my scrappy trips

My latest obsessions. I started these from the scraps i had. I got 1/4 of the way done with my scraps and then had to cut more. I take this approach sometimes, if i dont like what im making i stop and never finish it. It was just scraps. I have a bin where i put all my abandoned projects and orphan squares and im sure some day i will make something of them.  With these... i love both of them so i finished cutting the strips for the red one last night and im half way thru the blue one.

and i promised pics of the plus quilt.... here is a sneak preview...

The three finishes

Ok, I put off blogging about these because i couldn't get good pics... then i got the pics and forgot to blog. But here was my industrious weekend work (a few weekends ago)

First is the vintage sheet throw. This one is for sale in my etsy store. I made it from 8 in square blocks 64 of them. What i love most about this quilt is the back is a lavender piece of muslin sheet. Laying under this quilt on a warm day with the windows open while i was sewing the binding i was transported back to maw maw and paw paw McGraws house in the hills of west virginia. A summer night, a fan blowing over that cool muslin sheet... I loved those sheets. I am calling it springtime in a hammock because i can just feel it wrapped around me on a spring day sunning in a hammock, how sweet is that?

It measures 60X60 and has an 80/20 batting. I quilted it on my home machine. I used a green polkadotted sheet for the binding which is perfect!

Next is the baby quilt from vintage sheets. I chose 4 pink floral fat quarters for the back of this one and it turned out adorable. Again another simple one, i cut all my scraps into various sized squares, this happens to be the 4 1/2 inch scraps.  Again a green polkadotted sheet for the binding. 

Finally the men's shirts. These three shirts just went together so i made them into a quilt. I love the zig zag pattern and its a flash to put together.  The back is a green and blue plaid sheet i just happened to have and the binding is the plaid shirt used in the quilt. I think i will do more zig zags... i really like them.

all three are for sale in my etsy store. Click here to see more.

this and that

changes just keep happening in my life! Last week we turned the restaurant over to ralph's daughter Caty. Caty has worked here since day one and she was going to get it eventually but in our "what are we going to do when we grow up" search we decided that we loved working in a pizza restaurant but we did not enjoy running one.  We decided to close zippys down and direct our efforts elsewhere (remember the make stuff and sell it plan... become hippy's and live in the woods?) Caty didn't want us to close it, she wanted to keep it open. I know she can run  it so for a long term buy out she is "buying" the restaurant from us. Ok... so here is the really cool thing. The deal is we had to work for her for 6 months at least so now i just WORK at a pizza restaurant for 8 bucks an hour (dont tell her but i think doing this i got a raise! lol just kidding)

What this has done though is instead of working 12 hour days (she is now doing that) i only work 6 hrs 6 days a week and that leaves lots of time to make stuff!!! Now if we could all get over the flu and winter colds, i would have more time! Because of the crud, it seems all my spare time is spent here....

lol my bed looked so nice after i made it the other day i took a picture. I love the quilt  "lonesome dove" when its on the bed. The sweet girl is emmajean. She is about 100 years old  (but that is really her bed that she allows us to sleep in!) Pillow cases are vintage dark blue gingham. the embroidered pillow is from ikea.

As far as sewing... i have mostly been puttering. I am organizing and finding homes for everything in my "new" sewing room. Ok, i just need to confess that i will NEVER have that much fabric organized, i just keep moving it from one side of the room to the other, but there has been SOME improvement..

My holy scrap batman quilt.... I now have a desk drawer with my tiny bits in them and while i was making that move, i made a few more 6" square blocks. I am not sure how to keep this drawer under control. I really have trouble throwing even the littlist bit away, but these blocks are time consuming since most scraps are smaller than 1 1/2 inches! I do think i will have to do a "dump" of some sort every once in a while to keep it under control. Maybe after every quilt, just dump what i didn't use@!

on the other hand they are fun and mindless to make. I think i need 28 more to finish the quilt so it will be a while! This one is going to be a gift for a friend. I plan on making a throw.

Table toppers and table runners. I have been playing with my vintage sheet scraps, namely the 2 1/2 in square pile. Seems like i have alot of those! I have made three table toppers out of it and im working on a runner.

This cute little table topper i have decided to keep. When i get home today im going to pick some paper whites that are blooming in the backyard, getting a mason jar and put it in the center. aww wee (how sweet). as my adorable grand daughter alyssa would say. (its only adorable with a childs southern accent, just sounds silly when i say it... but she says aww wee all the time)

And yes, i am always the last to jump on to a fad. The scrappy trips around the world, i have loved them and just wasn't sure where my 2 1/2" strips were. I found them last weekend and looking them over i think i am going to make 2 trips... one brightly scrappy colored (with the red stripe down the middle to tie them together) and an all blue trip. Im not sure what i will do with either of them but i definitely have enough scraps to make the trips! lol.

