What do you do with leftover binding?

I've been collecting my leftover binding for several years, simply just winding it in a honey bun fashion and storing it in my grandmother's glass cake plate on my great aunt's hutch near my sewing area.

It's been one of those things...ya'know, where you don't really know what you're going to do with, but just know that it's wasteful to discard that much fabric.

Now as a disclaimer, this isn't all my leftover binding. If the binding was cut 2.5 inches it gets unpressed and goes back into my 2.5 drawer for scrap quilts. But sometimes I cut binding at other widths and this is what has been collected.

Oh I've dug into it every now and then - on occasion I've pulled out a bit to demonstrate how I do a mitered binding - several customers are new quilters and don't know how to do this, so I take a little time and show them. But other than that, it's pretty much been rolled into this decoration. And I've enjoyed looking at it quite frankly.

Enter in my addiction to fabric baskets. Hum...

So each evening this past week I've taken a little while and sat at the domestic sewing machine to prepare my cording for a new fabric basket. If any of you are new to this blog you'll have to do a search on all my posts on fabric baskets, I'm on my 5th one now (plus one bath mat) all having been inspired by Mrs. King's Gallery Baskets DVD...

Here's one of the honey buns from my cake plate all ready to become my newest creation.



Today was the day. After a wonderful service at church this morning and a side trip to JoAnn's Fabrics to pick up some trim for future Christmas baskets I came home to play.



As yo can see, this became a good size round basket. I unrolled the binding as they came and totally ignored any color theories.... I just 'made do' with what I had and I like the way it ended up.


The roll of binding next to it will be the next project, a lid to go on this basket. I think I have enough binding leftovers to make the lid, I hope so, otherwise I'm going to have to stop and bind a new quilt to be able to finish this project! Very eager to try my hand at making a lid. Rosanne's instructions on the DVD are so clear that I'm sure I won't have a problem. Gosh, weekends don't roll around enough sometimes do they?

Oh, one more thing....last weekend I made a Bible cover to take to the Women's Conference at my church. I started a matching tote but ran out of time. I decided to work on that last night....Pixxie and I vote for ENDLESS SUMMER! We love the bright colors and really don't want to give them up for fall - around here it's not as colorful as when we lived in the mountains, so I vote to keep the tropical prints year round!



Hope you are enjoying your Labor Day Weekend, whether you labor for yourself or someone else, chose JOY!

Labor Day thoughts

I woke up this morning thinking "this is Labor Day weekend!" hum...most people are either refraining from working as in taking a break from their labors, or they are having to continue their regular labor because they were scheduled to work during some or all of this weekend, or they are laboring in something that they want to do instead of something they have to do in order to provide for their families' needs...

Deep thoughts today my friends.

I thought of when my boys were little and I was trying to teach them about working. I'd often quote (with my own spin) 2Thesalonians 3:10 if any would not work, neither should they eat. So I'd tell them that they needed to make their beds before coming to breakfast!

Then I thought of a song, which I'll share at the end of the post...and then I decided to do a little word search in the Bible (online) on the topic of labor and work...Almost 200 references! Ranging from labor meaning work, to labor as in a woman with labor pains... Here's a few that I gathered, including the proper context for the scripture I shared with my boys... I hope that these will thought provoking for you as you prepare to enjoy this Labor Day weekend...

2 Thessalonians 3 6-13

Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from every brother who leads an unruly life and not according to the tradition which you received from us. 7 For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example, because we did not act in an undisciplined manner among you, 8 nor did we eat anyone’s bread without paying for it, but with labor and hardship we kept working night and day so that we would not be a burden to any of you; 9 not because we do not have the right to this, but in order to offer ourselves as a model for you, so that you would follow our example. 10 For even when we were with you, we used to give you this order: if anyone is not willing to work, then he is not to eat, either. 11 For we hear that some among you are leading an undisciplined life, doing no work at all, but acting like busybodies. 12 Now such persons we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ to work in quiet fashion and eat their own bread. 13 But as for you, brethren, do not grow weary of doing good.

Exodus 34:21

Six days you shall labor, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even during the plowing season and harvest you must rest.

Proverbs 6:6-8

Go to the ant, O sluggard, Observe her ways and be wise, 7 Which, having no chief, Officer or ruler, 8 Prepares her food in the summer And gathers her provision in the harvest.

