Logo Update

I spent some time over the holiday weekend working on updating my logo to reflect the sewing aspect. What do you think?

In western Kansas, the tumbleweed - or it's proper name, Russian Thistle - is prevalent (really just a big pain in the you-know-what). Living on a farm, they are thick, hence the name and image. It may be a bit of a tongue twister (try saying it fast three times), but I like it!

I wanted to update my logo before I ordered woven sew-in labels. Can't wait for them to come in! Since I'm terrible at labeling my quilts, this will be a quick and easy way to label them. Stay tuned and I'll share more details about the labels when my order arrives.

~Sharla

Leave A Comment

Row Quilt Challenge & Other Updates

I'm baaack! After two weeks of travel, I spent this past week trying to catch up, both on sleep and housework. As the end of the week rolled around, so did the rain and I spent a rainy Friday in my sewing room catching up on my quilt guild row quilt challenge.

Last month, the basket block was drawn from the bag of possibilities. As you know, many basket patterns are made to be set on point, so my first challenge was to find a pattern that wasn't. I found a few, but all were larger than my 6" maximum limit, so I ended up designing my own pattern. To include the focal red fabric, I appliqued a flower on each basket. I decided to alternate the basket blocks with scrappy low-volume 9-patch blocks - mainly because I was lazy and didn't want to make 10 basket blocks. Since it's difficult to photograph a long row of blocks, you'll just have to imagine what the row looks like;)

I missed the May quilt guild meeting while we were traveling, but the next block drawn was the bow tie block. I only got a couple of blocks made Friday, just enough to know I'm going to like them! Because I've made a couple of 6" rows the last two months, I needed a skinny row so I decided to make 3" bow tie blocks. To get that pop of red in, I found a 3-D bow tie block pattern online that works great, although 3" is about as small as you can go and get the red fabric to 'twist' correctly. Visit the Generations Quilt Patterns website here for their 3-D Bow Tie Block tutorial. I think this row will look awesome once complete as the bow tie blocks will create a zigzag across the quilt with little red diamonds in the centers. There's more rain in our forecast, so maybe I'll get a chance to finish the rest of the 18 blocks I need to complete the row.

Speaking of my travels, I have to share what my daughter gave me while we were visiting - a custom Thistle Thicket Studio t-shirt and travel cup that she made! And the tea towels I made her with her son/my grandson's snowman drawing on the fabric band was a hit also. (Click here to check out the tea towels and here to see the original drawing.) I don't think my grandson ever really understood the whole transformation from his drawing to the fabric though, or maybe he's just all boy, either way he wasn't too excited about the whole thing.

Of course, while we were traveling through, I had to take my mom for her first visit to Magnolia Market in Waco, Texas. We had to hit the bakery right off the bat because there wasn't a line! We each got a cinnamon roll and then shared, MMMMM! The gal who checked us out at the bakery was a fellow western Kansan! What are the odds? We had fun shopping but I didn't take any more photos because I've shared my trips to Magnolia before (here).

Then it was off to Pawhuska, Oklahoma to visit The Pioneer Woman Ree Drummond's store, The Mercantile. We tried out the scones and muffins at the bakery here but I forgot to snap a photo. The line for her restaurant for lunch was out the door and halfway down the block at 10:00 in the morning, so we didn't stick around that long.

The Merc has a totally different feel than Magnolia Market, but it definitely had Ree's personality and touch of color. Check out those light fixtures!

This pillow is a perfect example of the personality of the store. I snapped this photo as a reminder of an idea I'd like to try on our Gammill quilting machine once we get our interchangeable feet we ordered while visiting Linda's Electric Quiters in McKinney, Texas. One of the feet is a couching foot and you can use it to add yarn or ribbon embellishments to quilts. Can't wait for them to come in and play around! Do any of you have a couching foot for your longarm? I would love to hear your experiences with them!

~Sharla

Leave A Comment

Snowman Tea Towels

This past week has been an adventure both on and off the farm. The hubby and I woke up last Saturday to a house with no electricity and Winter Storm Ursa bearing down on us. On an impulse - rather a real desire not to spend the weekend at home with no power - we packed our bags and got out while the gettin' was still good. We headed east to avoid Ursa's wrath and spent the weekend shopping, antiquing and dining. Finally on Tuesday, we received word that electricity had been restored so we headed for home to assess the damage. Depending on what source you read, we received anywhere from 15" to 20" of very wet, heavy snow. The snow has probably harvested any hopes of a wheat crop and has damaged many of the trees on the farm. Amazingly, by the time we arrived home, much of the snow had melted in the 40-50 degree temps - so no snow pics.

Wednesday was spent cleaning out the refrigerator and freezer of all the food ruined by four days without electricity, catching up on laundry, packing for my next adventure, and making these cute snowman tea towels for a gift for my daughter. My five-year-old grandson created the snowman drawing featured on the fabric bands on the tea towels and I transformed the drawing into fabric via Photoshop and Spoonflower. The toweling is from Moda called Bright Plaid and I added the bands of snowman fabric trimmed in cream ricrac and the green ball fringe. I love how they turned out!

The next day, I was off - with my mom in tow - for a quick weekend trip to see that same grandson play baseball before his season ended. With all these adventures, not much sewing has been happening, but hopefully I'll get back on track soon and have lots to share! Until then....

~Sharla

Leave A Comment