selina quilts

Monday, May 15, 2023

Rose (Rose' )Colored Glasses - Blog Hop

Saw the title for this Hop and knew I had to sign up. I had an idea or two and had so much fun bringing them to life, thanks so much Carol for taking on yet another fun week of amazing quilty ideas.

My first idea was to personalize an eye glass case using a neoprene zip case I picked up at our local Dollar Tree.

When I went to find my glasses I was able to locate my last 3 frame purchases which covered at least the last 10 years. The big hoot is that all of them are Rose Colored so YES I do view the world through "Rose Colored Glasses".

I went to an embroidery retreat in March and one of the hosts had this idea for doing machine embroidery on these $1.25 cases.

This case went together with no issue and I can tell at a glance that the glasses inside won't be my sun glasses.

The sun glasses will be in this one

Then I realized that I had read the title of this hop incorrectly. It wasn't about eye covering, it was about wine, DUH!

I planned on making a wine bag using some of the embroidery designs I found. When I was discussing this hop with a quilty friend she suggested coasters. I made quilted coasters several years back but didn't remember the details on construction.

My first attempt was after 9PM and I ended up with this sad little thing. It may work as a coaster for a traditional shot glass but probably not. Don't have any idea why I was using an oval instead of a circle for it.

Changed up to a circle but not quite big enough. If you placed a wine glass on it perfectly center you would be OK but off center at all and the glass would probably tip.

Finally went and found a "real coaster" and measured it to make one the correct size.

Finally success.

I had to do something with the little guy, somehow I felt guilty about how sad he looked so I turned him into a drunken pin cushion. I felt better immediately. By the way, that is the back of the coasters. The front background isn't showing up well. It is a pale pink with white clouds.

When I do machine embroidery the part I dislike is changing thread.

See this shot of the 4 of them with all of their Rose' done with no thread changing. I love it when a plan comes together. I spent some time figuring out how to do my 4 dfferent coasters together so I could cut down on thread changes. That would have been 8 color changes if I had done this the suggested way.

I've had such a fun time helping to kick off this hop. Lets go and visit the rest of the group and see how they define Rose Colored Glasses or is it Rose' Colored Glasses, tee hee

Here is the list for the entire hop for your convenience. Please stop and visit and leave them a note about their work. We love hearing from you.

Monday, April 17, 2023

Say What? Sew it - Show it

This is one of the most interesting hops ever. Thank you Joan for having us think about the whats, whys and how comes of our quilting.

I have a couple of quilting items that came to mind once I slowed down and thought about it.

My first topic is a quilt I made in 2008/2009. In November 2008 I had my right hip replacement surgery. At the time our home was 2 story and my quilting space was on the 2nd floor, not a place where I could readily get to during my recovery period. I was home by myself during the day so stairs and sewing were out of the question..

One of my very dear friends came up with a surprise and a plan. One evening MJ came home from work to a plastic kitchen garbage bag full of scrap fabric at our front door. My friend figured that I could sort the scraps, iron the scraps and cut scraps in stages at my kitchen table while recovering. It made for a wonderful quilty workout with no specific goals. It did get me out of bed and made me use my brain for planning.

By the time I did all of the prep and came up with a goal I decided I wanted to give running my sewing machine with my left foot a try. MJ set my machine up in the kitchen and I packed up all of the odds and ends I thought I would need ( it was like going on a mini retreat ). Slowly but surely I made blocks, (all with those cute little bees in the center) put together rows and then ta da there was a quilt top. I sent it out to be quilted .I am very sorry that I don't remember to whom I sent it but she did a wonderful job.

By the time I got it back from the quilter I was back at work. The quilt came back and was hung over the banister between my living and dinning room ( without being bound ) to be admired by all for ages.

Today, still unbound, this quilt takes it turn being hung over the back of a living room chair with other quilts I have made for me and can't bare to give away because of their background stories.

The other quilty topic I want to hit on is making Kennel Quilts for Small Shelter Pets. I started to do these several years ago. I believe I got the information about this project from someone in our qroup during one of these hops.

These quilts are pretty much like 12 x 18 placemats. They are generally requested by shelters around the country who take in pets after various natural disasters such as hurricanes, tornadoes and wild fires. I have included the link for lots of information about the group which includes a link to join. The Quilt Pattern Magazine is the group that sends out the information for where and when quilts are needed. There is no pressure from the group just the occasional notice of need.