Ephesians 4:28

28 He who steals must steal no longer; but rather he must labor, performing with his own hands what is good, so that he will have something to share with one who has need

I Corinthians 15:58

Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

Proverbs 16:3

Commit your works to the LORD And your plans will be established.

Matthew 11:28 – 30

Come to me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke on you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and you shall find rest to your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Psalm 128: 1-2

Blessed are all who fear the Lord, who walk in his ways. 2You will eat the fruit of your labor; blessings and prosperity will be yours.

Revelation 2:2

I know your works, and your labor, and your patience, and how you can not bear them which are evil: and you have tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and have found them liars:

John 6:27 "Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you, for on Him the Father, God, has set His seal."

Isaiah 3:10

10 Tell the righteous that blessings will come to them. They will taste the fruit of their labor.

And here's the song I've been humming all morning...if you click on this website where I found the words you can also hear the music..

John 9:4 We must work the works of Him who sent Me as long as it is day; night is coming when no one can work.

We’ll Work Till Jesus Comes:
Words Elizabeth K Mills (1805-1829)

Music William Miller, 19^th Century

O land of rest, for thee I sigh!
When will the moment come
When I shall lay my armor by
And dwell in peace at home?

Refrain

We’ll work till Jesus comes,
We’ll work till Jesus comes,
We’ll work till Jesus comes,
And we’ll be gathered home.

To Jesus Christ I fled for rest;
He bade me cease to roam,
And lean for comfort on His breast
Till He conduct me home.

Refrain

I sought at once my Savior’s side;
No more my steps shall roam.
With Him I’ll brave death’s chilling tide
And reach my heav’nly home.

Sneak Peak - Christmas AND What's On My Frame

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.... look at the fabulous prints I received in the mail today from one of my suppliers.

Looking at it from the side as it was bundled can't you just see this as beautiful Christmas baskets?

Have to admit, this was a little scary - I don't normally purchase "a pig in a poke" but when my supplier sent an email with an incredible purchase on Christmas flat folds, and knowing that I had a fabric basket class coming up later this month, well...I just had to take the chance!

I'm really pretty traditional when it comes to Christmas prints. I love the true Christmas colors of red and green, even better if it has metallic in it. I also embrace the blue, again if it's metallic and festive looking. There are only two prints in here that I personally would not have chosen, but mixed in a basket they will do great, don't you think??

Here's a little peak into my studio today...

Thought I'd take a photo showing the whole area, some of you may not be longarm quilters and wonder just what a longarm looks like...


This quilt is a raffle quilt for the Island Quilters Guild in Galveston...tickets are available and the drawing is in May I believe... All done in beautiful batiks and pieced by members of the guild.


This is my view as I sit and quilt. All work is hand guided - which simply means it's my doodles and not a designer pattern nor quilted by a computer.


Blogger is doing it again, twisting my photos. SIGH. Here's a close up of some of the stitchin'. I hope to finish the quilt this weekend as guild members are eager to get it bound and on the circuit to sell tickets.

Stash Builders

September marks the one year anniversary of Hurricane Ike.

Many of my fellow quilt guild members (Island Quilters Guild) live on Galveston Island and were devastated by the effects of the hurricane.

A few weeks ago one of my longarm online groups had a discussion about organizing their stash... which lead to a brainstorm for me...and then a challenge...

Why not cull a few pieces from your stash as you are organizing it and donate to these ladies who lost their stash to Ike? Why not indeed? Yesterday I received this lovely assortment of fabric from Barbara in North Carolina - the first to contribute to STASH BUILDERS.

Our guild meets 9/17 just a few short days from the one year anniversary of Ike. I will be taking this loving contribution to be distributed among the ladies that lost their fabric. Our guild has a membership of about 60 and a good 2/3's of them do live on the island and did experience the furry of Ike. These ladies will be pleasantly surprised to go home with a little bit of love and color to help rebuild what has been lost.

If you would be interested in sending good quality quilting fabric to the ladies of Island Quilters Guild I will be happy to provide my address and facilitate the donations. (email me karen @ quiltsnkaboodle.com) Despite their own losses, these ladies have continued to provide community service projects to others in need in our area.

Giving keeps on giving....

