonderful local quilt store - had a free applique pattern for the bear and racoons peaking around the tree which was designed by the owner back in 2015/2016. I made my own version back in 2016 - read more about the quilt - and never got beyond the quilt top. 

The applique pieces were done raw edge applique. I surrounded them with pieced pine trees made from flying geese in several colors of green and then added a narrow border around the whole edge to finish off the "window".

When I picked the project back up to quilt, I briefly debating changing out the outer border but at 37" x 37" decided it was a reasonable size for a baby quilt. 

As part of the quilting process, I zig-zagged over the raw edges - baby quilt means it needs to be ready to be washed a bit - and did a loopy meander through all the blue. The trees were left unquilted.

The backing and binding are Moda Sweetwater Pure line from my stash. (Same fabric used here!)

I intend to gift this quilt to a new baby due any day now!

Have a wonderful day! Patty

Table Runners

Back when my kids were in elementary school, they did a fund raiser where you could purchase a piece of their artwork on all kinds of things. (A very smart idea because what parent wouldn't buy something?) They also offered just squares of fabric with the artwork on them.

I finally - twenty years later - turned that artwork into a mini-quilt / placemat! (And, yes, I am impressed with myself that I still had it stored away in a place where I could find it stumble across it by accident.)

Just in case you didn't recognize her, this is Maria from the Sound of Music. It was drawn my middle daughter and was one of the best piece of elementary school artwork she ever did. It will now serve as a placemat under her laptop when she sits at our brand new kitchen table!

Next up is a placemat/ trivet made using Insul-Bright and a layer of bating. Insul-Bright has a reflective shiny bit sandwiched between batting like stuff to reflect the heat.

In my recent sewing room declutter, I came across several bags of scraps including some from the Moda Sweetwater Pure fabric line. (This fabric line is in my top 10 of all time favorites and when it came out, I remember purchasing  pre-cuts and yardage.) I tend to store like-scraps (i.e. those from the same designer or the same fabric line) together.   

I made many projects  with this fabric line including this queen-sized quilt made in 2012 which still sits on my bed over ten years later. Perhaps it is time to make a new quilt for our bed....

Have a wonderful day! Patty

Sewing Space Declutter

Spring cleaning my house? Not on my todo list! Spring cleaning my sewing space? Absolutely!

I reorganized my sewing space back in 2019 (see that post) and it was time to do it again. There was a lot of visible clutter plus projects and supplies that I didn't remember even existed.

Besides not being able to find things, anything I needed usually required moving two other things in order to get to what I actually wanted. 

Before (on left) my bag making supplies were on the very top shelf - zippers in one plastic box and swivel hooks etc in another. Now (on right) everything I need for bag making is in one basket. And, these baskets did not need to be purchased - they were stacked inside each other (empty!) in a closet and purchased probably ten years ago. The bright yellow you squares are sticky notes describing the content. I hope to replace these tags with something a bit nicer to look at.

Under my sewing table, I had a white 3 tiered shelf. I thought perhaps it would be a place for project storage but instead it just grabbed random items and served no purpose.

So I shifted the table that sits next to my sewing machine about 15" away from the corner and tucked the tiered shelf into the nook. My thread sits on the top shelf (as do 2 minis I want to hang up!) as do my basting pins. Using 2 acrylic bins from target, I created an extra storage area on the second shelf. That shelf is for scraps I actively want to use (sorted and stored in plastic bags) plus my sewing machine feet and wound bobbins. It is working so very well - I wish I had thought about it earlier.

The final trouble spot was the little storage cubbies that sat on top of the table next to my machine. In this photo (from 2019), you can see them in the background - my wonderful cutting table is in the foreground.

Supplies were randomly stored in those cubbies and on the table and every time I needed something, I had to move something else. It was very frustrating and created clutter.

All the commonly used items were moved to that little storage shelf so I now am busy turning those cubbies into something filled with things I love to look at like Buzz and Woody! Sliding things over gave me some nice wall space for more minis (hence the pile I referenced earlier!) My chocolate supply is hidden there too - shhh, don't tell my daughter!

Everything I used for my project was repurposed from something I already owned. To the aqua tray (right next to the iron), I added some tiny plastic cups so things can stay sorted.

My pressing mat and wonderful Mini Project Oliso iron  remain right next to me when I sew. I've got an old ugly desk lamp sitting there too which serves both to give some extra lighting while pressing and also remind me that the iron is on! I do the same thing for my big iron too. (I've had that pressing mat since 2018 and it is holding up quite well. (Read my review of pressing mat and of iron.)

Besides some basic rearranging, I did sent some scraps and blocks to new homes. Happy sewing!

Have a wonderful day! Patty

Viva Magenta

I'm excited to be joining this year's Pantone Quilt Challenge hosted by Sarah and Elizabeth. There are several different ways to enter the challenge - including minis, quilted items like bags, and just the top! You can read more about the challenge in this kick-off post.

Sarah did the work to match up solid colors from different fabric manufacturers and I am working with Paintbrush Studios - my favorite! - in the color Cherry Blossom (121-175) and matching it with Petal (121-018). My quilt will be two colors.

I'm very excited by my quilt design although the piecing does involve templates. I spent quite a bit of time trying to work around this and tried to create FPP patterns for the piecing but it didn't really work plus would likely use a lot more fabric!

Each of these are cut from 2 1/2" strips.

The sewing has started and everything is working well so far. Now back to sewing!

Have a wonderful day! Patty

April One Monthly Goal

New to One Monthly Goal?  Welcome!  To join, share a photo of your project plus, some words about what you want to accomplish in a blog post or  and add that photo to the link-up.  Return at the end of the month and share your results.  (Results link-up opens for the last 7 days of the month.)

I'm pleased to be sharing hosting duties with Anne-Marie from Stories From the Sewing Room.  You can link up at either of our blogs and your OMG project will show up in the same link party!  

My goal for April is to quilt this sweet baby-sized quilt top I made way back in 2016! Pattern was from my LQS - read more about the quilt. This will be a gift for a new baby expected later this month.

Now it is your turn to link up - what is your goal for this month?   The One Monthly Goal accomplishment linkup will be available on April 24.  Make sure you add a link to this OMG post so others can find the OMG link-up from your blog.  Let's make that easy -  just paste this into your post:  

Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal April Link-up

Take a few minutes to visit others and make new friends!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Have a wonderful day! Patty