Many of the mats pictured on their sight look like they are preplanned patterns. I generally make my Shelter quilts from my scrap box. I usually keep batting and backing size scraps cut to size and on hand so that if I'm between projects I can knock out a mat or two and set it aside for when the request comes in. I'm pretty much of the mind set that I can make 2 scrappy in the time it would take me to do 1 measured out preplanned. I'll take 2 scrappy. I don't think the dogs and cats who are sleeping on them care.

The pictures here are mats I made last week while at a mini guild retreat. (I made 8 but apparently didn't take a pic of the last 3). It's my favorite type sewing for these occasions. You know when you are doing so much talking, laughing and eating that mistakes happen. When sewing together scraps you can't find / notice the mistakes. That and sharing/swapping scraps is alway fun.

Well I hope this met the base idea of this hop. I love how open our hops are to personal interpretation.

Below is a full list of the weeks contributors. Please, if you get the chance, stop in to each for a visit and to leave a comment.

Monday April 17

MooseStashQuilting

Selina Quilts

Quilt Schmilt

Patchouli Moon Studio

That Fabric Feeling

Scrapdash

Tuesday April 18

Inflorescence

Creatin' in the Sticks

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs

Wednesday April 19

Kathy's Kwilts and More

Thursday April 20

Just Let Me Quilt

Karrins Crazy World

crazy'boutquilts

Pinker n' Punkin Quilting

Songbird Designs

Days Filled With Joy

Thursday, March 23, 2023

Little Green Apples

The Little Green Apple Hop was, for me, a win, win. First, I always think participating in these monthly hops are a wonderful creative use of those little grey cells and this hop happily coincided with me getting the embroidery module for my Bernina 570. (A wonderful if slightly late, Birthday gift.

This week I am attending an Embroidery Retreat. I needed to know that I could take this machine and actively participate in the fun.

I started to test my abilities with this machine doing some basics. I did a FSL Easter Basket and a Redwork Christmas embroidery before it dawned on me that I could do some tests using Little Green Apples.

So here we have an appliqued Green Apple with it's buddies

And now I can go Apple Pickin

I forgot to take a pic of this sweet pin cushion before turning it into something useful.

I was still trying to figure out what to do with this piece

When in doubt, a mug rug.

But my most fun project for this hop would be

This Green Apple Charger Mat.

One of the gals in one of my crafting groups had made a couple of these with embroidered flowers. So I thought I should give it a try using Green Apples. Success.

She found the mats at Hobby Lobby, I found mine at Target. Both stores were selling them for $2 in multi colors.

I hope you enjoyed your visit here and your visits to all of the other stops along the way and the ones yet to come. Below is a full list of the participants for your viewing pleasure.

Monday, February 20, 2023

Sweet On You- Blog Hop

Time again for another super fun hop. I wanted in from day 1. Problem was that I had no idea what to do.

Had several ideas but none of them seemed to hit the sweet enough spot and time was running out. Lots of valentine sweets were showing up but none of them thrilled me. I did try a couple but nothing.

These little envelopes each contain a chocolate heart.

These little snap purses are totally lined and are made of a 6 x 18 strip of fabric ( including the lining)

Cute but just not Sweet enough.

Here is the background to how I came up with my final Sweet idea.

A couple of weeks ago my sister, who's craft of choice is Iris Paper Folding, called and asked me to cut out a few of her favorite cards that I have stored on my cutting machine. Wonderful sister that I am, I did as requested.

Last week I was looking at what was being offered on Craftfest (a week of tutorials mainly for cutting machines) and saw one listed for using Iris Folding Designs for fabric sewing. I didn't tune in to see what was being suggested but it did put the idea in my head that I could try something using this concept.

I went through my Sister's cards and found 2 that I thought I could use for doing raw edge applique. This is a technique that I haven't done in at least 3 years.

I forgot a lot but all was rectifiable. The biggest problem I had was that I forgot to flip the pieces before cutting so instead of recutting I reversed the base instead and fudged my placement.

The next problem was now that I did the applique, what should I do with it. After sleeping on it I decided I'd make a placemat.

You see the little star in the middle, that's the Iris. It still needs to have the borders quilted but I'll get to that before I need it for a real Birthday Party.

I love the way it turned out but it was very Male and what if the birthday dinner was for a Female?

I guess it means I need to make another. I took pictures of this one as I put it together since I knew I was using it for the hop.

That is how the Iris designs come.

The Iris on this one doesn't have enough contrast. Oh Well.

Well I do believe they are truly Sweet Enough to qualify for this hop and I know I'll be getting some use out of the first one in a couple of weeks.

Here is a list of all of the other players in this Sweet event. I'm sure there will be lots of goodies showing up among them so hop around and visit and leave some sweet notes.

Monday Feb 20