Nutz4Redwork: January 2013

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Dare to Dresden

Who knew that the Dresden (aka as the Friendship Ring, Ester, Dahlia or the Sunflower block) could create so much eye candy this week? I am truly awed at all the creativity I have seen.

I was first introduced to the Dresden Plate Quilt Pattern by Eleanor Burns when she was teaching and testing the blocks that were going into her book, Egg Money Quilts. We used a template to make the blades and she demo'd how to make a circle with non-woven interfacing. To this day, I still haven't mastered a decent circle with the interfacing method.

While looking for the block above from Eleanor's class, I found these lovely, beautifully hand sewn blocks. I had forgotten that I had them! My neighbor gave them to me a couple of years ago. There are twenty blocks! She thinks that one of her aunt's may have made the blocks, but wasn't sure.

Believe it or not, I did a quick press before I took the picture. I should have used starch! I'm afraid that I may have to remove the Dresdens from the background fabric. It is thin, flimsy, yellowed and stained. Hubby may like the "antique" look, but I think it will be a nightmare to put the top together.

Summer before last, I co-taught with my friend, Lisa, at our Fabric Floozies group. The members of the group take turns throughout the year teaching various techniques or projects. You can view Lisa's blog here. Lisa’s area of expertise (among others) are Quilted Jackets and they are exquisite! Lisa designed all her own projects for the class, while I found projects for the ladies to do off the internet. At the time, a lot of the members had no clue about all the wonderful projects and blogs online. One of my summer projects included the Dresden. I was inspired to make a wall hanging after I saw the online demo from the Missouri Quilt Company. At the monthly North County Quilters Association Guild's White Elephant Table, I found a Easy Dresden Ruler by Darlene Zimmerman. I got it for fifty cents! Not only a bargain, but it made short work preparing the blades below. Can you see the kitty cat?

Mug Rugs were quite the rage that summer. I demo'd another pattern using scraps

and just for fun, I came up with the one below.

The Dresden is definitely the perfect block in my book.
I prefer hand sewing over machine sewing and as you can see above,
once I got the blades put together, I could hand sew to my heart's delight.
The butterflies came from one of Val Laird's BOM projects.

Be sure to visit all the other Dare to Dresden Participants!

January 30^th, 2013

Charlotte H @ “that Other Blog”

It Seems to be Sew

Merry Gay in Stitches

Water Penny

Granny Good Stuff

Under the Presser Foot

More Stars in Comanche

Sew Me Something Good

The Day Before This Day

Farm Road

Livin' Blue Quilter

I Piece 2 Mary
Kwilty Pleasures
Espritpatch
Nutz4Redwork

Looking for all the Dresden's from this blog hop?

Go over to Madame Samm's Pinterest page here

You will be so inspired!

Thanks to Madame Samm at Sew We Quilt for her

time and effort to bring us together to

showcase our projects and talent.

And last, but not least,

my heartfelt thanks to

our Cheerleader

Christine

at Quilt Monster In My Closet

All your hard work and time is appreciated!!

And to you, dear reader, thank you for visiting!

Although it has been a challenge to set up this blog, I am having a blast. It is really giving my mushy old brain a workout. The San Diego Shop Hop is slated for the beginning of March. I already have my list ready for what I want to purchase. I have a particular fabric design in mind that I am going to look for and hope to find (or I'll have to resort to Plan B). It will be part of a QAL I am planning later this spring. It will incorporate applique (freezer paper method) and embroidery. Be sure to sign up for the mailing list so you won't miss out on the announcement as to when we will start.

I found this in the same container as the Vintage Dresden blocks, so I am going to have a giveaway. I bought two and have never used this package. It contains 15 Screen-Printed 3-1/2" Quotes. It is recommended that you use a pressing sheet when ironing the quotes.

Please leave a comment and include where you are from

(City & State and add your Country if you are outside of the United States).

It will be fun to see where everyone is from.

For a second chance, sign up for the mailing list and leave another comment to let me know.

I will announce the winner here on this blog on February 8th.

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Paper Dolls at the Baby Shower

Whenever I need a gift card, I make miniature quilt blocks or flowers and stick them on the outside of the card. A personalized message or a poem gets added to the inside.

For the baby shower we attended last Saturday, I couldn't find the fabric I had originally in mind. But I did find the Windham Fabric "Paper Dolls"by Sheryl Rae Marquez.

This is what I came up with.


It Won't Be Long . . .


Until You Are Playing With Paper Dolls Again!

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Loved All The Suggestions!

Oh my. I have enjoyed every single comment and suggestion. Thank you!

A few of you asked for the pattern. I found this on Facebook and I do not know who the artist is. All I ask is that you use this only as a gift for a friend, relative, or for yourself. Please do not use this for commercial purposes. It was shared via one of my friends and it came from the Mesothelioma Center.

I so enjoyed all the projects on the hop and hope you did too. The stories behind the "words" were interesting and inspiring. Not sure if I'll be getting to the sewing room anytime soon, but I promise to post a picture of the "finished" block soon.

Thursday, January 10, 2013

I'm a gonna

I'm a gonna.....that should have been my choice of the words for this project.

Let me backtrack a bit. I own my business and things were a bit on the slow side what with the economic downturn a couple of years ago. Mentioned to one of my clients that I'd be interested in some part time work if he needed temporary help. Notice I said a couple of years ago.

Now let's fast forward to September, 2012. Still hanging on by a thread, business wise, but had enough coming in to keep busy around the first of the month. The rest of the month would be busy preparing for the Holiday Craft Fair at our Moose Lodge in October. I have never chaired an event of this magnitude before, so a lot of time went into research and reaching out to find vendors. We got a late start, but somehow managed to come up with twenty five vendors. (Phew!)

And who calls in the middle of all this. The client! Hey, we got some work for you. Can you come in for 8-10 hrs a week? Heck yes! Oh, but can you start now? NOW? Aarrgh. Well, needless to say, I didn't end up in the local mental ward, but survived the Craft Fair, the Holidays and juggling two jobs. (By the way the 8-10 hours turned into about 20 hrs a week by the end of week two.)

Don't lose hope.

(You never know what

tomorrow will bring.)

In the middle of all this fun, I saw an email asking for people to participate in the In Your Words Blog Hop. Well, here it is, my turn to post and my project isn't finished (or pressed)! The stitch I used was the Stem Stitch. Originally, I was going to frame it, but now I'm thinking a miniature quilt? I saw this image on Facebook for the Mesothelioma Center. I am thinking that this would be a nice sentiment to give someone suffering from cancer or some other long term illness.

So how about some feedback? What would you do with this? And what colors would you use for the border? Can't wait until I see all your ideas and feedback! Now, being new to blogging, I'm a gonna go and see if I can figure out how to add some "stuff" to this blog...............thanks for visiting!