Giving Handmade

Giving handmade gifts can by tricky.  If you are a maker you know what I mean.  You work hard on something and you're never really sure the receiver will actually like it.  You've picked out the fabric and pattern and decided what to make.  You put yourself out there and give a gift you love.  I guess this is true of all gifts, but the material and time it takes to make something raises the stakes.  For the most part I've got a decent radar for who will appreciate a handmade gift, so I try not to worry too much about it.

Last Christmas I received a charm pack of fabric from a colleague who knows I love to quilt.  The pack was the Gooseberry Lane line from Kansas Troubles Quilters.  I know this person loves handmade things, and the gift was actually a bit lucky, I'll tell you why.  She picked the fabric, so I had to assume it was something she would like.  This little piece of the process made me feel confident in making her something as a gift. 

I decided to make a small mini quilt using my Temecula Minis Postcards patterns (unfortunately no longer available).  The pattern really fit the country style of the the fabric.  I used a matching red thread to quilt in the long strips, and stitched in the ditch around the blocks.  I also used their method for binding a small quilt, which you can see here along with some other tips. 

And in the end, she loved it.  A win for me and a win for her.  Now...how to get other people to buy you fabric...hmmmm.   

P.S.  She also got a cute market bag, free pattern by Sharon Holland here.  

Happy Sewing! 

2019 Finish-A-Long Quarter 1

Happy New Year!  Although I've had much less time for quilting this past year due to committing to additional graduate school work, I still enjoy the motivation of the Finish-A-Long, so here's my list. 

Projects that I would like to get moving along include:

1.  Work on finishing my Delilah top.  Needs back, quilting, binding. 

2.  Finish my AMH scrappy trip.  Needs binding.

3.  Finish my Mon Ami full melon wedding ring quilt.  (Templates from Victoria Findlay Wolfe.) 

 4.  Finish my Swell Quilt, pattern by Camille Roskelley.  Needs back, quilting, binding.

5.  Finish my Rainbow Blur quilts.  This is actually two projects.  One is the full pattern and just needs binding.  I have a second throw quilt I made from the leftovers, that needs back, quilting, binding. 

6.  Make the Elizabeth's Dowry Quilt by Karen Styles.   

7.  Make a River Log Cabin quilt.

8.  Continue with my dresdens using Jen Kingwell Moving on Lawns fabric.  

9.  Make the Sweet Tea Quilt by Amy Friend using Carolyn Friedlander fabrics.  

That pretty much sums up all the projects I have on deck currently.  Looking forward to progress on any of them! 

To join the Finish-A-Long visit here. 

That's How I Roll Tote III

Last weekend my local guild, the Long Island Quilters Society, had a 'quilt the day away' event where members teach other members.  I taught a wonderful group of four quilters how to make a tote using strips.  This is a pattern I've made twice before.  It's a nice sized basic tote and is great for using up 2 1/2 inch strips.

My previous versions have both been given away as gifts, so I'm excited to keep this one for myself.  The pattern was on the Make it Coats website, but I haven't been able to find it online anymore. 

These fabrics are the last of my Anna Maria Horner Honor Roll fabric.  I do have a bit of yardage of a few prints, but I've used up all my strips.  I added in some of her other prints that had similar colors. 

Linking up with Brag About Your Beauties at From Bolt to Beauty and Show Off Saturday over at Sew Can She. 

2018 Online Quilters Meet and Greet

Hello and welcome to Sew Some Sunshine!  I'm so glad you stopped by, especially visitors from the 2018 Quilters Meet and Greet hosted by Benita over at her Creative Space blog.  I'll be telling you a little bit more about myself and my quilting, along with other quilt bloggers who are participating.  Don't forget to visit the main page to find out more about all of the participating quilters.  There's also an incredible giveaway.

I began quilting in my early twenties to finish up some quilt projects that my grandmother had sewn.  Since I didn't have much money at the time, I thought it would be a good way to make some gifts for family members.  There wasn't much internet at that point, so I had to follow my instincts, read a few instruction books, and make a lot of mistakes.  I made quite a few small quilts from blocks my grandmother had sewn and was able to share her work with my cousins.  Fast forward twenty years and it is just amazing how the online quilt community has grown and flourished.  When my mother retired, she also began quilting, and now we have a shared passion for quilting.  It's definitely a family thing!

I really like the modern traditional asthetic in quilts, so you'll see that a lot of my quilts are made with modern fabrics in geometric shapes, with standard grid layouts and no borders.  The blocks themselves are usually traditional blocks though, so the quilt is familiar but modern at the same time.

Cobblestone Quilt

One block hexagon quilt

Disappearing Nine Patch

Other quilts styles include scrappy layouts, quilts with borders, or quilts with more traditional fabric.

One project (still unfinished) is my Delilah Quilt, designed by Jen Kingwell.  It is a block of the month using templates, which I machine pieced.  I have lots of advice and tutorials for this quilt on my Delilah page.  You can see how I worked through each block.  Templates and the pattern are now available outside of the BOM program.  I really learned so many new techniques working on the quilt.  I do have my top done, just figuring out how to quilt it now.

Not only do I love quilting, but I also love to make all sorts of other projects.  It's great to have faster finishes in between larger quilt projects.  It's also fun to use up favorite fabrics.

I hope you've enjoyed getting to know me a little more and seeing some of my work.  I'd love to hear what projects you liked, so please drop me a note below.  You can follow me on bloglovin, instagram, and pinterest using the links in the sidebar.  And don't forget to visit the other quilters here.

Thank you!