QUILTY STITCH NOTES

During most weekends, I head out of town for a nice visit with my parents.  My sister is usually visiting on the same day as me, and we enjoy going upstairs with our mother to work on sewing, quilting, applique, Paper Pumpkin kits . . . whatever our chosen projects are for the day.  The entire upstairs is like a huge bonus room, and we each have our own sewing station and a shared ironing station there.  My crafting/sewing nook is a little bit away from theirs because I like to be between the air vents--especially during the long summer months--but it's so nice and spacious and a great place to be together.  Recently, I wasn't feeling like working on a project, so I was just walking around the room and "taking inventory" of fabric, finished quilt tops that need to be quilted, etc.  I found this:

It was actually two sets of patterns tucked inside one bag, and a piece of paper with my name on it was inside the bag.  None of us could remember where it came from, but I was intrigued.  It appeared to have had note cards (with aperture cutouts for the designs) and envelopes at one time, but they were missing.  I have a plethora of cardstock and dies, so I knew I could do something with the patterns.  The only tricky part was getting used to foundation paper piecing, which is quite tricky because you're sewing where you can't see the fabric that you're sewing to the paper.  My first project was going to be the patriotic star (top left corner of the pattern in the above photo).  It was to be sewn in two parts (top and bottom) and then sewn together.  The top half came out quite nicely; however, I had a slight misalignment while sewing the bottom half.  That was such a disappointment, but I decided to just use the top half and create a card.

I really like it!  It may not be a complete mini quilt, but it's definitely pieced and gives a nod to a patriotic star.  I used two different embossing folders on the white and red cardstock layers to make the card look quilted.  The second card that I completed features a practice block that I made at my parent's house from scraps found in my mother's stash:

This small block was much easier to make--and it was a quick one, too, without all of those teensy star points.  Aren't the fabrics pretty?  

The funny thing is that none of us knew where the daisy fabric came from and couldn't recall ever having used it, so who knows the origin of that little scrap.  I used a square die to cut the window in the cardstock, and I also used a larger square die to create the Lemon Lolly frame around the window.  After embossing the white cardstock, that cute little quilt block was adhered to the back of the cardstock.  I used a piece of Lemon Lolly twine to make a bow and added some Adhesive-Backed Shiny Sequins.  The sentiment is from Stampin' Up!'s "Flower Cart" stamp set, which is featured in the current mini catalog.

Besides getting some practice with foundation paper piecing, I learned that it's sometimes a good thing to do nothing but walk a room and see what's laying around.  And now I look forward to making more stitch notes!

I hope you have a stampin' good day!