Say ‘hallo’ to my new little friend!

Hello! I have returned and, hopefully, for a more routine and longer period of time this go-round.  So, as many of you might know, I’ve been going to school pretty much non-stop for the last year or so. The last few months have been hectic, to say the least, which has left me with little time to sew or really do many fun things (much to the chagrin of my sons!). Also, my husband recently signed on with the Navy.

Adjusting to being a single parent and being a military dependent/Navy Wife has been a bit of an adjustment!  We’re doing okay. I think I have a bit of a leg up on it, as I served eight years in the Air Force. I spent much of the first two weeks he was gone deep cleaning the house and organizing.  Now, I am keeping busy by canning jam and beans, clipping coupons and studying sale papers. Sounds corny, I know, but it keeps me busy and staying busy helps me cope!

In other news, I thought it best to take a break from school. The last four months has been rigorous, to say the least, and I have not been able to sew or quilt in the slightest.

With Halloween almost here, I knew I had to make some time for projects. My sons almost always ask for costumes and this year is no different. My oldest wants to be Anakin Skywalker. There are currently no patterns in print for Jedi-type robes so I had to find a fan created one. As I’ve never crafted a pattern for clothing before, work on his costume has been a bit slow. I want to get this right! My youngest wants to be an orange kitty (it’s a long story which I will tell when I post his costume). I completely lucked out in that regard because I was able to use the same pattern I’ve been using for his costumes the last two years.  Needless to say, I’ll making several separate posts in the coming days with those costumes and the progress I’ve made on them. I am pretty excited about sharing them; I love Halloween! 🙂

And, finally, on the quilting front, I have been able to get back into piecing.  I’m not working on anything for the shop at the moment — I have fabric on order and that’s holding up at least two quilts — so I’ve decided to get to work on my oldest son’s quilt.

Here’s the progress so far:

As you can see, this is a simple diamond-within-a-diamond quilt or square-within-a-square block. They measure 9″ finished. I’m using Sweetwater’s Mama said Sew for Moda Fabrics.  We happened to come across the cream/red-black squiggle stripe on sale at our local quilt shop last December and my son said he loved it.  At the time, I didn’t realize that Mama Said Sew was nearing the end of its run so I had to grab a yard here and a yard there where I could find it. It was a bit of a hairy experience — I think I ordered the fabric from at least seven different sellers on Etsy to gather enough to make the quilt — but one which I think will be worth it once it’s completed.

I’d also like to announce one small-ish change you may have already noticed to the site. I’ve decided to rename the site and my business.  New Traditions Design Studio was an okay name but I didn’t really feel like it ever captured what I was about or my love of quilts.  I also didn’t think it was very catchy.  So, after some lengthy brainstorming, I’ve decided to go with Bewitching Stitches Quilt Company.  I think this more or less says it all for my feelings about quilts, they are magical things that can bewitch you with their beauty and warmth.  Also, since I have an overly healthy love of Halloween, I think this really fits my personality so to speak. I should have a logo soon, too!

Well, that’s all I had to share for now. Stay tuned for more posts! Thanks for reading and boy, am I glad to be back!

[News!] We’re Navy Bound! Plus: Studio upgrades and new quilt design!

Hello everyone! I hope you had a great week last week. We had a bit of a rollercoaster of a ride, let me tell you.

As you might remember, my husband has been working on enlisting in the Navy.  On Wednesday, he was scheduled to go to the military processing center for a checkup and to make sure all his paperwork was correct. That didn’t happen until Thursday, unfortunately, because of a new rule stating prior service enlistees can’t go to processing without going with another enlistee. So his recruiter scrambled and found someone to go with him the following day.  He had to stay overnight (and get up at 0430 in the next morning) and spent the following day waiting to find out when he’d be shipping out. He leaves in two months and we are super excited.

In the meantime, I am in the process of trying to ebay my Janome so I can buy a Bernina.  It’s not that I don’t like my Janome, I do, but I think I need to change up my game some. I want to switch to a model that has fewer stitches and this new machine will be for piecing only.  After my husband gets finished with training (and we move), I’ll buy a mid-arm machine for quilting.  I have been doing some extensive research and have narrowed it down to either a Babylock Tiara or the Handi Quilter Sweet 16.  I know the Tiara is made by HQ but I have heard that Babylock’s support is better than HandiQuilter’s. If anyone happens to own one of these fabulous machines, please feel free to comment on your experiences! I’d love to hear from you!

