Fabric ~To Wash or Not to Wash ~ My 2 Cents

And the answer is...up to YOU. Washing or not washing fabric before using it is a personal preference. Some like to cut the fabric while it still has a bit of stiffness... I personally like to wash it for a softer feel and to get all the chemicals off, especially if I am sewing for a baby. I like to wash and dry it and get the shrinkage down, as fabrics do not shrink equally. I don't wash my batting, so I know that in the end, the quilt or project will still shrink a bit when washed. That's my usual MO, but I DO occasionally break from this way of thinking. If it's a Christmas ornament or something that will only be out seasonal, and thus won't be washed much, I may bend my wash rule.

I DO, however have a smart tip of advice for you...when you have a very dark fabric, especially reds or any really deep color, I suggest you at least do a colorfast test. Trust me, it doesn't matter where you bought it or how much you paid for it. Every now and then a color will run. Case in point. I was making a queen size quilt a few years ago and following this rule. I had picked a white background on my blocks and was testing all fabrics that were really dark before I washed them. I had a beautiful deep rose fabric similar to the one below and the minute it hit my sink basin it exploded in color. It came from a very reputable quilt shop and a very reputable fabric manufacturer. I rinsed it several times and got it to run clear and it looks very pretty in my quilt. Can you imagine if I had not given it the bleed test? Do you KNOW how much work goes into a queen size quilt? I shudder at the thought.

It only takes a few minutes to get a basin half filled with some lukewarm water to do this test. Example below. As you can see this one passed!

Another tip! I use these Shout Color Catcher Sheets when I wash a load of new fabrics. Just throw one in the wash and it helps to pick up some of the "loose dyes" you may have from your fabrics.

Fabric sometimes whispers to me...

But yesterday these pretties literally shouted at me.

I walked by them once and felt that “hairy eye ball”. You know how that goes, the little hairs on the back of your neck stick up and you start to get a little flushed, like someone just told you the back of your skirt was all bunched up in your panties. I gave a glance in their direction. Then, quite loudly there was a plea…come on over, touch me, have your way with me…you know you want to! Wowza! I was there faster than a bug hits a windshield. I’m sew easily seduced by fabric.

We are at the midpoint of our long winters here in northern NY and this lovely cotton eye candy will keep me company while the snow falls softly and I’m entertained by my favorite pair of cardinals, (Fred and Ethel) at the feeder. After these lovelies come out of the washer and dryer I’ll be in the cave getting some spokes cut for some sweet spring candle mats. Ahh...it's what makes me sewhappy! Hope you are sew happy sewing today too!

FYI~

The little prints are from the Wild Rose, by Marti Mitchell collection from Maywood Studios.

The green and rose pink that “read solid” are from Perennials by Eleanor Burns collection from Benartex Inc.

The lighter green roses print is a fat quarter that didn’t have writing on the salvage of the piece I bought.

Baby Boom

Making items for my shops sometimes gets put on the back burner when there are babies to sew for! I wanted to share some of the baby items I have quilted recently. Most were gifts, one was a special order for a good friend.

A new little baby boy will receive this small quilt of blues and matching set of burp cloths soon. This one was not made with a pattern, just a "let's roll with it" attitude. I knew I wanted to embellish it with the large ric-rac. I've been looking for a project to put the ric-rac in since I bought it.
This set of burp cloths were for Ceanna, an online friend and sweet new mommy, personalized for her little bundle of joy, Olivia.
This quilt was made for my niece Christy, (and Ya-Ya member) for her 2yr old daughter Kara, who is a sweet little "monkey". I gave her and her brother the little book, Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed and they loved it. I saw the pink monkey fabric for this quilt and new I needed to make it for her. Check out this cute video on Five Little Monkeys!

This quilt and set of burp cloths was made for niece Sara. Her little Ellie was born on Christmas Day! Sara is a fan of lady bugs, so this pink flannel ladybug fabric was ideal for her shower gift.
The quilt is a "rag" quilt, this is the back with the rag part showing. Below that is a picture of the front. This type of quilt is fun and easy. Each block has a flannel front and back, quilt the block and then put all the blocks together and snip one side. Give it a wash or two and the snips fray and the quilt gets really soft. Thus, the "rag" reference.


