Old meets New

A week or so ago Marilyn brought over a stack of crazy quilt blocks from the late 1800, early 1900.  She wasn't sure who in her family had made them but instead of them just sitting in a drawer somewhere, she wanted to show them.  So of the set we picked out 3 to make into a wall hanging.

We decided to use 3 that had dates.

After sitting down and figuring out the dimensions and the type of topstitching to do I came up with a simple meandering feather pattern that complimented and kept with the antique feel of the blocks.

paper first

fabric second

After measuring out the block locations on the fabric (I used a ready to dye fabric free of all dyes and chemicals), onto the longarm and the fun begins.  Free motion feathers are wonderful to make as they look classy and flow freely on the quilt.  

Feathers around the marked out block space.

The block location still needs to be quilted but a few simple lines works well.  Gives me a chance to practice with the rulers on my new machine.  

Then carefully set and tack the very delicate blocks onto the prepared quilt.  A few stitches every 1 inch around will hold them in place and still allow them to be removed without damaging the 100+ year old fabric.

Simply tacked just enough to hold in place.

Look at all the hand stitched embroidery

See the piece of felted ladies cuff.

So wonderful to show off on a nice long wall and to show a few beautiful pieces of Marilyn's family history.

Very nice

The back

Space rockets and shooting stars

Yahoo to the first quilt off the new longarm.  I started this quilt when I first moved to Saint John out of a jelly roll.

On the hanging wall.

Jelly rolls are a fun and easy way to quilt and I love the fact that you can make so many different designs and blocks.

A simple rail fence block.

Keeping with the space theme I topstitched this fun twin quilt with meandering stars shooting in loop-de-loops everywhere.  The thread used was bright green.  It went well with both the top and backing of this very fun quilt.

Loop-de-loops

Picking the longarm pattern for this quilt was easy as the fabric was covered in stars and stitch like loops already.  The most successful topstitching  patterns happen when matched with the fabric or quilts design.

Fun back

I will use the backing material to bind the quilt with and some one is going to love this quilt.  It will be for sale on https://www.facebook.com/seriouslypinned.ca  so check it out.  Or come to the shop to see at 862 Manawagonish Rd. Saint John, NB. Hours are posted on https://seriouslypinned.ca/.

Christmas Market

Tyler and I had fun at the Cerdarcrest Christmas Market over the past weekend.  Saturday was very busy with everyone checking out all the amazing hand made crafts.  From woodworkers to fancy aprons and everything else in-between.

 Jewelry was not the way to go as there were a lot  of jewelry booths.  We did manage to sell a few pieces and it was surprising that it was a few of the older necklaces that sold.

The big hit of the day were the jewelry totes as we sold quite a few of them.

But the best was the amount of Seriously Pinned brochures that we gave out.  Quite a few younger ladies that were interested in learning how to sew and quilt as well as interest in the longarm.   I think we gave out about 70 brochures....yea, I look forward to seeing those 10% off on your quilt coupons in the next few months.

One of my favorite things about markets is visiting with your neighbor marketeers.  We met folks from all over the place, even a nice couple from Campbell River , BC.

So although we did not clean off our tables we did have a lot of fun.  A big thanks to all the everyone that stopped in to supporting us.

Little Christmas Booties

Ok so you know how everything happens all at once?  The Open House(which was a lot of fun with lots of goodies and thank you coupons to give away) was last Saturday, well this week Seriously Pinned opened for regular hours on Tuesday and for the rest of the week.  With the exception of Friday afternoon we will be closing (closed on Saturday as well) early to go set up for the Cedar Crest annual Christmas market.  So I decided to make a few very cute Christmas booties to sell.
I used the pattern that was given out by the Marco Polo Quilt Guild as a Christmas exchange and added a cuff and a hanger loop, just for fun.

Paper pattern

 Cut out the fabric, cut out matching cuffs and cut out a thin fusible interfacing.

I like using interfacing for this kind of a project as it cuts down the sewing time and gives a bit of extra support to the fabric.

Sandwich the cuff between the interfacing and booty.

 When you sandwich the cuff between the interfacing and the fabric make sure you have the fusing side the right way before you sew, flip and press.

Parchment Paper

 I use parchment paper to press on, on the iron board.  It protects the iron board from the glue on the fusible interfacing.

Ready to sew

Once all the sides are folded, fused and ready to sew, cut the hangers.  I used satin cording cut at 5 inches.  Sew around the boot starting at the front cuff with a interlocking stitch and follow the boot around until about the last 3 to 4 inches.  Tuck the looped cord under the cuff to hold it in place and finish sewing up the back.

Start at the cuff,

Then check your stitching to make sure you have caught both sides of the booty, trim off any access fabric and threads. Then turn them inside right and press them again.

You could embellish them with bling and beads or simply use as is.

Perfect as a re-gift-able package, or just to hang on the tree.

Simple but very cute.

Don't forget to stop in at the Cedar Crest Gardens to say hi.  Seriously Pinned will be there!

Ok Santa my stockings are ready. lol