In the meantime, I can still FMQ on the Bernina because the model I picked is capable of doing FMQ. Not only does it come with the 1/4 inch piecing foot, it has a walking foot and a FMQ foot.   Let me tell you, I am super excited about my new plans!  I am just waiting for the auction to end so I send Gert to her new owner (*sad face*) and bring the new gal home to get to work.

In the meantime, I have been piecing, piecing and piecing but I am not ready to show you what just yet! 😉

Instead, I will share a new quilt design with you!

 

The “featured image” of this post displays the twin sized version of this nautical themed boy quilt made with Moda Fabrics “Bartholomew’s Reef” line.  I also plan on doing a toddler/crib bed size version of this quilt and this second image is the smaller version.  So cute! I can’t wait to start cutting this one out this week. Other than that, school continues to challenge me; I am headed into week seven (of eight) today!

Well, that’s all the news I had to share for now. Have a great week, I’ll see you next Monday!

Happy Monday, have a new quilt pattern!

So I might not have mentioned it but I’ve sold two quilts from my Etsy shop in the last two months. Woohoo!

Marmalade Dream and one of the Ohio Star Baby quilts both found homes.  My other quilt, Spring Pinwheel is my only remaining quilt  in stock. I am feverishly working on Boston Beauty which is about half way done.  In the meantime, I am also starting to gear up for the holiday season because, as we know, quilts not only take time to plan, cut, and piece but also quilt. So it’s with great pride and excitement that I present the first of my Christmas quilts for 2014!

 

Sorry about the watermark but I’ve had an unfortunate incident with someone taking my photos and claiming they created my work. How silly of them!

I created this using EQ7 software and boy what a lot of fun this was!  This quilt will be my most complicated quilt since I made “1893 Nine Patch” for my son.  This quilt was designed using “Joy” by Kate Spain for Moda Fabrics.  I happen to have a small stash of Joy because this was the fabric I made my third quilt from. It’s our family christmas snuggle quilt and, I loved it so much, I went out and snagged a fat quarter pack while this was still in print!

Aside from planning for the last quarter of the year, we’ve been patiently waiting for my husband’s trip to the military processing center this Wednesday. He’ll have a checkup on Thursday and they should give him his actual ship date; we are all so very excited about it, let me tell you!

Well, that’s all I had to share today. Hope you have a great week!

Quilt completion: Marmalade Dream!

 

Welcome back, I hope your weekend was a good one! We certainly had a great one. Not only was Mario Kart 8 released (it’s our most favorite family video game) but one of the Ohio Star quilts sold via my Etsy store! I finished free-motion quilting Marmalade Dream this morning and bound it this afternoon. The little feet you see are attached to my nine-year-old son who was kind enough to hold the quilt for photos. 🙂

Here’s a better view of the stitching

My son also finished his very first sewing project: a pillow case which he wants to donate to the 1 million pillowcase challenge. It was a really easy, stash-friendly project. He did really well and I am really proud of him. Here he is showing off his work:

 

Well, that’s all I had to share for today. See you Wednesday!

Happy FMQ-Friday: Marmalade Dream

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Hello! I hope your Friday has been a nice one. Mine has been busy! First of all, I am going to be linking up with Leah Day’s blog today in honor of FMQ Friday! I am always so happy when I have something FMQ to share with Leah because she’s just so awesome! Much like […]

WIP Wednesday: Red Hunter’s Star

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Welcome back! I’ve been hard at work all day on Red Hunter’s Star. I started out this morning with enough materials to put together four patches. Somewhere along the way, I ended up with enough for seven patches. Here’s a few photos of my progress thus far:             Once I […]

Binding!

Welcome back!

I thought I’d take a few minutes to plug one of my favorite tutorials.  I’ve seen a lot of people in various online forums say their least favorite part of quilting is the binding process.  I can certainly sympathize. I used to really dislike binding. It can be a long, painstaking process depending on what method you use.  Some people recommend using your machine to stitch the binding on and then fold it over and hand stitch it finished.  I tried that exactly twice, on two small quilts (pictured below), and quickly decided I neither had the patience to do so ever again.

I read a lot of books and web articles on the subject but had a really difficult time getting my head around the concept. So I turned to google to see what else was out there.

