Back In The Saddle!

Wow! It's been a while since I've had time to blog! Wish I had some new sewing to show you, but I have not had time to do any quilty sewing. Today is English Paper Piecing club at the local quilt store, Creekside Quilting, so I will be finding a few minutes to stitch this afternoon thank goodness. Sewing at home this week has been spent on smocking 3 little dresses for some relatives. It brings back so many great memories of when I used to make most all of my girls' clothing when they were young. The picture below is a little peek as the dresses are a bit of a surprise for the girls' mom. When she receives them I will try to get a photo of the girls in the dresses. It was fun to get the pleater out again and sew these sweet little dresses! Do any of you smock ?

Last weekend I was off on another vending trip to Bloomington, IL. What a fun bunch of ladies! Everyone was very excited to be at the show and very interested in learning a little something new.

My set up was a wee bit different this time. It was so nice to have enough room to lay things out instead of on top of each other! There was actually room to have all the items separated into 'departments' and actually see all the items!! The booth was 20' long which was a treat! What you see above is not the entire space allowed. Next weekend I will be in Stover, MO at "It's A Gatherin'" and I will have to squeeze back into an 8' x 8' space. Now how will I do that?! LOL. I'm sure I will figure it out! And the shopping will be just as exciting!!

We actually had enough space to display the Punchneedle quilts all on their own. So nice to let them show off for once!!

My helper and I got to sit next to each other and visit easily now and then, which was pretty nice also!! I did the demos on the left side of the brown table and she ran the register on the right.

While doing the English Paper Piecing Basting with Starch demo, I usually work on 3/4" hexies. But this time I decided to work on hexies that I will actually use for my next little quilt. So the size this time is 1/2". Usually folks think the 3/4" is small, but this time I really heard that comment often! You can see the 3/4" hexies below on the bottom left of the picture. The 1/2" hexies are the others.

I just want to throw out a reminder that any time we are stitching by hand, smaller pieces are easier because all we want to be concerned with is the next stitch ahead of our needle, right?! If we have a large piece of paper with fabric basted around it in our hands a larger piece won't fit easily, right? So smaller is simpler in this case Vs a 2" or larger piece. Just focus on the next stitch ahead of your needle and take a deep breath! Don't forget to enjoy the process!

See that cutter up in the picture? That is a Fiskars Cutter. I have cut my little hexies out of a single layer of the C. jenkins Freezer paper. (If you cut a double layer of this strong freezer paper it will break the punch) Then I line up two hexies with shiny sides facing downward and then iron them together as I iron them to the wrong side of the fabric all in one step. It works great! These cutters are available in 1/2", 3/4" and 1" size. They are now listed on my website (Click Here) if you are interested! It is a fast and accurate way to cut hexies!

Here is my little box filled with cute little hexies that were SO easy to baste using my starch method! That pile of finished hexies is about 2" deep, All done while doing the demo in the booth!! It's so fun to make these!

Have a great day and thanks so much for stopping by today!!

Take Care,

Missie

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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