I was commissioned by good friends - Jenny and Carol, Jenny's Mom to create a quilt with pictures and quotes for a special niece/granddaughter of theirs. Jenny and Carol picked the fabric and I took it from there. It turned out lovely and they were very pleased.

The back had such pretty family words on the fabric. Hope you can read them - Love, Celebrate, Hope etc.
I SEW love to make gifts for babies!!

Happy 2011

It's a year of new resolutions...or in my case old ones that I just need to focus on a little harder.

2010 was a good year for me. I became more conscience of my health and exercise routine. I feel better and see results from my efforts. More to do, still need to stay focused. I enjoyed spending quality time with family and wonderful friends and am truly very blessed in that department!

My sales in my consignment shop were steady. Sales for my online shops were nothing to write home about, but considering little promoting, not really that bad. Need to step up to the plate more in 2011. However, I had more custom orders for 2010 than ever before. I have a constant stream of ideas for shop items, finding the time to make it all come together is the challenge. I was able to get my second pattern out on the market, which is a miracle in itself. Others are in the wings and fingers crossed that I can get #3 and maybe #4 underway in 2011.

I didn't teach classes as much as I had hoped in 2011, but I resolve to schedule more this year. I have been networking some and have two different ventures I hope to pursue that have come my way recently. I'm hoping those work out, time will tell, wish me luck.

I have been the most disappointed in my blogging for 2010. I mean really, my last blog post was August 9th? So I had nothing I wanted to write from 8/9/10 to today, 1/1/11? Not true, I had much I wanted to share, but getting it from brain to typing fingers was always the thing I would do next - and next just didn't come. I've done several recent projects that I hope to share with pictures. I am vowing to do a better job of blogging in 2011.

So that's it for my resolutions. Not over the moon, just reasonably realistic.

I hope that you will also accomplish your New Year resolutions for 2011, both new and old! Here's to good health, much love, friendship and prosperity!

I LOVE custom orders!

It was a very productive day in the sewing cave! I had the pumpkin pillowcase finished last week, and the sheep pillowcase cut out, so the I was able to finish the sheep one today and will have it ready to mail soon. I have more of the sheep fabric, if you love sheep!


I made these for my internet buddy Anne. She is getting them for her lovely daughters Renee and Amanda. Renee likes the sheep and Amanda likes the pumpkins and crows. Anne has an awesome shop named Leather Made Nice, check it out here. She has wonderful leather jewelry and does custom orders as well.

Next up in the cave was a custom order quilted netbook cover for another internet friend, Deronda of Deronda Designs. Check out her website here. This was a challenge. I had the measurements of Deronda's netbook, so while looking for some fabrics I came across a quilted piece that I had once intended to be a placemat. This is a placemat pattern that I created and have a copyright. I started with the quilted piece and was able to add two pockets and some detail pieces, an elastic loop and pretty heart button to complete the project. I was making it as a prototype, creating the pattern as I went. I was hoping that Deronda might like the prototype well enough to purchase and she did! I love to work with Americana fabrics and have a handsome stash of them! If you would like something made with Americana fabrics, I would love to do it for you!

How McStevie got his name

Many of my friends and ALL of my internet friends know my husband Steve, as McStevie.

To clear up any confusion as to "why" I call him that I will need to dial back to an evening a couple of years ago when Grey's Anatomy was on the TV. I am a big fan, as well as many of my family members, especially my daughter, Mandy. Mandy happened to call me after an especially "hot" episode and her Dad got on to talk to her for a minute. He was a bit ignored because soon we began talking about the episode that was on earlier and we got all McSteamy this and McDreamy that. In the excitement of all the "hotness" we totally forgot about "Dad" wanting to talk. After several minutes, there was a big clearing of throat. "Ah, this is"McStevie"here.... wondering if you could stop to take a breath for a minute and let me say somethin." Needless to say, there was an eruption of laughter from both Mandy and me and I think I peed my pants a little.

~McStevie and daughter, Mandy~

Patrick Dempsey AKA
Derek Shepherd, AKA"McDreamy"

Eric Dan AKA Mark Sloan, AKA"McSteamy"

You can catch up with episodes here.

Lucky at BINGO!!

