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Presenting my first quilt finish of 2020! The center block sub-units were pieced by Debbie Kratovil (swipe to the end for the pattern specifics). She gave them to me (via her daughter) three years ago and at the end of December, I decided it was about time I put them into a quilt! She also gave me the extra purple fabric that I used for the outer border. So I just had to add the inner polkadot border and the backing. This measures about 42 inches square and is destined to be another quilt donated to Early Childhood Headstart via the @baltimoremqg. Debbie is a prolific quilter, teacher, and author but she doesn’t seem to have an Instagram account. If you Google her name, you will find her blog if you’d like to know more about her and her work. ♥️ . . . It’s been years since I used this particular quilting pattern, but I love how a tiny change in the angle at the top of the quilt results in such a big difference at the bottom of the quilt. You know that saying, “Small hinges move big doors”? Here’s a graphic representation of that! ♥️ (I love @healthymoving’s take on mindset and implementing small, incremental change if you are wanting any encouragement on that in the new year.) #salmonandsouvlakisews #baltimoremqg #charmcitysewcial #debbiekratovilI am working on samples for a demonstration that I am doing at the @baltimoremqg guild meeting on Sunday. I am demonstrating the freezer paper method for constructing words to be added to a quilt. This is the #refrigeratormagnetpattern from @elizabethagh. Our guild is doing a one word quilt challenge, as part of our yearlong 10-year anniversary celebration. Currently, I am working on the letters A, C, and T. There are four more letters to go. Can you guess which one word I’ve chosen for the year? 😀 #salmonandsouvlakisews #baltimoremqg #charmcitysewcialHere are my top nine posts and my year of color. Family, quilting, and lots of colors. Sounds about right! 😍 Happy New Year’s Eve!Handmade Christmas 2019: reusable teabags. That’s it. 😆 In years past, I sewed and sewed and gave handmade sewn presents to nearly everyone. But this year? It was a really rough fall that I hope I never have to repeat it again. And when I got to December, not much sewing happened (at least compared to my high output years). But I did make about 60 of these reusable teabags, made with 100% cotton organic unbleached muslin from @dharmatradingco. I gave them away along with dried peppermint from @mountainroseherbs. It seriously makes the best peppermint tea you’ve ever had. ♥️ In the picture, you can see that one of the teabags has also been used with black tea because it’s beautifully dyed. 😍 . . . How to use them? Fill with 1/2-1 tablespoon of loose tea (for herbal tea you need the larger amount), brew as usual, take the teabag out, allow to cool, turn inside out to remove the wet tea leaves, rinse, and dry to use again. It’s zero waste tea, especially if you compost the tea leaves! 🌏 #salmonandsouvlakisews #reusableteabags #zerowaste #zerowastehome”Earthquake Consolation” is a series of six quilts that I made last summer (June/July 2019) as presents for my family and in response to the November 30, 2018 magnitude 7.1 earthquake in Anchorage, Alaska. With too many thoughts to be contained in one little Instagram post, I dusted off the blog and wrote a couple blog posts instead. See the link in profile if you want to read more and to see many more pictures. ♥️ . . . This was my most ambitious sewing project of the year by far! Quilt design inspired by a free tutorial from @emily_dennis_. Almost all the fabrics are #konacottonsolids from @robertkaufman, from my stash. Flannel backs from @joann_stores #salmonandsouvlakisews #charmcitysewcial #baltimoremqg #quiltersofinstagramI am really intent on finishing up all my outstanding projects in my sewing room (either finishing them or giving it away to someone else who might be interested in actually finishing it). So with that in mind, in late November, I made this baby quilt from blocks which I received from my bee mates in #beehiveswarmmerrilee in 2017. @driftedindrive was our leader for that year. Thanks Merrilee! After I assembled it, it didn’t feel quite fun enough for a kid so I added the little turtle appliqué. And then I had fun piecing together all my cute green fabrics for the back, including turtles, bugs in jars, frogs, and green beans! I donated this one to @baltimoremqg’s work with Early Head Start. . . . Block pattern: #treasurehuntblock from @blossomheartquilts #charmcitysewcial #blossomheartquilts #salmonandsouvlakisews #baltimoremqgThis year, I realized I was running a little late on three bird ornaments. In Ellie’s case, I was nine years late. 😂 For the two little boys, they are just 2.5 and 3 so I’m not doing too bad. I generally aim to make these in time for the first Christmas. But hey, better late than never right? 😊 . . . Little bird pattern is from @purlsoho. #salmonandsouvlakisews #charmcitysewcialFor the third year in a row, I sewed my mother-in-law pillow for her birthday (which is early in December). This year, I used a 150% enlarged #quatrefoilblock from @blossomheartquilts. It’s 20” square, sewn with fabrics from my stash. I just keep these particular fabrics together and reuse them every year (although I’m staring to run out ☹️). I love the rich red and green with gold combination. One of these years I should really sew some Christmas pillows for my own house. 😆 I made a Velcro closure for the back and sewed on the binding at half an inch to make it be a little more pronounced part of the design. In the last picture, you can see the binding as well as my very most favorite color of thread (used for the quilting in this project). 💛 In the picture with all three, you can also see my pillows begun in my @baltimoremqg classes with @victoriafindlaywolfe and @duringquiettime. I love seeing them all together! . . . #charmcitysewcial #baltimoremqg #salmonandsouvlakisews #quiltersofinstagramI am feeling like an accomplished grown-up today because I remembered to polish my silver the day before Thanksgiving. 😀 Also, “polish my silver” feels very grown-up to say. 