Sewing Seams

A rag quilt has great personality with the little blocks and frazzled and frayed seams sticking upward into the quilt top. Making a rag quilt "by hand" means sewing seams together so the seams are on top, not beneath the project and then when that is all done, you begin the process of clipping a hundred gazillion snips to make fringe on each exposed seam layer. It's a hand breaker and most of the time my hands feel like they have been hammered. Thankfully I have an Accu-Go quilt die machine and delight of all delights, one of the die cuts (yes, just like Sizzix only bigger) is a rag quilt die cut which amazingly enough cuts every single little fringe piece on all 4 sides. I used sheeting for my quilt backing and actually to achieve a wonderful "matching" I ran the denim block and the sheet block through the die cut at the same time. This little wonderful Accu-go can cut about 5 layers of fabric at once. Once the 2 layers have been die cut, then you sew a big X from point to point which anchors the two fabrics nicely. When the stack has been done,the next process is to sew those fringed seams together with the fringe on the right side. It gets a little tedious trying to make the little fringes behave, to make sure each snip stands up and is not sewn into the seam. Actually at this point you are sewing 4 layers of fabric, and you sew your seam just about 1/2 or an inch beneath the clip of the fringe. I use a small stitch on this process. And most importantly, it is very easy to have a little fringe escape and get sewn in the backside. Rip out time.... When the intended rows of rag quilt blocks have been sewn together, then you sew one row to the next and you continue this process until your quilt has been assembled. The backside is nice and neat with lined up seams and pretty fabrics, the top side is a jumble of cute blocks and fringe. Next is the fraying process which is done in the washing machine....and cotton, denim...they fray like champs. Warning: your washer will be a hotbed of frayed threads and clumps. I remove the quilt, clean out the washing machine, and then I take the quilt in the backyard and shake it about 10 times. After the quilt is dried, you have....voila'....a cute frayed rag quilt. Thank heaven for my Accu-Go because otherwise....there would never be a rag quilt creation in this sewin' gal project bin.

Kuddos to my friend LeAnn who brought me the old levis to work with.

Cutting Cafe BOGO Sale

I always chuckle when I see the word "BOGO" and I have to stop and think..... it's a wonderful little silly word that means..."buy one, get one"... and if you stop by Cutting Cafe right now, you will see that Regina is having a BOGO sale. If you buy one of her darling printables, you get one free.. How's that for a deal. Here is the link:

Cutting Cafe/December Delights

Oh how I love Cutting Cafe. You can see the shop right here. Regina's shop has endless choices for all themes and occasions. Our inspiration post at Cutting Cafe blog this week is such a fun group of sets to design with.

We had a choice of December themed images and printables. I selected two: I fussy cut the darling penguin and his cute little red hat. The hat has 3 red jewels added because of course any design conscious penguin wants a wee bit of bling. You can view the Penguin set right here. For my second choice, I printed the 3 calendars from December Daily Numbers Sets.

The top most calendar has been set on an embossed Nestie cut...I've embossed just about everything .... I added a wee star (Don Juan, page 28) ..the center of this sweet star has a gold jewel. I punched a circle, and then a smaller circle so I could highlight the Christmas date of 25.

Regina will post the inspirational projects on Wednesday so be sure to visit the site right here and you will delight in the designs offered. Thanks for your visit.... we are getting nearer to the day of Christmas celebration and I hope that each of you have a safe and wonderful holiday.

Cutting Cafe/Thanksgiving Set

Thanksgiving is one of my most favorite holidays because my son and daughter in law come home for our celebration of the holiday.

Our inspiration post on Wednesday November 16 at Cutting Cafe is featuring a wonderful set called Thanksgiving Day. It has so many fantastic images and printables to make those cards to send to family and friends. When I see this set, I always head for that precious little turkey fella all dressed up in his top hat. Here is my card for the inspiration post.

I printed off the backgrounds for Happy Thanksgiving and Gobble Gobble. Those have been section into two different layers. I embossed and mounted the printables on brown and cinnamon cardstock. I put a black cardstock layer on the white base card, added a brown and white plaid ribbon. I added a second layer of embossed white cardstock. The little turkey fella has been colored in with my Copics. I have a hard time coloring with my hand problem but I hope turkey fella is presentable. I added a ribbon and the gobble sentiment was cut from my Stamped Cricut cartridge.

This is sort of a preview of my take on the inspiration challenge, but I hope on Wednesday you will pop over to the Cutting Cafe blog and take a peep ...er peek at the design team cards and projects. I think we are a pretty awesome group of gals with great ideas. Working with Regina's printables is fun and the cards we can create are pretty awesome. Thank you for visiting my blog.

Cutting Cafe/Christmas Sentiments

Regina's new Cutting Cafe set called Christmas Sentiment Shapes is awesome. It creates a quick and so easy printable that gives you an immediate holiday card. Just add a few little embellies and you have something wonderful to share with someone.

I selected the Tree and the cute Stocking for my two cards. The printable has a shadow cut as well but I opted to just design with the basic tree and stocking and then I added some jewels, ribbons, stars. The base card has been embossed with a dotted embossing while the Nestie mount under the printable has been embossed with a Sizzix holiday greeting. I added a plaid red ribbon and a red and white polka dotted ribbon. The stars are Sizzix die cuts.

Here is a highlight of the tree shape. I added some zig-zag red jewels down the treet.
This features the cute Christmas Stocking. I added a star and a ribbon. The tree and the Stocking have been embossed as well.
The printable from Cutting Cafe will let you design some wonderful cards for your family and friends. You can see the set right here. Thank you for visiting me and if you've left a comment, I appreciate it so much because as you know we bloggers glow when we get some feedback on our creations.

Cutting Cafe Inspiration/Jot It Down

Our Cutting Cafe inspiration this week is from the Jot It Down printable series. This set will allow you to design so many different projects. I made a small little scrapbook of sorts.... with a few pages for notes, and places to add some small photographs that you cherish.

I selected a 12x12 double sided paper and I cut the sheet in half. I folded each half and stacked them which gave me 8 pages to design on. I added two eyelets and threaded lime green ribbon through to bind the sections together. The front of the little scrapbook has a rubber stamp title.

This is a stand up view. Isn't it wonderful when the backside of your paper is as pretty as the front side?
I've added some of the wonderful printables. This view of the two pages side by side will allow some cherished memory notes and a small photograph.
Another area to write some notes. I've added a punch heart, and Nestie mounts.
I think these two pages would be wonderful to add some photographs.
That's it... my little quick and easy creation using the Cafe's Jot It Down. You can see that set right here ...and be sure to check the Cutting Cafe inspiration blog on Wednesday. The design team will have some wonderful things to inspire you.