The Loss of My Son ~ Trever Len Brummett

 This will be kept short and sweet because it is so difficult.  Many of you already know if you follow me on Instagram and Facebook.  We lost my youngest son on October 2, 2022 in an accident while doing what the love most, helping someone and working in his shop.

Trever Len Brummett

https://bloomingtonian.com/2022/10/06/obituary-trever-brummett-05-11-1993-10-2-2022/

Trev and his baby sister.

Trever being goofy as usual.

Trev, Luna and is fiancé Heather.

Both of my sons, Trev and Derek.

The last photo of all my kids together.  Derek, Trever and Amanda.

Birthday wishes from Trev.

He is the reason I started back blogging.  These are the last two inspirational quotes pulled from his Facebook page.

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Heart Pops ~ My Sew Quilty Life

🎶Sweeter than candy on a stick🍭....Huckleberry, cherry or lime.  If you had a choice he'd be your pick.  But Lollipop is mine....Lollipop, Lollipop oh lolli lolli lolli 🎶 

I know most of you are singing along with me.  

Take a look at this little sweetie called Heart Pops.  Sweeter than candy on a stick!  Designed by Heather of My Sew Quilty Life .  The pattern just hit the market this passed Saturday.  She had been sending out social media teasers everyday for the last week.  By the time Saturday finally got here I was about to bust.  Right out of bed on Saturday morning I was on her website ready to grab a copy.

It wasn't hard to find the perfect fabrics because Lollipops can be any color even chocolatey brown.  I'm going to stick with the brighter colors from my cutting table scrap basket.   

The only fabric in this block that isn't from my scraps is the background. That's a Christopher Thompson for Riley Blake called Blossoms.  I only have a yard of it but I can get more should I decide to keep the background consistent.

I'm still playing around with ideas and as you all know when that happens it's hard to tell where things might go.  This block may be a test block destined to become a pillow or wall hanging.  Tomorrow is my go into town day so the chances of me stopping for a quick fabric haul is pretty likely.  You just never know what I might find.

Well enough about me and my quilt, take a look at Heathers little cutie.  That pink background makes the quilt extra sweet.

This pattern is very well written and has several different project ideas for using more Pops or fewer Pops.   There's also a coloring page to help audition your favorite color pallet.  The PDF pattern can be found here.  And the mailed paper pattern here.

So who is My Sew Quilty Life Heather Briggs? Well here she is and if you would like to know more about Heather click here to go to the My Sew Quilty Life website where you can read more about her and  listen to an interview she did with American Patchwork and Quilting.  

While you're there make sure to take a look in her pattern shop.  Oh my goodness y'all, I want them all!  This one is called Rosewood.  Isn't it just the cutest?  If you're like me and fell instantly in love with this pattern here's a link to the PDF pattern.  If you prefer a mailed copy click here.

Get ready to OOOH and AWE.  Here's a few more of her flowery patterns.  While flowers seem to be her love she also has fall and Christmas patterns. I promise they are cute too.  Click here to visit her shop.

If you're a young whippersnapper and have no clue what the song is I referenced above click on the video below.  If your a little older like me I'm sure you'd like to take a walk down memory lane.  To be honest this song is before my time but my dad made sure I knew all the old classics.  Great original video all except the lyrics on the screen which I believe they got a few wrong.

Until next time....

I hope you find time to stitch up something sweet!

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Moda Charm Pack Challenge 2023

When Moda announced the 2023 Charm Pack Challenge a few weeks ago I had no intentions of joining the challenge.   But here we are, no excuses, it is what is.   The Garden Variety charm pack and coordinating fabrics were part of a Sew Sampler box by Fat Quarter shop.  There's enough fabric for the background and a border. Perfect! I should be able to complete this by suppertime.

I used EQ8 to help with laying out the colors.

Everything sorted and labeled.  Let's get the pedal to the metal!

It feels so good to be sewing instead of quilting at the frame. Yes, this was just what I needed.  A little break to recharge.

Within an hour all the half square triangles were made, trimmed and on the design wall.  Let's get this girl together!

