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ion i restarted my instagram page this week after a pause of about three years and it s been a whole lot of fun chatting with old friends and seeing all the gorgeous projects on there has been amazing i m trying to find a way back into my happy sewing time again this summer but carefully lest i fall back down the rabbit hole of obsession it s a fine line to walk so i m constantly checking myself i really miss sewing with friends but i want to do things right this time around or at least better one day at a time as they say i ve been wanting to try resewing a few of my patterns and tutorials starting with the most recent the darling gift bag tutorial i put together a fabric audition based on the colors of a birthday candle print from buttercream by emily taylor for cloud 9 fabrics which is the sweetest little retro collection i ve always been partial to a color scheme of white red blue and pink and these colors look so sweet paired with a polka dot cream linen from my stash the patchwork squares finish at 1 i love them so much a tiny picnic gingham from buttercream makes cute handles and i used the candles print for the lining normally the tutorial calls for an elastic and button closure on top but i really loved the way the bag looked before sewing the button on sort of like a mini grocery tote bag so i just snipped off the elastic i had sewn on earlier and left it as is i ll probably end up gifting this to someone but for now i m just so happy looking at it on the table beside me while i plan my next sewing project posted by heidi staples at 4 25 pm no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels gifts patchwork tote bag tutorial tuesday may 14 2024 way forward my greek cross quilt is finished at last beautifully quilted by my sweet friend jennifer of farm fresh stitches washed and dried to crinkly perfection and now lovingly draped across the arm of the overstuffed chair in my bedroom a quilt used to take me about a month to sew from start to finish this time it took a year and a half from piecing the first block to putting the last stitch in the binding but considering everything else that happened in that span of time this feels like a special victory this quilt was for me and my husband so i used a lot of vintage style prints for the centers since we both love that look each block felt like its own little work of art i ve really come to believe that if you love every block by itself you ll love them all together as a group especially if it s a large group sometimes quantity really does seem to enhance the quality i ve been doing a lot of cleaning and purging over the last few months trying to let go of things i don t need and share them with others who might be able to use them as i was going through my storage room i came across several large containers of sewing samples made over a few years it was a little sobering to look at all those projects sewn up quickly and compulsively so that i would have a large enough supply of bright shiny photos to put in my instagram feed i think i would rather stop sewing altogether than get back on that hamster wheel meaningful enjoyable projects no matter how long or short a time they take to complete seem like the sane and happy way forward posted by heidi staples at 2 21 pm no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest friday january 5 2024 life as i know it now that we re a few days into the new year i feel like i can finally sit down and write about the old one 2023 was rough for our family and while i m thankful for the good things i m not terribly sorry to see it go my father had three surgeries on his heart over several months one being particularly delicate and serious and then three weeks after his last surgery i had a hysterectomy in an attempt to heal the anemia that i ve been dealing with for years the original health problem that forced me to take a break from professional sewing work back in 2020 it was to say the least a lot to deal with all at once we spent months in recovery with some very difficult days but the lord brought us through it both dad and i are doing very well at this point in so much better shape than i would have expected and we couldn t be more grateful for the dear friends from our church family who carried us through that time with prayer encouragement and lots of home cooked meals in light of all that there wasn t quite as much sewing as i d hoped there would be in the second half of the year but i did manage to fit in a few projects during the last few months a zipper pouch for a dear friend of mine a little quilt for a sweet mama who just had her second baby girl and the beginnings of a clamshell project using paper templates from the etsy shop of one of my longest and dearest quilting friends erin of why not sew i have yet to sew these together but they ve been waiting for me on a wooden tray in my sewing room i went with a breakfast theme in my fabric choices an ode to my youngest daughter who loves the first meal of the day and my plan is to eventually turn these into a pillow for our breakfast nook i have fabric for two more quilts on my sewing table right now one will be a baby quilt for another friend who s due in early summer and the other will be a graduation quilt for my eldest daughter who finishes high school in late may it s such an interesting pairing those two quilts to be the beginning and end of childhood in two stacks of fabric i was sorting out the prints for my daughter s quilt the other day and was reminded again that life as i know it will be changing forever at the end of spring this is the way it is i tell myself every mother comes to this moment it s good and right that our children grow up and become the independent adults we wanted them to be and i wouldn t have it any other way really but there are moments when my heart cries just a little posted by heidi staples at 11 42 am no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest monday june 26 2023 giddy my girls came home on saturday giddy and exhausted after almost a week of having all kinds of fun at church camp it was the first time all three of them had been away from me at once and i honestly wasn t sure how i was going to deal with it after more than sixteen years of motherhood i m a little out of practice at living life without kids around but having enjoyed a quiet week of dinner dates shopping trips swimming sewing and long conversations with james and my parents i feel like i ve been given such a gift i can appreciate all the joys of motherhood right now enjoy watching my girls grow in confidence and independence and know that there will still be a wonderful life waiting for me when they leave the nest someday it s like getting a small glimpse of the future while still being so thankful for today but truly the sewing was fantastic this week hours all by myself in the loft finishing my greek cross quilt top while simultaneously starting another quilt that i designed years ago for my unrealized carnival of patchwork book i sewed more in the last six days than i have in the last six months small projects have always been my specialty because that s usually all i have time for and to some extent i didn t have the patience or attention span for large quilts but now i can really see the pleasure of working on extended projects i d like to think it s because i m growing up a little bit in