More Stitches

Posted on April 2, 2013 by bethp146

I am posting this as part of the Rocket City Bloggers Year Long Blogging Challenge (YLBC). This week’s topic is “what do you need more of right now?”

My quilting hobby is a funny thing. Right now I’m so behind with my sewing, and that stresses me a little. The same thing that is causing me stress is also my stress relief. I piece and quilt by hand, and I like not being tied down to my machine. Each stitch is in my control. It’s soothing to sit and work on something so productive. When I’m done, I have a finished, cuddly quilt to share with someone I love.

Lately I haven’t had many long stretches to sit and sew. I know I try to cram too much into my evenings, cooking, cleaning, writing, other household type things. Then, I sew if there’s time. I try to do it all, and that means I need that relaxing stress relief of sewing more than ever. I definitely need more stitches in my life right now.

What do you need more of?

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A quilt finish & lessons learned

Posted on October 15, 2012 by bethp146

The latest quilt I finished was a custom ordered clothes quilt. The customer wanted a quilt made out of her husband’s grandmothers old dresses to give as a gift to her mother-in-law. I’m glad she has this quilt to give, but boy was I happy to be done with it. I learned that polyester sure is hard to work with. Like so many other times in my life, I had to turn to my wonderful Mama for help. I was in over my head, and she saved me. I’m so grateful! From now on I won’t be taking any custom orders for clothes quilts. It’s back to baby quilts and quilts made out of cotton only! Sometimes you just have to know what your limits are

Summer Stitches: Update!

Posted on June 22, 2012 by bethp146

I can’t tell y’all how happy it makes me that so many people have embraced Summer Stitches. We have a pretty active Facebook Group, and people are already making some amazing things. I tell M all the time that y’all are putting me to shame! Some people have already done one or two projects! We’ve even had a request to make this a year round craft group!. If you haven’t joined us yet, you can join us here.

What have you been working on this summer? Do you have any suggestions for a name for year round crafting group?

(Here’s another shameless plug asking you to like Love You Muches on facebook if you haven’t already. You can also follow me on twitter at @Bethp146. I love hearing from you!)

Summer Stitches: Go Time!

Posted on June 1, 2012 by bethp146

Yay! It’s June 1, which means it’s time to start our Summer Stitches craft & quilt along. I want to say a huge THANK YOU to those who have shown interest. It’s not too late to join us, either! I can’t wait to see what y’all create. There will be several updates about Summer Stitches in the coming weeks.

For now, it’s time to start sewing, gluing, painting, pasting, and crafting to our hearts’ content. Have a fun and creative few months. – Beth

Summer Stitches Craft & Quilt Along

Posted on May 18, 2012 by bethp146

I’ve been a little MIA over the past few days. I can’t think of a better post to come back with than this. It’s something I’m really thrilled to get started on! Love You Muches is hosting a Craft and Quilt Along! The main goal of this event is to encourage one another to work on at least one crafty project during the summer. We will share our goals, projects, ideas, advice, and inspiration. I love the idea of having a community of creative people to learn from and work with. It should be a fun few months around here! All the details are listed below. I really hope you join us! I sent a message out to people I thought might be interested, and, at last count, we have 19 people who are interested in participating. You can be next!

Summer Stitches

Who: Anyone who wants to create something. Quilters, Sewers, Painters, Crafters, Knitters, etc.! All are welcome.

What: A group of people who all share a love for being creative. The purpose of Summer Stitches is to choose a project or a goal to work towards this summer. If you’re anything like me, you have good intentions and the desire to make things, but they don’t always happen due to the events of life. With Summer Stitches, we can commit to bringing just a little creativity to our summer!

Where: Love You Muches blog and a Facebook group to be created at later date

When: June 1- August 31, 2011

Why: because it’s going to be fabulous! Plus, we can all use a little encouragement sometimes.

How: Leave a comment, send me an email (loveyoumuches@gmail.com), or send me a Facebook message telling me that you are participating. Also, tell me what your project will be on or by June 8. That way, we can have a list of what people will be working on during this time.

Rules: They’re simple:

1. No Stress – Life gets busy. We aren’t trying to complete things in 3 months (it’s great if we do!). We are just committed to getting started.

2. Tell us what you’ll be working on. How much you share is up to you, but please at least tell us your project.

I can’t wait to get started. I already have my project in mind. I’ll share more when we officially begin, but here’s a little sneak peak of the fabric I’ll be using.

Hope you join us! If you have any ideas or suggestions, please share.

~Beth

Wordless Wednesday – Fat Quarters

Posted on May 9, 2012 by bethp146

Love You Muches Originals

Posted on April 26, 2012 by bethp146

Tomorrow, I’m linking up to Kelly’s Korner for Show Us Your Life Fridays. The topic this week is “Show Us What You Make or Sell”.

