I love to sew as long as it is simple. I have a Bernina Artista 180 (with the embroidery module) and a Kenmore Serger Brother 1034D Serger (I dropped the Kenmore on it’s head). Most of my sewing projects are home decor….valances, shower curtains, drapes, and simple quilts.

Here is a summary of my completed projects.

Click on pics to enlarge

And if interested, you can see pics of my sewing room shortly after I painted it and created a spot for my fabric stash. Click here.

And click here to see how it looks today after dressing it up with more accessories and quilty things.

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Rag Quilt

I started quilting in 2005 and a local NC quilt store suggested I try rag quilts to learn the basics. Great advice! So I made 3 of them for the kids for Christmas - here’s one of them. The quilting is done as you go. Just sandwich batting between the fabric squares and then sew big X’s across each square. Sew all squares together and then snip the edges to create the rag effect. Wash to fluff it up. Simple. If you want a pattern, check out Quilting 101. They have some good instructions online.

Just Can’t Cut It Quilt

After the rag quilts, I wanted to tackle a more traditional quilt - but still keep it simple. The local NC quilt store had a finished version of Just Can’t Cut It on display and it looked like something I could handle so I made 2 of these. This is the one I made for my brother. Bad pic I know, but you get the idea. A LAQ from North Carolina did the quilting using a fan-like design which I think is called Baptist Fan.

String Bean Quilt

Surprisingly this is considered a beginner quilt. Could have fooled me when I first saw it. It’s simply strips sewn to a muslin foundation and though you don’t have to match corners you do need to press each strip to prevent puckering. Easy but time consuming. A local FL LAQ did the quilting.

Contact Sonja Shogren for this patern. I bought it from her while we were still living in North Carolina.

 

Steering Wheel Tablecloth Quilt

I made this simple 58” square quilt to cover the steering wheel table in our motor home. A longarm quilter in Coral Springs, FL did the quilting using an oak leaf pattern. It is just 169 - 5” squares assembled in 13 rows & columns.

 

Laundry Surprise

I needed (ok wanted) a quilt hanging in my laundry room to perk up the place. It’s a long narrow room which is difficult to decorate.

This was made using a pattern called Ten Inch Surprise by Deborah’s Design.

A LAQ in Florida did the quilting. I just love the coffee cups. You can see it hanging it in it’s new home here.

 

Orange Crush

This is a downsized version of a mystery quilt created and led by Bonnie @ Quiltville.

I’m happy with it, but a lesson learned — no more mystery quilts for me. sigh

Only after the design was revealed was I able to get the right fabric combination.

This is also the first quilt I quilted myself — I stippled it. No prize winning work that’s for sure, but I think with more practice I might get the hang of this.

Memory Bears

I’m not a stuffed animal kinda person and I don’t usually make those kind of things, but in 2008 I made 4 memory bears for my brothers and sisters using my mother’s clothes who passed away in 2005.

I used Simplicity pattern #9524 and bought the (24mm) noses at CR Crafts. Eyes are 3/4” buttons though you could buy eyes from CR Crafts.

I did a test bear before I cut into my mom’s clothes which you can read here. I did not use a stabilizer on the test bear fabrics, but I did on my mother’s clothes except for the denim. Checkout this blog post to see how I used some of the clothing details in the bears.

 

MIL Holiday Quilt

I got brave and made my mother-in-law a quilt for Xmas in 2008.

I used charm squares from April Cornell’s Vintage Holiday line by Moda and a disappearing 9 patch pattern that I found on this blog.

My Florida LAQer did a fabulous job. Pantograph called Cotton Puffs — green variagted thread.

I also made this simple grocery bag to store it in. She loved everything and I was happy. Ok relieved.

Perhaps I’ll make her another one some day. grin

 

 

 

Mini Wall Hanging

I made this mini wall hanging to break up all the woodwork in the hallway of our motorhome. I used a modified version of one of Miss Rosie’s Schnibble patterns - i.e, Imagine.

I wish I could have had more symmetry in my version, but I could only fit 3 rows on this wall. I probably should have picked a different pattern. Oh well. Good enough.

This was also quilted by my LAQer in Florida. Unfortunately I don’t remember the name of this panto.

 

Miscellaneous Crafts

Mini projects - I love them. They keep me sane between big projects. This flying clucker was made using a pattern I bought from Art Fabric Studio. The beads for the feet and beak and eyes come with this.

And these crafty tins are a remake of a design you see on many sewing sites.

Mine are containers and a pincushion. I use them to hold small sewing notions.

Here’s a tutorial on how I made these.

I copied this pillow idea from one I saw made from shabby chic fabrics. It had a beautiful big rose in the center. My version is a lumbar pillow — intended for a family room chair, but it turned out too small. So it sits in my sewing room chair as a reminder to measure twice, cut once next time.

It’s made using the same concept used to do the String Beans quilt (shown above). i.e., strips sewn to muslin. I’m not in love with the center leaf, but it’s the only “big print” fabric I had on hand at the time. Good enough.

