Freda's Hive: May 2010

I hope everyone is having a nice Memorial Weekend. It is only moderately warm in Utah but I'm sure the hot hot weather is headed our way.

My dad Paul Breton's photo from WWII. He was a gunner instructor. He passed away a few years ago on his birthday at age 89. I'm very proud of him.

-nanette

Oh my, we've got a great beginning of summer vacation here since school is always out by Memorial Day. Crazy weather, Monday it snowed and today school is out for summer. Unreal.

I thought I would start off with this great 1 yard cut of retro clocks I found here. Is this "me" fabric or what!? I absolutely love it. I don't know yet what I'll use it for but I adore it.

Another "must have" fabric is this cute gnome fabric border print. You may have seen it around. It is becoming kind of popular. I thought I might make an apron with it. Love the red and white dot on top, too.

Another "me" fabric is this great kitchen print. I love it. Retro and kitchen, I never get tired of it.

Now this is family of fabrics may not appear to be Nanette type fabrics at first glance but if you think about it, they have roses and dots-definitely me, and the scroll work and roses I just really like. This is new Fig Tree fabric. The colors are a bit off for me but I like them. I'll see how I can work them in.

Purple doesn't really scream my name but I think it is wonderful for little Allison. When my girls and I went to the local Beehive Bazaar (which is not your grandmother's Bazaar but hip and modern and full of Etsy Sellers) we picked up this little embellished onsie for Allison. I want to make her a cute little tiny skirt out of that Japanese patchwork piece to go with the onsie. I even picked up a little purple striped elastic for the skirt. How cute is that!

Have a relaxing long weekend. I hope to do some sewing and just lay back a bit. We'll see how that works. I sorta feel like BBQ and potato salad to kick off the summer.

-nanette

Finally I can reveal my quilt market projects for RJR Fabrics. I think, anyway. RJR has a new line of fabric coming out late summer 2010 called "What's Cookin". It is a vintage novelty kitchen fabric. They contacted me and asked me to design a quilt and some accessories to showcase their fabric. And of course I was excited for the opportunity.

The lovely and sweet PKM (Pam Kitty Morning) took some market photos of the RJR booth to send me from Minneapolis since I wasn't at market. If you don't already have Pam's blog bookmarked - make a beeline and do it now. She's fantastic on so many levels. Her Lecien fabric market projects are wonderful. You can see them on Elizabeth's Late Bloomer Quilts website. Elizabeth has some lovely new designs, too.

Anyway, back to me! ha Here is Pam's photo of part of the RJR booth. I think everything there is mine except for the apron and the round potholders. I don't know who made those. The square little quilt set on point is my table topper. And one of my table runners is above with my quilt on the wall and 2 of the potholders in the center of the picture.

Of course I took some photos before I sent off the projects to RJR. This picture above was taken before the finish quilting. I was in a rush to get it sent off so I don't have the finished results photographed.

And more close-up of the quilt.

Here are the little potholders I made to go with the quilt. The fabric is kind of kitchy kitchen.

This is my roll basket. I've made almost a dozen of these for friends and family. I am really happy with idea. My friend Laura helped me choose this as a good kitchen accessory to make.

Here is one version of the table topper.

And here is the table runner. Whew. The patterns for all will be out at the same time as the fabric in late summer. But I'm still working on them.

I really enjoyed designing this quilt and the little accessories that go with the fabric. The ideas all came straight from the fabric. As soon as RJR sent me the photos of the fabric I knew what I wanted to do. You can see the border print is full of kitchen items and that is what I designed the applique and pieced blocks around.

I'm working on concepts and ideas already for fall market and some magazine submissions. It is going to be a really crazy summer because I have other projects in the works, too. Yipes! What am I going to blog?? Everything will be hush-hush.

Thanks so much Pam for taking the photos and sending them to me!

-nanette

So I've been mostly following Lori's advice on my Gypsy Kisses quilt and working on it one arc every day or so, sometimes more, and it is coming along. I can't really stand to do more than that at a time because paper piecing is boring.

But when it comes time to putting the arcs into blocks that will end the boring time and start the scary time. I'm going to need a helping hand to get this altogether. I took the directions with me to read before church started yesterday and I get what I'm supposed to do next but that doesn't mean it will be easy or I'll be able to do it without some help.

I have 25 pairs or 50 single arcs completed. I like them. I like looking at them. I find the shape and multi fabrics very pleasing. But this means that I have 46 more arcs to make if I follow the pattern size. I don't think I want this quilt to be 93X102 though, that is too big for me and paper piecing!

I think this is my favorite one so far. The prints and colors just make a pleasing combination.

I used 3 different foundation papers because I didn't know which one to choose. I liked using the wash away type to sew on the most. Compared to the velum and thin paper it just was so much easier to use and press against.

