Friday, October 30, 2015

Welcome to Our First One Block Wonders BOM Viewing Party

Well it feels like this has been a long time coming and I am so excited to see what everyone has created using the block tutorial from this months 
One Block Wonder BOM.


Not to mention this month there is a great prize up for grabs


Remember this link up is just for One Block Wonder participants, so if you haven't made the minimum one block and want to get in on this draw...get a move on....tick, tock, tick, tock!!!!! 

Our Winner of the PB Textiles FQ Bundle is 
Sharon Schutt





Tuesday, October 27, 2015

October One Block Wonder Reminder

I can't believe we are almost at the end of October and our first block is coming to an end!!
UpStairsHobbyRoom


I hope everyone has been having a great time with all the options and layouts.
I just wanted to remind you that the link up party starts on Oct 30 at 12am EST and runs till Nov 5th  and you need to have sewn a minimum of one block to participate. October's tutorial can be found here. (or tab above)
Besides sharing your version of this months block with all of us, and I am excited to see...
P&B Textiles is sponsoring a FQ Bundle of their Soft Dreams for a lucky sewer!!

So if you haven't started, you still have time.....so get sewing!!!!

Mini


One version of a Full sized quilt

And don't forget there are some extras over in the FaceBook Group, if you care to join!!

Sunday, October 25, 2015

Sunday Morning Bliss

My week has been filled with a lot of activity, some good, some not so good.
As you may know from previous posts, I kinda came to quilting during a very difficult time in my life. I hadn't been feeling well for a long time and no one could figure out why, and quilting was a great distraction to keep me out of my own head. (it's become far more than that now...but it still is a good distraction when I'm having a hard week...this was a hard week)
My story in a nut shell....When I finally went outside of the normal health care options I found that I had some major food intolerances, wheat/gluten, dairy, eggs...just most of the major ones, outside of nuts. It has not been easy, especially the first weeks removing what had been the staple of my diet from my diet....seriously I practically lived on egg McMuffins... and don't even get me started on the nightmare that is package labelling, and figuring out all the sub-names for wheat and gluten., dairy... I have a huge new appreciation for anyone who has major food allergies that are life threatening....
I jokingly tell friends that I am still at the whining stage, which is only half a joke. It is so hard to let go of old family favourite recipes, and food that is so yummy, even when you know it will make you sick to eat it. It is even harder to find replacement foods for the family favourites. I feel like I have already wasted so much money on items I have purchased and items I have tried to bake that only end up in the garbage, but I have decide to stop my "whining" and  seriously open some of the cookbooks I have started to purchase and find some new favourites.  Even if the means a lot of it will may end up  in the trash.
So with that as my goal I set up a new blog called, UpStairsHobbyRoom Goes Vegan-ish. Cheeky I know, but basically with my food intolerances I eat like a vegan... but I still eat meat, especially bacon!!! There are no posts yet(first post is up),  but as I try out recipes and hopefully find some good ones I will post my reviews and create links, so that the information is journaled for me, and you... if you'd like to follow along. If you are in the same boat as me or know someone who is, please I'd love to hear from you.....links, recipes you've tried and loved, etc!!

For now let's get back to the real show....

What Happened in the HobbyRoom this Week:


The List:

  1. Finish last 4 Around the Block blocks for my nephew's quilt
  2. Test some of the blocks from Lorna of Sew Fresh Quilts new pattern Forest Friends! Its a good one too!!
  3. Set up the Link Up party for Oct 30-Nov 5 for the October block of One Block Wonders.
  4. Start on the December Block tutorial and sample.

The Bliss:

I won 20 gorgeous wooden labels from All This Wood and attached the first one to my mini Sew Together Bag!!

I tested Kristy's new Feather pattern, Coming the beginning of November 




Completed more rows on my Knit Sampler Afghan

And took my son-in-law's business logo and created an oversized coaster (8") for his desk and part of his birthday gift. (FYI: don't forget to mirror your pattern when the direct matters! This is actually backwards, but being a W it was at least salvageable! I will owe him a proper one...maybe for Christmas, lol)



Thursday, October 22, 2015

My Day for the "Dog Gone Cute" Blog Hop


I am so excited to be a part of Lorna's Blog Hop, and so glad you have come over for a visit!!

I think we all can agree that Lorna has some of the cutest patterns, The Elephant Parade and the  ZebraZ and now the Dog Gone Cute, along with a "few" others you can check out on her blog...