When my internet friend Mischelle "Mzz Thang" Martell from Fo-Shizzle Design Studios was having a BINGO game on facebook for a free piece of jewelry from her shop, I didn't hesitate to play! Well, imagine my "happy dance" when I won her bingo game!

When I got home from a mini vacation last night...this lovely box was waiting for me. I had to take a picture before I opened it because it was just sew pretty!!!

And when I got the box opened this lovely little bag contained.....

THIS gorgeous piece of jewelry! Sorry for the not-sew-great pic, but I grabbed the closest thing within my reach (a piece of fabric dunchaknow!!) and as you can see it is a very dainty, sterling silver hip and happenin' necklace. I CANNOT WAIT to wear it!!

Thanks, sew much MZZ THANG! You've made me sewhappy!

Baby Love

Sorry I have been so lax with my blog...haven't been inspired to write much...busy...busy....busy. We were in recently in construction mode for over a month having both of our bathrooms remodeled. We have a main hall bathroom which is the largest and, on a regular day-to-day basis is "Cindy's bathroom". We are also fortunate enough to have a very small full bath (shower stall) off of our master bedroom, which is ideal for McStevie. The makeovers were finished this past Monday and we are VERY HAPPY with them. We have lived in this home for 15 years this year and McStevie's bath had not even been painted, nothing, nadda...wall paper that has been slowly peeling and tiles coming loose from the floor....needless to say his bathroom is now SUPER luxurious from what it was.

Anywho, the contractors that we work with have done most of the "makeover" work we have had done to our home and God willing...will do more in the future as we enjoy them personally and the quality of work they perform. I learned that one contractor has a baby boy due in August that will join his 2 year old sister....so my grandma mode and quilting hands simultaneously started juices flowing for creating a gift for the culmination/celebration of the end of the project...and kinda the beginning of something new...a new life. Here are some pictures of my gifts:

For the baby boy....well of course he will do his share of spit-ups so viola...a set of burp cloths and baby bib...

You can't give a gift to a newborn that has a little one at home without thinking of them, so I created this little lovie taggie quilt for his sister, Lanie (pronounced Lane e...pretty name, isn't it?) I also machine embroidered her name in a few spots on the quilt...hope you can see....click the pic for a closeup and look in the black...

I really love to make baby and children items....if you have something special you would like made, please contact me through one of my shops or my Request an Order Form.

Happy National Quilt Day!

Today is National Quilt Day. I celebrated by goofing off some and then quilting a new spring table runner.

The quilt is still in "sandwich" form and now needs the binding sewn and attached. I quilted it with a leaf design from one of my sewing machine stitches. (If you double click on the last picture you will see the quilting close up.) I turned up the quilt on one edge so that you can see the pretty green fabric on the bottom. Haven't decided for sure which fabric I will use for the binding. It's sew beautifully bright I prolly should have worn sunglasses when I made it to protect my eyes.....



Can you see the tiny leaves quilted in "the ditch" in orange sulky thread?

I also tried a new soup recipe.....sweet sausage soup, made with sweet turkey sausage. Here is my National Quilt Day soup. I tried to duplicate a soup I had for lunch at a restaurant this week. Although that one was made with pork sausage, I think I came very close to the flavors. I served it with a little fresh Parmesan cheese on top, like the restaurant did.


I absolutely love these corning ware soup mugs that I got for Christmas. I took a picture of them in the store with my camera phone and emailed it to my family. It worked.



And that was my fun Quilt Day!!!

Some Little Quilt Love

Just finished up some new little quilts and thought I would share. These are currently for sale at Painfull Acres, my consignment shop. The table runner was in progress in my last post. I love to make the little projects and have made so many of the little table mats that I think I sometimes make them in my sleep!

Hope you enjoy the pics! If you wish to see the detail of the stitches, just do a double click on the picture.

This table runner pieces together very quickly as the main blocks are cut at 4 1/2 inches. The slow part is the quilting, but I picked a leaf pattern that was a built-in stitch on my sewing machine. The colors are just lovely for spring.









I love sunflowers. I'm a fan of sunflowers as sunflowers were the signature flower from the movie Divine Secrets of the YaYa Sisterhood. This is where I got the name YaYa Sisterhood Diva Quilters Club for my sisters, niece and daughter.