Sunday Quilt Inspiration: Red and Black

The last few weeks I've been trekking down memory hill, reviewing the more popular Sunday Quilt Inspiration posts. This one is from December 11, 2016. Enjoy the eye candy!

Red and black quilts? Well, of course!

20 Skills Every Sewist Learns

Have you ever wondered what skills you've learned as you picked up sewing? It was a topic of discussion on one of the Facebook groups where I'm a member. The writer mentioned several and others chimed in. I've compiled the list of skills with a few examples of each. This list is certainly not exhaustive, but it's a great way to get started thinking about the many skills you have learned along the way.

1. Artistry (creating and designing, use of color, fit and form)
2. Chemistry (fiber content, treatment and care of fabrics, glues)
3. Color theory (using color, color wheel)
4. Conservation (avoiding waste, recycling)
5. Construction (basting, stitches, sewing buttons)
6. Efficiency (meeting deadlines, completing projects)
7. Finances (making purchases, budgeting)
8. Fine motor skills (hand sewing, putting in zippers, easing)
9. Following directions (putting patterns together in order)
10. Gross motor skills (cutting, using large equipment, setting up work-space)
11. Hand eye co-ordination (threading needles, sewing straight and curved lines, detailed handwork)
12. Math skills (basic math, fractions, geometry)
13. Mechanical skills (threading and adjusting machines, long-arming, cutting equipment)
14. Physics (fabric content, drape, pressing, lighting and electrical)
15. Reading comprehension (patterns, books, magazines, blogs)
16. Spatial awareness/geometry (sizing, fitting pieces together)
17. Teaching (planning and teaching the next generation)
18. Technical knowledge (selecting fabric, thread, and machines; adjusting patterns)
19. Terminology (specialized vocabulary)
20. Troubleshooting (diagnosis and repair of machines)

What have I missed? Add your ideas in the comments! 

Pin It Weekly #283

At our last BRMQG meeting, one of the ladies talked about making fabric postcards. I decided to play a little with that idea. Then, as I so oft do, I wanted to play more. This time I played on Pinterest. 


I started out looking for a few ideas and ended with over 250 pins. Organized, into seven sections: food, houses, birds, sea, animals, houses and people. I got a little enthusiastic and had a little time on my hands. 

But since I've done the work. :) I thought I'd share.

Apparently I especially like flowers and birds. I like the way the artist built this gray and blue flower postcard. I hadn't thought of making the fabric section smaller and sewing it on with a single seam around the perimeter. 

I don't know what I was thinking when I started pinning bird ideas. I must have been on a whimsy kick, because well...look.

Not every idea is a postcard, either. If I liked it, it's here.

A Vase of Flowers ~~ another Richard finish

It seems that I'm reporting on Richard's great work rather than my own work. This finish is too pretty to not report. 

So Richard decided to make a vase to put flowers on his dad's grave. He used some of the cypress wood that he recently acquired. It's beautiful, even without the flowers.

Each side is just a little different because of the wood grain, but every one also has a perfect little cross. 

According to the guys the cypress wood won't deteriorate for many years, even though it's exposed to the elements while sitting on a grave.  

I haven't yet, but I'm thinking of asking him to build another for my grandmother's grave. What do you think?

Thread Cabinet ~~ Richard's Finish!

My husband. My wonderful, loving husband. Forty years we've been husband and wife. 

He's is one put-together guy and knows oh-so-many things. Sometimes I think he just knows all the things. I have no clue how he can know or understand all these concepts and mechanics and stuff. 

He can fix a leaky pipe, cook a meal, cut down a tree, explain a football game. He can tell you how safe (or in danger) you are, how to fix just about anything mechanical, figure out interest rates, grow a garden to feed the neighbors. I've barely begun, but I'll stop because there's something wonderful that I want to show you.

Most recently he's been showing off his carpentry skills. It's taken a while but finally, it's finished. Even better, his carpentry has been working for me!  

Check out the drawers in my cabinet: thread drawers, you see.

There are five drawers, each one with three shelves. The number of spools depends on the size of said spools, but I've put at least 10 on a shelf. Which means it can easily hold up to 150 spools regular embroidery spools. 

The drawers pull out completely so I have easy access to the spools at the back of each shelf and can see all of the colors at once. (Isn't that a cool feature?!) Don't look at the paint job. That's my mess. Rich wanted to clean it up, but I insisted that he deliver the cabinet instead. I'm leaving it. And that's the end of the discussion.  

I've arranged the spools by color, of course. The librarian in me insisted. It's the same system I use for fabric...white, pink, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, navy, gray, black. Sort of ROYGBIV, Mary style.

The cabinet sits on my sewing table close to my embroidery machine. Custom made for that spot, which I chose. It's a great improvement over the open system that I had before, thanks to Richard's thinking: the cabinet has doors to keep dust and light out. So now do you see why I give such accolades to the man with whom I hope to grow old? 

Sunday Quilt Inspiration: B U T T O N S

Here's a repost of a 2013 Sunday Quilt Inspiration.

I'm working on a quilt inspired by a few of my grandmother's buttons.  My mom gave them to me many years ago and I've kept them all this time.  I can't bring myself to use them because they may be lost, so they serve more as a memento of her than as buttons normally do.  A few days ago I saw a quilt on Pinterest that I decided I wanted to replicate.  

Well, I can't replicate anything.  The moment I begin working, I start making changes.  Before I realized it, the only thing that my quilt had in common with the Pinterest quilt was that I was still sewing fabric buttons.  In no time I was thinking of that plastic bag of my grandmother's old buttons.  I pulled it out and looked for unusual specimens.  They are pretty much basic 1960's button salvaged from all manner of clothing, but I was inspired by the colors, shapes and designs.   

I thought that you might be inspired by a few buttons also.  You don't have to make a quilt exactly like the one I started with.  People have used buttons to make many different projects, so I thought I'd show you a few.  Maybe one these projects will inspire you.  Just be warned: for some of these, you'll need boxes of buttons!

Not just any pillow: a ring bearer's pillow!

Love these earrings.

So, now a few button quilts, because why not?

Happy Quilting,

Mary