Debbie Mumm did it again!  She created another colorful, fun collection – this one is all about Santa.

Santa is doing lots of Christmas chores in the panel fabric.  Each image has its own border - either a diagonal stripe or holly leaves with red dots - making it easy to create projects quickly.  You will need to do less piecing and yet will still achieve an interesting look.

Other fabrics in the collection include tone on tone mini dots in red and in green . . . .

. . . . more tone on tone fabrics, this time in black and a lighter green with festive scrolls . . . .

. . . an Ivory background with snowflakes of different sizes . . . . a diagonal stripe in red, green, black, white and ivory . .

. . . . and “Tossed Santas” – he and reindeer and presents are scattered across a scrolly Ivory background.

Now, this fabric is so fun and cheery that you are sure to have something in mind for it, but if you are drawing a blank, or just can’t decide how to use it, there’s a kit available: the Rooftop Santa Quilt Kit.  Using the panel fabric, some green, some red, plus the striped fabric, this lap quilt finishes at 51″ x 64″ and it’s sure to quickly become a family favorite.

Redwork is great as a take-along project or for evenings in front of the tv.  The finished product has such a clean, pretty look that can be the focal point of the piece or an accent.  There are plenty of opportunities to express yourself with simple scenes, designs, or words.

Our newest redwork pattern, Dream Believe Celebrate! is a pre-printed, pre-colored design that can be made into pillows or a wallhanging.  Use your imagination and you could make this part of a larger project, or make individual wall hangings.

Me and Grandma Baking is just one of a series of 9″ x 12″ redwork blocks depicting activities shared with Grandma or Grandpa and a grandchild.  Do you have a special activity you share with a granddaughter or grandson?  This might be a wonderful keepsake for them to hang in their bedroom to remind them of those times together.

How Does Your Garden Grow combines rework with piecing, applique and the cutest little flower embellishments to create a lovely wallhanging.

Redwork Vest is the perfect attire for a sewing retreat, a quilt shop hop, or any day that you are happy you are a quilter!

The monochromatic look of redwork is what makes it special but that doesn’t mean it HAS to be red. How about a bluework pattern? Bluework Potpourri includes 20 original bluework designs in a garden theme.  Chicks, bunnies, butterflies, flowers and more fill the 7″ squares between scrappy blue piecing.  Start now and use the dark fall and winter evenings for handwork; by Spring you’ll have a beautiful quilt just right for the season.

If you’ve never tried Redwork (or you’re just dying to get back to it!) browse all the redwork (and blue!) patterns.

I was pretty excited when I first heard about Lazy Girl Designs’ new line of Sew Lazy interfacing products.  Easy names that fit the product.  What a clever idea!  Slicker is waiting and, as soon as the right project shows up, we’ll put it to the test.  Stiff Stuff found its way into an ornament already, but it needs some tweeking – the ornament that is; the Stiff Stuff performed exactly as was hoped!

Sew Lazy Fusi-Bond Lite made its way into the first finished project.

Here the tree has been drawn on the smooth side of the interfacing and the interfacing has been fused to the fabric.

After cutting the tree, it was time to peel off the backing. It was a delight! Maybe I don’t do it correctly, but with other fusible I find that the paper tears and it’s necessary to keep scratching and pulling. With the Sew Lazy product, after scratching the surface with a pin to get a place to grab and start pulling, it all came off easily and in one piece! Pretty suprising considering all the curves and different parts to the design of the applique.

Every bit of the applique piece was covered in the fusible.  It doesn’t make any difference and won’t show, but I loved how shiny and pretty it was.

The piece fused to the background fabric nicely, and sewing through the applique to add dimension went smoothly.

Overall I was tickled pink with the product and know that I will use it again and again.

Nice work, Lazy Girl Designs!

Recently, we asked our Facebook fans if they had any (many?) UFOs and, if so, what was the main reason they hadn’t finished.   By far, the most frequent response was “not enough time”.   I can relate!   We all have different lifestyles and responsibilities that require our attention, so the same tips and timesavers won’t work for everyone, but you’ll probably find a few tricks here that will apply to you.  Hopefully you’ll be sewing more soon!

Label your pieces.  After cutting fabric for your quilt, label it right away.  When you cut it you know what piece it is, but halfway through the pattern you may so remember so clearly.  You’ll save time not having to re-measure or re-read the cutting instructions to see what’s what.  It will be easy to know which piece to use next.  No guessing, and no incorrect seams that require ripping.

Use sewing time for sewing.  As you come to them, set aside tasks that don’t involve actual sewing.  Make a little pile of them or put them in a basket or plastic box. Rip out those stiches or remove that stabilizer when you are sitting in from of the tv or waiting for an appointment.  Even ironing.  Just sew!  If you work on a few projects at once you can sew one step for each project and do the ironing when you get a spare moment.  Then you’re ready to just sew next time.

Put it away.  A place for everything, and everything in its place. You’ve heard that before, right?  It’s so tempting when you’re time is limited to just set things anywhere. Then when you need it, you waste minutes looking for it, moving fabric, looking under patterns, looking where it should be but isn’t.  It’s annoying and feels time consuming to take a moment and put something in it’s place but keep doing just that and it will soon become a habit.  The payback is sweet – when you need something you’ll be able to lay your hands on it right away!  and with no frustration!

End your sewing session with a couple minutes of prep for next time.  Set up for your next sewing session.  If you are using a pattern, mark your place so you don’t have to waste time looking for it.  Set up the next step in your project with the next pieces to stitch, right sides together, ready to feed into the machine. Or write yourself a note about where you are and leave it right by your machine.  You know what’s next when you’re right there, but leave and live – feed the kids, or visit the grandkids, or go to work – and all kinds of things crowd that sewing info right out of your brain!

Use your scraps.  Scraps of time, that is.  Don’t discount the amount of sewing that you can accomplish in just 10 or 15 min. Plus you’ll get a little sewing buzz to help you through the day.  This works best for those who have a dedicated sewing area or sewing room because everything is out and ready.  If you have to clear the dining room table and pull out your machine it is a little harder.  But try clearing the table and setting out your machine first thing in the morning.  See how many little scraps of time you actually can use.  If it doesn’t work, at least you cleared the table!

If you have any tips or suggestions about finding time to sew, we’d love to hear them! Leave a comment! Please!

The Jacob’s Ladder quilt block is a simple block consisiting of two four patches and two half-square triangles.

Changing the placement of the light and dark can significantly change the look of the block, and by extension, the look of your quilt.

From easy piecing you can acheive great and varied results.  Here’s a few patterns that make use of the versatility of the Jacob’s Ladder block.

Uniform Blues  by Carol Hopkins Designs finishes at 29″ square.  It’s a great project for blue scraps.  The chosen placement of the darks creates squares of different sizes.  The smaller squares in the inner border repeat the size of the smaller squares in the body of the quilt, but their on-point placement repeats the on-point setting of the largest squares.

You have to look closely to see the Jacob’s Ladder block in this one.  Clever placement of colors creates stars in Stars and Ladders!  Pattern includes instructions for a lap sized quilt (63″ x 63″) and for a table topper (35″ x 35″).

Alternating the dark half of the HSTs from the outside of the block to the inside creates a strong diagonal pattern in Sweet Liberty. Pam Buda of Heartspun Quilts says this is a great pattern for charm packs.  This quilt is 30″ x 38″ – in the right fabrics it would make a great baby gift.

 
No Jacob’s Ladder here, just a Lizard On A Ladder. It’s cute though, isn’t it?!

There are a few more quilt patterns with Jacob’s Ladder blocks.  Have some fun with this easy block.