This tutorial on binding, by Red Pepper Quilts, is the best I’ve ever found on the subject. When I began quilting, I think I watched dozens of videos but that didn’t prepare me for the process. I’m a kinesic learner – I learn by doing – so I had to sit and make myself practice.

I didn’t want to mess up any quilts so I made up a project to do that incorporated binding.

I made four double sided placemats and bound them as you would a quilt.  Once I was done, I not only had some nice placemats (which are still in use in our house to this very day) but I had something more important: confidence.  I took that confidence and made six more placemats, binding them as well (and gave them away as a gift), and all that practice really paid off. Now I have absolutely no fear of binding but I have also gained a great deal of confidence in my own abilities. Which, as we all know, is really important in sewing.

So, if you feel anxious about binding, I highly recommend finding a couple of small projects to build your confidence up!

Here’s a couple of photos of some binding I made for Marmalade Dream.  I’ll be showcasing quilting for MD for this Friday’s triumphant return of “FMQ Friday!” Yay!

So pretty!

That’s all I had to share today. See you tomorrow with a post showcasing progress on Red Hunter’s Star! Have a lovely day!

More progress on Boston Beauty!

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Welcome back! I got a great deal of work done on Boston Beauty yesterday and thought I’d share:     I have enough patches now for two full rows, not including what I have in pieces, so I’ll start sewing those together this evening.  So far, I think Boston Beauty really lives up to her […]

W-I-P Wednesday!

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Welcome back! Hope your day was a lovely one. Mine was ok. Turns out, I have come down with what the kids and hubby had last week. Although, I think, it might be a milder strain. At any rate, it took me forever to fight through the fog, as it were, and get anything accomplished […]

We’re writing a book!

Hello and welcome back! Hope your weekend was lovely. Mine was really, really nice. We had an adventure – that’s what we call short trips to interesting places in our house – out to Washington-on-the-Brazos, the site where the Declaration of Texas’ Independence was signed. The site is a very well maintained State park.  We had a lovely 2 mile hike amongst fields of wildflowers. And, afterward, we had a picnic. All-in-all, it was a gorgeous day! These are my sons, posing in front of a tree that has been growing at Washington-on-the-Brazos since around the time of the signing of the Texas Declaration of Independence. Not only is it very old but it is of a very unique variety from Mexico, thought to be brought to Texas via the trade route that used to run right through this site. The La Bahia Pecan so was beautiful to behold. I think we all felt humbled and lucky to stand beneath it. And speaking of historic things, I’d like to get to the main subject of this post. My husband has always been so incredibly supportive of my quilting.  Two or so weeks ago, I was grousing about quilt block names being so random – by this I mean, everyone seems to have their own name for blocks – and, often, it’s tough to tell where the block originated.  I am currently also working on a degree in American History so I am no stranger to research.  Further, because of my profound love of history, I like to know the story behind the blocks or quilts I work with. This has led to untold amounts of frustration because that sort of information – at least from what I can tell – has not really ever been compiled on quilts. A good example of this multi-name confusion would be the quilt software I use calls a specific block one thing but, when I go to research the block name it gives me online the block almost never appears in the same configuration or under the same name.  And while the online catalogue of antique quilts is helpful but it’s sometimes really tough to find what you’re looking for there as well. In essence, you have to know the name of the block you’re looking for – by region sometimes – to find information about it. This is about the point Bud Abbott and Lou Costello pop into my head shouting, “Third base!” While there are great books out there that show how to draft blocks or give a little information on where they found the name of said block, I don’t really feel there’s a resource out there that tells the story of our glorous and beautiful art.   Of course, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Jinny Beyer’s The Quilter’s Album of Patchwork Patterns – which is a truly great resource for any quilter on multiple levels and contains 4,050 patchwork patterns – but, while I feel Jinny’s work has been invaluable, I want to know more. So, of course, as I explain my frustration to him, my husband simply replies, “Well, why don’t we just sit down and write it ourselves?” And that, long story short, is just what we’re doing. It’ll be a huge endeavor but in the end I think it will be quite rewarding and I am really looking forward to it. Unfortunately, I can’t give you much more information on our project, as we’re in the very early stages, but I thought I’d at least announce that we’re working on a book! Well, that’s all I have to share today. See you tomorrow with some project updates!