I came, I saw, I quilted!

My wonderful local quilter, Richla, recently added a studio on to her home and began to offer classes where you could come and use her longarm to quilt your own.  Oh, the projects I have....   I decided to start with this cute quilt I made as a shop sample for Keepsake Cottage Fabrics.

The pattern is Fishy Friends by Ribbon Candy Quilt Company.  The fabric is a Northcott line called Shark Attack.  The quilt pattern is Van Gogh, which makes nice, wavy looking swirls.  It was a little nerve wracking, but a lot of fun to quilt it myself.  I have another date scheduled in July to quilt a second one.

Here is  close-up of the quilting and the binding.  Have you ever made a Magic Binding?  So cool.  I will certainly be using this from now on with small quilts, especially kids' quilts.  Here's a link to the technique - all by machine and you get a little flange of contrast color under the binding.  The first three times, I followed the binding cutting instructions as written.  Next time I'm going to make my 'flange' fabric a skosh wider so a little more of it shows.

My other project for the last week has been a complete sewing room redo that involved taking out 3 pieces of furniture whose only purpose seemed to be collecting piles of junk!

The bookcase holds all my favorite patterns and bundles of fabric, as well as cute pincushions and gifts from friends.

I got a smaller sewing table and a pistachio green rolling cabinet for notions. Now my machine is under the window with lots of natural light.  Maybe now I won't need 4 lights when I sew.  At least not until winter!

I decluttered the junk - 3 donation bags and 2 bags of trash.

The center of the room is now wide open!  I can pull my cutting table out or move my Big Board ironing board into the center of the room when I need to press those long seams!.

OK, but here is my very favorite part.  All my rulers are hung on the closet door.  No more hunting for the right size square or trimming tool.  And really?  Did I need three 6-1/2" squares?

Here's to happy, clutter-free sewing!

Still Swooning!

Construction continues on my Swoon quilt.  I've made a couple of the 24" Swoon blocks to go with my 8" Mini Swoons.  I'm having a lot of fun fussy cutting special pieces of fabric to feature in the blocks.  I'm calling this my "Grown-Up I-Spy quilt" because I'm having fun burying some fun fabrics in the blocks.  Mustaches!  Mini Coopers!  Bingo Cards!  A girl in a tree!

Based on Camille Roskelley's wonderful Swoon and MINI Swoon patterns (find them here if you don't already have them!), I'm going to make up the layout as I go.  Still having fun and I love working with these bright colors!