Gone Fishing...

We are in the process of getting our trailer ready for our first camping trip of the season...

We will be leaving in a few days and going to beautiful

Fish Lake, Utah...

We go there every year with several of our friends including their families and we always have the best time!....

you can read all about it by clicking

 here...here...and here:)

I'm looking forward to relaxing in the great outdoors...but I'm especially looking forward to having a good fishing, hiking, camping, marshmellow roasting, card playing time!

I love the mountains and I love to enjoy all of the gifts of nature ....I will be back the end of next week with pictures and another tutorial!

Until then...have a quilty time my friends:)

xx

Lori

Homemade Pre-wound Bobbins...

I don't know about you but I hate it when I'm in my sewing groove.....and my bobbin runs out ...usually at the most inconvenient time I might add....and I have to stop my happy sewing time just to wind another.

So I thought you might like to know what I do so that doesn't happen to me anymore!

I know that you can buy pre-wound spools but I would rather make my own.

And because I love me some Aurifil thread ...that's what I use to

pre-wind my own bobbins.

I use the white on the orange cone for my machine piecing  90% of the time...

I usually keep extra spools on hand.

It's a really good quality 100% cotton thread that is made in Italy. 

I like the fact that it's a thin (but strong) thread ...which makes it possible to wind even more on my bobbin which results in

 less bobbin changes = more sewing time:)  

I use a cute red BobbinSaver donut to hold

my pre-wound bobbins...

And this cute little Sidewinder machine for winding them.

 Kassidy likes to use it so she is actually my little bobbin winding helper that does them for me...making it a win/win situation all around! 

Here you see empty bobbins...

un-fulfilled (pun intended) and serving no purpose ...awwww sad:)

Yay!....all wound up and ready to go!....

Just think of all the quilts I can make now....the possibilities are endless!

xx

Lori

Fabric Spools Tutorial...

Do you remember that I showed you these fabric covered spools...

That my daughter Kassidy made?

She has been having alot of fun making projects and playing with my

Sew Cherry fabric...and she thought it was a good idea to cover spools with my fabric like she was actually sewing Sew Cherry:)

And she also wanted to make something for me to display in the booth at market.

When Kassidy made them...she intended for me to use them strung on red ric-rac as a garlend...but I really didn't have a place to hang a garland in the booth so I put them in a jar for display instead.

I've had alot of comments and questions about them so I thought you might like to know how to make some for your very own.

Of course it all begins with a large wood spool....I've told you before that I use wooden spools for alot of things!

 You can buy them at any craft store...these came from Hobby Lobby...they are the largest size that they sell and come 4 in a package. 

They are the perfect size for a 1 1/2 inch wide strip of fabric to be wrapped around the middle.

Precut 5 inch fabric squares are perfect for a project like this...you will have a piece of every fabric in the Sew Cherry line for a nice variety of colors and prints.

For each spool you will need to cut a

1 1/2" wide strip of fabric that measures

5" long.

Plug in your glue gun and apply glue onto the spool like this.

Glue the raw edge of the fabric strip

across the spool.

Finger press the other end of the strip under about 1/4 of an inch... and wrap it firmly around the spool until it overlaps the

raw edge.

Glue down one half.....

...and then finish the other and smooth down.

Wasn't that easy?...Fabric spools are a fun way to display a fabric collection.

Try placing them in a vintage bowl for a nice centerpiece or use Kassidy's idea and string them on some ric-rac for a cute garland!

I tied a pink tule bow around my jar...

...and added a pink crochet lace bow... 

(by Riley Blake).

So there you have it!

Cute little fabric covered spools:)

I hope you make some of your own...but let me warn you that they are just a little bit addicting to make...

 so you better get plenty of spools:)

Until next time...

xx

Lori

Vintage Papercrafting...

As you all know I love to make all kinds of things and I especially love the art of papercrafting....and of course it's even better when it has a vintage flair!

Because I have been involved in all things fabric...sadly...I havn't had much time to play with paper and I have had a project or two that I really wanted to have some time to do.

But as luck would have it...my sweet friend Maryjane from Beehive Cottage came to my rescue!

I told her what I needed and exactly what I had in mind and sent her a few images...and here is what she made for me!

Actually she made me several of these adorable journals because I needed some for gifts... as well as one for myself of course:) Maryjane even included fun bookmarks that she made from vintage graphics as well...so cute!

She is such a talented papercrafter right down to each little detail.

I love the journals so much!...thanks Maryjane...I knew they would be perfect in every way:)

If you love looking at beautiful blogs...I suggest that you go over and visit my friend Maryjane...here...and tell her I sent you!

xx

Lori

A Mountain Retreat...

After market I was lucky enough to meet up with some friends and have some down time:)

We all packed our sewing supplies and headed to the beautiful mountains of Utah....

to Alpine Quilt Retreat....a gorgeous and totally relaxing place to unwind, visit and do a little sewing!

These are the blocks that I did while there...

It's one of Camille's new adorable patterns for Ruby.

At market Camille asked if she could purchase my "Cakewalk" pattern and I totally fell in love with and wanted to make Swoon so we traded straight across!...thanks Camille...you're a sweetie:)  

Are you wondering who I "retreated" with?...well I was lucky enough to get together with Elizabeth...Nanette....and Pam.

I know!...lucky is the right word. I love all these girls and we sure had a fun time together.

This is what our design wall looked like as we were making progress.

Elizabeth crocheted the cute granny squares...Nanette is making 

Cherry Cheesecake...and Pam is making

 Vintage Dishes.

Of course our time together ended too soon as all quilt retreats do...but I will always remember it with a smile and a hope for another time together soon:)

xx

Lori