Sunday, March 30, 2025

Decorating for a Quilting Tea

Wow, I haven't blogged since last October.  Things went crazy in early November, and I haven't had much time for sewing, etc. since then.  Things are finally settling down, thank goodness.

I'm the lead for two upcoming Tea's.  One is for church (Pearls and Aprons is the theme) and one for my little quilt guild, which is a sewing theme.  I found a few oversized sewing notion ideas on Pinterest (the only 'social media' I'm on other than blogging.  So far, I've made a few things.

oversized spools of thread

You can see the size by looking at the spool of Aurifil thread I included.  I still have 3 more small spools to 'wind' and then I need to add 'labels' to the top of each spool.  I took photos of some of the vintage wooden spools of thread that I have, and have enlarged them to decoupage on the wood.  I've never decoupaged anything before, so I haven't had the courage to try it out yet. (Any suggestions are welcome).

These oversized spools were easy to make, and fun.  I bought different yarns (different sizes, depending on the size of the spool).  I bought the wood circles at either Joann's (gonna miss that store) or Hobby Lobby.  The 3 largest spools are made with a set of three stacking canisters that I bought at Hobby Lobby.  The small (red) spool is an empty can of Chunky soup (hubby eats lots of Chunky soup).  I glued the wooden circles onto each can/canister with E6000 glue, and let them dry.  For the yarn, I painted each canister/can, with Tacky Glue, using a sponge brush. (I did paint the orange BEFORE I started adding the yarn).  When the Tacky glue was on the can/canister, I used a small dot from a glue gun to hold the end of the yarn in place, then started wrapping the yarn.  When I got to the bottom of the canister, I started wrapping back up to the top of the can/canister.  

The next project was oversized buttons (again the Aurifil thread for scale).

plastic plates

I found these plastic plates at Meijer (grocery story chain) for 50 cents each.  I bought 2 in each color.  Walmart also has some, but only 3 colors, and Walmart's colors are dull.  I had hubby drill holes in the plate for me, then 'threaded' the buttons with more yarn.

not finished yet

I found some chargers at Hobby Lobby for 99 cents, and bought 5 of them.  I'm spray painting them in different colors.  I ordered the wooden circles from Walmart, and hubby drilled all of them for me.  I'm also spray painting the small wooden 'buttons'.  It's taking time, since we've had so much wind lately, that I can't spray paint unless I know things won't blow away.  I'll show photos of them when they are finished.

I also saw an oversized tomato pin cushion on Pinterest.  I decided to make one. I tried to 'jumbo size' a pattern I found for a small one, but my orange peal parts don't oversize very well, so I had to work on it a bit.  I found some redish orange velvet on sale at Joann's, and also some green felt (you have to buy 2 yards of all fabrics now, so I have plenty left over).  This is my finished oversized Tomato pin cushion (with a regular sized one beside it for scale).

oversized Tomato pin cushion

The 'pins' are metal flags (from the thrift store) and wooden beads hot glued on.  I did have to stab each hole with an ice pick so that the pins would go in.  I used 1 1/2 old bed pillows as stuffing for the pin cushion. 

I have been sewing, but I haven't taken any photos of all the projects I've been working on.  

If you have any ideas for other things to use for decorations for either Tea (Pearls and Aprons) or (sewing themed), I'd love to hear them.  I do have a few other ideas that I haven't had a chance to get to yet.  Both Tea's are in September, but I'm trying to get things done really early, since I have lots scheduled (crazy busy schedule) the next few months.  

What have YOU been working on?


Tuesday, October 22, 2024

Prairie Star Quilt Show Part 2

This is the last part of the Prairie Star Quilt show from last Friday.  


The quilting is great on this quilt.


I've always liked Feathered Stars and Double Wedding Ring quilts.



This was a great Disney themed I-Spy quilt.


I'd never seen this style of temperature quilt before. It's all hand appliqued circles.


A few more quilts...





I love paper pieced quilts like these.  




More quilts...

hand appliqued and hand quilted




This quilt was inspired by a traditional Grandmother's Fan quilt. It's fans are in an infinite loop, and were paper pieced.  She said that there was a variation in one of the fans.


The last of the quilts.





I hope you enjoyed the quilt show.  I sure did!



Friday, October 18, 2024

Prairie Star Quilt Show Part 1

I took lots of photos at the Prairie Star Quilt Show today.  There are well over 200 members of this quilt guild, so they have LOTS of talented quilters.  I'll split this quilt show into more than one blog post.

I started with the Bee challenge/exchange quilts.  I'm in a brand new Bee, so I was interested in what kinds of challenges or exchanges we might want to try.

It will be easier to show the description of this Bee Round Robin with a photo of the description (I'm too lazy to type all that up).  The last quilt I show reminded me of Barbara's (Cat Patches) Beach Bums quilt that she has been working on.








Another Bee only has 3 members, and they challenged each other to make a quilt using 1930's reproduction fabrics.




This quilter's husband wanted a robot quilt.  She told him that he had to design the pattern.  I think it's cute!


More quilts...





This one isn't a pieced quilt, it's a vintage table cloth that she quilted.  



up close of one of the blocks

I loved how this quilt started.  Here is her description:

This began as a free packet for one hexie from the Paducah show.  Began in April 2008 and finished in August 2023. It has 4,124 hexies and took 15 years.

I got one of those free hexie packets at a quilt show this past month.  I've received many of those packets over the years.


I loved the 3D flowers on this quilt.


Here is the story on this next quilt...



More quilts...











I'll leave the rest of the quilts for another blog post.