So I tore away the velum and thin paper from the back of those arcs but now I'm stuck with the wash away paper still attached to the others. I don't want to piece the quilt together with this material attached to just some of the blocks, but I also don't want to wet it down to get rid of it, especially since not all the blocks are made with the same paper. I looked for instructions with the wash away paper but it didn't really give guidance.

I have figured out that it helps to have my mini mat and an extra rotary cutter right on my sewing table to use as I construct. Nedra helped me realize that made things go quicker.

So in between other projects, I'll be sewing more arcs. I just can't see me making 46 more. Whew.

-nanette

Last week I found Strawberries at a great price and in fabulous freshness. They were sweet and ripe and perfect for jam.

And that is just what I did - make strawberry freezer jam. I must say it is probably the best batch I've ever made. When Lori talked about her sweet little strawberries on her post yesterday I thought about my lovely jam and the fabulous strawberry fabrics that I have in my stash and decided to feature them for Fabric Friday today.

I must tell you I do have a lot of fabric with strawberries on it. And these are just a few of them. This strawberry fabric above is a thicker twill type weight that would be perfect for a bag.

I did show these last week to you but they are so beautiful and they fit the theme of the day so here they are again.

This is fabric I recently got in 3 colorways. I LOVE the blue and red the most. It also has cherries. My 2nd favorite fruit fabric.

I adore fabric with words and really like fabrics with patchwork, too. Isn't this pink and green sweet.

Here it is again. The words are flowers, pretty and strawberry. Very very sweet.

I have this oldie but goodie in 2 color ways. I really like strawberry blossoms, too.

It is amazing how many strawberry prints are out there. It is fun to have small scale strawberries and . . .

Large scale strawberries. Pretty sweet, especially when partnered with a little deer, blue bird, chick and flowers.

This tiny strawberry is one that I picked to put in my Jelly Roll-A-Long project.

I have this strawberry in 4 colorways. Just a bit of the orange, pink and blue but 2 whole yards of the white. I think it makes a fabulous neutral.

I found cherries are partnered with strawberries a lot of the time. And also partnered with dots. Fabulous fabric.

Does this make you hungry for strawberries? I'm glad they are good for us.

-nanette

Today my friend Calli at the "Make it Do" blog is featuring my tutorial for embellishing dish cloths. It's an oldie but I think it is a goodie. Callie is out of town this week and has a guest post everyday for the week. And today I'm her guest and she's posting (or better said pre-posted) a simple idea for a gift or to make something pretty for ourselves.

I have to tell you about Callie. I've talked about her before but she is really an amazing young mom. We even have things in common. She lives in my little town. She learned to sew and quilt from her mother Leslie (a pal of mine) and she has twin girls - just like me. We both like to do things ourselves and try to create a home where we teach our children to work and learn to "make do" with simple things. Callie's blog is really a favorite of mine because she's great with the camera, clever, and every post is packed with practical solutions to life's daily tasks.
And I admire her mother Leslie so much. Leslie is among other things, a pattern designer along with her friend Norma. Great gals. Their patterns are sold here at "Remember When Pattern Company".
So if you're smart you'll bookmark Calli's blog "Make It Do" and visit her often, starting today.
You can find the tutorial on my side bar but come along with me to Calli's and see what she has to say and show about dish towel making.

edit: I can hardly wait for Spring Market to begin (counting down) and finally be able to talk about my quilt and accessories in the RJR booth! I'm dying to show pictures to you. Stay tuned.

-nanette

Bingo is important at my house. We play it at Christmas and Thanksgiving. So when I saw Stephanie post about Spring Fever Bingo on her blog I immediately thought "I want to play!". Spring on over to this blog and play along.

-nanette

I had big plans for getting a lot done this weekend. But it didn't really happen. I had a tooth ache and Mr. Hive has bronchitis. I'm trying to pretend I don't need a root canal. Oh well. I have a few things I've been working on to show.

This is a small Dresden. You can't tell from the picture but it is rather small.

Bigger and blue. I told you. Blue is becoming a color I reach for.

Some misc. blocks I'm working on for a project above and below.

And a kettle. Hope you all had a nice weekend.

-nanette

Fabric Friday again. Wow the days whiz by, don't they? I love fabric and I am back to showing some of my Japanese made reproduction fabric pieces. This week I thought I'd show prints in different colorways.

This simple dot variation caught my eye. I have 5 colors in fat eighth type pieces.

Another fat eighth group in 5 different color combinations. I love strawberries so I jumped at getting this cute little team.

You've seen me use this print group before. I've had these pieces in small bits and when the chance came to re-up (blame The Wire for this slang) I was happy to get a yard of each color. Love them.

While this little group of 5 isn't my very favorite of the colorway groups, it makes a great little accent piece. Again I just have a fat eighth of each but for some fabric, that is enough.

I have a yard or so of this fabric in the red but I love acquiring small bits of the other 4 colors. The delicate rose is so appealing to me.

Have a great weekend and play with some of your most fun fabric today!

-nanette

About me

My Etsy Shop

Blog Archive

Instagram