Work in Progress Wednesday

Two new IcanQuilt Reversible Curvy Tablerunners cut out, backings picked and ready to sew.  One modern Christmas trees and one traditional cardinals.  I've chosen batik fabric (shown under the cut out tablerunner) for the back of each. On to the sewing machine.

3 new fabrics for microwavable potato bags.  Chef themed, wine themed and herb themed.
Sorry about the blurry pic.  I tried 4 times to get the shot clear and finally just gave up. :(  These fabrics will be sliced into bags very soon!  Stay tuned when Works in Progress are no longer WIP...but COMPLETE!

Keep Calm 'n Sew Somethin!

What's New Wednesday!

I've been neglecting my blog.  My last post was in July.  Whoa!!  Summer was a blur.  A few extra hours working the day job with special projects, my SewHappyDesigns business and vacation and family life kept me pretty busy. Such.is.life.  I like my day job working for a non-profit.  I like sewing for my Sewhappy business.  I like love my family.  Some things need to stand still while the whirl of life goes 'round.  An F5 hurricane is a bit too much whirl.  Well, I haven't really gotten to F5 stage, but close to F3! As I said, I like to be busy.

Busy leads to creativity and ideas that get sparked at 3AM.  Creative is good...sew bring it...bring on the busy!

Here's what's new~~

My latest venture is participating in the winter farmers market....the indoor fall market at the Paddock Arcade, the oldest continuously operating covered shopping mall in the US.   I created the flyer below and the pictures are from my displays.  As you can see, my SewHappy hands make a variety of items, mostly smaller quilted or sewn items, many made from my personal patterns.  I also have the patterns for sale.

I am scheduling other sales venues, just to branch out the SewHappyDesigns name.  One does need to have a plan to when one retires.  After all, I will need to have a fail proof plan for $$ for a future "fabric fix".

Happy Wednesday~

Cindy

AKA SewHappy

 

WIP Wednesday

My Adirondack "Loon on the Lake" quilt is FINISHED  - no longer a WIP! Happy, Happy, Happy Dance!!  Good Golly Miss Molly, it sure was hanging around forever a long time.  There are way too many hours invested in it to sell and I'm pretty sure I won't be attempting another one.  Sew, I'm going to put it in the man cave....McStevie's office.  We did a makeover on that room 2 years ago and I haven't put anything on the walls because I wanted it to be decorated in a bit of rustic, manly look with ever so slight female touches.  Stay tuned as progress of the room will be revealed, hopefully before the fall is over.  Still a couple of pieces I am looking for to complete the look.

 ~You should be able to click on any of the pics to enlarge~ This is McKenna Ryan's pattern from Pineneedles.com   I took this class from Sandi Verbridge a few years ago with my sister, Nancy.

A close up of the quilting...I enjoyed quilting the trees! Not so much the borders.

 A couple of weeks ago I made my IcanQuilt Reversible Curvy Table runner pattern in pretty fall colors.  This past weekend I made a matching candle mat from my IcanQuilt Reversible Candle mat pattern.  Nice to get those finished too!

Table runner with matching candlemat...fall colors.  This is going to be a gift.

Close up of candle mat quilting.  Sorry, forgot to take pic of the reverse fabric this time.

WIP Wednesday

 

 Been jumping all over the place with projects lately.  Sometimes that's how I roll!  It has been so hot in the north country that the basement cave offers relief, even though air conditioners are all ablaze on the first floor!  I have thrown up some recent WIP projects on a design wall so that they can stare at me until I make the move to finish them.



I made progress on my Adirondack Loon on the Lake quilt this weekend.  The quilting is going slow, but I'm really moving toward the end now!  Hoping to have it all done by next weekend.  Wish me luck!  That WIP has been around a few years!

Blessings,
SewHappy Cindy

WIP (Work in Progress) Wednesday

- WIP Garden Update
My little raised bed garden experiment has gone from this box from Sam's Club....

