Category Archives: Abbygale’s Scraps

Finally a photo update

Posted on April 16, 2013 by Terri | Comments Off

I have been busy getting my SALE page set up over the past few days, so kept putting off posting updated photos of my miniature quilt, and stitching. So here we are!

Jo Morton Little Women “Abbygayle’s Scraps”

I also managed to finish the stitching on Scarlett House‘s A Sampler Grows. The cushion and fob still need to be sewn up and that will probably happen some time this week.

Since I finished that I immediately started in on Milady’s Needle‘s Garden Delight, and made it this far.

Every other week, when I’m not sewing, I’ve been stitching on And They Sinned and here’s where I started when I picked it up yesterday.

In the mornings I am supposed to be working in my craft room and sewing. This is the quilt I was supposed to be making, and some of the fabric I chose. However, it didn’t happen. I don’t know what I’ve been doing wrong but I have not been able to get my HSTs to cooperate with the full squares. It’s due tomorrow, but I’ll be taking in bits and pieces instead for the instructor to help me. And of course I’ll be receiving instructions for a new quilt which means I’ll have 1 month to make 2 since I’m determined to keep up!

My mother’s Nantucket Rose is finally ready for her. I stitched this back in 1999 while living in Okinawa, Japan, and she brought it out this past January for framing. I wish she had not gotten glass because it blocks the green suede mat that mimics the trees (and makes it impossible to get a reflection free photo 😉 ).

And last but not least, Black Betty is ready to come home! I shared a hint in an earlier post, but I finally got my hands on a Featherweight. She came all the way from Canada, and, according to my sewing machine doctor, was in near perfect health.

She was purchased in an estate sale by a man and I feel like I stole her from him since, including shipping, she was just over $200. LOL Whoever the woman was that owned her previously obviously loved her. The gold decorative paint has been rubbed away in the front plus the orange card you see is actually the original “service” card from when she was made back in 1948. The only bad thing is because she came from Canada her instruction book is in French 😉 I cannot wait to sew with her.

Oops, one more thing! Recently, Kathy Tracy, of Country Lane Quilts, hosted a fabric giveaway on her blog. It was sponsored by Andover Fabrics and was for the new Jo Morton Blue Variety. I won a charm pack!!! 😀 I love this fabric (the blues you see above are from that line) and already have in mind a quilt I want to use the charm packs in. Thank you again, Kathy, for hosting the giveaway. Thank you Andover Fabrics for the fabrics. I do believe the Jo Morton fabrics are my all-time favorites and already have in my possession the new Madison Manor line!

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Posted in Abbygale's Scraps, And They Sinned, JMLW2013, Studio, Summer Soiree

What I did on my spring break

Posted on March 18, 2013 by Terri | 6 comments

and thank goodness it’s over 😉 I hate it when my routine gets messed with. I can’t believe it’s been a week since I sat here writing my last post. The past week has flown by.

Mister was home on spring break. We were supposed to get the powder room redone, but it never happened. The weather here has been glorious. So much so that our pool has been in the 70s and he’s been in it when he hasn’t been working in the yard getting rid of almost everything. The winter freeze this year really did a number on our beautiful yard. We had to completely replace several plants and this past week has seen them in the ground and a couple of them even starting to bloom. He also started getting his vegetable and herb garden going and has plans for expansion. I need to get my camera outside and show you my beautiful snap dragons! I can’t believe they bloomed all winter and are popping out all over again.

I, on the other hand, do not like to get dirt under my nails so I spent my time during his spring break piecing, layering, and quilting my little Abbygayle’s Scraps. She still needs her binding whip stitched to the back but here she is in all her very bright glory. Please don’t look too close, or judge too harshly, and remember I’m new at this. Thank you.

