A "Pieceful" Sunday Of Stitching

I found the above photo on Pinterest this morning and fell in love with it. Tasha Tudor is a favorite person of mine. This photo made up my mind of how I will spend my quiet Sunday afternoon. Enjoying the peacefulness of quietly stitching in my favorite chair with my family in our living room all enjoying just being together on a quiet low key day.

I'm off to get our Sunday Dinner put together so it can start cooking in the oven. Then I'm going to put my Jammie's back on and relax in that great chair of mine with bits and pieces of fabric!

Enjoy your day!


Tara
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Hoarding Quilting Magazines & Jibber Jabber

In an effort to prove to my children that I am not a hoarder (they are starting to give me a complex!) - I've been going through all of my quilting magazines and purging them.  I have such a huge collection of magazines - It's actually quite ridiculous!  I have my favorites - current magazines and older ones that no longer exist.  As I go through them all, a little here and there, if I find projects or inspiring pictures that I might like to do in the future, I remove those pages needed, place them in plastic sleeves and put them in special binders and toss the rest of it in the recycle bin.  Any magazines that I have not destroyed with my ripping out of pages will be donated to my local quilt guild, so that they may sell them at their upcoming quilting show.  A few also - the special ones - I'm saving for my Aunt - but only if there are projects in there I think she would be really  be interested in making! (I still have to find a spot to store those magazines for my Aunt so that we can deliver them to her when we visit her again, later this year!)

There are those magazines though that I refuse - absolutely refuse to get rid of.  Some are picture above, those very early copies of Quilter's Newsletter magazine that I lucked into finding on ebay last year!

These are a few more "oldie but goodies" I refuse to get rid of.  I'm not hoarding them - I'm collecting them my dear children (if you are reading this - and I know you do read Mom's blog - Thank you!)  

Along with purging no longer wanted magazines - it's been a little crazy in the quilting room!  Strips and squares are flying everywhere and I'm having the best of times!  There's even a little Dear Jane block shown in the basket above - the little booger was giving me a devil of a time, so it's taking a break in the basket until I've re-gathered my courage to attempt that one again!

The cutting table is still a mess - but it's all good!

Here's another little corner of my quilting room.  Wonderful quilting books I love to look through every now and then!  My favorite items here are momentos from my children when they were babies.  My daughters first pink gym shoes are on the left and the little cow was my son's most favorite toy as a baby!  How sweet!

The Snow's A Comin' & I'm A Quiltin'!!!

Anyone that knows me - knows that I can't stand snow.  Oh of course - it's all pretty at first and I love to get out and play and romp in it with my kids and I love to sit and hand quilt or piece in my living room all nice and snuggly warm while watcing it snow outside - but I can't stand being cold (kind of sounds a little dorky after just saying I like to play in the snow!) and I can't stand other drivers on snowy roads.  Common sense and driving - are not so common around here anymore and I like to play it safe and just stay home and hibernate.

The stinky part about this snow storm coming today - my Dear Jane group meets tonight!  If it gets to yucky and the roads get to bad - I'll just have to miss out on tonight's fun.  Better safe than sorry!

  With that all said and off my chest (LOL) - I'm hibernating in my Quilting Kingdom today - as I typically do!  Here's a little peek at what I'm up to!

This is Katie's String Star Quilt from the Fons and Porter book titled Scrap Quilts: Best Of Fons and Porter.  I do know this quilt pattern was in one of their past issues of the magazine also - but I'm just not good enough to be that organized to tell you what issue!  I love piecing this quilt so far.  The biggest challenge is stopping to think before pressing the seams - they are all going every which way and to get everything lying nice and flat - I've had to clip a few seams here and there.  And I've already made a "boo-boo" while piecing this quilt together, I just saw my mistake after this photo uploaded.  I'll just call that my "humble" block, for this chick is not in the mood to play froggie today and rip seams.

And of course in my normal random, crazy and zany way of working - there is more than one project rolling around my studio!

