Category Archives: family

We Are Okay ♥

Taken in my backyard after the snowstorm. Average temps in Austin in February are generally 49°F to 70°F.

Hello, all!

I’ve been getting a lot of messages asking if we are okay here in Austin, Texas.

Thank you, thank you to everyone who has reached out to check on me and my family. We are okay and to be honest, we are some of the lucky ones. We kept power and water at our house during the entire winter event. I have no idea what else to call 50 degrees F below our average temp plus snow and ice which we do not get under ordinary circumstances.

We’ve gone through cycles of conserving as much power as possible while the local power grid was overburdened (it’s back up now), and now we’re conserving as much water as we can as the reservoirs are refilled and the multitude of breaks in water lines are tracked down. We are still under a boil water notice, but I won’t complain because we have water and don’t have to go find it like many of our neighbors do. We shared our water with our neighbors until they were able to get a water line fixed.

My daughter and her boyfriend (and Marie cat!!) were with us most of the week because they lost power in their all-electric apartment and it was ridiculously cold there. They lost most of the contents of their fridge, which is the biggest loss for our entire group. All things considered, it is really nothing to complain about.

Our local HEB is open again, though supplies of many things, mostly fresh, have been limited to nonexistent. We are absolutely okay, though. Living out of the pantry is not a burden and we can wait for the supply chains to catch up.

My backyard on February 15.
My backyard today. I won’t know how many plants were lost for a month or so. We have a fairly early spring, and many of my plants already had new growth.

If you also lived through this crazy week here in the south, please let me know how you’re doing. ♥

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TTMT #574 – Graduation Quilt – At Last!

Dear Friends, I can’t tell you how much joy working on this quilt for my son brought me. Even though it’s his undergrad graduation quilt, there are memories going all the way back to middle school through his college journey. This quilt was an honor to make for him.♥

Fabrics used: Andover Constellations (blue) for borders, sashing, & binding. Northcott Cosmic Universe (purple) for the back.

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TTMT #529 – Vacation Brain

It’s good to be home, but my goodness, my head is still on vacation!

And, because I mentioned it in my video, The Batty Bat song:

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TTMT #528 25th Anniversary Road Trip!

We’re still traveling, but I couldn’t resist sharing a tiny bit of our trip so far! This one is a bit different because I did all of the editing on my phone.

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A Special Project for my Brother

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It’s done!

After Christmas, my little brother gave me his whole cloth baby quilt our grandmother made for him over 40 years ago with the mission to “save it.”

The back was transparent and dry rotted. Many of the original hand ties were missing. The edges were frayed and poking out. The quilt was oddly lumpy.

I really struggled with where to start. I considered patching it, but then quickly realized it was too damaged to just be patched. It’s a quilt full of love and meaning for my brother and I wanted to make sure I did this right.

I shared the “before” quilt on Talk to Me Tuesday earlier this week and then I just dove in. I had to fix this quilt and it wasn’t getting done sitting on the table in my sewing room!

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In the end, I took the whole thing apart, carefully picking out every stitch. The inside was layers of old sheets and flour sacking!

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One of the layers was completely shredded and had turned into fluff, which created the random lumps. I sprinted the vintage fluff outside for birds to use in their nests.

To complete my mission to save this quilt, I hand washed the original fabric top and added a super lightweight fusible to the back for stability and to help close some of the tiny holes created by the ties.

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I kept the sheet that was inside for the weight but replaced the shredded flour sacking with my favorite Hobb’s 80/20 batting. I carefully basted the top, batting, and old sheet and then serged the edges together.

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Then I added a new soft flannel back, rebasting and hand tying to keep it as close to the original configuration as possible.

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The back is turned to the front and stitched. The finish is as close to the same as I could make it.

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I shared a photo with my brother and he’s a happy camper. It’s already in the mail back to him.

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This was a very emotional project and I felt like I was communing with our grandmother while I worked on the quilt. I did record a bit for TTMT before shipping this guy off, so look for that next Tuesday.

Have a wonderful weekend!

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TTMT #401 -End of 2016

My Favorite Things #favthingsbom now available as a set in my Craftsy shop! #bom #paperpieced #somanyoptions

60” x 72” (for 12” blocks) or 30” x 36” (for 6” blocks)

The entire set of My Favorite Things patterns, January – December, plus bonus blocks, and these four layouts in two sizes is available in one .zip file in my Craftsy Shop. Prefer Etsy? The set is available there, too.

2017-quilt-along

Thanks to your feedback & requests, Paper Piecing Vintage will be returning as a Quilt Along during the first half of 2017!

Coming January 2017 to fandominstitches.com

Fairy Tale Femmes

Fairy Tale Femmes, a magical Sunbonnet Sue block set to paper piece, is the prize for December 2016! Want a chance to win a free copy ? Simply share your Sewhooked project photos with my Flickr group (any project designed by me). You’ll have one chance to win for each project photo you share!

