Bejeweledquilts by barb: February 2018

Tuesday, February 20, 2018

Sewing with Minky Fabrics

As most of you know, Minky is a hard fabric to sew. I have always avoided it at all cost.

Yesterday while in Walmart I received a call from two friends. They were trying to sew two minky blankets but had nothing but frustration.

Their machines wouldn't work, the fabric stretched. Fabric stretching was the main issue and both were so frustrated.

I told them that I had little to no experience with the fabric and that I have never wanted to sew with it but they said I would fair better than they have.

Forty-five minutes later they are at my door with fabrics in hand.
You could feel their frustrations, I have been in their shoes before and have threatened to throw a project away for that very reason.

Before they arrived I called my sister, Jeanette, at Inchworm fabrics, and asked her feeling about minky and how she managed to sew it. She told me to put the minky side down when sewing so the feed dogs could ease the fabric and not pull like it would if it were on top. She also said to pin it liberally.

I had asked her if glue would help. She had no clue.

So...first order of business, square up the fabrics.

Sorry, I didn't take any pictures, not even of the finished items. So I am going to assimilate it with the scraps out of the bin.

THE DREADED MINKY

The backing fabric, placed on top of the minky with right sides together.

They were doing the pillow case method...where you sew all sides but leave a whole open to pull through.

Trusted Glue...oh...you see where I am going with this??

I had them glue the outside of the backing fabrics, not the minky and then press it down.

See here where there is a strip of glue?

Then I had them pin it just in case and for more stability.

Even if you get glue past your sew line, you can always pull it apart before you do the top

stitching. It pulls apart quite easily.

I had noticed in some spots the glue was a little wide but knowing what I know and if

I were doing it by myself, I would just use a strip as you see above not a wide strip.

I have to tell you that I had no issues what so ever with stretching and it took no time at all to finish

these two blankets.

I am no longer afraid.

Fear has left the building.

Have a fantastic day, the sun is shining here and it is almost 70 degrees...

Friday, February 16, 2018

MINI LOVE!!!

We were asked to make a mini quilt, no larger than 24" x 24".

I have been racking my brain all week.

I settled on something this morning but as usual my idea took a turn and this is what I came up with.

My husband gives me cards and flowers through the year just for no reason. Well....he claims it is

his love for me (smiling). A lot of the times when I am away from him he will send flowers or have a

sweet card and candy on the kitchen bar when I come home.

I thought how fun would it be to have somewhere to display the card instead of in the drawer, this way I can swap out the cards if I want to.

Used my wonderful Aurifil thread and Island Batik fabrics.

I decided on how large I wanted the heart and then I quilted a square about that size and then after it was quilted I just cut out the heart.

Now you are inside how my mind works.

I have this blank heart and a few ideas....so I draped some red fabric across the middle...

didn't work for me.

So I drapped it to the side...and thought...hummmm a card would look nice in there.

Ran and got a card...oh yessss.

Hemmed the draped side....and figured I needed something on the other side to help the card stay in place.

you guessed it...cut out a strip, hemmed it...and I have the other side of my

heart in place.

See how cute this grandson is in here.

Then I thought....candy...I need somewhere to place some candy if I want to.

Hummmm

Hearts.....

So I drew out the shape of the heart I wanted....then used my pinking shears to cut around them.

Here is another adorable grandson.

Sewed the little hearts on.

Then I made some hanging loops.

Since I already had the quilting done and wasn't sure if I wanted to do a binding....

I decided to just make another backing, sew 1/4" around the outside, leave an opening to pull

through and the rest is history.

This will be hanging in my pink room. You have heard about my pink room?

As a mother of five sons having a pink room was out of the question. Now they are gone and guess who has a pink room....oh yessss you are looking at her.

Loving every minute of it.!!

Tuesday, February 13, 2018

HAPPY GALENTINE'S DAY

I have been wanting to make one of these little candle mats/wall hanging/ mug rug with my

Island Batik scraps for a long time now.

12 1/2" x 12 1/2"

You can even use it for a mug rug.