The plus quilt. Wow. Once you get going on it it flys together. I am doing 25 rows and i only have 8 left to put on. I have not taken a picture of the plus quilt in progress because its scrappy but honestly it is ugly. It is by far the ugliest quilt i have made but im sticking with it because at the same time i love it because of all the different fabrics in it and what they represent. So, im sure by my next post i will have a picture of the completed top. But im warning you, its ugly! 

finishes and more WIP's for Wednesday

Photo shoot gone wrong!!! I had some finishes to show first but... well its a windy cloudy day here in Texas and when i went to take pictures at the gazebo on the town square today, i had some problems.... this picture says it all... quilts blowing, grey sky, and this is the only picture i got because the camera battery died! (see the pile of quilts on the bench though... i have 4 finishes to show!!! so....all we have is a bad shot of the vintage sheet baby quilt that will be for sale on etsy tomorrow! This means i may have to do another post and actually post more than once every 2 weeks!



So what WIP's have i been working on??? These are inside photos... were good here!!!

plaid shirts throw - I know, so simple and easy, its the same 8" block that i did the vintage sheet throw in. Ralph and i have a 12" block plaid shirt quilt on our bed and i just love the simplicity of it. Here is some "process" for you. I used to lay them out and arrange and rearrange them to get a "random" look. But half the time i mess those up and quite frankly im lazy! I hate getting up and sitting down to sew then getting up to get the next batch... so lately I have just been sewing them in two's then a row of 4 then i will arrange and rearrange those on the floor next to me so i dont get any of the same too close together. Anyone else lazy like that???

Plus quilt - I was inspired a while back by a bunch of plus quilts that were showing up. While trying to control my scrap pile I started cutting one plus from everything (4 1/2" squares). I ended up with a pile of them and now im putting the rows together. This one is going to have one of two names. Either Sally, short for Seamripper Sally because those first couple rows i used my seamripper alot... or its going to be called "the way i remember them" Why that... because it is scrappy, scrappy scrappy and not matchy matchy matchy and that is how i remember my moms quilts! As i was sewing today, i wondered if my mom thought about the same things i think about when she sewed. I guess i felt a connection to her today... lol... i wonder if i made piecing something like this as tough on her as my 18 mo old grand baby did on me, she kept taking off with the pieces!



I still have another vintage sheet quilt that im working on, its the stars and i stalled, not sure what kind of border im going to use. I did start these little 9 patches this week. Im not sure where they will end up, either a baby quilt or a queen size very low volume quilt... i just like making 9 patches and i love how these vintage sheet patches are turning out. I am using a fine muslin sheet for the white and it has the most wonderful texture!

I need more stock for my etsy store so i am going to make some smaller items this week. I whipped up some of these (vintage sheets for girls, plaid shirts for boys) My grandbabies love the blocks i made them, they have been washed a gazillion times and hold up great! (these are actually alyssa's in the picture)

Im also thinking about stuffed animials, table toppers, table runners, more napkins, pillow covers... im not sure where the wind will take me but i am enjoying my days at home sewing.

lol, i just noticed the trash can in the background of this picture. More photo shoot gone bad pics!!! I hate grey skys and cant wait for the sun to come back out!!!




As usual on wednesday im linking up with Lee's WIP Wednesday fun!

Work In Progress Wednesday!

I have missed posting WIP Wednesday! But here i am back again. Life has settled down some having survived the holidays and the new years soul searching we have done. I have been sewing. I did put a quilt on etsy yesterday... and sold it yesterday! Wowzer... makes me want to finish my other WIPS!!!!

So first the one that sold in one day. It was a dear friend that bought it. For years my husband Ralph was her farrier (took care of her horses feet). I am so happy that she bought this one because it is him and I rolled up into a tiny quilt that she will use as a table topper. His wardrobe, my work! how perfect.

It is from recycled men's shirts. The back is a piece of flannel that i bought at a yard sale, the binding a bandanna print. I machine quilted it on my home machine.

But what is in progress because it is WIP Wednesday after all!!!

We have a zig zag baby boy quilt that needs to be quilted:

This was also made from recycled men's shirts (I bought all three on one trip and looking at them together i knew they needed to be a quilt of their own!) I have a peice of sheet for the backing ready and i did get enough of the plaid for the binding!

Then the three vintage sheets quilts i started the other day:

This is a baby quilt size from vintage sheets. I love this one... so shabby chic but i guess that is being refered to as "cottage style" now.