Another Fabric Bowl

I recently ordered a fabric strip set from Connecting Threads, the Rivera Collection (and a couple more!) with the intention of using the precut strips for my next fabric bowl. There were 20 strips, but I culled out two that were very white, they'll make it into a scrap quilt someday. I'm not a big fan of brown, but it worked nicely as the base of this bowl.

Again, I'm working with Rosanne Campisi's technique of fabric covered clothesline. She has a wonderful 2 disk DVD called Mrs. King's Gallery Baskets that she has produced with her business partner Jamie Wallen who was my guest teacher in my studio this summer.

I am so hooked on these bowls! There are several techniques out there that involve fabric and clotheslines, but this technique is unique in the way it gives you a more finished 'gallery' type basket. Rosanne has given me permission to teach her technique to my students with the purchase of the DVD - so I do have a class scheduled in September, and will probably have several others in the future. So far I've only made a couple of round bowls with handles and this oval bowl. I want to make the basket with a lid, but there wasn't enough fabric in this collection to do that....so it's still on the 'to do list'.

I'm looking at fabric in a whole new way now...seeing possibilities of color combinations and wondering just how scrappie I can get a way with! Stay tuned....I'm sure there will be more!!

In the meantime...back to the longarm, next up - feathers!!

Working Overtime

I've had a busy few days, so thought I'd take a moment to catch up...

The beautiful fabric is a personal project I finished late last night, but more on that in a little while!

In one of my last posts I shared about the gift of giving, as in so many people giving Quilts of Hope, Blankets of Love this past year for Hurricane Ike survivors....

Well, here's a hurricane story with a different twist!

Last summer, through the wonders of internet, I was able to connect with my long lost best friend from high school, Holly. We discovered that we were only 60-70+ miles from each other, her being north of Houston and me being south....of course each of us have families and busy lives so we corresponded through email as a "catch up" and planned a day to make that journey through Houston to the other side to get together and see each other face to face.

For whatever reason, I kid you not, each date that we were able to set aside from our busy schedules last summer ended up being a hurricane evacuation! We tried at least three times, all three resulted in a hurricane - the final one being Ike. We decided that if we tried again that we needed to alert the news media and weather forecasters to just go ahead and declare a hurricane was in the gulf....

Such is life if you try to plan things. Sometimes the best things are just spontaneous! Just recently I joined the ranks of FaceBook, which has provided yet another way for my dear friend and I to try to 'catch up' or at least be current with each others lives....enter in a quick post from Holly that she and her daughter are on MY side of Houston looking for a car...I post back, 'keep driving south you're almost at my house' and the next thing I know the phone rings and I'm giving her directions!!


Here we are, 30 years post high school, 20+ years since seeing each other. And guess what? No hurricane! Even though we could use some rain (grin).

While she was here I of course shared my studio and one of the quilts I'd just finished. Here's a sneak peak - photos will be posted on webshots this weekend after the customer has picked it up - I never want my customer to see their quilt before they get here, I love the ah-ha moment when they see their quilt top turned in to a quilt.


As I said, I've been working overtime this week....Here's another close up of a quilt that will be picked up later today that I just finished last night...


And a close up of another one that I actually did between the two above. So lots of company coming this weekend to pick up quilts.


I have big plans for my weekend ( actually my customers are having to work around it to pick up their quilts) ....my church, Calvary Chapel Houston, is hosting a women's conference this weekend and I decided that I wanted a cover for my Bible....so after hours last night, this is what I made!



I do not understand the uploading process of blogger. It has turned the photo and I don't know how to right-side-up-it-again. But for what it's worth, this is the pattern that I used, It's called Wrap it to Go by Terry Albers I purchased the pattern last year at the Houston International Quilt Festival and knew it would be perfect for this project.


I loaded the fabric on my longarm (thankfully at 6 PM yesterday evening I had just finished the mariner's compass customer quilt and was able to slip on something of mine!). Since the fabric is a busy print I could have gotten away with any quilting, meandering, loops, even cross-hatching, but I decided to do little feathers to give it some texture (see the close up at the top of the post). The quilting took longer than the project I think, but it was enjoyable. As my hubby keeps telling me, enjoy the process, so I did.


