Good as New

 One of the interesting projects that I take on from time to time is repairing quilts, sometimes they are old quilts that need some love to give them a few extra years and sometimes they are new quilts that have had something happen to.  This month I had two newer quilts that needed repair work!

Quilt number one was this gorgeous Kaffe Fasset quilt that had been quilted with a large tuck in the border.  The quilt owner took out the quilting in the area, sewed a seam to take in the tuck and brought it to me to hand sew the area in the seam that was still open and re-quilt it.  If you look closely at this picture you can see the pins and hand basting.

This was a pretty straightforward process, it was nice that the quilting was a fan motif, so was fairly forgiving if I got off the lines a little! I think she'll be happy with the repairs.

The second quilt was a bit more involved.  A puppy had chewed off the corner of this quilt - the nice thing is that this is a quilt I made and I still had fabric left for the repair!  This is my Lover's Kiss quilt that I donated to the Fire department for an auction.  I had sewn a label on the back with my information, so she was able to contact me to do the repair (another good reason to add a label to all your quilts!)  I had already repaired a different corner that was barely chewed off, but this one was a bit more extensive.  I started by trimming off the corner on a diagonal.  I measured the amount needed and cut a 4 1/2 square for the repair, then cut that in half diagonally to make the triangle needed.

Then I sewed the triangle to the back of the quilt, sewing through all the layers.  I detached about an inch or so of the binding to get it out of the way, but will need to go further back in order to sew the new section of binding on.

I did the same with the top fabric, taking care to match the seam so the repair is not too obvious.  I then used a triangle of fusible batting and pressed it between the two layers.  I really love the fusible batting for these kind of repairs as it keeps the batting perfectly in place, making the rest of the repair so much easier.

After binding I added a touch of quilting - as you can see the finished repair is hardly noticeable!  Look closely and you can see the tiny corner I replaced right behind it. I'm  definitely hanging on to the rest of the scraps from this quilt as this is the second repair I've made in the six months she's had it!  Hopefully her puppy will be out of the chewing stage soon and I won't need to fix it again, but I'll be prepared if I do!

I have finished two more blocks in my Alice's Wonderland Sampler, and hope to finish the template section this week!  On to English Paper Piecing - lots of handwork in my future, it looks like!

Where to start?

Long time since I published anything on my blog! I suppose the best place to start is at the beginning!  February was rolling along, busy with quilt run preparation at the quilt shop, working on new quilt designs, and just generally living life.  I was in the midst of designing a new quilt-along and planning some things for the rest of the year when life got just a little crazy! 

The first incident was the decision to close the quilt shop at the end of March.  Sharan has owned the shop for 30 years, and I've worked there for 21!  She wasn't really ready to close the shop, but it was time, so we all started working on figuring out the process of selling everything and cleaning out the shop.  Shortly after that my youngest daughter, Shannon announced that she and her fiancé were moving up their wedding as he was going to enlist in the Army!  So that was the end of my Quilt-along planning for the time being - I didn't even have the heart to announce that here - but I just had way too much on my plate to go any further with it right then.  I promise I am still planning on it, but maybe more toward fall?  We'll see!

Since they decided to get married in Las Vegas we chose to drive instead of fly (DH hates flying, and we both enjoy road trips). We left home on March 5, had the wedding on the 7th.  It was very sweet and we enjoyed spending the afternoon exploring and sight seeing!  Las Vegas is a bit crazy and so many people and sounds and things to see!  

It was a busy and fun weekend we will always remember!  We had a great time celebrating them and were ready to head home on Monday.  Unfortunately, on the way home the check engine light came on, and we found ourselves stuck in Reno for three days.  We took the truck in for diagnostics, but as the estimate kept rising higher and higher, yet they still couldn't tell us what was wrong, we decided the best course of action was just to get us and the truck home so we could figure out what to do.  

We rented a car and made arrangements for the truck to be hauled back home that weekend.  In the end we left a nice sum of money in Reno for diagnostics on our truck and two extra days waiting, plus the rental car and transport for the truck. We had to laugh a bit - after all we thought it would be cheaper to drive than to fly!  I guess not! But we made it home, and we did enjoy the time spent in Reno - even learned to use Uber and DoorDash.  But we were definitely happy to get home in the end and try to get back to "normal".

The day after arriving home, it was back to the shop for the start of the going out of business sale.  That was a busy time, but we did really well at getting the inventory all sold out and getting rid of the fixtures.  It wasn't easy for Sharan, but it was fun to see so many of our faithful customers!  We made a lot of people happy with the sales prices, too!  I was good and didn't bring home too much myself, but I did have a big pile of shop samples to take home.  I've spent the last couple of weeks getting those listed in my Etsy shop, and they are now all available and are on sale, too! 

It was really sad to see the shop getting emptied out!  Everyone kept asking me what I would do when the shop closed, and I really didn't have an answer.  The fact that our truck needed a new engine was really weighing on me - it kind of made it a bad time to not be working anymore and I was really struggling with making a decision on whether to find another job or not.  Well, I came upon an ad for a course on sewing machine servicing and realized that taking that would probably be a great way to make some extra income and still be able to work from home! 

Now I have started on that journey and am loving it!  I am going through my own machines, then will start working on my portfolio to become certified.  This is really up my alley and I am excited about a new "career".  I have to say, that it's really true that when one door closes another one opens.  God is good! I am enjoying going through the lessons, sewing machines are really interesting in how they work!

Here are Sharan and I on my last day.  Bittersweet, but that's life sometimes.  Sharan and I still get together for lunch once a week, and she is doing well with retirement.  I've been busy this month with a pile of alterations, and have plenty of sewing to keep me busy!  It seems like when it rains, it pours!

DH had some issues with his leg when we got home and had to be checked for a blood clot, but it looks like it was just a sprain and he is doing just fine.  We got the engine replaced in the truck and had it back for two weeks, but it's back in the shop again with another issue.  We are glad we got the warranty and are just waiting to see what's going on now.  This whole thing has turned into an ordeal, but we'll get through it!  

And I finally did get to work on some quilt blocks!  Also trying to clear out my sewing room a bit.  Same old, same old, right?  DH and I are getting back to our walking and exercise which we are both in need of, so that feels good too.  Then, there is the yard and garden to take care of.  We want to paint the front of our house this summer, so that will be a good chore - with five windows, the door and the porch there is lots of trim to scrape and paint, but it will look so good when we get it finished.  The results make the work well worth it.

So, that's my life the last couple of months!  I hoping to get back into some good routines in May, including working on that Quilt-along.  I really love my idea and want it to be just right before I start, so I will keep you updated on plans for that as it gets closer.  I'll be blogging more regularly from here on it, and have a super fun something coming up right before Memorial Day, so am looking forward to sharing that! Think Red, White and Blue!  More later on that...have a great week!

Daybreak

 Life has been a bit crazy here, nothing overly dramatic but I will get to that in a future post!  I am late to get my newest pattern out, so wanted to make sure to show you what I've been working on.

This beauty is Daybreak!

Daybreak features the beautiful Valley View panel and coordinates by Hollis Kitchen for Henry Glass fabrics.  These fabrics are arriving in shops right now (along with my patterns!)  If you are a shop owner and want to order patterns, you have several options, but just emailing me works great!  (Check out the Wholesale order tab at the top of this page, or use this link: Wholesale Orders.)

This quilt finishes at 70 x 70 - a nice large lap size.

I'll be back with a longer post, and all the news!

Happy Sewing!