She finished out right under 18 inches square. I learned so much while creating her and accomplished a lot of firsts. This is the first time I’ve chosen the fabric completely on my own. The first time I made a quilt in a non-classroom setting. The first time I did it completely on my own with no one to ask questions of. It was daunting to actually cut that first piece of fabric but I just followed the directions one sentence at a time and took it from there. I did lose some of my points when putting the strips together, but I didn’t mind. What I did get disappointed in was how much that affected the quilting part, but like I said, it was a learning experience and I know that the more I do it the better I’ll get at it. I’m hoping to spend today and tomorrow finishing the binding since my next class is Wednesday and I want to be ready for the next project.

I do have 3 other small quilts cut and ready to piece 😀 It’s addicting, I tell ya!

Since the weather has warmed up (and we actually have used our AC!), I only spent the mornings upstairs. As soon as it was too warm to go without AC I headed downstairs to work on A Sampler Grows. This is how far I got this week

I managed to finish the stitching for the fob and got quite a bit done on the cushion. The green floral you see is what the backing will be for the cushion. I do have one “complaint” and that’s the little square flower. The background is stitched in over 1 (as is the flower) and you can see it completely makes the yellow flower disappear. I need to decide what to do about that. I thought about picking it out but even under a strong magnifier it was daunting so I’m going to leave it and maybe stitch over the yellow in red. There are 2 other flowers that need backgrounds filled in and I’m going to have to decide what to do about them. It’ll have to wait though since it’s time to switch back over to And They Sinned today!

Yesterday was Sampler Sunday at Attic. I love going to this since there are usually a couple of designers there sharing what they’re working on for their next release. I’m so excited about Tanya’s new project because it has a skinny (greyhound) dog in it! Woohoo! If you subscribe to Attic Needlework’s newsletter I believe there will be a preview of it in the next issue. And Gloria brought in the models for her Market releases. I had picked up 3 design packets on Market day at Attic but she brought in another design that has the sweetest hornbook design, plus one that uses limited edition embossed boxes (which I grabbed 2 of). It was discussed yesterday (and I checked this morning) that if the boxes run out of stock (since they’re no longer being manufactured) you can use Altoids tins. You’ll just have to omit the border in the design. If you go to page 13 of the current Attic newsletter you can see all of her designs.

Oh look! You can see the back of my little quilt in this one 😉 The other design (in the bottom) is Cherished Stitches limited release Rites of Springs. Every single thing you see on that pillow is included in the little kit. It is unbelievably priced and you only have to add the stuffing. I was drooling over the finishing fabric last night. I see this moving up on my to-do list. There is an upclose photo of it on page 5 of the aforementioned newsletter.

The other news, which was released this past week, is that Attic will be moving into a larger location next month. I already know where they’re moving and what it currently looks like inside, and I can’t wait to see what they come up with.

Mister goes back to class today. I’m very much looking forward to getting back into my routine so I’ll end it here wishing you all to have a great week.

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Posted in Abbygale's Scraps, And They Sinned, JMLW2013, Quilting, Stash, Stitching, The Scarlett House

Stitchin’ ‘n’ Switchin’

Posted on March 11, 2013 by Terri | 6 comments

How’s that for a title!

I’m still sewing away on Abbygayle’s Scraps. I got totally aggravated last week and put it away for several days. I couldn’t get my squares to the right size (too small) and I couldn’t figure out why my seam allowance kept getting off. I figured it out (index cards carry a magic formula) and have been a happy quilter yesterday and today. Here’s a tiny peek at some beautiful (to me) scraps.

There will be 36 of these lovelies. You can see a couple more stacks of 6 under my sewing table in the upper right corner.

As to the “switchin'” portion, I’ve finally put And They Sinned aside. Here’s where I’m leaving it:

I’m going to attempt to switch every Monday between And They Sinned and a Summer Soiree project. I really want to get some of the beautiful pieces from this past summer’s Soiree finished before the new one gets here! 🙂

This is The Scarlett House’s A Sampler Grows. It’s a sweet pincushion and fob.

I received notification that my new toy has shipped!