😂 . . . I am blessed to have silver from both sides of my family. The set on the left is from my mom’s family. My Granny collected box tops for the set. The silver on the right comes from my dad’s family. The two little butter knives have the initials “M” for my paternal grandmother’s maiden name and “R”, for my paternal great-aunt‘s married name. She didn’t have any children and so my grandmother inherited her things when she died. My dad is an only child and so we ended up with a lot of silver. . . . This summer, while we were in Alaska for our family reunion, my dad asked us kids to each take silver with us. I am looking forward to using it on our Thanksgiving table tomorrow. 😍 (You can see some silver polishing process pictures in my stories right now. I just used my baking soda cleaning paste for polishing and it worked great.)Last Saturday night, I managed to whip together this little quilt (approx. 36” square). I already had the quilt top assembled so in under two hours, I was able to make the quilt sandwich, quilt it and sew the binding to the top. I did most of the hand sewing of the binding during our @baltimoremqg guild meeting last Sunday and, as was my goal, was able to hand it off to join the other baby quilts that our guild donates to a local charity. . . . Each of the blocks in the quilt top was sewn by a member of my guild. In 2017, I participated in the “quilt in a box” bee where I provided the fabric and each other bee member was free to sew whatever design she wanted to. Some of my most devoted readers may remember my posts from a couple years ago of blocks that I had sewn using other people’s fabric. 😍 . . And, if you swipe to the last picture, you will see the documentation of the other project I managed to get sewn over the past three months. There were six boy babies born in our church in 2019 (and no girls!). That combined with a couple other babies meant that I needed to sew eight boy flannel blankets. 🥰 . . . #salmonandsouvlakisews #charmcitysewcial #baltimoremqg #quiltinaboxDespite quite a few frustrating moments this fall, my fall garden harvest is coming along quite nicely! Those are Parisienne carrots, at close to full size and shape. So cute! 😍 The middle picture is today’s harvest, which includes fancy salad greens, red turnips, white turnips, carrots, and just a few sugar snap peas. The final picture is an aerial view from our upstairs window. Seeing it from above helps me look past all the bare patches to see that it’s pretty darn full of green and growing things. I’m sure there’s a life lesson in there somewhere. 😏 . . . All seeds from @bakercreekseeds. #salmonandsouvlakigardens #growwhatyoueat #organicgardening #parisiennecarrotIn a classic case of better late than never, this afternoon I sewed a couple #talltalesblock blocks to contribute to the @baltimoremqg group quilt, being organized by @lindaschiffer. It will be part of the group of prizes for next year’s bingo fundraiser. To me, the first block tells the story of three major projects that I sewed for Marko, all featuring these #edemberley giraffes. Swipe to see the second block, which speaks to me of an amazing classic novel, perhaps Jane Austen’s Persuasion? Thanks so much to @katebasti for allowing our guild to use this block to make this quilt. 😍 . . . #salmonandsouvlakisews #charmcitysewcial #baltimoremqg #baltimoremqgbingo Linda, I will put them in the mail to you tomorrow! Thanks for accepting them late. 🤣Categories
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Monthly Archives: December 2014
Handmade Christmas 2014: A Baby Bird For A Brand New Baby
As is my custom with my nieces and nephews, I sewed a little baby bird (using this tutorial) for my newest niece, Annika, who was born the middle of November. This is the first time I’ve had the chance to … Continue reading
Posted in family, sewing
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October/November Sewing: Hooray for Katie and Baby Annika!
Ellie and Mark gained a new cousin when Baby Annika joined my brother’s family in November. I have four siblings and I’ve now made five diaper bags, one for each family! (Here’s ours, Eric and Meggan’s, Jon and Leah’s, and … Continue reading
Posted in family, love, sewing
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Handmade Christmas 2014: Hot Pads of Apology
Last summer, while visiting my family in Alaska, I was taking something out of my mom’s oven and somehow managed to drop one of her hot pads on the electric heating element on the bottom of the oven. Soon, there … Continue reading
Posted in family, sewing
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Handmade Christmas 2014: Mark’s Color Book
I don’t know if anyone has actually ever used the color book tutorial that I wrote about 18 months ago. I however, was really grateful that I’d done it because I used it myself when sewing this for Mark! I … Continue reading
Posted in Mark, sewing
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Handmade Christmas 2014: Retro Christmas Tree Lights For My Siblings
Continuing my “Christmas ornament” theme from the past couple years of presents for my siblings, this year I sewed everyone a string of retro Christmas tree lights. I even managed to sew a string for our tree too! Thanks to … Continue reading
Posted in family, sewing
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Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you! He is the Messiah, the Lord!
Merry Christmas!! We love you all! Love, Nik, Laura, Ellie and Mark “Hurry! Hurry! Have you heard? A child was born tonight, And every creature large or small Is precious in his sight.” from Hurry! Hurry! Have You Heard by … Continue reading
Posted in Ellie, family, love, Mark
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Handmade Christmas 2014: Look! Two Presents for Ellie!
Thanks to all for your kind thoughts and prayers for me about my recent sorrow-filled post. I probably shouldn’t allow myself to press publish when I’m tired and sad. I’m feeling much better now and the past couple days have … Continue reading
Posted in Ellie, sewing
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