Summer Update!

Time flies whether you're having fun or not!  I can not honestly believe that I've not updated this blog since February.  Wow!  Much has happenned since then.  I got busy with the end of the school year which included my 4th and 5th grade production of the musical, Annie!  Now I'm sewing costumes for our summer musical camp, called SMACK, which is doing The Music Man this year.  We have 200 kids for camp this year and registration filled up with a long waiting list within an hour of opening it.  I'm so proud of this camp.  We've been producing a summer children's musical with amazing shows for 7 years now and the community just eats it up!  I coordinate the costumes and direct all of the music.  If you're interested in the camp, you can see photos and get information at www.smackinfo.com.  

As far as quilting goes, I finished this baby quilt for a sweet addition to a friend's family.  This was for baby number 6 in that family. (I don't know how she does it as I have a strict policy about the kids not outnumbering the adults in my family.)  The fabric is from the Out to Sea fabric line which is still available but you have to search for it!

  

 I don't seem to have a finished photo of this baby quilt but it was my absolute favorite.  The blues and greens were so lovely and I backed and bound it with a navy and white stripe fabric.  I'm having a little love affair with navy right now....not sure why.

This plus quilt was made for an auction to raise funds for my son's fine arts ministry group.  I think it brought in $185 for their summer trip to Orlando.  I love the grey chevron backing!  Sorry the finished photo is so dark.  This is also a glimpse of my #honestcraftroom which is terminally untidy.  I do love the recent addition of this wire clip line from ikea.  I can put all of my works-in-progress up there and out of the way!  

These are costumes for the smallest girls in our Music Man musical.  I've made 18 of these jumpers this week!  The littles will be bringing in the Wells Fargo Wagon in their red and white check jumpers with white blouses and red string ties.  The boys are in knickers, white shirts, red suspenders, and red kerchiefs around their necks!  Can't wait to see them.  These are the campers that are from 6-8 years old.

And last but not least, I drank the Koolaid and made my version of The Staple Dress.  I had to change it up a bit and I learned a lot but I think I may make some modifications and sew it up again.  It's not extremely flattering for us buxom gals but I think it could be with a few changes.  It was a very simple pattern to follow and it has POCKETS!  Every dress should have pockets.

I hope you all have a lovely summer!  Let's see if I can update sooner than 4 months from now.  

Two February Finishes!

This quilt just sort of happened.  I began the year with overflowing scrap bins so I started making string blocks to empty out the bins.  This quilt is 82"X99" and the scrap bins still aren't empty.  If you're interested in making a string quilt, there is a great tutorial here!

Below is a close up of the details and a photo of the backing fabric.  The quilt was quilted with straight-ish lines on either side of all of the horizontal, vertical, and diagonal seams.

                                                
 About the same time that I started into the string quilt, a quilt along for the Scrappy Trip Around the World quilt began to pop up on Instagram.  I couldn't resist so I jumped into two projects at once.  If you are on Instagram there are over 4000 photos of these quilts inspired by the quilt along.  Search for #scrappytripalong.

Scrappy Trip Around the World

Detail and backing fabric

Both of these quilts are for sale in my etsy shop you can find the listings here and here!

Catching Up!

 I haven't stopped sewing!  I am just awful at keeping up with this blog!  So today is a catch up-post!
Last summer, my wonderful friend got married and I decided I'd make her a quilt.  The challenge was that she doesn't really like color.  She's a neutral lover.  I was born to make colorful things.  I struggle with neutral.  She will tolerate blues but more solid than patterned.  So I had this Retro Flowers pattern that I had been dying to try and this is what I came up with!  She acted very polite about it so I'm going to pretend that she is thrilled and I am a wonderful friend.  She lives 10 hours away so it's not like I can stop by the house to make sure it's being used!  The man in the first photo is my very best quilt helper.  In fact, he's my very best everything.  He'll kill me when he sees this but I wanted to express how thankful I am for him.  He has put up this quilt line in the back yard for me just so I can photograph my work and he gets that ladder out and does this every time.  Sometimes he even does it without complaining.  I am beyond blessed.

The next photos are my current works-in-progress!  

This is another string quilt in the works.  It's got a bit of a Roy G. Biv thing going on.  I'm not sure how it'll end up but it's going to be ending soon as it's already 72"X96".

The next two are my scrappy  trip around the world quilt top.  I love the photo with it on my turquoise velvet sofa but it wasn't quite finished in that one.  The second photo is the finished quilt top.  It's rather large too!  I think it'll fit the queen sized bed in my guest room.  This quilt was done as a part of an Instagram quilt along.  If you're on Instragram, I am @thecrookedseam!  Look me up!  Also, if you want to see the other quilt along quilts search under the hashtag #scrappytripalong!  There are over 4000 photos with that hashtag. 

Thanks for stopping by!  Maybe February will be the month that I keep up with the blog....