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Posted in Abbygale's Scraps, And They Sinned, JMLW2013, Quilting, The Scarlett House

It hasn’t been all fun and games

Posted on March 2, 2013 by Terri | 2 comments

But before I get to that I want to share some visual “fun.”

Jo Morton’s Alexandria

Jo Morton’s Sweet Emelie

In addition to cutting and fondling the above fabrics I’ve been trying to make up for lost time in straightening and reorganizing my craft room. Before I started back in this round I grabbed a new spiral bound notebook and made notes of what I had going on in here. So as I have been sorting, organizing and putting things away, I have been writing them down first. I’m so bad about out of sight, out of mind. I still have quite a few things in the writing down department but I’m determined to get myself organized this year. I will say I’m beginning to wonder if I’m ever going to be happy with my room since as I put things away I find I want to change where I’ve been keeping some stuff. 🙄

Before:

After:

You can see the top of my work table now! This is where I was before I stopped to take a break this morning. I am going to use that magazine holder for my very few quilting magazines. The wood under the notebook is going to be a new “table top” surface for my two Rubbermaid containers you’ll see in another photo, and the fabric is going to be used to cover 2 new ironing surfaces for me. Under that you can see some brown paper gift bags that I have been using to organize my quilting projects. They hang very nicely on a towel hanger on the back of my door or sit nicely on a shelf.

You can see I still have plastic shoeboxes stacked up by the window. They’ll be moved once I get my bookcase straightened out.

Before (under my work table):

After (look at all that leg room!):

Before (The STACK):

I think this was the most physically demanding part of straightening up and I had to ask Mister to help a bit. It’s been reduced to almost half that size and moved to another room. I’ve started going through it a few minutes a day and organizing into used/not used and hopefully it will start showing up for sale very soon.

After:

The two pieces of wood (which you can see to the left of the magazine holder) are going on top of the Rubbermaid containers and I’ll cover that with muslin. The stitching in the containers are WIPS/kitted items that are waiting their turn (yep, they’re on a list) and since I don’t need to get in them very often I can make them useful. I’m going to put some of those Command sticky hook things on the trashcan so I can reuse plastic grocery shopping bags as liners. This will make me take the trash out more often 😉

Now, to set up my machine and start piecing!

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Posted in Abbygale's Scraps, Quilting, Studio

March is National Craft Month

Posted on March 1, 2013 by Terri | Comments Off

Did you know March is National Craft Month? I didn’t until today. I received a newsletter from a beading company I buy supplies from. This sent me on a search to see if it was just a ploy to get me to buy something, but it’s true! I found some interesting ideas on how to celebrate.

One of my favorite “crafting” comments was to “finish something you’ve already started.” This actually cracks me up. Who among us “crafters” has something that’s not already finished? 😉

It was a nice visit last night over Mexican food and stitching. I think I stitched a total of 20 minutes. I just couldn’t get into it. Might be because I haven’t been there in a while and I needed to catch up with what has been going on, plus there were several new things to see, or maybe because as I was walking out the door at home Mister handed me a box from the postman that contained more fabric and I wanted to open the box and play with it. 🙂 Half yard cuts of Jo Morton’s Sweet Emelie line. So, now in addition to the Crimson Bouquet I’m working with for Abbygayle’s Scraps, I have Sweet Emelie and Alexandria. What? I haven’t mentioned Alexandria? Oops 😉 I need to get some fabric washed and ironed. Afterall, I’m hoping to add some blue to my stash when I get to the LQS later this month.

I spent this morning cutting 2 inch squares and then cutting half of them into triangles. Hopefully tomorrow I’ll start sewing them back together. Unless Mister comes up with something that needs to be done. He bought me a new mirror for our powder room downstairs. Now he’s hot to trot to pull the old one down, patch holes, paint and hang this one. There’s goes my free time on the weekend. He better not try to cut into my sitting in the sunshine time on Sunday!

