Sewing for Fall

 Fall is here, and it is beautiful this year. The colors are gorgeous and the temperatures are wonderful. I love fall and I really love to decorate my house for the season as well. Today I thought I would share with you some fall projects to inspire you and I wonder do you decorate for the autumn season at all?

Last year I made this fun little runner and matching pillow. The pattern is called Pumpkins by Cluck Cluck Sew and I just made one block for the pillow and 5 for the runner. I used fabric from Summer Sweet by Sherri and Chelsi and from Abby Rose by Robin Pickens. 

Esther used the same pattern as I did and made the lap size quilt using Pumpkins and Blossoms by Fig Tree. I love how it turned out and I think it would be so cute draped over a couch or on a blanket ladder. We have Kits in the shop for this one, just click here. 

Last year Esther made this really fun quilt called Vintage Fall by Confessions of a Homeschooler. She used a variety of Corey Yoder prints, but her new collection Cozy Up would be fantastic for it as well. 

Cider by Basic Grey is a fantastic collection for fall without bringing any pumpkins into the mix. Esther is working on a really fun Jelly Roll Quilt from the book On a Roll Again with it right now and we are planning to put kits together for it as well. This is a photo from the book as Esther's was not available for me to get a photo of today. But hers is the same as this. 

Just today my Husband said I needed to make some small seasonal quilts for our porch, and so I will be browsing for some mini quilt ideas myself, because when your husband tells you to make a new quilt you definitely jump on that one quick. 

Have a great week!

Kayla

Shop Updates

Due to the lastest set of restrictions that have been put in place there are a few things that have changed for our shop. 

Limited Capacity

As a retail shop we are allowed to remain open to the public for instore shopping. 
However we are once again asked to limit the number of customers in our shop at one to time to 1/3 of fire code. 
We have chosen to go a little lower than 1/3 just as we have in the past to allow for sufficient room to social distance. 

We would like a maximum of 8 customers in the shop at one time. If it looks busy inside please just ask one of the girls if it is ok to come in or if you need to wait until others leave. 

 Masks are mandatory for all shoppers. 

Curbside pick up is available for those unable to come in the shop or for those who feel uncomfortable doing so. 

Harvest Tea

At this time we have decided to postpone the Harvest Tea indefinitely. 
This includes the presentations by William and Rob as well as the Demo, Do, Donate portion of the event. 
We don't want to say cancelled as we would really love to have the event, but at this time it is just not a possibility for a variety of reasons.
For those that have signed up for the presentations we will be contacting each one of you individually. 

Classes

We have no in-person classes planned at this time. 
We do have a Skill Builder Series planned to start next month. This series will be done on our Facebook Page with each session being its own little video. The videos will be done live so you can ask questions, and will be posted on to our page so you can refer back to them later. 

There is new products and fabrics arriving in the shop every week
so check out our website or stop in to see us

Shop hours
Monday - Friday: 10am - 5pm
Saturday: 10am - 2pm 
Sunday: Closed

The Bonnie and Camille Quilt Bee: Month 8

 Welcome to another Month in our Bonnie and Camille Quilt Bee. We have reached Month 8 and we need to make a total of 3 blocks this time. They go together pretty quickly, I did all 3 of mine in a couple hours this past Saturday morning. 

We need to make the Home Again Block on page 110, the Lighthearted Block on page 112 and the Neighborhood Block on page 114. 

Home Again. I love house blocks so I was thrilled that there was one in this quilt. I have a couple tips for you for this block. 

First if using directional fabric for the windows, be sure to pay attention when cutting so that they all go the same way when in the block. O and Q should both be the same height when cutting, and the widths will be different. 

When I have a lot of piecing in a section and have to add borders at the end I like to wait to cut those until I have the center done, than I can adjust the borders if needed. In this block you may want to cut your "B" pieces a little wider than mentioned, and than after you sew them onto the center section, trim the block to the correct size than add the roof part. This will ensure you don't need to stretch anything. 

When making the shrubs pay careful attention to what edges you place the little squares and double check before adding the next fabrics that you have them oriented the right way. Otherwise you may end up with some upside down bushes outside your home. 

I actually ended up making this block twice. I chose some fairly muted colors for some of my sections the first time and was not happy with the way it turned out, so I went much brighter the second time. 

First attempt, that I didn't even finish all the way, a little dull compared to the other blocks I have been making

Lighthearted Block. Heart Blocks are another of my favorites to make, so this was a fun month for me. And this heart was really quick to make. 

6 different prints are needed, and I was able to make that work with my Red Fabric so that is the color I chose. One of my pieces was actually a few inches shorter than it was supposed to be, but because of how the block was constructed I was able to make it work anyways. I just used it as my bottom strip and centered it with the fabric above it. 

Neighborhood Block.

For this block be sure to pay attention to the first step when sewing. You need to sew on the drawn line to make the HST. This is different than how we have done the others in this pattern. 

Other than that it's just a bunch of Flip and Stitch Corners and some assembly of the units to make the block. I suggest laying out all the units before sewing them together so that you get the colors arranged how you want them. I also do not like pressing seams open so I will post a picture of how I pressed my seams so they all nest. It is just personal preference, and I use a really hot iron and don't like burning my fingertips. 

That is it for this month. Here are all my blocks so far!

Have you made any of the other quilts in this book yet? Two of the blocks we need to make this month are used for other patterns in the book too. The Lighthearted Block is repeated several times to make the You Have My Heart Quilt on page 8. And the Neighborhood Block is used together with the Criss Cross Block from Month 3 to make the Legacy Quilt on page 12.

Kayla

Garden Sampler BOM: Block 9

 It is the beginning of a new month and time to pull out those Block of the Month projects again. 

We are in September already, which means back to school and back to a normal routine for many people. How do you feel about back to school? September for me means that my wedding is so close!!! It is Wedding Month!!! So for me September is a bunch of last minute plans, last minute decorating, showers, and preparing to get married and move out. Today I was off to Calgary to pick up my dress! But I did sneak a bit of time in to get my block finished. 

For this block I changed the cutting a little bit, the only thing I changed is where it had 3/8" I changed that to 1/2" just so I'd have a bit more room to square up my HST

The Pieces

I found that piecing this block was not too difficult, there is a couple HSTs and a couple flip and stitches, which I used my Diagonal Seam Tape for.

For the Half Square Triangles I used my 4-in-1 HST ruler to square them up, but in my excitement to get the block finished I forgot to take pictures of how I used the ruler this time, oops. 

But we have done many demos on this Trim Tool, so be sure to check out our Facebook videos to learn more if you are unsure about it.

The Components

Once you have the components made this block just has a simple nine-patch construction and the block is finished! 

My Block 9

Now that I have this block finished, I am going back to my decorations and seating chart to get everything ready and off my mind. This block was a good break, and a good distraction for a few minutes though. Have you been keeping up? Is your sewing room a good break and distraction from the craziness of life for you?

Just a reminder that we will be closed Saturday Sept. 4, and Monday Sept. 6 for the Labour Day Long Weekend. 

We will also be closed Friday Sept. 17 for Carrie's Wedding.