Vintage sheet stars.... I just need to finish the borders and it will be a throw sized quilt.

another vintage sheet throw. Did i tell you how the vintage sheet thing happened??? My step daughters mother said she would love to have a quilt out of just old sheets. I started collecting them to make a quilt that looks just like this for her (and i did and she got it for Christmas!) but.... i did fall in love with the sheets and i started buying them... till i had 5 tubs of them... big tubs of them!!! So that is why i now have a etsy store where im selling vintage sheet fat quarters and items i have made from them!! I am adding them as quickly as i can, i have a bunch more yet... but im getting there.

Other WIPS

Commission Quilt: You are My Sunshine for Braylee has been quilted and is ready for binding. I should have that done after this weekend. It turned out wonderful!

I hope yall have a great week... see you next week! For more inspiration be sure to stop by and see Lee's blog and Work in Progress Wednesday!

The possibilities are endless

I have contemplated this post. I like new years and making resolutions that say... I'm going to do it differently from here on! I like being able to to start over. But this year, I'm having problems with that because we are from our toenails to the top of our heads starting over and were not even sure where were going yet.


 Ralph and I are in the process of redefining our dreams. We have come to the conclusion that we agreed to follow our dreams together but the dream were following isn't the only dream we have had or ever will have. So... if that's not the dream we will follow, what is?

Pizza, we love our pizza store in San Augustine but were we happy in Houston? not really. I liked the convenience of living in the city but we were working so hard we never felt like doing anything or going anywhere. We came home because everything was falling apart. Things were not going well in the San Augustine store and his son's family was in crisis and we were worried about the safety of our grandchildren. Deciding to close Houston and move home was really not a hard decision. Family first, we missed home, we didn't want to work as hard as we were in Houston... we saw early graves for both of us at that pace. So here we are back in San Augustine but what now. this is obviously not going to do more than pay our basic bills... so we need to do something. We need to build a new dream or redefine our pizza dream... we need more income.

So maybe that is what 2013 brings us, the year of discovery.



I have started an Etsy store and have made 6 sales! woo hoo! not bad for my first month, i would say! I am selling upcycled fabric (mostly vintage sheets and men's shirts) and I have made some products from them. I also put on some vintage patterns i had, seeing how they do. I haven't put my first quilt on there but I'm going to this week. My sister (her link is here) also started a store and were talking about doing a couple "themed" stores together. A pet boutique of homemade pet items being one of them.

Is this my dream? I think its part of it. It has been so nice to let my creative juices flow. Ive felt stifled creatively making pizzas although I will always believe each pie is a piece of art... lol.. i was ready to explore some new media! So the making stuff has been fun. The organizing product to get it on there, i need help with that. I have at least 30 more sheets of fat quarters to put on but I've been so busy by the time i figure out which ones i don't have I've run out of time.... I will get there. But i have set the goal at 1000 per month in income by December 2013! wish me luck! This is the only part of the plan that is definate. "Tamara will sell 1000 worth of fabric, quilts and handmade items per month" We have one goal set....

But what else do i want to do... the possibilities is endless...  i have a desire to make cheese! I want to grow a garden and go to farmers markets. wouldn't it be cool to sell items i have canned?  lol... so who know a milk goat or cow and a garden may be part of my dream!!!

But the dream is a little more than that... it involves Ralph too. It is both of us loving what we do and working together. He has a few things that he has been researching and he may do.

First, every man's dream to have a still. We are looking into starting a micro distillery. Yep, were talking moonshine... but doing it legal with licenses and marketing it and selling it. Right now that is looking like the most promising. And its something we will both do and have fun doing. Trying different recipes (lol yep tasting them will be fun too... i know some are laughing because you know i don't drink! I guess I'm going to have to amened that and say i don't drink alot! lol)

Another thing he has talked about and is looking into is making knives and other things using his blacksmith skills, or he also has a associates degree in saddlery,  boot making and leather work and we have talked about getting some of the things he needs to work with that as well.

Ok... so here is the funny thing. We told his son our ideas of our dreams and he said were turning into hippies and were going to go live in the woods making stuff. Well... we laughed but now that were thinking about it, yeah... that does sound pretty cool to us! Maybe that is where 2013 is taking us. Maybe were just gonna become hippies and live in the woods!

Ive been sewing!

I am having so much fun making stuff to sell in my store! wow. Who would have thought that, it took me a year to get my courage up to try to make something and now that i have, im going to town.

I love cloth napkins.... so of course they were first.....

This yellow set is so cute. Ok, i have to get better at the pictures, i can see that!

but these little gems of cuteness i love. Sharon asked for a set for her and sophie to have tea parties with!

they are 5 1/2 in square and washable. I can think of so many uses!

and today i have started working with the plaid shirts... i am making a baby quilt to put on there!