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Posted in Abbygale's Scraps, JMLW2013, Renovations

Coloring outside my comfort zone

Posted on February 28, 2013 by Terri | 1 comment

Wow, the last day of February is finally here. Normally I’m wondering where the month went, but I know what I’ve been doing almost every moment of February and it’s made the month (and actually, the year) go by rather slowly.

My goals for this past week were very simple. Cut fabric and start walking. After going back over what the “walk” expert told me this past week, I changed my goal from walking every day, to every other day, based on his advice. I have done that. Okay, it was only Monday that I started, but I walked Monday and Wednesday and Wednesday I increased the distance. I’m going to be increasing it again tomorrow. I thought it would take me longer to go farther, but I’m actually feeling okay afterwards and not coughing during. The weather has been perfect for walking as well.

Speaking of weather, we are expecting 80’s this weekend so I am hoping to spend some time beside the pool! 😀

Now to my subject title. Earlier this month I posted on one of my quilting email groups about how hard it is for me to include colors such as “poison green,” “mourning purple,” and “cheddar” and asked if it was hard for others as well. (It’s always nice to know you’re not alone in such things and it was great to see so many like-minded quilters.) I set a goal for myself to include such color, however bright, in my JMLW quilts. I started playing with my fabrics this morning and this is what I’ve come up with so far. In for a penny, in for a pound, I cut it before I could change my mind and back out 😉

Click to increase size
Red binding, turquoise borders, cheddar cornerstones

As you can tell by the photo I’m going a teeny bit different from the original. What do you think?

The smaller squares and triangles will be included in the center. They are 2 inches to give you an idea how small the finished blocks will be.

Wish I could spend more time on Abbygayle but I have a few things to do before I leave the house this afternoon for open stitch-in at Attic. But before that happens, I get to meet up with Cheryl, Annette, and hopefully Karen, for some yummy Mexican food. Cheryl is in Phoenix for a work conference and she’s getting to meet up with us while she’s here. Squeee!

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Posted in Abbygale's Scraps, JMLW2013, Quilting

My first scraps

Posted on February 27, 2013 by Terri | 1 comment

I’ve been quilting off and on for more than 15 years but really took a more dedicated interest in it this past year with Mister’s retirement and buying a house with my own craft room. Before that I never kept any of my scraps since I didn’t have the room to store them.

Since it’s Wednesday and I’m sharing what’s on my worktable, I’ll show you the fabric I cut yesterday for a 6×6″ charm square swap I’m participating in. I have always loved the 1800-era reproduction fabrics and this swap is all about them! I’ve cut 40 squares of the same fabric and I’ll receive 40 squares back of different fabrics. I cannot wait to see what I get. Unfortunately, I’ll have to wait until April since the deadline to get our charms to our hostess is the end of March.

This is one from Jo Morton’s Spice Chest fabric line. Sing!

Here are my lovely squares (and new scraps) after cutting. The squares on the far left bottom still need to be squared up since I cut them off the fold of the fabric. The stack on the far right contains my 41 swap charms.

The next thing on the cutting mat is this:

18 FQs from Jo Morton’s Crimson Bouquet and 10 FQs from her Toasty collections. These lovelies will be cut later today for JMLW Abbygale’s Scraps. The turq on the far right is what I’m going to use as the backing and I’ll probably use one of the reds for the binding.

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Posted in Abbygale's Scraps, Charm Swap, JMLW2013, Quilting

Back to our regularly scheduled program!

Posted on February 25, 2013 by Terri | Comments Off

Surprise! Or maybe I should say, be careful what you say. In my last post on February 1 (yikes!), the last thing I said was that I would be back to let you know what type of trouble I had been into. Well……get ready for a long, picture-free catch up post.

Sunday night, February 3, I came down with the norovirus, and it wasn’t pretty. It was rather easy to rule it out as food poisoning since Mister and I ate the exact same things all day long (Super Bowl Sunday). I can say that I have never been more frightened in all of my life about being sick. At one point I thought I was on the way to the emergency room, since I was throwing up so violently my nose was bleeding, and I managed to separate my ribs under my right arm. Scary stuff! I couldn’t eat any food for a couple of days and drank as much Gatorade as I could that first two days. It took me the better part of a week to be able to take a shower and dry my hair without breaking out in a sweat from the activity.

