Blue Nickel Studios

admin May 9th, 2013

My friend Emily Herrick sent me this sweet little bundle of  fat 1/8’s of Technicolor,  her fresh-out-of-the-gate line for Michael Miller Fabrics:

 I was thrilled to get them the day I did. I had just had some less-than-best news on two fronts in my life, one of them being my mom’s blood test not being better as we had hoped, the other being some dayjob stuff that wasn’t terrible, but not what I had hoped for. And I had already been feeling somewhat down during Easter week.  This package came at the end of a beautiful Easter Saturday. It was like a breath of fresh air.

To be honest, I had seen Technicolor online via an industry preview page, and while I liked it, I was a bit afraid the scale of the prints might be much bigger than I would like. I was delighted to see them in the scale they are! Perfect little blenders! Many “read” solid but aren’t. They are so nice and basic, they will go with Many other lines! A couple of the prints are “two for one” meaning you get two prints at a time….when you buy a half yard of that line, you would get two different fat quarters.  Other fabric companies have done this in the past, and I love this concept!! Great if you are on a budget and want just a little bit of both!

Here’s what I have been able to do with them so far.

I made these bags based on Monica’s SUPER Bag pattern found here.  I modified her bag by making the sides 1” shorter in length. I love the “tiny” feeling of them. And they make great bags for dolls. I will have to make some more and show you them with Linda’s dolls.  I made these for Quilt Market and the Generation Q booth for some giveaways.

I wanted to make up some four patch blocks and just play with them, but I just haven’t had the time….Market is one week away, and I still have to finish three bindings on quilts (no big surprise there!!) and make some more bags and pack…oh, and silly other things like work the dayjob for the next 6 days, and possibly pay some bills….nothing new for the week before Market!  Crazy….excited but anxious all at the same time!!

 

 

 

 

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admin March 27th, 2013

well, really there isn’t much time for playing around these days. Even though I am down to one dayjob from two!  This last month and more than a half, I feel like I have been catching up on rest and not much else.  It is probably very much needed.  The nice thing is that I am getting a little time back to sew, and though I really do need to work more at time management in other areas, this sewing bit is still fun (most of the time).

Here are some progress photos on a Free Spirit project that I am working on using Ty Pennington’s Fall 2012 line. It is fairly new by current industry standards (or OLD by past industry standards) and you still should be able to find some it out there. I went with the Sunset colorway as I have been working with a lot of cool colors lately and the warmth of these prints felt very summery to me!

I am working on a tablerunner and placemat set out of these. Hope to be done with a Free PDF for you to download soon.

And here are some scraps I have been sewing together as I go in the fashion that my friend Victoria has now made “famous” although it really isn’t anything “new”.  I love how Victoria has made it fun for others now too though! I have loved doing this for so long, it’s fun to see what other folks do with their scrappy playtime!

I have been doing these type of things for years. Here is a photo of some very old ones that I turned up during ….ahem…. “cleaning” the studio.

I love finding these old things and see how my palette has diversified since then. I don’t want to say changed, because I still love these old things…well, most of them at least…

Well, back to sewing….and actually in a bit, I may go out to do some mowing…before the rains come again....

What about you? what are you up to??

 

 

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admin February 12th, 2013

So today I bring you my little SteamPunk Hearts … just barely in time for Valentine’s Day, but none the less …in time….sort of….

I have had this Seven Wonders line by David Butler for Parson Gray and Free Spirit sitting here for longer than I wanted it to, and I was just itching to cut into it for a bigger project, but before I started that I thought I could bring you a little project for fun!

Here’s what I did (I think they call this a tutorial, because I have a lot of pictures….)

First I sewed 4 narrow (roughly 1” to 1.75 ” x 12” or so) strips together like this:

Then I sewed some wider strips (about 2” to 3” x 12” or so) together like this:

Then I cut that strip set in half (ish):

I flipped one half of this set around and then sewed the narrow strip between the two halves like this:

For the backs I sewed four wider strips together (about 4-ish” x 12”)

Then I pressed these two pieces right sides together (pressing the layers together helped them “stick” together a little better I felt) and pinned the pattern sheet I created for three heart sizes to both pieces.  (Click here for the PDF template for the heart shapes.)

Then I just sewed right on the lines through the paper and both layers of fabric, starting at one end of the dotted line and ending at the other end.  Do some back stitches when you start and end on each heart to make stuffing the hearts easier. I set my stitch length to 1.25 instead of my normal 2 to make tearing the paper off easier later.