The original design had chalk board fabric in the middle but I

wanted to see what it would look like without that and I have to say

I love it.

Here is a list of all of the wonderful Island Batik Ambassadors.

Truly amazing, creative, inspiring ladies.

We are all gearing up for another amazing year!!

Alison at Little Bunny Quilts
Amy at Sew Incredibly Crazy
Anita at Quilt in a not-Shell
Anna at Ark Angel Creations
Anne at Sweetgrass Designs
Barbara at Bejeweled Quilts
Bea at BeaQuilter
Carole at Carole Lyles Shaw
Connie at Freemotion by the River
Connie at Kauffman Designs
Dione at Clever Chameleon
Geraldine at Living Water Quilter
Jackie at If These Threads Could Talk
Janet at Whispers of Yore
Jeanette at Inchworm Fabrics
Jen at Patterns by Jen
Jennifer at Curlicue Creations
Jennifer at Dizzy Quilter
Jennifer at Inquiring Quilter
Jessica at Desert Bloom Quilting
Joan at Moosestash Quilting
Joyce at heARTs Creations
Karen at Sew Karen-ly Created

Karen at The Quilt Rambler
Kathleen at Kathleen McMusing
Laura at Slice of Pi Quilts
Leanne at Devoted Quilter
Mania at Mania for Quilts
Maryellen at Mary Mack Made Mine
Michelle at Creative Blonde
Myra at Busy Hands Quilts
Nancy at Masterpiece Quilting
Pamela at PamelaQuilts
Sally at Sally Manke
Sandra at MMM Quilts
Sarah at Sarah Goer Quilts
Sharon at Yellow Cat Quilt Designs
Sherry at Powered by Quilting <--- me="" span="">
Stephanie at Steph Jacobson
<--- me="" span="">Suzy at Adventurous Applique and Quilting
<--- me="" span="">Teri at Lizard Creek Quilts
<--- me="" span="">Tina at Quilting Affection Designs
<--- me="" span="">Toby at Gateway Quilts & Stuff
<--- me="" span="">Turid at Den Syende Himmel
<--- me="" span="">Vicki at Vicki's Crafts & Quilting

Thanks Laura from Slice of Pi for the list of Island Batik Ambassadors.

Friday, February 9, 2018

YOU ARE CURRENTLY BEING PHOTO BOMBED WITH A BOX OF FABRIC FROM ISLAND BATIK

As most of you know, I am an Island Batik Ambassador. Every six months they send their Ambassadors a box of goodies. We are to create and share what we make on a monthly basis.

This is my fourth year as an ambassador, which is hard to believe.

I have enjoyed it so much. Sometimes I get a little stressed with life happenings but Island Batik stretches me in ways I would not otherwise be.

Needless to say I have been ill but that did not stop me from answering the door with no make-up, bed head, and I won't tell you what I was wearing. Our Fed Ex person is a woman so I didn't mind too much.

Ooopsss we have something peaking out.

Here is the surprise fabrics....ummm ummmm good. Can't show you till the designated time.

Oh my gosh......

The yellow is a rayon scarf....and the blue is some rayon fabric....so beautiful.

Can always use some neutral fabric (notice 3 yards...holy cow).

I love these Paisley dot fabric, in fact, I am using this for our March theme. Oh yessssssss....gotta love dots!

Here are some 5" strips, I have so enjoyed these in the past.

This is called Mountain Majesty, just look at those yummy fabrics.

Aurifil threads. I have said and I have heard others comment that

Aurifil threads create less lint than most threads. Gotta love

their brilliant colors. Can I say that I am in Heaven.

This brochure from Aurifil is full of information about what needle to use with which threads and has a chart in the back telling you which threads to use for what purpose.

I am not familiar with Hobbs batting but am excited to use it and will be

happy to tell you of my experience.

The catalog is full of batting samples, their standard line and Tuscany Collection, along with a chart on the back telling you what batting to use and how it will perform for the purpose you are using it for.. It is interesting to read about each different batting.

