Sew Unique Creations

Call me crazy - but back when we starting doing quilt shows, I started rolling these little bundles of fabric to use up what was left on bolts, and to make some small color coordinated packs and to offer people that just need a little bit of this or that something without buying a whole fat quarter or yardage……

This is what I came up with.  After 2 years of doing shows - I now have a name for them, thank you very much customers that made comments in our booth.

So, we introduce you to “Cuties”

These little scrappy bundles of joy are a real hit at the quilt shows we vend at.  Each little “Cutie” has 5 - Fat Sixteenths rolled up in a little bundle of scrappy fun.  The name “Cutie” came about because so many people said “Aren’t these cute!”  If you are a scrap lover like I am - these are the perfect size to enhance your “stash” and get a wider variety of fabric for a little amount of money.  These are also perfect for applique projects!  A Fat Sixteenth measures approximately 9″ x 10 1/2″ to 11″.  The 9″ width will always be standard but the length may vary a hair or two due to fabric manufacturers differences.

 The “Cuties” that we have available right now are up and running on the website - with photos of each!  Here’s just a few so you get the idea:

You can find any of these and more here:

Fat Sixteenth Cuties

And for those of you that loved our Scrappy Charm Packs at the quilt shows - well, those are on the website now too.  I do not have a photo of them up yet, but basically they are charm packs of 50 - five inch squares.  They are just scrappy packs, there is no theme to them, they are not all from one certain line of fabric - it’s just plain fun.  If you enjoy the type of fabrics that we carry on our website - then you will like these. You can find those here:

 Scrappy Charm Packs

These two goodies will come and go on the website throughout the year as we sell out of them or add other colors and so forth.  Hopefully this year I can keep up with them and have them at every show instead of it always being so hit or miss!  So far I’m ready to head to Valparaiso, Indiana in March for that quilt show and Chicago Quilt Festival is looking good too so far - not quite ready, but it’s looking like I have my act together!  Paducah - well, I’m going but I’m not ready yet - not near being ready for that at all!  So with that thought in mind….

I need to get back to work.  Today we are busy stocking up our inventory for the spring shows.  Today alone I’ve been cutting kits, cutting fat quarters and fat eighths, finishing those “cuties” up and cutting more scrappy packs.  Wish me luck!  Drats — I need to run to the grocery store too - any volunteers?  Plus I really wanted to get started on another little quilt design - I might be up until midnight again - but it’s all good fun - right???

I’m in love with these 2 fabrics that just came in today.

This is a Covey Toile print

You can find it here:

Covey Toile

And this piece is from the original Toast collection - It seems I’ve been waiting forever to get this one in!

You can find it here:

Toast

Yesterday I received the most awesome book!

Stellar Quilts by Judy Martin!  I love this book - so many good quilts to make.  I’m drooling over the quilt on the cover above in the lower left hand corner.  Oh my goodness - I have to make that quilt in this lifetime!

You can order your own copy of the book on Judy’s website here:

Judy Martin’s Website

In other news - quilting class went ok yesterday.  I wasn’t able to finish quilting my quilt - I only have so much time between the time my “rental” time starts and the time I have to rush home to get my little ones off the school bus - plus a few minor “blurps” yesterday set me back. I am quilting the quilt top using the dresdan fan pattern and let me tell you - it takes a while - I have to keep adjusting the pattern and moving things around.  I should be able to finish it next Monday and move on to another quilt top.  This next quilt I’m hoping to use this new pantograph pattern I just ordered called Popcorn by Jody Beamish - love that pattern!

And in other news - for those of you interested - I have updated the “Upcoming Shows” page on our website to show all the quilt shows we will be vending at this year.  If you know of any other good shows, leave me a comment and we’ll check them out!

Now, I have to get back to work and get off this computer - Quilt Market is only 3 1/2 months away!  Yikes!

Today I’m off to another day of Longarm Quilting class!  Here’s today’s project:

This is a fun scrappy quilt top I purchased off ebay a while ago.  It needed a lot of trimming up as the edges were fraying and ripped.  Plus, I discovered that it had been a quilt of some sort before - it still had some edges on there that had binding.  So, we trimmed all that up and soon it will be quilted and will make a nice little throw quilt for picnics or camping this summer.  All the pieces were hand pieced too!  I think today I’m going to quilt baptist fans on it.  Not sure, I might change my mind when I get there, but I so love baptist fans!  I’ll try to post a picture either later today or tomorrow of what I accomplish!

In other news — would you like to see some real eye candy - we received 4 boxes jammed packed yesterday of Renee Nanneman’s Itsy Bits 1, 2 an 3 collections printed by Andover Fabrics……

How’s that for a color explosion!  These colors are just so yummy and I love these prints because there are a lot of tone on tones and tiny calico prints.  I can’t wait to sit and play with these fabrics!