Everything was going along great until this happened.  Have you ever seen such a horrible crash?  Yep, I was sewing over the pins.  Normally my machine will stop and alarm out when I hit a pin.  The super fine pins I use will bend but the needle usually does not.  And would you look at that, the tip is completely gone.  OH DEAR! 

The sewing party came to a screeching halt so I could look for the needle tip inside my machine.  No tip was found but would you look at all the black lint from my Christmas quilting blitz.  Really that's not too bad for not cleaning after making (4) 90 x 90 black quilts.  Yep, black...way out of my comfort zone.  I'll share those sometime in the next couple of weeks.   

After the crash and a little sewing machine maintenance, my little Moda Love quilt top is complete.  She'll be put on the top of the pile of UFO's to be quilted.

There were a few charms squares leftover.  I think I'll use these in the backing along with these two orange half yards of Blossom by Christopher Thompson for Riley Blake.  You can find the free pattern for this little quilt by clicking here.

Now it's time to get back to the quilting frame to quilt up the last of the Christmas Blitz quilts.  

See you tomorrow with a cute little project I started on Saturday.

Until next time...

I hope you find time to stitch up something sweet!

Linking up over at Small Quilts and Dolls for Design Wall Monday.

 

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Self Threading Needles ~ Good or Bad?

In the last 30 yrs of my quilting life there have been many new quilting products to come along.  Some made my quilting journey easier and some have been not so great.   When I heard about the self threading needle I was skeptical and waited for other "real" quilters to review them.  I never take the word of a famous quilter.  Jumping in feet first isn't my style after being suckered into buying overpriced gadgets a few times.  So lets take a look at the two self threading needles that this real quilter(me, I'm only famous in my own mind😁) has tried.

The first one is John James.  This brand of plain ole hand needles has been my go to for years. Their self threading had been out for quite some time before I took the chance a five or six yrs ago.  Here's why.  My thinking is it's best to let them work out any issues.  You see, some people want every new gadget as soon as it comes out. They find the flaws in the newly launched barely tested products.  They complain, the company fixes and tweaks the product in order to keep the sales coming.  

A popular non quilty new launch to prove my point

🔥Tesla🔥

 Need I say more.

John James is known for well made needles that have stood the test of time.  They are smooth, no burrs or imperfections.  The Easy Threading needles should be the same great quality.  To thread this needle place the thread in the little V at the top, then pull down on the threads.  It doesn't slide right in but you don't need to push real hard either.  If you can get the thread to pop down into the second hole that's even better. I find it to be tighter and some threads don't want to slide through to the second hole.

 

 Hand sewing isn't something I do everyday for long periods of time.  Most of my hand work is quilt binding and the occasional burying thread tails when quilting.  These do a pretty good job at both.  Every once in a while when stitching the binding, the thread will pop out of the eye.  But it generally only happens in areas where the quilting is heavy or there is many layers of fabric.

Next is the Sench Side Threading Needles.  I've been wanting to try these for a long time.

Great packaging, with clever marketing on the front and instructions on the back.  The real quilters out there in blogland said these were AWESOME.   So after years of being skeptical I finally took the chance.  They looked perfect.  Now the thread can't come out of the eye.

This is a closeup of one of my needles with Aurifil 50wt.  See that tiny little gap?  No way a thread can come out of there!

Here's my current hand stitched binding.  Notice my needle just laying there and the thread is not in the eye of the needle.

Let's take a closer look.  The thread WAS in the eye when I started.  Now the binding is in the eye!  How in the blue blazes did this happen?  At first I thought it was me.  It took about 5 minutes of wiggling and twisting but I got it out without ripping the fabric.  And then it happened again.  Must be a defect in the needle, so I changed needles and it happened again.  That's when I took a picture so I could enlarge and investigate.  Sadly I could not remove the needle without using a seam ripper to cut the fabric threads.  Never again.  I threw the entire package of needles in the trash. That's that, lesson learned. 

 John James I should have never cheated on you. 

Well me and John James have a Sunday afternoon date so...

Until next time...

I hope you find time to stitch up something sweet!

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