 


 
To these cute little squares.....

Next filled with some soil and peat moss....(see those sewhappy plants at the end just waiting to enter my awesome dirt).









To this vision of wonderful 
green magic!

A trellis will be added so the zucchini and yellow squash plants can climb there on the end.  I have two regular tomato and 2 cherry tomato plants, red and green pepper plants and 2 rows of lettuce and 2 rows of spinach seeds in the very front.  The plants have been hanging around in the garage for a couple of weeks and look very healthy so my 'lil green thumb hopes are high!

My patio shelves are filled with herbs, don't they look great?

Just maybe this WIP will be one with lots of healthy food in the months ahead.  Stay tuned!!

Blessings,
SewHappy Cindy

WIP Wednesday

Work in Progress Wednesday ~~
A quick peek at a quilt that adorns my sofa (futon bed) in our office/spare room.  This quilt is made from my IcanQuilt it Crazy Reversible Placemat pattern.  Instead of making placemats I chose to make enough blocks for the quilt and set it on point.  Of course the picture doesn't show the vibrance of the colors as well as real life.  I enjoy working with fall colors so this was a fun one for me.

This is my pattern.

 Pattern made into placemats.

LOVED THE BONNIE HUNTER WORKSHOP!!

Had a fabulous time in Glens Falls with Bonnie Hunter and the gals from Wings Falls Quilt Guild.  Met so many great ladies there!! The workshop was lots of fun.  I didn't get as much accomplished on the project as I had hoped.  Unfortunately, Bella, (our navigation system) got me lost. Or maybe it was the navigator and not the navigation system??  Whatever!! Anywho, I barely arrived in time to get Barbie, my featherweight set up and pull out some of the precuts I had done to prepare for making the Charlotte basket blocks.  I did my blocks with batiks and a white background.
Bonnie gave instruction and would come by to our area from time to time.  Once I had made progress with my blocks I asked her to take a "shelf" pic with me.  You know, where you put the blocks on your "boob shelf"?  She, of course, was very sweet and obliged!  The pic with Bonnie shows the middle section we did in the morning.  We did string piecing in the afternoon for the outside corners.  The bottom pic shows 3 full blocks done and another center started.  I got them all together after the weekend.  I think I'm going to make mine into a wall hanging.  Not sure how many blocks I will make yet.  I love working with batiks! Check out Bonnie's blogpost of the fun day sewing Charolott's basket blocks here!   There is actually a pic of Barbie and moi!  I'm pretty engrossed in my sewing of those string blocks!

A few of us dined that evening in Saratoga with Bonnie at the Old Bryan Inn.  A rum and coke while we were waiting for our table sure tasted great!!

 

Learned lots from Bonnie both the day of the workshop and the next day during her lecture/quilt trunk show.   I was the last person that was accepted into this workshop and I feel sew fortunate that I was able to get there!  If you get the chance to attend one of Bonnie's workshops or trips, don't walk, RUN....JUST DO IT!!

BONNIE HUNTER WORKSHOP!!

This regularly scheduled Work in Progress (WIP) Wednesday is interrupted to let you in on a wonderful event happening for me on Friday, May 10.  I will be attending a Bonnie Hunter quilt workshop with the Wings Falls Quilt Guild in Queensbury, NY.   Lucky for me our son and his family live in Saratoga Springs, only a half an hour away!   A chance to see the grandkids!! Yay!  Bonnie is also doing a trunk show for the guild on Saturday morning.  I was the last person to make it into this class of 40!!  How lucky awesome am I??

Bonnie is one of my all time favorites in the quilt world, if you would like to know more about her, check out her website here and her blog here.  Her blog has tons of info and lots of free patterns that you can download and print...yes, you DID hear that right...FREE quilt patterns.  She has a YouTube site here and does the YouTube quilt cams when she is home and not traveling to all parts of the country/world.