my forties or maybe i m just finally settling down either way this seems like a good development and i m feeling rather giddy about it myself posted by heidi staples at 11 43 am 1 comment email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels quilt quilt blocks monday june 19 2023 summer days my husband remarked just the other day that our summer is already a third over which seems incredible to me didn t we just start this vacation train granted the last month has been packed with events of all kinds but more on that in a minute first pillows when i have the chance i try to sew a pillow or two for the local pregnancy care center they put together the most beautiful supply baskets for new moms and they like to have something handmade on top since i m currently pathetically slow when it comes to churning out even a baby quilt i ve taken to sewing up pillows instead and so far it s working out quite nicely both of these are actually from a few months ago so i m a little late in sharing them but i m hoping to have more finished by the end of vacation i love having the chance to use up some of the children s fabric leftover from sewing samples for riley blake several years back jill howarth is still one of my favorite designers and even though my daughters have outgrown these sorts of prints i still like to keep this type of fabric around for baby gifts and that sort of thing making these pillows is also a fun way to play with different blocks which keeps it interesting for me as i sew i pulled out a stack of quilt blocks last night that i started working on over a year ago it was so great to see them with fresh eyes and remember how much i loved putting these fabric combinations together over time i m hoping to finally sew them into a quilt top this week if all goes as i plan the hardest thing this summer has been that my dad s heart started to fail 4 weeks ago and he wound up in the hospital getting a pacemaker put in which is thankfully working so far unfortunately it looks like he ll be going back in for open heart surgery soon to fix a few other serious issues that need attention there have been lots of tests and appointments this month but we re glad he s getting the help he needs and praying that all goes well last weekend my parents celebrated 47 years of marriage and i threw them a small dinner party themed around their honeymoon which was spent on a road trip up through california and then back down the pacific coast they drove to yosemite and lake tahoe and even got to see the righteous brothers and the carpenters in concert during their trip i ve heard many times how beautiful it was and how much they loved it i used some leftover wool felt to sew up bunting to hang overhead and little camp flags for each place setting bunny brought down her record player and vintage vinyl to listen to she was extremely proud that she scored an inexpensive righteous brothers record at the local antiques mall just a few days before the party while we enjoyed our picnic lunches and cake it was such a sweet time my husband s best friend came out from southern california to stay with us during the week of their anniversary and it was such a joy to have him here he got to see the texas hill country at its absolute best with blue skies full of puffy clouds wildflowers blooming everywhere and lazy evenings on the back patio watching the fireflies play my own flower garden was all decked out in vibrant colors and i was so thankful to get one last beautiful week of spring before the switch flipped to summer and the whole outdoors morphed overnight into a giant sauna but that just gives me a good excuse to stay inside and sew which i m trying to do for at least fifteen minutes every day this summer it s been doing me a world of good to get daily creative time and i m absolutely loving it posted by heidi staples at 4 10 pm 2 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest wednesday january 4 2023 drum stick bag there have been so many signs this year that my daughters aren t little girls anymore and one of the biggest is our loft the toys that cluttered the floor in that room for years are gone packed away over the summer except for a few small bins of toddler playthings that my girls use when they re babysitting except for the occasional lego project or jigsaw puzzle on the breakfast nook table that part of our life seems to be over my feelings on the subject are decidedly mixed nostalgia gets the better of me now and then but honestly it s wonderful to see the girls growing up there s so much to love about this new chapter in our lives and the loft has become part of that story what used to be the play area has now become the music studio and it s definitely one of the most popular hangouts in our house we ve always been a musical family james and i both spent time learning music when we were growing up and i ve been singing for school church and other events since i was a child any number of instruments have found a place in our home over the years and each of us can play at least a little bit on one or more of them piano guitar acoustic and electric ukulele banjo and mandolin we took things to a whole new level this year when my youngest daughter was given an electric drum set by a family friend who was heading off to college and didn t need it anymore mouse had already started taking drum lessons from one of the drummers at our church and this allowed her skills to really take off bunny and bear have both been singing on youth worship teams at church and putting in more time on piano and guitar this year so it just seemed natural for the three of them to form their own band while i m always here to advise them when they need help it s been fantastic to watch them work together to choose music practice for hours on end and then perform for the family every few months on special holidays right now they re working on a valentine s day program and it already sounds pretty great anyway mouse has been asking me to sew a special bag for carrying her drum sticks to her weekly lessons and i decided that today was the day to get it done she s obsessed with cats so i pulled out a favorite japanese print that i ve been saving for ages to fussy cut a few scraps for the project i featured one on the flap and the other on a tiny pocket on the back the blue ticking stripe canvas print makes a soft but sturdy exterior and i paired it with a matching cream and blue dot print for the lining a wrist strap on top will hopefully make it a little easier to hold the hardest thing about this whole project was sewing a bag with such an incredibly narrow opening just 2 1 2 in diameter but by going slowly i was able to do it i can t tell you how delightful it was to start and finish a project in one morning usually i save my sewing as an incentive for getting my daily work done but the truth is that there s always more to do than i can finish before bedtime my days fly by and i get to the end of them without ever getting around to the reward i think i m going to start taking my sewing time in the morning for a while and see what happens it feels a little naughty like i m sneaking dessert right before dinner but this was just too much fun not to try it again posted by heidi staples at 9 06 pm 1 comment email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels bag family older posts home subscribe to comments atom nice to meet you my name is heidi sta...