Note: I didn’t always sew directly on the lines…..and the world didn’t stop turning….at least here it didn’t…..

Then I pulled the paper away from the fabric and cut the shapes out of the fabric. I used a very neutral thread, so that made it a little hard to see the sewn lines, but I didn’t necessarily want my stitches to be noticeable should they be stretched when stuffed. You might want to use a thread with more contrast to make cutting them out easier.

So here they are cut out.

After that I just turned them right-side out and pressed the opening nice and flat so it would be easier to sew up by hand after I lightly stuffed them with fiberfill.

So after that I just lightly stuffed them with fiberfill, sewed some ribbon (that was PERFECT for this project!) on for hangers and sewed on some beads and buttons for a little embellishment.  If I have time tomorrow I may make some more in a more “traditional” Valentiney element.

Feel free to make as many as you want! And share them here if you get the chance as well!

 

 

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admin June 25th, 2012

So this weekend I made some fun blocks for my friend Karen who is making a quilt for the granddaughter of a friend of hers.  This little girl has suffered much more than any of us ever will already in her short little life.  Karen is doing what we quilters do best, giving love through our sewing….

So these two block are going back East to Karen to put into her quilt for Kilah.

There might be room for more, you can always contact Karen at her blog to see if she needs more.  One thing for sure that family can’t get too much of is prayer.  They definitely need God to step in with some major healing power!

Today also starts the Blog Tour for Generation Q Magazine’s first issue.  We won’t be doing a blog tour for EVERY issue, so don’t worry.  But go on over to Kaye’s blog today to get in on Day One of the Generation Q Debut Blog Tour.   The whole schedule is available here.
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These three block “starts” are for my July 4th post, my day on the Tour, and also Independence Day, a big day here in the States.  In honor of that day, one of the projects I am going to show is the finished result from these started Red, White, and Blue blocks. (okay, probably not quilted, but the top will be done!)

That’s it for now! I have a TON to do getting ready for my week teaching at the Quilters’ Affair in Sisters in two weeks.  Two of my classes are pretty much full, there are two that have more room if you want to still sign up.  My Tuesday and  Wed/Thur classes still have room.  I am really looking forward to it. Hope to see you there!

 

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admin June 12th, 2012

So excited to get started on these two entirely different shipments of fabrics.

First, Liberty Fabrics is bringing their luscious prints in quilters’  cottons to the States,  and they generously sent me some samples to work into some upcoming designs.  The other day at one of my DayJobs,  I looked up and noticed an interesting arrangement of windows that suddenly struck me as inspiration for a rather cool block  that might just highlight these prints beautifully.  We’ll see!

Then secondly, this came from Kaufman for a specific project I have in mind.  In fact this project already has a name even before I get the quilt made, Dwell.   It may be awhile before you get to see it here, but I thought it was so funny how equally excited I was to get both of these bundles to work with even though they are so different in nature.

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admin June 10th, 2012

As you may remember next month I will be teaching at Sisters, Oregon in the week-long Quilters’ Affair. I am thrilled, excited, AND freaking out trying to get everything done in time. Do I need to mention that just about the time I am down in Sisters, issue two of Generation Q will be wrapping up production, and we still have a TON to do!!

One of the things that I was able to do this last week was make these two postcards for the Wish Upon A Card project that they do at Sisters every year.  Funds from this program help support services for cancer patients in Central Oregon.  I was REALLY late in getting them done, but they left in the mail last week, and they will be for sale there.

There is actually still time for you to send cards yourself if you want to! Here are some tips on making postcards, and here is the info on where to send them.

I actually took some more pictures today of some other stuff I am working on….hoping to get them to you this week sometime…

Until then, keep sewing, keep happy!!

Scott

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admin March 1st, 2012

So also in January, my friend Jennifer Paganelli popped me over across the winter wonderland of the Northern U.S.  a package of tropical cheer!!  It couldn’t have come at a better time.  I had been working for a few weeks on my Curious Nature project, and the colors from that were blending into our snowstorm….

So SisBoomery was a welcome bit of sunshine!

and even cheerier in the studio as well!!