Sew Fresh Quilts



And don't forget to check out the other participants today and here is a link to the other days incase you missed any of them


You are here: Sandy from UpStairsHobbyRoom

Britt-Inger from Hill Valley Quilter
Louisa from Sewmotion


I fell in love with this pattern right away and knew I had to make something for my sister, who happens to have two dogs that look just like this pattern. 
So the question was what....

The Poolside Tote by Noodlehead was the answer. 
(follow the links to find out about purchasing the pattern) 
A totally cute way to display a few Dog blocks.



I think the hardest part of this pattern was deciding which of the cute versions to pick!!


I chose to make 2 pockets for the tote, which only features one, but I think the more pockets the better!!






My only mistake, was forgetting that the bottom of the bag pattern is notched to get the width for the tote. I should have adjusted and put the dog block up higher, because when the tote is sitting the dog looks like he is peeking at you. Lol! just an FYI incase you decide to give this a try!!


And what bag is complete without a matching sunglass case!!

And because I couldn't stop at just one project......

I made this cute little version of the block as a gift for Lorna, whom I met for the first time just after Thanksgiving....over coffee at Tim Horton's. Perfect gift to hold her hot latte. What a great couple of hours we spent chatting about quilting!!





Thanks everyone for stopping by, don't forget to check out the rest of todays participants!!

Here's the links again

You are here: Sandy from UpStairsHobbyRoom

Britt-Inger from Hill Valley Quilter
Louisa from Sewmotion




Wednesday, October 21, 2015

The Feather Test



Not to worry, no tickling involved in this test, ;) But I did get the opportunity to test a new paper pieced pattern by Kristy at Quiet Play. I love testing her patterns, and I've tested a few....




Winterbound 

 and lately the Geometric Series....these are fantastic....so many options



And the Feather Test and Review

Release of the pattern is set for beginning of November

This one has a lot of seams, and sewing the quill in the centre was definitely the trickiest part, but totally doable. Take your time press and use lots of pins on the second joining seam. (pictures below)
Also just watch the length of your pieces and the angles. I don't know about you but I always have more trouble with one angle flip then the other, so I lay the piece on  that I am checking and flip it over, mimicking a 1/4" seam to see if my fabric piece is long enough, and placement is right, to cover the angled area needed. If you aren't sure about where the placement is for the reverse side, I hold my piece of fabric with 2 fingers on each end, one finger on the fabric side and one finger on the back where the pattern is printed to make sure it extends passed the sewing line enough on each side.
Another thing to watch as you are joining the last section, the bottom background seam, I was so intent on matching top and bottom an sewing in the quill section straight that I forgot about that seam. You'll want to pin there. (red feather was pinned the other two....before I realized...they are both a little off)

The Feather is a very versatile pattern too, you don't have to sew on every sew line if you don't want, and because of the design it actually could be used as a leaf pattern too. It looks great with solids and prints, and a fantastic way to use up some of your scrap bits, so far that is all I've used.
The pattern sections are coloured in such a way to make it easy to use an assortment of colours/fabrics or to add your background colour in every other piece for a more open looking design.


My Tips

I found if you iron press to set the bulky seam and flip it back towards you


and press, it puts the seam allowance out of the way for joining the next section.


But just to be sure, I pin the 3 areas I want to have  line up, catching just some of the seam allowance area and making sure the end of the pin comes up and is over top of the seam allowance of the other seam. The pin holds the seam out of the way.



 I then add more pins to keep everything aligned as I sewed the last seam.


I also found that if you sewed the seam with the feather side up and the seam side down, it went a lot smoother.



 That's it! I hope you will all drop over to Kristy's blog and check out all her fantastic paper pieced patterns and try this one too when she adds it beginning of November!!

Oops...one more thing..... I added an extra piece to my yellow feather centre, to have feather at the top. Easy, peasy, just draw an extra angled line, and add some of your feather fabric!!





With them all lined up you can see they all are a bit different from each other. The yellow I omitted adding any background between colours and skipped those sewing line, giving me larger yellow section. The orange I believe I sewed every line with the background added. The red was a combination, added background, missed some lines and some background pieces. (I also made a fabric mistake that I fixed by adding an extra section that is not in the pattern. How do I make that work? I'll make that same "mistake" a few times, then only you and I will know it wasn't done on purpose!! ;)


This is going to make an amazing table runner!!


But for now back to my One Block Wonder prep!!