Hello, my friends! I’m back this week with six more finished quilts, finally wrapping up the backlog of charity quilt tops sent to me by friends. I no longer accept donations personally and encourage you to find somewhere local to you for future donations. All quilts shown will be donated through Project Linus in Albuquerque during an upcoming visit with Jewells!
I also share a couple of other odds and ends, including some Cricut crafts.
I was loooking for a link to the homemade spray starch recipe I use when quilting and realized that though I’ve mentioned it many times over the years, I’ve never given this super simple recipe its own post.
When I first started quilting, I exclusively used Best Press because that’s what my LQS told me to use. It is a wonderful product, but it’s pricey when you sew as much as I do and, for total honesty, I have allergies that are easily set off by artificial and strong scents. Best Press is no exception. When I first started quilting way back in 2003 or so, I could never get my hands on the unscented, which is much easier to find now. Real lavender doesn’t set off my allergies, and I love the way it makes my sewing room smell!
You can find variations of this recipe all over the internet. This version has been tweaked and adapted for my own personal preference, light scent, light starch. You can add more scent or none at all, as well as more starch if you want your fabric to be crispier. If you don’t have vodka on hand, you can buy a 2 oz single just for this recipe, or a small bottle of “bottom shelf” which will work just fine. I don’t recommend flavored vodka. I haven’t tried it so have no idea what it might do to your fabric.
Despite my best Googling, I can’t find a definitive reason why vodka works in this recipe, but I can tell you from my own personal experience that it really does. I make two 32 oz bottles at a time and I use the spray liberally when pressing my fabric.
Update: I asked my favorite scientist, and they that vodka is also not only a starch, but it is a disinfectant as well. It will also help the moisture evaporate while it’s being ironed. There was a lot more detail, but I am a quilter, not a scientist and cannot repeat it verbatim!
Hello, friends! I’m back this week with eight more charity quilt finishes, two of mine, and six from other TTMTers. All of these quilts are destined for Project Linus in Albuquerque, NM during an upcoming BFF visit!
The first two quilts were made by me from donated orphan blocks, Mermaid quilts were made by Kristel, baby animals by Susan P, and scrappy quilts by Sarah in Houston.
All 8 quilts were free-motion quilted by me on my Grace Q’Nique 15R. My little Singer 301 got a workout doing binding, so much so that I’ve had to order a part for the bobbin case!
This week I share the matching sewing machine covers I made for my sewing room. I LOVE how they turned out and am so happy I finally tackled this project. Believe it or not, it’s been on my To Do list since 2019! Mark this one DONE. ♥
The machines I made covers for are a Brother PE770 (2016), Baby Lock Celebrate (2022), Juki TL-210Q (2015), and a Singer 301 (1952).
This week I share eight finished charity quilts destined for Project Linus in Albuquerque. I also have a couple of fun things to show from a package of goodies from Jewells, new-to-me Raggedy Ann goodness, and a sneak peek of my swap!
I’ll be completely honest with you and let you know that I’ve never really been a sports fan. My youngest kid was a marching band guy and I went to a LOT of games, enough to learn that what I did while there was watch the musicians and the crowd!
That said, a lot of people I care about LOVE sports, so for those of you who fall into that category, I have a round-up of some of my football-inspired patterns from over the years!
Whoever you are rooting for, I hope it’s a good game!
The following patterns are designed by me, Jennifer Ofenstein, and are free for your personal use. Links go to Google Docs that you can save or print. ♥
Go, Team! is 10″ paper pieced (10 1/2″ with seam allowance), and can be made in whatever team colors that best suit your purpose. My version was made in school colors for my eldest child. 🙂
This week finds me recovering from a nasty head cold. I’m mostly better but still a little stuffy. I’ve got an update on a new Raggedy tutorial as well as the finished handprint rescue that I shared last week.
Posted to YouTube on January 31, 2014, Paper Piecing Art is sitting at 92k views today; it’s the video I still get the most comments on!
I was originally contracted to record this as a multi-part online class. When the rights to the video reverted to me, I put the whole thing on YouTube. I have no regrets!
It makes my heart especially happy to hear from brand new quilters who used my workshop to learn to paper piece because of something they saw on sewhooked.com or fandominstitches.com. ❤️
Did you learn to paper piece from my workshop? I’d love to hear from you!
It has genuinely been my great honor to introduce so many people to the love of foundation paper piecing.
Want to learn? The young lady in the video is happy to teach you!
Today I share long overdue progress on my Star Trek Row Along quilt, button organization, a Valentine, and a Raggedy update. I hope to have another Raggedy video to share soon!
The stain remover I used was Carbona Stain Devil for Coffee and Tea. It’s available wherever you buy your laundry detergent. White Brite is the product that bleached out the embroidery floss. Consider yourself warned! 😛
This week finds me with the first progress on my Star Trek Row along since 2019, a new-to-me Raggedy in desperate need of rescuing, and a few other updates.
In case you’re curious, my Raggedy Rescue video from last week:
Sewhooked 