Plus, I’ve been busy making teeny, tiny 1″ finished size 1/2 square triangles for some teeny, tiny basket blocks I’m doing.  They are so fun!

And I owe a couple of my friends an email or two - I’m behind on my emails - I’m so sorry!  Between getting fabric in, stocking it, updating the website, working in general and our newest pattern design coming out in American Patchwork and Quilting Magazine - which created a lot of orders on our website - I just haven’t been answering emails like normal! I’ll get to it I promise!

I’m off to quilt - chat more later - wish me luck!

Well, I feel like I’ve waited an eternity for my copy of the April 2010, American Patchwork and Quilting magazine to get here!

It finally - finally arrived today!

Here is Two-Piece Puzzle!

It’s located on pages 68 through 76!!!  Enjoy!

Well, this past Monday I took the plunge and went to my first long arm quilting class.  There is a gal that runs a quilt shop from her home here locally and she rents time on “Sally” the longarm quilting machine.

What fun!

Above is my first attempt at doodling on the long arm.  Not to bad - I like doing the little curly Q things - now stippling - hmmm, I still haven’t gotten those smooth graceful curves yet, but it will come.

Above I free-handed some  random flowers and attempted ribbon like stuff in the bottom right of the photo.  Hmmm, doesn’t look to much like ribbons, but I tried!

Above is my first ever attempt at following a pantograph.  It’s suppose to be a rose with my “added” vines in those little leaves.  Let me tell ya - it’s a lot easier to do free hand work than it is to follow a pantograph for me!  I’m not that great at tracing those little lines yet with a little red laser light! I felt like I was in grade school again learning cursive hand writing! (Aunt Teresa and Aunt Julie - if you are reading this - I did these roses on purpose for you - this is one of the patterns that Miss Bonnie uses on her quilts!)

Here’s another pantograph above - still not that great, but what can I say, it was my first time!

Now we’re talking - feathers!  I love feathers in quilting and just had to try it.  I free-handed this one and I don’t think I did to bad at all on this first attempt!  The direction of which way to “sway” the feathers got me, but in good time I hope to get it all figured out.  I just really love feathers - I have to learn to do them!

And to finish up the day, I quilted some more random flowers and squiggly lines.

One thing I’m glad I did was bring solid colored fabric to play on - that way I could see all my stitches easily and I could see the patterns.  But on the other hand - I kind of wish I would have sewn a good calico of assorted colors onto the bottom and quilted that also just to see what it looked like on multi-colored fabric.  I know - I shouldn’t be so hard on myself - but every little mistake really jumps out at you on solid fabric!

I pulled out my Pajama Quilter DVD last night - after I searched for an hour and blew off the dust from it!  I plan on watching the DVD a couple times before I head back to class next Tuesday.  This next class I’m bringing a quilt top that I rescued from ebay.  It’s just a simple little patchwork quilt made of plaid fabrics that I believe were originally recycled from clothing.  This quilt top I bought a few years back with the intent on finishing it and using it as one of our quilts in the camper or one of the quilts that we take along on trips in the truck or for picnics.  I plan on just free-handing some quilting on it - but then again, maybe it would be a good time to try my hand at a pantograph again and really practice those.  I found 4 pantograph patterns online that I want to buy - but I refuse to buy them until I get this whole “tracing” with a laser light thing down!

And on another note - I received an exciting email last night - the newest issue of American Patchwork and Quilting is on it’s way to subscribers!  I will be pouncing on the postman every day until my issue gets here - we have a quilt in this one!  It’s called Two Piece Puzzle and it’s a really pretty quilt all done up in reds, blacks and creams! If you get your issue let me know!  I live so close to where the magazines are shipped from and I’m usually one of the first to receive them - where in the world is my copy!

Well - a day and a half of sewing, cutting, trimming and pressing using lots of fabric and triangles on a roll resulted in this:

and this:

and this:

All of this results in:

taking those little papers from the triangles on a roll off the back of these 1/2 square triangles (not my most favorite thing)

lots of fun (the piecing that is)

and 468 half square triangles (for a good twin size quilt that is going to look really awesome!!)

Wish me luck…….

Well it’s been a great day here - look what just arrived!

It’s the Indigo Berries line of fabric by Jo Morton for Andover Fabrics.

Oh this is so yummy!

We’ve listed the yardage, the individual fat quarters and the fat quarter bundles on the website!  Go check it out!

Indigo Berries at Sew Unique Creations

I’m off the stare at this fabric for a little while and get inspired for yet another new project!!!