This is the exterior of my Bible wrap. I decided to do a button closure instead of Velcro and was blessed to find just the right button in my small little baggie of button stash. (I'm not telling a fib, I really don't have a big button stash...now thread or fabric, that's another story!)


The pattern called for a pen holder, which is very important to me. I do take a lot of notes at church and am always searching for a pen. I added the tissue holder, which is just under the large flap that wraps the Bible. I did this because, again, I'm always searching for one. We have the most awesome praise and worship team at our church, they just lift us up to the throne in worship and more times than not there's cause for tears of joy, so a hankie is appreciated (grin) and then of course there's those convicting sermons .... anyway, I thought it would be nice to keep tissues in my Bible and used this "Almost Free" Tissue Holder Pattern from Ami Simms.
I only put in a few tissues instead of an entire travel size package because it was too bulky.

So that's my workin' overtime story. I have several other quilts to do today and in the morning before heading out to Women's Conference on Friday night. I'm hoping I can steal away a couple of hours this evening and make a tote bag or something...we'll see. So many ideas, so few hours!

The Creative Bug Bit

Friday I went wild. Shopping spree at Hobby Lobby and Texas Art Supply. Why? Well, I've been inspired by so many fabulous quilt teachers that I decided it was time to try my hand at some of their techniques.

You may remember when Jamie Wallen was here this summer, we did a little painting on fabric with fabric dyes...I loved it...so I bought every color marker made by Tsukineko (far right in my photo). He also said that Gel pens will work so I found a nice set of 52 colors to play with.

Naturally I had to get other supplies too, brushes, brush cleaner, Dover design books, a box of sidewalk chalk (much cheaper than school chalk for some reason - that yellow box under the books on the right has 100 pieces of chalk!)

Several years ago I hosted Sherry Rogers- Harrison
She could work wonders with a Sharpie! She developed a technique she calls Ink-lique and now uses different mediums to color her whole clothes after quilting. Classes with Sherry, Karen McTavish as well as Renae Haddadin helped me to learn how to mark a quilt with blue water soluble markers. I love using Renae's Amazing Rays to create raidating lines....more on this later...

Then there's Irena Bluhm who "quilts of a different color" are colored with simple colored pencils. I love her bright color choices. So I picked up some colored pencils and plan on giving her technique a try.

So with all this fabulous influence I figured it was about time that I try something new. Oh, and the acrylics? Those are to experiment a little on my own. Years ago I used to tole paint with acrylics as well as fabric paint on sweatshirts (remember those days?) Since Jake does a lot with acrylics (and I'm hoping to involve him) I thought I'd work with a medium he was familiar with and introduce him to Textile Medium.



On the right is an original work of art by Jake, it was my birthday present. My thoughts were to transfer this to fabric, quilt, and later paint. Here you can see where I've marked my fabric with blue water soluble marking pen. I actually did two, one for him to play with and one for me. I'm hoping we can work on this together next time he has a day off (and me too!) I have wild dreams of us combining our art, this may just be our fusion - time will tell!

Not one to waste fabric or a day off -- figured I'd best do several at one time, after all, if I'm going to try out different mediums I need different samples right?

This is one of Irena's designs. I laid the original under my fabric -- which by the way is PFD - prepared for dye-ing - only because I had it leftover from my workshops with Jamie, and because it's the only white fabric in the house (figured I'd best use white, not lime green or purple!)


Notice the ruler, this is a little square, only six inches. I decided that I could probably freehand the feathers if I had a few reference points, so that's what I did.

Here it is on the frame once I've finished the quilting. I'm not used to working this small, and I switched to non-regulated speed, which is also new to me. I kept telling myself not to have a death-grip on the handlebars that it's only practice!

This is after I put a wet wash cloth to the design, the blue pen is temporally removed. More on this later! I didn't make a few things as smooth as I'd like, but I went straight from tracing the outline to quilting. Something to be said for practicing on paper -- but there just wasn't enough hours in my day!

Even though these photos are grouped by design I want to clarify that I marked several designs on one piece of fabric, then loaded it on the frame with two layers of batting - Hobbs 80/20 on the bottom and Hobbs 'poofy poly' on the top -- I'm thinking it's the 6 oz poly, I had a roll of it to use for the workshops so it came in handy to be able to use for practice. By the way, this is the combo that Irena recommends, with the exception she likes the 8 oz poly for more loft. I've always used wool when I've done little wholecloths, but Irena says with her pencil technique that wool doesn't work right...since it's practice anyway I hated to use up my precious wool batting!