 

Doll Quilt

This should probably just go under miscellaneous projects, but I have a feeling I might make more of these someday. It was a fun project.

The fabric is Cottage Romance by Willowberry Lane for Maywood Studios. And to get more practice I stippled it. ( my 2nd time at that effort)

You can see a few more pictures here. This is for my sister’s grandaughter. The bed and baby came from the Pottery Barn. They were part of the gift.

 

Another doll quilt - one of the Moda Bake Shop projects.

No dolly gets to enjoy this one though — it sits here in my sewing room. Just a small project to practice my stippling again.

 

 

Picnic Hourglass

A picnic quilt — in name only. This little quilt (48X54) was made to use up some of rejects from the Orange Crush mystery quilt. I decided to make it a challenge to create something fun or unqiue to get thru that pile.

I used Crazy Mom’s hourglass tutorial. I really wanted this quilt to be bigger, but I ran out of white so I added the black inner border and used up the leftover triangles to give it more size.

Here is where my poor math skills show — of course those triangles worked except in one corner. Oh well the orange stash mountain is a little less steep today.

I also stippled this myself — I figured I gotta keep practicing.

 

Play Me A Symphony

This is a family room quilt I made using the Symphony fabric line from Moda, the inspriation for the name. I swooned over these fabrics the first time I saw them since they matched the colors in our recently renovated family room. I used Heather Peterson’s Double Takes II pattern.

This was quilted by my LAQer in Coral Springs, FL using a pantograph called Cotton Puffs. She bought it thru Vickie Malaski. I looked at the website and saw the design on page 7 of the edge-to-edge catalog. It’s the same panto used on MIL’s Holiday quilt (above).

It sits on this chair when not in use — which isn’t often.

 

 

 

Stacked Coin Quilt

I was eager to make this quilt - mostly so I could practice my stippling again and to use up my ever growing piles of charm packs.

Oh yes and so I could feel 20 years younger again as this is a popular pattern with the 20-30 somethings. My new found youth lasted about 4 days. giggle

I used 1 package of Tula Pink’s Neptune and mixed in a few Chez Moi’s Posh.

The back is Bonnie and Camile’s (Moda) Cotton Blossoms. Sashing is Kona White. Finished size is 38 X 47.

Motorhome Valances

In late 2007, I tackled the huge job of recovering our motorhome windowvalances. The only sewing part of this project was attaching the trim. Leather for the front room valances and a simple yarn trim on the bedroom top treatment.

 

 

The difficult part of this project was deconstructing the old fabric covers. Ugh. A ton of staples need to be pulled. My hands hurt for a week afterward.

I also made a few new pillow covers, but I had the chairs professionally reupholstered. So glad I did not tackle that one! If you want more construction details - check out the valances section in this link. I created it for fellow RVers.

Chair Slipcovers

The chairs for this porch set were looking very shabby so I made slipcovers. These are kinda “rough” looking, but I didn’t care how elegant they were. This was the 3rd set of these I made over 3 years. I never used any special fabric - so the covers would eventually fade. I finished the edges with my serger and gathered the skirt using my Bernina ruffler foot - which worked great!

Covers for Garage Shelving

When we moved to Florida - we lost all that great storage we had in NC. No attics or basements in FL. We bought some deep shelves to get most of it off the floor - but I could not stand to look @ the stuff so I made these covers. Just simple panels. I serged and then hemmed the sides for a finished look. Attached them using heavy duty velcro.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Window Treatments and Such …

Over the years I’ve made lots of window treatments. Here are the ones from our current home in Florida.

Small woven plaid, lined. Pottery Barn hardwareTom’s office drapes - very simple panels (lined) with tan colored fringe. I used a small plaid for an understated look. Click here to see a few more pics of the entire room.

 

For our guest bath I used a traditional quilters fabric (from moda) to make the valance and shower curtain. I picked this largely because I loved the colors and I just did not want to go hunt for the perfect decorator fabric.

The shower curtain design (gathered skirt) was copied from a drapery style Candice Olson (HGTV Divine Design) used in one of her shows — she called them dressmaker drapes. Or something like that.

Light weight cotton (print quilting fabric), drapery lining and interlining. The valance was made using the pattern called Madelyn from Pate-Meadows. The shower curtain is lined and the valance has both a lining and interlining. I also made the piping and covered buttons.

 

 

 

The rest of these window treatments are from our NC home. I no longer have any of these - they were sold with the home in Feb of 2007.

Silk Valances Lined and Bead Trim

Lined Silk Drapes - (Pottery Barn Hardware)

Tassels picked to match chairs

NC Sewing Room Valance (not lined)

NC Guest Room Curtains (not lined)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I actually made these guest room curtains for Amy’s bedroom (my step daughter) when we lived in Peoria, IL - shown in the last picture. This is a picture of a picture so the quality is very poor.