(yes that’s a bit of So St. Croix on the left….I needed a little bit for this project)

I finally put those siggy blocks from 2 years ago (I was sure it hadn’t been that long, but I saw that someone fortunately dated their block, so yes they were from 2010).  Today’s shot is just a sneak peek, as this may end up showing itself in full form over at Generation Q Magazine.  Speaking of which….we just started our Kickstarter drive there yesterday and are almost a third of the way funded….of course the first third is easier than the last third.  So if you haven’t stopped by there to help us out, please do so, and send your friends.  Every little bit helps!!

And today it is officially March….which means later this month….it is officially spring! Are you as glad about that as I am? I just love that time of year!!  So full of hope and fresh beginnings!

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admin February 12th, 2012

Yup…I’ve been busy….so busy, that this poor little blog has been neglected for some time…..a couple “filler” Watch It Wednesdays and that’s it…truth is things have been very busy around here…some good, some not so good, and some of the time I haven’t been as focused as I would like to be (like the night I stayed up until almost 3 AM watching back episodes of Glee, second season, which I totally didn’t watch, but am alarmingly hooked on again….sigh)

What exactly have I been up to?  Well a whole BUNCH of stuff which I hope to share bits and pieces of at least in the next couple of weeks if I can get myself to focus.  Which I hope I can or I wouldn’t be saying it all public and all right now.

First things first.  The magazine that I am blessed to be part (Generation Q) of is ramping up for our first print issue, and I tell you there are a ton of things that need to get done! And in the midst of all that, we are trying to keep that blog packed with good content as well.  The below pix are of what I made for my swap partner over at the Valentine Swappy thing we did at GenQ.  I just made this up as I went along, and it is in my fairly rustic way;  the Folk part of my Blue Nickel tag line “Urban Folk—Modern Design, Timeless Style”  (did I tell you that I named my “style” that? what do you think?)

Not the best shot of the inside, but I love this Loulouthi voile in here….

 

Stuffed with a few little goodies….

And shipped a few days late, but shipped none the less (sorry Elisa….but it is coming!!)

My swap partner, Elisa,  made me this  (along with a bunch of other little treats most of which were consumed right away and scattered to places in the studio before I thought to take a decent picture)
In the next few days, I hope to bring you some sneak peaks at a couple other projects, including a Curious Nature project for another magazine, and a Sis Boom project that may be published somewhere (word’s still out on that one) as well as some pics of the stuff my two youngest created in the snow….think Calvin and Hobbes on this one….

So thanks for not Completely forgetting about me…I’m back for as much as I can…I always have tons to share,  just not enough time sometimes…..like you don’t know what that’s like huh?

Don’t forget, it’s Valentine’s Day in a day and a half…or less depending where you are….so get busy…

 

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admin December 24th, 2011

   

Over at Generation Q today the staff is sharing some of our favorite ornaments made by our kids.  (okay I thought it was supposed to be ornaments, but it was just something made by our kids)   So while I was taking pix of those,  I found a lot of ornaments that are handmade by various peeps in the family, so I thought I would share the rest of them here…

 

From the cross stitching years…..

   

    

I guess you could treat this post as a Wordless Wednesday post as it is mostly pictures.  But knowing my, you knew it couldn’t be entirely Wordless, and well, of course, it is Saturday….  Almost Silent Saturday??....wait, no the anagram for that would NOT be good, would it??

     

 

Merry Christmas peeps!!

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admin November 28th, 2011

Pretty in Patchwork: Holidays  is a new book coming out in Print next summer, but is an e-book now.  And a Blue Nickel project is on pages 99-101…and seen in two other places in the book! yeah!!  You can purchase the e-book now, but I am not really into e-books, so I will have to wait until it comes out next year.   So excited to see it.  The book was organized and put together by John Adams, and he invited a whole lot of his friends to come play earlier this year…like January, I think?  Anyway, you can look through it at the above link, and there are a lot of cool projects in there.   I think we are having a full-fledged Blog Book Tour next year when it comes out in print, so stay tuned.

My favorite shot of my quilt in the book is this one.

Also, Lark is giving away a PDF version of Terri Harlan’s Holiday Shopping List Holder pattern from the book here.  It’s a fun little way to keep all your holiday to-do stuff together.

Different subject, but still holiday related…over at Generation Q for the next 4 Fridays I will have a special holiday block for Hanukkah, Winter Solstice, Christmas, and Kwanzaa.   As if I didn’t have enough to do already, right? Oh, and David Butler’s “pre-quilt shop launch” fabric is finally here, and I have a big project for another magazine that they want “right away” !

So, yeah, I am off to the studio now!!

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