I'm working on a Weaving The Rails quilt designed by our favorite blogger and scrap quilter Queen - Miss Kathie Holland of Inspired By Antique Quilts Blog fame.  This pattern was in the August 2011 issue of American Patchwork and Quilting magazine.  Love it!

Wait, there's more.....

Here I'm laying out and working on making a reproduction of an old antique quilt in one of my quilt history books.  Yes - it's going to be a red and white quilt - all though the idea of doing it in blues and whites keeps popping into my mind! Just working on a few details to get this pattern all figured out!

Then if I'm really bored or we get snowed in really bad and I cannot get out of the house (oh gee - wouldn't that be terrible - NOT!)  I've got all my works in progress neatly cleaned up in their cubbies.  We've got the Dear Jane Quilt, The Stars and Sprigs Quilt, a quilt design by Sue Garman - the name of the pattern escapes me, tons of moda "fun" rolls of fabric to develop new interesting quilt patterns and my Cotton Club blocks to keep me entertained.

Start your engines ladies and gents - let's sew the day away and enjoy ourselves!

And I leave you with this...

Just a cute picture of one corner of my Quilting Dungeon.  I've recently did a little remodeling and cleaning up of my work area and this is one of the "cute" fun areas I created!  I love old vintage looking sewing goodies - and of course my fabric stash displayed in baskets!

Have a fabulous day folks - my day is off to a great start and I hope yours is too!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to you and your family!

I hope you have a safe and happy holiday and a wonderful start to 2012!

I've been hiding out in my quilting castle, finishing up projects and hoping to start the New Year working on new designs.  The following pictures are not the best - I'm a terrible photographer using my cell phone!  But these will give you a little taste of my finishes this past week!

And here is what I'm still in the middle of working on!

Lot's and lots of scraps have been used up, yet I still feel that I've not made a dent in my large scrap basket.  Oh well, it sure is fun digging through it all!

For those of you that have not been to our website the past month, please take the time to stop by when you have a moment.  We are having our end of the year cleaning out sale and all fabrics are on sale!

www.sewuniquecreations.com

Enjoy!

P.S. - for those of you that are curious and waiting for an update on my hands after my carpal tunnel surgeries (thank you so kindly for the emails!)  My hands are almost back to 100%.  I still have a bit of scar tissue I'm working to loosen up, they still itch a bit around the scar and are hardly ever bothersome now.  I'm done with physical therapy, but continue strengthening exercises and massage at home. My scars look great!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I miss posting here on my blog and chatting on Facebook and will be back soon. I've had to take a little personal time - completely intended - to spend quality time with my family, alone time with myself and muddle a bit through some ongoing and new medical issues. But all will be better soon.

I just wanted to say how thankful I am for my family and my friends (in person and internet buddies!) You all mean so much to me!

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Tara
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!!!!

Bummer...

Well, I'm all bummed out.  I'm missing Quilt Market and Festival in Houston.  Many of my friends are there and they are being so great and texting updates and photos so that I can join in on the fun from a distance!  LOL

Above is a photo from my very first quilt market back in 2000 in Atlantic City, New Jersey.  That was a fun booth.  I won the best New Exhibitor Booth award that year.  My husband did so much work constructing all those wood panels for that booth and my kids were wee little toddlers then.  We traveled as a family to market and really enjoyed that time together.  During the day I would work the show and hubby would take the kids to local events and things, the zoo, shopping, etc.  We really had fun there.

I'm watching blogs and FaceBook to check for all the updates coming in - it's only making it worse on me - but I can't help it!!!!!

That's ok, I'll get over it.  In fact, I think I'll start planning my Spring Quilt Market booth right now!  That will perk my spirits up!  Spring Market will be in Kansas City, Missouri this coming May 2012!  We are super excited to be going back there for our 3rd market visit to this great location!

Off to plan my booth............

Scrap Quilts Magazine....