I'm sure I will be energized from this trip...more to come with pics next week!!  Stay tuned!

~Cindy~

WIP Wednesday~~More Turtle Quilt Love

My current project, "Turtle Love" is coming along nicely since my post last week.  The stitch in the ditch and a couple of rows of echo quilting around the turtles is complete. The inside free motion bubble quilting is almost done and then on to the outside border. A little more than a week to go before this quilt will have a new home. See more about this quilt and where it is going on a previous post here.

Work in Progress (WIP) Wednesday

Here's my current WIP:

This batik turtle quilt will be donated for a charity called the Ryan Wersten MIOP Foundation.       My daughter-in-law is involved with this wonderful organization.

It took a weekend to applique the turtles and piece the blocks and borders to complete the top.  If you click on the picture, you may be able to see the small turtles that are in the last border.

The backing was pieced on Monday.  It will be "sandwiched" next and then quilted.  This is the second fun batik turtle quilt I have made.  The pattern is from Quiltmaker Magazine, Sep/Oct 2004.

Ryan's Run 2013 will be held Mother's Day weekend (Saturday) in Saratoga Springs, NY.  I hope to post a picture of the finished quilt.

WIP Wednesday!

Just a quick picture post of a purse that recently made for my SIL, June for her birthday.  June picked the black and orange batik from my batik fabric stash.  It's was one of my favorite batiks ever!  The pattern is "Margo" from Lazy Girl Designs.  It takes me several hours to make one because there are so many steps!  Definitely not a "down and dirty" project, however I have another one in progress for a total of 4 I have made with this pattern so far.

Buttons and patches and the cold wind blowing...the days pass quickly when I am sewing!

(Found this saying and it seems to suit the long cold winter/spring we have been having here in Northern NY!)

WIP (Work in Progress) Wednesday

I'm sew excited! I have my VERY OWN RULERS!! Woots!!

 Sandy Kent of Magnolia Springs Quilts  is a good friend I met while she was living in this area.  She took a few classes from me when IcanQuilt Company was just getting started and has been a wonderful supporter of mine throughout the years.  Unfortunately for me, she moved to Texas!!! Sandy has enjoyed using my IcanQuilt Reversible Candlemat pattern and has been gracious enough to sell it to a few shops she is familiar with.  She met Jim, "The Ruler Guy" almost a year ago and thought maybe I should consider him  to make some rulers for my Candlemat pattern.   (That's the WIP part, took me awhile to send that email!)  I just got a sample ruler of the spoke and circle from Jim last week and tested them Monday.  WOWZA!  They work perfectly!  Sew easy to use!  I've placed my first order!  How exciting is THAT??

I tested the rulers on some lovely spring fabrics from a new local quilt shop called Sew What.  I have enough fabric to make one more.  Spring IS coming, right?

Oh yeah, and Jim, "The Ruler Guy" lives in NYS, near Binghamton, NY.  I lived in Binghamton for 5 years in the 80's!  SewHappy to do business with a fellow New Yorker!

The lovely new spring mat...find these fabs locally at Sew What!

Pretty pink fabric on the back!

A close up of the IcanQuilt rulers and The Ruler Guy's card!

WIP Wednesday- 25+ AND COUNTING

There is a WIP (Works in Progress) challenge being passed around to quilters, especially those of us who have been around for awhile.  The challenge is to count the number of WIP you have...write them all down and set yourself a goal to work them in your sewing schedule.  I have over 25 and did not include some of the smaller ones that are laying around that I try to pick up when I need a break from a larger project.  

My attention span is really not (liar, liar pants on fire) the issue, it's more the colors and blocks I like to play with.  I enjoy working on bright colors in winter, it just gives me a boost! Because, as you know, winter here in northern NY is LONG...VERY LONG.  It's March 20th and we are expecting more snow this week...which is a BRUTAL quinky-dink that spring also arrives today...on the CALENDAR anyway.  Yeah, we pretty much can't wait for ignore that each year. 

