Category Archives: Fabric Therapy

Friday Funday: Quitling Accessories

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Although I could have hundreds of quilting accessories filling up my sewing room, I find that the most basic ones are all that I need.  There is no race, that I know of, to see who has the most gadgets and accessories…it’s just me and my sewing room with fabric, pins, an iron and my sewing machine.  Most of the other STUFF that quilt shops sell is just that – STUFF.  I already have a one-butt sewing room, so why fill it up with anything more than the basic accessories and then lots of fabric?  🙂

Bobbin holders are one of the necessities I need in my sewing room.  When starting a quilt, I take the thread that I have chosen to use for the quilt and fill two or three bobbins (depending on the size of the quilt project) full of that thread – the extras go into one of the bobbin keepers below…and it saves me tons of time when I run out of thread in one bobbin and can just pop a filled bobbin into my sewing machine.

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And when I speak of filling up my sewing room with fabric, I couldn’t resist purchasing another roll-up of Kona solids.  hmmm, that’s some yummy solid fabrics, for sure!  And if you read this blog regularly, you can see that I still haven’t unrolled the previous Kona roll-up that I purchased in November 2013!

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Unfortunately for Kona, I may be forced to stop purchasing their fabrics and talking about them in my social media.  I have asked them to sponsor a few things and they refuse to respond to me.  That’s not playing nice…and I want to play nice with my quilting products!

What essential quilting accessories do YOU have in your sewing room/studio?  Inquiring minds want to know!

UFO DONE: Very Special Quilt Momento

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A few years ago, I asked a local friend if she would like me to make a quilt out of her dearly departed Mom’s clothes.  She did, and after a month or so, she sent me a box of her mom’s things.

But, doggone it, my MS got in the way of doing anything quilt-related.  I felt guilty about not being able to get to her quilt but there was just no way I could handle it – I was an MS mess and didn’t sew ANY quilts for about two years.

Nearly all of the clothes in the box from my friend were pajamas her mom had worn for at least the past five (or more) years…as her mother battled dementia.

A few weeks ago, I *finally* felt like I could tackle that quilt, and took the squares I had already cut out, pressing them to a stabilizer and cut them to size.

Last weekend, I was able to put the rows together:

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This weekend, I was able to sew the rows together and add the borders:

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And while I was at it, I also got the binding ready to go, once the quilt is quilted by my friend Meloney!

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Always feels good to get a project done that has been waiting on me.  Have YOU found and finished a UFO lately?

Just Because Fabrics

Quilt Therapy Posted on by

Have you ever strolled through a website and found some fabric that you had no immediate plans for…yet, the fabrics just popped out at you and you HAD TO HAVE THEM for your personal quilt stash?  Just because!  This was my latest “just because” quilt fabric:

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Love the colors, love the pattern and love Linda from AbbiMays.com for sending this to me!  It will live in a stash basket until I find a use for it – just because!  I shall now commence with my stroking and finding a special basket for this fabulous stash fabric!

Virtual Friendships and Quilting

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I virtually met Donna Schwartz Mills at least 10 years ago, if not more.  She has a daughter who was a year younger than our oldest daughter and we exchanged both phone calls and emails quite often, when we first met.  She was also instrumental in helping us find a bit of history and fun in Sacramento during our family’s camping adventures on the west coast in 2006.  I worked with her, way back when, to sell advertising for her home-based business website.

Her daughter is graduating this year and I asked Donna if I could make her daughter a quilt.  Who can turn down a quilt?!  Donna was excited about the possibility and asked her daughter for color combinations that she likes.  The only other thing I had to work with was that her daughter’s middle name is Rose…but her daughter does NOT like pink so it is a little difficult to find roses on fabrics that aren’t reds and pink.  But, I took my daughters and I to our local quilt shop and almost immediately found a beige fabric with blue roses on it!  Then came choosing other fabrics to use in the quilt – and I relied on my teenage daughter to help me with a yeah or no way as I was cruising through the bolts of fabric.  Of note, we chose complimentary fabrics and not coordinating fabrics from the same line of the fabrics that were designed to go together from the same fabric designer’s colorway.

We finally settled on the fabrics you see below – and I am a firm believer in the fact that these fabrics will make a wonderful quilt for my virtual friend’s daughter’s graduation!

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How far ahead do you plan your quilt projects?

Friday Funday: Quilt Pillows

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MANY years ago, I purchased an adorable little Santa made from an old quilt.  We have had that Santa out every single year since then, to adorn our Christmas decorations.  And I have loved it as much as I did when I first purchased it!

And ever since then, I have been on the lookout for old quilts that are damaged beyond repair in places.  These are the perfect quilts to cut up (without the guilt of cutting up a quilt!) and make pillows with.

I do not have a photo of my quilted Santa (sorry!) – but, it is made up of two triangles of an old quilt, sewn right-sides together and turned, stuffed with pillow stuffing and sewn closed by hand…and then the eyes, mustache and beard are just hot glued onto the front of it.  It is extremely simple in design and I think that, too, is one of the things I love about it.

So, while you are going to that second-hand store, a flea market or a garage sale – take a look to see if they have some damaged quilts they are selling…you could be making some new quilted fun out of some quilted oldies!

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