Quilting has become my favorite way to spend my free time. My goal is to start selling quilts to help fund our adoption. I grew up watching my grandmother make quilts, and the quilts she has made me have become some of my most treasured possessions. I love giving quilts as gifts. It makes me feel like I’m giving something special that can be enjoyed for years. I also love the creative side of putting together different patterns and fabrics to create something unique.

Since I’m just getting started, I thought I’d share some photos of what I’ve made so far and what I’m working on now.

In progress . This is going to be a super soft baby blanket!

This is a completed queen size quilt top that is ready to be quilted.

This baby quilt is now quilted. I just have to do the binding now! I can't wait to show y'all the finished product. I love this quilt!

Completed baby quilt.

I'm piecing this one now.

I set up a Facebook Fan page for this blog and my quilts. You can find it here. I will be posting all my completed quilts on Love You Muches Originals, so be sure to check it out if you are interested in a quilt!

Crafty Spring Cleaning

Posted on March 27, 2012 by bethp146

Sometimes I dream of having one of those “Pinterest” craft rooms. The ones with stacks of neatly folded, color-coordinated fabric, a big project table, a sewing machine, and all the ribbon and thread a gal could want. I may not have one of those rooms, but I do have a beautiful room to keep my sewing stuff in. It just needed a little Spring Cleaning.

It all started when I spent the weekend cutting out pieces for all of the quilts I have planned. I don’t particularly enjoy cutting fabric, so I decided to do it all at once so I won’t have to do it for a while. I now have 11 quilt pieces ready to sew. Anyway, this led to me wanting to get all my sewing things organized. To reach this level of Pinterest like organization, I first had to make a huge mess.

After all the cutting

See? Messy. Eventually, I got all my fabric and sewing things cleaned out of the fainting couch and put back. The result may not be Pinterest perfect, but I’m pretty happy with how it turned out.

Everything has a place. I just wonder how long I can keep it this way. I also am borrowing this quilt frame from my mom. I love my little sewing spot!

Have you done any Spring Cleaning this year?

Quilting Notebook

Posted on March 13, 2012 by bethp146

It is no secret that I write everything down. So when a friend suggested I start keeping up with my quilting projects in a notebook, I was surprised I hadn’t thought of it already. Thanks for the suggestion!

As luck would have it, I found a notebook made by my favorite notebook brand (Miquelrius) at my favorite store (Target) that has a cover that resembles a quilt! (longest sentence in Love You Muches history?) I love this colorful fun notebook.

In the front, I started a list of fabric I have and what quilts are planned for it.

This list is scary long. I’ve been on a fabric buying spree. I need to get to sewing!

Each project will have a few pages dedicated to notes and a list of money and time spent on the project. I will probably list fabric and pattern details as well. I think this will be a great way to keep everything organized, and y’all know I love organization!

Do you keep notebooks for special projects or hobbies?

Baker’s Quilt

Posted on February 26, 2012 by bethp146

This quilt was supposed to be a baby shower quilt. The baby who this quilt now belongs to is now 8 months old. I finally completed it and gave it to his parents this weekend. It may be the latest baby present ever.

I cut out the fabric for this quilt on April 24th or 25th. I can’t remember which day it was exactly. Because of work, I just left the cut out fabric on the card table I had temporarily set up in my office with plans to start sewing later in the week. Then, this happened on April 27, 2011…

This was taken from west of our subdivision as it was heading towards our subdivision.

The fabric that was left on the table was soaked and covered in broken glass from our shattered window. 5 inch squares of owls and whales were blown all over the rest of the house. I remember wet pieces of the fabric sticking to furniture. Needless to say, I didn’t want Baker to have a quilt made out of fabric that was once covered in glass. So, I chunked it all, claimed it on our insurance, and purchased a new set of the same fabric. I cut it all out again while we were living with my parents and started sewing. Life was busy, and it took me longer than I thought to complete it. It was the first quilt I’ve made from start to finish. I hand pieced it, and I hand quilted it on a hoop. It was a fun experience to make, and I’m glad I can say I’ve finished one!

The fabric on the front of the quilt is by Robert Kaufman. I bought the back piece of fabric at JoAnn’s. The pattern is a disappearing 9-patch, which I first read about here. I will definitely be making more of these!

This quilt will always be special to me because of what was going on in my life while making it. It isn’t perfect. My stitches are horrible in places, and I completely did the binding the wrong way without knowing it. Even though I knew it would be wonky in spots, I had to keep sewing. When I finished the last stitch, I felt like I was saying “hey tornado, take that!”

Baker’s parents have been friends with M for a long time, and I am so blessed to now call them friends. Sweet baby Baker is so cute, and I hope he enjoys it!

Love You Muches

documenting this lovely southern life

Tag Archives: quilting