Now if this box doesn't make a gal feel better, I don't know what will.

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The winners of the Put a little Love in your Quilt hop are as follows:

Hearts of Plenty topper goes to:

MoeWest said...

The 'you are here' block is darling! I like your pattern called Hearts of Plenty.

Spoken Heart Pattern goes to:

Sandi1100 said...

Very cute wall hanging. I love your Spoken Heart pattern and have enjoyed your Blog.

All you need is love goes to:

tac73 said...

Love all your heart projects! All You Need Is Love is favorite now. Thank you for sharing.

Tulips goes to:

West Michigan Quilter said...

Love your quilt. Sew sweet! Love all your patterns too!

Hearts and Flowers goes to:

Home Sewn By Us said...

Hi Barb,
Since the addition of our little great-nephew, I can certainly understand the pitter patter with your grandsons. Aren't they just the greatest?! And I get to have him in my life fairly often - so blessed. Your wall hanging is so darn cute! I love the arrow pointing to the heart. ~smile~ Roseanne

What a fun hop this was, just want to thank all of you for coming out and commenting and a big congrats to the winners.

Tuesday, February 6, 2018

"PUT A LITTLE LOVE IN YOUR QUILT" BLOG HOP

Thank so much Carol for heading this awesome blog hop.

I knew immediately what I was going to do and what fabric I was going to use.

It is probably not a mystery to any of you that I am using Island Batik fabrics. I decided to use my purple scraps.

This sweet quilt is by Lyn Steinmetz from Marshfield, Wisconsin which I found in the Quiltmaker magazine. Sorry I can not tell you the year.

As you can see I am using my awesome Island Batik Fabrics.

This pattern spoke to me when I first saw it. I didn't have any grandbabies at the time but knew if I did that they would always be in my heart which I can tell you now that I have three grandsons that definitely makes my heart go pitter patter.

Here is my finished quilt....you would think I could take a straight picture.

I just love this quilt design and I do love it in purple for sure.

Thanks for coming by.

Those who came to my Heart Attack week are probably sick of these patterns or maybe you didn't win anything and want to try your hand at it again????

I will give one pattern of each design below away, international bloggers are welcomed because they are PDF. Just say which one you would like.

Spoken Hearts

Round Valentine Topper

Hearts of Plenty

Tulips

All you need is Love

Hearts and Flowers

Free tutorial Here for this Candle mat

Here is my pattern site on craftsy.

Here is the line-up

Ya'll Come back now, Ya hear!!!

Saturday, February 3, 2018

CATCHING THE CURVE BALL

Sometimes life just throws you a curve ball, my only advice is to catch it and keep going.

My sweet grandson has the flu and double ear infection. My husband went down last Tuesday

to tend him while

his parents worked. I went down on Tuesday and stayed through Friday.

Why am I telling you this????

Because.................there is no sewing going on in this house. The machines are dusty and

the house is quiet.

Needless to say I have to go back tomorrow and stay again through the week.

They live two hours away which

allowed me to come home for the week-end.

Now my husband is sick....which he will just have to take care of himself...poor guy.

That being said, on Monday starts the

"Put a little Love in your Quilt" blog hop....

so glad I got my project done early.

I even have my Island Batik project done for this month as well. YEA me...we are on top

of our game (get the pun??) here at Bejeweled. Sorry....I just had to pat myself on the back

just a little.

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The winner of my Island Batik Four Seasons Blog Hop is Brenda....need your address

Brenda. I will have to

apologize in advance, it may take me a while to get the package to you.

Brenda / SBD Embroidery and Quilting said...

I have trouble with my thimbles too - great tip. Now I have to go to the store to get some spray adhesive!! Your tree quilt is so cute and what a great idea using the fabric to make those snap bags! And the hearts are a great way to use up that left over fabric from the tree quilt!

Thanks Brenda and a big shout out to all of you who came by and commented. Hope to see you at the hop on Tuesday (that is my day, and we all know it is about me...right????)

Bejeweledquilts by barb