This next design is one of Sherry's. Notice how tiny the feathers!! And notice how yucky I drew the middle. Decided that I needed the fine line blue marker so switched for the detail work and was happier.


I realized once I got to the machine that the circles just weren't going to work as I drew them, there was no way I could freehand and all the circle rulers I had just didn't match up to the size of the design element. So I used what I had. 'DESIGN CHANGE'

Then that made all the feathers I drew in the wrong places so I used a little water and removed the blue lines figuring I could freehand the feathers anyway.


The circles are still wompy, but I had to remind myself that "it's practice" Oh, by the way. I had to work on another design while this one dried so I could finish quilting. When I came back to it there was this blue halo around the circle. This is why I mentioned that by wetting the area with a blue marker is only a temporary fix. The marker gets down into the batting and will rise back up. If you've ever used one to mark your quilting you know this. It might be days later, but there's these little blue specks...the only solution is to soak the quilt once all the quilting is done. And never NEVER use laundry detergent until it's had a good soak with clean water. Also if you set an iron to it you will have blue lines forever and ever amen. Just so ya know (grin)


Here's a photo after the area has been wet while on the frame (I'm impatient, gotta "see" how it turns out, can't wait for the soaking). There's lots of room for improvement on the quilting besides the wonky circle...but keep in mind it's only practice and it's a six inch design that I drew then quilted. Again something to be said for drawing on paper first.

Now here's a photo about an hour later. See how the blue is rising up again. As I type this the entire piece is in the washer on soak, I can only hope that this fabric will let go of the soluble pen - don't know if PDF has it's own set of rules or not. Guess we'll find out. That's why it's only practice!



I didn't get any photos of Jake's art on the frame...but you'll see them again as I test out the coloring techniques.

This last photo I'm not showing a close up of just yet...it's my hardest one and I'm hopeful that it will turn out when I try it again. Lots of little boo-boo's but it's my favorite design element and I really want to figure out the whole process and do it again...You can see I've used Renae's Amazing Rays to make a nice background fill...I messed up a tad with the rays too, partly because I let my tool slip and didn't catch the error and part of the design problem was I didn't have a true oval ruler to go around my design element. Lots of room for improvement but this one is practice and I'm sure I'll goof up the colors or something anyway (grin). That's how I learn best, by making mistakes. Already dreaming up color combos for this one! Just a little hint - it's a paisley design. I'm really getting into paisleys. I have always loved them and now I see so many fabrics in wonderful colors that are paisley prints. I think I'm going to have to start a paisley collection...oh...sorry, off topic!


Well, that's what I did this weekend, in between other stuff (grin). Once the blue lines have finished soaking out I'll lay out the quilt sandwich to dry. Maybe next week I can start the coloring process. Stay tuned!!

Quilts of Hope...more quilts find a home

I thought the Ike Quilt chapter of "Quilts of Hope, Blankets of Love" was closed back in April with this post but it's not!! I made contact with the lady who had donated the quilt, she was from MI...her quilt had not been included in the webshot album because I had displaced her name and address and didn't photograph the quilts....I'm sooo glad there was a post concerning who received her gift and she was finally able to connect to the 'rest of the story' ...

Well, there are two more. These quilts were brought to me several months ago by a local lady who pieced them from rainbow colored fabric and her friend in CA machine quilted them. Again, I've lost the contact and hope that perhaps they will see them on the post as these beautiful quilts found homes today.


I received this (edited) email and the photos from a fellow guild member ...

We gave quilts to the 2 families who had houses dedicated for them today at Bay Area Habitat for Humanity - Houston, Inc....The quilts went to two families the O____ family and the T_____ family. Both families were impacted by Hurricane Ike and the O______ family house later burned down. They loved the quilts! One of the young ladies is a granddaughter and the other is a daughter....

For these families perhaps the tragedy of Ike has been replaced by the joy of a new home. It was a blessing to have a small part in this just simply by being able to pass on a quilt of sacrifice and love from "a stranger". I'm sure God is smiling down on all involved with today's joyous occasion. Proof still that God is in Control and He loves us.