But I digress...anywho...back to the 25+...
I went to my WIP drawers (does that sound kinky?), dug them all out, and gave them each a name.  Quite the eye opener.  It was a great exercise though, because at least now I know what I am up against.  I have set myself a goal to finish 1-2 minimum project(s) per month. Because I do sewing/quilting for business, charity and personal gifts, I don't see fitting in any more than that, and then I'm prolly pushing it.  I am thinking some of them may be sent out for quilting.  Only a few of them are quilts, mostly lap size or below.  The rest are table runners, Christmas projects, etc.

Below are some pics of a few of my WIP.  Maybe you could let me know which one(s) you think I should "have a go at" for April? Ya know March is almost over and I need to ease into this - like going to the dentist.                      (Click on the pic to get a closer view.)

 
The Calico Gals from Syracuse, NY came to our little quilt guild and taught us how to do this Watercolor Heart wall hanging in a day workshop. That was several years ago.  It just needs a border or two and quilting.  It wouldn't take much to finish!

Started this little log cabin child's quilt a few years winters (it's bright) ago because I loved the green fat quarters...just needs a border or two...quilt it...then done!

Picked this Watercolor Irish Chain quilt from a quilt magazine to try the method. The top is complete.  Prolly going to be a table covering...it just needs quilting...I'm stalled because I'm not quite sure how I want to quilt it.

I tried the Disappearing Nine Patch pattern with this very long Americana (I love Americana) table runner.  It is complete except for the quilting.  I started the quilting, but didn't like it so I took it out!  Craptastic!  This one may go to the long arm quilter.  OY...I should have ironed this before I took the pic...it's been folded a couple three years!

 

This was a quilt pattern, but I liked the simplicity of the block and had some fun fall and Adirondack fabrics.  I didn't feel sew in love with making a whole quilt of it -thought a nice table runner was the ticket. Because the blocks are plain it needs to be dressed up with some nice quilting.  Yeah...I need to get to that. Gotta get those quilt pins out of there! (Sorry 'bout the blurry pic.)

Geeze Louise...that's ONLY 5 of the 25+! What a WIP slacker!

WIP (Work in Progress) Wednesday

Back a few weeks ago my WIP post was about table mat covers I was working on with some lovely fabrics.  I had four tables in the living room to cover.  This past week I finished the LAST one.  OK, so technically, maybe this is not a WIP post, as the project IS finished.  Sew...well...sue me.  But, YAY, all four tables are now covered with coordinated fabric covers...and...if you know me very well you know I'm a matchy-matchy kinda gal.

And.... most of the top of the mat was sewn with my NEW (OLD)  SINGER FEATHERWEIGHT SEWING MACHINE.  I bought this beauty (Barbie is her name) a little over a month ago.  She was born in 1953 and she is in awesome shape and runs like a deer! A John Deere, even.   John Deere fans (like my McStevie) know how GREAT that is!  (Oh, and a shout out thank you to my friend Cliff for finding her and saving her for me....smooches to you Cliff.)  See some pics of Barbie (named after my Aunt Barb who was instrumental in my love for quilting) further down the page.

New end table cover~if you click on the pic you will get a closeup of the quilting.

BARBIE~~~I.heart.her.

WIP Wednesday

WIP Wednesday- 

 This week I am the Work in Progress...

just sew you know...I'm still always working on me - but here's the thing....

I.Like.Me. 

I like the person I am. I have flaws. I have hang-ups. I have had many years of soul searching, cried a river of tears and struggled to get myself to this place of peace. I have NO ONE to blame for past mistakes but ME. If you don’t like me, I’m OK with that. I. REALLY. AM.

Now get the hell out of my way!!