Yesterday after I finished with physical therapy for the day, I decided to make a quick stop at Barnes & Noble to see if any new quilting magazines were available.

I found this....

Anything that says "scrap quilts" attracts my attention!  So I bought it because there are several quilts that have possibilities of making their way into my home.

During "break time" yesterday (this is my "several times a day" break where I sit and read and while I'm reading I exercise my hands, wrists and arms hoping that I'm pushing my carpal tunnel recovery into major hurry up and get better mode!) 

I came upon this....

This quilt is called Saltbox Houses and was designed by Kathie Holland of the Inspired By Antique Quilts blog!  It was originally printed in the 2005 issue of The Quilter magazine!  (which by the way this Scrap Quilts magazine is also put out by The Quilter!)  Imagine my surprise!  Love the quilt Kathie - I have a few of those fabrics in my stash!

I also love this one...

This is Hidden Spools by Rhonda Dohna of Acorn Hill Quilts.  Originally published in the 2004 issue of The Quilter Magazine. Rhonda used to have a great website and some really fun quilting patterns.  I'm not sure whatever happened to her, but sadly her website is no longer there!

There are a few other quilts in this magazine I'd like to make too!

Carpal Tunnel Update....

Still treading the recovery climb.  I am hand piecing just a few stitches a day to exercise my fingers - honestly just a few and then I stop.  The grasping of the fabric while trying to sew puts tension on both my hands so as soon as I start to feel that pulling and twinging - I stop.  Same thing with hand writing - I can manage writing one sentence if I'm looking and then have to stop.  Thank God for keyboards.  Typing is not to much of an issue - but I do no more than 15 minutes of continual typing at a time and then take a break.

Rotary cutting at this point - nothing major and no more than 1 layer at a time.  I have to hold the rotary cutter a little different for now because my scar is still tender and very sensitive.

Cutting with scissors - not bad - just cannot do the cutting motion for an extremely long time.  I practice cutting each day also with an old pair of scissors and scrap paper that I've drawn lines and shapes on to follow.

Holding an actual coffee cup in my hand - not bad but not good - I don't trust myself quite yet so I'm back to using one of those plastic coffee travel mugs that is lighter than my stoneware (heavy) coffee mugs.  My hands just do not like that fine grasping of the small and narrow handle on my mugs!

Yesterday's quilting jag will be repeated today.  I'm going to attempt to re-make this quilt block I worked so hard on yesterday.  I'm not typically a really picky, perfectionist type person - but this quilt block is for a top secret project that will soon start making an appearance in the quilting world.

After checking my machine this morning I realized my needle is not centered where it should be for my 1/4" seam allowance. I guess that's why my block center that was supposed to measure 6 1/2" measured just a tad over 6".  Well darn. Now - someone explain to me how that could happen when this machine has sat untouched for a month and a half with no use at all. The gremlins attacked my machine just to mess with me.

Drats - that explains my troubles yesterday!  LOL

Guess What I Did Today?

Finally today I was able to sew on my sewing machine.  I managed about an hour of sewing with breaks every 15 minutes or so.  It wasn't easy and the project I'm working on turned out a little less than desirable.  But guess what ---- I don't care!

The pure bliss of sitting and sewing is just what I needed.

I'm behind on my updates here on my blog of my carpal tunnel journey but that's for another day.  I've declared today as a no complaining, no drama, no worries kind of day.  And that's good enough for me!

See ya tomorrow!

Tara

Pretty Quilt Pictures

Today, here are some of the pictures I took last week while on my quilting get a way weekend. This will just be a short post today, my hands are really achy and sore today, so I'm going to take it easy. Also - these photos are not the best quality in the world. I didn't bring my good camera because it was just to heavy and hard to hold. So - cell phone to the rescue - even though I was a bit shaky - I'm sure you'll get the idea of the beauty that surrounded us while we sewed and played! Enjoy and have a great weekend!