We had excellent seat tickets to The Who concert that Wednesday night and Mister ended up getting valet parking next to our gate so I wouldn’t have to walk far. I was also on an aisle seat in case I felt the need to get out of there in a hurry but it was all good and while I was tired by the end of the evening and slept extra late the next morning it was “adventure” free.

Then, of course, I got sick again. This time it was a head and chest cold that would not go away. Naturally I had to cough and feel like I was going to split open since I was still somewhat recovering from my ribs hurting. I was worried it was trying to turn into bronchitis. Yesterday was the first day in a long time that I haven’t coughed.

Other than that the other trouble I’ve been up to is putting away what I purchased at the Quilt Fair (where I probably caught that nasty virus), I’ve cleaned up more in my room, started sorting through what I’m going to sell, and attended my first Jo Morton Little Women Club meeting at 3 Dudes Quilting.

Let me share the funny about that!

I live very far south of Phoenix and our weather was unbelievably freaky last Wednesday. Knowing we were in for some heavy rain and I knew I lived at least an hour away from the shop I left the house at 8:15 so I could get there when the shop opened at 9:30 to look around — new shop to me. The people and instructor in the class were SO friendly and it was obvious that several of them have been quilting together in classes for a long time (some even just got back from a cruise). They made me feel like one of them. The instructor put the first “block” of the quilt on the board and I knew immediately something was off. While she kept talking about how she chose her colors and about the finer points of making the block I pulled my phone out and looked up the flyer online and duh, I was in the wrong class! LOL I’m such an airhead! LOL My class didn’t start until 1….not 10! I quickly packed up said a hasty “oops, I’m in the wrong class” and tried to leave. They tried to talk me into staying but I told them I had errands to run. I called Mister when I got in the parking lot and told him what happened and he told me to occupy myself in this part of the state since the weather was so nasty. While I was out I grabbed some lunch and discovered that it was snowing in my part of the state. It NEVER snows in my part of the state! Anyway, when I went back to class I talked to the instructor, we both got another laugh out of me, and then I settled in for the correct class. I was there all of about 30 minutes getting instruction and then I went fabric shopping. I guess all clubs start with the same quilt? Abbygale? (I’ve since learned from Jo Morton that the instructions are sent to the shops in alphabetical order so most shops just keep them in that order when they give the classes.) I decided that I wanted to use the opportunity of taking these classes to get myself out of my comfort zone with fabric colors so I’m using Crimson Bouquet and Toasty (that I bought at the Quilt Fair) for my quilt. I think I’m really going to like this group. It’s a different feel from the other classes I took last year.

Mister and I went to the Arizona Matsuri Saturday. It was for his Asian Studies course he’s taking for a cultural studies requirement to graduate. It was so nice. I could have stayed and listened to the Taiko drummers all day. We ate there, and I will admit I was nervous about doing so. I have become an almost OCD hand washer/sanitizer, and I don’t like eating with something a stranger has touched, since being sick. Anyway, we also went to the Bonsai exhibit. Mister has said many a time that he wanted to try it, but I think now we’re ready. We brought back several beautiful Bonsai pottery pieces from Japan and have been using them for regular houseplants and various other decorative pieces, but now we’re going to start using them what they were created for. I’m excited. Another new hobby! 😀

After the festival we stopped by Road Runner Sports and I had myself fitted for a new pair of walking shoes. It’s expensive, but I’d rather pay it out in cash than have trouble with plantar fasciitis like I have in the past. I tried them out this morning for a short, brisk walk in our 39 degree weather. I’m planning on walking every weekday morning, then quilting for an hour afterward as a reward. We’ll see how that goes.

So, that’s where I’ve been! Hopefully this finds me back blogging again more regularly.