Disclaimer:  Please do not read anything into this post, no one has ticked me off, I am not upset with anyone,  I'm not going through a mid-life crisis (I've technically already passed mid-life), I just wanted to say this for me and all the people near my age who have been around the block and know who they are and don't sweat the small stuff...(psst....I'm saying that as nicely as I can on the world wide internet) so now please carry on with your regularly scheduled programs. And...thank you for reading.  :o)

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

My favorite quote In honor of Dr. Seuss who entertained my children and grandchildren and continue to delight children everywhere--
with the most awesome books ever written!  Happy Birthday!

SPAM is for the can.

Works in Progress (WIP) Wednesday has been interrupted~~

Due to the abundance of scam prowlers looking for sweet blogs to spam, this blog is no longer accepting anonymous comments. Keep your SPAM in the can.  Thank you for this rant.

I will return to (semi)-regular WIP posts next week...if my life doesn't get too crazy!

Blessings~
Cindy Sewhappy

WIP (Work In Progress) Wednesday

I'm going to have a little garden thanks to this raised garden kit I bought yesterday from Sam's Club!  It will be a WIP for sure planning it out.  Sew excited to research what I want to plant!!  Last year's little crop of patio tomatoes and patio herbs gave me the fever!  Made in the USA...woots!

WIP Wednesday

Several microwavable potato bags waiting patiently to be sewn for the SewHappy shop.  The three in front are not far from completion. They will have to wait....just a bit more.  Had to bump them down the list.  It's temporary.  Oy, I need a mini-me!

WIP (Works in Progress) Wednesday (Yes it's only Tuesday, I'm an overachiever) :)

I have been trying to do a little subtle redecorating in between other sewing projects.  Giving the living room some spots of color. I found some paisleys and some blue that I fell in love with from a collection by Legacy Studios     from Joann fabrics.  This fabric is rich and washed up great so I knew I was gonna love it!  I showed you a "10 minute table runner" and the long custom table runner I  made with the fabric back in these posts.

This weekend I finished a mat for my favorite table.  The table was made for me by the husband of my friend Karen who used to attend my classes.  Jim is an expert woodworker and basically built a home from the ground up and most everything in it.  Karen and Jim are awesome friends, but now live at the other end of the moon map - in Florida.  I think of them whenever I look at my table and I look at it many times a day because it's the first thing you see when you walk in the living room.  I really hope we can visit them sometime in the not-so-distant future. 

Back to the mat.....I chose to do the mat in only two colors, but reversed it to the larger print so I would have a choice with decorating. It's made from my Reversible Candle Mat pattern.  I've made literally hundreds of them and never get tired of making them. (Sorry about the background mess, it's messy in the cave these days.)   :)

 

I have one more table to cover.  (Then I can get the Christmas mat off that table...lol.) I'll be using the same fabric theme but need to pick an easy pattern.  I am covering a space that is approximately 20x20.  I think I'll try some half and quarter square triangles on this one!

PS -I also used those fabrics to do a little project at my Quilt Peeps meeting last week.  We were making a folded star potholder.  Mine was a bit bigger and heavier, but I really like it. I'm anxious to finish it. I only have to put on the back, do a little quilting to hold, and the binding.  Just need to carve out a little time.  (Yup yet ANOTHER WIP not yet finished. :(   I used a pattern I found here at Bronze Wombat. Thank you Jennifer in Austrailia! 

Bring on 2013

If I have learned nothing from 2012, I’ve learned that life is precious and short and you never know when you will lose someone you love.  Of course I knew this before the year 2012.  I have been around awhile.  

But..this past holiday season has been ultra special.  I've appreciated and  have savored every minute of every hour of each day - from the opening of Christmas gifts with our family to the New Year's Day mimosas with my sweetie. Not one minute of it was taken for granted...always aware of living each moment.   It’s been great...heaven.   

Vacation is pretty much over and back to work tomorrow…but memories for 2012 have been made and life is sweet …really sweet.  I know that I am very blessed and thank God for all that he has given me.

My New Year's resolution is to strive to keep living in the moment and be aware of the love around me. 

Bring on 2013.