Want to keep sharing? 2017 giveaways will take place in the Sewhooked Facebook Group!

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TTMT #389 – Post-Travel Edition, Some Housekeeping & a Flickr Prize!

I’d love to ONLY talk about our trip to England, but I have some housekeeping to do as well.

First of all, Craftsy relaunched on October 1. They’ve changed their entire structure, including how links are created. Among other things, the permalink to the Sewhooked pattern shop disappeared. I’ve emailed them for help and hope to have it sorted out soon. In the meantime, you can still find all of my patterns published through Craftsy, including My Favorite Things, by going to my Craftsy profile.

Secondly, Google has been doing some updates to Blogger. Fandom in Stitches is hosted on Blogger. I came home from vacation to a half-functioning FiS. (Do you, too, sense a post-vacation trend?) The menus disappeared, among other things. I’m working on it as quickly as I can, in the meantime, if you can’t find something, please let me know by emailing the Fandom in Stitches Admin address.

I’m happy to share that The Linus Connection website has been unaffected by all this craziness! Small favors, right?

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October My Favorite Things – Needle & Thread

I was so excited in my video today, that I forgot to mention that the October BOM pattern went live on Friday. Thank you to everyone that’s already commented and shared photos of your blocks!

Starts tomorrow on Fandom in Stitches!

Mustachio!
The September 2016 sewhooked.com participation prize is a digital copy of my pattern set, Mustachio! 12 Mustaches to Paper Piece. Just in time for Movember!
Get it on Craftsy or Etsy!
Jacks Lanterns quilt!
The September winner is Rainey Turner with this awesome Jack’s Lanterns quilt!
I apologize for not posting all of the September photos from the Flickr Group. As you might imagine, I’ve been swamped with all the website issues and I’m doing my best to catch up. If you’d like to see the rest of the awesome project photos for this month, please visit the Sewhooked Flickr group. If you’d like a chance to win next month, share your photos with that same group.

Want to sponsor a 2016 prize? Please drop me an email!

 

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My Favorite Things. a Block of the Month by Jennifer Ofenstein

Free Pattern Day is the first of every month during 2016!

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Galaxy 1824

Galaxy 1824 by Jennifer Ofenstein of sewhooked.com

Several of you lovely people have asked for a photo of Galaxy 1824 that you can share. I am flattered and honored that you’d want to do so.

This is the quilt I made for my son to take for his freshman year of college. He’s studying Physics and asked for a spiral galaxy. I used a NASA photo for inspiration and figured it out one pixel at a time.

If you’d like to know more, I talk lots more about this in last week’s video.

Have a great day!

 

Jack's Lanterns, 9 Patterns to Paper Piece by Jennifer Ofenstein

The August 2016 sewhooked.com participation prize is a digital copy of my pattern set, Jack’s Lanterns: 9 Halloween Patterns to Paper Piece!

Entering to win the 201 6 monthly prize is easy, just share your photos with the Sewhooked flickr group, making sure your photos are set to share. You’ll have one chance to win for each photo you share!

Want to sponsor a prize? Please drop me an email!

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Crafts Pattern Shop ♥ Etsy Shop

Facebook ♥ Sewhooked FB ♥ Sewhooked Facebook Group

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My Favorite Things. a Block of the Month by Jennifer Ofenstein

Free Pattern Day is the first of every month during 2016!

Next Free Pattern day is September 1, 2016.

TTMT #382 – Galaxy 1824

This week, I brave the rain and humidity to share my biggest finish of the year! Watch my makeup slowly melt off of my face as I talk about the quilt I made for my son’s dorm room: Galaxy 1824.

Happening NOW on fandominstitches.com

Coming October 2016 to fandominstitches.com
Jack's Lanterns, 9 Patterns to Paper Piece by Jennifer Ofenstein

The August 2016 sewhooked.com participation prize is a digital copy of my pattern set, Jack’s Lanterns: 9 Halloween Patterns to Paper Piece!

Entering to win the 201 6 monthly prize is easy, just share your photos with the Sewhooked flickr group, making sure your photos are set to share. You’ll have one chance to win for each photo you share!

Want to sponsor a prize? Please drop me an email!

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My Favorite Things. a Block of the Month by Jennifer Ofenstein

Free Pattern Day is the first of every month during 2016!

TTMT #340 – What’s a little noise?

31 Days of Halloween on sewhooked.com

Today’s video doesn’t have much in the way of Halloween (unless you count the end of the video!), I do hope you’ll forgive me! I’ll be back tomorrow with more 31 Days of Halloween!

Are you making projects from 31 Days of Halloween? Share your photos with my flickr group! There will be a fun surprise after Halloween for one lucky winner!

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